Why won't Christianity go away?

There’s a lot of anxiety or rejoicing that Christianity is declining or growing.

After these surveys are published, there’s a lot of analysis. And also some pontificating.

Understanding what is happening and why it is happening is important. I’m in favor of reliable surveys and sophisticated insights.

Why? Because a better understanding of reality is a gift. This gift can spur on greater faithfulness, deeper wisdom, and renewed commitment to love God and our neighbors. Let’s keep it up!

However.

From a Christian perspective, Christianity won’t go away because… well, it isn’t any of these secondary causes.

The idea that Christianity could disappear is a wisp of the wind.

It is a fantasy, wishful thinking.

It is like asking a builder to supply the wood for his own coffin. What an impossible request! Nevertheless, he hands it over, you bury him, and it’s all over. You win.

Well… actually, he rises from the dead.

So…

The Christian confidence in the continuation of Christianity has almost nothing to do with our circumstances.

In what way are Christians in a worse position today than, say, Moses while he tended Jethro’s sheep? Or… Elijah on his way to meet 450 prophets of Baal? Or the original apostles, figuring out their next steps on the twenty-eighth day after Jesus’ crucifixion?

From a Christian point of view, if you’re worried about the future of Christianity, spend some time in prayer. Not doing some religious hocus focus, casting spells to summon the deity. No… just commune with the Triune God of love.

Or read almost any story in the Bible. Be encouraged that the current crisis - whatever it is - is not beyond the capacity of the Creator of Everything.

Or consider that unjust imprisonment, a violent beating, and a ghastly crucifixion was the precise means that God chose, for himself, to redeem the world.

I don’t particularly want to repeat that suffering. I’m just saying that even if I try to imagine the most catastrophic way to stop God’s plan, something worse already happened, and that tragedy has turned into a day of global celebration.

To hear that Christianity is dying, I feel like laughing. Yea, it is a religion that can handle dying just fine. That hasn’t been a problem so far.

I’m wary of making an application because you might need to take this a different direction. So feel free to stop reading now (not that you needed my permission).

If you’re still with me, here’s one thing I don’t want us to miss: there’s no need to be afraid. And if a Christian leader is seeking to scare you into doing something for them, they’ve - perhaps accidentally - betrayed a fundamental lack of faith in the God they are representing to you.

As we walk with our crucified Savior, we’re intended to have this defiant courage and joy. It gives us hope, strengthens our moral backbone, and enables us to cheerfully love our neighbors - even if they spit in our faces. (If that unfortunately happens to you, please remember that they’ve honored you! They’ve given you the blessing of looking like Jesus.)

Even if you think Christianity is false, here’s your problem: Christianity has a paradoxical power encoded within it that cannot be defeated. It’s just a bad meme that keeps going viral. It’ll never let you down or give you up.

But if you think Christianity is true, or might be true, there’s a clue to a greater reality. This is a taste of what we were made for: love. Unconditional, unconquerable love. A love that overcomes evil, misfortune, and even death.

What if we could love forever, in unity with the God of love who made us in love? What if we could start to love like that now?

And the eternal God of love who backstops that hope is the ultimate reason that Christianity will never disappear.