Two Good Reasons to Reject Christianity
There are some very good reasons to reject Christianity and then there are some really bad reasons. By “good”, I am not suggesting that it is ever good to reject the truth claims of Christianity. After all, I am a Christian. I’m simply saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ does present its hearer with clear choices. Lately though, I am starting to worry that many nonbelievers are rejecting Christianity for all the wrong reasons. Here are two very good reasons to reject Christianity along with their bad counterparts which often act as unnecessary stumbling blocks to true faith.
#1 GOOD Reason to Reject Christianity
You don’t believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead – Christianity is especially unique among all the other major world religions in that it hinges upon the life of a single individual. The truth claims of Christianity live or die based on the nature of the empirical evidence of the life of Jesus Christ. If the resurrection of Jesus is an historical farce, then rejection of Christianity is the only logical response. But if Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead then rejecting Christianity would be wildly irrational and recklessly dangerous. Please reject Christianity because you’ve done your homework and have concluded that Jesus of Nazareth did not defeat death.
#1 BAD Reason to Reject Christianity
You don’t believe that Jesus Christ was an historical figure – You are free to believe that Jesus Christ was not the pre-existent Son of God but no intellectually-honest thinker would assert that Jesus of Nazareth did not walk the sands of ancient Palestine. Bestselling and anti-Christian author, Bart Ehrman, says this about the modern “mythicists” who seek to discredit Christianity with the claim that Jesus is a fabricated myth, “Surely the best way to promote any such [anti-Christian] agenda is not to deny what virtually every sane historian on the planet has come to conclude based on a range of compelling historical evidence. Whether we like it or not, Jesus certainly existed.”
#2 GOOD Reason to Reject Christianity
You Don’t Want to Change Your Lifestyle – When an individual truly places their faith in Jesus Christ, change is inevitable. To stay the same is simply not an option in the Christian faith. To become a Christian is to transform into a new person both in motivation and action. Please reject Christianity because you have concluded that you have no interest in transforming the daily attitudes and actions that define you as a person. Reject Christianity because you refuse to alter the way you spend your time, energy, and money.
#2 BAD Reason to Reject Christianity
You Don’t Want to Change Your Politics – I fear that many potential Christians eventually reject Christianity not because of the message but because of the messengers. They wrongly assume that converting to Christianity necessarily involves converting to a different political party or abandoning certain social causes. If you are under the misguided notion that to become a believer is to transform into a cookie-cutter version of Ned Flanders complete with pro-life bumper stickers, then you have mistaken Christianity for something else entirely. There are faithful Christians on all sides of the political spectrum from the far left to the far right.
To my non-believing friend, I simply ask that you do yourself the favor of discovering what true Christianity entails and then choose accordingly. Reject Jesus for Himself but don’t reject Him because of some silly skeptic's conspiracy theory or because of the labels that other Christians have attached to Jesus' name.