Are You a Christian or a Christ-Follower?

Preparing for the Emerging One Church of the New World
by Tamara Hartzell
February 2008

Are you a Christian or a Christ-follower? Believe it or not, there is a world of difference in the New Spirituality that is replacing the Christian faith in today’s Christianity. On the surface, Christ-follower may seem to be a more accurate term than Christian since Christians are followers of Christ. But you can’t always judge a book by its cover. When the New Spirituality’s transformation to Christ-follower has been accomplished, the difference between the two will be as significant as the difference between dark and light, or the broad way and the narrow way.

This subtle separating of terms is being implemented in preparation for the Emerging One Church of the new world, for which Christian is too narrow and exclusive. Christian clearly says that followers of Christ are in the Christian faith (true Christianity), but Christ-follower inclusively allows for followers of Christ to be in any religion.

Accordingly, Christians are people of the faith, clearly set forth in the Word of God, but Christ followers will be people of faith—that is, any faith or religion. Christians believe that the right doctrine and theology—in other words, the right faith—are essential for salvation, but Christ-followers will believe that doctrine and theology are irrelevant because what you do is more important than what you believe. Christians believe there is only one truth, clearly set forth in God’s Word of truth, but Christ-followers will believe there is truth in every religion.

Inevitably, with unity at all costs becoming the foundation of the world and churches, Christian is already becoming a brand of shame. In the emerging new world, Christian says that you are intolerant, divisive, religiously bigoted, judgmental, and legalistic. In other words, Christian says to the world that you believe when God says there is only one way to God and none other that God actually means it. The world never has tolerated this faith very well.

Christ-follower, on the other hand, will become a badge of honor. In the emerging new world, Christ-follower will say that you are undogmatic, unifiable, open-minded, accommodating, and flexible. In other words, Christ-follower will say to the world that you believe God is inclusive of those whose way to God is different than the way given to us in His Word. It will say that you are tolerant of the other religions in the world and that you believe they can be just as right as Christianity. The world will tolerate this faith, or spirituality, just fine. Why wouldn’t it?

The New Spirituality of the Emerging One Church

If the New Spirituality’s emerging transformation to Christ-follower describes you and your beliefs, then no doubt many, if not all, of the following New Spirituality beliefs will ring true with you, especially if you can identify with the Emerging Church movement.

“‘THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN --TRUTH.’… [Truth] must be underlying every world religion… Therefore, that a portion of truth, great or small, is found in every religious and philosophical system …”

“[E]very man should be free to worship God in his own way.… His own God-illumined mind will search for truth and he will interpret it for himself. The day of theology is over and that of a living truth is with us.”

It is “the pride of mind which sees its way and its interpretations to be correct and true, and others’ false and wrong.”

“The teaching of Christ is not obsolete and out of date. It needs only to be rescued from the interpretations of the theologies of the past …”

“Christ's major task was the establishing of God's kingdom upon earth. He showed us the way in which humanity could enter that kingdom … the way is found in service to our fellow men …"

“It is through supreme service and sacrifice that we become followers of Christ and earn the right to enter into His kingdom, because we do not enter alone.”

“The need is for vision, wisdom and that wide tolerance which will see divinity on every hand and recognize the Christ in every human being.”

“The true Church is the kingdom of God on earth … composed of all, regardless of race or creed, who live by the light within, who have discovered the fact of the mystical Christ in their hearts.”

“The message of God is clear. No matter what the religion, no matter what the culture, no matter what the spiritual or indigenous tradition, the bottom line is identical: We are all one.”

“…Christian people are to recognize their place within a worldwide divine revelation and see Christ as representing all the faiths and taking His rightful place as World Teacher. He is the World Teacher and not a Christian teacher.… They may not call Him Christ, but they have their own name for Him and follow Him as truly and faithfully as their Western brethren.”

“The Christ has no religious barriers in His consciousness. It matters not to Him of what faith a man may call himself.”

“[‘The Christ’] has been for two thousand years the supreme Head of the Church Invisible … composed of disciples of all faiths.… He cares not what the faith is if the objective is love of God and of humanity.”

These New Spirituality (New Age and New Gospel) beliefs are bringing humanity and its religions together in interfaith unity. They are foundational to the Emerging One Church (the universal religion of the new world) which is indeed “widely desired and worked for” in both the world and today’s Christianity:

“[R]eligions though diverse in their theologies and forms of worship … and though differing in their methods of application of truth, are united in three basic aspects …

“When men recognize this and succeed in isolating that inner significant structure of truth which is the same in all climes and in all races, then there will emerge the universal religion, the One Church, and that unified though not uniform approach to God … Theologies will disappear into the knowledge of God; doctrines and dogmas will no longer be regarded as necessary, for faith will be based on experience, and authority will give place to personal appreciation of Reality.…

“The history of religions, the foundations of doctrine, the origin of ideas and the growth of the God idea are being subjected to research and study. This leads to much disputation; to the rejection of old established ideas as to God, the soul, man and his destiny.”

“Today, slowly, the concept of a world religion and the need for its emergence are widely desired and worked for. The fusion of faiths is now a field for discussion. Workers in the field of religion will formulate the universal platform of the new world religion. It is a work of loving synthesis and will emphasize the unity and the fellowship of the spirit. This group is, in a pronounced sense, a channel for the activities of the Christ, the world Teacher. The platform of the new world religion will be built by many groups, working under the inspiration of the Christ.

“Churchmen need to remember that the human spirit is greater than all the churches and greater than their teaching. In the long run, that human spirit will defeat them and proceed triumphantly into the Kingdom of God, leaving them far behind unless they enter as a humble part of the mass of men.…

“The churches in the West need also to realize that basically there is only one Church, but it is not necessarily only the orthodox Christian institution.” (Bold added)

“This the church has hindered down the centuries, and has not helped because of its fanatical zeal to make ‘Christians’ of all peoples and not followers of the Christ. It has emphasized theological doctrine, and not love and loving understanding as Christ exemplified it.”

"This Emerging One Church (universal, new world religion) is captivating today’s Christianity that has been easily fooled into believing that the Word of God is insufficient and irrelevant for our global-minded world. This goes hand in hand with the view that the “traditional” Christian faith is a “failure” in today’s world. As a result, no time is being wasted in replacing the scriptural faith of Christianity with the “loving understanding” and New Spirituality faith of the Emerging One Church. In its growing relativistic zeal to make Christ-followers and not Christians, today’s Christianity is joining the interfaith work of building the platform of the new world religion.