Elon Musk and the "Death of Christianity"

Half right, half wrong

Last week, world’s richest man Elon Musk shared his take on Christianity in a sit down with Jordan Peterson (which I previously discussed here).

Musk stated that he is a “cultural Christian” who is a big believer in the principles of Christianity, but ultimately not religious.

Since that interview, countless people have taken to X/Twitter, Musk’s platform, to try to win him over. Then the Olympic Last Supper debacle happened (which I covered here) and Musk revealed one of his big gripes about Christianity—modern Christians sit by and tacitly accept blasphemy against our God.

Responding to a tweet about how the response would have been different had Islam been the target of the mockery, Musk said the above: “Christianity has become toothless.”

He then went on to say the following about the matter: “Unless there is more bravery to stand up for what is fair and right, Christianity will perish.”

While I am not a big fan of letting outsiders tell us how to run the church, I believe Musk is half right and half wrong.

He’s wrong, because Christianity will never perish.

Jesus paid far too much to see His church disintegrate into nothing. He promised the gates of Hades would not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18). We should be concerned for the future of the church, and we should be praying desperately for her, but we should rest assured that Christ will never allow His bride to be removed from the earth.

Having said that, we can’t allow that assurance to lull us into inaction. Christ works through His people, and if we aren’t bearing fruit we shouldn’t be surprised when pruning and even burning come our way (John 15:2). And that points to what Musk got right:

He’s right, because the church would die if something doesn’t change.

As we just established, the church won’t die. But that’s only because God will raise up the kind of men and women of valor and virtue who will turn the tide. If He allowed us to continue on this path, the church would indeed perish.

Put yourself in Musk’s shoes.

He’s one of those outsiders who see the evil in the world (which he dubs “the woke mind virus”). But more pressingly, he’s seen its wicked effects in his own household. In the Peterson interview, he shared how his son is “dead” via transgenderism. He has had his heart crushed by the demonic forces wreaking havoc on our world.

Looking for somewhere to turn in order to prevent this from happening to anyone else, he sees a religion that is seemingly entirely disinterested in doing anything about it. He sees a religion in which the spiritual has been so divided from the physical that we are told to stand down and to not even think about having any broad-scale, real-world impact.

He also sees ivory tower ministers who apparently have no ability to understand causes and effects since they are shielded from any consequences of their pietistic messages. He sees that they have no motivation to discuss anything practical when feel-good platitudes garner more amens and pats on the back.

I’ve had enough of these interactions that I can tell you exactly how this would go.

Musk: Pro-trans doctors destroyed my son’s life. What can we do about this?

“Winsome” Christian: Just love your enemies and pray for those who curse you.

Musk: But can we bring these people to justice for all the people they’re harming?

WC: Christians and power don’t mix.

Musk: Can we at least try to elect somebody who will make youth gender treatment illegal?

WC: That’s spiritual adultery. Put not your faith in princes!

Musk: So you have no answer for saving these children?

WC: Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world.

As we sit idly by and pat ourselves on the back for giving all the right answers, souls are being put through the meat grinder. I honestly can’t blame Musk for seeing Christianity as a dead end for confronting evil.

We have secular people who see the evil in the world and want to do something about it. Not only do they not see an ally in Christianity—they see an active effort to hinder them in opposing evil. This has to change, and it will.

So no, the church won’t perish.

Thanks be to God, He will not forever tolerate Christians who keep platituding themselves into doing nothing while congratulating ourselves for how holy our inaction is. What strongholds are we tearing down (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)? How are we waging war on the gates of Hades (Matthew 16:18)? How are we leavening the world or growing the mustard tree when we won’t even engage the world (Matthew 13:31-35)?

Again, this can’t go on forever. But if it’s going to be somebody who makes the change, why can’t it be us? The sooner we draw the line in the sand and start pushing the boulder uphill, the quicker we can have an effect and the more souls (and lives) we’ll see saved.

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Notes

Starting this week you’ll be seeing an uptick in posts, with new video feature Masculinity Monday rolled out yesterday, Thursdays Through the Text coming in 2 days, and the occasional Cultural Breakdown.

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