I grew up around evangelical Christian subcultures. My sister and I were the only kids of our age at our church, so I visited various other young people groups and went to pizza parties, rock in, concerts and mission trips.
My first concert was Amy Grant with Michael W. Smith as opener. Years later, Smith was the headliner with a dynamic, promising opening act called DC Talk, which impresses a crowd of teenage Christian children. It was so exciting to hear the “flood” with clay bottles on secular radio that I thought the millennium rule of Christ had arrived. I remember watching the first episode of “Veggietales” during the retreat. This is also the first time I heard “Big House” on audio adrenaline. I’m a huge fan of Caedmon’s appeal in college, especially Derek Webb’s gravel vocals and edgy songwriting.
We are not facing binary choices between authenticity and hypocrisy.
As the years went by, some of these people turned out to be hypocrites. Many children saw them as spiritual role models, unaware that they didn’t know who they were. I hear reports that the modern Christian music industry is being seriously ruined. An artist whose CD I purchased is currently being identified in some way as LGBTQ. Some have abandoned all the similarities of Orthodox Christianity, while others have rejected Christ completely.
Fallouts caused by all these exiles from true faith were often denounced by cultural Christianity, allowing talented people to be rewarded to entertain Christian children. Now that their hypocrisy has been exposed, some have become completely openly hostile to cultural Christianity.
What is the difference in the year?
Here are some recent examples of the past two Easter holidays.
Last week, the White House published Easter-themed pro-Christian posts and videos from President Donald Trump, who openly celebrated the “resurrection of Jesus Christ” and declared in his distinctive all-caps style that he was not resurrected.
Last year, Easter coincided with “Transgender Vision Day,” which happened to be celebrated in a White House press release. The White House Easter acknowledgements were very restricted by comparison.
The administration denied any intentional attempts to overturn Easter to transgenderism, but the graphic design department should not obtain a memo. The transgender statement featured an Easter Bunny on the White House logo.
Easter for two people a year apart. What is the difference between the year?
This Easter felt like I was living in a different world compared to last year. why? This is because last year, the whole culture and our government felt hostile to Christianity. This year, Trump declared the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ through the world’s largest microphone.
Two different White House residents were using their influence to promote two different visions of “good” in our society. Whichever vision of “good” is adopted by our society, it can have a major impact on the church and her mission.
Simply put, a society that widely believes that “transgender day of sight” is worth celebrating will inevitably persecute faith that denies it as sin. “He’s rising!!” society does not widely believe.
Cultural Christian hypocrisy
I’m sure some people would disagree with what Trump really didn’t mean what he said. They say that “He is not a real Christian! It’s just a cultural Christianity! It encourages nominal Christianity and hypocrisy!” For this reason, some say that cultural Christianity is nothing more than a celebration of hypocrisy. Therefore, dishonest overtures celebrating Christianity are wrong and harmful.
For example, Pastor Ray Autoland said, “We are pleased with the decline of the religion of the Bible Belt. In the name of Jesus, can we actually believe him?
In other words, Ortlund presented this issue as a binary choice. You can have the hypocrisy of “Bible Belt Religion” or “the truth of the doctrine of the Gospel.”
Given these options, the choice is clear. It creates the “beauty of gospel culture,” so it is necessary to “rejoice in the decline” of cultural Christianity.
Hypocrisy vs. persecution
This is an incorrect dichotomy. We are not facing binary choices between authenticity and hypocrisy. Rather, we face another kind of binary: hypocrisy or persecution.
True Christianity can flourish in either state, but one is better than the other. Let me explain.
Have you noticed that Jesus condemned the sin of hypocrisy far more frequently than elsewhere in the New Testament? Why is this? The disparity can be explained by the diverse context of Jesus’ Jewish ministries and subsequently the Gentiles of the Church.
The Pharisees pretended divinity as a kind of dishonest performance. Hypocrisy was playing for the audience, and Jesus called them to them. They were fake. Poser. Dishonest. They really didn’t follow God. They had their own agenda. However, their personal agenda was made possible by the expectations of the Jewish community to which they belonged. They wanted to enjoy the benefits of being a Jewish leader within the Jewish subculture that rewarded them and empowered them.
In other words, hypocrisy only works if you have an audience who values the authentic faith you are forgering. Put another way, hypocrisy is a by-product of the effects of the gospel.
When persecution broke out in the early church, Christians fled Jerusalem and scattered among Gentile pagans filled with idols more hostile to the gospel (Acts 16:16-23, Acts 19:21-41). Persecution, therefore, became a major concern that became more prominent in the focus of apostolic teaching.
In other words, persecution is a by-product of the decline of the gospel.
When Christians are constantly harassed and threatened by hostile forces, faithfulness under persecution replaces hypocrisy as the concern of the greater disciple (1 Peter 4:12-14). When everyone hates Christianity, there is no reward for being fake. God uses persecution to cleanse and strengthen the church.
Persecution is not a sacrament
This brings me modern tension. Christians are divided as to which situation is more favorable.
Is it better to employ a strict “exile” mentality? Or is it better to assume Christianity and the culture it produces as normative good despite the hypocrisy that necessarily comes with it?
“Victorious Christians” support strong and public claims of Christian truth and morality, and know that some people parrot honestly the points of their pro-Jesus story.
“Christians in exile” support persecution as a cleanser to remove the hypocritical church and all other dishonesty.
Here it is: hypocrisy is a sin, but it is not so uniquely unruly, it calls for the dismantling of cultural Christianity and accepting secular hostility as the only cure. Put another way, persecution is not a sacrament. We don’t need to seek it as a good thing in itself.
Christian
can It thrives under persecution, but the Bible is not Need it Persecution to prosper. That’s a big difference.
Some Christians fear that the inevitable hypocrisy that arises from victorious Christianity is so bad that it ruins the positive benefits that may come from cultural Christianity. Therefore, the church should adopt a suffering minority attitude, which is less and true, although less believers. Persecution is a necessary condition to prove their devotion. Christianity as a whole must lose to prove that they are the people who truly mean it.
I know many who romanticize the authenticity of the early churches who endured great persecution, or the difficulties of third world missionaries in distant and hostile lands. They are
Authentic Christian.
What a tragic way of life!
Many Christians comfort the Gospels while facing this challenge with tortured conscience and irrational moral standards. They tell themselves, “This is the way of the cross,” “The power of true Christianity often appears to be defeat,” and “This is the power and wisdom of God.” Of course, when we lose, we can take comfort in those truths.
But the Bible does not require us to live this way.
Persecution aims to slow, stop, or reverse the progress of the Gospel. It happens to work. It is very difficult to bear fruit when the Gospel seeds are constantly choking in the troublesome soil. People don’t seem to notice that many of our pioneering missionary heroes work under strict conditions
year Before you get a single conversion.
Celebrating persecution as a cure for hypocrisy is like gargling bleach to cure bad breath. Such an extreme remedy is desirable.
Cultural Christian Blessings
Hypocrisy is, so to speak, a crime “at camp.” It is the kind of sin that arises when Christianity is culturally dominant, shaping the expectations, norms and behaviors of all, and exerting social pressure to meet Christian standards. That’s what the recommendation for hypocrites is
more Not a Christian few. Jesus corrected the hypocritical Pharisees by calling them to live more in line with the faith they had outwardly professed.
The Gospel fields produce wheat and tare. The most fertile soil of the Gospel species is the fields already pre-cultivated in cultural Christianity. As we have seen in recent decades, some people present “the appearance of piety negates its power” (2 Timothy 3:5), while others acknowledge Christ as the Savior and Lord. When dishonest people want to enjoy the social benefits of pretending to be Christians, they can be called to correct their hypocrisy and live more gospel-aligned lives (Galatians 2:11-14).
Cultural Christianity creates upward pressure to encourage people to look outwardly adhere to Christian expectations. This is a way of preaching law through social standards that can emphasize their sin and the need for Christ. Like a pool of zero entry, cultural Christianity helps new followers observe Christian life within their communities, framing spiritual reality with familiar language, and pre-identify them in ways that could later create true faith.
Don’t get me wrong: Cultural Christianity saves no one. It can even generate incorrect transformations. However, many false converts are merely pre-transformation, which by faith, have yet to fully arrest and apply the teachings they have received. For example, the religion of the Biblical Belt in the American South produced both hypocrisy and spiritual fruit.
In other words, persecution is not the only remedy for hypocrisy. Christianized cultures can amplify the impact of the gospel, and hypocrisy is the result of a thriving Christian community.
Hypocrisy is inevitable. It always exists everywhere, and authentic faith flourishes. But the persecution is
do not have It’s inevitable. Cultural Christianity may even be a means God uses to prevent persecution from occurring in our society, which threatens to destroy our faithful churches.
Conclusion
As I have thought of the vivid contrast of Biden and Trump’s Easter Week statements over the past two years, I have found myself grateful for the political cover-up of the President openly celebrating “the cross and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” It is good to see the faith I teach and understand that the pastor is loudly affirmed in the best offices of our country.
Ultimately, cultural Christianity is a double-edged sword. While faith can breed hypocrisy when performance changes, it can also lay the foundation for the gospel to flourish.
Persecution may be a refined fire, but Christians will never celebrate it as an opportunity to demonstrate our Christian integrity. Persecution is not God’s only tool to correct hypocrisy. Christianity has its own tools of continuous reform, including education, repentance, revision, and training in the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
There is no need to squeeze hands on hypocrisy that is obvious in cultural Christianity. We certainly don’t need to pine as our only remedy after persecution. Once that comes, we will be faithful to persecution. Otherwise, we’re working crazy to prevent it as much as possible.
