No Tolerance for the Real Jesus

There are many postmodern, agnostic and progressive “Christians” who are attempting to redefine the Gospel and the words of our Lord. Here is a statement by one of them followed by my response:

“I actually believe the very confidence and comfort you preach to be a far cry from what Jesus taught.”

Probing the Priestess and the Question of Love

I met a brand-new Episcopal priestess today at church. What a delightful woman! I therefore felt some hesitation about confronting her with my provocative and often unsettling questions. Fortunately, Anita and I prayed before that the God would give us grace in speaking, in order to honor God and to love others. I trusted that the prayer would carry me through on this mission, but had my doubts based upon my past performances.

She informed me that she had graduated from seminary with more questions than she had had before. Perhaps I could exploit that vulnerability?

“Do you still have those questions?” I probed.

“No, I resolved them.” Hm? I was going to follow up in this manner: “Do you feel that your lack of answers will make ministry difficult?” I wanted to bring the conversation around to the centrality of Christ and His Word. I’d now have to probe in a different location.

After apologizing for asking such invasive questions, I asked, “What is it that you feel you have to offer others?”

“Well, I see my role as helping people answer the questions that are important to them.” This was a people-centered answer not a God-centered one. She seemed to assume that it is most important to help people find a spirituality that works for them.

With another apology, I probed further: “Don’t you think that there are essential, objective principles or truths that pertain to everyone – truths that we Christians must all minister?”

“What do you mean?” I could tell she was becoming a bit uncomfortable, so I decided to back off a bit and personalize my response.

“Well, I come from a Jewish background and identified intensely with my roots. However, I had a problem. I had suffered from intense depression for decades. I had seen five highly recommended psychologists, and each left me worse off than I had been before. I therefore saw no other answer on the horizon apart from God, but I wanted Him my own way. He had to be a Jewish God, not a Christian one. Consequently, I wasn’t finding God. I found out later that I am in no position to set the terms of the relationship. I had to come to Him according to His specification, acknowledging what He wanted me to understand about Himself – His Cross and my utter sinfulness.”

However, in many churches, this is now a revolutionary, if not idiotic, idea. According to them, a relationship with our Creator should not depend upon believing certain truths. An Episcopal daily devotional for August 5 reads:

• There is a confusion today about the word “believe”…Another interpretation is “trust.” Belief has nothing to do with trying to talk ourselves into ideas just because others like them…A big part of defining, what we believe is noticing how we are building up the body of Christ.

Well, there certainly is a strong connection between what we believe and what we do to build up Christians. However, believing is not the same thing as doing. For one thing, we come to the Savior, not by earning our way through our good deeds, but by simply humbling ourselves to acknowledge His truth. The Apostle Paul associates this building process with the use of the right material – the Word of God:

• Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth [of Scripture] in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. (Ephes. 4:14-16)

Only when Christians are established in the Word do they find peace and stability. Therefore, growth is a matter of “speaking truth in love.” However, according to the Episcopal devotional, belief is not about truths or doctrines. It’s about simply trusting! But trusting in what? Well, it’s trusting in something other than “ideas.” However, this devotional is using their erroneous ideas to denigrate ideas. Somewhat of a contradiction!

Perhaps instead, it’s a matter of trusting in a person – Jesus. However, what about Him do we trust? That He was a good role model? A moral human being? Someone who offered one way of salvation among many? The Bible makes it overwhelmingly clear that salvation is a matter of accepting certain truths – “ideas” - about Jesus. Paul warned that:

• If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (Galatians 1:9)

The priestess who stood before me seemed to be an incredibly gentle, sensitive and caring person. I felt like an insensitive brute by causing her discomfort. I wanted, above all else to be winsome, but the true Gospel is offensive. It informs us that God’s ways aren’t ours and that our human sentiments are often misguided. I had to remind myself that there is more than what the eye sees – including eternal consequences. Besides, God sees the inner person, while we are limited to what we see superficially.

Sometimes less is actually best, so I drew back from the battle lines and introduced the priestess to my wife.

   

   

Certainty: Its Reality and its Rejection

Whenever I write, I write with the unavoidable taint of certainty. Why else should I write if I cannot instruct. This requires a high degree of certainty! (Some write simply to express themselves, but I have little interest in this.) Nevertheless, I earn the disdain of many by speaking authoritatively about truth. However, I would be tolerated if I’d simply write, “Christ seems to work for me.” However, once I claim that Christ is the truth, gentility vanishes, and I become the object of scorn.

Today, many Christians are joining the chorus against certainty. One evangelical castigated the church for speaking out publicly and authoritatively on social issues, claiming that we really can’t be that certain. Curiously, she was certain enough to speak up against the church.

At an apologetics forum, another evangelical, a professor, defined “certainty” as “objective uncertainty appropriated with passion.” In other words, what seems like “objective certainty” is really a matter of our passion getting the best of us. He tried to prove that certainty wasn’t really a part of the Christian life by citing 2 Corinthians 5:7 – “We live by faith, not by sight” – apparently unaware of his absurd position that he needs a high degree of certainty in order to prove that a high degree of certainty isn’t possible.

In addition to this problem, the Bible never pits faith against certainty. Although there are indeed things that defy certainty – for we only see in part - there are also spiritual truths that we can bank on, truths that we must bank on!

The professor also cited the account of Peter walking on water as proof that we shouldn’t expect to walk in the light of certainty. He claimed that Peter sank into the waves because he required a guaranteed certainty, when he should have been content with faith and uncertainty. However, this lesson can’t be justifiably derived from Scripture. If anything, Jesus castigates Peter for his lack of certainty:

·        But when he [Peter] saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:30-31)

Peter’s problem was a lack of faith and not a demand for certainty. Initially, he had been willing to follow Jesus into the water, but then got cold feet.

In fact, the Bible not only recognizes certainty - and our assurance and confidence in the faith depend upon certainty - as a precious and almost indispensable gift:

·        My purpose…so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ. (Col. 2:2)

Clearly, faith is not opposed to a “full assurance”:

·        Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)

·        That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. (2 Tim. 1:12)

  

·        For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. (John 17:8)

Scripture informs us that we can be certain:

·        So that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:4)

·        For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person--such a man is an idolater--has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephes. 5:5)

·        Then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. (Joshua 23:13)

It is pointless for me to point out these verses. Everything that Scripture says, it says with certainty. There is no suggestion that “perhaps the Gospel might be true.” However, I must confess that for many years I struggled with debilitating doubts regarding God and His Gospel. However, I am now thankful that I had experienced this horribly painful ordeal. It led me to devote myself to God’s Word (Psalm 119:71).

For many of us, growing in assurance/certainty is a long and painful process. However, this process in no way should suggest that certainty isn’t a possibility. I must also admit that there were times when it would have been comforting to acquiesce to uncertainty. If uncertainty was the norm for the Christian life, then I wouldn’t have to feel that there was something wrong with me because it didn’t have certainty.

Besides, why should we rule out certainty? After all, I am certain that I am now typing at my computer. If I can be certain about this, why not also spiritual things? Weren’t the disciples certain that Jesus had appeared to them? Of course, and this certainty gave them the necessary courage to live according to their faith.

However, uncertainty is a social lubricant. The uncertain are perceived as less rigid and socially responsive. They seem ready to accommodate themselves to others and their experiences. We tend see to them as having a humble, inquiring and scholarly disposition. However, true uncertainty cannot say anything. While our professor expounded upon the virtues of uncertainty, everything he said required a high degree of certainty.

Jesus conducted Himself with certainty, not as the Scribes and the Pharisees. After Him, His Apostles also conducted themselves with certainty. However, they did offend many and lost their lives because of it. Therefore, social approval should not serve as the final arbiter of truth or even the way we present ourselves.

Someone asked our professor, “How then can we know for certain that we have the truth?” He answered that we can’t:

·        “There are no neutral facts or argumentation. We cannot objectively weigh evidence because we cannot get on the outside of ourselves, our biases, and presuppositions in order to stand on neutral ground. Consequently, biblical interpretation will always be a matter of uncertainty and disagreement.”

However, if we can never stand on neutral ground and, consequently, everything depends upon our subjective interpretation, how then can he make such an objective, certain and sweeping statement?

Indeed, there are some biblical teachings that are very difficult and uncertain. Consequently, there are legitimate differences, which we will probably never resolve in this life. However, there are much clearer and more certain Biblical assertions, like “Christ died for our sins.”

When I was uncertain about this, I lived in constant torment. I am certain that the church would not have endured had it not been delivered from its doubts. In fact, it was in destruction-mode until Jesus’ resurrection appearances.

I think that there are many ways that we can know the truth. Have you seen the series of books called “Magic Eye?” They include many computer-generated designs that contain a secret, yet discreet image or picture. Some people are unable to see it. However, for others, the picture is seen with certain clarity. If you wonder whether it is your mind that constructed the image, well, it’s easy to resolve this question. The books have an “answer sheet” containing the hidden image. Consequently, we can be sure that what we see is real.

The Bible contains many discreet, hidden “images.” When you see them, you will know that you are not inventing them.

It may be temporarily comforting to reject the idea of certainty. However, it is also the way of almost certain torment. Instead, continue to ask our Lord to make His revelation real to you. He has promised to bless those who seek Him!