“The sociologist Christian Smith . . . makes the case that [moralistic therapeutic deism] is the de facto religion of many people in the West. This belief system casts God as a cosmic therapist and divine butler who exists primarily to help us feel good about ourselves and solve our personal problems. Jesus is less the Lord who commands our allegiance and more the friend who supports our self-actualization.”- Kyle Idleman and Mark E. Moore
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”- Matthew 16:25 (NIV)
As Kyle Idleman and Mark E. Moore move on in Chapter 5 of The Missing Messiah, they counsel against seeing faith as a personalized service relationship. Rather than as submission to the Messiah-King. Because Jesus never serves as the ultimate personal assistant, available on demand to meet your individual needs.
In addition, Kyle and Mark stress, you must not see Jesus as:
- someone who comes when called and exists primarily to serve you, kind of like a divine AI.
- making few demands beyond affirming personal authenticity.
- existing mainly to comfort, guide, and support you on your self-determined life journey.
- fitting neatly into your compartmentalized life as one more resource for self-improvement.
Above all, in The Burnout Society, philosopher Byung-Chul Han makes this observation. That modern individualism in reality has produced a new form of self-exploitation. Rather than liberation. As a result, we’ve morphed into achievement subjects. People who obsess with optimizing themselves.
Therefore, Kyle and Mark continue:
“In this context, even Jesus can be co-opted as a means of self-actualization, a spiritual supplement to our wellness regimen rather than the revolutionary King who calls us to die to self for the sake of his Kingdom.”
Today’s question: How do you defend your Christian faith against those who hold to a moralistic therapeutic deism? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Recover the biblical Jesus”