Yes there are. I know this because I am one. You, I pray, are one as well. Because there are only two kinds of genuine Christians, carnal ones and dead ones. It is important, as always, that we define our terms. When I affirm the existence of carnal Christians I’m affirming the truth that all living Christians are engaged in a constant battle between their own flesh and the Spirit, between the old man and new. Paul admonishes the ones he calls brothers, to whom he says God has given grace, who are the very children of God, that they are carnal (I Cor. 3:3). If the believers in Corinth are described by the Holy Spirit as carnal, well then, believers at the very least can be carnal.
Why then ask the question? Because there is no such thing as a “Carnal Christian” ™. Here we are not talking about believers who continue to battle against sin, but unbelievers who don’t battle against sin, while claiming to be believers. There was a time when well-respected evangelical scholars advocated for the notion that one could embrace Christ as one’s Redeemer while denying Him Lordship over one’s life. There was a time when the world’s largest para-church organization taught this noxious notion. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that were a person to cry out for God’s mercy in Christ, later repudiate that profession, embrace atheism or satanism, and live a life that makes Liberace, Hugh Hefner and Jeffrey Dahmer look like a Girl Scout troop, that said person would after his death be with Jesus forever.
Such a lifestyle, however, is not what keeps anyone out of heaven. Embracing atheism or Satanism will not keep anyone out of heaven. The only thing that keeps anyone out of heaven is any sin uncovered by the blood of Christ. And all who have so been covered, while they may battle this besetting sin or walk into some other moral failure, continue to battle, and by His grace and power walk out of their moral failure. The denial of the faith, whether in word or deed, is the evidence the faith was never there, not that the sins were too great for grace.
The only thing “Carnal Christianity” ™ is good for is to open wider the gate to the wide road to hell. It is the devil’s own patented false assurance machine. Getting jabbed with it will not keep you out of hell. It’ll just delude you into thinking you’ll never end up there, until you die and join the millions of other jabbed goats in eternal torment.
The grace of God is the balm of Gilead, the comfort to those beaten down by their sins. It is not an invitation to surrender to our sins. May God give us carnal Christians grace to fight the good fight and may “Carnal Christianity” ™ return to the pit from which it came, never to return.