At the core of Christianity is the confession that Jesus Christ is the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Lord. This confession is a historical claim, not just about what has happened but what will happen. To be a Christian then is to have what the apostle Peter describes as “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… …for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3, 5).1 Such hope means that life does not conclude with death but with resurrection life.
We stake our lives upon this hope as a matter of faith as we follow Jesus. It is also why, as someone called to serve as a minister of the gospel, I want to help the church live as a proclamation of this good news about Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. Peter says that we are “God’s people so that [we] may proclaim the excellence of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). Proclaiming the excellence of God is one way of describing our calling as the church. But in a post-Christian society, I also realize the enormous challenge of this calling.
Living according to our calling in a post-Christian society is a challenge on one hand because it means going against the grain of society. Following Jesus in a post-Christian society may seem like trying to swim upstream on a downstream current. Such swimming is not impossible, but it’s not easy either.
On the other hand, living this calling is challenging because we live in a society that has, for the most part, already heard about Jesus and yet is turning elsewhere. There are many reasons why people are turning away from the Christian faith. However, we must be honest that part of the reason is the Christianity people have experienced in some churches. People have encountered stories of abuse and corrupt power in churches and coverups of such abuse and power. The scandals of such abuse and corruption have created enough hurt in their wake that some people have decided they are done with Christianity. In other churches, Christianity seems more about a show, the clothes people are wearing, and the pastor's platform and church brand.
I have also talked with college students that have given up on the church because the church of their youth communicated a message that said these students had to vote a certain way and support a particular political platform to be a part of the church. Assuming the best, I’m sure their churches did not intend to communicate that partisan politics is a requirement of belonging to the church, but that is the message their churches communicated. So these students voted: they voted with their feet.
So where do churches living in post-Christian America go from here? There isn’t any mulligan. The only thing churches can do is rediscover Jesus. The question is, what should we do with Jesus, especially now that we find ourselves living in a post-Christian society?
I want to address one matter from 1 Peter within the context of the question I am asking. The apostle Peter instructs, saying, “but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).
First, Peter reminds us that our reverence for Jesus Christ is a commitment to following Jesus Christ.2 This seems obvious but given some of the problems discussed above, maybe we need to remind ourselves that living as the church means following Jesus Christ. In fact, following Jesus is our primary task as Christians. Whatever other activities are involved in living as the church, they all flow from the Spirit, who equips us to live as followers of Jesus.
Secondly, Peter reminds us that we should be ready to explain our reason for having such hope in Jesus Christ. I know 1 Peter 3:15 is often used as the proof text for the work of Christian apologetics, and I don’t have any problem with that, as there’s a need in every generation for Christian apologetics. However, Peter was not thinking of someone like William Lane Craig or Alister McGrath debating someone like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. What Peter has in mind is for us to have the ability to explain why we live with such hope when we’re asked. The instruction of 1 Peter 3:15 is not to tell everyone or grab a bullhorn so that everyone might hear us over all the other noise in our busy society. Instead, all Peter has in mind is that we will live in such a manner (following Jesus) that others may see our conduct and inquire about our way of life. Then, if people ask why, we answer.
Finally, let me be so bold as also to suggest that we should stop worrying about what might happen to Christianity or what might happen to the United States. If we want to see good among our churches and the nation we live in, follow Jesus Christ. Doing so is not a guarantee of anything other than we are living as faithful followers of Jesus Christ whose lives proclaim the excellence of God. We can trust God to bring about his redemptive good, whether we see such results in our lifetime. After all, we know that Jesus is coming again, and so God will bring his redemptive good into its fulfillment.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition Bible, copyright © 1989, 2021 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
I. Howard Marshall, 1 Peter, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1991, 115, describes the action of sanctifying in 1 Peter 3:15 as having “an inward attitude of obedience to him that dictates our behavior in the world. Christians will not act in any way that will bring dishonor on Christ or suggest that they do not reverence him as Lord.”