Carnal Christianity - is it Biblical?
Many people in today’s world will tell you that carnal Christianity is Biblical but I find no Biblical support for such a concept. Carnal Christianity (a termed coined for a “Christian” who lives a life that is basically no different from an unregenerate person) is taught in many churches today and frankly I believe the idea of carnal Christianity is no different from antinomianism… a heretical belief prevalent in the days of the apostles which taught basically the same thing.
Following is an article from Ray Comfort, of of my top five favorite passionate evangelists who truly teaches the full counsel of God’s Word. It’s entitled “Maybe Elvis Was a Carnal Christian” and it will get you thinking. As I tell my Sunday School class each and every Sunday… Be a Berean… check everything you hear against Scripture!
Maybe Elvis Was Just a Carnal Christian
Imagine trying to lovingly confront a high profile evangelical to share your concern that his Gospel presentation wasn’t Biblical. Gulp. That is precisely what I did with Luis Palau several years ago prior to one of his mega-events.
I suggested he was giving the cure without explaining the disease of sin. Mr. Palau informed me that everyone has an overwhelming burden of guilt and it is not necessary for him to preach about their need for forgiveness.
Suspecting he might say that, I handed him a c.d. with a montage of people we interviewed on the street. We asked strangers, “Do you have an overwhelming burden of guilt?” The responses ranged from condescending disdain to outright laughter.
While Mr. Palau was very nice to me, he ultimately patted me on the head and said, “Be careful that you don’t fall into that Lordship salvation trap. Christians can be carnal.”
Carnal Christianity is the concept that says: you can live like the world and still be a Christian. It also teaches that sanctification can come some time after a person signs a car…er…asks Jesus into his hea…I mean gets saved.
Later that night at the festival, Mr. Palau’s message included two profanities and proclamations like, “If Elvis had become a Christian, he would have been a rock star, but his life wouldn’t have turned out so bad.” He also informed the audience that if they would simply ask Jesus into their hearts, “The party starts right now.” A woman from my church who just buried her seven year old son almost rushed the stage…and not to sign a card.
His Gospel presentation, as our British friends would say, was “a complete dog’s
breakfast.”
It is no surprise that the follow up statistics to crusades are so tragic. The backslider rate (or Carnal Christian rate) hovers around 90%. It seems that Carnal Christianity and Gospel presentations that don’t include sin, righteousness and judgment go hand and hand. In order to explain those statistics, the minister must:
- Admit the preaching is inadequate and without Holy Spirit power.
- Alter theology to explain how a decision-maker can name the name of Christ but live like the devil.
Option one is out of the picture. And so it is, since the early 20th century, modern day evangelicalism (thanks to Lewis Sperry Chafer and the Scofield Bible) has been proclaiming the oxymoron known as Carnal Christianity.
The support text for Carnal Christianity is I Cor.3:1-5. “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?”
Paul was warning the ignorant, sectarian Corinthians that they should not be divided into cliques. That’s it. This text does not suggest that born-again believers can live like pagans. Paul was introducing them to new theology, not giving them license to sin.
With all credit to Ernest C. Reisinger’s “A Carnal Christian,” here are eight reasons why Carnal Christianity should be rejected:
- In I Cor.1:2-5, Paul addressed his audience as “sanctified in Christ”. So are they sanctified or carnal? In I Cor.2, Paul divides men into “natural” and “spiritual,” i.e. un-saved and saved. By labeling some Christians as “carnal,” Paul would be introducing a third classification of humans. Furthermore, this would violate every other presentation in Scripture that there are only two classes of people: children of God or children of wrath.
- The new covenant of salvation includes two inseparable blessings at salvation: justification and sanctification. Carnal Christianity teaches you will be justified upon conversion, but sanctification is optional.
- The Bible presents two types of faith: saving faith and spurious (false) faith (Lk. 8:13). Carnal Christianity does not recognize spurious faith. What a false assurance we allow the unregenerate to possess if we allow them to think their faith is valid when the Bible teaches it might be a false conversion.
- Carnal Christianity excludes a necessary component of salvation: repentance. The unconverted sinner can just “ask Jesus into his heart” with no requirement to forsake sin.
- How does a person know he is saved? Fruit in keeping with repentance. We are told to examine ourselves to see if we are in the truth. What a beautiful gift to the believer. If we can be carnal, how can we know we are saved? Carnal Christianity robs us of assurance.
- Carnal Christianity may be a relatively new name, but it is merely a new moniker for an old false teaching: antinomianism. “Should we go on sinning that grace might more abound?” Carnal Christianity says, “Sure.” God’s Word says “may it never be!”
- “Carnal Christian teaching is the mother of many second work-of –grace errors in that it depreciates the Biblical conversion experience by implying that the change in the converted sinner may amount to little or nothing.” Dr. Reisinger goes on to point out that a second step is required to make a man a “spiritual Christian.”
- Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, right? (Lk.2:11) Carnal Christianity divides Jesus and allows Him to be Savior but not Lord.
Listen to the words of A.A. Hodge. “Think of a sinner coming to Christ and saying, ‘I do not want to be holy; I do not want to be saved from sin; I would like to be saved in my sins; do not sanctify me now, but justify me now.’”
That is ridiculous, isn’t it? And so is Carnal Christianity. Even Elvis would agree with that!
Ok, so does this mean that a true Christian will not commit sin? Absolutely not! Christians can and do sin. Until Christ comes, we will still have our sinful natures. However, what we must understand is that sin and carnality are not a way of life for the Christian. A true, regenerated Christian has a new nature - he is a new creature. A true Christian’s walk is to please God, to mortify sin, to make war with sin - not out of effort to earn salvation but to be pleasing to God and out of love for our Savior who gave His life for us.
A Christian can fall into sin and succumb to the flesh. But what separates a Christian from the unregenerate is the desire to confess and repent of that sin, to turn from it and forsake it. A Christian has a holy hatred for sin! When I write that I do not believe that there is such a thing as a “carnal Christian” I mean that nowhere in the Bible does it say that a true Christian will live in a state of worldliness and sin and be no different than the rest of the world. If they do enter into sin the Holy Spirit will be grieved and the level of conviction on the Christian will be so strong that they will be brought to their knees in confession and repentance.
Paul Washer often asks his congregation what their relationship with sin is. That’s good strategy. As we grow in Christ our hatred for sin in our lives should grow as well.
It used to be so easy to differentiate the church from the world. However, today we have watered down the gospel and created so many false converts and led so many people to believe they are saved for walking an isle, raising their hand or saying a short prayer that today’s church looks no different from the world. How can we let our light shine when it looks no different from the worlds?
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Comments
Jay, I am with you on this subject, but would like your input on 1 Cor.3:15. As Paul says, they are saved,”…yet so as by fire”.
Hi Ike,
In the context of 1 Corinthians 3, I would see that Paul is talking about building on the foundation of the Gospel with doctrine - in this case Christian workers. These would be true Christian workers (pastors, teachers, preachers, etc.). The purity and depth of such Christian teaching and a life corresponding to it are crucial, for that kind of building material will stand the test of fire on the day of the Lord’s judgment.
I think this verse is not one that can be used to substantiate the idea of a Christian living a life of unrepentant sin and still having assurance they are saved.
I’m sure someone else may chime in but I would definitely want to keep 1 Cor. 3 in the context of those building on the foundation - and those building would be the workers in the church such as those at the pastorate level, etc.
Hope that helps…
Thanks Jay. I was asked this question and wanted someone else’s opinion. We must realize that an “eternal” Gospel has been handed down to us and we who have received the Gospel, have a fearful obligation to deliver it.
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, he is to be accursed!” (Galatians 1:8-9)
Think of it this way, the cornerstone of the New Testament church is Jesus Christ and the foundation is His chosen apostles. Each true believer is a “living stone” (1 Peter 2:4-12) used to build up the New Testament temple of God (that is the invisible church). The place where God now dwells upon the earth is not in some phsical temple built by human hands at Jerusalem. God now dwells among men in the hearts of men; through the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.
In this context each minister of the Lord must be careful how he builds, for it is the temple of God that he is building. And not with human hands, or the works of men, but as a servant of God by spiritual means. Meaning, the minister of God (and we are all priests of God) must be careful to raise up the “living stones” he has part in adding to church or responsibility for as a leader in the church. He is responsible to raise them up from spiritual immaturity, to maturity–to pray for them. He must build upon the foundation of the church with great love and great care, lest his work be shown to have been quick and shoddy when later tested by fire.
This is a nice summary on this wide-spread doctrinal error. I am surprised however that you have on your Shelfari book shelf, a volume written by two of the main figures in the development, popularization and codification of this error; John Walvoord and Lewis Sperry Chafer. While this teaching, in some form or another, has been around since the 1st century, Scofield’s “literalistic” hermeneutic and its resulting poor exegesis reintroduced it in the early 20th century. Later, Walvoord and Chafer systematized it.
Hi Art. Thanks for pointing that out. I actually need to remove that widget since I haven’t updated it in a looong time. I agree with you completely and have removed that listing. (This was a book that our church had used at one time for a doctrine course and when I took over that course to teach it we quickly switched over to Grudem’s Systematic Theology.)
Thanks for keeping me on my toes! :-)
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That reminds me of a youth group song about not wanting to live a “casual Christian” life, yet some of us did even while in youth group. It’s sad that the verse about people wanting to hear what they want to hear–”itching ears”–is so true. Much to my shame I can relate to that at times (wanting to hear “nice” words) but the Lord disciplines me. Blessed be the name of the Lord.