Why I am writing this book and why do I want you to read it?
The question is simple enough, but it has sufficient complexity, below its surface, to warrant an answer and an explanation, which I will attempt to give you in this chapter, in three parts: the first will deal with why I am writing; the second with why I am writing this book; and the third with why I want you to read it.
Let me tell you from the beginning that Christianity is probably not what you think it is. It is probably much bigger, for one thing. Christianity is not just something you do on Sunday, it is not just one part of your life, another category to be fit in somewhere with work, friends, family, and entertainment. I am not a father, a husband, a co-worker, and a Christian. I am first, fundamentally, and all-inclusively a Christian. That is my identity, that is what defines me. I am no longer my own, and the life I live is no longer my own life: it is Christ who lives in me, and that makes me what I am, in every part of my life1. So then, I am not a Christian and a father, I am fundamentally a Christian father. I am not a Christian and a husband, I am fundamentally a Christian husband. I am a Christian co-worker, a Christian friend, a Christian while I work, eat, sleep, and play, a Christian who enjoys all the good gifts of God Christianly and acknowledges his glory in providing them all the while.
I am writing this book, not just because the message I have is good and true (although it is); but primarily, because the message I have matters. It matters to you. Whoever you might be, whatever you might think about Christianity, whether you’re content as you are, looking for something more, unsure of Christianity, antagonistic to Christianity, or almost persuaded of Christianity – no matter what your situation may be, the true message of Christianity has something to say to you. In the next two chapters, I hope to speak to you specifically with some clear implications of the message I detailed in the previous chapter; and in order to do so as comprehensively as possible, I intend to address in order first the convinced atheists, agnostics, or adherents to non-Christian religions; second, the content, the satisfied and secular, the pursuers of pleasure and the American Dream; third, the dissatisfied, depressed, cynical or unsure; and fourth, those who are considering, who are at least open to Christianity, who are already searching and wanting to think these things through.
In the previous chapter, I spent some time speaking to non-Christians with definite religious convictions, whether convinced atheists or adherents to other world religions. In this chapter, I would extend my audience, and speak to those of you who are agnostic in some sense. Perhaps you are blithely agnostic – you have given little thought to the whole matter of religion, you don’t know for sure what to think of spirituality and the afterlife, but your agnosticism is not an uncertainty born of deep thought and bitter striving of spirit. It surrounds you like the atmosphere, it is as natural as the air you breathe, you are frankly so busy with the affairs of this life that you have no time even to consider seriously whether you are an atheist, an agnostic, or anything else. Or maybe you genuinely are agnostic; you have struggled and striven with the weighty things of eternity, but to no avail, and with no blessed end of the peace of certain conviction for your souls. Perhaps you are downcast and depressed, or cynical and bitter. Perhaps you are seeking for something to believe in, something great enough to satisfy your empty heart. But in any case, no matter what your particular situation may be, you do not have definite, settled convictions on the topic of religion. It is to you that I now speak. God grant that you may find the certainty which you lack in the blessed truth of Christianity!
I have spent the last two chapters speaking to non-Christians of all sorts, and telling them what the basic message of true Christianity has to say to them in particular. In these next two chapters, I will shift my focus to American Christendom, and show why the truth of the gospel matters for professing Christians, and what it has to say to them. So if you call yourself a Christian, whether Catholic or Protestant, liberal or conservative, fundamentalist, evangelical, or emergent, these chapters are for you. The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which I laid out in chapter two, has something profound and important to say to you. That message of Christ and him crucified matters immensely. It is not just one part of what you claim to be as a Christian, it is your very life and breath, it is what defines you, it is your heritage from eternity past and your destiny into eternity future, it holds forth everything you need for this life and the life which is to come. But if you are a Christian in name only, then that which should bring eternal joy and glory will bring only eternal destruction and an unimaginable multiplication of wrath on the day of judgment. It would be better to be an outspoken pagan than an impostor and hypocrite in the house of God.
If there is one thing that the preceding overview of contemporary western Christianity has made clear, it is that there is surprisingly little true Christianity left in the midst of a thousand different false gospels and counterfeit Christian movements and denominations across the religious landscape. But this fact should not discourage anyone seeking a true Christianity to follow or a certain gospel to trust. Yes, the gospel has been twisted, perverted, denied, and misrepresented, but it has not been overcome, nor will it ever be overcome, but will finally triumph over every scheme of the enemy, and bring all of God’s children home to glory. That is the unshakeable conviction compelling me to write, and it is the foundational truth I want to drive home to you before I even address you, and keep ever before you as I speak.
Thus far in my message to you, I have tried to do two things: first, show you exactly what Christianity is, and second, show how it applies to you personally, no matter who you may be. Now, I intend to show you that this message, with its necessary personal application, cannot be ignored or shelved indefinitely: it demands a response, and the time for that response is now. I repeat the words of the prophet Elijah, when on Mount Carmel he put the truth of his God to the proof against the opposing religions of his day: “If the Lord [Christ] is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him”1. So today, I am proclaiming, “If Christ is the Lord, submit to him and embrace his gospel; but if whatever other religion or philosophy you embrace is true, then follow it.” In either case, a decision must be made. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”2.
We have now seen just what the true message of Christianity is, and how it applies to every person under heaven, regardless of circumstances or background. We have seen that this gospel-message demands a response, and have made clear the high cost of following Jesus, and the priceless reward that it will bring. But we must still touch upon another matter, which is equally misunderstood in American Christianity today; and that is, just what it means to be a Christian, what we are saved to and for; in a word, exactly what is the purpose of all that we have been speaking of. Is the ultimate goal of God’s plan of salvation simply to give me a “get out of hell free card”? Is the reason for evangelism and missions just to get as many individuals as possible into heaven? Now, these things are not at all bad – it is good, unimaginably good, to be delivered from hell, and there is great rejoicing in heaven over every individual soul that is converted1 – but still, there is a greater, unifying purpose to the whole plan that does not end with individual destinies alone. And in order truly to understand Christianity, we must understand this overarching goal. In the next chapters, that is what we will be discussing.
In our quest to determine just what Christianity is, and whether it really matters to ordinary men and women in America and beyond, we have discovered a few, basic, all-important truths, including the little-recognized fact that Christianity is not primarily about individual salvation, but on the contrary, its ultimate design is to fashion a new, corporate body of redeemed persons, perfectly unified and purified, to be presented as a glorious bride to Christ, who before the world began had chosen this people as his reward for the great sufferings he would willingly undergo. What that means in our daily lives, as we examined in the last chapter, is that true Christians always advance in their journey to consummate their union with Christ from within the realm of local churches, that is, among others who share a commonality in the gospel accomplishment of Christ, and who, by the structures and institutions that God has prescribed for us in his word, continue to prod each other on to greater faith and holiness. In concluding that chapter, we looked at three marks by which to distinguish a true local church from a false one: the word must be rightly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and church discipline faithfully enforced.
If there is one thing that non-Christians usually associate Christianity with, it is moral behavior, or a “holy lifestyle” in some sense of the term. This could be largely negative – Christians may be seen as “holier-than-thou” hypocrites, who maintain squeaky clean external lives but are filled with pride and hatred, and look down on all the heathen sinners out there, whom they gladly profess to be different from. Or perhaps, Christianity may be seen as basically comprising some list of rules and regulations, which many good, sincere, persons strive to follow. The specific list may differ widely from culture to culture, but in many places in modern America it would probably include such elements as abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, performing well and without complaint in the workplace, and refusing to cheat in school. In some cultures, however, Christianity may be seen as characterized by an altogether different set of rules – for instance, the best Christians may be they who have given up any association with the world whatsoever, in order to pray in a solitary place in the desert, eating only crusts of bread and wearing nothing but rags. But in any case, a lifestyle that is different from the typical, and that is somehow viewed as holy, is what sets a real Christian apart from the rest of the world.
We have now come to the final chapter in this description of just what Christianity is and what it means for all of us, no matter who we are. In this chapter, I would motivate you to be living your life in light of eternity. This life, in which we invest all our time, labors and resources, and in which we make very clear what is of ultimate importance to us, does not end after eighty years (or even a hundred, for that matter). It is just the stepping stone to eternity, and what we do with our time now, how we spend the few years we have on this earth, will determine what we will be doing with our time for all eternity, for good or bad. But there are no shades of gray, no middle ground, in the eternal destinies confronting us in the here and now. There are only two options: for those who have given up everything to follow the Savior, there is eternal joy and reward beyond imagination; but for those to whom the pleasures of this life have been ultimate, whether they professed to be Christians or not, there is only unspeakable, unending darkness and wrath. Christianity is not just some game to be played or some hobby to occupy our time – it is where true, ultimate, eternal reality confronts us, and how we respond will have effects more real and lasting and dramatic than any other decision we will ever make.
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