During the eighteenth century, the French embarked on a cultural experiment. Could they develop a society with no connection to God, specifically, the God of the Bible? This period was called the Enlightenment and impacted not only France but also Europe and the USA.

Simultaneously, during the eighteenth century, the Great Awakening emerged in England and spread to North America. The movement began with a vision for discipleship, but in time under the leadership of John Wesley, it morphed into simply an evangelistic campaign.

The clash of the atheistic French Enlightenment and the theistic Great Awakening led to the development of a new worldview that became known as deism. Through deism, theists were seeking to find common ground with atheists. Deism posited that God created the universe and then disconnected from it. Consequently, God was no longer engaged with his creation. This meant that after Creation and biblical times (the first century AD) there was no supernatural activity. This meant there was no divine intervention or interaction in human affairs. Because of the presumption of a distant God, the deist worldview was like atheism. Therefore, deists succeeded in finding common ground.

Deism grew and is prominent today. It is the populist view in the workplace. During my half-century work career, my anecdotal experience is that work is viewed as a naturalistic experience with little connection to spiritual reality. Guidance through prayer and scriptural teaching is rare in most organizations. Seeking or expecting divine intervention or interaction in daily events is a foreign idea. Words such as sin are rarely uttered in organizations even though sin is the biggest challenge for every organization. Correspondingly, theology is not recognized as the driver of all reality, including the actions of all workers. This means that professing Christians don’t work significantly differently from professing atheists. Deism has contributed to neutralizing Christianity in the workplace.

Deism has become prominent even in the context of the Christian church. It can be found in a popular expression of the gospel known as MTD—an acronym for “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Early in the twenty-first century, sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton sought to understand the gospel held by American teenagers.ⁱ Based on empirical studies, they reported that the popular American gospel could be summarized as MTD—moralistic therapeutic deism.

Moralistic means people want some sense of right and wrong.
Therapeutic intimates that people want to feel better.
And deism means that people view God as impersonal—distant and therefore uninvolved in their lives.

The MTD message supports today’s popular assumption that a priori dismisses even the possibility of supernatural intervention and interaction in people’s lives.

After one rejects the possibility of supernatural activity, such as miracles, signs, and wonders, it is easy to question the work of the Holy Spirit to regenerate, indwell, and illuminate true followers of Jesus. And when people reject the supernatural in their spiritual lives, it is easy to reject supernatural activity as an explanation for anything else in life. So, the MTD gospel supports the atheistic worldview that is prominent in the workplace.

However, to postulate the Christian life without supernatural activity or divine engagement is not Christian. The biblical record is rife with divine intervention in the affairs of men, starting with Creation itself. And the pinnacle of divine intervention is the incarnation of Jesus, the only theanthropic person, who is the protagonist of the Christian metanarrative and the heart of the true gospel. The MTD gospel does not make room even for Jesus, who is the author, sustainer, and perfecter of the Christian faith.ⁱⁱ

Living as a Christian is a lifestyle of dwelling with God. Implicit in this reality is supernatural activity. Every Christian begins his or her journey with Jesus through regeneration, which is executed by the sovereign will of God through the Holy Spirit.ⁱⁱⁱ Then the Holy Spirit illuminates Scripture^iv and empowers^v believers to grow in their ability to live Christ-like.

Christianity can therefore be characterized as a supernatural lifestyle. This doesn’t necessarily mean that every Christian will raise the dead and heal the crippled. But every Christian is empowered through the regenerating, indwelling, and illuminating work of the Holy Spirit to live a maturing life in Christ.

The reality of the supernatural lifestyle of Christians will manifest in how they live at home, in the workplace, in the Christian community, and in society. Their lifestyle will holistically reflect a sound, maturing theological understanding of who God is and who they are in him.

Sound theology in the workplace will be seen in true Christians who are progressively self-governed under God. That is, they are regulated by Scripture as illuminated by the Holy Spirit. I use the word progressively to indicate that maturing in Christ is a lifelong process.

The fruit of true Christians will reflect a heart of worship because they will obey the mandate of Scripture:

And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 CSB)

In this text, the Greek word translated deed is the general word for work, that is, every kind of work. The apostle Paul mandated that Christians speak and work as agents of the Lord Jesus in every way and in every place all the time. This means that the core of work is rooted in the spiritual reality of being a follower of Jesus.

Deism is incompatible with Christianity because it denies the God of Christianity. Deism denies that God is personal and engaged with his creation through the disciples of Jesus. Therefore, the populist deistic view of work today is not Christian. The deistic worldview today is supported by a wrong gospel—the MTD gospel. Christians must reject this erroneous gospel and embrace the true gospel of the kingdom of God.^vi This was the gospel of Jesus.

Christians must be vigilant to protect the veracity of the gospel of the kingdom, including its supernatural aspect, and resist the temptation to accommodate a culture that, a priori, rejects the supernatural intervention of God in the affairs of men.

Living the truth of the gospel of the kingdom of God is the only way to live as a Christian. True Christians live to sacrificially serve the purpose of God in everything they do and say. This is the only way to be salt and light^vii in a fallen world and to glorify God in all that they do.^viii