The 3 Questions: Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

The following three posts will explore these 3 Questions.

QUESTION 1: Would you say you are a Christian?

Strangely even this question has fundamentally changed its meaning in the span of my working life.

The first time I completed a work application in 1975 the box titled Religion really meant ‘CofE’ or ‘Catholic’. That’s what the employer expected to read not ‘None’, or ‘Buddhist’, ‘Muslim’, ‘Humanist’…or ‘Christian’. In 1975 I put CofE as I had been brought up to attend the local CofE church on a Sunday morning with my parents. But I wasn’t a believer.

In 1969, 3 out of the 30 in my class at school went to church…and the three of us that did in 1969, by 1975 none of us, as far as I know, continued to attend. By the time we were old enough to find other pursuits more interesting on a Sunday morning (e.g. sleeping, socialising, nursing hangovers, or sport) we had voted with our feet.

We were probably the last generation of schoolboys and girls that had the bible read to them each morning, sung hymns, and muttered Amen to prayers in morning assemblies. By the 1980s very few schools continued to have Christian morning assemblies, the bible hasn’t been read regularly and, as a result, we have become an increasingly secular society that is largely ignorant of the scriptures.

But the truth was that, even with regular bible readings, and hymn singing, very few emerged with any certainty about the historical accuracy of the Old and New Testaments, or evidence for miracles, the existence of Jesus, or the resurrection. There was little or no sign from church services that I attended of what was reported in the pages of the gospels – no miraculous healings, no presence of God, no stories of how becoming a Christian had transformed anyone’s life.

It was, therefore, no surprise that, along with the vast majority, I embraced a material scientific world-view; at best I was agnostic.

Nevertheless, to this day, Jesus is still very popular. Every twenty or so years someone produces a film about Jesus. Millions queue at cinemas. Jesus continues to be box office.

Most would readily agree that you’re not a Christian simply because you attend church, sing hymns, pray, sign your chest with a cross, are baptised, meditate, do good deeds, act in a ‘Christian manner’, try to live a good life, help others, think there’s a heaven or hell, or believe in God; I mean, Muslims, Jews, and many others believe in God but would not say they are Christians. But that leaves open the question: What does it mean to be a Christian?

Before answering that question the second question: ‘Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?’ needs to be explored.