The Four Realities: Living In The Past As Christians

Someone once asked me about the type of music I listen to. I shrugged my shoulders and responded, “Eh, mainly Christian music.” In that moment, I received the typical judgmental look: a swift perusal of the eyes up and down my figure followed by a nod. It was a look filled with the indication that I had granted them no surprise and they were almost disappointed with my answer.

Its not that I don’t like any other music. It’s that I like to listen to music that stirs up emotions within my being for the edification of it. I like to listen to music with truths that I affirm, rather than just give me a beat to dance to. I’m sorry if that is not on the iTunes Top Ten.

But that is my defense on why I usually don’t listen to mainstream pop culture music. Other Christians might think otherwise. On one side you get the Christians who say, as long as it doesn’t corrupt your being its fine to listen to. On the other side you get Christians who repent after listening to such a thing. These different approaches are all contradictory to a culture with gaping wide eyes fixed on us. It is always a debate for us on what is the most appropriate way to engage culture.

I’ve traced why there is this disparity within Christian thinking. This debate all comes down to the question of: what effect on reality does our belief in Christ take?

Too many Christians live in some past reality with their belief in Christ. Let me explain: I have noticed four realities present within Scripture and how these realities are reflected in our ways of thinking as Christians. There is the Reality of Perfection, the Reality of Compromise, the Reality of Divinity, and the Reality of Actualization, and with each reality is a flaw in thinking attached to it.

1.     Reality of Perfection- The Flaw of a Perfect/Lamentless Faith

Perfection was present at the beginning of Genesis. God was walking among the garden with man and everything was dandy. Yet in today’s culture, there are Christians who walk around as if God is right beside them in the garden. It is the flaw that everything should be perfect now because we have hope in Christ. There is a right way to engage culture, but it does not exist within this reality.

2.     Reality of Compromise- The Flaw of a Merit-Based Faith

As soon as the Fall of Man happened, we kept trying to compromise or reason with God. God and man finally had to reach a compromise in which God could only dwell with us through the following of laws. Life becomes governed by laws, and sadly, that is how some Christians live. It is the flaw where we reason with God for our sin, hoping He might reward us, because in this reality, love is conditional. There is a right way to engage culture, but it does not exist within this reality.

3.     Reality of Divinity- The Flaw of No Belief

Everything changed once Jesus stepped in the picture. Reality was no longer a compromise, but rather justice lived out. Jesus came and He preached His divinity, yet there were people who followed Him as merely a teacher. If Jesus was just a teacher, there is no reason to believe in Him, which brings us to today. There are people who say they believe in Jesus and His divinity, yet their actions and words only affirm Him to be a good teacher in their lives. It is the flaw where saying you believe in Jesus is enough, but what does that mean of our belief in Him? There is a right way to engage culture, but it does not exist within this reality.

4.     Reality of Actualization- The Flaw of No Fruits of Faith

After Jesus left, His disciples were here on earth forming the church. This is where the truth that He spoke became an actualized reality. This is the reality that we are to live in today as Christians, because it takes truth and applies it. Yet there is a flaw in this reality also, and that is the belief that faith doesn't need to manifest itself in any form. It is the flaw that fruit doesn’t need to be present. We are to engage culture in this reality, but the only way we can is to organically produce fruits of our faith for the world to see.

I am proposing that the most appropriate way to engage culture, comes in the form of analyzing our roots, see in which reality our thinking lies, and then shift our thinking in a way that applies it to the reality of today. As a Christian, don’t live in the past with your thinking. The truth of the past is the same as the present. It’s just a matter of making it a reality.

Stay tuned for blogs diving into each reality, discussing what I believe is a right way to overcome thinking in the past.

Who Would Jesus Vote For?

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned . . . For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ . . . For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

-Romans 5:12, 17, and 19

It was the sound I was all too familiar with at this time of the year. As the chalk clamored its way to recording knowledge across the blackboard, I couldn’t help but think, here I am in the academic setting once again. But of course, anytime you’re in the academic setting at a public university you’re going to find yourself in conflict with views, especially if you’re a Christian. For instance, at this particular time I was in my Creative Writing class. The teacher was taking suggestions from the students about what inspires their writing. After a brief silence and the board flooded with inspiring things, I said faith. She shot an inquisitive glare my way and told me to be more specific. I said, “Faith or religion or what I believe about God inspires my writing.” Unfortunately, I was shot down. She responded with, “Well if you do that, then you are just trying to get across a set of beliefs instead of write.” That could be a valid argument, depending on how you look at it.

But the point of this story is this: the assumption with the Christian is that everything is an effort to get across a set of beliefs.

Especially in politics. Within our culture today, to be a Christian is to be a Republican and anti-Obama because that is the party which enables us to get across a set of beliefs, as if it is written somewhere in the Bible that the Christian must vote Republican.

Now don’t mistake my words here. Typically when I speak about politics, people try to dissect my words trying to figure out whether I’m on their side or not. I’m not speaking of sides, I’m speaking of truth. Truth doesn’t take sides. It stands alone. But a set of beliefs can take sides. Which is how faith has entered the political realm. The message of Christ and the cross has been politicized into a mere set of beliefs so they could be split under partisan labels for a political agenda.

What surprises me in this time are the people who vote because they believe the U.S. is taking a step towards being a holy nation through voting a particular party. There are only a few who really hold on to this belief, but there is an interstice where people believe a vote for a particular party is a vote for how Jesus would vote.

With that in mind, I challenge you with the question: who do you think Jesus would vote for?

It is a challenging question because no one can wholeheartedly say who Jesus would vote for. They might try to say Jesus would vote Republican or Democrat, but in their heart, they wouldn’t believe it. In reality, most people might say that Jesus wouldn’t vote at all!

Now I pose that question to humble you, not to discourage you from voting. People need a reminder that the nation being a holy nation isn’t contingent upon Christian beliefs given under a partisan label. It is contingent upon making disciples for Christ who make disciples for Christ. We are to flood the world with the truth of Christ, not with the convictions or beliefs that might follow after a life with Him.

You see, it’s a matter of how people believe they can conquer systemic sin. Some people believe that politics and the work of the government is what is needed to overcome systemic sin. But with politics, as I have mentioned before, the message of Christ has been politicized and scattered upon partisan labels. No party is going to promote Jesus for president.

What is needed though is the work of God and the bringing of the Gospel to impact people on the personal level and eventually impact the system. For sin entered the world on a personal level, then it affected relations, and finally it affected the system. But just as Jesus came into the world and brought us the message of Himself, the Gospel needs to first impact people on a personal level, then relationally, then systemically. We can’t skip ahead to redeem society by changing the system. It must happen on the personal level first. Which is why being a holy nation is dependent upon making disciples for Christ who make disciples for Christ.

So as you vote in this election, I encourage you to make an informed vote. Not so much informed on the issues at hand, but informed on what you really believe. Are you voting to get across a set of beliefs (because that is what the world expects of Christians), or are you voting because you wish to flood the world with the uniform truth of Christ? If it is the latter, humble yourself to believe that the change must first occur on the personal level. This election won’t change people believing in Christ or not. They must first be impacted by it on the personal level in order for it to spread to the systemic level. Don’t vote values to preach Christ, preach Christ to see values.