Some five hundred years ago, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his list of 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. It was these “theses” or principles, of course, that triggered the Protestant Reformation, and in so doing changed the history of the modern world.

Most of Luther’s theses had to do with his rejection of the practice of selling “indulgencies” in the Catholic Church of his time – a means of raising money for the church which claimed that people might pay to have the souls of loved ones or others released from “purgatory.”  Although this may seem like ancient history to most of us in the modern world, and most of us may not know what a single one of Luther’s 95 theses was, there are some timeless lessons to be found there.

In his very first thesis –  which formed the basis of those that followed –  Luther (citing Matthew 4:17) wrote: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said, ‘Repent’, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”   This statement was a remarkable one for its time.  The Vulgate –  the Latin version of the Bible used by the Catholic Church –  translated the command to repent in Matthew 4:17 with the words paenitentiam agite, meaning “Go, and do penance.” But Luther found that in the Greek text of the New Testament the word for repentance used by the New Testament writers was metanoia, which has nothing to do with penance and means to change one’s heart and mind –  to be changed or converted.

This deeper and more accurate understanding of the concept of repentance had a direct impact on Luther’s first thesis, for we obviously cannot constantly be doing penance throughout our whole lives; but as Luther stated, our lives as believers should be ones of ongoing repentance in the sense of continual change and ongoing conversion.

The truth that Luther had learned was that all of the Christian life is repentance. Certainly, the Bible speaks of a primary repentance when we first turn to God from our own sinfulness (Acts 2:38, 11:18), and we might call that “Repentance with a capital R.”  But the Scriptures also show that our initial Repentance is followed by an ongoing repentance (here with a small “r”) that is the continual mindset of the Christian. This does not mean constantly dwelling on our mistakes and failures, but continually and immediately repenting when we do find we have come short of God’s way. 

We see this ongoing or additional repentance throughout the Bible.  We see it frequently, for example, in the psalms of David where he expresses repentance on many occasions. We see it in the New Testament in scriptures such as Revelation 2:5 which commands members of the church to repent of errors into which they have fallen, and in 1 John 1:8-9 which tells us that: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
 
This is the ongoing reality that the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him” (Colossians 2:16). Just as we begin our Christian lives with repentance and faith (Acts 2:38), so Paul says, we must continue – in repentance and faith. 

We know that it is the Spirit of God that leads us to initial repentance (Romans 2:4), and as his Spirit continues to live in us (1 Corinthians 3:16) we are continually guided to repentance from ongoing mistakes and sins. The Scriptures are clear that this ongoing repentance is not done to try to earn salvation, but as a natural result of salvation occurring in our lives and our desire to become more and more like God. In other words, we are forgiven our sins through the occurrence of Repentance at the beginning of our Christian lives –  but we continue to ask God to forgive us and spare us from the consequences of our sins after that point.  Every small “repentance” reaffirms our original “Repentance.”

In reclaiming the concept of ongoing repentance, Luther discovered something that every Christian must discover and act on also: that true repentance is not just an inaugural event in our Christian lives, but it is also the very basis of our life in Christ from that time forward.  

The concept of ongoing lifelong repentance is not a message that is commonly heard in many churches, but it is a message that we need to nail firmly to the doors of our hearts and minds. 

As Christians we know and understand that the Church is the “Body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27) – that it is a body of individual people who have become spiritually fused in him. Yet we must sometimes remind ourselves of what the Church is not. 

Church is not a building you go to

William “Billy” Sunday’s famous line that “Going to church does not make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile” is still as true now as it was back in the early part of the Twentieth Century, and it is a principle with deep scriptural support.  The Church is not the physical building, but the spiritual one.

The apostle Peter affirmed this in writing: “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” (1 Peter 2:5), and the author of the book of Hebrews likewise tells us: “But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory” (Hebrews 3:6).

Confusing the physical building with the spiritual building and its mission can lead to problems when resources and time are focused on the physical place we worship rather than the job the worship calls us to do.  A church building may be a nice structure, with beautiful stained glass windows, but the Spirit of God does not work through buildings.  A way to test our own relationship with that truth is to ask ourselves, rather than saying “Today is the day we go to church,” how natural is it to say “Today is the day the Church goes to our building.”

Church is not a denomination you join

The famous pastor and writer A. W. Tozer was fond of saying that “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”  We can apply this truth to the understanding that the Church of God is not a denomination – no matter how large (or exclusively small).   We must frequently remind ourselves that not all Christians are in any one denomination, and not everyone in any denomination is a Christian.

We have only to read the book of Acts to see that even the earliest Church had “denominations” – we read of factions which required circumcision and those who did not, groups that taught all aspects of the law of Moses and those who did not – yet they are all said to have been part of the Church.   

For most of us this may not be an issue. But many Christians do shy away from fellowship with those who do not agree with them on all points of doctrine.  And sometimes the division is even within denominations.  It is not entirely uncommon for congregations to sometimes focus on their own needs and programs rather than on the bigger picture of what is being done nationally and worldwide.  In either case, it can be helpful for us all to think of the Church more broadly.

Church is not a social activity you participate in

In the famous words of American basketball player and coach John Wooden, we should “Never mistake activity for achievement,” and unless we see the Church as something very distinct from church activities, we can faithfully participate in socials, campouts, sing-alongs, movie nights and all kinds of other activities without ever having fulfilled the purpose of the Church in our lives.  As Christian writer Thom Rainer puts it in an article discussing activity-driven churches: “Many churches are busy, probably too busy. Church calendars fill quickly with a myriad of programs and activities. While no individual activity may be problematic, the presence of so many options can be” (Seven Problems with an Activity-Driven Church).

We all understand that fellowship is an integral part of what the Church is all about, but an endless stream of activities replaces real fellowship with activities having their own focus, and that can be self-defeating for any congregation. Among his seven points Rainer reminds us that activity is not biblical purpose, that busyness can take us away from connecting with other believers and non-believers.  A congregation that is too busy can hurt families, and an activity-driven church often has no real presence in the community.

These are all things we should think about at times. It is vital that every Christian understand that activities are not really church any more than buildings or individual denominations are. We are called to a community that far exceeds any and all of these things. 

A fascinating  document, “To Diognetus,”  by an unknown second century author, gives us an amazing  description of the  Christians in the early Church.  The document, which is in the form of a letter in twelve chapters,  explains to its recipient how Christians acted in contrast with those around them.  Consider the following extracts:

“Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some different language…. But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and barbarians as the lot of each is cast, and follow the native customs in dress and food and the other arrangements of life, yet the constitution of their own citizenship, which they set forth, is marvelous, and confessedly contradicts expectation.

“They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is a foreign country. They marry like all other men and they beget children; but they do not cast away their offspring…. They find themselves in the flesh, and yet they live not after the flesh. Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives.

“They love all men, and they are persecuted by all. …They are in want of all things, and yet they abound in all things. They are dishonored, and yet they are glorified in their dishonor. They are slandered, yet they are vindicated. They are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and they respect. Doing good they are punished as evil-doers; being punished they rejoice, as if they were thereby given new life. The Jews war against them as heretics and the Greeks persecute them, although none of those that hate them can tell the reason of their hostility.”

Commonly dated between AD 130–180, it is possible that this is one of the first known works of Christian apologetics, but regardless of its exact date of origin and our lack of knowledge of who originally wrote the letter, and to whom,  the letter to Diognetus fits, at every point,  the biblical description of how Christians should be different from others.  We can only read this description of early Christianity and ask ourselves  how well it describes Christianity in the world in which we live, and if it describes each of us in particular.

Given the nature of the Christian faith, it’s only natural to think that our lives would be different in many ways from those who don’t walk in the faith, but are they?

A fascinating study conducted by Barna Group shows that self-identifying Christians who are churchgoers (one would hope that means fairly committed Christians) don’t really differ from non-churchgoers in most ways.  With the obvious exception of the answers to the option “I would describe myself as deeply spiritual” (18% unchurched as opposed to 69% churched), the answers were surprisingly similar for both groups.  Take a look at this snip of part of the Barna  graphic from their “Sacred Roots”:

After the “deeply spiritual” question, the only other measure that shows a significant difference between the groups is whether respondents felt they were “fulfilling [their] calling in life” (61% “unchurched” vs. 77% “churched”),  but differences regarding other questions were often within the statistical range of probability and certainly not as great as one might expect.  When we consider the responses to questions such as “concerned about the future” and  “dealing with addiction,” the answers are almost alarming if we believe the results of Christian living should be much different from the alternatives. 

It’s a fascinating survey and would seem to lead to only two possible conclusions.  Either we Christians are not as different as we think we are (though plenty of biblical verses suggest we should be), or many churchgoers are not much different because they are not really following the guidelines that make us different.  We can only look at the study and ask ourselves where we fit in, and if our lives really are different from those who don’t have believing access to the word of God. If we see our lives are not that different, perhaps we can recognize the need for transformation.

As always, Barna Group is to be congratulated for providing meaningful studies that not only show us where we are, but also may sometimes point us in better directions.  You can check out the Barna website here.

HOW GOD BECAME JESUS: THE REAL ORIGINS OF BELIEF IN JESUS' DIVINE NATURE  By Michael F. Bird, et al.,  Zondervan (March, 2014), is not a light read, but it may be an important one for anyone who has been troubled by books which attempt to “deconstruct” the divinity of Jesus.  Usually, when books of that type are published, believers are left trying to counter their arguments in reviews that are rarely seen by the people who actually read the book in question. In this case, the publishers arranged to publish both How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee by Bart D. Ehrman, and the rebuttal by a number of Christian scholars which is the subject of this review.  See our short review posted here.

The New Testament shows us that in the time of Jesus there were some devout and righteous individuals – men such as Nicodemus – in the religious group known as the Pharisees  (John 3:1-2, John 19:39); but Jesus frequently reproached members of this  group for their evident self-righteousness.  Perhaps Christ's best-known saying in this regard was: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

Last year, a fascinating nationwide study of self-identified Christians was directed by David Kinnaman and John Burke, for Barna Group. The goal of this survey was “to determine whether Christians have the actions and attitude of Jesus as they interact with others or if they are more akin to the beliefs and behaviors of Pharisees, the self-righteous sect of religious leaders described in the New Testament.”

That’s a pretty wild survey idea to begin with, but the results were surprising.  The study was carefully constructed to ask questions which revealed whether the respondents exhibited self-righteous attitudes or actions in their lives.  Amazingly, the findings revealed that many “self-identified Christians in the U.S. are characterized by having the attitudes and actions researchers identified as Pharisaical.“  Just over half of the nation’s Christians (51%) met the criteria for being Pharisaical.

On the other hand, only 14% of  self-identified Christians in the US —just one out of every seven Christians— fit the pattern of  actions and attitudes that Barna researchers found to be consistent with those of Jesus.

But that’s not all of the bad news. Somewhere in the middle of those two groups are Christians who exhibit a mix of the characteristics surveyed. Just over  one-fifth of US Christians (21%) were found to display Christ-like attitudes, but also displayed Pharisaical actions. Another 14% of the survey’s respondents were defined as being Christ-like in their actions, but motivated by self-righteous attitudes.

It’s a fascinating study, and you can find the study report here.  Barna does great work and they deserve a lot of credit for this study.  The survey is eye opening, to say the least, and should represent a wake-up call for the Christian community. Unfortunately, the study suggests a paraphrase of the famous saying of Pogo: “We have found the Pharisees – and the Pharisees are us!”

This map, which was recently produced by valeriepieris on Reddit, is instructive to say the least. The map was carefully prepared using detailed population figures and so it gives a good idea as to the current situation regarding human population distribution – the fact that more people are now living within the area of that relatively small white circle than in the rest of the world combined. Notice, too, that the area of land is only half that of the circle.  Asia has long been home to several of the most populous nations in the world, of course, but it is only recently that we have come to this point.

Why do I include the map in today’s blog post?   I think it is important that we all get to know a bit more about that part of the world – an area with many nations and nationalities, but one in which many Americans and even some Europeans recognize only about three of the nations on the map!   

But Asia includes, of course, several nuclear-power-armed nations and several hotbeds of Islamic extremism, as well as nations of great importance in the world economy; and it is an area which will doubtless continue to burgeon not only in population growth, but also in its overall importance.  This can be seen in the way that U.S. strategic policy is now pivoting much of its attention from the Middle East to Asia. Unfortunately, the area is home to a couple of the most anti-religious regimes on earth and several in which persecution against Christians is both widespread and intense.  North Korea has the worst record of persecution, with an estimated 50-70,000 Christians in its prison camps. This makes it particularly difficult in such countries not only for those trying to follow the Christian faith, but also for those trying to help them.

On the positive side, the fact that more people live in this area than in the entire rest of the world underscores the great potential of this region for Christian development. The numbers are almost mind-boggling. It is estimated that there are currently some 10,000 new coverts being made to Christianity each day in China. The whole of Asia is certainly an area that we as Christians might do well to know more about if we are to understand the needs of its people and to help them.  Whether we are involved in missions work, interaction with Christians in that area, the effort to help the persecuted, or whatever, I think we should know more about this relatively small circle in which so many of our friends live and strive for the faith.  What do you think?

We put up a new review on the Books page of the site today and it is one to which I would like to draw your attention.  Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus was just published a few days ago, and it is a book that will resonate powerfully among the Christians and Muslims who read it.

The book will doubtless draw acrimony and acceptance alike, but it is much more than  just the story of the conversion of a young Muslim doctor from the faith of his upbringing to Christianity.  Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus is an examination of both faiths by an intelligent mind, and the author tells a moving and important story in its own right.  Read the short review and consider reading this book - it is certainly worth your time.