PROMINENT RELIGION ARGUMENT
A weak argument I’ve heard against Christianity is how it’s just a Western religion, that in other parts of the world there are different prominent religions, and basically, depending on where you’re born and raised, you might be invited or even pressured to join whatever religion is most practiced in that particular society.
To a certain degree, that may seem true. But from the same angle, we should probably refer to something as “prominent” based on how widespread and ubiquitous it becomes… Christianity started in Judea, not America (the West). If it’s IN America, it spread there.
More notably, Christianity isn’t comparable; there is little left of the world’s population who doesn’t know about Jesus (whether historically, theologically, or both). Perhaps the most obvious difference of prominence between Christianity and other religions is the level of persecution it receives based on the threat level practicing Christians present to each indigenous secular culture, which generally seeks dominance over peoples’ choice to practice faith and spiritual awareness.
PERSECUTION IS WORSE IN THE EAST
So let’s think about this, because it’s important to understand, especially if you’re a nonbeliever. If Christianity were only a “Western” religion, why are there unrelenting Christians being persecuted to the point of martyrdom in foreign countries like the Congo, as recent as last month? Why are Christians the ones targeted and beheaded by terrorist groups—not Buddhists, atheists, Pantheists, or those who believe in New Age?
Simply put, it’s not a Western religion. In reality, Christianity is founded upon such offensive truth that it provokes the most aggressive demonic attacks on the human race. This is due to the historically reliable fact (confirmed by multiple non-biblical accounts as well as biblical) that the Son of the living God—Jesus Christ—rose from the dead, overcoming the power of sin forever. This explains why Christianity is a threat no matter where the Christian lives culturally. No other religion makes such audacious claims, and no other religion is persecuted to death for living out its faith.
THANKS FOR READING THIS!
Christian martyrdom has been happening since the first century, beginning with the twelve apostles. But what we have to pay more attention to in this particular argument isn’t how it started, but the reason it didn’t stop, and why it’s still happening today.
That’s what this article is about: understanding what it is about Christianity that not only caused it to spread, but what about it provokes the horrible attacks?
I’m really glad you’re here reading! I hope this blesses you. Let’s dig more into what makes Christianity such a “threat”, and on the way, we’ll go over what about the faith of many Christians in the West (and perhaps in other areas as well) does not provoke the same type of attack.
PRAYER AND SURRENDER
Christians are not murdered for being nice or for keeping the peace (Ephesians 4:3). They’re murdered for the way they worship Jesus Christ with their lives.
For born again believers, church isn’t a weekly event at a singular location; it’s a daily lifestyle of constant, faith-based, Christ-centered decisions made through the powerful combination of prayer and surrender.
Christians are a threat to the demonic realm in how they worship Christ by living radically changed lives; from the manner in which they speak, to the way they love the spiritually lost by sharing with them the incorruptible truth of Christ at a time when truth is barely recognized, and God is hardly acknowledged.
OUR LIVES SHOULD PREACH OUR FAITH
The Devil hates when we worship Jesus with our thoughts, words, and deeds, so he sends demonic forces to interfere with Christians actually doing the Lord’s work; (Ephesians 6:12) sharing the Gospel, making disciples, and practicing righteousness daily; the men and women who walk out their evangelism by letting their lives preach their faith rather than proclaiming a faith their lives preach nothing about.
EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN IS A PREACHER
Evangelism isn’t safe while the Devil is at work. It doesn’t matter where you live. And how else can the lost come to know Christ if they’re not told?
In Romans 10:14, Paul writes about this:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Well, what is a preacher? Is that someone only at the pulpit, or anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord? The Greek word used in verse 14 is “kerusso”, which means “to herald”, “to preach”, or “to proclaim”. Which means, if you have the Good News—that is, if you’ve accepted Christ into your heart as Lord and Savior—then this is talking about you; not just the person at the pulpit.
It’s not talking about Americans, or Westerners, but Christ-followers everywhere in the world.
ASHAMED, LUKEWARM CHRISTIANS
Our world has plenty of people claiming to be Christian, even while not opening the Bible, and/or neglecting or resisting to bring up Jesus to family, friends, or strangers on their own. Why is that? Are we ashamed of our Savior? What did Jesus say He would do with those who are ashamed of Him?
In Luke 9:26, Jesus says:
“Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
In the same vein, Jesus later speaks to the church of the Laodiceans through John’s letter in Revelation 3:15-16, when He addresses those living as though they didn’t need God:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
There are so-called Christians intimidated by sharing offensive truths that actually stirs conviction. They aren’t concerned with the troubling hypocrisy of calling oneself a Christian, despite how the vacuous claim is itself powerless and empty of value because it lacks the faith to produce good works (James 2:26).
CLAIMS DON’T SAVE US, ONLY FAITH WILL
In today’s world, people who claim to be Christian but don’t dedicate their lives to the work of Christ in their hearts are either lying to themselves, or are guilty of being just like the Laodiceans—which is worse.
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They’ve been called, but haven’t been changed.
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They’ve accepted that they need Jesus, but they haven’t buried themselves in Him as their identity.
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They’ve been baptized in water for the sake of religiosity (following rules), all the while their hearts lack true repentance.
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They read the Bible, but their readings are formal and obligatory and they don’t press into developing intimacy with God.
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The Holy Spirit is ready and desiring to ignite the fire that moves them towards new life, but they are too comfortable calling themselves something that they are anything but on the inside.
Dangerous, fake; unfaithful, two-faced; far from God, but convinced they’re not.
MISSING A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION
Until genuine, Holy Spirit-led repentance causes sinners to desperately call on the name of Jesus for the grace to die to their rebellious way of living, they will not make it to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Their lackadaisical facade of a faith life is another reason nonbelievers accuse Christianity of being a hoax—despite how the presence of lukewarm Christians in the church body doesn’t hinder or change the more powerful impact of spiritually reborn Christians in the world, literally dying for their faith.
Lukewarm Christians believe in Jesus the same way demons do: they know He exists and that He did what He did, but they haven’t received the life-transforming power that not only fuels the life of the believer, but even shakes the lives of others paying attention; those watching and discerning whether Jesus’ impact is legitimate enough to consider giving Him their own lives.
THE FATAL MISTAKE OF MINIMAL CHRISTIANITY
Christians who actually lack Christ do not have a passion for expanding God’s Kingdom. The only reason they consider themselves Christian is because they go to church and aren’t offended by the sugar-coated notion that merely acknowledging Jesus’ death and resurrection saves them from hell.
But, spoiler alert—acknowledgement doesn’t save us. That kind of thinking doesn’t lead to living the way a Christian does when led by the Spirit. Minimal Christianity isn’t what the church was founded on; the powerful, miraculous reality of Jesus’ resurrection changing the lives of His disciples and mandating the 1st century church, was.
SHAKING THE GATES OF HELL
There is no making disciples of nations when we keep our faith under wraps. There is no threat to the kingdom of darkness when our faith looks the same as agnosticism. We are meant to live for Christ in such a spirited way that the principalities of darkness in the unseen realm begin trembling at the prospect of our transformation inspiring even more souls to be reborn in Christ.
Our prayer lives should shake the gates of hell in fear of what God is doing for the spiritually lost on earth. A person’s faith should be so obvious and so personal that to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, someone might want to kill us—that’s exactly what is happening in our world today. The more like Christ we are around those offended by Jesus, the more persecution we’ll invite by looking like the King we serve.
REAL FAITH PRODUCES THE WORK OF EVANGELISM & WORSHIP
If we’re afraid of being martyred, then perhaps we’ve forgotten Paul’s reminder of God’s promise to us in Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul references Isaiah 64:
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
How can we believe Isaiah’s remarks and not preach the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection—even if it results with our body perishing? Our soul will not!
We cannot believe in Jesus and not worship Him with our whole lives when we know the truth of His deity. This is why Christians are beheaded: not because of church attendance, but due to bold faith that doesn’t give up in the face of danger. Death has lost its sting, but only if Jesus truly is to us who we claim He is in our hearts. Others’ rejection of our faith is powerless, and their threat is merely a motivation for rejoicing (Matthew 5:11-13), for as death comes to us all, then let our death bring us to Christ. The Christian cannot lose! It doesn’t lose—it spreads.
TO LIVE IS CHRIST, TO DIE IS GAIN
Paul later reminds us of the reality of authentic Christian thinking, clarifying how life and death are both wins as a man of God seeking eternity with Jesus.
In Philippians 1:20-21, he writes confidently:
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
THE POWER AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Loving people also means warning them, not accepting their ignorant ‘skip and hop’ down the terrifying road to eternal damnation.
It doesn’t save anyone’s soul for us to adhere to meaningless labels keeping us blind, deaf, and dead. Without faith in Jesus, we perish. Faith that doesn’t produce anything godly in our lives and the lives of others (Kingdom-related works, not merely secular altruism) is as dead as having no faith at all.
This dead faith is what we see in people making claims but lacking a lifestyle of worship and evangelism. They are missing the fear of the Lord. And it likely is describing—even indirectly—the limited (or conditional) love they have for Jesus’ name. When we’re too nervous to bring up the Gospel, we’re either more afraid of being judged (which indicates our identity may not be so securely in Christ), or nervous about being outsmarted. But we miss the point of evangelism with these concerns.
Evangelism is not about avoiding judgment (there is only condemnation for those NOT in Christ – John 3:18), it’s about spreading God’s truth with love. Neither is evangelism about outsmarting people with knowledge, but humbling ourselves to the movement and voice of the Holy Spirit in and through us.
THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING SCRIPTURE
Fear of being outsmarted is not the actual problem, either. If we’re honest, the real issue is we just aren’t in our Bible enough. Knowing the Word helps us counter secular arguments. Not with arrogance, but with confidence in knowing what God’s Word says about faith, living righteously, having relationship, and walking with Christ.
Didn’t Paul talk about this in 2 Corinthians 10:5? There, he says:
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
And then in 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul adds:
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
When we know Scripture, we are equipped with as much as we need to counter “every pretension” and provide biblical wisdom that instills Holy Spirit conviction. We don’t have to have a Master’s degree in theology to evangelize, to be passionate (passion comes from the Holy Spirit, not our knowledge bank), or to share the Gospel with others. We just need to be obedient and surrender the excuses. After all, God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of courage, boldness, strength, and faithfulness.
ALL CHRISTIANS ARE ONE CATEGORY
To conclude, Christianity isn’t just a Western religion, but a call to arms for those who understand the reality of sin, the severity of eternal separation from God, and the free gift of salvation by faith in Jesus. Evangelism isn’t just for the “more lively” believers, it’s for every single person who accepts Jesus as Lord. We are all called to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him; seeking the Lord and His righteousness above all else, and making disciples of nations while we await His return are just the basics of what it is to bury ourselves in Christ. As Paul further elaborates in Galatians 2:20, we:
“—have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (italics mine)
