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Two Common Distortions of Religious Truth

I don’t particularly enjoy talking about how religions have distorted truths. Many others don’t enjoy hearing about it, either. Most of us avoid conflict, and I’m one of them.

However, sometimes conflict is necessary and beneficial when it involves issues that we cannot afford to get wrong. As you will soon see, religious truth is one such issue. That is why we need to discuss two of the most common ways we observe distortion in religious truth today.
First Distortion: Getting right with God is a matter of behavior modification
No matter where in the world you go, many people think that getting right with God, getting on God’s “good side,” getting God to let you into Heaven (or whatever else people call it) is a matter of cleaning yourself up and fixing bad behavior. The Bible has much to say about proper living, but its teachings are often distorted when people think proper living is done for the purpose of getting right with God. If we believe this, we fail to understand how to establish a proper relationship with God. Consider these words from Paul in Galatians 3:1–2 (NLT):

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.

This is some of the strongest language we ever see from Paul in the Bible. He is reacting against people who believe they can earn a better standing with God through their own human effort. In response, Paul strongly reminds the Galatians that it is God who saves and establishes a relationship with us. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and God’s Spirit enters our lives when we believe in the Gospel.

Related content: Faulty Truth False Reality

Often, this distortion trickles into Gospel conversations when Christians are not careful how they talk about sin. Many people think that sin is like extra calories. That is, you probably shouldn’t have eaten it, but it won’t kill you. Just jump on a treadmill and work it off with enough good deeds to counteract the bad… No. Sin is poison. No treadmill cures us of poison. That is why we must trust in the saving power of Jesus to make us right with God. It’s nothing we can accomplish on our own. Jesus accomplished everything for us. (Thank God for that!)
Second Distortion: The More Mystical Something Sounds, the More Spiritual it Must Be
Over the years, I have read a handful of spiritual and New Age books and heard various teachings from people in those spiritual communities. Almost always, the teachers make bold claims about reality and spiritual truths without a shred of justification. I’m talking about statements such as, “pain is an illusion,” “all religions point to the same primordial source,” “you are one with the universe,” or “you must liberate your consciousness from thought forms to achieve enlightenment.”

At first glance, I find it odd that spiritual teachers simply say this stuff, and thousands of spiritually hungry listeners eat it up without a moment’s thought to consider any evidence for such bold statements. Upon reflection, however, I find that statements like these have a peculiar draw to them. We are, after all, spiritual beings, and something about those statements seems spiritual. I suspect they seem spiritual because they sound so counterintuitive or otherworldly. They speak of reality in a new, adventurous way. They trigger deep, reflective, existential thought, and something about that seems right. It’s as if the more mystical something sounds, the more spiritual it must be.

Related content: Seven Lies that Distort the Gospel

This is another distorted religious truth. Spirituality is not measured by how deep one goes into the rabbit hole of Eastern mysticism or New Age thinking. True spirituality is a matter of one’s relationship with God through His Holy Spirit, who inhabits his church and lives inside those saved by Jesus (Titus 3:5–6; 1 Cor. 12:13). It’s gloriously simple, and as we share elsewhere on this website, there is plenty of good reason to believe it’s true.
Challenging the Distortions
We have seen two common distortions of religious truth. The first tends to be more common among Western religions, and the second among Eastern religions. I wrote this way to illustrate that religious confusion occurs everywhere.

As Christians, we need to remember that the word “Gospel” means “good news,” and that’s exactly what it is. This means that properly understood, the Gospel is exactly what people want and need. So, any time someone rejects the Gospel, it’s the result of religious distortion of some sort. Something is confusing others into thinking that the pure Gospel of Jesus is not worth accepting. We have the opportunity to clear away that confusion so people can see and understand the Gospel clearly. However, if we are to make headway in our conversations, we need to understand the confusion people are dealing with. That is why, whenever I hear someone say they aren’t a Christian, I like to ask a simple question: “Why not?” Consider someone in your life to whom you could ask that question. Listen, and then gently look for ways to challenge the distortion and encourage them to consider Jesus. For “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4, ESV). Inspire. . . Challenge. . . Fuel Your Faith #truth 365 Devotions for Teens Connecting Life and Faith View in Store

Finding Security Amidst Trauma & Suffering

We were created for Eden—a paradise without pain, suffering, struggles, or sin. A place where we could know God and others deeply, unafraid of rejection or ridicule. We were created to experience the fulfillment of all of our needs.

In our book, Free To Thrive, Josh McDowell and I explore Seven Longings (seven relational needs) that God places within every person. One of those longings is for the assurance of safety–to be protected and provided for physically, emotionally, and financially. In one word, security. We were created to have security in the Garden of Eden by having everything we needed–our spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical needs all perfectly met through God and others.

Related Resource: Undaunted: The Josh McDowell Story 

But, of course, we don’t live in the Eden for which our souls were created. We live in a fallen world. A broken world. We experience loss, grief, pain, and betrayal. People who are supposed to be there for us let us down. Those who are supposed to love us the most often hurt us the most. After all, we are imperfect people interacting with other imperfect people.

Causes of Trauma

Through high-intensity painful experiences (death of loved ones, physical or sexual abuse, a car accident, etc) and through frequent lower intensity painful experiences (illness, being ridiculed or bullied, unmet needs etc) we experience trauma, which can be defined as any lasting psychological and biological response to an emotionally distressing event.

Trauma can happen in many different ways, but some of the most consistent and significant ways we experience trauma are in relationships. Trauma can come from things people have said or done to us—or not said or done when we needed them to. All of us experience trauma in our broken world. That’s because we live in a world where things are not the way they were originally intended to be. “I don’t have any trauma” you may be thinking, but as uniquely created individuals, trauma can affect each of us differently. Something that is extremely painful for one person may only be moderately painful for another. We can’t compare what we have been through to what others have been through as our barometer for trauma.

Further, far too often, our pain is silenced by ourselves and others through over-spiritualizing what we have weathered. Through spiritual bypassing, spiritual ideas and language are used to downplay and dismiss our pain. We tell ourselves to “forgive and forget” or that “God works all things together for good” as a way to avoid or downplay the harm we endured because we fear the truth is too unbearable. Yet God created us to be honest about our pain. As 1 Corinthians 13:6 says, love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” May we be honest with the truth of our pain. When we don’t process trauma in healthy ways, it stops us from experiencing the thriving life God has for us. It stops us from grieving and healing, and limits our growth spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. It breeds ways of coping in unhealthy ways. 

Related Video: Overcoming Trauma – Finding Healing and Life Changing Love

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6 that we do not battle against human flesh but against Satan and the fiery arrows that He uses to attack us. These arrows often come in the form of lies that have been deeply rooted in our souls through trauma.

Many of us have trauma because of painful messages we’ve received from other people. But these messages are not true. Satan has used lies like this as a tactic since the Garden of Eden. He uses our pain to twist the truth, deceive us, and convince us to believe lies about ourselves, God, and others. He attacks our God-given need for security with trauma leading us to deal with a lack of security–low self-worth, isolation, anxiety, fearing the future, struggling to trust God and doubting His love and goodness and so on. What we need the most, dependency and connection with God and others in healthy ways, we often fear the most.

How We Heal from Trauma

So how do we heal from trauma and the pain from unmet needs for security? Well, we begin to experience security through God and safe people. See, we experience trauma experientially, and we experience healing experientially. We need new experiences with people who accept, love, affirm, and show up for us. We need new experiences where we feel safe, protected, and provided for by God and others. This is a process over time of challenging the deep rooted lies we believe with the truth, and experiencing the fulfillment of our needs that have gone unmet.

Day by day, as we do life with Jesus and safe people, we learn to process and talk about our pain and struggles. We take the lies captive and redirect them to the truth. We sit with Jesus and mourn and grieve the trauma and suffering we have endured. We sit with others and talk about what we have been through and witness their compassion and empathy, and the naming of the pain in our story that we don’t see. 

Ultimately, we can find security in the depths of our souls as we encounter Jesus who is with us, for us, provides for us, protects us, mourns with us, and walked among us as he faced greater trauma and suffering than any human who ever walked this earth–fully God and fully man, betrayed by his closest friends and publicly executed unjustly for crimes he did not commit and the sins of the world. 

To go deeper, check out our free 5 day devotional for overcoming trauma and hurt.

Three Facts for Talking about the Resurrection this Easter

Christians have great reasons to celebrate Easter! Jesus’s resurrection justifies us before God (Rom. 4:25), gives purpose to our preaching (1 Cor. 15:14), and value to our faith (1 Cor. 15:17). Many of us often forget, however, that the resurrection does a whole lot to show that Christianity is true. After all, if God raised Jesus back from the dead, it shows that God exists and Jesus can be trusted.

But can we show that the resurrection really happened? We weren’t there to see Jesus’s death, to visit the empty tomb, or to witness Jesus alive after his execution. But there are other ways to show that these three events took place. As you will soon see, they are crucial for building a strong case that the resurrection really happened.
Fact 1: Jesus Died by Crucifixion
Christians proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus from the beginning of church history in the very city that watched Him die (See Habermas, On the Resurrection, 437–479, 698–705). But what if Jesus never really died? What if Jesus merely passed out and woke up later before leaving his tomb and appearing to his followers?

To know whether this is possible, we need to know more about what was actually reported. The death of Jesus is mentioned in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 32, and John 19. The means of death was crucifixion, a horrific and shameful death reserved for criminals. The fact that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were allies of Christianity makes it highly unlikely they would have made up such an embarrassing demise of their beloved leader. Several ancient non-Christians also reported the death of Jesus. (Josephus, Antiquities 18.64; Lucian, Death of Peregrine 11–13; Tacitus, Annals 15.44).

Related: Crucifixion Details of the Resurrection of Christ

Why stress death by crucifixion? Because crucifixion is not the kind of execution that someone could live through. Roman executioners knew how to kill people. Victims had their hands nailed to a wooden beam and were suspended on a vertical post such that it would be difficult to breathe. When they ran out of energy, they would suffocate to death. In the case of Jesus, he died relatively quickly, so a Roman executioner thrust a spear through his side to be extra sure Jesus was dead (John 19:31–34).

Even if Jesus merely passed out on the cross and somehow survived it (a theory that even non-Christian scholars of Jesus don’t take seriously), he would have been a disaster case on the verge of death. This hardly explains why the first Christians called Jesus their triumphant king whom God raised back from the dead.
Fact 2: The Tomb Was Found Empty
Rather than saying Jesus never really died, some critics of Christianity claim that the early followers of Jesus merely thought they saw Jesus alive. Maybe they hallucinated Jesus, or they simultaneously went through a severe stage of denial in their grieving process. While there are several problems with this theory, one big problem is this: it does not explain why the tomb of Jesus was empty.

But how can we know that the tomb of Jesus was empty? Well, by the time the resurrection was proclaimed, Jesus’s corpse would still be in recognizable shape (See Habermas and Licona, Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, Chapter 4, footnote 32). This means any enemy of Christianity could have easily ended the movement by uncovering the dead body of Jesus. The fact that Christianity is still around means they were unable to do so.

Related: Empty Tomb: Details of Christ’s Resurrection

How, then, did the enemies of Jesus respond? There’s an interesting detail near the end of Matthew where he responds to the non-Christian argument that the body of Jesus was stolen. The fact that Matthew (a follower of Jesus) responds to the argument that the disciples stole the body is strong evidence that critics were saying the disciples stole the body. There is no reason critics would say this if the body of Jesus was still in the tomb.

Also, all four gospels say that women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb. At that time, female testimony was not considered reliable (Babylonian Talmud: Sotah 19a, Kiddushin 82b, Rosh Hashanah 1.8; Josephus, Antiquities, 4.8.15). If the empty tomb was a lie from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, why would they tell it from the perspective of women? The best explanation is that the tomb really was empty.
Fact 3: Followers of Jesus Claimed They Saw Jesus Alive
At this point, critics of Christianity are running out of options, but there are still a few points they could make. What if the followers of Jesus went to the wrong tomb? Or what if somebody moved the body of Jesus to a different location without telling anyone? This theory struggles when we consider another important fact: the followers of Jesus claimed they saw Jesus alive.

Related: The Resurrection of Christ: The Disciples’ Reaction

It’s not hard to prove this third fact. We simply look at what they wrote. Look at Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20–21. Look also at 1 Corinthians 15:3–8, where Paul mentions himself and 500 other witnesses. Importantly, Paul gives several names in case his critics want to investigate further. And, if anyone still thinks these appearances can be explained by hallucinations or grief stages of denial, John says that he and others saw, heard, and even touched Jesus (1 John 1:1).

It’s important to understand that these claims—seeing, touching, and talking with the resurrected Jesus over an extended period of time—are not the kinds of claims someone could accidentally come to falsely believe. If Jesus never resurrected, then the people claiming to have seen Jesus alive must be knowingly lying about Jesus. The problem is that they were willing to die for their claims, and many of them did. People die for all sorts of crazy beliefs, but nobody dies for something they know is a lie.
The Easter Opportunity
We have seen that Jesus died, his tomb was found empty, and the followers of Jesus claimed to have seen Jesus alive. Taken together, these three facts of history make a strong case that Jesus resurrected from the dead. They’re also just three facts. It’s not hard to remember. I highly encourage you to take a few minutes to write them down and internalize them. If you do, you’ll be more equipped than most Christians to talk about Jesus during a season when everyone is thinking about Him. What better time to tell someone in your life about the resurrection of Jesus than this Easter season? Easter Service Pack *Our Best Offer!* 120 books (4-30 packs) for only $3.00 per book!

This pack is ideal for continuing the impact of your church’s Easter services by giving guests their own copy of More Than a Carpenter.

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How We Get Rooted in the Wrong Places

The image of a 100-year-old tree laying on the ground – roots and all – is surreal. Why would such a magnificent tree be found lying on the ground? A weak root system. The image of this devastating loss can be used to illustrate the damage to our lives and faith when we’re not strongly rooted in Christ.

Colossians 2:6-8  “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit…”. In our culture of social media, alluring novel opinions, and self-help promises, are your roots strong, being rooted in Christ, or weakened by falling prey to the distractions and temptations of the world?

Our lives are most fulfilled when we are rooted in Christ. Three simple steps can help strengthen your root system against the pressures of  novel ideas, worldly decisions, and false beliefs: slow down and be thoughtful about what feels off; acknowledge Christ as the only source of fulfillment; and seek to meet your needs in the right places.

 Slow Down and Be Thoughtful About What Feels Off

The pace of our lives is faster than any other era in history. Attention spans are shorter, schedules are tighter, and getting consistent, quality sleep is a challenge. God did not intend for our lives to be so busy. He served by example when He rested on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:1-3). Jesus also demonstrated this when He took time out to be alone with God in the midst of His ministry (Luke 5:15, 16).

Why is resting important to God? To stay in a healthy rhythm. When we’re in sync with Him, our minds are more focused, our perspective more in line with His, and we’re more open to His guidance. Alternately, when we allow life and distractions to keep us spinning, we’re prone to fixating on the wrong priorities and following harmful ideologies.

Even if you’re caught up in the break-neck speed of the culture right now, there are ways to find a healthy rhythm. Be intentional about seeking God’s guidance for your life. Quiet your mind and set your heart on Him. Prayerfully ask what areas of your life really need your focus and what activities you need to reduce or eliminate. While you’re focused and open-minded, consider your own feelings about your rhythm and activities. What are you at peace about? What are you unsettled about and why?

Some of the answers we seek from God are revealed to us when we simply slow down and examine the state of our hearts (and ask God to examine our hearts as well). We just have to be honest and open enough to do the work..

Acknowledge Christ as the Only Source of Fulfillment

We may think that doing things we enjoy will balance or offset the challenges and busyness of our lives – as if doing more will provide the restoration and peace we’re really looking for. While helping others or volunteering at church are good things, they don’t count as slowing down to spend time with God.

Being intentional about developing a consistent quiet time with God leads to the fulfillment and balance we all need. It’s not easy to do that every day – sometimes we have to fight to keep that rhythm, but even when life gets unavoidably chaotic, setting our minds on God for five minutes helps to keep us centered.

Keep your mind and heart rooted in Christ and the distractions that vie for your time will begin to be less important, and you will begin to be more fulfilled.

Related article: How Do We Know Who to Trust in the Age of Voice Overload?

Seek to Meet Your Needs in the Right Places

There are pressures in culture to “fit in” and take control. Are your social channels up to par? Do they represent how you want the world to see you? Do you feel the need to participate in activities or say certain things to be perceived in a certain way? Do you do everything within your power to maintain control of your life? All of these things are efforts to meet personal needs – fill voids in your life, or meet longings to be loved, accepted and valued.

To meet the expectations of culture – and to please the world – is impossible. It’s a never-ending (futile) endeavor. The good news is, you don’t have to seek the world’s approval. God loves you for who you are, desires to guide you and develop your faith and character in alignment with Christ, and he wants you to know you are loved just the way you are. Seek after Him – not the world – to discover your worth.

 Related Article: How and Anxious Generation’s Faith is Ruled by the Minute

There are so many things in our lives competing for the most important thing – our relationship with Christ. Once we realize that and hold tight to the things that keep us on track, we’ll be equipped to navigate this journey with more peace and confidence than we could ever imagine.

In & For Podcast Learn more about how to balance faith and culture by listening to our new podcast, In & For.  Listen Now

What Unhealthy Behaviors Reveal About You

Today, we are bombarded by a constant stream of noise from phone notifications, opinions, ads, and voices telling us what to do and how to improve every aspect of our lives. But instead of helping, the nonstop nature of the information age leaves us more exhausted, distracted, and dissatisfied than ever. More importantly, it leaves us prone to pursue unhealthy behaviors. The data doesn’t lie.

Recent 2025 data revealed that thirty-eight percent of adults reported overeating or eating unhealthy foods to cope with stress. Eighty percent of individuals went shopping and splurged to boost their mood. Over half of practicing Christians regularly turned to watch porn. These behavioral trends tell us something important.

Related: How can We Know Who to Trust in The Age of Voice Overload?

It’s easier to live on autopilot than to seek to discern God’s voice of truth of how He wants us to live. It’s less work to live in a state of distraction and busyness than to seek the truth of why we do what we don’t want to do and why we struggle to live into God’s ways for our lives. Perhaps part of that is we are afraid of the truth we would find were we to truly investigate what our unhealthy behaviors reveal about the state of our souls. By blocking out the noise and slowing down long enough to explore some of these issues, we will discover a better way–a way that helps us align our lives with God’s ways.

Unhealthy Behaviors aren’t Random
The reality is that our unhealthy behaviors aren’t random, they’re signs of something deeper. To say it differently, our unwanted thoughts and behaviors have a cause, and we must discover the cause if we want to experience freedom.

Traditionally, we as Christians have talked extensively of how our unhealthy behaviors are a result of being born with a sinful nature. This aspect of truth has been elevated, while neglecting other aspects of truth in this equation, leading to an overwhelming voice that blames every problem in our lives our own sinful nature. And yet, what has often been missed is that the Bible reveals additional things that factor into our unhealthy behaviors. Namely, the influence of brokenness we experience in relationships, both in the past and in the present.

Unhealthy Behaviors Point to Deeper Longings
God creates every human with desires—or heart longings—that drive everything we do. The Bible lists seven including our need to be accepted (Romans 15:7), appreciated (2 Timothy 1:3-5), the assurance of safety (2 Thessalonians 3:3), and the affirmation of our feelings (Romans 12:15). These are very real needs that God created us to have satisfied, especially in the formative years of our life. When fulfilled, these things help us to believe deep down that we are loved and valuable, that we are safe, and that people will be there for us.

These longings drive everything we do. All of our thoughts and behaviors, whether for good or for bad, flow from these heart longings (Proverbs 4:23). When we are unable to find healthy ways to fulfill these longings in our relationships, or when these longings are outright rejected by others through things such as hurtful or abusive words or actions, we turn to unhealthy or unwanted behaviors. We can succumb to living distracted in search of endless dopamine fixes to escape the pain in our souls. 

Watch: The Foundation of a Thriving Life – The Seven Longings Part 1

My Own Story with Unhealthy Behaviors
I’ve experienced this first-hand. Growing up, I experienced manipulation, threats, abuse, and rage from my father, while my mother didn’t intervene and took my dad’s side. I experienced bullying and name-calling at school. I carried a deep sense that I didn’t belong anywhere and that I was worthless. I became addicted to porn, food, and thrill-seeking behaviors. When life felt too much to bear, I’d turn inward, get depressed, and struggled with suicidal thoughts. These patterns continued into adulthood until I started to explore their cause and find what I was truly longing for. It was only then that God started to bring true healing and freedom to my life.

Our unhealthy behaviors aren’t random; they’re signs of something deeper. 

We see this throughout the entire Bible:

In Genesis 3, after sinning against God, Adam and Eve were naked and afraid so they hid.In 1 Samuel 21-24, David had unmet longings for safety leading to anxiety when Saul was seeking to kill him.In Job 3, Job had unmet longings after losing his family, health, and wealth. He felt so depressed, he wished he had never been born.

You may see this in your own life when you:

Cope through overspending when you fear for your safety or worry about your future.Escape to entertainment when you feel overwhelmed by commitments and responsibilities.Perform for the approval of others when you feel unwanted or unknown.Watch porn to find pseudo-acceptance or love when you feel rejected or inadequate.

May we start questioning our unhealthy behaviors, rather than simply condemning our unhealthy behaviors. As everything we do flows from our hearts (Proverbs 4:23), may we start questioning how our hearts have been wounded in this fallen world and what we might be coping with.

God invites us to begin to shed our unwanted behaviors as we look deeper at our unmet longings. We can find true acceptance, appreciation, and safety as we reach out, become vulnerable, and connect with God and others. Said another way, we can find what will truly satisfy our souls as we live into God’s ways for our lives.

To go deeper in understanding your story and why you struggle with specific unhealthy behaviors, pick up our book Free To Thrive. 

For more resources on healing and overcoming sin, check out our initiative called Resolution Movement.

Free to Thrive God has more for you. Learn more.

How Can We Know Who to Trust in the Age of Voice Overload?

The time it took for you to finish reading this sentence was probably around three seconds. During that time, the internet processed roughly 343,000 Gigabytes of Information, 28,000 posts were made on X, eight new websites were launched, and 25 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube.

Actually, those statistics are way out of date. They were collected before people started using AI to generate pages of information in seconds.

There are a million voices telling us what we should believe. Given this ocean of competing information blasting at our eyes and ears every time we look at our phones (not to mention laptops, tablets, PCs and more), how can we know who to trust? There’s just so much out there! What can we do to cut through confusion in this unprecedented era of voice overload? 

The So-Much-Out-There Problem

The fact that there’s so much disagreement is mentally exhausting when we are trying to figure out the truth of important and controversial things. For many, it has corroded our trust that any controversial claim can be known for certain. At the very least, many become suspicious of topics like Christianity. I don’t have a great name for this problem, but let’s just call it the so-much-out-there problem.

I suspect the anxiety of the so-much-out-there problem is why some become skeptics about controversial things. If nothing can be known or trusted about controversial things, then truth is relative, everyone is right in their ow way and we can stop worrying about it. Problem solved, right?

Hate to say it, but… I disagree. The so-much-out-there problem is more complex and deserves better answers than what skepticism or relativism can provide. These answers are really just coping mechanisms, and we don’t need coping mechanisms; we need a way to sort through bad information and determine good information that can be trusted. We also need to know that disagreement is not as big of an issue as we make it out to be. Let’s work through these needs briefly.

Sorting Through Bad Information

The way I see it, there are three hurdles we face in this world of information. The first is sorting through deceptive information that is simply made up and totally false. The second hurdle is sorting through information that might be technically true but is terribly misleading. The third hurdle is sorting through information that is presented honestly and carefully yet still may be wrong.

Related: Can we Trust God?

Breaking past the first two hurdles is simply a matter of conducting proper research. This is done by working with authoritative sources. We must ask: Who is the author? Is the author qualified to speak on this topic? Who is the publisher? Is the publisher a respectable source? If you stick to qualified authors who are publishing through reputable sources, you’ll do well. You’ve also eliminated about 99% of the ocean of information out there. Don’t worry—there’s still plenty to work with.

Once you’re working with good sources, you’re ready to work through that final hurdle. This is done by comparing the different perspectives. For example, I have found that Christianity makes the best sense of this world, it does the best job answering questions raised against it, and it leaves the fewest questions unanswered. These would be hollow beliefs if not for the fact that I did my homework to compare the arguments for Christianity with other perspectives out there.

But What About Disagreement?

Even after doing my best attempt to break through the three hurdles in my investigation of Christianity, the so-much-out-there problem doesn’t want to go away. After all, there’s so much out there from other smart people who disagree with me! Shouldn’t that mean I should give up my belief in Christianity?

This is a complicated issue. If you’re interested, I wrote a semi-technical paper about it here. But here is one way to think about it: If disagreement counts as evidence against a belief, then it’s merely just that: evidence against a belief. It would also mean that agreement is evidence for a belief. Now, those who have seriously studied the arguments for and against Christianity are divided. Some think Christianity is true, others do not. So it seems the evidence of agreement and the evidence of disagreement cancel each other out. But even if disagreement evidence is stronger than agreement evidence, there’s still a bunch of other evidence for Christianity that I find convincing. Thus, after weighing all of the evidence for and against Christianity, I still find that the evidence for Christianity is greater, despite disagreements.

So no, disagreement does not mean I should give up my belief in Christianity. Even if it did, I wouldn’t be able to! I can’t look at the evidence for Christianity—evidence which I find incredibly persuasive—and tell it to stop persuading me. Put differently, it’s easier for me to “not know” why people disagree with the evidence than for me to give up on my evidence and “not know” how I got it wrong.

So What Can We Do?

One thing I tried to make clear from the last section is that I can’t help but go by whatever I find to be most convincing. None of us can. At the end of the day, we all believe according to the evidence in front of us, not according to the evidence in front of other people.

This means we have a responsibility to push through the so-much-out-there problem as best as we can. Do your homework, use good research, compare the perspectives, and trust the process. One excellent place to start is Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh and Sean McDowell. The book has two qualified authors with strong credentials and a reputable publisher. It covers the issues in depth and uses extensive research from scholars on both sides of the debate.

Just remember: If Christianity is true, then the Bible’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 2 is also true. It says that we need God’s help to understand spiritual truths. So, if you’re serious about investigating Christianity, you should be serious about prayer. Even if you’re unsure whether God is out there, you can still get on your knees and say, “God, if you’re there, and if Jesus really is your Son, show me the truth of these things.”

Yes, there’s a lot out there, more than we could possibly know. But if God is real, then God knows all of it, and I’m convinced he is willing to help us find our way.

Three Things Depression May Be Telling You

The rates of individuals struggling with depression have continued to rise throughout the years. During the pandemic in 2020, 41.5% of American adults reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Almost half of young people (47%) report being moderately or extremely depressed. Depression affects people from all walks of life, including strong Christians.

The reality is that depression often tells a deeper story. Like lights on a dashboard, it is often a signal that things in our lives need attention. It is telling us important information that needs attending to.

As the Psalmist asks in Psalm 43:5, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?” We can do the same. Here are three things depression might be telling you.

Depression may be telling you: “You need connection”

God created us to need one another; to have meaningful connection with others daily. The New Testament uses the phrase “one another” exactly one hundred times and puts an emphasis on connecting with others in meaningful ways. This means talking with others about how we are truly doing, what we are thinking and feeling, and experiencing those things affirmed by safe people.

Related: Overcoming Depression: Episode 1

Isolating physically and relationally from others can present a number of symptoms including depression. Scripture makes it clear that our well-being in life is directly tied to our relationships. “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.” Ecclesiastes 4:9

Depression may be telling you: “There is pain that needs healing”

This could be pain from loss, heartbreak, or abuse. Depression can often appear when the pain of what we have been through is immense. In turn, we can start to feel hopeless about ourselves, our situation, or the future.

We witness this throughout the Scriptures. For example, Job, who was called a “blameless” and “upright” man, after losing his health, wealth, and family, was so depressed that he wished he had never been born (Job 3). King David was depressed after long being oppressed by his enemies (Psalm 13:2). Elijah became depressed and suicidal in response to Queen Jezebel seeking to kill him (1 Kings 19).

God went to great lengths in Scripture to affirm the reality of mental health challenges, including depression, and to show how common to the human experience they are. Experiencing depression does not mean someone lacks faith in God, or is less spiritually mature. Some of the godliest people in the Bible struggled with their mental health. 

As Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” A heavy heart of depression can follow pain that has caused us to lose a feeling of hope.

Depression may be telling you: “There are lies you believe that need dismantling”

Psalm 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” The opposite is also true. When we experience negative and painful experiences in childhood, they set the course for how we view ourselves and relate to others. 

As a child, I experienced name-calling, bullying, and abuse from my father. Consequently, I believed deep down that I was worthless and inadequate. This led into adulthood. As a young adult, whenever I messed up, didn’t follow through, let someone down, didn’t perform perfectly, or couldn’t do what I had committed to, I would feel worthless. It was as if I was experiencing the emotions of all of those painful times from the past at once—in the present.

Watch: Depression isn’t random

One Spring, I had overcommitted to responsibilities in ministry: long days, hours upon hours of emotional investment, and countless meetings each week. I tried to push through, but eventually an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy and exhaustion caught up with me. Negative thoughts about myself played on a never-ending loop. The scripts about myself from my childhood overtook me like an avalanche. Worse, I actually believed them on a deeply emotional level.

This culminated in waking up one morning wanting to die as I felt an overpowering weight beyond all sadness I had ever experienced before. I felt as if I was living in the depths of hell. Gloom, exhaustion, worthlessness, hopelessness, and horror hit me like a tidal wave. Tears flowed, almost nonstop. The turmoil continued for days. I had faced depression off and on throughout my life, and had endured abuse, assault, addiction, and more, but never anything like this.

As exemplified in my life, painful childhood experiences can lead us to believe deep-rooted lies about ourselves that stick with us into adulthood. Lies such as “I’m unloveable,” “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m a burden,” over time can result in patterns of depression.

While the pain of depression is real, God can restore our hearts and minds. He wants to journey with us as we seek to understand what depression is telling us and seek Him for healing with the help of others.

If someone you know is experiencing depression, I’d encourage you to share this article with them. If you personally are experiencing depression, I’d encourage you to take the following steps. First, journal with God about the three things depression may be telling you. Second, go through our Overcoming Depression YouVersion Bible plan. Third, consider setting up an appointment with a licensed Christian therapist. 

For more resources on mental health, check out our initiative Resolution Movement.

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The Best Passage on Hope in the Bible

One passage in Scripture starkly contrasts the idea of hope in the Bible with the idea of hope that is pervasive in culture. Before we get to that passage, let’s make sure we understand the cultural explanation of hope. 

Culture and hope

Hope, according to culture, revolves around wishing and wanting with no certainty of outcome. Consider these phrases:

“I hope you get better”“This [job, relationship, income, etc) brings me hope about the future”“I hope you have a good day”“I hope it works out”“I’m hopeful about the outcome”“I hope you understand what I’m saying”

In each of these statements (and many more like them) we wish for something to occur or we want a result from someone/something – but the common thread is that there is no guarantee. They may not get better. The job may result in a layoff. The relationship may end. What’s most important here is that the Bible knows nothing about this kind of hope. This is where our passage comes into play.

Related: Hope: Not Wishful Thinking for Christians

The Bible and hope

The best passage on hope in the Bible is 1 Peter 1:3-9. Let’s break it down and see why. 

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… (1:3)

What kind of hope do we have as Christians? A living hope that is made possible through the most significant event to ever occur in history: The resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This tells us something extremely important. Hope in the biblical sense only exists for those who have experienced a new birth. This also means that for the Christian, there is never “hopelessness”. To be hopeless is to be Christ-less. We can be mournful, we can be fearful, we can be saddened or even discouraged at times. But our hope is untouchable. The next verses explain why.

…and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1:4-5)

We’ve seen the object of our hope is Christ and His resurrection. Here we see the result of our hope and its location. The result is a guaranteed inheritance that no earthly inheritance of wealth, land, or possessions can compete with. All of those things can eventually end, they can have corrupt loopholes, and they diminish over time. But our inheritance is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading. How is that possible? Because our hope is not even located on this earth. It is kept in heaven for you. It is not only beyond this world, it is beyond the demonic realm. Satan himself has no say or sway over our hope, as this hope is protected by God’s power! How do we respond to such a magnificent truth? The next verses tell us.

You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to struggle in various trials so that the genuineness of your faith—more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1:6-7)

We rejoice! But we don’t rejoice as those who pretend that all is “sunshine and rainbows” as they say. We rejoice in the full knowledge of difficulty in this world because we know that our pain has a purpose. Look at the three things we’re told about these trials. First, they are for a “short time” in comparison to our inheritance. Second, “you have had…” is a powerful phrase. Some translations state, “if necessary…” This means the only trials we face are necessary according to the Lord. 3) The trials exist so that the genuineness of our faith may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When we see Him, how much more will we praise Him after our full rescue from this world? Carrying this thought forward, the final two verses we’re about to look at are so critical as they speak to us specifically as those who have not seen the risen Jesus. 

Related: Reason for our Hope: Christ’s Resurrection

You love Him, though you have not seen Him. And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1:8-9)

This is true and you can say it with me: “I did not see Jesus in person when I trusted in Him, but I love Him. I do not see Him now, but I believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because I am receiving the goal of my faith, the salvation of my soul.” I love the capstone on this section so much because it brings it all full circle. My hope that is through Christ and results in a guaranteed inheritance is so much more than a future state. I am, at this very second, receiving the goal of my faith – the reason for my hope – the salvation of my soul. 

Because of the extremely significant truth put forth by this passage, we can boldly claim that the Christian is forever hopeful. This is not wishful thinking. This is a guaranteed certainty that we can look forward to and rejoice in now. 

My recommendation for you: Memorize this section of Scripture (1 Peter 1:3-9). Hide it in your heart. Hold it up to any temptation or accusation from our common enemy that tries to deceive you into believing that hope is found anywhere else than in Christ. Then, live it out in visible rebellion to all the sources of false hopes that surround us. In doing so, you’ll find yourself becoming the kind of person that someone knows they can come to when they feel hopeless. Not just because they know you’ll hear them out; but because they see your source of hope is different than what they see in others. What an incredible opportunity it opens to then share the eternal, imperishable, incorruptible, and unfading hope you have in Jesus.

Free to Thrive God has more for you. Learn more.

If You Feel Hopelessly Stuck in Your Search for Truth

Truth is messy, especially when it comes to religion. Many of us are genuinely trying to know the truth about God, Jesus, and life after death. We are aware that these questions matter; we cannot afford to get them wrong! But maybe you feel hopelessly stuck in your such for truth. It’s not just frustrating. It’s overwhelming. It’s also really, really frustrating.

I’ll never forget the first time I sat with an individual who (as far as I could tell) was genuinely seeking to know if Christianity was true. He was smart. He knew the arguments Christians use to defend their faith. He even thought they sounded pretty good. The problem: Arguments against Christianity sounded pretty good, too. He was stuck, unable to push through the endless sea of competing ideas to reach a decision.

If that person sounds like you, this article is for you.

Stuck in a Loop

I hate to break it to you, but there is no silver bullet to unglue you from the feeling of hopelessness in your search for religious truth. But if you’ve spent countless hours trying to find that “special piece of evidence” that will solve everything, it’s probably not that. Perhaps a better way forward is to change the way you think about this journey.

My side hobby in computer game programming has taught me a thing or two about stuck-ness. One of the common reasons a program will freeze is because a chunk of underlying code gets stuck in an infinite loop. The programmer’s job is to figure out what part of the code is endlessly repeating itself and fix the issue so the program can finish its task. Likewise, I have observed many people feeling hopelessly lost in their search for truth because they are stuck in some sort of “loop.” Let’s see if we can debug the issue.

Hopeless Loop 1: Misunderstanding of Certainty and Doubt

Some people have the impression “If I am going to believe in Christianity, then I must be absolutely certain about it.” The problem is that 100% certainty for anything is difficult (if not impossible) to obtain for almost any belief, including religious ones. Thus, we get caught in a loop, constantly trying to gain more certainty but never attaining the desired result.

Don’t misunderstand me: High-level confidence is important for the Christian faith (1 Cor. 1; Rom. 1:19–20, 8:16; Eph. 1:7–9). But Jesus’s own students experienced doubt (Matt. 11:2–3, 14:31–31; John 20:24–29). That never stopped them from making a decision to follow him. At the end of the day, I find that Christianity makes the best sense of this world, it does the best job answering objections against it, and it leaves the fewest questions left unanswered. This implies that there are still challenges! But if I’m right about this, wouldn’t it still be reasonable for us to accept Christianity, even with those remaining issues?

Hopeless Loop 2: What-Abouting Yourself to Infinity

Not long ago, I spoke on why God allows pain and suffering. While I don’t claim to have the perfect answer for this age-old question, I believe the content is sufficient to show that we can trust God has good reasons for allowing all kinds of pain and suffering, even if we don’t understand it completely. After I finished, a woman from the audience asked me, “What about when babies suffer?” I felt her discomfort with the question. Even still, the content of my talk addressed suffering in general, for all ages, so I began my response with, “Well, as I said earlier…” She seemed to follow along. Then she said, “But what about this…”

“Well, as I also said earlier…”

On and on we went.

Related Video: Couldn’t have God have Done it Another Way?

It became apparent that she was stuck in a loop, what-abouting herself to infinity. Again, I’m sure my presentation wasn’t perfect, but her questions were not related to any imperfection of my presentation. They came from a desire to think through every conceivable scenario. I believe this approach is misguided. We can’t think through everything. And we don’t need to. We can think through the big stuff generally so that we can trust God with the specifics.

Hopeless Loop 3: But There’s So Much Out There!

I get it. No matter what you read, watch, or listen to, no matter how convincing it may sound, a part of you wants to suspend belief because of the mere fact that there’s so much out there. What if you’re missing something important?

The objection “but there’s so much out there” will always always always get you caught in an infinite loop. No matter what you learn and no matter how convincing it may sound, the so-much-out-there objection puts us back on the drawing board. If we want to get past that, we have to stop using that tired argument. Just as we can’t think through everything, we can’t know everything. But we can know enough to trust God with the stuff we don’t know. 

Hopeless Loop 4: Too Many Smart People Disagree

Sometimes, the mere fact that disagreement exists is enough to paralyze us from coming to our own conclusions. This issue is a deep and complex discussion among philosophers called “peer disagreement.” It’s like the “so much out there” argument, but even scarier. I have wrestled with this one a lot myself, digging into the philosophical discussions and writing my own, somewhat technical paper on it and producing a two-part response video (Part  1, Part 2).

Let me just express one discovery from my research. Whenever someone disagrees with us, we often think, “Why does the other person not see things the way I do?” This is difficult to answer if the person you disagree with is just as smart as you are and working with the same evidence you have. But the Bible tells a different story: Sin clouds human judgment, and the Holy Spirit illuminates the truth. This gives the Christian thinker an edge because their worldview not only gives them reasons for belief but also reasons why others fail to believe those reasons. While this observation does not provide a knockdown answer for why Christianity is true, it helps to show the stunning coherence of the Christian worldview.

Moving Forward with Paul

These were four of many different loops we may find ourselves stuck in when we feel hopelessly lost in our search for truth. If you find yourself stuck in one or more of them, I encourage you to take a hard look at the “bad code” and give it a rewrite.

Before we wrap up, however, one point from the previous section deserves special attention. The Holy Spirit illuminates the truth. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul talks about how knowledge of God is spiritual knowledge, and spiritual knowledge comes as a gift from God, the Holy Spirit. Of course, finding this verse in the Bible does not mean Christianity is true. But if Christianity is true, we will never come to realize its truthfulness unless it is gifted to us by God. This is why, as you continue to explore Christianity, do not neglect to fall to your knees, turn up your head, and make that age-old, tried-and-true prayer: “God, if you’re there, and Jesus is your Son, would you reveal that to me?”

Perhaps it’s time you start praying that prayer right now.

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How An Anxious Generation’s Faith is Ruled by the Minute

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In 2022, a national study with the Kaiser Family Foundation was conducted. It revealed that 90% of Americans believe there is a mental health crisis. I think we can all agree that this level of consensus in today’s divided culture is significant. The results are evident in my conversations with young people who express living lives characterized by situational anxiety. They feel as if the demands of life exceed their resources to handle them. Thus they described being overwhelmed, burdened, and burnt out. As I’ve thought about this, I’ve wondered what the causes of our predicament are. Admittedly there are many contributing factors, but one has recently become glaringly obvious. 

The impact of the digital age on faith

We live in a consumer and information driven digital age. We’re spending so much time on our phones that there are entire movements such as the digital fast starting to reduce screen time and pull away from technology. This illuminates just how influential our phones are in our daily lives. It’s not the phones themselves that are the problem, but the information we consume through them that I think is contributing to the instability and anxiety in our culture today. 

The digital age and social media’s dominance has made conflict profitable, soundbite the standard, and feeling prioritized over fact. As a result, I like to say our faith is ruled by the minute. For people of faith, theological teaching isn’t strictly found in a formal institution or structured classes in church. Instead, many people find their theological teaching and edification through one minute social media videos. Now I do believe that there is a place for short form content, it’s why I produce it, but one effect is concerning. Generations are being discipled with surface level knowledge. An attention grabbing hook, retention rates, and fear inducing content works, and thus deep and nuanced theological ideas are simplified down to one or two points. 

Related: The Biggest Challenge for Christianity in 2025

Faith grounded in this surface level knowledge is unstable. When one knows what they believe, but not why they believe it, what happens when they are challenged? A bitesized foundation for one’s faith builds a foundation on how it makes you feel, rather than the rationale, thought and evidence which supports the conclusion. We need knowledge, not just mere belief. We must know what we believe and why we believe it. I’ve seen faith ruled by the minute myself in a season of doubt where I would scroll and stumble upon an objection online, which produced anxiety, and then scrolled for a simple one minute response to secure my faith. I was simply seeking someone else’s conclusion to produce security rather than discovering that conclusion myself. 

Related: Three Approaches to Impacting Culture for Christ

Jesus calls us to something deeper than a faith ruled by the minute. In John 8:32 he states, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” To know truth is to know reality, and in this specific context, Jesus himself and God’s good design. It’s deeper than a belief that, but implies a trust in as well. To trust in, we need to understand why it works, not just that it will work. This level of knowledge grounds our trust in God, and how he has evidenced and revealed himself. It’s not building trust based upon feeling produced by someone’s conclusion in a one minute soundbite. And the promise is freedom, in this context, specifically from sin. But that freedom is realized in another significant way as well. It’s found in not grounding trust on your emotional state which is like shifting sand, but grounding trust in who God is, what he has done, and how he has revealed himself.

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