“…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…” 1 Peter 3:15 Prepared With a Reason When I was growing up, the answer I hated most from my parents was “because I said so.” I was the kid who wanted to understand the reasoning behind every rule. I also hated the answer from teachers, “because it’s in the Student Handbook.” Yes, I am aware that someone on the faculty thought it was a great idea to require students to wear long pants beginning October 1st, but given that even young human beings are capable of deciding if they are cold and know what to do to remedy that problem, what is the reasoning behind the decision to place usage dates on shorts? I always did and still do want to understand the reasoning behind rules. Sadly, especially in our current society, many people don’t know why they think what they think. They just absorb the ideas of their peers, their leaders and the press and regurgitate the answers they have heard. Do a little experiment and ask someone this: who do you support in the current election? Whoever they say, ask them for their favorite three policies that their candidate backs. Rarely will you get a coherent answer. You will often hear drivel like “well she’s the first black woman to be president!” or “he’s going to make America great again!” Drivel. No policy statement. No plan. Just drivel. I want to know your reasons for backing a particular candidate. Why do we believe what we believe? Why do we think what we think? It is good for us to know the reasons we believe and think what we believe and think. This is particularly true with respect to religion. Biblical Christianity makes many hard and fast claims. Many of those claims are diametrically opposed to popular thought in our society. We, as Christians, are mouthpieces for God in this world. We are the ones who are called on to proclaim what God says in Holy Scripture, and we will be challenged when what we say is not congruent with popular thought. Unfortunately, the majority does not want to hear our reasoning. They want to believe what is convenient. Like all people, they don’t want to have to change. So, they just walk away mumbling something like, “we’ll just agree to disagree.” I personally hate that phrase because what you are saying is that there is no objective truth. I do not have to substantiate anything I believe or say, and you just have to accept it or we’ll just agree to disagree. That motto is fine when discussing the color of the carpet or whether to shop at Jewell or Pete’s. But it is not okay when discussing important concepts taught by God himself. We can never be lazy about that. In an effort to help everyone to be ready to respond to unbiblical teachings in our society, I will be teaching Prepared with a Reason for the next couple of months in the Trinity Center on Sunday mornings at 9:15. This study moves through Epistemology (the study of truth), Ontology (the study of being), Anthropology (the study of human beings), Axiology (the study of values), Ethics (the study of the principles that determine right and wrong), Aesthetics (the study of beauty), and Eschatology (the study of the end of all things). It is my hope that, through this study, we will all be better prepared with a reason for what we believe. If we can explain why we believe whatever we believe, people are more likely to listen. If we can provide people with evidence for what we believe, they might be more likely to investigate God’s Word and that’s when the miraculous happens. Our job is to draw people to the study of God’s Word and from there, the Holy Spirit takes over and accomplishes whatever He chooses to accomplish. It is not our job to argue people into right faith. It is not our job to defend God (He can and does aptly defend Himself: see the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Red Sea). It is not our job to appease people by weakening or justifying God’s Word. I just recently heard someone say that the idea that women cannot be pastors was a hard teaching. I agree. There are a lot of hard teachings, some of which my sinful nature thoroughly dislikes. My job is not to explain away hard teachings but to draw people to the Word where the Holy Spirit can act. It is my hope and prayer that Prepared with a Reason will draw many people to Bible Study where we will all be better equipped to proclaim what we believe and why we believe it in hopes of drawing even more people to God’s Word where the Holy Spirit can build us up and strengthen us for service to our God. COME TO BIBLE STUDY! Sundays at 9:15 in the Trinity Center. |
