PTM WEEKLY UPDATE -- NOVEMBER 23, 2009

Can a Christian be a member of a non-Christian cult?

Q. My husband has two Jehovah witnesses (great girls -- love them dearly) who work for him. I am confused as to why people don't believe they are Christians. When I asked them, their reply was that because they don't believe in the Trinity or celebrate Christ's birth, some don't believe they are Christians. I personally have a problem with people "deciding" who is Christian and who is not, but would appreciate your thoughts.

A. There are those who take it upon themselves to determine what God alone can and does -- playing God is a game that some do play. There are those who seem to use their Christianity -- or their assumed Christianity -- as a club to demean others and exalt themselves. Such self-exaltation and triumphal pomposity is alien to the humble, servant-based life of Jesus -- who lives within those who accept him. Some thoughts about your specific question:

1) Simply because someone announces that they attend a certain church or group does not mean, de facto, that the individual agrees with all of the tenets of that group/denomination/movement. So we cannot arbitrarily and summarily judge someone solely by the affiliation(s) they have.

2) However, there are objective criteria one can use when determining if a person is a Christian -- or a Democrat or a Republican -- or whether their citizenship is Canadian or German, etc. When it comes to Christianity, there are over 1,900 years of core beliefs and practices that have identified those in the body of Christ. At the same time, over those same 1,900 years there have been non-essential, peripheral practices and traditions that Christians have disagreed about -- and still do. Non-essential issues that the Bible does not clearly insist on do not identify Christians as Christians -- but essential, core beliefs do.

Core beliefs that Christians have always affirmed include the nature of God -- that God, according to the Bible, is one God who exists eternally and separately as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (the trinity is a word that Christians use to describe the formulation of biblical beliefs about God's nature). The nature of God is a critically important -- perhaps the most important -- belief that Christians have.

Christianity, along with Judaism and Islam, is monotheistic (belief in one God) -- while other religions are polytheistic (belief in multiple gods). Christianity of course has a Judeo-Christian foundation -- and builds on its belief of the one God of Judaism (as per the Old Testament of the Bible) and accepts Jesus as the divine Son of God, and the Holy Spirit as divine as well (these beliefs as per the New Testament of the Bible).

From the first few centuries of Christianity there were those who opposed God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One of the groups was known as Arians -- after Arius, their leader. The Jehovah's Witnesses are virtual, modern-day Arians -- believing that Jesus is created, that he was once an angel -- denying therefore the power of his cross and resurrection, and the fact that he is alive today as our Lord and Savior.

Other core beliefs, in addition to the nature of God, include the divinity of Jesus Christ (a part of the Trinity in one sense) -- but a separate teaching in terms of his incarnation, birth, life, death and resurrection. The Watchtower (the organization that determines doctrinal teaching of the JWs) do not agree that Jesus is God. In addition, JWs do not agree with the core belief of salvation by grace through faith -- that we are saved by Jesus and Jesus alone. JWs believe in works theology -- that we gain/earn a future after life on the basis of our performance. Neither do the JWs agree with another historic core teaching of Christianity -- that the body of Christ is universal, existing inside of and outside of many organized churches. Authentic Christians believe that Christianity exists wherever God wants it to, and that no one group has the right to say it alone is correct and "true" and that all others are false. This argument and unbiblical claim is exactly what the JWs claim.

So, in brief, the official teachings of the JWs are not Christian. Whether the two young ladies of whom you speak are Christians are not is another issue. One should be careful about "branding" individuals as non-Christians, but we as Christians are within biblical boundaries in identifying what is Christian and what is not. We could go so far to say that if these two young ladies are Christians, and if they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, chances are they will not remain within the JW organization for long -- for they will encounter teaching and practice that wars against their authentic Christianity.

These two young ladies may be wonderful people -- but the Bible does not teach that Christianity is produced by good morals. There are many people who are "good" people, who are upstanding citizens, who are not Christians (many atheists and agnostics are ethical people). Christians are those who identify themselves with the Jesus Christ of the gospel, who accept him and him alone as being sufficient and capable to forgiven their sins and thus, by God's grace, be given eternal life on the basis of the cross of Christ -- not on the basis of human deeds and performance.

Having said all of this, one more disclaimer. It is possible for a person to attend a church that accepts all the essential, core beliefs of historic Christianity, and still not be a Christian. While we can expect to find more Christians gathered together around groups, churches and ministries that proclaim core Christian beliefs, it is possible to attend a church that formally accepts Christian doctrine, and still not be a Christian. Simply attending a church does not make us a Christian either. Christianity is all about an individual relationship with God -- that relationship is Christ-centered and based on God's amazing grace.

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