While in seminary I took a class that dealt with the Middle East. One of the things I remember well is the professor, who was from that area, talking about the groups in the area. One was either Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. The thing about the designations was they did not necessarily describe the spiritual condition or belief, but they were a distinction based on heritage and where one lived. To be considered Christian one does not have to profess faith in Christ or have a relationship with the Savior, it is just who you are. It would seem the same could be said in the US now.
While we have had cultural Christianity for as long as the term has been used, it seemed that at one point people at least had an understanding of orthodox beliefs and agreed with those beliefs. That is no longer true. In a study by the Barna Group they found that most self-described American “Christians” do not believe in a literal Satan or Holy Spirit or believe the Bible is any different than any other religious text such as the Koran or the Book of Mormon. I will let you read the article for yourself but the most eye-opening part of it is at the end when they break the research up by distinguishing between “born again” Christians and “notional” Christians.
I have either attended or been employed by conservative Southern Baptist churches all my life and I am sometimes jolted by what some members have to say about the Bible, God, salvation, and a host of other beliefs. I had one lady tell me the she did not care what the Bible had to say on the subject we were discussing. She felt the traditions we had observed were more important so that we did not offend a certain group of people in the church.
I am beginning to wonder if we do not need a new distinction for what we call those who believe in Christ as Savior and seek to have a personal relationship with Him. It seems even the term Born-Again Christian is somewhat sullied and confusing these days. So what should we call ourselves? I have seen people use terms such as “Jesus Follower”, “Believer”, “Jesus Lover”, “Disciple”, and many others. One who calls himself a Christian should be a follower of Christ, or be Christ-like. Like so many terms, our culture has distorted those terms and, as one definitionhttp://www.answers.com/topic/christian states, Christian can mean to be “humane.”
In reality it probably does not matter what one is called as long as they are living the life God has called them to live. Maybe true believers should attempt to take back the term instead of giving it over to a perverted meaning; after all it is a Biblical word, Acts 11:26, and should retain its meaning. We need to live a life worthy of the name and be proud of what it stands for. While some may use it as derision, we need to stand proud and make our Savior happy that we claim to be one of His.
Too often in this day churches try to fit into society by justifying the social norms. When Jesus was praying for His disciples, John 17, and those that were to follow (meaning every believer to come), He recognized that the world would hate them because they were proclaiming the Word He gave. We are called to bring the world to repentance, not to love us. If we are being embraced by the world perhaps we are doing something wrong. We should love them and do all we can to reach them, but never should we accept the sin that is separating them (or us) from God. If we are going to be worthy of the name Christian we need to be different. Our God is the only true God. The Bible is the only revelation that will show the path to a relationship with that God. And the Holy Spirit is the only one who can draw us into a relationship with the Savior which means there is only one way to heaven, God’s way. That may be a hard saying for some, but for the simple minded like me it makes it much clearer than having to wade through many different belief systems.
So if you want to call yourself Christian, accept what the Bible says without trying to rationalize the hard stuff out.