Deleted Scenes: 87 vs. 53 (James 2:14-26)

When I was younger, my parents had a book that some of you might have had in your homes too. It was called “Operation World”. It was a reference book with statistics about religion in every country in the world, along with suggestions for how to pray for those countries. As someone who studied the back of all my sports cards to memorize batting averages, points per game, goals, and so on, I loved the statistics in Operation World. I still remember one of them. In the edition of Operation World we had, 87% of Canadians professed to be Christians. 87%! We must have had quite an old version of the book, because that number probably reflects the reality in the ‘70s. Regardless, I remember feeling proud of our country. Almost 9 out of 10 people in our country loved Jesus, just like I did.

As I alluded to on Sunday, my view of statistics like that has changed significantly since I was a teenager. There probably were more people in Canada actively following Jesus a couple of generations ago. However, I doubt that the number of actual disciples of Jesus was ever close to 90% of our population. I now believe that nominal Christianity has long been a presence in Western cultures. By nominal Christianity, I mean those who associate themselves with the name of Jesus but are Christians in name only. There’s little about their lives, their priorities, or their loves that indicate a genuine relationship of faith with Jesus. As James says in 2:14, there are those who “claim” to have faith, but that faith is illusionary.

As I’ve said before, this perspective also means that the ever-decreasing percentages in Canadian censuses don’t faze me as they once did. The media seems to grab onto these numbers (53% in the 2021 census said they were Christians) with glee, proclaiming that Canada is fast becoming a truly secular country. The main thing to remember here is that the percentage of people who claim to be Christian in any given country at any given time bears exactly ZERO relevance to the truth of the Gospel. It changes exactly nothing about Jesus’ authority over heaven and earth. But here’s another thing: I think these numbers might represent a blessing in disguise.

I’ve always thought that one of the more troubling aspects of Christian history was the seismic changes that took place during the reign of Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century. For the first time, there was a Roman Emperor who was favourable to Christian faith, even being baptized later in his life. By the end of the 4th century, the Roman Empire was essentially Christianized. We call this marriage of church and state “Christendom”, and it endured for over a millennium in the Western world. While I have no doubt that God used this state of affairs for good in various ways, I also believe it had the effect of watering down Christian faith. It made nominal Christianity much, much easier.

The decline in Christian affiliation in a place like Canada is an opportunity for the church to be distinct once again. As the cultural/social cost of following Jesus rises, it is increasingly those who are truly willing to take up their cross and follow him who will bear his name. It will become harder to find nominal Christianity. There may be less confusion about what authentic faith looks like. And what we see from Scripture and history is that this refining of a remnant is the kind of thing God often uses to birth renewal in His people. That’s what we’re praying for.