How does the fruit look?

In Steve Deace's book Do what you believe or you won't be free to believe it much longer, he references the movie Mr. Mom starring Michael Keaton. The scene he talks about is one where Keaton's character drives up to his children's school parking lot, but does so from the wrong direction, causing a traffic jam for the other parents. The crossing guard confronts him, saying, "You're doing it wrong." Nobody likes to be told, "You're doing it wrong." I remember one time (embarrassingly not too many years ago) when I was putting my shoes on the wrong feet because I wasn't paying attention. When it was pointed out to me that I was "doing it wrong," I persisted in arguing that I wasn't even while looking down at my feet and clearly seeing that I was, indeed, doing it wrong. Why did I argue? Because I didn't like being told I was doing it wrong even though it was obvious. (Side note: I did not wear them the wrong way when I went out. I made sure to switch them).

Modern-day American Christianity, in many ways, is also "doing it wrong." I have personally seen that charge leveled recently in some daily encounters I had and saw, but the reasons given were often surface-level, minor issues that can be often chalked up to the individual preferences of Christians and congregations or sour grapes over perceived wrongs done toward the people making the complaints.

"They didn't do enough for me.

"They don't care about me."

"They're out to get me."

Do you notice a common theme in all of those? I'll give you a hint: it's the word, "me." Am I saying that individual Christians or churches don't have any room for improvement when it comes to caring for others and/or helping them? Not at all. Am I saying that in the name of Christian freedom, individual preference should not even be considered or factored in when making decisions? Again, no. But in diagnosing where the western church as a whole, and the American church, in particular, misses the mark, let us not focus on these superficial, surface-level, concerns confined to specific individuals with axes to grind. Jesus said, "Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 7:17-19 NIV). Let's look at the fruit of the modern American Christian tree to see what is being produced.

George Barna is the founder of The Barna Group, a market research firm specializing in studying the religious beliefs and behavior of Americans, and the intersection of faith and culture. His research center regularly produces a report on how the spiritual beliefs of Americans and Christians evolve over time. Their criteria for what defines a biblical worldview is pretty basic stuff: "Absolute moral truths exist. Absolute truth is defined by the Bible. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. God is the all-knowing and all-powerful Creator of the universe who still rules today. Salvation is a gift from God that cannot be earned. Satan is real. Christians have a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people. The Bible is accurate in all of its teachings." Their findings indicate that only 6% of Americans have a biblical worldview even though 51% of Americans claim to have one. The Family Research Council released the results of a national survey titled Perceptions about biblical worldview and its application in May. Their key takeaways were that only 31% of American adults say it is important that their professed beliefs impact every aspect of their lives. And among those who actually say it is important for their faith to influence every dimension of their lives, only 55-56% said that they had successfully integrated their professed Christian faith into their family lives, spiritual lives, or personal relationships. Founder and President of WallBuilders, David Barton, in his 2015 presentation titled Principles of Success cited another survey that found some disturbing results.

Job 31:15 says, "Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers" (NIV)? The angel of the Lord told John the Baptist's father Zechariah that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born. God told the prophet, Jeremiah, that he knew him before he was formed in the womb. God told Jeremiah that he already had a will for Jeremiah's life before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5). Isaiah 44:2 and 44:24 tell us again that God forms us in the womb. "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16 NIV). God says the shedding of innocent blood rightly calls for the death penalty (Genesis 9:5-6; Deuteronomy 19:11-13; Romans 13:4). Yet 76% of Protestants opposed ending abortion, meaning they were in favor of the ability to have a legal abortion. 65% of abortions every year (as of 2015) were performed on professing Christians. 200,000 abortions had been performed on those who specifically claimed to be born again. We're not doing something right.

God completely destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities because of their sinfulness, the most wicked of which being homosexuality (Genesis 19:4-9). A similar incident is recorded in Judges 19. "Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable" (Leviticus 18:22 NIV). Jude 1:7 in the New Testament gives further commentary on this event. "Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire." God told the Israelites who were under the Mosaic Law, "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads" (Leviticus 20:13 NIV). He also said to them, "A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this" (Deuteronomy 22:5 NIV). Romans 1:25-27 tells us about people who exchange the truth of God for a lie, worshiping and serving the created things rather than the Creator. "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error" (NIV). "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NIV). "We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine" (1 Timothy 1:9-10 NIV). Yet among active homosexuals, 27% claim to be born-again Christians. We're not doing something right.

The Psalmist said in Psalm 119:163, "I hate and detest falsehood, but I love your law" (NIV). Psalm 120:2 says, "Save me, Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues" (NIV). Among the things that God says he hates and finds detestable is a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:16-17 NIV), but he delights in people who are trustworthy (Proverbs 12:22 NIV). "Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body" (Ephesians 4:25 NIV). "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death" (Revelation 21:8 NIV). Yet only 35% of those claiming to be believers said that they had not deliberately told a lie in the past month. The top three excuses that they gave for lying were:

1. The truth might devastate the other person and I don't want to offend them.
2. God doesn't care about "little lies."
3. "I know lying is a sin, but that's why Jesus died on the cross."

All of those excuses ignore what God says about lying in the above passages I have already quoted. But they also violate the entire chapter of Romans 6 and what it teaches about grace empowering us to be free from sin, not giving us a license to sin more. We're not doing something right.

In 1 Samuel 28, God condemns consulting with mediums, people who attempt to contact the spirits of the dead and communicate with them. Concerning astrology, Deuteronomy 4:19 says, "When you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven" (NIV). "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so" (Deuteronomy 18:10-14 NIV). The prophet Isaiah said to a rebellious Israel: "All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by" (Isaiah 47:13-14 NIV). God said in Micah 5:12, "I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells" (NIV). Galatians 5:19-21 lists some of the acts of the flesh: "Sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." Yet this survey that David Barton references found no difference in the percentage of non-Christians and professing Christians who embrace astrology, fortune-telling, and psychics. Professing Christians are exactly the same as the world in these three areas despite all the Bible says about them. We are to "produce fruit in keeping with repentance" (Luke 3:8 NIV). Jesus said, "Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say" (Luke 6:46 NIV)? We're not doing something right.

Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 NIV). "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12 NIV). Yet in this polling cited by David Barton during his 2015 presentation, he notes that 80% of professing Christians believe that religions other than Christianity will get you into Heaven. 52% of professing Christians believe that a belief in Islam will get an individual into Heaven. 53% of professing Christians believe that a belief in Hinduism will get an individual into Heaven. 42% of professing Christians believe that a belief in atheism would get a person into Heaven. 56% of professing Christians believed that if a person had no religious belief at all, they could still get to Heaven. We're not doing something right.

So what do we do? I believe the root cause of this is a couple of things. One is biblical illiteracy. People just don't know their Bibles. A Huffington Post article written on April 4, 2013, was titled, "Americans love the Bible, but don't read it much." I don't agree with that publication very often, but they got that headline exactly right. Their article pointed out that 88% of Americans surveyed by the American Bible Society in 2013 said they own a Bible, 80% think the Bible is sacred, 61% wish they read the Bible more, and the average household has 4.4 Bibles. Yet in that same survey, 57% admitted that they only read the Bible four times a year or less. "Only 26% of Americans said they read their Bible on a regular basis (four or more times a week). I believe the other cause is false converts. Ray Comfort writes, "False converts lack genuine contrition for sin. They make a profession of faith but are deficient in biblical repentance. 'They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good' (Titus 1:16 NIV). A true convert, however, has a knowledge of sin and has godly sorrow, truly repents, and produces the things that accompany salvation (Hebrews 6:9). This is evident by the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of righteousness, etc...Some of these professing Christians stay within the church, and they are the ones that often discredit the name of Jesus Christ." We must remember that the Great Commission is not just about evangelism, but discipleship. Jesus commands us to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19 NIV).