Cotton Candy Christianity

I guess I shouldn't really be shocked, but to a degree I still am when I here what passes for authentic Christian faith in popular thinking. There have in fact been poles done which show that the majority of people questioned cannot even name the titles of the four gospels. The absurdity doesn't end there, many people when asked about Sodom and Gomorrah thought that they were a married couple! I note the results of the recent pole as an example of the Biblical illiteracy that exists now within our culture. You may be saying to yourself, "those are people who are non-believers, or not regular church goers." You would be wrong! These same results can be found within the ranks of those who call themselves Christians. What's even more concerning to me is the fact that faith in many circles has been reduced down to either blind belief, or mental ascent. I have a real problem with people to do this kind of reductionism to Christianity because they betray a bias in the direction of either fideism or intellectualism not taking into account the holistic nature of Christ's message. The one factor that either polarity lacks is the centrality of Christ within their theological framework. The fideist has faith in faith, and the intellectual has faith in the mind. I call this reductionism "Cotton Candy Christianity". It usually tastes good when you roll it around on the palate but it will never satisfy, or provide nourishment. It's sad really many of these so called believers, even those who grew up in the church fall away and end up wholesale atheist/agnostics pursuing sexual sin, and all different forms of immorality as if these things were the very life blood of their existence. I'm not passing judgment, I know right now you probably think I am, but the reason I understand this problem is because I have experienced it myself. When religion, pursuit of knowledge, eschatology, or any other thing other than the cross of Christ was put at the center of my life I would… and still do falter. Jesus must be both Savior and Lord. You can't have Him as one and not the other. Jesus said, "By their fruits you will know them." And, "If you love me obey my commands." Jesus doesn't just come and live inside of you and then magically poof you are a perfect person. If you started out in the Christian life and had that expectation, sorry that's not how it works. 2 Cor. 5:17 says that we are new creatures in Christ and that everything becomes new. You may be asking yourself, "how does that happen?" Jesus said in John 15 that He is the true vine and only if we abide in Him will we bear fruit. We are told that if we do not abide in Christ then we are cut off and thrown into the fire. This possibility doesn't sound very exciting. I guess there's a choice… You can either keep eating the cotton candy thinking you're all right or you can submit to Christ as Lord. If you don't believe me, keep living that carnal lifestyle and trying to "believe" in Jesus at the same time and see what happens. A man can't serve two masters.