by Scott H. Northrup
A student of mine recently sent me an email saying he was impressed by my bold and unashamed identification with Jesus Christ on campus. I thanked him for the encouraging words. God knows we need the affirmation of others from time to time. Later I got to thinking about this, and began asking myself the question, "Why should any Christian be ASHAMED of being known as a follower of Jesus?"
I confess there was a time in my days as a young believer when I wanted so much to be accepted by my scientific peers that I hid my light under a bushel, so to speak. I would carry my Bible on trips to scientific meetings, but I'd keep it neatly hidden in my brief case. God delivered me from timidity the night I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. That was the moment I knew that I knew that I knew, that the Bible is true. That is when I knew that Christianity is more than a philosophy or a doctrine. It is the divine wind of God that tangibly and perceptibly swept through my body when I asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit and believers laid their hands on me.
But now, getting back to my original question, "Why should any believer be ashamed of Jesus Christ?" There is no getting around it. The message of the cross of Christ is foolishness to the unregenerate mind. It always has been. It is not like we have made scientific discoveries in our day that have rendered it foolish to modern minds. It was also foolish to the Greeks who heard it in the first century. That a God-man was offered up as a blood sacrifice to redeem the human race from sin and eternal damnation does not play well to the worldly sophisticated mind. And that He came back from the grave after three days and that by believing in Him and repenting of our sins we can have eternal life with Him - that is simply folly to some. But that is exactly what we are asked to believe. That is the gospel, the good news about which Paul wrote, "I am not ashamed ...."
But there is another reason why Christians are pressured into shame, and it is a less philosophical one. It is well-described in Paul Schenck's book entitled, "The Extermination of Christianity." He identifies three culture-making forces working in our society - the entertainment/media, the academy, and the courts. Each of these exerts a tremendous influence on our society, yet each is run by a very small and elite group of people. For the most part this small group of Culture Makers is secular minded, unlike the large majority of God-believing people of America. These have succeeded in creating the illusion that there is a consensus in America against Christians and their way of life. Slowly they have insinuated into uncritical minds the stereotype that Christians are bigoted, intolerant, racist, sexist, homophobes. The result is a society that, at least publicly, is ashamed of Jesus. We have worked hard to try to cleanse Him from our schools, our public displays, our national discourse, all ostensibly so as not to offend. This is a national disaster of the highest proportion, and its fallout could bring this nation to its knees in the days ahead. Just to give one example, research shows one in five youths in America will be unable to effectively function as adults, but will spend their lives shuttling between psychiatrists on a regimen of antipsychotics and antidepressants, barely able to hold down a job and care for themselves. This is the legacy of the do-what-feels-good Baby Boom revolution.
Why should any Christian be ashamed of Jesus Christ? After all, He is the central figure of the human race. In the words of one poet, "All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life." Followers of Christ built our hospitals, founded our universities, inspired our democratic governments, secured our civil liberties, and fought to defeat the tyrannical foes of history. It was an ordained Christian minister who boldly spoke to the crowds at the Lincoln Memorial one hot August day in 1963, liberally quoting the Bible, and declaring, "I have a dream..."
For that reason, I boldly proclaim this day, "I am not ashamed!"
@ copyright 2003 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.