Christianity vs ianity

Christianity without Christ is just "Ianity" - and who the heck is "Ian" compared with Jesus?!
Or more to the point, who am "I" compared with Jesus!

In February I'll attend the ARC Forum (Alliance of Responsible Citizenship). I fully agree with ARC that cross-disciplinary cooperatives are necessary to find solutions to Western decline. And that we need to re-inspire Western citizens with Judaeo-Christian values such as personal responsibility, reward for effort, and community.

But ARC will ultimately only be successful in restoring human flourishing to the degree that citizens actually submit to the Christ who in-Spires those values into practice. 

1. We need Jesus, not self.
The Bible warns about "those having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2Tim3:5). Because such would be a counterfeit Christianity - it may look like Christianity but if it ignores Christ it is not. It's really just "I-anity" inevitably devolving into self-righteousness (legalistic or licentious), as our fallen self decides how to apply Christ's values. Without Christ, self rules under Christian terminology. We've already had too much of that in the West. Such hypocrisy obscures the Church and derails Western civilization with it.

I confess I can see the danger of such nominal Christianity or I-anity in my circles, where we teach (rightly!) that Judaeo-Christian values, even the Bible itself, is the best values-set on which to build civilization. I teach world-views-from-a-Biblical-foundation. But I must also teach that people need the Person of Jesus even more than the values of Jesus.

That's because the Person inspires the values. Jesus transforms the heart of a person to seek God's righteousness not self-righteousness.

In fact if we truly had His values, we would know there's a spiritual dimension into which we must be reborn - consider Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus (John 3. All of John for that matter.) We know we can't have that Spiritual Life without Jesus!

We need to listen to Christ Himself who prompts & empowers us to follow His values His way in our particular contexts. We need to be in-Spired by Christ's Spirit-in-us, His spiritual life in us. That's when we may we see His fruit in our lives.

That's the foundational work we do at Worldview Australia. It's also Jeff Myers' work at Summit Fellowships. Here is his summary of his life's work, along the these same lines.

2. We need Jesus in all sectors.
Furthermore, to counteract the self corroding everything we do, we need Christ's inSpiration in all other spheres of life as well. Christ gives the Spirit necessary to flourish. Life is spiritual, so the spiritual aspect should not be ignored but integrated throughout all disciplines.

For example, law-enforcer Jamie Winship sought the LORD's inspiration to solve his caseload of crimes. His rate of solving cases soon stood out, because apparently Jesus knows a fair bit about what's really going on in the world!

Likewise, whatever our sector, we must humble our selves, die to self. "And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you." (Rom8:12). Then we can listen to Jesus and do what He says. Be led by the Spirit (Galatians 5.)

That's what, or Who, led to the best, the most Christ-like, of Western Civilization. The secret to Western flourishing was (& still is) Christ. A spiritual blessing was at play. And now the West is declining as Western leaders and people have rejected Christ for I-anity.

Someone once said, "everybody wants our ponies, but nobody wants our Stud."

It is Christ who can again inSpire real response-able citizenship - where leaders and citizens are able-to-respond to Jesus' inSpiration towards Christlikeness. Only He knows the big picture, He knows how to weave together the good and bad intentions into a whole history. And how to raise the governments constituents deserve (Romans 13.)

Yes, we must engage rigorously & cooperatively in & across all sectors. Work is part of the Garden of Eden. Indeed such work is also part of Jesus' values - He mandated his followers to "go into all the world." And all the world includes all the spheres:

• Family
• Charity / Not-for-profits / Health / Science & tech
• Church / Religion / Worldview / Philosophy / Culture
• Education / Media
• Arts & Cultural expression / Entertainment / Sport & Rec.
• Business / Economy
• Government / Law / Justice / Military

But also, within our rigorous involvement in all the world, we are to have a particular spiritual influence: "make disciples..." That is, help others become Jesus-followers, with His Life in them too.

In all the world's spheres there are people, and people need the spiritual life that only Jesus gives. As we go in all these spheres, we are not only to influence with Jesus' values, but to introduce people to Jesus Himself! And whenever they come to that new spiritual life, connecting directly with Jesus, that's what ultimately makes for truly response-able citizens - people led by Jesus to influence the world in ways that fruit in Christ-ianity, not mere I-anity.

So don't restrict Jesus to the "Religious sphere." The Life is needed in every sphere. Ignoring this will only frustrate our own efforts to flourish. Anyone, anywhere, in any sphere, turn from self to Him, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). 

Update 3/10/24:
Hallelujah! - it seems these guys agree with this. Start the vid from about 10:20, or just the last few minutes starting at 28:30. This is the kind of openness we need about Jesus... ​

Glen Scrivener’s reflections here clarify the critical difference between taking responsibility upon ourselves (Tower of Babel), and first receiving new life, love, identity from Jesus (Jacob’s Ladder) which THEN enables us to become responsible followers of Jesus into the world. ​
I also highly rate Glen's thesis in his book, The Air We Breathe, that Western culture has adopted crucial virtues from Christianity, but when people remove Christ from those values they become self-serving distortions.

May everyone submit to Jesus, and grow in Christlike influence - as He leads and empowers. Such awakening and submission will bring blessing, flourishing, in more of the world's many spheres... until He comes.

PS. After ARC reflection:
Being at this conference in person, I could see how Jesus is at work through the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.
When I was praying about speakers referring to the values of Christianity rather than the Christ of Christianity, the Lord reassured me that many hearers were identifying The Cornerstone anyway. This was confirmed immediately when I met a man who told me he was at ARC because a year ago Jordan Peterson spoke about the Bible, after which the man continued to read it, and then put his faith in Jesus.
I prayed with a lot of people. I met others who, like me, had simply felt called to come there but were unsure why. A direct ongoing involvement didn't come out of it for me, but rather a sense of a foundation laid for something later perhaps.
I also saw that ARC is like “Community Organising” in that (like a giant Clapham Sect) it seeks to gather people around Bible-based social projects. The 12 in the office are Christians, the main people behind it are too, and I can see how Jesus is working through the Christians as well as those who aren't yet, to bring about various expressions of the Kingdom of God. May it be so.