What exactly is Biblical Christianity, and who do I think I am telling you what it is or isn’t?

Good question and I’m glad you asked.

When you consider “church” as a part of your life, what do you mean by that? Is it an activity to grow you, or are you an agent to grow it? It should be in some sense a visual demonstration of what we believe Biblical Christianity is. So let’s start there; what exactly is Biblical Christianity (and am I doing it right)? The Bible, from start to finish, is about Jesus. In the Old Testament, He is the one to come and rescue us from the trappings of sin. In the New Testament, He is the one who came and paid the penalty for the punishment we deserved.

• The Gospels outline what happened

• Acts details that it worked

• The Epistles tell us how it works

• Revelation tells us that the work is not completely done

Jesus is the hero at the center of it all and we so often want to make it about something else.

Matt Chandler once shared an incredibly helpful visual that mapped out Feminism, Egalitarianism, Complementarianism, and Patriarchy. In looking into different denominations, I wanted to add another line to that illustration to further communicate what Biblical Christianity is. To do so, I added Spirit, Charismatic, Fundamentalist, and Tradition.

If you notice, all of those bubbles touch “Biblical Christianity,” but when they become their own thing, they can pop out of the box easily. And make no mistake, there is a box. There is a line that we can cross as a people where we are no longer practicing Biblical Christianity. We may call ourselves the most religious people we know, but that is not necessarily and equivalent to “christian.”

I’ve included some “typical drifts” that we see in the main. Doing so doesn’t mean that you specifically are at the end furthest from Jesus, but it should raise the question of what you see in your local church as our denominations have a tendency to favor certain directions.

I believe that the chart speaks for itself, so just a few more general comments. The goal of every world religion is to make you a better person, whereas Christianity is the only religion that requires nothing but your belief. Biblical Christianity sees us for who we are and invites us to follow Jesus for His name sake (not for your betterment). It’s good to get the fundamentals right, it’s good to debate the roles of men and women in the Church, it’s good to be Spirit led, but it’s best to fix our attention on Jesus; the author and perfecter of our faith, the one mediator between God and man and the final and complete justification for all mankind. When gender becomes the most important thing, we’ve missed it. When tradition trumps scripture, or when Bible’s hinder love, we’re wrong. Equally, when a special anointing determines our validity, or when we long for the Spirit without His word, we’re wrong. Jesus is Biblical Christianity (Colossians 3:1-11, Genesis 1:1-Revelation 22:21)