Rev. Neil Steven Lawrence, M.Div.
Radical Believers is a concept bandied about in the media today, one in which a plethora of books and articles are written about in this post-modern world.
What defines a radical believer?
The word radical comes from the Latin word radix which means “root.“ Therefore, a radical believer when applied to religion describes one who goes to the heart, or the “root” in their effort to follow that belief system.
A radical Muslim seeks to follow the writings of the Koran and the Hadith (stories and sayings of Muhammad), which together make up the Sunnah, or “example of Muhammad.“ It is notable that the founder of the terrorist group ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, earned a bachelor degree in Islamic Studies from the University of Baghdad in 1996, and earned a Masters (1999) and PhD (2007) in Koranic Studies from Iraq’s Saddam University for Islamic Studies. Al-Baghdadi knows exactly what Islam teaches, and he seeks to live by its principles—unlike nominal or moderate Muslims. Who are the radicals of Islam? Those who do what Muhammad did—those like al-Baghdadi and followers of ISIS.
A radical Christian seeks to follow the words and works of Jesus and the writings of the Bible. A radical Christian “Seek[s] first the Kingdom of God” (Mat. 6:33), not allowing the needs of this world to choke out the primacy of the Gospel. This verse is the high point of the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5, 6, & 7). This teaching of Jesus is the pinnacle of Kingdom Ethics—without which we will never see God (Mat.5:8), and we will always miss the mark (Phil. 3:14). Radical Christians live by the Great Commandment to love God with all their hearts, and to love their neighbors as themselves (Mat.22:37-38), and the Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples in His name (Mat.28:18). Radical Christian are willing to die to themselves (I Cor.15:31) and take up their crosses and follow Jesus (Mat.10:38; 16:34; Mk.8:34; Luk.9:23; 14:27). A radical Christian lives by Jesus’ words when he prescribes he who does my word is my disciple. (John 8:31; 15:14). A radical Christian is one who “remains in Jesus… and bears fruit, …more fruit, …much fruit, …and fruit that remains.“ (John 15:1-16).
A January 2018 article published in The Federalist titled “New Harvard Research Says U.S. Christianity Is Not Shrinking, But Growing Stronger” (http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/22/new-harvard-research-says-u-s-christianity-not-shrinking-growing-stronger/), Glenn Stanton expounds on Harvard research showing that unlike the secular media portrays, Christianity is not actually on the decline in America, but merely shifting from secularized churches to congregations and movements that affirm the tenants of the Bible and the Gospel.
I remember statistics from my Master of Divinity studies (which focused in missions), that since the Pilgrims landed (A.D. 1620), America has never been more than 35% born-again. Missiologists say that a country is reached when 20% of the population is born-again. Interestingly, according to Sharia Law and Jihad Strategy, Muslims can “legally” take over a country when it reaches 20% Muslim. This reminds me of the 80/20 Rule: Typically, 20% of the people in any organization do, 80% of the real work. Apparently, there is something genuine and observable concerning the radical commitment level of people to be measured at around 20%.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah complains to God that he alone is left in serving Yahweh, and all the people of Israel have given themselves over to the false god Baal. God responds to the prophet that he has reserved 7000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal (I Kings 19:18). At first glance, this may seem like victory for the sake of the faith, but statistically, it is an utter disaster! Why? If Israel was about 2 million people when they entered the promised land during the days of Joshua, and conservatively speaking, they grew to about 4 million people by the days of Elijah, then the number of radical believers in Yahweh had almost completely collapsed. (7000 divided by 4,000,000 is only 0.175%). This percentage is light years away from 20% which represents a nation being reached for the sake of Yahweh.
To look at this from another angle, any church that can break the 80/20 Rule could be said to be in revival! Either way, the battle between radical and nominal Christians is perennial, and we should not allow ourselves to become overly discouraged by it. Even Jesus gave us the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30) which shows God is well aware of what would happen. Those who are radical Christians, know that they are. Disturbingly, those who are not radical Christians may not realize they are tares! It is God’s job to make the determination between the two groups at the judgment. It is our job to stir people out of the nominal group into the radical group. It is a matter of life and death! (Also see Matt. 7:21-23).
God Himself will sift this harvest and not us. I often joke with my students, when we get to discussing theological issues related to the judgment, by saying, “It’s a good thing I am not God, or most of you wouldn’t make it!“ God is more merciful in judgment than we could ever be because He has a greater capacity for mercy. If we judge genuine Christians by the metric of who is truly involved in the Great Commission, as Jesus commanded, then maybe only 5% of those who claim to be believers would survive the Rapture and/or judgment. (See article “51% of Churchgoers Don’t Know of the Great Commission” by the Barna Group https://www.barna.com/research/half-churchgoers-not-heard-great-commission/#.XIQHKeOowZY.mailto.
The fact is people still need and want a genuine relationship with God. At the beginning of his book “What’s So Great About Christianity?“ Dinesh D’Souza shows how the new atheism and secularism of the postmodern world has failed to squelch the universal and global prevalence of mankind’s belief in God. He declares that Christianity, and even people of other faiths, have overwhelmingly defeated the lie of secularism and atheism that religion is dying. God has “set eternity in their hearts“ (Ecc 3:11), and we must “be about the Father’s business“ (Luke 2:49, John 20:21) to make sure that they make it to be with Jesus! I refuse to allow the world to tell me what only God is allowed to tell me! The Gospel of Jesus Christ still has power to transform lives, and we see it happening in an exceptional way throughout the history of the United States!
Now “this Gospel” (Mat 24:14) has penetrated most of the dark places in the world to the point that as of the year 2018, Africa (which has been called the Dark Continent), has the largest number of Christians than any other continent in the world! (According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Cromwell http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/research/documents/GlobalChristianityinfographic.pdfPg1.pdf) As always, our job as ministers of the Gospel is to help people maintain their radical nature in Christ and avoid becoming a nominal (“in name only”) believer.
