I hope not. But what's definitely true is for much of what I called my Christian life, I definitely was. Here's the book that's got me thinking this way...
Although written towards the end of the eighteenth century, what Wilberforce writes applies to the church and its members today.
What is a cultural Christian?
Someone...:
- a good person who's against bad things and believe this makes your faith good enough.
- who knows basic facts about Christian belief but doesn't have much idea about how to apply them to their life.
- who thinks that their children's academic achievements are more important than their understanding about God.
- who is biblically illiterate and uses the world's standards to guide their behaviour.
- who does not accept the fallen nature of man, believing sin and evil are the exception not the rule. Who would not accept human history is a record of human depravity.
- who rarely mentions the name of Jesus. His name makes the person uncomfortable. They'd far rather talk about faith in vague terms, about moral precepts and positive character qualitiies.
- who thinks about God only in the hour they attend a Sunday service.
- who cultivates the virtues of a moral character instead of commitment to Jesus.
Wilberforce's Solution
Get down on your knees a pray:
- That God will take away your spiritual indifference and insensitivity.
- That He will remove the false thinking that is blinding you and enable you to see the truth
- Be honest with God
- Admit you knw your true condition and the lie you have been living
- Tell him "I have sinned against you."
- Apologise and tell God you want to change; that you want to be His man or woman.
- Think about Jesus and what he did for you on the Cross.
- Thank Jesus that he died for you.
- Open your inner being to God and ask Christ to come into your life and live in and through you.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to begin to work in you from the inside out to make you the person God designed you to be.
- Ask God to help you know His will and give you the strength to do it.
- Spend some time thinking about the fact that God loves you. Contemplate all Jesus did for you, as an expression of that love.
- Reflect on the fact that God has a plan for your life that He wants to reveal to you. To give you the best life you could ever live.
- Tell Him you want to do what He wants you to do.
- Embrace Grace. A gift for you which cost Jesus his life. It's not a gift you have earned nor was it given because you are good. Given just because God loves you.
The essential facts about Jesus Christ
Wilberforce's words...
- God loved the world that He sent His only son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us.
- Jesus Christ willingly left the glory of the Father and became a man.
- Jesus was despised by many people. He was rejected and experienced sorrow and grief.
- Jesus suffered because of our sin.
- Jesus went to the Cross and took our sins with Him so that through His death we could have eternal life when we repent of our sin and accept what he has done for us.
- Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven where he is now in the presence of the Father and intervenes for us.
- Because of what Jesus has done, we can come into the presence of God with confidence and get the help we need when we are in trouble.
- God gives the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit to those who enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
- It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives that makes us true Christians.
- The influence and activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives works to transform us and make us the kind of people God intended us to be.
- True believers will be raised from the dead and live for ever in God's presence.
But...
Simply knowing these facts does not mean they are understood, accepted and as a result we expperience their transforming power.
Other points
Humanity has lost its relationship with God. As a result something has become fundamentally and fatally flawed with every person.
Our fallen nature makes us resist finding out about God. We are spiritually sick but we don't see it. Unlike physical sickness which leaves the NHS tottering on the brink of collapse, our churches are empty.
More coming...