Research has discovered that people are redefining what it means to be a Christian. People are reformulating the popular notion of what "Christian" and the Christian life mean. The notion that there is absolute moral and spiritual truth is perceived by a large number of young people to be closed-mindedness.
Faith is an acceptable attribute among young people these days. However, their notions of faith do not align with conventional perspectives or behaviour. Young people still claim the label "Christian," but the definition of that term has been broadened. The values that young people are prone to embrace are often consistent with Christian beliefs but are not based on biblical foundations.
Many in society would see this as a good thing, and there are certainly some positive aspects to it. Not everything we do as Christians is actually Biblical, or even necessary, and it is good to look at ourselves from time to time. However there are also some serious dangers.
One of the dangerous trends in this is that of people wanting to call themselves Christians, but rejecting the Bible as being authoritative.
I believe that if we are to be "Christians" (Christ followers) we need to be following the Christ who is revealed in the Bible by the Holy Spirit. Otherwise we are setting ourselves up as gods, and trying to make Jesus Christ, and God, fit into our own design.
If we do that, we can certainly come up with a very convenient god, who suits us and justifies us doing whatever we want to do, but do we have a powerful God, a creative God, a loving God, a just God? Do we even have a REAL GOD?
How can a god who we design and define save us for eternity?
In Isaiah 44:12-20 we read the following,
(A man plants) a cedar, a cypress or an oak ... He lets it grow among the trees of the forest ... and the rain makes it grow ... Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal. He roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself ... From the rest he makes a god, his idol ... He prays to it and says, "Save me, you are my god."
Most people these days don't make their god from a piece of wood, but in a "more sophisticated" way they are still doing exactly what this man did, making their own god. And just as this man's piece of wood could not save him, neither can a god we invent in our own clever minds save us.
The God of the Bible is so much more than just a clever piece of man's invention. If people choose to not believe in the God of the Bible it does not make Him cease to exist. If they attempt to redefine Him as they want Him to be, it does not change in the slightest who He actually is.
But if we make those kinds of decisions it does affect the kind of relationship we can have with Him.
For Him to be Saviour He must be more powerful than the things we need saving from. For Him to be Provider He must have access to resources beyond our ability to gain for ourselves. For Him to be Lord we must submit to Him rather than trying to get Him to fit into our plans and expectations. And to be GOD, He must be greater than anything we could invent, or even imagine.
Back in the Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20:3, God says,
"You shall have no other gods before me." Elsewhere He says, "You shall not worship (or follow) any (false) images of me."
And He has not changed His mind about that.