Is that a god really worth believing in?
More troubling is that many of us might be moralistic therapeutic deists and not even know it. Says Smith, “A significant part of ‘Christianity’ in the United States is actually only tenuously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity’s misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”
The language—and therefore experience—of Trinity, holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church, Eucharist, and heaven and hell appear … to be being supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness and an earned heavenly reward. It is not so much that Christianity in the United States is being secularized. Rather more subtly, either Christianity is at least degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith.
So who or what do we truly believe in?
Do we believe in the God of the Bible, the God who makes himself and his will known to us; who is intimately involved in every detail of creation and is worthy of all glory and praise—or do we believe in a god who is kind of like a sweet, sleepy grandpa who loves to hand out candy but doesn’t really do anything useful?
Who or what we believe in changes everything in life, for better or for worse. When we believe in a tiny pretend god, like the one of moralistic therapeutic deism, we’re at the center. When we believe in the true God, we realize quickly life isn’t about us—it’s about God and his glory. Which do you believe?
