Counter Culture

As I sat through church this Sunday a couple of thoughts came to mind. First, Christianity is supposed to transform culture, but in America, we have a weird sort of pseudo-Christianity. Instead of Christians transforming culture, culture has transformed the church. Now, a couple of things to keep in mind, we try to open our arms wide and accept everyone, but in doing this sometimes we lose our mandate for worshiping God in truth. The early church had Christians go through a year of study over church theology and doctrine before new Christians could become baptized and join the church. Most churches now practically beg people to join, then we wonder why the people in church are so hateful. It's often said in the U.S. that the founding fathers of our country were Christians (and "Christians" in this sense is usually meant of the evangelical sort) but the fact of the matter is that many of the founding fathers were deists - deists don't believe in a personal God - and the declaration of independence is a document based upon John Locke's philosophy. John Locke may have claimed to be a Christian, but he certainly wasn't an orthodox Christian. So we allow our supposedly Christian country to lull us into a sense of security.

Secondly, we make it so comfortable for people who come into church, we never show them what is different about Christians than the world. In fact, we make it so you don't have to change to come to church. Church now often is like going to the mall - you see a bunch of people smile and talk to each other, but genuine fellowship or friendship never seems to take place. (Small groups are meant to remedy this problem and do seem to help.) But if we are supposed to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, why don't we act like we are transformed? Is it because we aren't? I think one of the worst things for the church in America is that it's too easy to go to church... too many people go to church because it's a form of being conservative or a tool they use to get their children to act in a "moral" manner. Yet, the persecuted churches often thrive and flourish against all odds, I don't know why this is but a persecuted church usually seems to produce a robust and healthly Christianity - perhaps this is how Christians are meant to live. In a lot of ways, I think it would be good if same sex marriage was legalized, then people would begin to realize that we live in a secular country.

We need to take advantage of Christianity, I think we try to make it normal and we often drown out the radical nature of Christianity. Christians aren't supposed to be normal, we realize that at any moment we could be called by God to give our lives to Him. We live in a constant state of battle realizing that the parousia (second coming of Christ) is near and that regardless of what happens to our bodies now, someday, we will be resurrected with a spritual body that isn't corrupted by sin. (Notice that a spiritual body isn't necessarily a immaterial body, it's almost certain that our spiritual bodies will be physical bodies.) People that join churches need to realize the radical call that God has given to us... our lives are no longer our own. We should ask someone who wants to join a church if they are willing to give up their life to God, if they aren't then they shouldn't be allowed to join the church.