Christians Ought to Be the Best Artists

“If Christianity is true, Christians ought to be the best artists in the world across all forms of media.”

You probably aren’t going to buy that, so let me explain where I am coming from.

If Christianity is true, then Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ is, “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6, NIV). We’re going to focus on the word Truth here.

If Jesus Christ is the Truth, it implies that only through knowing Him can one know the Truth. He is the one unifying Truth. While there are parts of truth revealed by general revelation to everyone, follower of Jesus Christ or not, to gain the most comprehensive picture of Truth, one must know Jesus Christ.

This is an important differentiation to make. There are things that are obviously true to practically all people. It is clear that love is a good thing. It is clear that our world is a beautiful place. It is clear that evil brings about sorrow. Christians and non-Christians can similarly understand these truths through general revelation.

However, there are parts of the universe that cannot be appreciated unless one knows Jesus Christ. It may be clear that love is good, but it is hard to appreciate true love unless one understands that Jesus Christ served as our perfect sacrifice and laid down His life for our sin. In fact, it is hard to understand sin and the consequences of human rebellion if there is not a God for humanity to rebel against. These dimensions of truth can only be appreciated by someone coming from a Christian perspective. If Christianity is true and these facts are true, it follows that the Christian would have more truth than non-Christians who only limited to the general revelation obvious in the world.

If Christians indeed have the ability to access a greater portion of truth, then it ought to come out through the culture that we create. Literature is great when it speaks to the human condition. It speaks the truth and communicates reality to an audience.

The literature that communicates more truth ought to be greater, and if my thesis is correct, Christians should be able to pour more truth into a work of literature for example because Christians have a greater appreciation of the overall Truth embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. Christians understand more truth about love because Christians understand the definition of love in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for example.

It is worth mentioning at this point that obviously Christians do not always live up to the standard. I am arguing that Christians have access to more truth than non-Christians do if of course Christianity is true. This does not mean that we always discover truth or accurately understand that. Obviously, Christians can be mistaken for a variety of reasons. Christians might jump to conclusions, insert personal bias and make wrong assumptions. This is not an argument that Christian artists are perfect by any means, and we certainly do not always live up to this potential.

I used literature as an example above, but the same applies to any type of media. Who should be able to make the most beautiful paintings? Christians ought to be able to do this because Christians ought to have a greater sensitivity and appreciation for beauty due to the relationship with God, the source of all beauty. Beauty is a dimension of truth and involves viewing things in the way that they truly are created by God and endowed with beauty.

That is of course the challenge then. All I have argued here is that Christians ought to have the potential to create great works across all forms of media because we have access to the truth and away that other people do not if of course Christianity is true. That doesn’t mean we always live up to that potential, but we should.

If it is important for Christians to create culture, then let’s get to work, and let’s do it well.