https://youtu.be/DfTU5LA_kw8?si=jRTS6D2fJaADCObA

https://catholic-study-bible.com/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road

https://trustjesus.substack.com/p/cultural-christian-or-child-of-god

I was listening to a podcast recently and the subject of renown atheist and Christian hater, Richard Dawkins’s came up. He is now claiming to be a “cultural Christian” even though he doesn’t believe anything about Christianity. He wants a Christian culture without having to believe or do anything towards that end. He likes that fewer people are believing the Bible, but doesn’t want to lose the Christian culture, architecture, morality, Hymns/Carols, etc. I wanted to address the difference between a culture Christian and a true Christian (saved, child of God, believer, etc. whichever name you prefer.) I’m hoping to answer this both from the point of view of helping people understand if they are saved and from the point of view of how believers should react to those that are solely cultural Christians.Because I try to avoid Youtube and all things Google, I went on to Odysee to try to find the video of Richard Dawkins’s statements to get to the original source. I couldn’t find a video that was solely Dawkins’s statement. This video has the original video from Samaritan’s Purse starting at the 30 second mark (with additional commentary which I have not watched) You can also see the video here on Fox News.The first thing we need to understand is that acting Christian is not enough to make one a Christian. The Bible says there are many people who claim to be Christians who will be shocked to find this is not so.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Being a true Christian is based on confession of sins, faith in Jesus, and submission to His will. The most critical component is faith. Although faith in Jesus leads to “good” works, the works themselves do not cause salvation. They should, however, be present as a sign of God’s work in us.

They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; (Romans 10:9)“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” (1 John 3:23-24)

Although works never lead to salvation, we should see signs of our salvation in the way we think, speak, and act. There should be evidence of our salvation if it is real.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? (James 2:14-20)

Christians should be obviously different than those who are not Christians. The way we interact with others should be different. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) and “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16). We should obey God and be Christ like. We will never be perfect, but there should be a difference in our lives and we should be continually growing more Christ like (acknowledging that we may have some ups and downs, but the general direction should be obedience).The Bible does talk about some that may at first seem saved, but after a time turn away. We know that they were never really children of God. They never had saving faith in Jesus.

“Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.” (Mark 4:5-6)

These people had an initial turning towards God, but because it wasn’t saving faith, they turn away after being distracted by the world or coming under persecution.

But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.“Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, (Deuteronomy 1:32-35)

This example is from the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt. Instead of trusting God, the majority of the Israelites turned from God, refused to trust or obey, and died in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the promised land. I know there will be many who thought they would see heaven who will not. I don’t know if it will be to the extent described of Israel where hundreds of thousands died in the wilderness and only 2 made it to the promised land. Have you really trusted in Jesus as your savior or do you just think you are a Christian because your parents or friends are Christians or because you attend church? Can people see the fruit of this transformation? Is your Christian faith seen beyond the church walls?Now the question is “how should Christians react to cultural Christians who are clearly not real Christians, especially when they do not claim to be faith-filled Christians?”On the one hand, when the disciples wanted to stop a man from casting out demons in Jesus’s name:

But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.” (Luke 9:50)

We can work with cultural Christians to do good, to help people, and to help society. We do not, however, want to be yoked to them. “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). Although we can work together for good, we do not want to work so closely together that unbelievers are thought to be believers or that we are thought to be no different than unbelievers. No Christian should allow people to believe that faith in God makes no difference because it makes all of the difference. All of the good that comes from Christian culture ultimately comes from the goodness of God and faith in Jesus. Without a true God and without a true savior who lived a perfect life and died on the cross to take away our sins, none of the nice culture would matter.Shortly after the US Constitutional convention, John Adams wrote to the Massachusetts Militia about morality in America and the Constitution. He stated, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Benjamin Franklin said something similar, “ that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.” In the same way the Christian culture only works if there are enough faithful Christians who truly believe the Bible, believe in the creator God, and have submitted themselves to the savior. That same culture is inadequate for any other. If people like Dawkins get their desire and have the people lose their faith in God, then they will lose the very culture that is so important to them.On the other hand, Jesus also says the following:

He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters. (Luke 11:23)

We should not expect unbelievers, even if they are devoted cultural Christians, to stand with us to defend righteousness. They will scatter. They are not to be trusted allies. This doesn’t mean we should hate them or demean them, but that we cannot count on them to be faithful because they have no faith.It is nice to see Dawkins, who is in his 80s, longing for certain things of God. Maybe his age and seeing what his atheist religion has brought upon the world will open his eyes to the true creator God and savior of the world. As Christians, this should be our prayer. If God was able to turn Saul/Paul from a persecutor of the church to the most prolific apostle, He can turn Dawkins from a leader of the atheists to a follower of God and use him for God’s glory. That is my prayer.Trust Jesus.

your sister in Christ,ChristyP.S. I was reading a blog I follow, and they included a link to this Tucker Carlson interview with Naomi Wolf. I found it interesting because it turned into an hour long spiritual discussion between the two. Both admitted they hadn’t read the Bible before covid, but were reading a lot recently. (Tucker was an Episcopalian and Naomi was Jewish) Both admitted to seeing evil in the world and that it was due to turning away from God. Although there were numerous theological errors spoken by both, I really found it interesting seeing these people turning to God in these hard times. It really seems like God is working in the lives of people and drawing people to Him. We are truly being separated into the sheep and the goats, those who follow God and those who deny Him and/or actively defy Him. Here is the video for you viewing.

#god #faith #culture #bible #christian #christianity #church

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