Christianity on the Fringe?

The seat of moral standing and direction of society has been taken from the western church bit by bit over the last five decades.

Today, many Christians feel disoriented, lost, and confused – as if the Christianized world they grew up in was the norm, and now that moral fabric has been lost. For Christians, it seems that political and societal victories are becoming increasingly harder to win, and the battles grow even more numerous. Even recently, many witnessed members of the Republican party, the party that some associate Christians with, as re-defining marriage in the United States – a nation that 20 years ago many would have regarded as a “Christian nation.”

How are Christians supposed to respond when it seems like our moral fabric is unraveling and the Church seems like it's on the fringe? We march on toward a greater kingdom.

Before pressing on, let us be clear about one thing – the moral framework of Christianity did help structure the cultural-west, its laws, and moral system, but rarely has that been the case. As any student of Church history will tell you, the church and her people have rarely been in the seat of moral superiority. Rather, the Church in her nearly two-thousand-year-long history, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, has typically been maligned, mistreated, shamed, and often persecuted. In fact, persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ has been the norm rather than the outlier. The fact is that the era of peace the western church has endured has been a statistical outlier in the whole of church history. One might say, “What if we lose our country?” In this brief article, I’ll respond to that question to give the Christian context and hope.

 To address that question, Christians today need to be reminded, repeatedly, that this world is not the believer’s home. One of the continual beats found in Scripture is of God’s people being sojourners and aliens in a land that is not their own. Such was the case for Abraham in Genesis 12:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

See the Lord’s command to Isaac:

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. (Genesis 26:3)

Even in the New Testament, Peter says that we as Christians are strangers and exiles in a strange land, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11) So then, where is the Christian’s home? It is both here, and not here.

First, it is here as a temporary occupation.

As an example, during the exile of Israel, the LORD commands Israel to continue living their lives holy to him while knowing their exile was temporary:

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:5-7)

In the New Testament Peter models this when he writes to the churches of Asia Minor:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:11-17)

Therefore, while the homes and lands Christians dwell in are temporary, it is not as if Christians are to bury their heads in the sand. The Church is to be very active. Seeking the welfare of our cities, proclaiming the Gospel of Peace, and proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Second, the Christian’s home is also not here.

Though we are physically living on earth, in a home, in a city, and in a nation – the Christian’s home is not here. As Israel journeyed through the wilderness being led by their prophetic-shepherd Moses, the Church is being led through this world by the Good, and greater, Shepherd – the Lord Jesus Christ. While we do not see him, we are shepherded by him by the Spirit of God as he dwells in our hearts through faith. Frequently though, as Israel did in the, we complain to the shepherd as he leads us saying:

And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. (Exodus 16:2-3)

Imagine, for a moment, a shepherd leading his flock from one field to another for their good, and the sheep reply to the shepherd, “No. I like it here.” The audacity to look upon the Good Shepherd that is leading his sheep through the wilderness into a greater kingdom and the flock replies, “I like it here,” or, “Take me back.” Such a response to Christ is not only an insult, it is an outright rejection of Christ’s work upon the Cross for his Church. As Jesus says:

 Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14:1-3)

To cling to a nation that is fading and a world that is dying is a fool’s errand. The Christian does not have the power to restore life to that which is already dead – Christ as already proclaimed that this world is passing away and that he is making a new one for him and his people. Why should the Church forsake her birthright like Esau and trade it away for temporary political gains or glory? Again, is not to say that Christians should not participate in politics or worldly matters for the glory of Christ. But, Christians must not be so lazy as to intensely desire to be where Jesus is not. Is he with us? Yes! Has Christ abandoned his Church? May it never be said! We must desire to be where Christ is, that is, in heaven.

Toward Christ, to the place he has prepared, that is where the Christian sojourns toward. The Church will always be on the fringe ends of society because we are abandoning the city of destruction and marching toward the celestial city of our God! We will always be seen as strange, as unworthy, a hindrance to progressivism, and often we will be persecuted because we belong to another world – we belong to where Christ is, for that is where our citizenship lies.

Good Christian,

Be reminded that there is not a nation to lose – there is a Kingdom to gain. A kingdom that we have been delivered into, one that is unshakeable, one that is established in the unchanging personhood of God, and one that will never end where we will dwell in peace and prosperity for an eternity of eternities.

As Jesus kindly reminds us to not let our hearts be troubled by what we see in the world around us – allow me to encourage you that Christ is not slow to fulfill his promise. O’ that you would believe Jesus and all of his promises. Know that he has prepared a place for you and that he has not abandoned his Church – though the world can become disorienting and can make us feel orphaned, we have a Father who has sent Christ Jesus to guide us home to be with him. Keep your eyes forward, firmly placed on Christ, and march on toward the Kingdom with the Lord Jesus as your Shepherd.