Christianity

he word Christian means "Christ Follower" and the term Christian was first used in Antioch in the days of the Apostles one or two decades after the death of Christ. According to the Torah or the Bible Old Testament, God promised His chosen people the Jews that He'll send them a Messiah, a promise He first made to Abraham "through you the world would be blessed", the same promise was re-affirmed to king David a descendant of Abraham "that his descendant would rule forever".

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There are over 300 prophesies about the Messiah all of which was fulfilled in the person of Jesus, from the forerunner before his birth to the type of death and what would happen to His body on the cross. Jesus made it clear that He was not a prophet nor a good teacher, but that He was God incarnate that came to be a once and for all sacrifice for our sin, He came to establish a New Covenant between God and man, making it easy for humans to come before the throne room of grace rather than go through other humans or make animal sacrifices as atonement, as it was under the Old Testament.

Many who heard and saw the miracles of Christ wondered if He was the Messiah they were waiting for, one of them Nicodemus, came to Jesus at night and asked how he can get into the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus said "except you are born of the spirit and of water" interpreted you must be "born again" (spiritual rebirth). Apostle Paul further explained how to be born-again in Romans 10: 9-10 "that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" Paul went further to explain that the first Adam brought spiritual death by disobeying and accepting the second Adam [Christ] brings life because of His obedience. When anyone accepts Christ as Lord and Savior, the spirit man comes alive and the Holy Spirit then connect with that person's spirit (bearing witness with it), the fruit that person bear now become "fruit of the spirit" rather than "fruit of the flesh" (Galatians 5). Water baptism represents our death to flesh (as we are immersed) and alive to a life of Christ as we come out of the water.

In John 14: 24, Jesus said if anyone claim to love Him, that person will obey His teachings (not pick and choose). As we go through the bible (from Genesis to Revelation) we see two words that transcends both covenants, OBEDIENCE (humility precede obedience Phil. 2) and RIGHREOUSNESS. Obedience is doing what the "word" says even when we don't understand it, saints from Abraham to Jesus Himself obeyed against their human will. Righteousness is walking between the lines; it is a pure heart and a holy hand, which makes it easier to enter into the throne room of God, because of the nature of God (Psalm 24).

Liberalism

Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophies that considers individual liberty to be the most important political goal. Liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity. Within liberalism, there are various streams of thought which compete over the use of the term "liberal" and may propose very different policies, but they are generally united by their support for political liberalism.

All liberals, as well as some adherents of other political ideologies, support some variant of the form of government known as liberal democracy, with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law. According to author and philosophy professor Peter Vallentyne, "Liberalism comes in two broad forms. Classical liberalism emphasizes the importance of individual liberty and Contemporary (or welfare) liberalism tends to emphasize some kind of material equality."

Contemporary (welfare) liberalism (also called modern liberalism and new liberalism) is a political philosophy that emphasizes positive liberty and believes that public assistance in health, education and welfare would allow individuals to prosper. Social liberals believe that unrestrained capitalism is a hindrance to true freedom and advocate government intervention in the economy to provide full employment and protection of human rights. These policies were widely adopted and implemented in European and Western democracies, particularly following the Second World War.

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism)

While people with modern liberal ideology are in both major political parties in America, the Democratic party has been the majority party for those with modern liberal ideology and the party platform reflect such ideologies (http://www.democrats.org/a/party/platform.html. while the Republican party also have people with liberal ideology in their fold, their party platform does not reflect such ideologies (http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/), so from a platform standpoint, one can say the Democratic party tend to be liberal in ideology while the Republican party tend to be more conservative in ideology. Pew Research of 2005 says 46% of liberals identify themselves as members of the Democratic Party.

In a research study done recently (2009), 43% of Americans consider themselves conservatives, 21% consider themselves liberal and over 30% consider themselves independent. In 2005, Pew Institute did a study on the view of liberals on major issues the country was facing at the time and below is the breakdown.

Source: Opinion of Liberals in a 2005 Pew Research Study Center (Wikipedia).

Liberalism and Biblical Principles

On moral issues considered to have direct biblical instruction such as abortion and same-sex marriage, liberalism tend to oppose biblical instructions, the above pew report shows majority of liberals oppose restricting abortion rights (in some cases even "late term abortion" and "born alive") and favor same-sex marriage. Liberalism believes free capital market system does not consider the poor and that it is the function of the government to create an egalitarian society by redistributing wealth through programs run by the government such as the welfare law, universal healthcare (Medicare and Medicaid) and other programs such as social security, which unfortunately is not the vision of the founding fathers on the role of the federal government (http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_govt.html). Liberalism also tends to ignore biblical principles or interpret the bible to meet its egalitarian ideology, for instance, how to take care of the poor and the issue of death penalty.

Homosexuality and Gay Marriage

Biblical Principle: In Genesis 2, the Bible makes it clear that the marriage institution is a man and a woman and in Matthew 19: 4-5 Jesus made it abundantly clear that it is an institution of a man and a woman. Romans 1: 18 - 32 and Galatians 5: 19 (the word fornication in NIV [or impurity KJV] is from the Greek "porneia" whose meaning include homosexuality, lesbianism and sex with animals - see http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4202&t=KJV).

Liberalism: Homosexuality is a personal choice and a civil right issue according to liberalism ideologists. Homosexuality is not viewed as a moral sin and some have even suggested that there might be a genetic code to explain it? (the whole human genome has been mapped and there is no gene that comes close to suggesting it is a genetic disorder - there are however, cases of high testosterone in female or high estrogen in men which lead to a woman having male features or a man being more feminine).

It is important to note that many people have left the lifestyle of homosexuality and gone on to lead a normal heterosexual life (http://www.exodus-international.org/), indicating that it is a moral sin (as the bible said) with a strong strangle-hold both spiritually and emotionally and not a civil right issue like considering a black person inferior to a white person under the law. As a black person I cannot change the color of my skin, even if I want to.

Abortion or when life starts?

At the core of the abortion debate is the definition of when life start, liberalism is for abortion and argues that life start only when that child is born and in the womb it is just a fetus, some have even argued that until that baby can sustain itself, it is dispensable. A born-again Christian against abortion would argue that according to the Bible life starts (based on God's word to Jeremiah and to Rebecca) even before it is formed, God knows who that child would be and has ordained the purpose of that child, so for a bible believing Christian, life start at inception.

As at the time of this writing, a baby born prematurely by 24th week of gestation could be sustained outside the womb due to the available technology, a feat not possible in 1972 or even 1990. It is ironic that in America we charge someone who kills a pregnant woman with double murder, but we don't consider that child a person until he/she is born? Simply because considering a fetus a person would make abortion murder and that would be illegal? By the way for those of us who identify as born-again Christians, Jesus said "backbiting and anger" is murder as well?

Creationism or Evolution?

This is another area where liberalism and being a born-again Christian clashes. Many in the liberal or progressive circle believe that creationism is a fable with no scientific evidence, so they advocate so called science based teaching of evolution in our schools from middle schools to universities and they continue to block schools that want to teach both evolution and creationism. Any politician that believes in creationism does so at his/her peril as the liberal media would ridicule him/her, even though the evidence provided by evolution theory is not conclusive as of today (no scientist can explain where the first atom came from and what specifically caused the high density that caused the bang).

A born-again Christian who believe the Bible (Genesis 1 and 2) would be content with the story of how God created the world in seven days, even if his/her brain cannot wrap around the concept, it is called Faith - without which one cannot please God. This concept of faith is what liberal intellectuals challenge saying faith is incompatible with evidence based on science.

Taking Care of the Poor?

One of the commands of God to privileged human is to take care of the poor in their midst. In Matthew 23, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for boasting about paying tithe but they don't take care of the poor among them, when Apostles Paul and Barnabas came to the other Apostles (Jerusalem Council), the only charge they gave Paul was to make sure the poor are well taken care of. In the Old Testament, we see a similar pattern in the laws God gave to Moses.

I personally believe that God placed a desire to help others in each one of us, whether Christian or non-Christian, the question that now arises is how to or why we help the poor in our midst. Do we enable them through programs that do not require some form of accountability or do we help the poor by holding such a person to some level of accountability and out of a cycle of poverty? so the issue is not giving the person a fish, but teaching him/her how to fish? The rhetoric from liberalism tend to be taking care of the poor with no vision of helping that poor person become self sustaining, primarily because many have now made an industry out of being the advocate for the poor, an industry that makes some people feel good about themselves. As an African, what bothers me about European social democracies (who colonized most of Africa), the UN and Hollywood celebrities is that they love giving Africa "aids" and "adopting our children", with no concrete effort to help the continent be self-sustaining? (America helped Europe become self-sustaining with "Marshall Plan" after WWII).

The missing link - Liberalism and Christianity

Matthew 7: 21 "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers"

2 Tim. 4: 2-4 "Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time would come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths"

George Barna did a study in early 1990s and found out that while 85% of Americans (it is now 75% - 2008) claim Christianity, only 9% (of the 85%) believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God. Majority of those who claim Christianity pick and chose which part of the bible work for them and ignore the part that contradict their human intellect. In His recent book, "Seven Faith Tribes" (April 2009), George Barna, Identified seven religious groups that influence the politics in America, which practically replicate what he found in the early 1990s. Casual Christians - 66% of the adult population, Captive Christians - 16% of the adult population, Jews - 2% of the adult population, Mormons - 2% of the adult population, Pantheists - 2% of the adult population, Muslims - one-half of 1% of the adult population and Skeptics - 11% of the adult population.

When we take into account what Jesus said about people who have done fantastic things in His name, but had no part of Him (because they ignore the will of the Father), to what Apostle Paul told Pastor Timothy about people who want religion but does not like truth, so they'll seek men [and women] who would say what tickles their ears, to the facts we face in the church today, it is then easy to come to the conclusion and to what Jesus said about 2000 years ago "It is not everyone who call me Lord, Lord would enter in the kingdom of heaven".

Jesus said He does the will of His Father, and anyone who loves Him "will obey His commandment", so when someone who identify as a Christian chose to blatantly disobey (because it is not politically expedient or scientifically un-explainable) or bear the fruit of the flesh, then one wonders if the person is a casual or captive Christian in George Barna's terminology. Christianity today is littered with those who tickle people's ears from prosperity teachers, to feel good teachers, to name it and claim it, to black liberation theology and whatever is out there. Apostle John (1 John 4: 1) tell us as believers to test every spirit; I hope we are all doing that? By the way, the liberal press parade these "unbelieving Christians" or those who tickle the ears of their congregants as representatives of Christianity, because they are on TV or because they have a large church, and they look for dirt on those who are sold out to obeying Christ or call them names like they do to people like Dr. James Dobson or Bishop Harry Jackson.

Finally to answer the question, I believe anyone with a liberal ideological worldview, regardless of the political party affiliation (Democrat or Republican), would have a problem with being a bible believing Christian, because many of the premise of liberalism negate many direct teaching of the bible and definitely many Judeo-Christian principles. Such a person in my opinion, would be a "Christian" that feeds the soul /flesh rather than the spirit; he/she would be religious (love traditions) and speak Christenese but would have no 'sold out' relationship with Christ, the type of relationship that transform lives and is hinged on John 15: 1-8 and Galatians 2: 20. God wants all of us (total surrender) not 99.9%.

Remain Blessed

William Femi Awodele is an Author, Speaker and the Executive Director of Christian Couples Fellowship Int'l Inc. (an international ministry based out of Omaha Nebraska)