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In the video below, Ray Comfort from the Way of the Master has a conversation with eighteen-year-old Josh. Josh makes a few statements which show the general misunderstanding that today’s young people have about Christianity and truth. Notice a few key misunderstandings Josh mentions:
1. One can “try God”
Josh seems to think you can try a religion in the same way you try on a new outfit. I’m sure he took it a little more seriously than that, but here’s the point: he “came to Jesus” for a therapeutic reason, not to be rescued from the depths of his sin. Josh said he accepted Christ and was baptized shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But then he fell away because he didn’t “feel anything.” Matthew 10:22 reads: “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” This is Jesus speaking. Jesus NEVER suggested to anyone to “give Him a try.” Instead, He firmly stated that there is only one cure for what ails mankind (sin), and that is repentance and forgiveness through an exclusive relationship with Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate. Either Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, once and for all, or He is not. This not a subjective (relative) truth, it’s objective. (Fodder for another post)
2. The way to be accepted by God is to “be as good as you can be”
When Ray pressed Josh on what it means to “be as good as you can be” and how do you know if you are, Josh did not have an answer. This is a common misconception about Christianity, again rooted in relativism. Jesus never called people to be “as good as they can be” so that He will accept them in the end. Jesus told people to do good works while on this earth, but as a result of our relationship with Him, not as a way to earn favor with God. The author of Hebrews wrote that ” by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14, NIV) Perfection is for heaven; striving for holiness is an evidence of faith in trust in Jesus, not a work performed in hopes of earning a pass through the Pearly Gates.
3. I can come to God on my own terms
No, you can’t. This is another common misconception. When asked by Ray when he will finally repent of his sins and trust in Jesus, Josh said “when I’m hurting the most.” I completely understand that people reach out to God in their most desperate time of need. The Prodigal Son did so. I did as well. Those desperate times have a way of opening our spiritual eyes and ears to that we can see and hear from God and respond to Him. Revelation 3:20 states, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (NIV) None of us asked God to knock on the door of our heart. Each person has rejected Him (Rom. 3:23). Therefore it’s only on His terms that we can return to Him. God is the instigator; without His willingness to rescue sinful people from certain death, we would have no hope. But we can have fellowship with God again (i.e. eat with Him) when we set our sinful ways aside and trust in God’s ways, which have been clearly revealed in His Word-Jesus and the Bible.
Photo courtesy of Aidan O'Sullivan's flickr photostream
I recently updated the tag line under the Truth-In-Sight blog title. The reason was to make sure the purpose of this blog is plain and clear to its current and future readers. In using the phrase “think Christianly,” I thought I should take a moment to explain that further.
Yourdictionary.com gives this definition of the word “Christian:”
- of Jesus Christ or his teachings
- of or professing the religion based on these teachings
- having the qualities demonstrated and taught by Jesus Christ, as love, kindness, humility, etc.
- of or representing Christians or Christianity
For all you grammar freaks out there, “think” is the verb in the phrase and “Christianly” is the adverb. The definition above relates to using the word “Christian” as an adjective, which describes a noun. In our case, the definitions are the same but describe a verb, which is to “think.”
Since all people (who are not in a brain-dead state) think, those who profess to follow Jesus Christ as born-again believers have an extra responsibility. That is to train their minds to think Christianly, “having the qualities demonstrated and taught by Jesus Christ, as love, kindness, humility, etc.” This does not come naturally; we must work at it.
1 Cor. 14:20 states, “Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” (NIV) Just as our minds grow with knowledge as we age in years, so does our spiritual minds grow in faith and maturity the longer we walk with the Lord. We take in His truths, meditate on them, and practice them in our lives. In an ideal world, all Christians would be actively pursuing such a process. However, we all at times tend to get weighed down with the cares of the world and with how busy life seems to get. This is when the world begins to influence Christians much more than Christians are influencing the world.
I hope to use this blog as a positive and informative resource for Christians and truth-seekers. Please engage myself and each other with your helpful comments. I welcome you to join the discussion.
Below is a link to my review of Ravi Zacharias’ book Jesus Among Other Gods. It’s an impressive treatment of the exclusive claims of Jesus that He is the One and Only True God. This is an assertion that gets people riled up on face value alone. But don’t let your presuppositions stop you from exploring the issue. Because of his unique background, Zacharias is able to give a fair and thorough treatment of the question.
My review is found here: Jesus Among Other Gods review
You can see the Amazon reviews here: Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
Below is a link to an article I wrote about the problem of evil. Many people have concerns about how to harmonize the existence of God with the existence of evil. This article, admittedly philosophical in nature, may help get you started if you would like more study on this important issue.
Question: based on the article, how might you approach a conversation with a non-theist on this issue?
The question Richard Dawkins can’t answer
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Evangelicals on religious pluralism
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Religion 101: How to have eternal life
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Hey Sunday School teachers! Keep it up! In fact, go out tomorrow and teach the best lesson you can! Trust God that He’ll bring the harvest, as this video shows is happening all around the country. Sure, we hear all the time about bad people doing bad stuff. It’s about time we hear about someone doing good and upholding truth and honesty in the world.
Imagine living in a world where the best answer you can get to the most profound questions in life is, “I can’t tell you for sure. The search for truth is still advancing.” That’s not a very satisfying response to me. The search for truth must end somewhere. It can’t simply carry on for hundreds or thousands of years with no resolution.
The “search for truth” can be taken a couple of different ways. For example, if I want to know the origin of life, that’s a pretty major search – it could take a while. We’ll come back to that one. But if I want to know the truth about what I had for dinner last night, that’s not too hard. Surely there’s some evidence which can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I had a chili-cheese, extra-long Coney Dog from Sonic. There may be physical evidence, like a used wrapper or a receipt. Or perhaps there’s anecdotal evidence, like the testimony of my neighbor, who I stopped and talked with around dinner time while holding a Sonic bag. We can use the rules of evidence to determine the truth about what I had for dinner last night. Therefore, the truth can be known for sure, beyond a reasonable doubt.
What about this scenario: I’m going for my afternoon run and a strange dog approaches me on the road. Can I know the truth about whether this dog is friendly or mean? Will I get bit or will I get licked to death? I don’t know. I might have an intuition about this dog based on past experience with other dogs, but I can’t know it’s nature for sure just by looking at it. At first I might say, “I can’t tell you for sure the truth about this dog.” But given enough time and experience with this dog, I think I could tell you beyond a reasonable doubt whether it’s friendly or mean. If I walk past it for 1,000 straight days and the dog never threatens me, then I can surely say it’s not a mean dog. Given enough time and evidence, the truth can be known about this dog.
Take this scenario: I’m out in the woods in search of mushrooms. Can I know the truth about whether the mushrooms I pick are edible or poisonous? Without prior knowledge and experience with mushrooms, I can’t tell just by looking at them. But if someone taught me the difference between good and bad mushrooms, if they showed me using authoritative books or other materials, then I would have the knowledge to determine which mushrooms are truly good and which are not. Which is a good thing, because I don’t want to get sick and die from eating bad mushrooms.
Recently I read a statement on the Unitarian Universalist website which describes their worldview. The statement reads, “As there is no official Unitarian Universalist creed, Unitarian Universalists are free to search for truth on many paths. To quote the Rev. Marta Flanagan, ‘We uphold the free search for truth. We will not be bound by a statement of belief. We do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed. We say ours is a non-creedal religion. Ours is a free faith.’” Elsewhere on their website, the UUA claims it “advocates freedom of belief and the search for advancing truth.”
I find it curious that the UUA claims as members followers of many beliefs, such as Christianity, Judaism, Humanism and Atheism. I take it that when the UUA refers to the search for advancing truth, it is not really referring to the truth about my dinner last night, or the nature of strange dogs, or how to determine whether a mushroom are good or bad for you. I believe it is referring to the larger questions of life, such as where did I come from, why am I here, and so on. The UUA advocates that many belief systems can potentially lead one to the truth.
I wonder if the law of non-contradiction has a place in their worldview? You know, the principle which says, “that two antithetical propositions cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense. X cannot be non-X. A thing cannot be and not be simultaneously. And nothing that is true can be self-contradictory or inconsistent with any other truth.” (Phillip Johnson, 1995) Followers of different belief systems make truth claims which are contradictory. Atheists claim there is no God while Christians claim God exists and can be known in a personal way. These are contradictory statements which cannot be simultaneously true. However, the UUA seems to overlook rational thought and established law when it advocates that many (contradictory) belief systems can lead to the truth.
I know that these kind of observations are considered intolerant by some. However, using faulty logic to avoid facing absolute truth may be taking tolerance a bit too far. The UUA has a lofty goal of all people achieving eternal life. But this pursuit has to be consistent with the laws nature and reason by which we live right now. I can ignore the rules of evidence which help me determine good mushrooms from bad, and I will suffer the consequences. The same applies to spiritual things. Ignoring the law of non-contradiction may also lead to the inability to discover absolute truth, which leads to true eternal life. Jesus claimed that He is the way, the truth, and the life. And nobody comes to the Father except through Him (Jesus). Sounds pretty exclusive, which upsets some folks. But that’s a statement which is consistent with the laws we know and live by everyday. Maybe we should give it some serious consideration.
I’m not sure if it’s wise to post the first blog on April 1st! Maybe this will be taken as one big joke. Perhaps that’s the way God ordained it, since Truth is so often mocked in this postmodern world. That’s why our task here is to bring His truth into the sights of regular people like you and me. Through the leading of the Holy Spirit, I hope to have conversations about the Truth. I can share some insights and so can you. The more we think about and discuss the Truth, the closer we’ll be to Him. Proverbs 12:15 proclaims, “The way of a fool is right in his own opinion, but the one who listens to advice is wise.” (NET Bible) Can there really be many truths or many paths to truth in this world? Is every truth opinion equally valid? Jesus Christ was Truth Incarnate, and we would be wise to listen to His advice. Of course, I just made a truth statement when I declared that Jesus was “Truth Incarnate.” There are lots of people in this world who don’t accept that statement and have their own opinion. Is that foolish? Am I foolish? Whose opinion is ultimately right? Who gets to decide what’s right? On this April Fool’s day of 2008, let’s move from childish pranks toward real answers about Real Truth. This isn’t a joke, but the journey to truth insights is fun, and I hope you will join along for the ride!
Blessings (really, no kidding),
Doug
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