Dear Friends,
When the disciples were “first called Christians at Antioch,” I very much doubt if any of them could have foreseen how that noble title was going to prove a weapon in the hands of the devil, to bring disrepute on the name of the Lord, and confusion in the cause of the gospel.
Where the devil cannot destroy what is true, he normally sets out to counterfeit it. After the martyr fires of the early centuries of the Church had failed to destroy the Christian testimony of those days, the devil then used his other weapon. In the introduction of the idea of “National” Christianity – especially under the Emperor Constantine, and such like – the devil struck with great cunning and craftiness – bringing into being something that bore the name of Christian, but which, in fact, was devoid of the substance or the reality of that name.
Sad to say, even the mighty men of the Protestant Reformation failed to right this situation when it came to their day. They were majoring, of course, in retrieving the lost truth of Justification by faith alone; and future generations must feel for ever indebted to them for their labours. But as far as the true nature of the Christian Church was concerned, and, therefore, the true nature of the term Christian, they simply renovated rather than reformed those old concepts that had come down to them from the Church of Rome. Indeed, what was really required in that area of thinking was a revolution of thought, and this did not take place among the leading figures of the Reformation.
Alongside the idea of a Roman Catholic “Christian” country and State, the Reformers set up the idea of a Protestant “Christian” country and State;” and by so doing, they simply compounded the confused use of the term Christian even further. There were those who refused to accept this concept of Christ’s Church, of course – just as there had been in the days of Constantine and following. – but for them there was much persecution and often martyrdom. This was the case in Protestant, as well as in Roman Catholic dominated States and countries, depending on where the “dissenters” found themselves. To even suggest that being born into such a “Christian” State did not constitute one a “Christian,” was tantamount to denying the whole fabric of Christianity. This was the case, of course, within the whole framework of that line of thinking; but it wasn’t the fabric of New Testament Christianity that was being denied by those dissenters, but only the fabric of the devil’s counterfeit that made people “Christians” through birth and not rebirth.
To accommodate this idea of “Christian” state and country, the rite of infant baptism was necessarily retained in the thinking of the Reformers. Just as the new-born Israelite child in the Old Testament (if a male) received the rite of circumcision, so the child now born into the “Christian” nation was to receive the rite of “baptism.” This was the thinking that lay behind the creation of the child baptism ordinance at the first, and far from being abandoned by the Reformers, it was necessary that they should continue it, in a modified form, when States and countries changed from being Roman Catholic “Christian” States and countries to Protestant “Christian” States and countries.
The act of infant baptism was a rite of initiation; indeed, it was an act of confirming that the child was not “pagan,” but “Christian” in this new-found use of the word. The child had been born into a “Christian” State, therefore, it had the right of reception into the Christan Church of that State. The name and title of Christian was to be no longer the prerogative of the “disciples” of Christ; those who had been born, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” and who were endeavouring to walk in the light of His Word. From those Constantinian days onward the term Christian was to be robbed of its real meaning and plundered of its true nature. Now, none of the foregoing should be looked on as simply historical. We today are still reaping the fruits of that confusion in the cause of the gospel and disrepute on the name of Christ that the counterfeiting of the term Christian started. Whenever believers take in hand to confront men and women with the gospel in such “Christian” lands, the great barrier that they are immediately faced with is the claim by a big majority of those men and women that they are “Christians” already. Haven’t they been born in a Christian country? Haven’t they been baptized into the Christian Church? Hasn’t it been done at the hands of a Christian minister before a Christian congregation? What other conclusion might such men and women come to, but that they are, indeed, “Christians” already!
With regards to the disrepute that this deceptive use of the noble name has brought to the Name of the Saviour, who can but hang down their heads with sorrow in the light of some of the events of history that have been attributed to “Christians,” and which are with us even to this Day?
“Oh, yes,” we may say, as evangelical, professing Christians, “We all know what that is; that is nominal Christianity – Christianity in name only.” So the explanation usually runs; and runs true. But we must ever be careful not to be lulled into thinking that when we have stated the explanation of a thing, that there is no application of that explanation for us in our lives. And as far as this whole business of “nominal Christianity” is concerned, it is high time for those who are really Christians to cease giving credence to it through their part in it, and to show it for what it is by standing apart from it. To be part of a Church, denomination, or structure, whose very being, and essence consists in the acceptance of those who are merely “Christian” in name only, is to really deny the Christian name, and to give support to its mis-usage and abuse in our day. To be “in membership” along with those who are simply nominal “Christians,” or to sit at the Lord’s table in fellowship with such, is simply to validate the counterfeit usage of the Christian name.
There is but one type of person recognised as a Christian in the Word of God, and they are such who have been born of the Spirit of God, have confessed their sins meaningfully before God, and exercised faith in Jesus Christ His Son. They are the descendants of those who were “first called Christians at Antioch.” If the devil has duped some into believing that they are Christians when they are not, God forbid that those who really are Christians should encourage that counterfeit in any way.