WHAT IS TRUE CHRISTIANITY?
USA
I was reading an article that quoted Taylor Swift as saying:
“I can’t see another commercial and see Marsha Blackburn disguising these policies behind the words ‘Tennessee Christian values ‘. Those aren’t Tennessee Christian values. I live in Tennessee. I’m a Christian. That’s not what we stand for.“
 Just so you folks know, Taylor Swift supports the LGBT (homosexual) agenda as well as abortion. And she believes that her Christianity is true Christianity.
If we turn to the writings of Bart Ehrman we will read how he views the early heretical groups as representing true Christianity. Modern Mormons view themselves as true Christians. So do Jehovah’s Witnesses. All these differing views can not be correct. So how can one know what true Christianity really is?
I am happy to tell you that we can know the answer to this question. At least if we accept the premise that Christianity was established by Jesus Christ and that His teachings are preserved for us today in His Word (the Bible).
Christianity, as established by Jesus Christ, was not a new religion. It was a restoration of the original religion of faith that God had given to Adam and his descendants through Abraham. We can read about many of these Old Testament men of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. The Old Testament saints were saved by faith just as we are today.
When the Kingdom of Judah was taken captive by Babylon, the Hebrew religion of faith ended up being mixed with the occultic religion of Babylo n, thus creating a new religion that we now call Judaism. When Christ came He constantly reproved those who taught “the tradition of the elders” (as it was then called). Jesus told them that they had made God’s Word of none effect (Mark 7:1-13, Matthew 15:1-9, Matthew 16:1-12, Matthew 23:13-36).
With Christianity Christ restored the original Old Testament religion of faith. And because Christ was the final sacrifice for our sins, He nailed the ordinances (the blood sacrifice laws) to His cross (Ephesians 2:13-16, Colossians 2:13-15). These laws were completed in what Christ did for us on the cross.
Our Lord taught this purified faith (Christianity) to His disciples and by the time the New Testament was completed (about 99 AD) the various errors of Judaism had been purged from the church and we had “the faith” of pure Christianity. This is an important point to understand because many Sunday-school drop-outs teach the error which claims that Christian doctrine developed over time. They are wrong. The Bible says:
JUDE 3
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you , and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
 Notice here that “the faith” refers to the body of doctrines taught by Christ and Christianity. The term “the faith” is used the same way in the following passages:
1 TIMOTHY 4:1
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
1 PETER 5:8-9
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”
COLOSSIANS 2:6-7
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
If you ever wondered why so many Christians get sucked up into cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons, it is because they were not established in “the faith”. This is a great blight on our churches that we do not disciple new Christians and thus establish them in the faith. Once a Christian is taught the faith, it becomes his shield when he battles against Satan, Satan’s children and the world.
EPHESIANS 6:16 (Young’s Literal Translation)
“above all, having taken up the shield of the faith, in which ye shall be able all the fiery darts of the evil one to quench,”
I normally quote from the King James Bible but in Ephesians 6:16 the King James translators followed Tyndale and all the previous Reformed translations which opted to omit the article (“the”) in the Greek text before the word “faith” . So the proper reading is “the faith” in Ephesians 6:16.
Thus it is the entire body of Christian doctrines (the faith) that is our shield against the attacks of the evil one. And this body of doctrines was delivered to the church as Jude said:
JUDE 3
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
The word “once” in Jude 3 is the Greek word “hapax” (Strong’s #530) and means “One (or a single) time (numerically or conclusively); once.” Berry’s Lexicon reads “once for all.”
So “the faith” (the body of Christian doctrines) was delivered to the Christian Church once for all by the time the Book of Jude was written (which was just before the Book of Revelation was written). The Church had the completed body of doctrines given to it by Jesus Christ and His disciples.
It was (and still is) the job of each church to receive “the faith” and to teach it, defend it and pass it on to the next generation WITHOUT CHANGE. These doctrines are God’s doctrines. Man has no authority to change God’s teachings. Remember, changing God’s teachings is the very thing for which Jesus reproved the Jewish leaders.
This brings us to another promise made by Christ.
MATTHEW 16:18
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
God will always have His church here on earth until He returns. There will always be a faithful remnant (Romans 9:27, Romans 11:5, Revelation 12:17). These are the ones who teach and defend “the faith which was once delivered to the saints.”
We can identify the true Christian faith because it has been taught from the time of Christ until this very day. We can trace the true Christian doctrines all the way back to the time of Christ.
For example – The doctrine of the Deity of Christ can be traced back through the Reformers… through the Church fathers … through the Apostolic fathers straight back to the Apostles. We can do this because the true Church has always taught the same thing throughout the years. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Any church that denies this doctrine is a false church (which we call a “cult”). And because of this ability to trace all of our Christian doctrines back to the Apostles there is a maxim about doctrines “If it is new, It is not true.”
This is why the early Christians rejected the heretical teachings of the Arians, Gnostics, Docetists, Ebionites, Sabellianists, Antinomianists, Pelagianists, etc. Bart Ehrman and other modern false teachers would have us believe that orthodox Christians just happened to come out on top of a theological battle. Not so, the early churches carefully examined the theological questions of their day and found that the heretics were teaching new doctrines that had not been taught before and so correctly rejected these false doctrines. The Christians also made brief statements of faith called “Creeds” so that the true faith could be easily shared with others . The first three Creeds of Christendom (The Apostle’s Creed, The Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed) were used to spread Christianity throughout the world.
This brings us back to the problem we face today. Many people believe that “their Christianity” is “true Christianity”. As stated above, Taylor Swift believes that her Christianity is true Christianity. The problem here is ignorance. There was a day when modernists who were teaching a different form of Christianity were honest about it. One such modernist was Harvard Professor Kirsopp Lake. He toured the United States giving lectures in an effort to get Christians to embrace his view of Christianity (He denied the Deity of Christ, the Blood Atonement, the Resurrection, the Devil, etc). But we must give him credit for being honest about it. He wrote the following about Fundamentalist Christians:
“… the Fundamentalist … represents an unwavering attachment to the great traditional doctrines of Christianity. … it is a mistake, often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that Fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind: it is the partial and uneducated survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians…. the Fundamentalist may be wrong; I think that he is. But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a Fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum of the Church is on the Fundamentalist side.” The Religion of Yesterday and To-Morrow by Kirsopp Lake (1926 ed.) Pages 60-62.
With a confession like that one would think that Lake would want to be a Fundamentalist. But he did not believe that the duty of the church was to defend the faith and pass it on unchanged as we do. Modernists like Lake saw the duty of the church as needing to conform to the times and change accordingly. And because the Fundamentalists refused to change their doctrines, Lake viewed them as wrong and uneducated.
So let us put the claim of Taylor Swift to the test. Is her Christianity “true Christianity”? That is, can her beliefs about supporting abortion and homosexuality be traced back through the corpus theologicum (the body of Christian writings) back to the Bible?
We will look at abortion first –
“Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born.” The Epistle of Barnabas, Chap. XIX (written around 100 AD – Ten years after the Bible was completed.) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, page 148
“… those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion …”   A Plea for the Christians by Athenagoras, Chap . XXXV, (Written c. 175 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, page 147.
“… thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten.” The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,Chap. II, No. 2 (AKA The Didache – written between 80-140 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, page 377.
“In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the foetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one.” The Apology of Tertullian, Chap. IX (written c. 197 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, page 25.
“There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in the very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. To us it is not lawful either to see or to hear of homicide;” The Octavius of Minucius Felix, Chap. XXX (written c. 200 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, page 192.
“Thou shalt not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for everything that is shaped, and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed.” Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Book VII, Sec. III (compiled c. 390 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, page 466.
From the above, it is clear that the views of Taylor Swift on abortion do not match what the early Churches taught.
Now let us examine homosexuality –
“For it is well that they should be cut off from the lusts that are in the world, since ‘every lust warreth against the spirit;’ and ‘neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God,’ …” The Epistle of Polycarp, Chap. V (written c. 150 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, page 34.
“… for every kind of vile pleasure, – who do not abstain even from males, males with males committing shocking abominations, …” A Plea for the Christians by Athenagoras, Chap. XXXIV, (Written c. 175 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, page 147.
“But if we challenge you to a comparison in the virtue of chasity, I turn to a part of the sentence passed by the Athenians against Socrates, who was pronounced a corrupter of youth. The Christian confines himself to the female sex.” The Apology of Tertullian, Chap. XLVI (written c. 197 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, page 51.
“I should suppose the coupling of two males to be a very shameful thing, …” Against the Valentinians by Tertullian, Chap. XI (written c. 200 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, page 509.
“The fate of the Sodomites was judgment to those who had done wrong, instruction to those who hear. The Sodomites having, through much luxury, fallen into uncleanness, practising adultery shamelessly, and burning with insane love for boys; the All-seeing Word, whose notice those who commit impieties cannot escape, cast His eye on them. … lest lust being unavenged, should break loose from all the restraints of fear, ordered Sodom to be burned, …” The Instructor by Clement of Alexandria, Book III, Chap. VIII (written c. 195 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, page 282.
“OF THE LOVE OF BOYS, ADULTERY, AND FORNICATION. XXVIII. But we do not say so of that mixture that is contrary to nature, or of any unlawful practice; for such are enmity to God. For the sin of Sodom is contrary to nature, as is also that with brute beasts.” Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Book VI (compiled c. 390 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, pages 462-463.
“‘Thou shalt not corrupt boys:’ for this wickedness is contrary to nature, and arose from Sodom, which was therefore entirely consumed with fire sent from God. ‘Let such a one be accursed : and all the people shall say, So be it.”‘ Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Book VII, Sec. II (compiled c. 390 AD) Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, page 466.
So again we see that the historic Christian view is against homosexuality. We must conclude that Taylor Swift’s view of Christianity is a false view.
Do not think that I am picking on Taylor Swift. I am not. She is a good example because she has made her views public. I hold no ill-will toward her (or anyone who holds her views). She is deceived and my hopes for her are that God will open her eyes and bring her into the true Christian faith. That should be our prayers for all who are deceived by Satan.
My job as a servant of God is to faithfully preach His Word and defend the faith. But we live in a time when many reject God and His ways. This is nothing new. We read that Jeremiah faced the same thing.
“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” (JEREMIAH 6:16)
May God open the eyes of His people and draw us back to Himself and true Christianity.
End
