An example gospel presentation to someone who is shy/insecure

In previous posts I’ve been considering how we should present the gospel to postmoderns. I’ve argued that asking questions and listening is an important first step to try to understand what drives/motivates people. When we understand their idols we can present the gospel in a way which exposes the inadequacies of those idols.

Here's an example of what I might say to someone who seems shy and in need of approval from others. I might talk of how we were made to be in an exciting relationship with God but, because we are all selfish and self-seeking, God has withdrawn Himself from us. Yet that need for a relationship with God is still there, albeit now corrupted. As a result we end up insecure and yearning for acceptance but look for it from people instead of from God. Thus we are always worried about what people think of us or say about us. We need their approval. We need them to like us. We need to know we're 'ok'. That deep need is in all of us. But because we're all messed up we don't get the acceptance we crave. What little we get doesn't satisfy our need. We're still worried about what people think of us the next day. This is because we're trying to satisfy what we were made for with something that wasn't made to satisfy that need. The problem is because we've rejected God, we deserve His punishment, yet, because God loves us, He sent His Son Jesus who was perfect in every way, yet was killed for our rebellion against Him, so that God could be both just and merciful. Now you can have lasting acceptance with God, through faith in Christ Jesus. He will never reject you. Even in your darkest day, He will always accept you. After all he died for you for that very purpose. Man will never give you the ultimate acceptance and affirmation you long for because it requires them to be good to you and you to earn it. People make unreliable and crummy gods and, even if you do a great job some days, there's no guarantee you get the acceptance you think you deserve or desire. Even if the people from whom you seek acceptance are just and give “credit where its due”, what if you mess up? It’s a constant struggle hoping you’ll be accepted. It’s a form of slavery. To God, all our sin, including things that nobody else sees such as worrying about what people think of us, is adultery. And God is a God of justice. He has to do what is right. Justice has to be done. He has to punish sin. Yet He is also a God of perfect love. That is why Jesus bore the punishment we deserve, so that God’s justice is satisfied and He can have mercy on us. God is the only one who is truly good and loving, the only one would did all the perfect hard work for you and died for you so that you could be accepted for ever. Why would you reject that? Why worry about whether people accept you when you could rest in the perfect, unquestioning, unfailing love and acceptance of the God who never forgets about you or gets angry with you and who only ever works for your ultimate good?

Too much evangelism either glosses over the problem of sin or focuses on outward behaviour. Jesus said that it is what comes out of our hearts that defiles us thus the aim is to go after the motivations of their hearts not their external behaviour. Make sense?

Does desire really follow duty?

For some time I have understood that, when it comes to self-discipline, there are two types of people in the church: those who can and those who can't. I'm definitely one of the latter! Before I started to understand the implications of the gospel on every day life I used to beat myself up thinking I'd be never be a 'good' Christian like those organised folks. I think I knew that it was a motivational issue but my understanding of the Gospel was so limited that I didn't realise that it was the only God-given power to motivate me. When discussing this with other Christians who seemed so much better organised and committed than me I'd often be given the advice that "desire follows duty". In other words buckle-down and do your duty then you'll get the desire to do it! This felt like telling me that the way I could jump ten feet in the air is to jump ten feet in the air! I didn't know what to say at the time, but now I do: Rubbish! This is to get it exactly the wrong way round. The biblical way is always "duty follows desire".

The question we should ask is not, what duty do I need to perform, but how does my heart get so transformed that my greatest desire is to serve and glorify God? To answer this we need to start by recognising that we are born to worship. If we don't worship God, we will make our own 'idols' to worship. An idol is anything which we think we have to have in order to feel satisfied/accepted/valued. So, if we lack the desire to live the way God calls us to its because we have other desires which we love more than Him. Therefore the only way our hearts will be transformed is when we see the futility of chasing after our idols and see God as more desirable. How do we do that? Through the Gospel. The gospel reminds us of God's great love for us in dying in our place. It reminds us of His faithfulness and mercy and of our unconditional acceptance and adoption as His son or daughter and of our hope in Him that will never perish or fade. Transformation has two sides to it: we root out our idols and we replace them with love for Christ. To paraphrase Thomas Chalmers in his expulsive power of a new affection, the only way our hearts will relinquish their idols is when they are replaced by a greater love. A love born out of a deepening undertanding of the depths of our sin and the riches of His grace. So, in answer to the original question, in the words of Jonathan Dodson :
"until we clear the shelf of our hearts of subtle idolatries, discipline will not give way to desire".

What about you? What are you chasing after?
May Jesus be the treasure of your heart.

The Gospel for postmoderns (Part 2)

How do we present the gospel in a way which is uncompromising and yet culturally relevant to postmoderns? Some major on relevance others on doctrinal faithfulness. Few seem to wrestle with both at the same time. As a result, for those who concentrate on relevance, style becomes more important than content whilst, for others, content is king and style is largely overlooked. Unfortunately many gospel presentations trying to be culturally relevant end-up compromising the content of the message in the process. Yet those committed to representing the gospel in a way which is faithful to the scriptures often seem to assume that compromise is doing anything differently to how they’ve always done things.

However, this is not merely to argue that some happy middle ground must be found between these two camps. They are not two opposing views which must be reconciled. Rather they are both equally important. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation. To compromise is to rob it of it’s power. If Paul needed to warn Timothy to guard his doctrine, how much more should that warning apply to us? Yet the gospel must be intelligible to the hearer (1 Cr. 14:6-9). Consider Paul’s presentations of the Gospel throughout the New Testament. Each one is different, suited to the needs of his audience. Contrast how Paul presents the Gospel to the pagan / pantheistic men of Athens in Acts 17 with his sharp contrast of law and grace to his Jewish readers in Romans. It is not just about the language used or even the style in which it is presented, the message must make sense to the hearer. And that means more than merely defining terms. Presuppositions that will prevent the hearer from understanding may need to be identified and challenged. For example, it is of little use trying to explain how someone has broken God’s law if, to them, there are no moral absolutes. First we need to challenge that presupposition. To fail to understand and deal with objections rooted in the other person’s worldview will more than likely lead to charges of arrogance or irrelevance and the conversation will reach an impasse.

I am not, however, arguing for extended apologetics that trades arguments for and against the existence of God and so on. Instead it is a call to go after the motivations of the heart. After all, what is a breaking of any commandment other than a failure to honour God as Lord in your heart? The essence of sin is to go after another ‘god’, by thinking, for example, that the thing or neighbour’s wife we covet will satisfy the longings of our hearts. It seems to me that churches either hardly grapple with how to see holiness develop in their people or, through the omission of the gospel as the only motivation to holiness, they effectively teach that holiness is about outward conformance. It’s our hearts God wants to transform not our behaviours. Don’t get me wrong our behaviour should change but only as the result of a transformed heart not as a means to gaining one.

So what does this look like? How do we tell someone who has no belief in God nor in His laws that they have broken His laws and deserve His wrath? There is no right or wrong way but the key is to try to understand what makes your listener tick. What is the thing or things to which they have ascribed ultimate meaning? The thing which they just have to have? From what or whom do they get their sense of identity and purpose? The answers to these sorts of questions reveal the idols of people’s hearts. The things they worship in place of the Lord our God. Exposing how people’s idols do not satisfy their deepest longings can lead to a greater openness to hear what we have to say and begin to sow seeds of doubt in their own worldview.

In the next post I’ll give an example of what that might look like.

The Gospel for Postmoderns?

(Yeah, I know it's been a long while since I wrote something. :-)

If you go back a few decades in most western cultures, there was a time when most people knew something about God and His law. They may not have believed upon Jesus Christ but nevertheless they would tend towards the view that there is a God and would have known something of the Ten Commandments. In that context you could preach the gospel by reminding people of God's law and getting them to see they had broken it. You could then explain how Jesus had perfectly kept God's law and had been crucified for their sins. You could then urge them to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, assuring them that their sins will be forgiven and that they will be saved from eternal damnation (hell). Of course all was not rosy in the church garden, a decline had already begun in the 19th century with the advent of enlightenment thinking which claimed that science had all the answers and that man didn't need God or religion any more. Nevertheless, basic knowledge of the bible was widespread and the gospel could be presented this way.

Today it can no longer be assumed that people have even the most basic bible knowledge. In fact, western culture now seems to generate people who are predisposed to be opposed to Christianity - despite knowing very little about it. The irony is that, at the same time, the enlightenment thinking that led to the decline of traditional western Christianity is increasingly being rejected. God is no longer "dead", contra-Freidrich Nietzsche. Powerful arguments against aggressive opponents of Christianity such as Richard Dawkins are beginning to be raised from non-Christian philosophers. Soon Dawkins and his ilk will be 'dead'. (Unfortunately much of the church, as ever behind the times, doesn't see this so they're still expending their efforts vainly trying to counter Dawkins, disprove evolution and so on. In effect, relying on science instead of the Gospel.)

Though spirituality is good again, the 'god' that now 'reigns' in people's minds is manifold. At the centre, of course, is 'me'. What matters most are my feelings, my wants, my needs and my rights. Materialism, fame, self-gratification and wanton sex are the gods we worship. Just add in a bit of Oprah or some self-help pop-psychology with a hint of eastern mysticism to complete the mix. Relativism and pragmatism (what works for me) is the order of the day. Now spirituality is fine. Just as long as you don't make any exclusive claims of course. So is that it? After thousands of years on the earth, is that the pinacle of man's ability to answer the most fundamental questions like why are we here? or what happens when we die? Seems so!

So just how do we present the gospel in this context? How do we present the gospel in a way which engages with people? In a way which is relevant to the culture? The old ways just don't work. How do we engage with people in a way which isn't going to result in them immediately switching off? I say we need to listen to people, without confronting them, to understand two things:
- why they think Christianity has nothing to say to them, and
- what matters to them.

Increasingly with postmoderns, in understanding why they have dismissed Christianity, we find that the reason given isn't because they think science has disproved Christianity. Rather, they will have fundamental intellectual and philosophical reasons why they have dismissed it. Often, we'll find that what they have dismissed is not the gospel but religion. Religion teaches that we must do good works in order for good to accept us. But the gospel teaches that God accepts us, therefore good works will follow. Religion in effect puts God in your debt, he owes you, whereas, in the gospel, we owe God everything. As a result it is vital to spend time explaining the difference between the gospel and religion.

I hope to explore these issues further and suggest some example ways in which the gospel can be presented to postmoderns in subsequent posts.

In Christ alone my hope is found!

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
From life's first cry to final breath

I love the Page CXVI version of this classic. Listen here: http://www.last.fm/music/Page+CXVI/_/In+Christ+Alone+MP3?autostart

Bringing God into discussions about Quantative Easing!

Discussions about the solution to our economic woes are everywhere. Opinions are plentiful.

Has Quantative Easing avoided the worst of the recession? (That's printing money to you and me. Obviously the Government wouldn't want to call it that else we might question why they're allowed to do it and we aren't ;-) Will any benefits of QE come at the cost of a long and deep depression and eventual high inflation? Should Banker's bonuses be curbed or should the Government have never intervened in the first place (thus bankers would have been fighting for their jobs instead of fighting for their bonuses and the taxpayer's debt would be a fraction of what we now face)? The list is almost endless. Everyone has an opinion. Discussion heats up. It is tempting for the Christian to turn away from such debates.

Yet, underneath the opinions and arguments, different shades of the same worldview underpin them all. For everywhere it is assumed that man is in control of his destiny and that his destiny is to make money, make a name for Himself and have fun! Very few Christian voices can be heard in such discussions. Those that do enter in, invariably argue for ethics derived from the Bible. Whilst this is not a bad thing per se, I would argue that little headway will be made if this worldview remains unchallenged. I would liken it to a group of Doctors arguing about the treatment of symptoms before they have identified the cause of the illness.

The following is an example of a recent post I made at a financial website where I tried to do this. I don't hold it up as a good example, nor do I expect anything to come from it, yet it was offered for the glory of God. Imagine if christians everywhere were to start asking questions like this at every level of society? If people could no longer just assume that the underlying worldview driving all they say and do is the only valid one?

In the discussion contributors were lamenting the decline in our culture and arguing for less government intervention and a return to a time when people were less self-centred and short-term gain focussed and when good quality, hard work was rewarded - presumably in contrast to the current debate about bankers, who are perceived as those who have got us into the mess, receiving bonuses. Here is what I wrote:

That our work ethics and, indeed, whole culture, have undergone significant transformation in a matter of a couple of generations is undeniable. The emerging implications for our future economic prosperity are disconcerting. More important, however, yet seldom asked and then hotly controverted, is the question: what is the cause?

Any solution seeking to limit the increasing desire for fast, easy gain - whether through tightened regulation at one extreme or a return to full, free market forces at the other - is to attempt to treat the symptom not the underlying cause. All the while the symptoms are screaming at us just how far gone the sickness is!

The reality is that we have bought in to the dominant yet bankrupt worldview of our day - for whom we have blind, so-called 'enlightenment', and post-modern humanist philosophers to thank. Ironically just as the gaping flaws in their reasoning and the recognition that humanism is no less a blind faith than Christianity is alleged to be become apparent, so, at the same time, have the
masses unquestioningly bought into the 'opium' of self-worship. As the Apostle Paul so incisively pointed out, we have refused to honour God or give Him thanks and have preferred to supress the truth about Him. Thus He has given us over to the futility of our own thinking (Romans 1:18-21).

Like the Romans to whom Paul wrote, unless we repent, our downfall is inevitable. We reap what we sow.

Shining light in a dark culture

Secular humanism is all around us. As Christians we must seek to challenge it not flee from it. All too easily we can throw up our hands in despair, feeling powerless. But too many Christians keeping quiet for too long is what got us into the mess! We must speak out against all ungodliness as beacons shining in the dark. We must resist the unbiblical division the world tries to put on us that faith is a private matter to be kept at home and in the church and that it has no place in the public realm.

God rules all His creation! There is nothing that is not His and there is no creature that does not owe Him everything. Every law, every policy decision, everything in the public domain actually procedes on the basis of assumptions about the purpose and common good of mankind. The reality is that everyone has faith in something yet most people just assume and never stop to question the reliability of the object(s) of their 'faith'.

Christians need to start engaging in matters of public interest at all levels of society and exposing the bankruptcy of the faith assumptions that underpin secularism. And they need to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of all, including politics, the arts, commerce and the law. This is NOT a calling reserved for the elite and powerful. Each of us move in circles in which opportunities present themselves to us, whether it be the workplace, a local fund-raising committee, public debates and so on. In fact widespread internet access means almost all of us have such opportunities. Yet how many Christians restrict themselves to 'safe' Christian websites and only contribute to discussions in safe Christian environments? Why is that?

Are you frightened that you will make a mess of it?
Did not Christ die for you precisely because you do make a mess of everything you do!? And, is not the outcome the Lord's and nothing to do with how good a job you do!?

Are you afraid of people's rejection?
Was not Christ rejected so that you could be accepted by Him!?

Are you afraid of persecution?
Did not Christ face the fiercest of persecution and surrender His life that you too may know the joy of losing this life in order to gain life eternal!? To live is Christ and to die is gain! (Phil 1:21) Has He not promised to be with You always?

The times we live in may be evil, godlessness, greed and "Me-ism" may abound, but consider the Israelites when they went in to exile in Babylon. They too, like many coming from Christian backgrounds in our day, had forsaken their God and so He had given them over to the rule of the Babylonians, just as He had warned them (2 Chron 6:36; 7:19-20; Jer. 25:8-9). The Babylonians wanted to supress Israel's spiritual identity and make them conform to Bablyonian culture. Yet God did not say to the exiled Israelites 'have nothing to do with them', He told them to seek the peace and prosperity of the city and, in so doing, they would find their own peace and prosperity (Jer. 29:7). Likewise, instead of lamenting the times we live in we must engage with and seek the peace and prosperity of those around us.

Of course, true peace and prosperity is not found in the fleeting pleasures or treasures of this world so this will involve confronting the dominant worldview and presenting the risen Christ as the only hope for lasting peace and prosperity. He is, after all, THE way, THE truth and THE life. To the extent that we believe that, so should we proclaim it as we have opportunity.

The next post will give an example of what this could look like.

Must Watch Video!

This is from Matt Chandler: Video
He's a church pastor in America who was told he needed an urgent operation to remove a large brain tumour. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ like that, so that you can say "He is enough. He satisfies my soul, in good times and bad, whatever comes my way"?

If you are not a Christian, how would your 'faith'/worldview enable you to face something like this?

Thirsty?

1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 63

We need more than information!

If we think about it, the deep longings of our hearts ultimately boil down to:

• a need to know that there is some meaning and significance to our lives
• a need to be in control of our lives and circumstances
• a desire both to love and be loved and accepted by others
• a desire not to die and to have hope for the future
• a desire for comfort (peace, happiness, satisfaction, etc, which, for many, implies having money but money itself is merely a means to an end not a 'deep longing' in and of itself).

Most people can recognise this and, when prompted to think about it, will be able to trace all their actions, longings, and disappointments back to one or more of these needs. Furthermore, I think most people will recognise that we never seem to be able to truly satisfy all these needs.

The fact that we all share these common, deep longings ought to be enough to make us question whether we are merely the product of some amazing 'big bang' and millions of random, evolutionary events and to wonder whether in fact the Bible can help us make sense of our deep longings and show us how they can be satisfied. However, when it comes to reading the Bible, many seem to think that it merely contains information telling us what to do. It would be better to think of it as telling us what we CAN'T do for none of us can find God by trying to obey Him. We will all fail. But it is far more than mere information.

The Bible itself is 'living and active' (Hebrews 4:12). It reaches to the depths of our hearts and exposes our idolatry and rebellion against God, that is, all the ways in which we try to satisfy those longings apart from Him. And, most importantly of all, if we have entrusted our lives to God, it transforms us. As we read it the Holy Spirit convicts us and points us to our need for Jesus. The Word itself is powerful (Romans 1:16). It is the power of God for our initial salvation and for all our growth (Acts 20:32, Titus 2:11). In other Words, it is all we need to re-align our deep longings to Jesus, the only One in whom they will ever be truly satisfied.

We must never read the Bible thinking that it is simply an exercise in acquiring or re-acquainting ourselves with information. Information alone does not change us. Neither can we even take the information and change ourselves. We must read it prayerfully asking that God would expose our sin and make His truth ‘real’ in our hearts so that we would be a transformed rather than merely an informed people.

No Regrets?

No regrets. So sang Robbie Williams a few years ago. But is it actually possible to go through life with no regrets? I don't think so. If anything, the older we get the longer the list of regrets becomes. The job we didn't take. The opportunity we turned down. The relationship we let slip away from us. Or, maybe for you, its the other way round - the job you wish you hadn't taken, the opportunity you wish you had walked away from...

Some of these regrets can be like deep scars that never fully heal. The things we wish we hadn't said or done. The hurt we wish we hadn't caused. We try to forget about them but they never completely go away. We try to suppress it but deep down the guilt remains, like Macbeth's damn spot. Regrets leave us bitter or defensive or both.

Regret comes when we realise we’ve made the wrong choice between two or more conflicting alternatives. We think, “If only I could learn to make the right choices!” Pop-psychologists tell us we need to move on and focus on new goals to combat the feelings of failure or guilt. It may work for a while, but ultimately this just sets us up for more failure. Sooner or later we’ll mess up again. Why does life seem to involve so many disappointments and regrets?

The answer lies in what we think life is all about. If we think we are here as a result of some amazingly complex series of random events and that therefore the way we find meaning is to seek our own happiness, health and prosperity then failure is inevitable. People let us down. We let ourselves down. Things break and go wrong. Eventually we die. The world we live in is broken and messed up. And we are the reason why. God made the world perfect but we live in rebellion against Him. We reject His purposes for our lives and choose to live for our own selfish ends. The result is chaos and decay, death and destruction. All our yearnings for happiness, health and prosperity are really our God-given desire for the restoration of His creation to the perfection in which He first made it. But because we want to tune God out of our lives we try to substitute our own goals to satisfy the longings that He gave us. It’ll never work!

So how does all this help us with our regrets? When we admit that we have rebelled against God and ask Him to forgive us, He gives us new desires. Or, rather, He restores our original desire to find meaning in Him. When we have Him, our other desires fade away. He is the only one who will never disappoint us or leave us with regrets. Of course, we still live in a messed-up world, but now the things of this world no longer have the same attraction. So when things don’t go how we’d like it doesn’t lead to disappointment or regret because we know our happiness doesn’t depend on the same things any more. Now we look forward to the day when God has promised to restore His creation back to its original perfection, free from decay and corruption.

What about the question of guilt? Sometimes our regret is because we know we’ve done something wrong. Perhaps other people got hurt. Guilt is a reminder that we deserve punishment. That’s why we try to suppress it for deep down we know we have sinned against God. Even when we forget what we have done, God doesn’t. But this is where something incredible happens. God is holy and just. Just like we know that justice must be done, so God must punish sin. Yet God loves us and wants to forgive us and so Jesus was punished in our place. Through Jesus’ death on the cross justice has already been done, all our guilt has been ‘paid for’ and God can be merciful to us. All we must do is turn to Him and confess our sins and put our trust in Jesus. When we do that God no longer counts our sins against us and He gives us His Holy Spirit as a guarantee that He will never again do so. The question then is have you turned to Him? Or are you still on a course that will inevitably lead to regret? To regret something means it’s too late to do anything about it. God has already provided a way by which you need never experience regret again but you must turn to Him – before it is too late.

Of course, even when we believe all this we can sometimes forget and go back to trying to find our meaning in other ways and yet, instead of lasting regret, it becomes an opportunity to see even more of the wonder of God’s great love for us. For God is patient with us and, like the perfect, loving Father that He is, He allows us to wander from His ways, lets us see the futility of seeking happiness apart from Him and then gently draws us back to Him to see that He is what our hearts need. Guilt is replaced by forgiveness. Regret becomes rejoicing. Instead of feeling bitter we become joy-filled and thankful. He never tires of us. He never rejects us. He always works for our good – even when we stupidly and blindly run in the other direction. Why would we ever turn from such perfect love as this?

In a sense, the pop psychologists are right - we do need different goals but the only goal that really matters, the only pursuit in which will find significance and happiness is to know Jesus Christ. Ultimately, it’s not about what you have or haven’t done, it’s not even about what you know, it’s about who you know.

They call me the seeker

We are all seekers. We seek and strive after many things: pleasure and happiness, peace and security, contentment and fulfilment, comfort and prosperity, self-worth, meaning and purpose. Though we might not recognise it as such, a desire to be free of any guilt and to avoid the consequences of our mistakes is also at the heart of much of what we do. We may seek in different places and in different ways but, to differing degrees, deep down we all seek the same things. That’s because we’re all made with the same deep needs. But most importantly of all, we were made to know God.

Though we may try to satisfy many of these needs with the material things and pleasures of this world, in time we realise that they never bring lasting satisfaction. And so we are always seeking the next experience, the next thrill, the next possession, the next accomplishment, thinking that perhaps that will satisfy our needs. As some come to realise the hopelessness of this cycle they become very cynical and bitter. At some point everyone turns to ponder matters of eternity. Perhaps there is a God? Perhaps I can please Him?

The fact that we are all groping after similar things and that all of us, at some point, pause to consider such things as whether there is a “god”, whether there be life after death and so on leads some to conclude that all roads lead to ‘god’ in the end. There does seem to be an increasing dissatisfaction with the drudgery and materialism of this world. People want something deeper. They seek spiritual encounters and experiences but there are so many forms of religion and spirituality to choose from!

For some what matters is experience (does it feel good?) or practicality (does it work?). Whether it’s ultimately true doesn’t really come in to it. For others what matters is not so much experience or practicality but knowledge and truth. But if our deepest needs are to be truly met we must know that it is both true and that it ‘works’.

Yet a problem still remains. What ‘works’ in the short term may not work in the long run. What we need is ultimate truth that will stand the test of time and meet the longings of our hearts. Such truth can only be found in a person: Jesus Christ, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

The story of my life in verse

I have chased fortunes
And pleasures, its true.
But deep down my searching
Was searching for You.
I don't need fame,
Or a gadget-filled life,
But I need Your love,
More than food to survive.

Is this God’s will?

We don’t have to live long before we will experience difficult situations in our lives. Poverty, sickness, pain and suffering, bereavement, depression, divorce, relationship breakdown, a demanding boss or awkward co-workers, rebellious children, and so on. I’m sure you can add many more of your own to the list. For some this is reason enough to reject Christianity. In my last post I questioned some of the assumptions that underpin that objection.

Nevertheless it must be admitted that this can be a difficult question for Christians too. How do we reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with our belief in God’s perfect love and almighty power? At some point most Christians have probably asked the question, “is this God’s will?”, but behind this question are two assumptions:
1. Since God is good, He wouldn’t let bad things happen to me
2. God should tell me His will.

Can these assumptions be supported by scripture?

Scripture in fact clearly states that God keeps part of His will ‘secret’ from us: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29). To understand this it is helpful to think in terms of a distinction between God’s revealed will and His secret will. His revealed will includes His commands and promises to us. Of course, we know that many care nothing for obeying God's commands. Even we Christians constantly fail to love Him with all our mind, heart and strength. So in this sense of the meaning of God's will we can say that, when His commands are disobeyed, then we are not acting in line with His will. But this is where His "secret" will comes in for God rules over all His creation, even the wind and waves (Mark 4:41), and good and bad (Lam 3:38). Nothing comes to pass that He hasn't fore-ordained (Pr. 20:24, Acts 2:23). He planned the beginning to the end (Ecc. 3:11, Isa. 46:10). His secret will cannot be stopped or thwarted (Dan. 4:35). All that He has ordained according to His secret will shall come to pass (Ezek. 12:25). In other words, in this sense of His will, everything that happens is always God's will. This is not to say that God causes bad things to happen but rather that He allows them and uses them for wise, inscrutable reasons related to a higher purpose that we know nothing about. What Satan intends for harm God limits and turns for good (e.g. see Gen. 50:20).

So the first thing to note is that nowhere in scripture does it tell us that God will reveal His will for us in any situation. Quite the opposite in fact. Much of God’s will remains hidden from us. What He does reveal is enough about Himself and what He has done for us in Christ Jesus that we can know that we can trust Him and enough about what He expects from us in response. Obviously this would include trusting Him, even through difficult times.

I recognise that some just can’t conceive of God’s will for us involving suffering. “God loves us”, they reason, “He wouldn’t let us suffer”. So what they do is attribute suffering to some other cause: most probably the devil – as though the devil sometimes gets the upper hand over God. But such a view robs God of His sovereignty by saying that He isn’t fully in control. What they are doing is trying to resolve what they perceive to be a contradiction between God loving us and having plans for our good (Jer. 29:11) and at the same time allowing bad things to happen to us. This is actually a very self-centred, short-term view of God’s will. Consider the following illustration. Suppose a child has a painful splinter. Naturally the child’s parents love their child and don’t want them to suffer pain so they will want to remove the splinter. However, removing the splinter will temporarily cause even more pain. Here we have two conflicting desires. Obviously the caring parent will remove the splinter to reduce the pain but in doing so they will have to (briefly) act against their own desire for their child not to suffer. In other words, we can sometimes desire to do something we don’t want to do because it is necessary to the achievement of some greater, longer-term purpose. If we, who are made in His image, can have multiple conflicting desires how then can we refuse to ascribe to God something that we recognise in ourselves?

Our problem is that we have little awareness of how sinful we really are or of how great God’s purposes are for the restoration of His creation. When mankind first sinned, forces of evil, decay, destruction and death were unleashed on the world. The problem with asking God to destroy evil and suffering is that He couldn’t do that without destroying us for we are part of the problem (see Rom. 3:9-19). In fact the problem would be far worse if God didn’t limit the evil desires of mankind and turn them for His good purposes. As part of the corruption that has come on the earth we have become selfish. Our greatest desires are for our own comfort and happiness. But ultimately this leads us on a course of self-destruction for we all must give an account of ourselves before God. Thus one reason God may allow difficulties in to our lives is to show us that our hope is in things that will perish instead of in Him. This is not to say that we understand all the reasons all the time but the one thing we do know is that when we suffer we need not wonder whether God cares about us. He has removed any cause of doubt about that by dying on the cross for us. So, we can be certain that God is both good and in control and that, ultimately, if we have put our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, He will work all things for good (Rom. 8:28).

Objections to Christianity 1 – Evil and suffering

I’m going to take common objections for why people don’t believe Christianity is true and examine them. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind by this but I hope at least to prompt some to examine their reasons and beliefs more carefully. In this post I will look at the problem of evil and suffering.

“Earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, war, evil tyrannical leaders who torture anyone who dares disagree with them, sickness and disease. How can I believe in a God who allows such suffering?” So runs a common objection to Christianity. Another version of this objection is less personal and more philosophical. It may be stated like this: “The Bible says that God is all-powerful and all-loving. Yet, God allows evil and suffering in the world therefore God cannot be all-good or he cannot be all-powerful. Either way, the God of the Bible cannot exist.”

This does seem like a compelling argument doesn’t it? It is not an easy one to answer because God doesn’t give us reasons for all pain and suffering. Nevertheless it needs to be seen that this argument relies on some hidden assumptions:
Firstly it assumes that suffering doesn’t serve a good purpose. In other words that it is pointless. But just because something appears pointless to us doesn’t make it pointless. That is a fallacy. It assumes we know everything there is to be known. Just because we cannot think of a reason doesn’t mean there isn’t one. In fact, the person making this assumption is exercising faith. Faith in themselves, for, without any plausible reason for doing so, they have assumed that if there were a grand reason for suffering that made it worthwhile they would know what it is! That’s actually quite a leap of faith!
This argument doesn’t even line up with our experience for many of us can testify of having experienced difficulties which made no sense to us at the time and yet which ultimately worked out for good. As Tim Keller argues in The Reason for God, “with time and perspective most of us can see some good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in life. Why couldn’t it be possible that, from God’s vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them?” Some might argue that no future bliss could be worth the worst kind of unspeakable suffering, but what does the man who wants nothing to do with God know of God’s promises? As C. S. Lewis effectively argued, such an argument does not understand that even the greatest kind of suffering will be turned backwards into an even greater glory.

Secondly this argument assumes that there is a standard against which things may be judged to be wrong and unfair. But where does this standard come from? If we reject God then we are left with natural selection in which the ‘fittest’ survive and where death and violence and the triumph of the strong over the weak are perfectly natural. So we find that the atheist has no basis for assuming that people shouldn’t suffer. After all, in their worldview suffering is inevitable! Yet wasn’t this their very reason for objecting to God? How contradictory. So, the problem of suffering is just as much of a problem for the atheist. If anything, an argument against suffering and injustice is an argument for God.

Of course, these arguments may make logical sense but they are of little comfort when we ourselves are in the midst of great suffering or difficulty. If God seems distant to us then our suffering will seem far more real. But the one thing we cannot do is assume that God doesn’t care about the problem of evil and suffering. For, in Jesus Christ, God Himself came to earth and shared in our suffering. He was beaten and crucified by evil men even though he had done nothing wrong. He experienced despair, pain, rejection, loneliness, torture and imprisonment. And he did it for you and me. God who was rich in every way became poor for our sakes. He chose to identify with the poor and lowly, the abandoned and forgotten and with those who suffer. He suffered for our sins, that is, for our rejection of and rebellion against God. He did it because He loves us that much. So, sure, we don’t always know the reason for hardship and suffering in this life, but one thing we do know is that it can’t be that God doesn’t care about us. He cares enough to share in our suffering and, ultimately, to rescue us from it, if we believe in Him.

Not only does God share in our humanity and suffering, he gives us hope that it is not in vain. We may not always see in this life the good that results from having suffered but we do know that the day is coming when He shall return again and make all things new (John 14:3; Rev. 21:5). This is not just consolation (e.g. Rev. 21:3-4) for what we have suffered in this life but a glorious restoration and re-making of all things. As Dostoevsky wrote:
“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

To borrow a phrase from the Lord of the Rings ”everything sad will become untrue”. What greater consolation could there be in this life?