connecting

Why is Christianity So Narrow?
Phil Schaefer
10/18/09

Introduction:
A short while after I was converted, after I accepted Jesus as my Savior, after I was very excited about being a Christian, people began putting so many do’s and don’ts on me that it sucked the joy out of me. I found myself asking the questions: Why is Christianity so narrow? Why does it have to be so exclusive?
This is one of the Top 7 Questions asked by seekers and skeptics, and one of the top accusations leveled by non-religious and anti-God people.
The prevailing attitudes toward Christianity:

  • It is too confining.
  • It holds to absolute truth.
  • It gives massive guilt.
  • There is no freedom to think.
  • One truth is too confining, everyone should determine truth for himself.

This morning I want to address this from 3 areas:

  • Historical and cultural narrowness
  • Community narrowness
  • Personal narrowness

I. The Long View

Is Christianity historically narrow?

    • Contrary to popular opinion, Christianity is not a western religion. It exists in more culturally diverse forms than any other religion or worldview.
    • Christianity has deep layers of insight taken from the Hebrew, the Greek, and the European cultures, and over the next 100 years will be further shaped by Africa, Latin America, and Asia- the areas of the world where Christianity is being embraced in huge numbers, and where today the most Christians live.
    • Christianity, above all other worldviews- religious or secular, has transcended time, adapting in language, people groups, nations and cultures. It has opened its leadership to people from every culture, tongue and nation.
    • It is the religion of over 2,000 different language groups. People who pray and worship as Christians do so in more languages than in any other religion in the world. In contrast to Islam, Christianity was born in the miracle of Pentecost, in which every hearer heard the gospel in their own language. Thus, no language or culture is privileged over another.
    •  By contrast, Islam insists that the Quran cannot be translated and can only be read and understood in Arabic, and the center and majority of Islam’s population is still in the place of it’s origin- the middle east. Also, the original lands that have been the demographic centers of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism have remained the same.
    • Why has Christianity grown so explosively in Asia, African, and Latin America? Christianity answered the challenge of history by a continual re-orienting of its worldview.

 

II. The Broad View

Is Christianity culturally narrow?

1. Cultural diversity was built into the Christian faith from its inception. (Acts 15:5-11, 19)
2. The Bible teaches that we will retain our cultural differences. (Rev. 21-23)
God delights in diversity.
3. Christianity helped Africans to become renewed Africans, not re-made Europeans. When Africans began to read the Bible in their own languages many began to see in Christ the final solution to their own historic longings and aspirations as Africans. Africans ‘get Jesus’. They understand His power over the supernatural and spiritual evil, and of His triumph over it on the cross.
4. It is true that missionaries from one culture (Europe) have imposed their own culture forms of Christianity but when new converts have been able to read the Bible in their own languages, they have seen things that the missionaries played down or neglected.

III. The Close-up View

  • Is Christianity a narrow community?
    • For anything to be a community it must possess a set of boundaries or beliefs in order to exist. Any community that does not hold its members accountable for certain beliefs and practices would have no corporate identity, and would thus not be a community at all.
  • Is there a way to judge whether a community is open and caring rather than narrow and oppressive?
    • Does it lead its members to treat others with love and respect; to serve them and meet their needs?
    • Does it attack those who violate its boundaries rather than treating them with kindness, humility, and winsomeness? Is our existence about attacking others, or about loving our enemies?
    • Philippians 1: 15-18
  • For Christian Fellowship, acting redemptively means:
    • To see every person’s problem, difficulty, or sin area as an opportunity not for condemnation, but for redemption.
    • This is why, as pastors, we strive to be longsuffering to those who are struggling with sin, looking for the redemptive hope that only Christ can give in every situation. He redeems, He forgives. We want to see it over the long view. He is working.

 

IV. The Personal View

       A. Is Christianity personally narrow?

  • Phil’s testimony of adolescent rebellion against religion- throwing off the constraints it was placing on him in the name of freedom, because he saw it as personally narrow. As a result, he became less of a person, and his heart grew narrower rather than more open. He experienced more, but became less. He was hurting others by his own biases, excuses and deceptions. When God came and redeemed him he was delivered from guilt.

What we have to wrestle through is our childhood concept of religion and our adolescent concept of morality.

    1. I Cor. 13:11- “when I was a child, I thought like a child, I talked like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”

Don’t despise your past. Your past is what has led you to the present.

    1. I don’t resent my Catholic upbringing. God used it to help me see His grace over my life. Though I am no longer Catholic, I am still learning things from the religion of my childhood.
    2. Don’t throw everything out with the old, and start all over. Keep what is good.
    3. Galatians 5: 13- 23 “You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.”- We think to be free we must cast off restraint. But this is what we see as we throw off morality in the name of freedom:  “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious- sexual immorality, impurity, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, factions, drunkenness and the like. I warn you that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God (peace or joy). But the fruit the Spirit brings is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.”

Jesus came that we might live in love, joy, peace, and goodness. When He walked on earth He didn’t oppress people, rather He set them free from their sin. He gave them forgiveness. He gave them hope. He lifted burdens off of people.

Discussion Questions:
 
Why do you think that Christianity is growing so explosively in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, while it is declining in Europe and North America?

Do you think that Christian Fellowship as a community is more narrow and confining, or more open and caring? Can you give some examples of why you think this way.

What do you believe is at the root of people thinking that Christianity is too personally confining? Did you ever think that? What changed your mind?