The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself. – Charles Spurgeon
You are probably wondering what I mean by defensive Christianity. Thanks for asking. Defensive Christianity is when Christians in their attempt to defend Christianity and the Bible from ridicule and rejection by the culture, shift their focus away from the command of Jesus to go make disciples, instead focus on redeeming the culture. Leading them to move away from personal evangelism which involves taking the gospel to the individual sinner, showing them their need of a savior, and calling them to repentance. Instead of focusing on making disciples, they focus on defending Christianity against what is seen as the wrong perception of Christianity in the broader culture.
The best way they believe we can adequately correct this wrong perception of Christianity in the culture is by redeeming the culture. While defensive Christians do not deny the need for personal evangelism, they however hold on to the notion that the most effective way to bring Biblical tenets to bear in society is by redeeming the culture. In other words, personal evangelism alone is not enough to bring about Biblical change in society at large.
Defensive Christianity is when Christians in their attempt to defend Christianity and the Bible from ridicule and rejection by the culture, shift their focus away from the command of Jesus to go make disciples, instead focus on redeeming the culture.
The idea to redeem culture is based on the notion that if only the culture can be made to understand that true believers are really not the bad, condemning, narrow minded, bigoted people they are believed to be and that Christianity really has great benefits for society at large, then the culture will stop rejecting the gospel. In other words, defensive Christians believes that the reason the culture rejects the gospel, is not primarily because of the sins of the people, but because they don’t really understand Christianity or have been given a wrong perception of Christianity by some professing Christians and that once the culture comes to a true understanding of the benefits of Christianity, it would embrace it wholly.
While it all sounds very nice, the problem with defensive Christianity is that nowhere are we commanded to go redeem the culture. Nowhere does the Bible teach that the reason people or cultures are hostile to the gospel is because they don’t understand Christianity. The Bible teaches just the opposite. It tells us that the reason the culture hates and rejects the gospel is because the people of that culture love their sin. John 3:19 – And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil
By focusing on the redemption of the culture instead of the repentance of individual, defensive Christians without meaning to, downplay the role and sufficiency of the word of God in saving people. God in His infinite wisdom has designed that men’s eyes will be open to the Truth and come to the light of Christ through the preaching of the word. 1 Corinthians 1:21 – For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. The power to save is in the Word of God, not in our persuasive words or actions. No one can come to saving faith in Christ unless the Lord draws them to Himself. And He does this through the preaching of the word. John 6:44 – No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Focusing on the redemption of the culture instead of the repentance of individual sinners shows a lack of understanding of man’s fallen nature and the effects of sin in our lives. As the Bishop of Liverpool in the 19th Century, J.C Ryle states in his book “Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots” – ‘The plain truth is that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. Without it such doctrines as justification, conversion, sanctification, are “words and names” which convey no meaning to the mind. The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes anyone a new creature in Christ, is to send light into his heart, and show him that he is a guilty sinner.’
Jesus Christ came to save sinners, not culture. Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Why would any Christian embrace this error in thinking that redeeming the culture is the way to bring people into the kingdom? JC Ryle gives an adequate answer in the same book. He says “Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul’s disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies. I believe that one of the chief wants of the Church in the nineteenth century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin.”
Focusing on the redemption of the culture instead of the individual sinner shows a lack of understanding of man’s fallen nature and the effects of sin in our lives.
The problem some Christians had in the 19th century; some still have in the 21st century, they lack a clear understanding of sin. We need a clearer, fuller teaching about sin. A wrong knowledge of sin will ultimately result in the denial of the Sufficiency of Scripture to save and redeem sinners. Those who seek to redeem the culture do not believe that the preaching of the gospel to individual sinners is enough. They will not deny it, but they believe it is not adequate, we have to help it along by trying to convince the culture through our actions, that Christianity is “cool”. This is the reason so many professing Christians found it easy to embrace CRT. They were focused on redeeming the culture, instead of making disciples.
A culture that acknowledges the God of the Bible will only be possible if a majority of the people in that culture repent of their sins and turn to Christ. This can only be accomplished by the preaching of the word and the conviction of sin in the heart of individuals. It is through the preaching of the word that we come to have a clear understanding of sin, the offer of salvation and our need of a savior. God is the one who saves His people, all we are tasked to do is go and tell and make diciples. Let the word of God loose and let it do its work of bringing the lost sheep home. If God sees fit to save a whole nation one by one, thereby redeeming the culture, that is His prerogative, not ours.
Soli Deo Gloria!