SIMPLY BELIEVING IN GOD

Tim Challies, author and teacher recently posted this article, “Simply believing in God has become the only criteria necessary for millions of people who claim Christianity, and so it is no revelation why so many in the western church today are essentially either truly agnostic or atheist for all intents and purposes. 

Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton are sociologists who have coined a term to describe what so many of the local churches are really occupied by: “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD). What does this term actually mean? Smith and Denton elaborate:

1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem. 
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.”

It is difficult to say or know ‘who is’ and who isn’t’ as far as belonging to the Lord. However, I say, If it ain’t worth something…then it ain’t worth nothing. Like my friend Charlie says, “Glad I’m not on that committee.”

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” Jesus