"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." John 15:18-19

 Much of modern Christianity works hard to be liked by the world. The researcher George Barna calls this group "casual Christians." According to his extensive polls, surveys and interviews with more than 30,000 Americans, 85% claim Christianity as their faith. But of that number 67% or about 150 million adults are casual Christians. He calls the fundamental evangelicals who believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and who try to live their faith, "captive Christians." These make up about 16% of the U.S. population.

 While captive Christians view themselves as saints of God in an evil world, casual Christians do not see the world as a threat and are comfortable and at peace with the world.

The Christianity of Jesus has been confrontational and controversial from the very beginning. The message of this brand of Christianity is that Jesus is the only Way to salvation and that all others who came before or after Him are thieves and liars. It’s Him or the highway to hell.

 Jesus told His disciples that He had not come to bring peace but a sword, and that receiving Him and living His Way of life would cause strife and division even among family members. Jesus and His Apostles were all killed save John who was exiled to the island of Patmos.

Casual Christians are comfortable because their faith is not controversial. Because they have no strong convictions they sidestep conversations about controversial matters.

 To make a stand only for tolerance is to fail to stand at all, but is only going along to get along.

The casual Christian will focus on the love and mercy of Christ and stress how we should love each other, but they are not comfortable talking about the problem of sin and the wrath that is coming upon sinners.

 Casuals do not believe in absolute truth but believe that truth is relative -your truth may be different than my truth. This may sound pleasing to the uneducated ear, but to a Bible student it is blasphemous. Jesus proclaimed Himself to be both the Word and the Truth - to believe in different truths for different people would be like believing that there is a different Word of God besides the Bible, or that you can receive a different Jesus.

 Casuals are usually not Bible literate and generally are tolerant of sin in others. They conform to whatever is presently acceptable in society. Is it any wonder why there is so much immorality in the Church today? Casuals place family over faith in importance and are very image conscious. They pursue happiness over holiness which is why the prosperity and wealth doctrines are so popular today.

 Churches which emphasize using the Word to get what you want are the largest congregations in America. They believe that the teachings of the Bible are there for solace and to help them get what they want out of life rather than to teach us about God, about how He wants us to behave, how to be saved and to lead us to holiness. Can Christians be at peace with a world presently ruled by Satan? Only the casual Christians who have come to worship a god of their imagination.