In this first part of an (edited) interview I did with Follow the Money, we covered the topics of happiness, and living as a believer in a hostile culture.
Question: In Happiness, you provide scriptural evidence that Christians should be happy. In fact, we’re supposed to, as the book cover suggests, radiate joy, peace, and contentment so that others are naturally drawn to what we have. And yet, in today’s culture, the vast majority of Christians are perceived as angry, judgmental people who don’t seem to derive any joy from life. Randy, what did you learn from your research? Why aren’t Christians happy?
Answer: I think often we’re not happy as Christians because our expectations are skewed. We believe the health and wealth gospel message that says if you follow Jesus, all will be well with you. God almost becomes a personal genie who fulfills your wishes (which are referred to as prayers). Whatever you pray for, you’ll get. All you need is enough faith. Then pretty soon, it’s not faith in God, but faith in your faith. And it involves convincing yourself by repeating certain slogans and using Scripture as if they were magical formulas rather than the revealed Word of God.
The true biblical worldview is ultimately very optimistic. The glass isn’t half empty; it’s half full, with the promise that one day it will be completely full—in fact, overflowing for all eternity. Now that is very optimistic! But we’ve got to recognize that the glass which is currently half full is indeed half empty because of the fall, sin, and the curse. If you’re expecting life right now to be easy and always go your way, you’re going to be very disappointed. So I think a number of Christians aren’t happy because they have unrealistic expectations for their present lives. Many who think they are trusting in Jesus are trusting more that He will give them a smooth, easy, successful, dreamy life.
Another problem is that in the Church, we’ve been told we’re not supposed to be happy. As the story goes, the world has this thing called “happiness,” and it’s shallow and superficial. It’s what you have at a ballgame or a BBQ, or only when your circumstances are going well for you. Supposedly, Christians have “joy” but we define it differently than the Bible, because we think of joy as something unemotional and transcendent and completely different than happiness.
It’s as if some Christians think, “I may be a fairly miserable, critical person who merely tolerates my neighbors. And I might be the first to complain and be ungrateful. But deep down inside, I have the joy of Jesus in my heart.” Well, if you have joy inside, it’s going to make its way to your face! People are going to see that there’s really something to your relationship with Jesus. Real joy has to have some form of happiness and gladness, because they’re synonyms and all connected. That joy is also going to result in gratitude. If it doesn’t, people aren’t going to see the happiness of God or the appeal of Jesus Christ, and what Scripture calls “the good news of happiness.” That’s literally what Isaiah 52:7 calls the gospel in the ESV and the NESV, two of the most literal translations.
Question: How does your view about happiness differ from the health and wealth gospel?
Answer: What Scripture teaches about happiness is emphatically different than the health and wealth gospel. There are people who say, “If you’re talking about happiness now, you’re getting into the prosperity gospel.” Not at all! Scripture talks about a number of things that are abused in concept. In fact, even the word “love” is tremendously misused. Think of all the popular music where “love” means basically fornication or adultery. So do we say love is a bad word we shouldn’t use? Perhaps we shouldn’t say “For God so loved the world” anymore? Of course not! Instead, we explain what Scripture means by “love.”
The word “happiness” can also be misused, but don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. It’s a good word, historically. The Puritans used it all the time. So did Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, and many others, to speak of happiness in Christ.
Scripture simply does not promise the many things that are guaranteed today by prosperity preachers. It never promises we won’t face trials. In fact, it promises that we will experience trials, and that God will bring Christlikeness out of them. First Peter 4 says, “Don’t be surprised, brothers, at the fiery ordeal you are experiencing as though something strange were happening to you.” The godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world, you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer. I’ve overcome the world.”
If prosperity theology were true, then Jesus and probably the apostle Paul should have made the short list for those living the easiest, healthiest, and wealthiest lives. Instead, Jesus talks about not having a place to lay His head. Obviously, He was not in abject poverty, but He was dependent upon the support of other people. As He traveled, He didn’t own much of anything except maybe His clothes.
Also, Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 11 about all of the suffering he’s undergone, and in chapter 12, he talks about his thorn in the flesh. He had a physical ailment of some sort, and he asked the Lord to remove it three times, and God did not. He said, “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness.” God used a lack of health to accomplish a higher purpose in Paul’s life.
Does God ultimately promise us health and wealth? Yes, in the resurrection, when we live on the New Earth. But let’s not lay claim to something now that God has promised us for the future glorified state, where we will live with Him forever as resurrected beings.
Question: You brought up the concept of suffering. Throughout the New Testament it’s clear that if we are faced with adversity, including persecution, we are to count it all joy. But today, Christians organize against anyone who dares to, in any way, not accommodate them. For example, during the Christmas season, people have been extremely upset that for-profit secular companies were not saying Merry Christmas. Instead, they were saying Happy Holidays. This turned into an argument that they were being persecuted. Instead of counting it all joy, we’re setting up legal defense funds. What’s the proper response to that?
Answer: Again, it goes back to expectations. We’re expecting the world to go along with what we believe from the Bible: who Jesus is, the truth of the gospel, and salvation by grace through faith. But the world, by definition, does not embrace God’s truth. It’s always odd to me when Christians expect the culture to be faithful to Scripture. Of course it isn’t! Why would we be surprised by that? Think of the early Church, living amidst Roman culture’s skewed views of human sexuality, life, and wealth. It was not biblically based or Christ-centered.
I think we’ve told ourselves that’s different because we are Americans, and America is a Christian nation. But America has not been a Christian nation for a long time. I’m not saying it never was, although it never was completely, of course. All along, many people were not believers, but there were also many genuine followers of Jesus, including some in positions of leadership. There was a common appreciation for the wisdom of Scripture and for Judeo-Christian morality. (Look at all the monuments in Washington, D.C. that have Scripture on them!) Yes, that’s part of our heritage, but when people are trying to reclaim America as a Christian nation, the point is that it is just simply no longer the case. There are people who might have general Christian morals, but they are fewer and fewer in number.
Sometimes people who live in the Bible Belt perhaps get the idea that America is uniform across the nation. But when you live in the Pacific Northwest like I do, you’re under no illusion whatsoever that you are part of a Christian culture! Very few people here go to church. I met a brother from Africa who told me that when he first came over from Africa, he lived in the Dallas, Texas area. Now he lives in Oregon, and at first he started asking people what church they go to. In Dallas, no one ever looked at him strangely, because most people there have some sort of church affiliation. They may not even be Christians, but they are loosely connected with a church, and they’re not embarrassed about it. But when he asked people up here in the Portland area, “What church do you go to?” some of them were offended. They would say, “What makes you think I go to church?”
Question: You have more dogs than evangelicals in the Pacific Northwest, right?
Answer: Yes, I would say way more! The truth is, we’ve gotten accustomed to this idea that the world, and especially the American culture, is supposed to just go along with the Christian faith. But throughout history, the great majority of places have been antagonistic to Christianity. Cultures, ultimately, can’t be Christian. Individuals can be Christians, and those Christians can influence culture, but unfortunately, my observation is that sometimes Western Christians end up complaining about culture instead of influencing it. Then, ironically, we marginalize ourselves when it comes time to declare the gospel. Nobody’s drawn to what we believe because we’re fighting people about whether we should legally require Starbucks to say “Merry Christmas” on their cups. That actually was a thing several years ago! I mean, really? How much better if instead we seek to be full of grace and truth, like Jesus, pointing others toward Him and His offer of salvation!
