An Interesting Question

Posted on January 3, 2018 by russellmckinney

I once ministered to an elderly man, a member of my church, who was dying from various health issues. During one of our visits, he asked me a question that no one had ever asked me. His question was, “If a man gets saved under the ministry of a preacher, and that preacher later on gets accused of doing something really bad, what does that say about the supposed salvation experience the man experienced under the preacher’s ministry?”

It wasn’t hard to figure out that the dying man had himself in mind, and a short while later he filled in the specifics of the case. Years earlier he had heard a certain preacher preach a powerful message, after which he had accepted the preacher’s invitation to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. In the years that had followed, though, that preacher had been disgraced out of the ministry by a scandalous accusation. Regardless of whether or not the accusation was the truth — and neither I nor the church member knew that answer — it had caused the church member to always have a sliver of a doubt about the salvation experience.

The whole thing was news to me because the dying man had been one of the most faithful members I’d had during my time as pastor of that church. I certainly had no reason to doubt his salvation. But I could see that the question was weighing on his mind as he lay at death’s door, and so I did my best to assure him that he had placed his belief in Jesus, not the preacher. Jesus was the one who had saved him, and Jesus can’t fail. The preacher was merely the vessel through which the gospel had been given, and that message was untainted no matter what sin the preacher may or may not have committed later on in life. I think the church member already knew that answer, but he wanted to get a second opinion before he went out to meet his Maker. How I wish that everyone was as concerned about their relationship with Jesus as they come to the end of life.

As I think about the characters of the Bible, I can name many who did great things for the Lord only to fail somehow in the days that followed:

  • Noah saved the human race by building an ark, but then he got drunk sometime after the flood was over (Genesis 9:18-21). Did that bout of drunkenness invalidate his building of the ark?
  • Abraham left his hometown of Ur and allowed God to lead him to Canaan, but then he went down to Egypt and, once there, lied about his relationship to his wife Sarah (Genesis 12:10-20). Did that trip and that lie invalidate the obedience and faith he had shown in making the journey to Canaan?
  • Moses faithfully led the Israelites for over forty years, but then he struck the rock in anger and in so doing disqualified himself from leading them into Canaan (Numbers 20:6-12). Did that one act invalidate everything he had done in the previous forty years of dedicated service?
  • David served God as a shepherd boy, wrote Psalms, slew the giant Goliath, patiently waited on God to remove Saul as king, united the 12 tribes of Israel into one kingdom, captured Jerusalem and made it Israel’s capital, brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, and ushered in a golden age for Israel, but then he had a one-night stand with Bathsheba, got her pregnant, had her husband Uriah killed, and married her (2 Samuel 11:1-27). Did his sins of adultery and murder invalidate all the good he had done leading up to them?
  • Solomon succeeded David upon Israel’s throne, received great wisdom from God, built the Jewish temple, and led Israel into its greatest economic and political era, but then he allowed his hundreds of foreign wives and concubines to seduce him into their worship of false gods (1 Kings 11:1-8). Did his idolatry invalidate everything he had done before it?
  • Peter was the leader of Christ’s chosen 12 apostles and was sent forth by Christ with the other 11 to cast out demons, heal the sick, and preach the gospel, but following Christ’s arrest he thrice denied knowing Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75). Did those denials invalidate all of Peter’s previous ministry?
  • Thomas was one of the chosen 12, and he too was sent forth by Christ to cast out demons, heal the sick, and preach the gospel, but following Christ’s death he openly doubted Christ’s resurrection (John 20:24-29). Did that refusal to believe that Jesus had resurrected invalidate all of Thomas’ previous ministry?

As you can see, there is plenty of Bible evidence for the answer I gave that dying man. As a matter of fact, I wish he had given me a little notice about his question so that I could have provided him with a more thorough answer that day. In the end, though, he seemed at peace with not only my answer but also the decision for Jesus he had made under the ministry of that preacher. The church member died not long afterward, and I had no hesitation whatsoever about using my funeral sermon to assure his family that he was in heaven with his Savior. For that matter, that preacher is dead now as well, and if he truly did know Christ as his Savior, regardless of any sin he ever committed, he’s in heaven too. Remember, Jesus forgives the believer of all sins, even scandalous ones.

Posted in Backsliding, Belief, Doubt, Eternal Security, Evangelism, Faith, Forgiveness, God's Work, Grace, Ministry, Personal, Preaching, Salvation, Service, Sin, The Gospel, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Year-End Report (2017)

Posted on January 1, 2018 by russellmckinney

HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody! Here in Spruce Pine, NC, 2018 rang in with single-digit temperatures and an inch of fresh snow. According to the weatherman, those bone-chilling temperatures will be a staple for our week.

I thought I’d use this first post of 2018 to provide a 2017 year-end report for the blog. I probably should have done this during the last week of 2017, but it’s not the first time I’ve been a little off schedule. Of course, I don’t want you to think that I’m the one who does all the totaling up for the site’s numbers. No, that’s a nice feature that WordPress provides.

The good news is that 2017 was a banner year for the blog in every way. For that I say a humble and heartfelt, “THANK YOU.” I can write posts all day every day, but if no one ever visits the site or reads anything I’ve written, my words won’t amount to much. You see, whatever this blog is and however God uses it, you the readers are the reasons why.

I won’t bore you with every last statistic from 2017, but I will cite some of the most relevant ones. I know that I always enjoy seeing year-end lists, and my guess is that many of you do as well. So, here we go:

The blog’s total views for last year came in at 17,681. That was an increase from 2016’s 14,407. The most encouraging thing about that was the fact that the last five months of the year were the best months in terms of numbers, as each of those months saw an increase from the previous month. The increase went like this: August (1,515 views), September (1,612 views), October (1,687 views), November (2,082 views), and December (2,317 views). That sure looks good on a graph chart.

As for posts published in 2017, the most popular one was How Would You Describe Your Walk With the Lord These Days?, which came in at 138 views. Second on that list was Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?, which totaled 79 views. Keep in mind, though, that every post always has more views than its recorded number. I say that because any new post initially gets viewed as the home page for two or three days as it sits atop the post scroll for the site until I write a new post. Consequently, those views get counted as views for the “Home Page” rather than as views for the post itself. In other words, a post doesn’t really start recording views under its own title until it’s no longer my most recent post. That’s why the “Home Page” views will always have the most views for any given year. For the record, those views totaled up to 7,711 in 2017.

Also, you might have noticed on the right side of the blog’s page that the site’s followers increased significantly this past year. 105 followers now get an email alert each time I publish a new post. That number almost doubled from the previous year’s 58. Likewise, the number of people who follow the site through WordPress jumped from 21 to 44.

Does this mean that all those followers actually read every new post? No, it doesn’t mean that any more than every person who views any post literally takes the time to read the entire post. What it does mean, though, is that around twice as many people as last year are being automatically alerted to my new posts. That can’t be a bad thing.

By the way, here’s another little tidbit for you. If you are one of the folks who get an email notification every time I publish a new post, and you link to that post from your computer or cell phone, your view doesn’t get recorded as a view on the blog. That’s because you don’t actually visit the blog site itself to read the post.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. (I’m tickled to death that you are interested enough to read what I’ve written!) I’m simply pointing out that every new post actually gets read by a lot more people than the stats show. Again, I’m not delusional enough to think that all 105 followers take the time to read a new post by way of their email, but if even 50 of them do, that’s 50 unreported views for not only that post but also the blog’s total views.

Anyway, that’s enough about the nuances of how WordPress records views. Now let’s get back to the stats. The top five new posts for 2017 were:

  • How Would You Describe Your Walk With the Lord These Days? (138 views)
  • Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia? (79 views)
  • Will Christians Go Through the Tribulation Period? (67 views)
  • The Battle of Armageddon/The Second Coming of Jesus (46 views)
  • Is the Ark of the Covenant on Mount Nebo? (43 views)

As you can tell from that list, the series “The Ark of the Covenant” and the series “Bible Prophecy In Chronology” were very well received last year. In addition to being read by my regular readers, the posts from those series have already found their way onto search engine lists and are climbing up the ranks of those links. For that reason, I expect those posts to pick up views at a steady rate in the coming months and years.

As for that top new post, How Would You Describe Your Walk With the Lord These Days?, I was quite shocked to find that it had so many recorded views. Seriously, 138 views right out of the gate is impressive for my stuff. Try as I might, I just can’t always tell which posts will resonate the most with readers.

Of course, as these things go, not one of these new posts made the list of the top ten most viewed posts for 2017. Any post, after all, requires some time to build momentum and make its way up the search engines. So here are the ten posts that were actually viewed the most for the year:

  • Does God Want Everyone To Get Married? (2,137 views)
  • How Does a Worm Get Inside an Apple? (1,217 views)
  • What a Bird’s Nest Can Teach Us About God’s Will (366 views)
  • Should We Pray Silently to Keep Satan From Hearing? (264 views)
  • The Mayonnaise Jar (242 views)
  • Oral Roberts & “Seed-Faith” Giving (202 views)
  • Constantine & Christmas (185 views)
  • The Importance of Spanking a Child (177 views)
  • Why God Hates Gambling (175 views)
  • What Does the Bible Teach About Divorce & Remarriage (162 views)

In terms of the posts that have been read the most all time since I began the blog in 2009, that list reads as follows:

  • Does God Want Everyone To Get Married? (11,929 views)
  • How Does a Worm Get Inside an Apple? (3,946 views)
  • What Does the Bible Teach About Divorce & Remarriage? (1,603 views)
  • Oral Roberts & “Seed Faith” Giving (1,574 views)
  • The Importance of Individuality In a Child (1,158 views)
  • Tim Tebow & Jesus (1,147 views)
  • Should We Pray Silently to Keep Satan From Hearing? (891 views)
  • What a Bird’s Nest Can Teach Us About God’s Will (862 views)
  • The Importance of Spanking a Child (860 views)
  • What the Bible Teaches About Drinking Alcohol: post # 8 (848 views)

And now, finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about how God continues to use the blog worldwide. Of all the stats, charts, graphs, and minutia that come out of these year-end reports, what constantly amazes me the most is the list of countries from which views are recorded. In 2016, people from 137 different countries viewed something from the blog, and in 2017 that number rose to 142. 2017’s number of views ranged from 551 in the United Kingdom to 1 in Angola, but I’ll take every last one of them. That top ten list looks like this:

  • United States (13,587 views)
  • United Kingdom (551 views)
  • Canada (504 views)
  • Australia (356 views)
  • South Africa (338 views)
  • India (319 views)
  • Philippines (219 views)
  • Nigeria (154 views)
  • European Union (128 views)
  • Singapore (127 views)

Well, that’s about it for the report as we put a lid on 2017. Again let me say, “THANK YOU” to each one of you who helped make all this happen. I’ll ask you to continue to pray for me that God will not only burden me with the posts He wants me to write, but inspire and enlighten me to write them in a way that is pleasing to Him. And remember that the goal of this blog always remains the same: to produce not just Christians but Christian disciples. That’s why it’s called “The Disciple’s Road.” I’m still walking that road myself as we move into 2018, and I hope that you and I can walk it together in this new year.

 

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Following Your Own Counsel

Posted on December 30, 2017 by russellmckinney

If you ask me to name the #1 problem that Christians exhibit in their daily conduct, my answer might surprise you. It wouldn’t be “sin,” even though we certainly do sin far too much. It wouldn’t be “a lack of spiritual discernment” either, even though we oftentimes showcase that as well. No, my answer would be “following our own counsel.” Of course, it can be argued that following your own counsel is sin and does show a lack of spiritual discernment, but for the purposes of this post let’s just let it stand as its own category.

The Bible contains numerous passages that warn against following your own counsel. Here are a five of them (all from the N.K.J.V.):

Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask the counsel of the Lord. (Joshua 9:14)

They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel. (Psalm 106:13)

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Bound in affliction and irons — Because they rebelled against the words of God, And despised the counsel of the Most High. (Psalm 107:10-11)

There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel — that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21)

“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin;…” (Isaiah 30:1)

Counsel is an interesting thing. Here are five facts about it:

  1. You can have nothing to do with counsel. In Deuteronomy 32:28, God describes Israel as a nation “void of counsel.” Likewise, Proverbs 11:14 says where there is no counsel the people fall.
  2. You can get bad counsel from the wrong people. Psalm 1:1 pronounces blessing upon the person who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Needless to say, the reverse holds true for the person who does walk in such counsel. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and heir, walked in the ungodly counsel of his foolish friends and in so doing lost the support of Israel’s ten northern tribes. (1 Kings 12:1-20)
  3. You can get wise counsel from the right people. There are times and places in your life when God will use the wise counsel of others to guide you into His will. Moses accepted the counsel of his father-in-law (Exodus 18:13-27), and Proverbs 12:15 says the one who heeds counsel is wise.
  4. You can get God’s counsel and follow it. Receiving wise counsel from others is appropriate in its place, but there are times when God Himself will reveal His will to you in such an undeniable way that you really don’t need to get anyone else’s opinion. In Psalm 16:7, David says, “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel.” Similarly, James 1:5 says that God will grant wisdom to anyone who lacks it and asks Him for it.
  5. You can get counsel from yourself and follow it. Proverbs 28:26 says the one who trusts in his own heart is a fool. But why is he a fool? It’s because, as Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, our hearts are deceitful and wicked due to our inborn nature of sin. Therefore, you must always be wary of listening to your heart and doing what seems right to you. Frankly, you just don’t know best.

Ah, but how we rebel against the notion that we don’t know what’s best for us! How we kick against the idea that we aren’t worthy captains for our life’s ship! How loathe we are to lay aside our own logic and humbly submit ourselves to either the wise counsel of others or, more importantly, God’s counsel! Even Christians aren’t immune from this problem.

For one thing, the Christian can grieve the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). This is accomplished by doing something the Spirit said not to do. For another thing, the Christian can quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). This is accomplished by not doing something the Spirit said to do. Either way what it amounts to is the Christian walking in his or her own counsel rather than the council of God.

Any decision in which God gets no say is really just a “business” decision because there’s nothing spiritual about it. Many churches make business decisions in electing pastors. Many pastors make business decisions in accepting churches. Many denominations make business decisions in determining how the contributions get allocated. Many individual Christians make business decisions regarding everything from car purchases to where to live. We decide as we think best, sprinkle a little religion over our decision, and call the chosen path “God’s will.”

So, in closing, let me ask you this simple question about that decision you are facing right now: “Have you sought God’s counsel concerning it?” If you haven’t, then take this post as His warning bell to get you to talk to Him about the decision. And then, of course, you should follow whatever counsel He gives you, even if you don’t agree with it. If you go rouge and make your own choice, you’ll miss God’s will just as surely as you are reading this. And that won’t be good for anybody, especially you.

Posted in Choices, Counsel, Decisions, Desires, Discernment, God's Guidance, God's Will, Obedience, Rebellion, Seeking Advice, The Heart, The Holy Spirit, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Going Back Home

Posted on December 27, 2017 by russellmckinney

New York’s Bowery Mission was founded in 1879 and still serves today as a rescue mission and men’s shelter. Sam Hadley was once the superintendent there and told a certain story about the place. I’d like to share that story with you right now.

One summer day, on a Wednesday just before noon, Hadley was standing outside the door of the Mission when a teenage boy about seventeen or eighteen years old approached him. The young man asked him, “Mister, do you live here?” Hadley answered, “Yes, son. My name is Hadley. I’m the superintendent of this mission. What do you want?” To Hadley’s surprise, the young man said, “Would you mind getting me a needle and a piece of black thread?”

Curious, Hadley asked, “Why?” to which the young man replied, “I tore my pants on a park bench, and they look bad. Please get me a needle and thread.” Hadley said, “Son, I’ll do better than that. You see those steps? Go upstairs, and my wife will fix them for you.” “No,” said the boy, “I don’t wanna bother her.” “Never mind that,” said Hadley, “you just go upstairs and let her fix them.”

So, the young man did as he was told and not long afterward came back down wearing a mended pair of pants. He looked at Hadley and said, “Mr. Hadley, you’ve sure got a good wife. She fixed these pants so good that I can’t even see where the tear was.” But rather than embrace the compliment, Hadley went straight to the heart of the matter by asking, “Son, how long have you been out of jail?” Flabbergasted, the young man said, “Jail? How did you know I was in jail?” Hadley answered, “The jail smell is on you, son.”

Now the young man was afraid and quickly launched into his defense. “Mister, honest to God, I didn’t do nothing. Honest to God, they locked me up for nothing.” Seeking to calm the young man, Hadley said, “Son, I didn’t say you did anything. What did they lock you up for?” The young man answered, “Night before last, Monday night, I was asleep on a bench in Central Park. A policeman came along, woke me up, and asked me where I was from. I told him. He asked if I had a job. I told him I didn’t. He asked if I had any money. I told him I didn’t. He asked if I had any family in New York. I told him I didn’t. Then he locked me up for vagrancy.”

Hadley kept probing. “And when did they let you out?” “Yesterday morning,” said the young man. Hadley then asked, “Have you had anything to eat?” At that point the young man started crying and said, “Mister, I ain’t begging.” Hadley, still trying to help the young man, replied, “I didn’t say you were. I merely asked if you had had anything to eat lately.” Again, the young man said, “I ain’t begging.” This time, however, Hadley got a little sterner. “Son, get off your high horse. I’m not asking whether or not you are begging. I’m asking if you’ve had anything to eat lately.” Finally, the young man confessed, “I ain’t had a bite to eat since yesterday morning in jail.”

That’s what Hadley had figured and he immediately took the young man into the kitchen and rustled up a bowl of beef stew. That stew didn’t stand a chance as the young man not only wolfed it down but also two subsequent bowls and most of a box of crackers. He couldn’t have been more appreciative as he wiped his mouth and told Hadley, “Well, I guess I had better be going.”

Hadley asked him, “Where are you going?” “I don’t know,” said the teenager, “to look for a job I guess.” Hadley didn’t like the sounds of that and sought to keep the conversation going. “Where are you from?” he asked. “Philadelphia,” answered the young man. “How long have you been in New York?” “Five weeks.” “Then why don’t you go home?” “I can’t.” “Why not?” “I just can’t.” “Well, why can’t you?”

Now the young man started crying again and upped his efforts to leave by standing up from the table. He said, “Mister, I won’t bother you anymore. Thank you for your help.” But Hadley was having none of it. “Sit back down and answer my question,” he said. “Why can’t you go home?” Finally, the teenager came clean. “Well, to be honest with you, my father owns a grocery store, and I stole $10 (a decent sum of money back then) from him. I took that money to the horse track, lost it gambling on a horse, and now I can’t go home.”

Of course, Hadley just couldn’t believe the young man’s father would never want to see his son again because of $10. The young man, however, was quite sure of it. He said, “Sir, you don’t know my father. He would kill me.” Hadley responded, “No, I don’t know your father, but I know fathers. What’s your dad’s name and address?” Reluctantly the young man told him and Hadley wrote down the information. Then he instructed the young man to stay right there until he got back.

Hadley walked over to the nearby Western Union office and wired the young man’s father in Philadelphia. The wire read: “Your son is in my mission — hungry, sorry, heartsick, homesick. Will you let him come home?” Hadley then went back to the mission to talk with the young man some more and await a reply telegram. One o’clock came, but there was no reply. Two o’clock came, still no reply. Three o’clock. Four o’clock. Five o’clock. Six o’clock. Seven o’clock. No reply.

It was almost eight o’clock and the Wednesday night service at the mission was in full swing when a Western Union messenger came in, found Hadley, and handed him a telegram. Hadley signed for it and opened it right there on the spot while standing in the aisle. Then he walked over to where the young man was sitting and asked him to follow him into his office. The teenager obliged and Hadley let him read the telegraph. There were only three words written on it. They were: “COME HOME. FATHER.”

And now I ask you, reader, are you like that troubled runaway? Have you committed some sin or sins terrible enough in your mind to cause you to think that God hates you and never wants to see you again? Have you decided that it’s best if you just get away from Him altogether and never speak to Him again? Well, friend, you’re wrong. Just wrong. All God wants you to do is come home. Now.

If you have never placed your belief in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, such belief is your path home. If you have placed your belief in Jesus, but find yourself in a backslidden condition, your path home is confession and repentance of your sins. Either way, the point is that God the Father stands ready to forgive you, accept you, and embrace you in Christ. You see, you don’t have to spiritually limp into the new year the way you have finished up this one. Instead, you can claim the forgiveness offered in Christ and boldly march forward with Him. The choice is yours, but don’t delay. Why choose to be homeless even one more day when God Himself is longing for you to come home and has provided a way in Jesus for you to do so?

Posted in Abortion, Addiction, Adultery, Alcohol, Backsliding, Belief, Brokenness, Change, Children, Confession, Conviction, Disobedience, Family, Fatherhood, Fear, Forgiveness, God's Love, Grace, Guilt, Love, Missions, New Year, Parenting, Problems, Rebellion, Reconciliation, Repentance, Salvation, Seeking Forgiveness, Sin, Youth | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Christmas Acrostic

Posted on December 25, 2017 by russellmckinney

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!! Here’s an acrostic to help you focus on the real “Christmas Story” today:

C is for either Child (the child that was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary and born to her) or Christ (a Messianic title that comes from the Greek word christos and means “anointed one” or “chosen one”).

H is for either Holy Spirit (as in God the Holy Spirit, who in a miraculous way came upon Mary and impregnated her) or Heavenly Host (as in the heavenly host, who praised God and said to the shepherds who first heard the announcement of Christ’s birth, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”).

R is for Rejoice (as in the angel Gabriel telling Mary, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women”) or Reign (as in Gabriel saying of Jesus, “And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end”).

I is for either Immanuel (which means “God With Us” and comes from the Isaiah 7:14 prophecy concerning Christ’s birth) or Incarnation (a word that refers to God taking upon Himself human flesh).

S is for either Shepherds (the first people to hear the announcement that Jesus had been born) or Savior (as the angel said to those shepherds, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”)

T is for either Throne (as in the throne of David that was promised to the baby Jesus) or Tree (as in the tree that would one day produce the wood that would be used to make the cross upon which Jesus would die for the sins of the world).

M is for either Mary (who said of the news that she would conceive Jesus in her womb, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord!”) or manger (which was the animal feeding trough that served as Christ’s first crib).

A is for either Angel (one of which spoke to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds at different times) or Augustus (the name of the Roman Caesar who called for the taxation registration that caused Joseph and the pregnant Mary to travel to Bethlehem).

S is for either Son (as in Jesus being called The Son of God) or Salvation (which Jesus provides for those who place their belief in Him as their personal Savior).

Posted in Angels, Belief, Christ's Birth, Christmas, Salvation, Virgin Birth | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Fundamental Question

Posted on December 23, 2017 by russellmckinney

“A Thought-Provoking Book” series (post #5)

You — the regular readers of this blog — have had the last four posts to grasp some of the more compelling arguments presented in the book Why I Left, Why I Stayed. As you know by now, the book is coauthored by Bart and Tony Campolo. Bart (the son) rejected Christianity and is now a humanist chaplain at the University of Southern California. Tony (the dad) continues on in Christianity as an author, speaker, and professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University.

I won’t use this last post in the series to retrace ground I’ve already covered. Instead, I’ll build it around one final thought that is, in my opinion, at the heart of the whole debate between the Campolos. I’ll frame the thought in the form of a question, a question that reads as follows: “Was there ever a moment when Bart Campolo authentically became a born-again Christian?”

Please understand now that I’m not the man’s judge and am not running for the job. Likewise, whatever opinion I might have on the issue, God’s opinion is the only one that counts. With this understood, though, let me say that I think there is plenty of evidence offered in Bart’s sections of the book to cast serious doubt on his Christian conversion. Allow me to cite some of that evidence.

First, even though Tony was a well known preacher who took young Bart along on many of his preaching engagements, Bart didn’t make any kind of profession of faith in Jesus until he was a sophomore in high school. That right there suggests that Bart always had a difficult time getting on board with the Savior his father preached. Bart confirms this when he says in the chapter “How I Left”:

Trust me, it wasn’t my father who kept me from becoming a Christian sooner. He made following Jesus seem like a noble adventure, and I always knew his faith was sincere. No, my problem was that I simply didn’t believe in God.

Not that it bothered me much. Sure, pretending to accept all those Sunday school stories at face value and acting as though heaven and hell were real places felt strange, but I was a nice kid and I didn’t want to embarrass or upset anyone, so I held my tongue.

Second, by Bart’s own admission it is possible for a sincere preacher such as Tony Campolo to be the head of a home of non-believers. Listen to what Bart says about his sister and his mother in that same chapter:

From the beginning, my older sister, Lisa, made no bones about being largely uninterested in Christianity, and she’s never wavered on that note. More importantly, although my mother grew up a minister’s daughter before becoming a minster’s wife, I think it’s fair to say that she didn’t really believe in God, either, when Lisa and I were growing up.

My mom is a sincere believer now, but her late-blooming faith is another story entirely.

Third, again by Bart’s own admission, his first real interest in Christianity came by way of him becoming part of a community youth club for teenagers. This is a far cry from becoming interested in Christianity because you realize that Jesus was God in the flesh who died to pay the sin debt you owe to God. Bart even found out later on that the youth group had actually targeted him as a high-priority prospect to win. On the subject of the youth club, Bart writes:

…Joel’s youth group was absolutely perfect for me — a huge, high-octane club for nice teenagers who genuinely enjoyed making things better for other people. I was hooked from day one, and over the next few months, that youth group quickly became the main focus of my life.

Of course, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that the whole enterprise was built around the same kind of evangelical Christianity I’d been exposed to — and unconvinced by — for as long as I could remember…..What stood out most to me, however, was the sincerity of their love for one another and the depth of their commitment to reaching out and drawing others into their circle of care. I still didn’t believe in God, but for the first time in my life I really wanted to, not because I was afraid of going to hell, but rather because I wanted to become a full member of the most heavenly community I’d ever seen.

Fourth, to hear Bart describe it, whatever salvation experience he supposedly had came by way of the heavy influence of him being a part of that youth group. He writes:

In the beginning (of the youth group) I just went through the motions of being a Christian, but in the midst of that many ardent believers, it was only a matter of time before I began believing myself. We human beings are supernaturalists by nature, after all, especially when we’re socially and emotionally motivated in that direction. The more I sang along with all those gospel choruses, the more I meant what they said. I still had my doubts about the Bible, but they were no match for my certainty about that transcendental experiences and my new friends’ lifestyle of love. So then, a few months later, when Joel sat me down at a McDonald’s and invited me to receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, I didn’t hesitate.

Fifth, even as Bart became a professing “Christian” and began ministering to others through his youth group, he still didn’t believe in the biblical facts about Jesus. He writes:

Here’s the thing: As much as I loved my new identity and lifestyle, from the very beginning I struggled with the Christian narrative around which they revolved. While everything evidently made perfect sense to my fellow believers, to me, both the Old and New Testaments seemed chock-full of problems. Indeed, my occasional experiences of spiritual transcendence during prayer meetings or group worship felt more reliable to me than much of what I found in the Bible. From the creation story in Genesis to the resurrection of Jesus, all the way through to the apocalyptic prophesies of Revelation, I found large swaths of scripture to be practically unbelievable.

Now tell me, do all these quotes sound like the words of a person who has truly placed his belief/faith in the Jesus who is presented in the Bible? They certainly don’t sound like that to me. I mean, if you can’t even buy the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, just exactly what “Jesus” did you accept as your personal Savior? He surely isn’t the Jesus of the Bible. Joining up with a Christian youth group is not the same as joining up with Jesus, and ministering to others through that youth group is not the same as having God the Holy Spirit dwell inside you by way of the new birth. There’s a colossal difference between religion and what the Bible calls “regeneration” (Titus 3:5).

Of course, there are some Christians who believe that a person such as Bart can become a genuinely born-again Christian but then lose his salvation through bad behavior or a lack of ongoing faith. These Christians reference passages such as:

  • Hebrews 6:1-8 (which talks about those who “fall away”)
  • Luke 9:62 (where Jesus warns against putting your hand to the plow and then looking back)
  • John 15:1-6 (where Jesus warns about the unfruitful branch being cut off and burned in the fire)
  • Romans 11:17-22 (where Paul talks about branches being broken off because of unbelief)
  • 1 Corinthians 9:27 (where Paul says that he doesn’t want to become “disqualified”)
  • Galatians 5:1-5 (where Paul uses the term “fallen from grace”)
  • 1 Timothy 1:18-19 (where Paul says that some “concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck”)
  • Hebrews 3:12 (which warns against “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God”)
  • 2 Peter 3:17 (where Peter warns against a “fall from your own steadfastness”)
  • Revelation 22:19 (which warns against the possibility of a person’s name being taken out of the Book of Life)

Admittedly, it isn’t hard to see how these passages and some others that could be listed might be understood to mean that salvation, once gained, can be lost. However, there is a whole other side to that scriptural coin, a side which must be given due consideration as well. And as we do this we find that there are plenty of scriptural reasons to promote the doctrine of “once saved always saved.” Consider the following:

  • John 10:27-30 (where Jesus promises that His sheep will be given eternal life, will never perish, and will never be snatched out of His hand)
  • Eternal life, by its very nature, can’t be probationary. If you can lose it, it’s probationary life.
  • Luke 22:31-32 and Hebrews 7:22-28 (both of which teach that Jesus makes intercession for the Christian and is therefore able to save them “to the uttermost”)
  • 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (where Paul says the indwelling Holy Spirit seals the Christian and guarantees that he or she will remain saved)
  • Ephesians 4:30 (where Paul says the indwelling Holy Spirit seals the Christian until the actual day of redemption)
  • Romans 4:1-8 (where Paul says that God will not “impute” or charge any sin to the believer’s account)
  • John 1:12 and Romans 8:14-17 (each of which teach that the Christian is a child of God, the implication being that God will never disown His child)
  • Romans 8:30 and Ephesians 1:11 (where Paul says the Christian is nothing less than predestined to go to heaven)
  • Romans 8:35-39 (where Paul says that nothing or nobody can separate the Christian from the love of God which is specifically found by being “in Christ”)
  • Philippians 1:6 (where Paul promises that God will complete the good work He has begun in the Christian)
  • 1 Corinthians 1:8 (where Paul says that Jesus will confirm the Christian “to the end” that the Christian might be “blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ”
  • 1 Peter 1:3-4 (where Peter says the Christian’s place in heaven is reserved, incorruptible, and undefiled)
  • 2 Peter 2:7-8 (where Peter describes Lot as “righteous” despite the fact that Lot chose to live in Sodom and later on committed incest with his two daughters)
  • Hebrews 11:32 (which sings the praises of Samson as being a man of faith despite the fact that he lived a life of sexual immorality)
  • John the Baptist, when he was imprisoned, doubted Jesus’ Messiahship (Matthew 11:1-3). Thomas doubted Jesus’ resurrection until he literally saw the risen Christ (John 20:24-29). Peter, three times, openly denied knowing Jesus (Luke 22:54-62). And yet none of these believers ever lost his salvation.

These passages are enough to convince me that the other passages, the ones that might be taken to mean that salvation can be lost, should be interpreted through the lens of eternal security. In other words, since we have so much clear evidence for eternal security, we should seek other interpretations and explanations for the passages that appear, at surface level, to contradict it. And it is because of all this that I hold to the opinion that Bart Campolo was never truly saved. If he had been, he wouldn’t have gone atheist.

Bart’s story reminds me of 1 John 2:19, where John says of a certain group of false teachers:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (N.K.J.V.)

It also reminds me of Jesus’ words from Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, ‘Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (N.K.J.V.)

Notice there that Jesus didn’t say, “I once knew you, but you lost it.” No, He said, “I never knew you.” That’s a different matter altogether. It’s been said, “The faith that fails had a flaw from the start.” My take on what happened with Bart Campolo is that his “faith” in Jesus was flawed from the start and was therefore doomed to eventually fail.

In conclusion to this post and series, let me encourage you Christian parents to talk openly and honestly to your children about their relationship with Jesus or lack of it. Even if your child professes to be a Christian, you should take the time to dig deeper and find out what’s really going on with them. Ask questions such as:

  1. “What do you believe about the story of Jesus as it is told in the Bible?”
  2. “Do you believe Christ’s virgin birth?”
  3. “Do you believe that He performed miracles?”
  4. “Do you believe that He died as the payment for the sins of the human race?”
  5. “Do you believe that He arose from the dead?”
  6. “Do you believe that He is right now in heaven?”
  7. “Do you believe that He will walk the earth again one day?
  8. “When exactly do you think you became born again?”
  9. “Did that experience change your life?”
  10. “Do you sense the presence of God the Holy Spirit inside you each day?”

When all the dust has settled, the primary application I take away from Why I Left, Why I Stayed is that I, as a pastor and a father, need to do everything I can to make sure that my two sons aren’t just going through the motions of Christianity out of some deference or misguided loyalty to me. Ryan and Royce both claim to be Christians, and I baptized them both. But is their salvation real? Do they have a relationship with Jesus rather than just a religion about Him? Is the inner substance there, not just the outer habits? These are hard questions to ask, to be sure, but they are ones that I must ask. If the boys truly are saved, they won’t mind answering them. And if they aren’t, then I need to know it.

 

 

Posted in Atheism, Belief, Bible Study, Children, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Christ's Miracles, Christ's Resurrection, Christ's Return, Doubt, Eternal Security, Faith, Family, Fatherhood, Heaven, Parenting, Personal, Salvation, Scripture, Series: "A Thought-Provoking Book", The Bible, Virgin Birth, Youth | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Death & the Atheist

Posted on December 21, 2017 by russellmckinney

“A Thought-Provoking Book” series (post #4)

In the opening sentence to the preface for the book Why I Left, Why I Stayed, the father and son team of Tony and Bart Campolo jointly say:

We are not unusual. Many Christian parents are struggling, both emotionally and spiritually, because their children have left the Christian faith. For some, the result is tension, acrimony, and alienation. Reasonable and caring conversations in such families often become impossible.

Our family has struggled as well, but we haven’t stopped talking — or caring. Hopefully, this book models a graceful way to process what has become an increasingly common crisis, while also serving as a safe forum for those struggling with doubts and questions about the Christian faith. Such issues can sometimes feel too overwhelming and threatening to discuss openly with friends and relatives, but we think a dialogue like ours can make room for our readers to think through and meditate on some of life’s ultimate issues.

Just as the Campolos want their readers to think through and meditate on some of life’s ultimate issues, I want the readers of this blog to do the same. That’s why I sometimes write about uncomfortable topics. A case in point is this series in which we now find ourselves, a series based upon Why I Left, Why I Stayed.

In my last post, I presented Bart Campolo’s argument that the human race can be moral without God. Actually, that chapter is his followup to his dad’s previous chapter, one in which Tony discusses the depravity of man, Christ’s substitutionary death for mankind’s sins, and the fact that Christ’s shed blood forever cleanses sinners from all unrighteousness. Basically, Bart’s chapter is his way of saying to his dad, “Mankind doesn’t have to be forgiven and cleansed in order to be good. We’ve just got to keep the Golden Rule.”

Now it is time for us to see how Tony Campolo responds to Bart’s assertion. As is his pattern, he chooses to let Bart’s chapter stand unchallenged as he shifts gears and takes the conversation into another area. That area involves death and the afterlife. The chapter is entitled “And Then What? Why Secularists Can’t Face Death.” I guess that is the father’s subtle way of saying, “Even if you atheists succeed and turn planet earth into a bastion of morality, goodness, decency, and kindness, what happens when you die? Your atheism is only good for this life, not the afterlife.”

Tony begins his chapter with these words:

For the secularist, everything is temporal. All things pass away. Every creature dies. There is no everlasting life, and nothing is eternal. Life is a purely natural phenomenon, and when the biological process has run its course, death is the natural conclusion. There is no heaven; there is no hell; there is no afterlife. In the end, there is nothing at all.

A bit later on, though, he adds in something that I believe is correct. He says of the secularist/humanist/atheist:

He or she may try to be brave in making these assertions, but beneath the surface, I believe we all suffer from profound fears and anxieties.

In Ecclesiastes 3:11, the Bible says of God:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. (N.K.J.V.)

That part about God putting eternity in peoples’ hearts refers to each individual’s inborn awareness that life on earth isn’t all there is. Somehow we all sense that there is an eternity out there, an afterlife. Different religions and cultures have different ways of envisioning this afterlife, but the fact that people in every corner of the world believe that death is a comma rather than a period is one of mankind’s classic traits. And the Bible’s explanation for it is Ecclesiastes 3:11.

Justice is one of the primary reasons why we all feel the need for an afterlife. Not only do our human sensibilities automatically differentiate between right and wrong, they also want to assign reward for the right and punishment for the wrong. This basic instinct can be found on display even in small children, and it isn’t something that can ever be programmed out of us, no matter how hard the atheists try.

Our problem is that there is so precious little justice meted out in this world. Rather than justice being the rule on planet earth, it is the exception. That’s why our hearts and minds are so comfortable with the idea of an afterlife, regardless of which form that afterlife takes in any given belief system. We want right to be rewarded and wrong to be punished. As D. James Kennedy says of hell in his book, Why I Believe:

The human conscience also demands it. All men feel that there is a difference between virtue and vice, and that in character these are moral opposites. And always we treat them as such: We approve virtue and condemn vice.

For the atheist, however, life is more or less one long series of global, daily injustices perpetrated in a zillion settings. And then what happens? You die and dissolve into nothingness. You talk about a depressing way of looking at human existence! It’s no wonder that our core instincts rebel against such an idea and say, “No, there must be an afterlife, an otherworldly place where all accounts are settled and everything is set straight.”

As I head toward the finish line of this post, let me offer an extended quote from Tony Campolo concerning the emotional and psychological pain that accompanies death, a pain he describes as “the existential threat of nonbeing.” In the quote, he calls to Bart’s memory the deaths of two of their family members and uses those deaths to drive home his point that the atheist simply has no answer for the problem of eternity. He writes:

Bart probably remembers that his grandfather Robert Davidson brilliantly conquered that pain in his dying moments. Suffering from dementia, this old preacher had long ago lost the ability to carry on a conversation, but nevertheless he kept his faith. As Bart’s grandmother told it, she woke up at five o’clock one morning to find her husband sitting up in bed, firmly rebuking an unseen presence. “O death, where is thy sting?” he said. “O grave, where is thy victory?” Three times he cried out this way, each time stronger and louder. Finally, with triumphant flourish, he declared, “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!,” fell back into the bed, and died. What a good way to go.

My mother died more quietly, but only after writing a letter to her family and friends, affirming her assurance of eternal life, along with instructions for the invitation and altar call for her funeral. This good woman, who had to drop out of school in the eighth grade to support her immigrant family, closed her final message with joyful confidence. “I’m finally graduating!” she wrote. “Be happy for me.”

I probably won’t be around when Bart’s time comes, but when it does, I worry that his secular clarity will not serve him as well as his grandparents’ faith.

All I can say to that is, “Point for Tony.” Surely the greatest test for any atheist comes when he or she stands at the doorway of death. At that moment all the arguments, debates, points and counterpoints finally come to a head and theory becomes reality one way or the other. Like Bart Campolo’s grandparents and dad, when I come to that moment I’ll be claiming the hope found in Jesus Christ. Unless something changes with Bart, however, he won’t be afforded that luxury. But how about you? Will you be able to legitimately claim that hope? If not, you must be betting that Bart is right.

 

 

Posted in Aging, Atheism, Belief, Comfort, Conscience, Death, Doubt, Faith, Fear, Heaven, Hell, Human Life, Justice, Personal, Reward, Salvation, Series: "A Thought-Provoking Book", The Bible, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Morality Without God

Posted on December 19, 2017 by russellmckinney

“A Thought-Provoking Book” series (post #3)

I have long believed that one of the best arguments against atheism goes like this: “If there is no God, there is no real motivation for men and women to live morally.” Putting it another way, if God doesn’t exist and my life can get easier or better by lying on my income taxes, stealing from my unsuspecting neighbor, or even killing my enemy, why wouldn’t I do it? I mean, with no God, it’s not like I’m going to be divinely punished or burn in hell. All I have to do is make sure that I don’t get caught and end up in jail.

We’ve now reached a time, though, when proponents of “the new atheism” are no longer intimidated by this classic defense for God’s existence. They correctly point out that in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution the idea of “the survival of the fittest” is misleading because Darwin’s definition of “the fittest” isn’t all about physical strength. In his way of thinking, the organisms and creatures who have the greatest capacity to survive and reproduce, not necessarily to dominate and kill off other organisms or creatures, are “the fittest.”

What this clarification of Darwin’s definition does is open the door for the new atheists to promote morality and human goodness as the building blocks for advancing a more successful version of the human race. For example, they contend that individuals shouldn’t murder, not because murder is a sin against some pie-in-the-sky god, but because the act takes away a potentially valuable asset to the betterment of the community. Similarly, they contend that individuals shouldn’t commit adultery, not because the act breaks one of the famous ten commandments, but because it weakens a marriage (whether that marriage be heterosexual or homosexual) and, thus, hurts the overall health of the community.

Okay, so what does all this have to do with our series on the book, Why I Left, Why I Stayed? It’s the fact that when Bart Campolo left Christianity he became a humanist chaplain, and a humanist chaplain is all about trying to make this world a better place. And what core truth does Bart “preach” in his efforts to reach this goal? The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

In his chapter “Godless Goodness: The Foundations of a Secular Morality,” he sings the praises of this Rule and explains that the rule itself predates Christianity by centuries. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for having done his homework when he says that the ancient Egyptians used the rule, as did Confucius in China, Thales in Greece, and Siddhartha in India. But then he says something that is at the very least high debatable. Concerning the Rule, he writes:

…versions of it appear in virtually all of the rest of the world’s great religions. Ironically, none of these faith traditions supposes that any kind of supernatural revelation is required for human beings to know how to treat one another. When it comes to morality, it seems, virtually everyone knows all we really need is everyday human empathy.

I offer this quote merely as a way of conveying what Bart believes about the Golden Rule, not because I agree with his opinion. For one thing, he says that none of the world’s great religions suppose that any kind of supernatural revelation is required for human beings to know how to treat one another. But in view of the fact that each of these religions does purport to be “supernatural revelation,” doesn’t that make his statement self-contradictory?

For another thing, I’m not about to sign off on the supposed truth that virtually everyone knows that all the human race really needs is everyday human empathy. Just because some people might be able to understand what I’m going through, that doesn’t mean they will give a rip about it or will feel motivated to help me in it. To the contrary, some of them might even enjoy watching me squirm.

Here’s another quote from Bart by which he seeks to make his case that mankind can be moral without God. He writes:

…I’m pretty sure there is no objective justification for human morality. Rather than being handed down in the Ten Commandments, the Five Pillars of Islam, the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, or any other divine revelation, I think our deep sense of right and wrong has naturally grown up betwixt and between us as we’ve interacted over time in order to survive. Moreover, because that process is ongoing, I believe that besides being essentially subjective, human morality is also a moving target. The only constant, as far as I can tell, is that in the end we all define moral goodness according to whatever makes our own group flourish.

If I’m right, then it makes sense that so many norms, mores, and values are similar across cultures, because there are some laws of nature that apply equally around the world. Antisocial behaviors like lying, murder, and incest don’t work for anyone under any circumstances over the long run, so they are universally proscribed.

Obviously, Bart Campolo and his fellow new atheists are steering atheism down a fresh path. Whereas atheists of days gone by loved to rail against all religion, Campolo and his fellow humanist chaplains actually compliment religion for the important role it has long played in making society moral. As they see it, it wasn’t God who introduced mankind to morality; it was mankind who invented God as a cosmic Judge to help us live the way we instinctively felt we should live. Therefore, religions were beneficial for a while, but now that we’ve evolved to a higher state, we should be dropping the imaginary Judge.

This presupposition causes me to ask myself the question, “If I knew for a certainty that God doesn’t exist, would I choose to live more morally or more immorally?” My answer is, I would live more immorally. I would be a self-centered loner. I wouldn’t care about the greater good. I would get revenge when I was wronged. I would lie, cheat, and do whatever else it took to get my way.

By the way, before you gasp in horror at my honest admission, you’d best look in the mirror and assess yourself. Perhaps some of you might have oceans of innate goodness just oozing out of your pores, but many of you will find that you are in the same condition as me. And you know what? That makes you a card-carrying member of the human race.

Do I think that someone has to believe in God in order to exhibit goodness? No. The fact is that atheists pay their bills, treat others well, and live lives of decency. Many of them even work in the Red Cross, FEMA,  and all kinds of other helpful organizations.

Likewise, I know that eliminating the idea of God altogether wouldn’t cause us all to go out raping and pillaging. Let’s not pretend, though, that the world is filled with warm, fuzzy feelings just dying to be expressed via acts of loving service. Let’s not pretend either that it’s only a matter of time — eons of time, that’s always the fundamental requirement for evolution — before mankind reaches an idyllic state wherein we have weeded out greed, selfishness, and aggression as nothing more than unproductive genes.

Perhaps the most glaring problem with the theory of evolution is that things don’t get progressively better over time. To the contrary, science’s Second Law of Thermodynamics teaches that natural processes tend to move toward disorder rather than order. In the Pollyannish world of Bart Campolo and other new atheists, however, mankind is figuring it out as we go and we’ll eventually reach a state of general goodness without God. Coming from people who supposedly deal in only facts and reality, that strikes me as being amazingly illogical, nonsensical, and downright naive, especially considering mankind’s history.

Of course, the Bible that Bart Campolo and the other new atheists reject aligns perfectly with what we see in the real world. That Bible tells us that the human race fell into sin and is now fatally marred and prone to immoral behavior on an individual scale, a national scale, and a global scale. Furthermore, that same Bible tells us that apart from God interjecting Himself into human history, our race would continue to limp along like a moral cripple who can’t help but drift toward bad behavior.

So, if Bart and his fellow atheists want to deny the existence of God, that’s their right, but they needn’t try to convince me that mankind can somehow evolve to a Utopian state of morality. Sure, if everyone lived by the Golden Rule 100% of the time we might actually reach that state. Unfortunately, though, we don’t all live by the Golden Rule 100% of the time. Even more than that, our inborn human nature ensures that we can’t.

To believe otherwise is to buy into the false, unattainable dream of Gene Roddenbury’s world of Star Trek. That’s a world in which the people of Earth have done away with their belief in any kind of god, have come together to solve all their problems, and have moved out into space to explore the far reaches of the stars. But what entertainment genre does Star Trek fall into? That would be the genre of science fiction. And that’s exactly where it should fall because if you want to talk about myths and fairy tales, that one just might be the biggest one of all.

Posted in Atheism, Belief, Depravity, Doing Good, Entertainment, Faith, Greed, Homosexuality, Personal, Personal Holiness, Revenge, Scripture, Series: "A Thought-Provoking Book", The Bible, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Your Feelings Might Be Real, But They Won’t Impress an Atheist

Posted on December 17, 2017 by russellmckinney

“A Thought-Provoking Book” series (post #2)

We’ve begun a series of posts on the book, Why I Left, Why I Stayed. The book is coauthored by the father-son team of Tony and Bart Campolo and explores the reasons why Bart Campolo chose to abandon Christianity and turn atheist while his father, Tony, still clings to it. In my previous post, I provided some of the highlights of Bart’s opening chapter, which is entitled “How I Left.”

I don’t mind admitting that if either of my two sons had written that chapter my response would have been different from Tony’s in his follow-up chapter, “How I Stay.” My counterpoint chapter would probably have focused on why my son shouldn’t have left Christianity, or it would have at least offered refutations to the arguments he had used to make his case. Tony Campolo, on the other hand, lets Bart’s arguments stand as written while he explains why he himself chooses to continue in Christianity. My guess is that he does this out of love and respect for his son.

Tony retraces his life, citing various experiences, to show how his Christianity involves more than just a doctrinal textbook and a set of rules. To him, Christianity is a relationship rather than a religion. One of his quotes is:

I’m still a fairly good Christian apologist, but at the end of the day, I have to admit that the primary foundation of my faith is not what I know, but rather what I feel.

Along the same lines, he offers this paragraph:

I can’t remember when I did not accept the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, but before I met Burt and Tom (two members of a youth group Tony was a part of in high school), those doctrines were simply historical facts to me, not life-changing experiences. So then, while I cannot pinpoint exactly what an old hymn calls “the hour I first believed,” I know it was during high school that I gradually came to realize my soul was hungry for something more than just salvation, and by the time I enrolled at Eastern Baptist College, the inner presence of Jesus had become for me an everyday conscious reality.

You see, what Tony is describing there is something that can’t be quantified. It’s intangible and untouchable. It’s something that can’t be reduced to an equation or a formula. You don’t get it from reading a prescribed list of Bible passages, hearing an evangelistic sermon, or praying a canned “prayer of salvation.”

He describes it correctly as the inner presence of Jesus because that’s exactly what it is. It is God the Holy Spirit, whom the Bible calls “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9), literally dwelling inside one’s body. Furthermore, the indwelling Spirit performs various ministries inside the person. For example, He revives the person spiritually so that he or she can rightly worship God. He empowers the person by giving him or her at least one spiritual gift, that gift being a skill to use in service to Christ. He takes over the person’s conscience and turns human guilt into divine conviction. He provides direction, guidance, and instruction, and makes the words of the Bible come alive to the person.

But the problem we Christians face anytime we start talking about what’s going on inside us is that atheists won’t consider any argument that smacks of emotion. They want facts, not feelings. They want science, not scripture. They want the visible, not the invisible. They want God’s existence proven in the ugly here-and-now, not in the sweet-by-a-by.

I once heard the famed preacher, Adrian Rogers, say, “A Christian with a glowing testimony is never at the mercy of a pagan with an argument.” While I understand that line of thinking, atheists in this age of “the new atheism” really don’t care about a Christian’s emotions, feelings, or experiences. They want cold, hard evidences they can judge with their eyes and approve with their minds.

In the latter half of the Campolos’ book, Tony devotes an entire chapter to the idea that transcendent experiences can be classified as evidences that God exists. He entitles the chapter “Not from Nowhere: Why Transcendent Experiences Point to God.” Here he treads much of the same ground he treads in the chapter “How I Stay.” He writes:

I often wish that everyone could spend a few hours a week in a really good Pentecostal worship service. In such churches, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit seem more tangible, which is very important. Being a Christian is much more than affirming doctrine, after all, as important as that may be. True discipleship is ultimately about having a personal encounter with the living Jesus, and mystically (his emphasis) sensing His presence.

Unfortunately for Tony, one of Bart’s best chapters is the one he offers to refute the idea that transcendent experiences prove God’s existence. As Bart shrewdly points out, humans enjoy transcendent experiences all the time that have nothing to do with any kind of god. He writes:

If you don’t believe in human experiences of transcendence, I say with a sly smile, then clearly you haven’t attended the right rock concerts, or used the right drugs, or made love with the right partner, or been crowded into the right football stadium when the home team scores its winning touchdown on the last play of the game. Otherwise, you would know that we human beings aren’t just susceptible to being overwhelmed by feelings of deep connection or oneness with other people, with nature, or with the universe itself, we are positively hardwired to crave and enjoy those feelings.

A couple of pages later, he takes things even further by explaining that roller coasters and scary movies are specifically designed to manipulate people’s experiences. Then he confesses that he himself used to use jokes, stories, and body language to do the same thing from the pulpit. He says:

Many preachers ascribe that power to the Holy Spirit, but that doesn’t stop us from carefully taking into account what we wear, the layout and temperature of the room, what kind of music is played before and after we speak, and a hundred other environmental factors that can influence our audience’s receptivity to what we have to say.

I’ve got to admit that he nailed me — and every preacher I know — with those words. As I said, his entire refutation to his dad’s assertion that transcendent experiences evidence God was strong. It got me to thinking about how certain concerts, movies, and ballgames have taken me to the emotional heights of human existence, heights I must confess I rarely reach while praying, reading the Bible, or attending church. Basically, I have to wonder how many times a “move of God” in our churches is, in reality, nothing more than the emotions of church members being well played by a pastor or a worship leader.

Now, as I begin to close this post, let me offer what I think is a solid comeback to Bart’s opening chapter, the chapter in which he describes the lack of “real life” evidence for a supernatural God who works miracles. Bart and his fellow atheists need to be reminded that even the miracles in the Bible are few and far between in terms of the totality of human history. Genuine miracles aren’t just rare today; they’ve always been rare except for a handful of eras in history.

First, God performed a cluster of miracles to give us creation and the human race. That’s Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Second, He performed another cluster over 2,000 years later in leading the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage and into a settling of the land called Canaan. Third, His next cluster took place more than 500 years later during the days of the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

Truth be told, these three clusters catch most of the Old Testament era, even though there are some other miracles such as God opening the barren wombs of certain mothers or providing certain healings. You see, approximately 4,000 years of Old Testament history teach us that God proving His existence by way of supernatural miracles is exceedingly rare. Frankly, if we live our entire lives and never see Him do it, we shouldn’t be surprised at all.

Someone says, “But what about all the miracles in the New Testament?” Well, here again the miracles occur in clusters, two primary ones. First, Jesus performed hundreds of miracles during the three-and-a-half years of His earthly ministry. Even at that prolific rate, though, He didn’t heal everybody in the entire land of Israel. Second, Jesus’ apostles performed many miracles in the early days of the church. However, while some of those miracles are documented in the book of Acts, even in Acts the apostles’ miracle-working power wanes over the decades described in the book. Interestingly, in 2 Timothy, which is the last epistle the apostle Paul wrote, even Paul concedes that he had to leave a friend of his, Trophimus, sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20).

Rather than God performing a miracle on every page and in every story of the Bible, the Bible makes no pretense that this world is an easy place in which to live. God didn’t perform a miracle to save Abel from Cain. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep Joseph’s brothers from selling Joseph into slavery. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep the Midianites and the Amalekites from stealing Gideon’s harvests every year. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep the Philistines from gouging out Samson’s eyes. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep Israel’s northern kingdom from being conquered by the Assyrians. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep Israel’s southern kingdom from being conquered by the Babylonians. He didn’t perform a miracle to save those babies that Herod the Great murdered in his efforts to kill baby Jesus. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep Herod Antipas from beheading John the Baptist. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep the Jewish Sanhedrin council from stoning Stephen to death. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep Herod Agrippa I from making a martyr of James the apostle. He didn’t perform a miracle to keep the Romans from banishing the apostle John to the island of Patmos. On and on I could go.

So, in light of all this, if you have to experience frequent manifestations of God’s supernatural power in your circumstances before you will give Him credit for existing, all I can say is get comfortable in your atheism. For that matter, if you have to see just ONE manifestation of God’s supernatural power in your circumstances, you’re on ice so thin it shouldn’t even be called ice. Speaking for myself, I’ve never seen God work in my life in such a way that a skeptic couldn’t provide a reasonable explanation without bringing God into the explanation. And yet I do believe in God’s existence. Join me for my next post as I address another one of Bart Campolo’s chapters and in so doing keep exploring what has been dubbed “the new atheism.”

Posted in Atheism, Belief, Christ's Miracles, Conscience, Conviction, Creation, Discipleship, Doubt, Faith, God's Omnipotence, Guilt, Music, Personal, Preaching, Salvation, Series: "A Thought-Provoking Book", The Bible, The Holy Spirit, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

One Reason Why One Man Stopped Believing in God

Posted on December 14, 2017 by russellmckinney

“A Thought-Provoking Book” series (post #1)

As part of our Christmas shopping at the mall a couple of weeks ago, I went into a Barnes & Noble store to kill some time while Tonya shopped for shoes or something like that. I made my way to the “Religion” section and started browsing, not looking for anything in particular, and the one book that piqued my interest was entitled Why I Left, Why I Stayed. It was coauthored by Tony Campolo and his son, Bart. Tony is a bestselling author, a Baptist who has long been one of the leading figures in what is known as the “evangelical left.” Bart is a humanist chaplain at the University of Southern California.

Even though I didn’t pull the trigger that day, purchasing the book stuck in my head until I finally ordered it through Amazon a couple of days later. What made the book so appealing to me was its unique subject matter. After publicly professing Christ as a sophomore in high school, and spending several years assisting his father in ministerial efforts, Bart Campolo made the radical decision to forsake Christianity and go the atheist-humanist route. Consequently, his half of the book is Why I Left, referring to why he left Christianity. The book’s other half, obviously, is his father’s Why I Stayed.

I wouldn’t attempt a full book review here or try to cover every bit of ground the Campolos cover, but what I do feel led to do is build a blog series around some of the point/counterpoint arguments the two men use to make their differing cases. I realize this isn’t your typical Christmas-season fare, but it’s the stuff that is rattling around in my brain these days after reading the book. I’ll present the highlights of one argument per post, and as you consider each argument, please take the time to look deep inside yourself and do some personal introspection. That’s what I found most helpful about the book.

I’ll lead off the series by using this first post to address Bart’s argument that he can find no evidence of a supernatural God who deals in the miraculous. By Bart’s own testimony, he could never fully shake, even when he was knee-deep in ministry circles, the fact that he found major sections of the Bible to be pretty much unbelievable. Those sections were the ones that have to do with the miraculous.

His argument reminds me of Thomas Jefferson, who famously went through the Bible and cut out the portions that he didn’t accept. What did he keep in? The words of Jesus and some of the deeds of Jesus. What did he edit out? Christ’s virgin birth, all of Christ’s miracles, Christ’s resurrection, and anything else having to do with the supernatural. Jefferson’s “bible” ends with Jesus being laid in the tomb.

Bart Campolo admits, “…for me, the supernatural aspects of Christianity were always the price of admission, not the attraction.” The paragraph that follows that line is one of his most compelling in the book. He writes:

Of course, all those revelations and miracle stories in the Bible might not have seemed so unbelievable to me if I had seen anything like them happening in my own world. Unfortunately, even on those occasions when divine intervention was most clearly called for, I saw no such thing. These days, people often ask exactly when I lost my faith, as though there were a single moment when the scales fell from my eyes. But the truth is that my Christian orthodoxy, and eventually my ability to believe in anything supernatural, actually died the death of a thousand cuts — and ten thousand unanswered prayers — over the course of more than thirty years.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with Bart’s conclusion, you should at least appreciate the fact that it comes from a man who is being bluntly honest. Who among us hasn’t begged God to show up and been disappointed when He didn’t? Who among us hasn’t longed for a parting-of-the-Red-Sea moment and never gotten it? Who among us hasn’t wanted to see a Lazarus come walking out of the tomb, only to have the tomb remained closed?

Specifically, Bart references the late 1970s when he and three of his fellow high schoolers ran a Christian summer day camp in the inner-city ghetto of Camden, New Jersey. That ghetto was marked by boarded-up houses, broken-down cars, graffiti-laced buildings, and a whole lot of the new drug-of-choice: crack cocaine. As Bart spent the summer trying to play the role of missionary to the children of that setting, he heard story after story from them about everything from street violence to sexual abuse. All those stories took a toll on his core beliefs. At the time, he was still just a teenager and was young and green in his profession of Christianity, but he was already asking hard questions such as, “If God is a God of love and power, why doesn’t He help these poor kids and their parents?”

It was the plight of Shonda who got to him the most. She was the mother of Craig, a ten-year-old who was one of his favorite campers. When Bart tried to win her to Jesus, she quickly informed him that she didn’t want to hear about the love of God. Then she told him her story. She had been raised in a Christian family and had enjoyed going to church, but one day, as a nine-year-old walking home from school, she had been gang-raped. Later, when she had asked her Sunday School teacher why a God who is all-knowing and all-powerful hadn’t stopped the rape, the answer given was, “He must have allowed it for a good reason. So, what can you learn from the experience that will enable you to love God more and glorify Him more?” That answer went over like a lead balloon with Shonda and she never wanted to hear anything else about God.

After hearing Shonda’s story and getting to know her, Bart simply couldn’t fathom that a God of love would send a woman with her history to hell. That was the beginning of his disbelief in the reality of hell, and from there the process of his retreat from his profession of Christianity continued. After high school, he attended Haverford, a liberal arts college just outside Philadelphia. That’s where he met two gay roommates who caused him to reject the Bible’s teaching that homosexuality is a choice and a sin. That was the final nail in the coffin of his belief in Biblical inerrancy. Later on, while he was employed as a youth pastor, he and his wife Marty worked to recruit Christian college students to organize evangelical day camps for inner-city kids. In summing up that season of his life, he offers another telling quote:

Later, as we saw one beloved child after another crushed by neglect and abuse, along with loving couples unable to conceive, young parents dying of cancer, and addicted friends relapsing — not to mention the destruction of poverty, war, and all kinds of natural disasters — despite our desperate prayers, the idea that God could do anything more than grieve with us slipped away too.

And it’s there that I’ll put a period on this first post from the series. I trust, though, that I’ve given you enough of Bart’s opening chapter to explain why he ultimately chose to reject the supernatural altogether, including his belief in an omniscient, omnipotent God. In my next post, I’ll give you some of the highlights of the chapter that Tony, Bart’s dad, offers in reply to Bart’s opening chapter. How will the dad respond to the son’s sledgehammer opening remarks? Tune in next time to find out.

Posted in Atheism, Belief, Bible Study, Children, Christ's Birth, Christ's Miracles, Christ's Resurrection, Doubt, Faith, God's Love, God's Omnipotence, God's Omnipresence, God's Omniscience, Hell, Homosexuality, Lesbianism, Personal, Scripture, Series: "A Thought-Provoking Book", Sunday School, The Bible, Trusting In God, Truth, Virgin Birth, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment