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From the beginning of His earthly ministry, Christ had to fight misconceptions. His own Apostles consistently misunderstood His mission, conceiving of the kingdom of God as an enhanced version of David’s reign, with the Christ as a political leader who would subdue all gentile nations with military power. They did not understand the Messiah as both the Son of David and the Son of God. They had no conception of a salvation worked by Christ’s bloody death on a Roman cross. Even after His resurrection, His closest followers were downcast as they walked with the risen and hidden Lord on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–27). They called Him a prophet and expressed their dashed hopes that He was the One who would redeem Israel. They were completely confused about the reports of an empty tomb and a risen Lord. Jesus called them foolish and slow of heart to believe what the prophets had spoken. He remedied their confusion by teaching them from the Word His true nature and mission in the world.
If Jesus’ closest followers were consistently mistaken about His identity and purpose, how much more is the world? Scripture says that the people of the world walk in darkness, are enslaved to sin, and are hostile to God in mind and heart. So when confronted with authentic Christianity’s proclamation of the incarnation of Christ, justification by faith alone apart from works, progressive sanctification as the believer works out in his life what the Lord is working in him, and glorification at the end of life by the direct action of God, the world has consistently twisted or rejected the truth. The devil has for centuries sowed skillful seeds of confusion in human hearts.
Church history has tragically borne this out as well. There is not time to trace out the history of heresies that have arisen within the church. Outsiders added to the confusion in the Roman era by claiming that Christians were atheists (because they didn’t believe in the pagan gods), traitors to the empire (because they refused to burn incense to Caesar), incestuous (because they called each other “brother” and “sister” and referred to their worship as “love feasts”), and cannibals (because they partook in the body and blood of Christ in communion). During the Middle Ages, nominally Christian barbarian kings in Western Europe led their warriors in the Crusades, doing damage to the reputation of Christ through their violence against Muslims and even other professing Christians in the East.
What about in our generation? How is Christianity misconceived of by the world today? Here are some main categories.
1. Legalism or license. On the one hand, many see Christianity as a bunch of moralistic dos and don’ts, laws that we must keep to be right with God. Exactly opposite is the perception of Christianity as immoral, whose doctrine of forgiveness by faith alone apart from law-keeping is a free pass to live any way that you want with no ultimate consequences at all. Many morally upright people in other countries (e.g., Muslims and Hindus) assume that the United States is a “Christian nation,” and yet their exposure to American culture through lewd movies and social media posts leads them to conclude that Christianity itself is immoral.
2. Judgmentalism and hypocrisy. Some Christians have pridefully judged others who do not hold to their standards. Furthermore, many Christians have been exposed as hypocrites, claiming to follow Christ on Sunday but denying Him the rest of the week. Authentic Christianity is the remedy to both, for a true work of saving grace is both deeply humbling and radically transformative of the way that Christians live.
3. Good moralistic truths like those of other religions. Another false idea is that Christianity is essentially the same as every other major religion in the world, that all religions basically teach the same things, such as the Golden Rule. Authentic Christianity, however, is unique. It is based on Jesus Christ: His death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, and His Holy Spirit poured out, enabling Christians to live an increasingly holy life. No other religion is based on such a leader, One who is truly God and truly human.
4. Life-enhancer. The most popular false teaching in the world today is the prosperity gospel, the concept that Jesus wants all His followers to be healthy and wealthy, to enjoy their “best life now.” Simpler versions of the prosperity gospel claim that people are fine as they are but that following Jesus can make their lives better. The liberal Christianity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was founded on this same optimism about man’s basic nature and was critiqued by H. Richard Niebuhr as teaching that “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” Most people in the world believe that they are “basically good.” This false version of Christianity simply tells people what they want to hear about themselves. Some scholars have called it “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” with the central idea being that everyone is basically good but needs some therapy, that God wants everyone everywhere to be happy and to be nice to each other, and that almost everyone will end up in heaven. Authentic Christianity teaches that our sins deserve eternal death in hell and that only the atoning work of Christ can save us. Jesus said that it would be folly to gain the whole world and lose your soul (Matt. 16:26). He alone is the remedy to that infinite foolishness.
5. Worthy of scorn, ridicule, and hatred. Others are much more hostile to Christianity because they perceive in it fatal flaws. Their reaction may be mocking humor or overt rage. Both flow from the same conception of Christianity as deficient, if not evil. Those who mock it believe that they are superior to it since it is founded on obsolete morals or primitive myths beyond which our human race has evolved. They see the Bible as teaching things that society has learned to reject. They believe that our technological achievements make us morally superior to the primitive tent-dwellers who herded flocks in the desert three thousand years ago. Others are enraged by the Bible’s hostility to their vision of a perfect society. They hate the Bible’s teachings on sex and gender. They see Christianity as regressive, oppressive, intolerant, bigoted, anti-science, racist, misogynist, homophobic, and sexist. Each of these attacks can and must be refuted by the declaration of truth in the perfection of God-breathed Scripture.
6. Culturally based. Christianity has been proclaimed all over the world for centuries, and more and less correct versions of it are often woven into the culture of various nations and peoples. We see this in the evangelicalism of the Bible Belt; the Roman Catholicism of Ireland, Poland, Italy, and Latin American nations; and the Orthodoxy of Greek and Slavic nations. In these places, it is easy to see Christianity as merely a cultural phenomenon. Babies born into these cultures are often raised in an anemic nominalism in which that regional version of Christianity has no spiritual power but is as much a part of the cultural landscape as the language, dress, or cuisine. This is refuted by genuinely converted people living out the power of true Christianity every day.
These are just some of the many “weeds” that Satan has planted in the minds of non-Christians. Authentic Christianity flows from rightly understanding and proclaiming the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15) and faithfully living out a holy and loving life by the power of the Spirit.