By T.C. Lo (盧天賜); November 30, 2016
Few years ago, I had an opportunity to share the gospel with a Qing Hua (清華大学) graduate. In the end, referring to some Christians he knew, he made a very poignant comment: “If this person is a Christian, I don’t want to be one of them”. I conjectured that he must sadly have had bad experiences with certain Christians. What he concluded was a very painful indictment to Christianity and yet a very legitimate one—if our conversion is a supernatural act of God, how come our behavior is not always supernaturally transformed?
Recently, I encountered an almost exact question from an unbeliever. It brought to my memory that some people had said, “No news is new news; all news is old news happening to new people.” Perhaps unbeknownst to them, they were in effect echoing what Solomon had observed and recorded in the Bible thousands of years ago: “There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl.1:9).”
But I must say that this question not only bother common people like you and me, it had bothered famous thinkers too in history: Indian revolutionist Mahatma Gandhi, who loved to read Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”, made this statement when referring to Christianity: “I like their Christ, but I don’t like their Christians.” Atheistic German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who coined the phrase “God is dead”, had once said, “I will believe in their Redeemer when the Christians look a little more redeemed.”
In reflecting to their criticism toward Christians, few remarks I must bring to your consideration:
- I am not here to defend Christians. I am here to defend the validity of Christianity. All Christians are to defend for themselves on the Day of Judgment. Some of the “Christians” may not be genuine Christians in the sight of Jesus. Here is Jesus’ own word in the Book of Matthews as saying: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Does the Bible say “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”? Why does Jesus say that He does not know those who “call His name, Lord?” The problem is that although they confess their faith in their mouths, they do not believe in their hearts, so these people are not saved (Romans 10:9). For these people, both in the Old Testament era and in the New Testament era, God condemned them without reservation, saying: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men (Matthew 15:8).” Or “…their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. (Isaiah 29:13).” Observing the rules of men signifies “justification by merit” and not “justification by faith.” They reject justification by grace alone. They don’t have saving relationship with Jesus Christ, but merely a bunch of religious people. Their ministry looks very enthusiastic and accomplished, but in vanity in the sight of God. I am not going to judge whether certain individual is a genuine Christian or not; such judgment belongs to God alone. The essence of Christianity is “The Will of God”. Therefore, the real question is: Are the things the opponents dislike about Christianity the teaching (or the will) of Christ? Or Are the things the opponents dislike about Christianity endorsed by Christ? In Christianity, “profession is not equal to possession.”
- I am not saying a genuine Christian is a perfect person. I am saying Jesus—hence, Christianity—is perfect. A genuine Christian is the one who continuously seeks Jesus’ grace and forgiveness for his own sins. Yes, hypocrisy is a deadly painful thing to Christianity because it blunts the thrust of evangelism. No one can lead a life totally free from hypocrisy and Christians have no exception. Anyone who claims that he is totally non-hypocritical is the biggest hypocrisy itself. However, we Christians are not to be measured by comparing to other people, we are comparing to our own past. After we became a Christian, the transformation power of Christ can and will change us, not instantly but gradually. This is the Grace of Christ. As one said, “Christ didn’t come to make bad people good, He came to make dead people live.” Measuring morality by our own deed is very dangerous: If we do good, we may become proud and look down upon other people. If we fail, we become discouraged and disillusioned. But if we live by grace, we become carefree and our life become joyfully abundant knowing everything is the from the grace of God.
- Part of the reason for Christianity’s rapid spread, historians have remarked, was simply that the early Christians were such nice people. They were caring for neighbors, the poor, and the widows; the very kindness of the Christians and their service to the hurting and downtrodden attracted new adherents. Should Christianity’s positive influence to humankind be ignored? Why don’t you focus on these nice people? Billy Graham once said, “Thousands of airplanes flying safely over the skies make no news, but one fallen airplane makes big headline on the TV screens.” The news that makes headline is not a representation of people’s daily lives.
- If seeing Christians doing bad thing has become your justification to reject Christianity, then seeing atheists doing bad things should equally justify you to reject of atheism and begin to turn to God. So one should first honestly examine his or her motive for asking a question something like “Why are there so may hypocrites in the church?”
When you make clear distinction between Christian conducts and Christian teachings, all these problems can be readily vaporized. When you make clear distinction between Christian imperfection and Christ’s perfect sinlessness, all these problems should cease to bother you. We should fix our eyes on the holy Christ rather than the sinners whom Jesus saved. After all, Jesus did not come to make bad people good, He came to make dead people live.
To a broader scope, some people reject Christianity on the ground that Church history was littered with oppression and violence—Crusades, Spanish Inquisition and countless episodes of anti-Semitism and racism, the Salem witch trials, and other moments of shame which Jesus never endorsed. I hope the points made above may help them with more accurate perspectives on their objections against Christianity.
