Jesus as Happy Husband?

“but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15, ESV)

“I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” (Romans 10:2, ESV)

"Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:12-14, ESV)

Since I am Reformed Christian many of my non-believing friends often associates me with the current American Christianity culture. I do make it plain to them that Reformed Christians reject most of what they see in modern Christianity and I stress that we find it as distastefully as much as they do (maybe more so). They see the lunacies that are being portrayed by mega church movement, religion television, and other religious fads. They see that modern American Christianity is focus on the Christian not Christ. This is bad because the good news is not in the Christian but in the Christ of the good news.

The problem with self-center approach to Christianity is that we have a church culture that is no way prepared for the attacks of Gnosticism like the Da Vinchi Code. How can the 40 days of purpose Christianity (which is about the Christian and not about Christ) possibly be able to defend the faith against a book (or a movie) like the Da Vinchi Code? Most of the members of these churches can’t articulate the very basic doctrinal understanding of the faith. A survey of professing Christians shows that most can’t give correct answers to basic doctrinal questions like: Are human beings basically good? What does justification mean? What is imputation? What is the concept of propitiation?

Why? I think it is mostly laziness. It is so much easier to tell our non-believing friends on how Jesus makes us feel all goose-bumping inside. Giving a solid “defense” of “the hope that is in” us require work to be educated in doctrine and apologetics. I think that most of the professing Christian in modern American churches has NO interest in a deeper understanding of the things of God (or the Bible). In fact many in the survey were annoyed with the doctrinal questions!

And along comes Dan Brown! He writes a novel called the Da Vinchi Code. In that novel Dan Brown makes outrageous historical claims. He stated very clearly that the historical claims in his novel are based on historical facts. Some of his claims in the novel are that: Jesus never really died on the cross, Jesus had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene and later they had children, Constantine alone decided what books are to be included in the canon of scripture, and what books were to be excluded. All of these claim (and other that he makes) should be EASY for Christians refute if they know their apologetics. But most “Christians” can’t even explain core doctrines how can they be expected to give a sound apologetic?

I am afraid that many members of our churches have “a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” This is very sad. We should be the best source of information about true Christ in history and of the Bible. The way it is now if the non-believer goes to Dan Brown they will get false information about Christ. If they go to a Purpose Driven Church they will get information of the Christian. The challenge I put forward to all professing Christians is if a non-believer brings up a conversation about claims of Da Vinchi Code will you be able to give that person a good objective defense of the truth claims of Christianity? We need to be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”

Timotheus

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