Get ready to lose your "religion"

 This is something we constantly tell ourselves in churches: we’ve not been called to a religion, but a relationship. And with the current trends, this will soon be a reality for professing Christians. 

The work you have put into cultivating a relationship with God - through His son Jesus Christ - will determine if your faith will sink or swim in the coming times. Not your identified denomination, or adherence to church culture and practices. And it is very important we start to realize this now.

The stage is being set for this reality. The channel titled “Christianity” on one of the top social media platforms will demote your content if you share views that align with the Bible. Their excuse for this is that they were set up for “Christian” discussions, and not for Christians. Some of the Christian groups on Facebook were created by bots with the intent to influence political narrative under a Christian mask (Google “MIT troll farms Christian groups” for the report on this).

The consequence of these trends is that the “Christian” label will soon not be a reliable determinant to distinguish content aimed at promoting Christianity vs content aimed at maligning it. You will need to be sure that Christian tv show, radio program, book, and even congregation (yes, churches will be targeted) is actually aligned to the teachings of the Bible before you associate with it and accept it.

We have to brace up for what is coming. The time is coming when embracing some “Christian” teachings will require rejection of the fundamental principles of the faith - divinity of Jesus, Jesus’ Sonship, Jesus as the only way to salvation - to mention a few. Because of this, we must not feel the pressure to hold unto anything that asks us to reject our fundamental beliefs, even if this thing is the label “Christianity”. Recall that this was not even a name given to us by Jesus, but by outsiders in the town of Antioch.

The title “Christian” has served us well as a group. It helped distinguish us from other religions and gave us an umbrella we could gather under. But we must recognize it is a gift that the world gave us, and the world can decide to take it away when it wants. What we are at the core remains: a people saved by Jesus Christ; sanctified and set apart for good works by the Holy Spirit; secured from the coming wrath by God.

In conclusion one might ask: so when this time comes, what will I call myself, if I cannot use the label “Christian”? My answer is this: call yourself a Believer. And when you tell people you are a believer and they respond with “believer in what?”, that’s your opening to share your faith and tell them about Jesus. 

Which is a win, anytime, any day 😃