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Much of American Christianity is completely secular. That may sound strange to you because “secular” has come to mean simply the opposite or absence of religion. We often talk of things being religious vs. things being secular. However, this is not the traditional use of the word. “Secular” comes from the Latin, saecularis, which simply means “of this age.” To be secular is to be concerned with this world, this time, this age and the issues around it. To be secular in this sense is not wrong; in fact it is necessary for Christians involved in their duty to love their neighbor to have concerns over this age. The problem arises when one is only secular, with concern only for this age. Which brings us back to the first sentence of this post; much of American Christianity has become completely secular.
In a quest to be relevant the Bible has been twisted and distorted into pseudo business tips and pop-psychology advice. Sermon upon sermon across our country every week is about the same topics over and over again; a good marriage, a successful business, raising good kids or leadership tips. I almost forgot – there is also tithing and volunteering for church events. This is what Church has become for most people, a motivational seminar speech held each Sunday with some Bible verses thrown in. Heaven, hell, sin, forgiveness, holiness, wrath, mercy, propitiation, covenants, or atonement are examples of things deemed irrelevant, even though they are biblical terms, and thus are overlooked for the “principles” that we can apply that just matter to our lives in this age.
In fact, the term principle is now too rigid for many. They choose to speak of instead of guidelines or “God’s best for your life.” This is not the way that the Church has preached throughout the centuries. The martyrs of old did not give their lives on burning stakes for business tips or leadership advice. Even today where the church is being persecuted, where there is not much hope of earthly material happiness, they are not suffering with their flesh and blood for the sake of Christ because of principles of a better love life or how to have the courage to follow your dreams. The whole mess is remarkably pathetic, and further, when this is what Christianity is reduced to, it is blasphemous to the work of Christ in the Gospel.
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The subtext of such preaching is that now is all that matters. Who cares about what is to come; you need a good marriage now, a good career now, leadership principles to get ahead now, God’s “blessing” and success now. This is Christianity devoid of Christ, who did not promise pleasantness in this life, but rather death, rejection and sacrifice and the promise of rest only in the life to come. Christianity is thoroughly eschatological and to be secular one must ignore the eschatological. I am not talking about Israeli land allocation or rapture charts and graphs, I am talking about the fact that Christ is the eschatological Adam who has ushered in his Kingdom in which we are already benefiting from his spiritual blessings and look forward to the culmination of all things to come.
Now I am not against teachings on marriage. Not at all, for the Bible speaks about it, but our focus must never be marriage for the sake of marriage itself. It is teaching on marriage for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. Proverbs has plenty of wisdom for people in every walk of life, including business and leadership positions. It is not that using this wisdom is wrong; it is that they become wrong when they become an end in themselves, rather than a means to the end result of glorifying God. God’s temporal blessings of marriage, financial success etc, become idols when our focus at church is to learn more about those temporal blessings and how to keep them, than it is on serving Christ and resting in his Gospel. When we take passages about Joseph or Moses and turn them into principles for earthly success, not only have we missed the point but we have also missed the glorious message of Christ that is of far more worth than anything in this world. I want to have a good marriage, I want to be successful in my business endeavors, I want to raise my children well, and I believe that the Bible speaks to those things, but the Bible is not written for us to stop there. My hope isn’t here in this age; it is in the age to come.
In the end this kind of secular Christianity leaves people helpless. Rather than being relevant it actually makes Christianity irrelevant. I don’t need to wake up on Sunday morning for tips I can read in a relationship book. I can find all the camaraderie of community that I need in a bowling league or business networking group. But worse than that, in the end it leaves people empty and miserable for it leaves them in their sin. It leaves them with no answer for forgiveness, reconciliation or peace. Tips, no matter how helpful, are always things that we need to put into practice and let’s face it, we don’t. What of the person whose marriage is already fallen apart, or whose kids have already left or who realizes that their problem is in fact that they are a sinner, not that they need better “dynamic life strategies” or “audacious dreams?” They need the Gospel, the one that is not of this age, the one where the eternal Word was incarnate in the flesh and died, not for leadership examples, but so that we could be saved from sin. They need the Gospel that promises a future resurrection just as Christ rose from the dead, the one that says he is coming again to set all things right and reign in his kingdom forever. To reverse the old adage, the problem is that secular Christianity has become too earthly minded to be heavenly good.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. – Psalm 73:25-26
