Growing up in Crowley one of the most impressive families I knew was Dutch. The parents had experienced the tyranny of the Nazi regime. The oldest son is a minister today. This family would be distressed by the state of the church in Europe today, specifically in Holland.

Some church leaders in the Netherlands want to transform their small nation into a laboratory for rethinking Christianity. It seems this “rethinking” is already well along. One pastor doesn’t believe in life after death, nor even in God as a supernatural being. He describes the Bible’s account of Jesus’s life as a mythological story about a man who may never have existed, even if it is a valuable source of wisdom about how to lead a good life.”

The pastor, Klass Hendrikse is an unbeliever, but in the largest Dutch denomination, he is considered a minister in good standing. As a matter of fact, he is not even unusual. A study undertaken by the Free University of Amsterdam determined that about one of every six Protestant ministers is either agnostic or atheist.

Rev. Kirsten Slettenaar, another minister of the church, refers to “Son of God” as a mere title. “I don’t think he was a god or a half god,” she says. “I think he was a man.” The majority of Dutch citizens desire some form of spirituality, but not the God of the Bible. 

This kind of “Christianity” doesn’t happen overnight. The central doctrines of Christianity are first sidelined and hardly mentioned, then revised, and finally rejected. Behind that process is the argument that the world has changed, and that Christianity must change with it. And this thinking isn’t limited to Europe.  John Shelby Spong, the retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey, put the issue bluntly: “Christianity must change or die.”

Christianity stands or falls on its central truth claims. Without the knowledge of the full deity and humanity of Christ, there is no Gospel and no salvation of sinners. Of course, if you no longer believe in a personal God, or any existent deity of any sort, then you will not be worried about salvation from sin. A church that lacks the doctrinal conviction and courage necessary to prosecute an atheist pastor for heresy is a church that lost its Christian identity — a long time ago. 

Many fine American’s have expressed concern that the ideas of our Founding Fathers have been forgotten in our country. Such people are organizing in the Tea Party and similar organizations. I support their fight. But even more important is the recognition that the term “Christian” doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone any more. The Faith of our Fathers is also in danger of being changed beyond recognition. In fact, that change is at the heart of the political problem in our country. This country was not founded on the ideas of “Christianity” now prevalent in Europe and growing in the US.  Our founders were “fundamental” on such ideas as the divinity of Christ, the sinful nature of man, and the truth that Jesus is THE WAY. 

In our fight to save our Country, let’s not forget that our fight to save our Faith comes first.

Be blessed.

Nick