People complain because we Christians like to throw the Bible in their face. They dislike our calling sin sin, disdain our offers of salvation, despise our attempts to introduce them to Christ. They just want us to leave them alone.
There is a sense, clearly, that we're not very good at explaining. We're not out to score numbers; we're out to improve lives. We have something really good to offer and something we really want to share because, let's face it, if you can get this, you have something unbelievably good. But we confuse the issues. We give numbers of decisions, suggest making converts, get bogged down in moralizing the world, and even lose sight ourselves sometimes that the good news is good news for a reason, and it's not because we benefit from sharing it.
There is a sense in which it's not our fault at all. I mean, we were told, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you" (John 15:19), a message John understood well because he went on to write, "Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you" (1 John 3:13). Paul assured us that the message is foolishness to an unbelieving, blinded world (1 Cor 1:21-29; 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4). Look, it's good news to us -- really good -- but it isn't to the mind set on the flesh that is hostile to God (Rom 8:7). "Good news!" we offer, "You can be right with the being with whom you are at war!" Yeah, not such good news. So while it is indeed good news, it may not be perceived as such.
Maybe, then, I shouldn't be so surprised at the numbers of folk that come to me with offers of "good news" that do not appear in the least to be good news. John Lennon imagined a world without heaven, hell, or God. How nice! Except I would find such a world intolerable. Starting with the logic -- a universe that spontaneously produced itself from nothing -- and moving on to the undefinable "good" and "bad" and the complete failure of anything resembling "justice", I'm afraid this isn't a world I'd want to live in. No, Mr. Lennon, not good news. Atheists want to tell me that I can be free of religious beliefs and better off and I'm wondering "In what possible reality would that be 'better off'?" No moral code except what each individual conceives. No purpose for life. No hope for the universal reality of suffering and pain. This, they tell me, is "good news". I think that when I die I will be ushered into the presence of the Living God in order to live forever in His infinite, absolutely good existence and they tell me that when I die I can cease to exist, have my body stuffed in the ground and provide food for worms. How is this good news?
Others offered modified good news. "You know," they tell me, "if you'd just give up this rigid connection to Christianity, lots of religions offer good stuff." Fine. Except none of them make any sense to me. So your offer there is "Give up your rational thinking processes and surrender your mind to futility, and we can all be much better off." Or the constant, "Come on, Stan, there's no need to be so dedicated to a biblical worldview. An inerrant Bible? An actual 'Word of God'? Use your heart! I'm sure you can come to a better position if you'd just surrender than nonsense." A better place? If standing on a slimy rock in bare feet without any firm footing is "a better place", I'll consider it. If a Christianity that is pure relativity -- whatever I feel is right is right and no one can tell me otherwise -- is a "better place", I don't see how.
I care about people. The reason I talk about Scripture, share my faith, discuss truth, examine these issues of sin and Scripture and faith, is because I care. The Sovereignty of God, for instance, is something that they suggest I surrender and something that, if I do, is the end of any "good news" at all to me. A God who gave up His Sovereignty to His creation is no god at all to me and a God who takes a "hands off" approach is no comfort to me. Besides, it doesn't fit with everything I see in my Bible. And that's just an example. I care about people, think there is "good news" available, and want to give it to them -- to you. If you'd like to change my thinking -- to give up God or Christianity or my Bible or my reason or ... whatever you're suggesting -- you're going to have to convince me it would be a good thing. So far, no one on that side of the table is doing me any favors.
2 comments:
"If you'd like to change my thinking -- to give up God or Christianity or my Bible or my reason or ... whatever you're suggesting -- you're going to have to convince me it would be a good thing. So far, no one on that side of the table is doing me any favors."
I love this point! Thanks for stating it so clearly. The people we witness to often think they're better off than we are. Instead of trying to convince them about something they've been raised to overlook, we can challenge them to prescribe for us what would make us happier than living as we do now; at peace with God, filled with joy, overwhelmed by God's love, looking forward to Heaven, etc. They couldn't dissuade us with the hopeless lifestyle of an unsaved person, and, perhaps, they would realize their own spiritual bankruptcy? Interesting angle.
I'm afraid that too often we don't think in terms of the incredible good we have in Christ and think more in terms of limiting sin in others' lives. But Jesus came to give abundant life, and we ought to be "marketing" that.
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