1.21 blog

We spent most of last week looking at Christendom: what it is, the fact that it no longer describes us, and how (I think) this came to be. In this final post, we’ll look at why I actually think that this is a good thing.

It’s true, many evangelical Christians (especially those tied to the Constantinian project of imposing Christianity through the state) lament the loss of “Christian” morality in our culture. In their eyes the world has gone from bad to worse over the last 50 years (often this is tied to the removal of school prayer). The problem, though, is that their appraisal of “good” and “bad” is based on the assumptions of Christendom, that certain moral codes comprise the essence of goodness in general and Christianity in particular.

But if my analysis in the last posts has been correct, then we can’t view it that way. If we’ve been living in Christendom, where people adopt the moral teachings of Christianity without the gospel, then the spiritual landscape is remarkably similar to how it was in the “good old days.” There are lots of people out there who do not believe in Jesus’ gospel, and who are, therefore, alienated from God. That’s how it was back in Christendom too. Only back then, the people were well behaved, and this good behavior was interpreted as making them okay. In the 1950s, when mom, apple pie, the American flag, school prayer, and true love waiting were all still held in high esteem, thousands upon thousands of people were sent off–clean cut, comfortable, and well behaved–to hell.

They thought they were Christians because they kept the rules. When in reality those rules may have been the thing keeping them from Christ.

Now, at least, the “bad people,” who don’t adhere to Christianity’s moral code know that they aren’t Christians. If the church will move past its Christendom mindset and focus on Jesus rather than public morality, we may find ourselves in a uniquely fruitful point in history.

The world today, now more than ever, resembles the world into which Christianity was first birthed. The first centuries of the church were characterized by explosive growth. Perhaps we’re poised for such. I don’t know. God does.

But I do know that we won’t see this growth if we wring our hands, gaze longingly to the past of Christendom, and throw stones at the surrounding culture. This will only happen when Christ, rather than Christendom becomes the focus of Christians once more.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

We’ve seen what Christendom is, and that it no longer describes our context. In this post we’ll look at how this happens. I can’t speak with dogmatism here, but what follows is the best I can tell for how we’ve moved into a post-Christendom culture.

Christendom is what happens when people adopt “Christian” moral practices without embracing the Christian gospel. And right from the beginning we see the problem. Christianity is not a religion of morals (sometimes we use religion in a specialized, pejorative sense, I’m not using it in that way here). Instead, it’s a religion of history. It’s about what someone else did 2000 years ago, as Jesus lived a perfect life, died for his people, and rose from the dead. There’s very little that’s morally unique about Christianity. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus (and others) all have similar moral teachings (though not identical). What sets Christianity apart are the facts about Jesus. Either he died and rose, or Christianity is a worthless lie (1 Corinthians 15.12-19). No other religion makes a claim like that.

So, Christianity is about history not morality. It’s about what Jesus has done, not about what I do or how I am changed. So, when Christians adopt moral practices, they do so in response to what Jesus has done. Christian ethics arise from the Christian narrative about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Apart from it, they make no sense. That’s why the Apostle Paul tells Christians to try to purify the church, rather than the world they live in (1 Corinthians 5.9-13).

With that in mind, it’s easy to see how Christendom failed. People adopt the morality without the story that gives the morality its meaning, and they can only do this for so long. Eventually it has to collapse. And that’s what we’ve seen. The church has been busy trying to clean up the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 5.9-13), thinking that if people’s morals would change we’d all be in better shape. But without the gospel, there’s no reason to change.

When the church sees itself as an agent of moral transformation, Christendom follows. When Christendom pervades, it’s only a matter of time before it crumbles.

In our last post, we’ll look at why the fall of Christendom is not a bad thing after all.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

In our last post, we looked at a definition of Christendom: when people are conditioned by “Christian” moral values without being impacted by the Christian gospel. In this post, we’ll take a look at our contemporary situation.

It should go without saying that the times they are a-changing. The moral consensus that used to obtain in the United States is rapidly disintegrating. The debate over issues like abortion and homosexual marriages have deeply divided our country. And over time our culture has grown increasingly morally permissive. Some welcome these changes as a newly enlightened age of tolerance. Some fear and fight them as the greatest threat to civilization in centuries and a sure sign of worse things to come. I’m not writing to take either of these positions, but rather to show that we no longer have a Christendom type consensus on these issues.

To those who are uncritically in favor of the changing moral climate, I would point out that the Bible does take clear positions on some of these issues. To those who take an alarmist stance, I would simply point out that if you read the Bible, you’ll see this is nothing new. A glance at Romans 1, or First Corinthians shows us that while some of these issues are concerning, we shouldn’t freak out as if it’s a strange new thing, or that this is the worst it’s ever been. It’s neither.

So that’s the current situation: the consensus is gone, we’ve reached a much more pluralistic, post-Christendom culture. In our next post, we’ll take a look at how this has happened, and why it’s not such a bad thing after all.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

At the end of our last post, I mentioned that Christendom has failed, but that Christendom was never Christ’s intention. I think that it would be helpful for me to further clarify those remarks, which will help us to think through the church’s place in contemporary culture.

Christendom has a variety of meanings, but I’m using it in a fairly specific sense here. Christendom is the result of adopting “Christian” moral views without embracing the Christian gospel. In Christendom, there’s a general moral consensus: people agree that there is a God, who expects certain behaviors. Drugs are frowned upon, aberrant sexual practices are rejected, prayer happens in public schools, children say “sir” and “ma’am,” etc. Some of these elements are right, while others are more problematic.

The main problem with Christendom, though, is that people come to equate it with Christianity. People can live in Christendom, be good citizens, who mind their manners, and uphold “traditional moral values” without ever being impacted by the reality of Christianity: the gospel of Jesus Christ. What’s more, because they adhere to the moral values, they often believe that they are Christians, when in fact they are not.

Christianity is not about what we practice and do. It’s all about trusting in what Jesus Christ has already done.

But over time, we lose sight of this, and people learn to conform their behaviors to “Christian” standards, and leave it at that. When this happens on a widespread level, we get Christendom.

Up next, we’ll look at the current situation as it relates to Christendom.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

Recently, my wife and I spent a few days in New York City. While walking about in Manhattan’s Upper West Side (en route to the coffee shop from Seinfeld [pictures forthcoming on Facebook]), we stopped in at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It still functions as an Episcopal parish (actually the diocesan seat for New York). The gothic building was rich with beautiful architecture and symbolism. For a few minutes before entering the cathedral, we stood outside its massive doors, trying to identify the various figures represented.

Some were obvious: the guy with the keys and the rooster, must be St. Peter. The fellow being stoned to death is probably St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr (whose life we’ll examine at 1.21 sometime in the next year). Others, however were harder to identify. It was a great experience, as I was both grateful and nostalgic. Nostalgic because I realized that in times past, these figures would be easily recognizable from the rules of iconography. Before the printing press, people learned Christianity through symbolic media like this, and through participating in the liturgy. We’ve lost a wealth of symbolic and aesthetic gandeur. But at the same time, I was grateful because with the printing press, we all have easy access to the Bible. As the very Word of God, its worth far excells the aesthetic beauty of ancient architecture (though if we can have both, that’s a good thing).

Anyway, before we entered, a tour group from a school came. The teacher/tour guide was instructing the children in how to recognize who’s who. At some point in the discussion, though, a child made mention of “the guy in the middle.” When I looked to see, I realized that he was talking about Jesus.

This tells us something, doesn’t it? I’m not writing this to bemoan our cultural ills, or complain that school children no longer recognize Jesus (not just that they don’t worship him, but that they can’t even identify him). However, I do think that it’s a pretty telling cultural indicator. While I strenuously object to the idea that the United States was ever a Christian Nation, this offhand comment by a child in the streets of New York does show us that we have experienced a definite cultural shift. The project of Christendom has failed. But Christendom was never Christ’s purpose. Will the church be faithful now that we no longer live in a time of general cultural consensus about Jesus? Will you?

Time will tell.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

A few months ago, I issued the challenge to read through Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion during this five hundreth anniversary of his birth. I don’t know if anyone is still doing this or not. It’s ok if you’re not, but I’ve been finding some great stuff in the reading. In any case, today’s reading dealt with how Christians spend their lives carrying the cross (see, e.g., Matthew 16.24), dying to ourselves, and living instead for and from God. One paragraph in particular stood out:

For, overturning that good opinion which we falsely entertain concerning our own strength, and unmasking our hypocrisy, which affords us delight, the cross strikes at our perilous confidence in the flesh. It teaches us, thus humbled, to rest upon God alone, with the result that we do not faint or yield. Hope, moreover, follows victory in so far as the Lord, by performing what he has promised, establishes his truth for the time to come. Even if these were the only reasons, it plainly appears how much we need the practice of bearing the cross. And it is of no slight importance for you to be cleansed of your blind love of self that you may be made more nearly aware of your incapacity; to feel your own incapacity that you may learn to distrust yourself; to distrust yourself that you may transfer your trust to God; to rest with a trustful heart in God that, relying upon his help, you may persevere unconquered to the end; to take your stand in his grace that you may comprehend the truth of his promises; to have unquestioned certainty of his promises that your hope may thereby be strengthened (Calvin, Institutes, 3.8.3).

I love the line where he says that we learn to distrust ourselves, and that this leads us to transfer our trust to God. This is essentially what the Christian life is all about. And it’s good for me to hear. One of my perennial temptations is pride. Here Calvin shows prideful people like me that it’s through the cross that we learn humility. So rather than turn my gaze inward and analyze the mixture of pride and humility in my heart so that I can try to increase the latter and decrease the former (which essentially means I’m trusting myself), the solution is to direct my gaze outward to Jesus’ cross, where my pride was crucified.

Where is your trust?

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

This week I was at the Advance Conference in Durham, NC. It was a great time of growth and fellowship with other Christians, as Jesus was continually exalted, and we were continually called to repentance. Two of the sessions were by John Piper. And while I recommend you download (and listen to) the audio from the entire conference, I want to especially draw your attention to his talks on the global mission of the church.

It’s so easy to get caught up in our lives and our churches that we lose sight of the fact that God has created the whole world, and all the peoples in it. John 14.6; Acts 4.12; and Romans 10.13-17 make it clear that salvation is only available in Jesus, through faith in him. For us to stand idly by while these millions of people perish without knowledge of Jesus is an unconscionable tragedy.

Pray for unreached people groups.

Give generously to support missions overseas.

Seriously ask God if he would have you go.

It is my sincere hope that God would call thousands of Christians to labor overseas for the cause of the gospel among those who have never heard of Jesus.

Before you finish, please spend a few moments contemplating this.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

This week, our church continued it’s study of Colossians with Colossians 4.2-18, in which Paul shows us the recipe for a missional lifestyle. If Jesus is God, the Creator and Redeemer of humanity (and he is), then it follows that people need to know about him. Many of us would like to live lives of mission for him, but aren’t sure how. But in this passage, our question is answered.

Everything starts with prayer. Paul tells the Colossians to be devoted to prayer (v. 1). Missionality must overflow from a real, vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We recognize all that he has done for us in Jesus, and we are naturally moved to love and serve others. It is a watchful prayer, where we are both engaged in/informed about culture and connected with God. If we do either one without the other, we will end up in places we shouldn’t be. We saw that our connection with God is communal. In verses 7-18, Paul lists different peopel who are praying with and for him and the Colossians. In our modern, American, individualistic culture, we have the idea that we’re just going to relate to God on our own. But it doesn’t work like that (or not only like that). God has given us the church, which includes both large public meetings for Word and Sacrament, and smaller intimate meetings for mutual help, counsel, prayer, encouragement, etc. (See Acts 2.42-47). Biblically, there is no category for a Christian who isn’t involved in this.

So missionality is rooted in a relationship with God expressed by prayer. But it overflows in our lives where it is shaped by relationality and intentionality. When we share Jesus with people, it is best that it take place in the context of relationships. Paul speaks of knowing how we ought to answer each person (v. 5). This means we are dealing with real people; not concepts or projects. We must prusue genuine friendships with people, not just use them so that we can talk about Jesus with them. People are inherently valuable, and we must value them with no strings attached.

But our relationships are also intentional: we seek for open doors to talk about Jesus (v. 3). We pray, and trust that God will give us ocassion to talk to our friends about Jesus. So we live life with them, and as our lives are changed by the gospel, we answer their questions. We want to be the same enough that people will want to know us; and different enough that they’ll need to ask us questions. And when they ask, we must make the gospel clear to them. Our reason for our changed lives is not that we are good people, or that we are smart, or anything else. The reason our lives are changed is by God’s grace shown through Jesus’ cross and resurrection.

But so often, we don’t live this life. We are afraid of rejection, and pridfully self-conscious; hoping that no one will think less of us. Yet twice, Paul shows us that he is in prison for the gospel (vv. 3, 18). Something has happened to remove his fear. And that something is the very message we are trying to bring to others. The gospel shows us that we have nothing to fear. Jesus has already gained everythign we need through his life, death, and resurrection. And now, there is no way that we can possibly lose it. He has promised and he cannot lie. And the gospel shows us we have no basis for pride. Jesus has gained everything for us…on his own, without our help. We are eternally charity cases, who can’t fix what’s wrong with themselves. There’s no place for pride or boasting.

And so, as we fix our hearts and our minds on the gospel, this life begins to follow. Rather than try to live on mission, focus yourself on Jesus, and he will sweep you into the mission.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger

This week in the life of 1.21church, we are asking the God of Colossians 3:12-17 to teach us and help us “put on” then new man that we are in Jesus. Paul has just given a list of what we are to “kill” or “put off” because of the gospel. Now he is showing us the characteristics that we can now “put on” because we are God’s chosen people. Paul goes through a small list, explains how each of the characteristics comes from Jesus, and also how each should be natural effects from what Jesus has accomplished in his gospel. We can now be holy, compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient, forgiving, and full of love (the one that holds all together.) This is an extremely difficult text for most because we do not make the cut when it comes to these characteristics. A lot of time our actions do not back what we say or even show how good we think we are. The good news that Paul gives us is for us to look to and trust in the One person that had all of these characteristics, Jesus. We can now allow that Jesus to change us. In the text we see Jesus as…

-the true Holy one whose life was always consecrated to God and His will. Even to the point of death, he refused to compromise his calling from God or the standards God had laid down for his life.

-Jesus is the true Compassionate one who not only looked past the ways people had wronged him, but instead helped them and prayed for them even as he was nailed to the cross.

-Jesus is the true Kind one who always took the time to help people with their problems and needs, whether they were great or small.

-Jesus is the true Humble one who, though he existed as God, rather than holding on to his privilege, took on the form of a servant and came to earth, where he gave up his life in shame for prideful people like you and me.

-Jesus is the true Patient one who dealt with his foolish, bickering disciples day and night for three years. And he is so patient with us daily.

-Jesus is the true Forgiver who wipes our slate clean at great cost to himself and then casts our sin behind his back, never thinking of it again.

-Jesus is the one that Displays Love, Is love, and Gives love. At the cross, we see love in its purest form: sacrifice and service. And because he has first loved us, now we too are able to love. We can only be this kind of person when we dwell deep on who he is and what he’s done, and then let that transform us. We can’t force it. We can’t try to accomplish it. Instead, it happens through us as we come to know Jesus. Paul is not telling us to be a better person. He is saying look to Jesus. Jesus personifies all of these qualities and his obedience is imputed in place of our failure. We are to put on these characteristics. We put on the new man, Jesus. It’s credited to us in justification, now we become it in progressive sanctification. He is our model, our motive, our source, and our security in all of this. Now as Christians we are allowed and commanded to go around and encourage our brothers and sisters by reminding them often of the gospel.

How has the Gospel changed your life?

Which characteristic that Paul listed do you struggle with the most and how does the gospel speak into your struggle?

post by: Pastor Stephen