Christians by Birth

I have been interested, of late, with the popularity of this argument that religion comes from parents. I suppose the fact that popular atheists like Dawkins have written it make it more popular. It has been around a long time, but it seems to be gaining ground. Oh, I suppose some of the reason is that it is largely true. Yeah, that might be a significant factor. People tend to stay in the religion in which they are raised as children. This is largely the case and equally true in the case of many who classify themselves as "Christians". The religion in which you are raised as a child is most often the religion you will be when you are an adult.

There is a problem, however, with this argument when it comes to biblical Christianity. You see, "Christian" isn't defined as "the country I live in" or "the church I go to" or even "the beliefs I espouse". Jesus said this:

"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the tares appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the tares you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the tares first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn'" (Matt. 13:24-30).

According to Jesus, the Church will be riddled with "weeds", tares among the wheat. Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why "tares" and "wheat" were selected here. It's because tares look so much like wheat. And the real problem is illustrated here: "Lest in gathering the tares you root up the wheat along with them." You see, ripping out the pretenders would have a damaging effect on the real crop.

We have it on good, biblical authority that the Church will be infected with false members, people who look and sound like Christians but are not, in fact, real Christians. They will be difficult to tell from the real thing. Sometimes they will be impossible for us to tell apart. Jesus's explanation of the parable included this: "The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous" (Matt. 13:49). Not us.

Back to the point. In most religions, the religion in which you are raised as a child is most often the religion you will be when you are an adult. And if you subscribe to decisional regeneration -- that we are the ones who determine our outcome -- then it is also true for Christianity. If, on the other hand, you subscribe to the notion that human beings are dead in sin, hostile to God, blind to the truth, and unable to accept spiritual reality, then the argument falls apart in Christianity. You see, in most religions you are whatever religion as the church you go to, the beliefs you espouse. That is not a valid biblical definition of a Christian. A Christian is defined as one who is no longer spiritually dead (Eph. 2:5), one who has been given the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21) and is alive in Christ (Gal. 2:20), one who has been chosen by God (John 15:16). These are aspects of a biblical definition of a true Christian.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but none of this is determined by your upbringing. The church we go to, the beliefs we espouse, the "Christian country" in which we live ... none of these classify us as Christians. We can't be brainwashed into being real Christians or indoctrinated into being real Christians. No one is born Christian and no one is a Christian because they come from a Christian family and quote Christian beliefs. A Christian is one who has been born again, who has the Spirit residing in him, who is a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). I hate to break it to the skeptics, but none of us has the capability to make ourselves a "new creation", fine upbringing or "Christianese" (the language of "Christians") notwithstanding.

The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). We can easily be deceived into believing we are a Christian. That's why we are warned to "be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). Christianity stands alone in its necessity for supernatural intervention. We don't get to be Christians by merely choosing to be. We don't get to be Christians by agreeing with doctrinal statements. We only get to be Christians by being born again, and that's not something we get to do on our own, Christian parents or not. Let's be careful when we consider both who is a Christian and arguments from skeptics that often seem so right. More importantly, let's be careful in thinking that we are among the chosen simply because we were raised Christians, live in a Christian country, go to a Christian church, and mouth all the right words. Let's make our own calling and election sure. (Go look it up -- 2 Peter 1:1-10; there are some helpful hints on how to do that.)