Challenging Celebrity Christianity
A reminder to faithful believers to test the spirits, no matter their social media follower count.
One of the growing problems Christendom is facing right now is an unwillingness to question celebrity professions of faith.
"S/he's so close!"
"Give them time!"
"Don't quench their faith!"
This applies to Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, Nala, Tucker Carlson, and many others.
Perhaps no one yet sees that this attitude sets up an untouchable "priest class" of new believers with massive reach, influencing hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
This is foolish.
It also exposes the modern worship of celebrities over Christ.
No, God does not need Russell Brand's Twitter account (or paid Locals group) to spread the Gospel. Nor does God need Nala going on the Whatever Podcast again or Jordan Peterson's Jungian biblical exegesis to do the same.
God's been just fine for 2000+ years without all of these. He doesn't need them now.
But what these celebrities—and everyone else on Earth!—does need is the Gospel, the true sum of saving knowledge preached to them.
That is what these celebrities must learn, just like each of us, once upon a time.
But so far, that's not what I'm hearing from even a single celebrity. I hear feelings and psychology and social change and even demons.
What I don't hear coming from celebrities are Christ's exclusivist claims of dominion:
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" - John 14:6 [italics added]
I don't hear celebs decrying the vile degeneracy that grips society:
"Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." - Romans 1:24-25
I'm not hearing celebrities talk about Original Sin:
“To the woman He said: 'I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.'
“Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat of it": Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.'" - Genesis 3:16-17
And how many have celebs have spoken with proper awe and gratitude about the once-for-all atonement:
"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Corinthians 5:21
"By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." - Hebrews 10:10
These aren't obscure verses.
These are basic Christianity.
But you know what else these are? UNPOPULAR. Ideas like these and others rebuke a fallen world. They cost people something who profess them.
So, give celebrities time? For what? To grasp even 101-level truths?
What this lays bare is the continuing multi-generational failure of the Church to believe what it actually claims to believe.
The church is feminized to a degree it doesn't want to admit.
Because too many Christians would rather watch celebrities "feel" their way through the faith—and hopefully find the truth in the process—rather than say,
"No, that's incomplete. This is true doctrine. You are leading people astray. Please get proper discipleship."
But Christianity isn't primarily a faith of feelings. It's a faith of reason that requires us to be "sober-minded" (1 Peter 5:8, 1 Tim 3:2, Titus 1:8, Titus 2:6) and able to make sound moral judgments.
So our "feelings" must be subordinated to reason. Scripture warns of this over and over again:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9
"Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered." - Proverbs 28:26
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." - Proverbs 14:12
If Christians allow these new (or searching) believers with massive reach to "feel" their way through well-trodden ground instead of preaching good doctrine to them, out of fear of scaring them off, the problem is with Christians.
Just as the problem has been with Christians for 100 years or more, who I think secretly resent what they believe.
The world didn't get here overnight or by accident. It got here because Christians gave up in the public square. They believed the lies that Christianity was "colonialist and patriarchal," rather than the light of the world:
"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'" - John 8:12
If you really believed that, celebrity Christians wouldn't be needed to validate it for people.
We would be no more excited for Russell Brand to talk about Christianity than we would our no-name neighbor.
Because the light is the light no matter who professes it.
And not for nothing, Christ warns us about the perils of wealth...
"And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." - Matthew 19:24
And Christ also warns of those who preach in God's name but don't actually know God's truth:
"‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ - Matthew 7:21-13
For all these reasons and more, I genuinely wish Christians would be more willing to "test the spirits" of celebrity professions of faith, and do so in a loving, firm, and discipling way.
We don't have to accuse, nor do I think we should. But it's worth recognizing that the reach of all of these celebrities dwarfs the combined reach of all the pastors and faith leaders you know.
So, whose Christianity is it?
Celebrities who—to my knowledge—don't even belong to a church, and who may be attempting to remake the faith in their own image?
Or does it belong to Christ as the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2), the man who we're meant to conform ourselves to, instead?
Even when it's unpopular and uncomfortable.
NOTE: This was originally posted to Twitter/X on Wednesday December 4. [LINK]