Christianity vs Nominal Christianity: People Need to Know the Difference

  

Over the years Christianity has gotten a lot of bad publicity because of the actions of people who claim to be Christians but are not—they are only nominal Christians. As a result many in the world want nothing to do with Christianity and thus reject their only hope of salvation and being able to be forgiven of their sins and one day being able to enter into heaven. 

Let’s discuss this. First off what is a nominal Christian? 

Definition: a Christian nominalist is one who claims the name Christian, but who has no authentic, personal, sin-forgiving and life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. His allegiance to Jesus is in name, not heart. 

By this definition the vast majority of those who call themselves Christians in the world today are nominal Christians—they have no authentic, personal, sin-forgiving and life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. I would estimate it to be 90% or more of all who claim to be Christians are just nominal Christians. 

They sometimes go to church, pray, give a little money but inside they are basically just like everybody else in the world. If you examined their life, you could not see anything different about them than the average person in the world. I know many nominal Christians—they drink, smoke, cuss, gamble, cheat, etc. They are no different than anybody else. 

I know by personal experience what a nominal Christian is, I grew up a nominal Christian, it was not until I was twenty years old that I was exposed to the true gospel and received the Lord Jesus Christ into my life and entered into a life-changing relationship with Him. 

Over the years it is the nominal Christians that have given Christianity a bad name. One action of nominal Christians that I have heard people bring up over the years is the Crusades.

 

The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. In all, eight major Crusade expeditions—varying in size, strength and degree of success—occurred between 1096 and 1291. 

…the Crusaders were regarded as immoral, bloody and savage. The ruthless and widespread massacre of Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians resulted in bitter resentment that persisted for many years. 

Deaths from the Crusades have been estimated from 1 to 9 million. This was an absolutely horrible occurrence that has blighted Christianity for centuries even to this day. This should have never happened; true born-again Christians would not have done this. These were the actions of nominal Christians—fake Christians—controlled by satan.

And unfortunately, it is events like these that have given Christianity a bad name over the years. Which satan has used to deceive and drive people away from true Christianity and a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I implore all who are reading this to not be deceived by the actions of nominal—fake—Christians. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ—the true God and creator of the world—for your salvation. 

And what does God tell us about salvation? There are 4 things we must know and accept to be able to go to heaven when we die.

1. We are sinners.

As the Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). 

Sin is falling short of God’s perfection. Everyone has sinned many times in life. We have all lied, or stolen, or cheated, or done something wrong at some time in our lives. 

“As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). 

We are all sinners.

2. We deserve Hell.

Realize that there is a punishment for being a sinner, and that punishment is death. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). 

Not only a physical death, but also a spiritual death. The place of spiritual death is called Hell. 

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

There is probably no person alive who can say that they never told a lie. We have all sinned and we all deserve the punishment of Hell for our sin.

3.  Jesus loves us and died for our sins.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

Jesus willingly went to the cross, shed His blood, and died for our sins. He paid the price for our sins. He suffered the punishment that we deserve. When He was on the cross, Jesus suffered Hell for us. Hell is a place of total separation from God. When Jesus was on the cross, God the Father separated Himself from God the Son. That is why Jesus cried out “with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Jesus was experiencing separation from God the Father. He was suffering the Hell that we deserve. He was paying for our sins.

4.  We must receive Christ by faith through prayer.

In order to receive the forgiveness of our sins, it is not enough to know that we are sinners, that we deserve Hell, and that Christ died for our sins, but we must receive Christ by faith.

 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). 

Notice that verse tells us that we cannot earn our way to heaven. We obtain salvation through faith, not by works. Faith basically means to place your trust in something or someone. If you are sitting down while reading this, you are placing your faith or trust in the chair that you are sitting upon. Faith requires more than just an intellectual belief; it involves an action of your will. 

For example, if there were a pond covered with ice, and there were people standing around saying that the ice could hold them up, but they were not willing to walk on the ice, then they would only be demonstrating an intellectual belief and not demonstrating faith. However, if they stepped out onto the ice, then they would be demonstrating faith.

 

Placing our faith in Christ

One can place their faith in Jesus Christ by simply calling out to Him in prayer, for the Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” I expressed faith in Jesus Christ by sincerely praying a prayer like this:

 

“Dear Jesus, I am a sinner. I deserve Hell. Thank you for dying for my sins. Save me. Come into my life. Make me the kind of person that you want me to be. I thank you that you have and that you will take me to heaven when I die. Amen.”

 

If you sincerely pray that prayer to God with all your heart, then the Lord Jesus will come into your life and forgive your sins and save you from an eternity of Hell. And if you were to die tomorrow, you would go to heaven. Not because you are good enough to get there, but because you have received the payment of your sins. It is that simple as the following verses tell us. 

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 

He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:11-13) 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)

Jesus loves you and wants to save you, call out to the Lord and be saved today. 

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