Category: Uncategorised

What’s coming up on the next episode of the podcast? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

On the next episode of the Deeper Waters podcast, my guest will be biblical scholar David Instone-Brewer, author of the book “The Jesus Scandals.” The book is a look at various items that are included in the gospels that would have been embarrassing to the writers, but they had to be put in anyway.

Why? Some cases like the miracles could not really be denied. Wait. Miracles would be seen as embarrassing? They would be. The general climate of the populace was to scoff at the claims of miracles. Perhaps the only exception would have been in Palestine, and even there there would have been some resistance.

Other claims had to be brought up to deal with the rumors that would have been passed around about Jesus. We would think the virgin birth would have been given to bring honor to Jesus. Not at all. It would likely remind a number of readers of supposed pagan parallels, of which there aren’t really any like Jesus, but the charge would have often been brought up that Jesus was illegitimate. The story of the virgin birth had to be given because it is the true story, even though it would have been easier to just say the father was Joseph or even a Pantera.

These are meant to address the criterion of embarrassment. By having embarrassing details in the gospels, it lends more credibility to them, and these are just two that I have mentioned that can be found in the accounts. I only bring them up because they’re the ones most people would have an opinion about without realizing that they were scandalous.

Also mentioned are the difficult teachings of Jesus. Why would the gospels have teachings of Jesus that his own followers had a hard time following and were quite out of sync with the rest of the community where He lived? Could it be that the real reason Jesus is recorded as teaching such hard teachings is that He in fact did teach them?

What about His having companions that were women? In the Jewish culture of the day, a rabbi was not to associate with women, but Jesus did so. They were among some of His followers as well. Why would a rabbi do this in Jesus’s time knowing it was out of kilter with the way that society behaved? Could it be not only that Jesus knew the heart of God towards women, but also that Jesus actually did associate with women?

Finally, we will be talking about the Asperger’s community in Cambridge where Instone-Brewer is at. This is relevant because it is Autism Awareness Month and also because Jesus gave a unique status to the disabled, and the fact that someone disabled is allowed to have a position in the Christian church and have a podcast and be liked by so many of you, to which I am grateful, is an influence of the work of Christ 2,000 years ago.

Please join us. The call in number from 3-5 EST on Saturday 4/20/13 is 714-242-5180. Link can be found here.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

If there’s a resurrection, is there a sacrifice? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

In a video I dealt with recently, the question came up about the death of Jesus. Jesus came back from the dead on Sunday morning after dying on Friday afternoon. How can that be a sacrifice? Is it really a sacrifice if you give something up and you know that you will get it back?

Something to consider. This is a parallel to the account of Abraham. Did Abraham know he would get his son Isaac back. He had been told specifically that “Through Isaac, your offspring will be reckoned.” He had been given a promise that Isaac then would be the one through whom God would build a great nation.

But yet he was told to make a sacrifice and in spite of that sacrifice, he was assured that Isaac would be a father. How could this be? The Hebrews writer tells us that Abraham somehow even then trusted that the God who brought about a miraculous birth of Isaac could raise him from the dead. This was in an age where miracles weren’t widespread and there had been no resurrection yet.

Now we are strong defenders of the deity of Christ, but let us remember we are also strong defenders of His humanity. There are things Jesus did not know on Earth and the only things He knew were that which God had revealed to Him (Beyond basic learning and such of course). When it came to future events, He had to trust the revelation of God.

This was the way of His life. Jesus too had to trust in the Father. When He was tempted, He had to give answers as to why one should not follow the devil but follow the Father instead. When He prayed, He prayed that if there be another way, please let it come about. He knew not of one, but He was still wanting one.

Could it be that the Son was trusting in the Father that He would raise Him from the dead? Was He saying on the cross that I commend my spirit to you in the trust that you will find favor with it? Could it be then the sacrifice was real on the part of Jesus just like it was on the part of Abraham? Both were confident that they would get back what they had given, but both to the end had to trust YHWH? Jesus Himself had to trust the Father to the point of death, as Jesus had to succeed where Israel had failed.

After the sacrifice was made, God could do with it what He wanted. If you give me all you have as a gift, it is still a gift even if I say I will give it all back to you. Even if you think that I will do so, you can still consider it a gift. Of course, someone could say YHWH would be faithful to the promises that He has made, but remember Abraham and Jesus had to realize that when push came to shove, and it was a lesson Israel had not learned.

This was also why Jesus did not just die as an infant. Jesus had to live to be the true King of Israel. It wasn’t just that Jesus came to die alone. Jesus came to be the King, and He had to live a life to let the world know that God’s appointed King had shown up. Jesus showed his right to rule by His trust in YHWH, trust even to death.

What difference did it make? That’s for another time.

Is it heretical to think some prophecy has been fulfilled? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

I wrote recently about my position as an orthodox Preterist. What’s amazing to me often times is how many people assume I’m teaching some heretical doctrine right at the start. I hold to every doctrine that is essential for salvation. I am right up there with the Trinity, deity of Christ, salvation by grace through faith, future bodily resurrection, past bodily resurrection of Christ, etc. I also hold a high view of Scripture.

Yet this misnomer gets tossed around regularly and what’s really stunning is that most people who say it to me freely confess they have not studied my position at all. Even worse, most of them think that they don’t need to. Meanwhile, when I spoke about this at my old church in Charlotte, I got several books on dispensationalism to make sure I was representing them properly. I was further convinced by reading them, but I gave them a chance.

Little tip here. If you’re sure your position is correct, why should you fear the other side? On the other hand, if you come and treat my view in a way I see as ludicrous, why should I be convinced?

I’d like to give an analogy of the way I see prophecy. Suppose you live in 50 A.D. and you are a Christian in Jerusalem. You are talking to a person who is a Jew and does not believe in Jesus as Messiah. When reasoning with a Jew, the Old Testament prophecies will be an essential part of your evangelism. Here are some objections you could hear.

“How could Jesus be the Messiah if we have not been restored to the Davidic Kingdom?”

“Wouldn’t the Messiah make sure that Rome is eliminated?”

“We still have demonic activity here with our exorcists having to work. Wouldn’t Jesus eliminate that?”

“Isn’t there supposed to be universal peace?”

Couldn’t you point to some of your own prophecies? You could. You could say some have been fulfilled in Christ. Here’s some responses you could hear back. (I do realize chapters and verses weren’t added until later so please excuse that anachronism)

“Oh? You say John the Baptist fulfills Isaiah 40:3? Maybe Mark should have told you the next part:

Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Obviously, the valleys were not raised up and every mountain and hill made low! We still have them! You’re just spiritualizing the text!”

“Isaiah 53? The same one that says:

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

Don’t allegorize the text!”

“Zechariah 9? Yes. It says he’ll come riding on a donkey. What else does it say?

I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.

I don’t see that rule going on right now! Don’t allegorize it!”

What has happened? You believe some prophecies have had a past fulfillment. With regards to the coming of Messiah, you believe some prophecies are past. You do believe some are future still, such as what is to happen at the return of Christ or as the Kingdom spreads, but obviously, some prophecies are you are not taking literally. You don’t believe the coming of John the Baptist means the topography of Israel was literally changed.

In those days, you would be a Messianic Preterist talking to someone who believes the Messiah is future, a Messianic Futurist.

Note also, with regards to the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, you would also still be a futurist as 70 A.D. had not happened yet.

Why do I say this? Because just like you in 50 A.D., I look at Jesus and say some prophecies he made have already been fulfilled. I could be wrong, sure, but what is inherently heretical about that? For instance, if I think he prophesied the destruction of the temple and I see that the temple was destroyed and to beat that, within one generation, am I not justified in that?

You could say that it could be my stance on the nation of Israel. If I don’t believe in a future fulfillment or a third temple, I am not in line with orthodoxy. How could that be? Our doctrinal statements are about Christ and not about Israel. Note also orthodoxy is what you believe about Christ, not antichrist.

If you lived in the first century in 50 A.D. you would say some prophecies have been fulfilled even if not literally. I am doing the exact same thing today. The Jew back then would have said you were not being a true Jew even though you certainly were being one. The problem is he’s assuming Scripture must be fulfilled the way he thinks.

It would be a shame to make the same mistake.

Again, I could be wrong. If my eschatology is wrong, I’m open to it. My simple stance is people who disagree with me should be open as well. Even if another view is wrong, it can help you understand and appreciate yours more when you see what the other side says. Give it a try.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Note: Please keep in mind that eschatology will be part of the discussion this week on the Deeper Waters Podcast. It’s on Saturday from 3-5 EST.

http://www.cyiworldwide.com/deeper-waters.html

Can the gospels stand up to scrutiny? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

One of the great benefits of having a Kindle is that one can read old books for free. Included in that would be a book such as “Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus” (TWRJ) by Thomas Sherlock. The book was written in 1729 in response to the deist Thomas Woolston. Sherlock presents the case in a court room setting with the gospels being tried. Woolston takes one position and Sherlock another before a judge. Sherlock disposes of Woolston’s arguments as well as giving the positive evidence.

The reader could be surprised to see that some modern controversies are still showing up and even answered beforehand. For instance, this book was published nineteen years before Hume’s “Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding” and yet already, Hume’s argument is dealt with. If we are to judge everything by our own experience, what of someone who lives in a tropical culture and is told about such a thing as water freezing and becoming solid? It will be outside of their experience and they have no basis to accept it other than the personal testimony of someone who says otherwise. (Note also these cultures would not have access to television or internet)

Also, it is my opinion that back then, Christians faced off against better arguments. Their opponents were far more informed. This is different from today where one can just be stunned at the ignorance of people like the new atheists in the areas of philosophy, theology, and biblical studies.

Sherlock’s presentation in this work is quite strong fortunately which leads to the next conclusion. The opponents had better arguments, but fortunately, so did the Christians. Sherlock shows that for Woolston, explaining the Christian account of reality is quite difficult, and this even without much of our modern understanding of how the biblical world was an honor-shame culture. It is a wonder to think about what Sherlock would have said if he had been around today and imbibed himself of some of what we’ve learned since his time.

Some arguments back then were seen as bizarre ipso facto. Would that they still were. Consider this on page 33. “…if the argument be good at all, it will be good to prove, that there never was such a man as Jesus in the world. Perhaps the gentleman may think that this is a little too much to prove: and if he does, I hope he will quit the argument in one case as well as in the other; for difference there is none.”

Yes. The idea that Jesus never existed was seen as ludicrous. If only such thinking was around today, but unfortunately internet atheists regularly buy into this idea. Some will say that they think that He did exist, but it’s possible to build a convincing case that He didn’t. Oh wait. It’s not just internet atheists any more. Dawkins on page 122 of “The God Delusion” says it’s possible to build a serious though not widely supported case that Jesus never even existed. On page 127 of “The New Atheism”, Victor Stenger says that we know Joseph Smith existed, but we cannot be so sure in the case of Muhammad or Jesus. In “The Portable Atheist”, starting on page 430, Ibn Warraq, an ex-Muslim, starts an argument for the case that Jesus never even existed.

Tell any of these guys that ID is serious science (A case I’m not arguing for here.) and you’ll be laughed to no end. Yet here these non-specialists come out and make the case that the Jesus myth is serious history. Perhaps the advice on page 4 of TWRJ would help. “He is but a poor council who studies on one side of the question only.”

Ultimately, the case will come down to Sherlock’s greatest proclamation in my opinion in the book. On page 15 he gives the challenge to Woolston. “There is therefore here no medium: you must either admit the miracle or prove the fraud.”

And today, the challenge still stands. Someone must admit the miracle or prove the fraud, and it looks like the fraud side is lacking even more today.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Sherlock’s book can be downloaded for free on your Kindle here

Can you serve in the Kingdom? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

A favorite passage of Scripture I like to discuss with my Mrs. is the one in 1 Cor. 1 where God uses the shameful and despised things of this world for his glory. I have written much about getting apologetics in the local church, but I would not want people to have the idea that that must mean everyone has to know apologetics.

My friend J. Warner Wallace of Pleaseconvinceme.com has a great analogy for this. He says that few of us will be top chefs. Some of us are, but most are not. Still, all of us know the basics on how to fix a meal for ourselves. In the same way, not everyone will be a professional apologist, but all should know how to fix a basic defense for themselves.

Are there other ways to serve?

Before answering that, I would like to deal with the attitude that comes up with people saying “I can’t do anything for God’s Kingdom.” First off, this is an insult to God actually. You are telling the one who is omniscient that He did not know better when He made you. You are making a statement that He made a mistake. Your existence is not supposed to be part of this world.

If we believe Scripture, we must believe that a person is valuable for what they are and that God works everything together for good to those who love the Lord. That means yes, He can use your efforts. Note also that biblically, even if you refuse to serve God, your actions will serve His plans anyway. As C.S. Lewis said, you will either serve willingly or unwillingly, so you might as well serve willingly.

The problem for many of us is that the voice of the world seems to overpower the voice of God.

To reply to that, I’d like to let readers know a little bit about where I’m coming from.

I have not hid in this blog that I have Asperger’s, as does my wife. I also have scoliosis. The first one inhibits me socially. The second one inhibits me physically. Still, I do tend to blend in well enough. With the second one for instance, most people would not know the way I still run everywhere that I have that cold hard steel back there. (My treatment involved surgery to place a metal rod on my spine.)

Growing up, I was quite inhibited. I could say I was liked, but the people I counted as friends were few in number. I was mainly living in my own world. The thing I had going for me was my intelligence. Gym class was naturally the worst form of suffering that I could undergo. I was that kid in school that sat in the class room and went home and spent the day doing what I wanted and still managed to make A’s. In High School, I got the senior superlative of “Most Studious.”

Yet in high school, there were no dates. There were no girlfriends. I didn’t go to any prom at all in school. In fact, for the last couple of years, I found myself struggling with depression. The only thing I really knew was my Christian faith.

When it came time to go to college, because of disability, my parents were able to find help for that. I told the people from Vocational Rehabilitation that I was wanting to go to college to go into ministry. For them, this seemed ridiculous. My mind was better suited to something like an engineer, but this held no interest for me.

I was told that this was a mistake also because due to my social inhibition, I would not be able to handle public speaking.

I wish they had been there when in my senior year at Bible College, I gave a senior sermon to my entire student body and a large number of professors, around 1,000 people, and did it just fine. In fact, it was a message that even when I was on the campus a year later working on my Master’s, students still spoke to me about.

Part of the success was learning to not listen to those around me who were critical.

Now in Bible College, that is where I learned about apologetics and that is how I found my niche. It was through that that my depression lifted. I found a way that I could truly serve and put my mind to the most use. Before too long I was buying any book that I could and devouring it. I was listening to broadcasts online, with my personal favorite being Ravi Zacharias. (It was a great joy in my life when my Dad honoring a Christmas wish I made somehow arranged for me to get to meet Ravi in his office. It is a day I have never forgot.) My mother would want to panic every time I came home from the bookstore since I would have even more books. At my first apologetics conference, I spent $400 on books, to which the person running the bookstore would often thank me for paying his tuition every year.

Keep in mind in all of this time, there were of course critics. There were people who were saying I had no business being in this field. Still, I have had a tendency to refuse to listen. However, there was one critic that followed me to no end constantly going after my abilities and doing their best to disregard the contributions I believed I was making.

As you might guess, that critic was myself.

After all, we are always our own worst critics.

This was despite the fact of being a student working on a Master’s in Seminary and being respected by practically everyone that I met. My journey to success in this involved talking to people who were quite good at dealing with emotional doubt and seeing what I could do to get the problem under control.

Some matters helped, but there was one step that has helped the very most.

To quote the beginning of the Tobey Maguire movie, “This story begins with a girl.”

It was in 2009 that I was introduced to Allie. Now keep in mind as I said I was the shy and inhibited kid. I think I had had one date in all my time since high school. Allie and I had really hit things off. Allie was my first kiss and that of course, is an event I keep repeating to this day. (It is a point of ours to begin each morning giving each other a kiss before we get out of bed and letting a good night kiss end the day) My own roommate I understand told a mutual friend of ours (Who later was a groomsman) that we needed to book a wedding chapel soon. He was sure this was going that way as he started looking for a new place to live. It was a change neither one of us would have thought was coming earlier that year (Note to those going to college or seminary or just moving out. Always put in a marriage clause for a roommate).

As I said, I met her in 2009. Within three months, I had proposed. We were married on July 24th, 2010. As a friend of ours told us recently hearing our story on the phone, “You didn’t waste any time did you?” For us, it is incredible how many people look at us and see a perfect match. It is interesting since we are in many ways quite different, such as I’m the intellect among us and she’s the emotional one. Naturally, I do see ways we’re influencing each other. I’m more in touch with my emotional side and I notice her catching bad logic in what people are saying.

It was after our marriage in fact that I really started to launch Deeper Waters and push it forward. It was after that that I found my personal critic was learning to shut up. My thinking on this has been that I used to be vindicated by my apologetics as it were. Now, Allie provides my vindication. She is the one who affirms me constantly. That frees me more in other areas and pushes me to succeed more.

I tell this to her several times. I could not do what I do without her.

Okay. This has been long, but I thought it important to tell you about myself. Why? Because I think people like Allie and I are the ones that the world looks at and says that they’re no good. We don’t fit the “perfect” mold. We are not the way that everyone else is supposed to be, so we just need to mind our own business and let the world go on. We don’t have anything to contribute.

Balderdash.

If people like us, people the world has often rejected, people with limitations on us, can serve, so can you. Now I realize there are people with greater limitations than us. Still, I know many of them are serving. I even think of the clip I’ve seen of a guy who came on Oprah with no legs and no arms and is serving by telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, he even said on the clip that he and his wife are expecting a baby.

My wife is not an apologist either. I’ll go on and state that clearly. If the Mormons or JWs come to the door, she’s going to defer to me. (Although, I have found she can really put Mormons in a bind) So what does she do?

First off, as I’ve said, she is an encouragement to me and that in itself can be a great service. I happen to have thoroughly enjoyed the TV series “Monk” and read the books that come out and I’ve told her that she is my Natalie. She is the one that best enables me to function in this world. Encouragement is a great gift to have. People like myself need others to come alongside us.

Chances are you have a pastor. Your pastor needs encouragement. Of course, if he’s going the wrong way, don’t encourage him in that. Allie is the first one after all to point out if she thinks I’m stepping out of line somewhere. Still, try to make sure to thank the people in your life who are spiritual influences on you. There are a number of times a good comment will come in here on Deeper Waters that I will share with Allie as something that just touches the heart.

Second, find what you do well that is good and praiseworthy, and do it for the kingdom. If you are the top chef as mentioned earlier, then you serve well. Perhaps you can cook for your church or a local homeless shelter. If you are in the world of entertainment, try to bring as much joy as possible to your audience. If you are in the role of medicine, seek to treat each patient as Christ would. If you are a scientist, seek to uncover the grandeur of God.

Whatever it is that you do, I urge you to not settle for second best. I urge you to be ambitious. We are told that whatever we do, we are to do for the glory of God. God does not deserve mediocre or average. Give him the best.

My wife’s gift is art. She’ll spend hours working on one picture, something I just don’t understand. As it stands, right now she is working on a Manga that will be a Christian Manga and really getting into it. What do I think? I think that’s excellent. If that’s the way she wants to serve, then let her throw herself into it and make sure she is serving to the best of her ability.

The problem with the church is that so many of us think that God could never use someone like us so we just don’t even bother to try. It would be a shame to get to the throne of God and realize how many opportunities we missed because we listened to our own voice and the voice of the world rather than the voice of Scripture. If God is incapable of using you, that not only speaks negatively about you. It also speaks negatively about God. It is saying He does not have the power, wisdom, or knowledge, to use you for His glory. You must be the accident.

It might be cliche, but it is true. You are the one who is holding yourself back. God put you here to serve Him in the Kingdom. It’s not about your identity in yourself. It’s about your identity in Him. You are a part of the body of Christ and as part of the body, you are not to say that in any way you cannot serve.

And in fact, if 1 Corinthians is true, which you should think it is, then if you are shamed and rejected, chances are that’s all the more reason you will be used. God did not choose the Romans, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, or any other great culture to serve Him, but chose a group of insignificant people called the Jews. Many of Christ’s disciples that He chose were not influential people. In fact, the people He spent the most time with were the rejects of society.

I highly encourage you to not let yourself be held back. If you wish to serve God, He will help you to serve Him well. Of course this is not done on your own. It is done by reliance on Him and His Holy Spirit working in you. In fact, the more you have to rely on Him, the more glory He gets from it, which is what should be sought.

I also anticipate that if this kind of idea catches on, that people really realize they have the ability to serve God and serve Him well in the Kingdom, we could see our world changed. We could see Christians become the people they were meant to be. We could see them boldly going forth trusting in God to use their offerings, no matter how meager they think them to be, to advance the Kingdom.

Let this truth be put in you today and not ever denied again by anyone, including yourself. YOU CAN SERVE.

In Christ,

Nick Peters

Is there a problem with the church and culture today? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

First off, apologies on not having much this week. By a complete surprise, I did get hired somewhere Monday and have worked every day this week, but I do have weekends off. Still, I plan to try to keep up with the blog as best I can. For those who want to financially support us, keep in mind that your support enables me to do more research and writing, which I can say is something I much more prefer to do.

For now, let us get to the point of today’s blog. Recently in the Christian Apologetics Alliance, there was a post about the sexuality of the culture today. We are constantly bombarded with sexual messages wherever we go and while Christians can look like prudes, we are having to resist what is going on around us.

I’ve written much about the sexual state of our society today, particularly here in America, and while that is fascinating to write about, there is a problem that stems from this overall. Christians are always on the wrong side of the culture war nowadays in America. This is in total contradiction to what we see happening in Christian history.

For instance, the early church was going out doing evangelism to the people all around them and they weren’t afraid to speak. Peter, James, and John would speak openly before the Jewish leaders and when they would be punished for doing so, they would only consider it a badge of honor and go out thanking God for it.

Paul in his missionary journeys a number of times is called before leaders. In fact, when he is arrested in Acts 16, he is told that he is free to leave afterwards but refuses. Instead, he points out that those who arrested him did so to a Roman citizen and that they will not leave until they are personally escorted out of the city. Can you imagine a Christian today making such a bold appeal to the leading authorities? Paul even had the courage at the end to say “I appeal to Caesar!”

Keep in mind the church was a small movement, but they kept going forward. Early apologists like Justin Martyr wrote to the emperor to persuade him that the Christians were not a threat and give reasons why Christianity should be seen as true. How many of us today would be willing to write something like that to an emperor who would have us killed as well as our congregations without a single thought?

Jesus started with a small group. In 300 years, that group had dominated the Roman Empire.

And today in America we can think our culture is too far gone?

What has happened?

The problem is that we have got complacent in our beliefs and taken for granted the Christian status that we have. Christianity became a recognized force and we took that for granted thinking that the situation would always be that way. Today, there are too many Christians who still live as if America is in a strongly Christian era where all they need to do is go out there and say “The Bible says” and that will settle everything.

It no longer will.

Is this because the Bible is less authoritative? In itself, no. In its effect on culture, yes. The Bible no longer holds that place of respect so before we use it, we have to argue for it. Too many Christians are still caught in a fundamentalist mindset where they think that all they need to do is go out there and give a passage of Scripture to someone and they will respond immediately.

Question. If they believed the Bible, don’t you think they’d be Christians already?

Sorry, but we don’t live in that world any more and we won’t get there by just wishing it or acting contrary. We are supposed to be people who live in reality. The reality may not be pleasant, but it sure wasn’t pleasant either for the early church that was regularly being exterminated. Yet for some reason, that church kept going onward.

For those of the fundamentalist persuasion, too often I find they are locking themselves in their own little isolation chambers away from the culture. We are called to be the light in the darkness. Light does not hide itself away. Light shines. Light goes out into the darkness and pierces it. Paul compared us to stars in the night sky. If there were no light from the moon and stars, it would be total darkness (Although in America with our numerous lights, that is hard to imagine). Now think of that total darkness and then suddenly these pinpoints of light called stars show up. Even then, those stars stand out.

What happened? I propose a number of events.

First off, higher criticism of the Bible came around. Christians should have stood their ground, but instead, they caved. What does that say? It says “We do not want to examine the Bible because we do not believe it will hold up to scrutiny. By the way, trust Jesus Christ who is spoken of in the Bible to be the Lord of your life for all eternity.”

Second, evolution came. Christians should have stood their ground as well. Now I am of the opinion that the question of evolution is really moot, but we instead started reacting to the theory. Instead, our response should have been “The science could be insufficient now (Which I think it was) but we will leave the door open and you do your studies and if it is true, we will accept it.”

Christians. This has to be our response. We cannot deny anything that is true. If evolutionary theory is true, then we have to realize we were reading Genesis wrong, and quite likely it will require another reading, like John Walton’s idea in “The Lost World of Genesis One.” If evolutionary theory is false, then oh well. If you are like me and not scientifically-minded, then don’t argue it. You are prone to making as many embarrassing mistakes as the new atheists do when they write about the New Testament. You know how ridiculous they look to us? That’s how you look in the eyes of the scientific community, and you can rest assured they won’t want to hear about Jesus then.

As soon as the church retreats, we case to be the church Jesus created. In Matthew 16, we are told that the gates of Hell will not stand against the church. Gates are defensive. That means the church is to be the one moving forward. Our church was meant to be proactive in engaging the culture. The culture should be wondering how they are going to respond to us. We are instead responding to them. We are in a reactive mode against the culture and thus, we are on the wrong side of the battle. We are having to defend ourselves instead of making the culture give an explanation for its stance.

It’s no surprise we’re that way. Too few people in the church have any clue whatsoever how to defend their faith or what they really believe. Most people just know to give their personal testimony. That’s great. Just today, I read a personal testimony from a Muslim who claimed Allah had healed him. The Mormons whenever I see them give a personal testimony of how they had a burning in the bosom. Ex-Christians give personal testimonies to me about how they used to be and what “set them free.”

If all you have is your testimony, why should someone accept yours over these? Does the truth of your Christian belief depend on you? If your personal testimony is compromised, does that mean that Christianity is not true?

If your Christianity is based on anything other than the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, your Christianity has the wrong roots.

Now does this mean we all have to go out and get our degrees from Seminaries and such in order to have an effect? No, although it couldn’t hurt if more of us did that. It does mean that we need to give ourselves at least some basic education. Heck. The early church won out while most of them were illiterate. We don’t have that problem today. We have so much knowledge at our fingertips it is incredible.

Can you imagine what Paul would have done had he had the internet in his time? Can you imagine all the letters to churches that would have been written? There would be forums addressing the major controversies. There would be powerpoint presentations showing Jesus rose from the dead. His friend Apollos would likely be on every debate forum demonstrating through debate that Jesus rose from the dead. We have means of reaching the world these people could only dream about.

And we’re numerous times less effective than they were.

Now as Christians, we know the problem is not the message of Christ. That message is true. We could say the problem is the culture, but the Roman Empire did not even have a Christian background. It was pagan to the core.

We have met the problem, and it is us.

Why are we in this case? We got complacent and let the rest of the world go out and now we are the ones on the defensive.

Again, this is reversible. The last thing to do to this is to get even more depressed and decide that we are going to retreat even more. What needs to be done is we need to repent of our laziness in evangelism and be going out there again doing the work that we need to do. We need to learn what we believe and why. Churches need to be educating their members not just on how to be good people, but on why Christianity is true. After all, if you want to be a good person, many of the great philosophers of the past can help with that. They had those in the Roman Empire too. If you want to have the truth, only Christianity can deliver that. You are not out there trying to make your listeners into good people. You are out there trying to get them righteous before YHWH, and no philosophy can do that.

The choice is ours. We can hide away and do nothing and let the culture trample all over us, or we can rise up and challenge and let it known that we have a case and we will be heard making it.

I’ve made my choice. What’s yours?

In Christ,

Nick Peters

What bills does the church owe? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

Right now, I’m going through a book on Kindle. To say this book is crazy would be to give it a compliment. Yes. This will be a future review on my blog, but I do note the author does make the case that he used to be a Christian. I do not doubt this. Then at one point the light was shed and now he’s opposed to his former faith greatly.

Online, people like this are common. I wish I had a nickel for each person I meet who says they “Used to be a Christian” and many of them are some of the main opponents I come across. These people fight Christianity with a vengeance, and I suspect it’s because they think they were duped by their church and have a strong vendetta against it.

And in many cases, I think their church did dupe them.

You know what I often read from them? I get the message that they were told they should just have faith. They were denied the right to ask questions. They were told they needed to walk the line or get out. They were treated as if they were the problem. Very rarely do I hear the account of a minister who says “That’s a good question. Let’s do some research and see what we find out.”

Is it any wonder these people leave?

What does this have to do with finances?

We are spending so much on making sure we have the best sound equipment and making sure our youth get to go on special trips and having the carpet looking nice in the church and getting a new camera for video taping services and in themselves, none of these are bad things.

Yet none of them are what the church is really about. The church is meant to equip the saints so that they can glorify God. It is meant to bring a community of worshipers together to the glory of God. Instead, we often turn it into a feel-good service where we can go out and be “Nice Christians.” If you want good ethics, you can turn to a book on philosophy and get that. If you want to bring about the glory of God and salvation for the world, you must have Jesus Christ. The church cannot do that if we are not emphasizing Christ.

Instead, we emphasize ourselves and how we feel.

When someone comes along who doesn’t march to the beat of that drum for whatever reason, we cast them aside. How dare you interrupt our parade! We are here to feel good about ourselves! You’re dragging us out of our comfort zone.

Then, you’ve made an enemy for the church and unfortunately, just as they had accepted Christianity without thinking, they now accept anything else without thinking. The mindset is the same. The allegiance is all that’s changed.

It has been said the cults are the unpaid bills of the church. Fundamentalist atheists and others who abandon Christianity like that leave us then in a financial crisis by comparison.

And the sad part is, we don’t have to be that way. We can be a thinking church and that will not, when done properly, distract us from the joy of the Christian life. Instead, it will, again when done properly, enhance our joy.

Consider it like this. Suppose you have a song that you like. Then you learn something about the song that puts it in a greater context and you realize something incredible about it and then like it even better. That’s the same way it is with our Christian faith. Are we actually saying learning more about God and the Bible will decrease our Christian joy? It is a pitiful faith that thinks the increase of knowledge will lessen the joy of the faith.

Pastors. Think about it. You can have a church where people live responding to their feelings (And don’t you have problems with telling them not to do so when it comes to temptation and the sins of the flesh) or you can have a church that will be informed whose minds will be engaged in their pursuit of Christ. Which one do you want?

When you do this, you will also greatly decrease the number of people who abandon the faith this way.

btw, if your pastor is not informed on these matters at all and does not wish to be informed, I have a great solution to it.

Give him another job.

The church cannot meet the needs of those outside the church if it cannot answer the questions of those within. We are to bring forward a message with confidence. We are not to live in fear of questions. We should welcome them realizing any question gives us a chance to grow in our knowledge. Remember. Knowledge is not the enemy. Ignorance is. Let’s make sure we address not just the church’s emotional, physical, and spiritual needs, but also their intellectual needs.

In Christ,

Nick Peters