Gregory Koukl's Blog, page 140

Why Isn't Sincerity Enough? (Video)

Why isn't sincerity enough for God to save someone?

Radio Sunday

Greg is out of town speaking this weekend so we're airing some excellent interviews Greg has conducted with guests. 

it on the STR app or online. (No podcast next week.)

Jesus’ Authority Was Based in His Deity

With Easter approaching, it’s a good time to think about the nature of Jesus. When I first started considering the words of Jesus, I was only interested in gleaning some wisdom from an ancient sage. But the more I read through the Gospel narratives, the more I realized Jesus spoke and taught as though He were God Himself. Jesus possessed more than the authority of a wise teacher; He demonstrated a power and authority that can only be described as Divine:

The Authority to Create
The writers of Scripture described Jesus as more than simply our Savior. According the Bible, Jesus is also our creator:

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3)

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)

The Authority to Forgive
Jesus also repeatedly demonstrated His Divine authority to forgive sin:

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . .” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe. (Matthew 9:1-8)

The Authority to Grant Eternal Life
As the creator of life, Jesus also demonstrated the ability to give of eternal life:

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:28)

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

The Authority to Judge
As the author of our lives, Jesus proclaimed the right to evaluate how we have lived as His creation:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” (Matthew 25:31-33)

The Biblical eyewitnesses described Jesus as a uniquely authoritative teacher. But this authority appears to be rooted in much more than exceptional wisdom or persuasive communication skills. Jesus’ authority is grounded in His power; a Divine power that separated Him from other wise rabbis. Jesus’ authority was based on His Deity.

Don’t Just Doubt Your Faith, Doubt Your Doubts

Students
need space to share their doubts.  We all do.  If serious questions
about Christianity and uncertainty toward God are not recognized and explored,
they remain in the heart and mind, only to surface farther down the road and
often with greater force.  Simplistic Christian responses will not
suffice.  “Do extra devotions” or “just have faith” don’t do justice to a
student’s real struggle with doubt. 

I
encounter student doubt all the time.  My work actually helps to surface
doubts, as I raise challenges to Christianity and then explore answers in my
talks.  I remember when Helia, a freshman at a Christian college in
Southern California, approached me after the talk I gave at a Summit Ministries student conference this past summer and shared her struggle with doubt.  I was
glad for her honest questions and told her as much.  Why?  I want
students to get their doubts on the table while they’re with me. 
So I always allow space for questions, the starting point for dealing with
doubt. 

But
what’s the next step?  How do you help a student move from doubt to
confidence in God’s truth?  Here’s where some prominent voices in youth
ministry are doing more harm than good.  Andrew Root, coauthor of the
book, The
Theological Turn in Youth Ministry, has an entire chapter on
doubt titled, “Doubt and Confirmation:  the Mentor as Co-Doubter.” 
Root seems to suggest that doubt is not something to eventually overcome. 
Rather, it is an end in itself:  “But what if the objective of the
confirmation teacher was not to work to pass on anything but was rather to be a
partner and companion in doubt? …what if the best way to actually pass on the
faith was not through lessons, certainty, and knowledge, but through
doubt?" (p. 194)  Here's more of what Root has to say about the role of doubt in
youth ministry.  

A
recent youth ministry article entitled, “I Doubt It,” begins
well, discussing the need to create safe places where students can share their
doubt.  But after that, what?  The authors seem to recognize
that “students need to understand the basics of Christian faith in order
to discuss their faith with others, and training in core beliefs (sometimes
called apologetics) can be helpful.”  Alright, sounds great.  I’ve
seen confident faith emerge in many young lives as a result of good apologetic
training.  But in the next sentence, they undermine the very thing they’ve
just suggested.  “However, learning to argue about faith may not be
the most helpful approach.”  So, apologetics “can be helpful,” but since
it really amounts to arguing about faith, it “may not be the most helpful
approach.”  With that, apologetics gets a quick dismissal.  And
parents and youth leaders lose a valuable tool in dealing with doubt. 

Thankfully,
Jesus offers a different approach.  In Mark 9:14-29, the father of a
demon-possessed son pleads with Jesus, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 
What an honest expression of doubt.  And how does Jesus respond?  He
casts the demon out of the boy.  Jesus provides evidence in the form of a
miracle, confirming His claims about Himself.

What
is Jesus’ response to “Doubting Thomas?”  Before seeing the resurrected
Jesus, Thomas declares, “Until I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and
put my finger into he place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will
not believe” (John 20:22).  When Jesus first appears to Thomas, He offers
evidence:  “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here
your hand and put it into My side; and do no be unbelieving, but believing” (v.
28). 

Jesus offers the way
forward for students struggling with doubt.  Don't shut down your
students' doubts.  Give them all the space they need to share them openly
and honestly.  Listen to them.  Seek to understand them.  Even
cry with them.  But then patiently, lovingly, diligently, and
intelligently guide them to the truth.  Yes, offer them apologetics.
 When students are given sound apologetic instruction, they discover the
rich storehouse of evidence confirming the truth of Christianity.  Such
evidence can move them from unbelief to confident faith.  

 

Challenge Response: It's Just Your Interpretation that Jesus Is the Only Way

Here's my response to the challenge that it's just our interpretaion that Jesus is the only way.

  

It Was the Best of Actions, It Was the Worst of Actions

I’m fascinated by the comparison between this
account of the story of Lazarus and this
one. Here’s a taste of each. First, from John Piper:

Look again at the connection
between verse 5 and 6: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and
Lazarus. Therefore [because of this love], when he heard that
Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” He did
not hurry to his side….

[Jesus] said in verse 4: “This
illness does not lead to death [in other words, the point is not death]. It is
for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” This
illness will turn out for the glory of God, and the glory of the Son of God…. Therefore
(verse 6) love lets him die. Love lets him die because his death will help them
see, in more ways than they know, the glory of God.

So what is love? What does it mean
to be loved by Jesus? Love means giving us what we need most. And what we need
most is not healing, but a full and endless experience of the glory of God.
Love means giving us what will bring us the fullest and longest joy. And what
is that? What will give you full and eternal joy? The answer of this text is
clear: a revelation to your soul of the glory of God—seeing and admiring and
marveling at and savoring the glory [of] God in Jesus Christ.

Now, from J.M. Green:

Perhaps Jesus had some remorse over
his heartless actions, but personally, I’m not buying the whole thing about him
being deeply moved and troubled. Looks suspiciously like alligator tears.
Remember, this is the guy who in a very calculated manner used Lazarus as a
pawn in his exercise in self-promotion. This Jesus character in the gospel
stories could easily have arrived in time to prevent the death of his friend.
There would have been no need for Lazarus to have experienced the agony of
dying. No reason for his sisters to suffer the grief of losing their
brother.

But he didn’t.

Why? Quite simply because he wanted to impress people. He wanted to glorify
himself and Yahweh. The suffering and death of Lazarus was useful to furthering
their agenda. While this sort of behavior might be expected of a North Korean
dictator, it is quite nauseating to see it venerated in a religion.

When you read about God’s ‘glory’, understand that we are talking about his
ego. The god of the Bible likes to look good. He wants people to be impressed
with him. Apparently his self-esteem needs frequent propping up. Of course,
Christians have tried to put some noble, spiritual sheen on God’s need for
glory. They’ve framed it in their minds as something admirable, when in
actuality it’s despicable and pathetic.

Both agree that Jesus deliberately did not heal Lazarus
before his death. Both agree that the purpose of this was to reveal God’s
glory. So what makes the difference between the two accounts? Their ability to
see God. The
biggest gulf between Christians and atheists like Green is not the question
of God’s existence, but the apprehension of His beauty and goodness. Our
understanding of this passage depends on whether or not we see God as truly being
worthy of all glory. No fallen human being is worthy—not even the best one, so
any attempt to evaluate God by imagining what we would think of a flawed human
(such as a dictator) who acted as if he
were in God’s place will of course elicit revulsion when one talks of glory
and praise. But if God is truly and uniquely flawless in goodness, love, power,
and in every other possible way, then to participate in the joy
of praising Him is a morally right, beautiful, and fulfilling thing to do.

So why do we see Him so differently?

There’s a reason why Jesus said, “No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn 6:44). Our morally broken hearts
are dead set against Him from the beginning. We’re “by nature children of
wrath” (Eph 2:3). We’re His enemies (Rom 5:10). The “sweet aroma of the
knowledge of [Christ]” is “an aroma from death to death” among “those who are
perishing” (2 Cor 2:14-16). On our own, “a natural man does not accept the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot
understand them” (1 Cor 2:14). We shouldn’t be surprised Green sees God the way
he does, we should expect it. The true surprise is that we don’t see Him that way.

Here’s the point: The fact that anyone is able to say "Amen!" to Piper's quote is due entirely to a miracle. It’s only because “God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love
with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us
alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5). There is no other reason. We’re not
better. We’re not smarter. We don’t deserve it. It’s God’s love and grace that
snatched us out of our rebellion, so treat your atheist neighbors with the
humility this
truth demands. Remember what it was like to be blind so that you don’t
despise the blind. Don’t forget that apologetics—explaining the reality of God
to others—is, at root, a supernatural endeavor, and pray accordingly.

Jesus Specifically Said, “I Am God”

As a skeptic, I was willing to accept a “nice guy” version of Jesus. You know, the wise sage from the past who was misunderstood and mythicized into something divine by leaders of a movement who were either mistaken or deceptive. Jesus might have been a nice guy and a great teacher, but did he ever really claim to be God? I had atheist friends who knew more about the Gospels than I did, and they said that Jesus never claimed to be God in any of the New Testament accounts. Once I began to examine the Gospels for myself, I discovered my friends were wrong; Jesus did say specifically that He was God. Now don’t get me wrong, Jesus didn’t use those exact words. But His listeners sure understood what He meant.

When God first appeared to Moses in the burning bush, Moses was adept enough to ask God for His name. And God gave Moses an interesting reply:

God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“ (Exodus 3:14)

For generations following this interaction between God and Moses, the Israelites revered the name of God (“I AM”) as a precious title that was not to be slandered or given to anyone or anything other than God himself. Then along came Jesus. The Gospel of John tells us that on a day when the Pharisees were questioning the power, authority and teaching of Jesus, they actually accused Him of being demon possessed. Look at how He responded:

“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” At this the Jews exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:49-58)

Did you catch that? Jesus made two remarkable statements. First, he claimed to be eternal and to have existed before Abraham! But more importantly, Jesus called himself by the ancient title ascribed only to God Himself, “I AM”. The Pharisees knew exactly what Jesus meant by this. From their perspective, Jesus said specifically, “I am God”. How do we know this was their interpretations of His words? We know it from their reaction. They responded by attempting to stone Jesus for claiming to be God (an act of blasphemy they considered worthy of death):

At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (John 8:59)

When Jesus took on God’s holy title as his own, He was stating the modern equivalent of “I am God”. He did this repeatedly over the course of his ministry (see Mark 14:62, John 18:5-6, John 8:24 and John 8:28). So while you may not find the expression “I am God” in the Gospels, you’ll certainly find the ancient equivalent. It’s no wonder that the Jewish religious leadership would eventually want Him executed. When I discovered these statements in the Gospels, I had to reconsider my simplistic view of Jesus as a “nice guy” or “good teacher”. What kind of teacher could Jesus have been if He was teaching a lie? Jesus’ clear statements related to His Deity forced me to reconsider Jesus and what He taught, because He did specifically say that He was God.

Challenge: It's Just Your Interpretation that Jesus Is the Only Way

From an article on the Huffington Post titled “6
Things Christians Should Just Stop Saying”:

3. Jesus is the only way to
heaven.

What you are really saying is,
"The way we interpret John 14:6 is that Jesus was clearly drawing a line
in the sand and telling his hearers and the world: 'If you do not believe in
Me, you won't go to the Father when you die'"….

There are scores of Christians,
however, and I am one of them, who do not interpret Jesus' words in John 14 the
same way. Just because I do not makes me no less Christian than you are. So
stop drawing lines in the sand, please, between equally sincere followers of
Jesus.

How would you graciously and clearly respond to this
challenge from a friend? Explain your answer in the comments below, and Alan
will post his video response on Thursday.

The Bible on The History Channel-Week Two

I'm not going to post a review each week.  I will keep watching.  But I wanted to follow up this week because the second episode reinforced my impression of the first.  The big picture is missing.  The signficance of events is left out of the history.  And that is what the Bible is really about.  I don't really understand the point of making a series about the Bible if the main point of it all is absent. 

As I said last week, I'm entirely sympathetic to the massive task of selecting what events to include and what to leave out.  Last night a half hour was spent on Samson.  Now, that's an interesting story, but its importance in the Bible dosn't seem to justify 1/4 of the episode.

The episode began with the conquest of Jericho.  The Israelite spies meet Rahab, and she tells them that the whole city is afraid of them.  But the program didn't include that she was aware that the coming conquest wasn't just about national rivalries, which is the impression the program gives – it was about God's judgment for their sins, which she acknowledged deserved punishment.  The reason for the conquest of the Canaanites was left out – the bigger picture.

Two episodes in David's life were stunningly devoid of the ultimate purpose.  When David steps up to challenge Goliath, his purpose is to defend God's honor.  He wonders how the Israelite army does not rise up at Goliath's taunts at God. That larger theme was totally missing.  The point of David volunteering to fight Goliath wasn't just about the confrontation of two armies, but about the challenge of the Philistine army against the one true God. And David saw what Saul and his army completely missed.

Later when the prophet Nathan confronts David about his sin with Bathsheba, David's repentance is missing.  That was a significant turning point in David's heart and commitment to God.  When Nathan confronts him in the Bible, David repents and says, "I have sinned against the Lord."  And of course, he writes Psalm 51 at some point.  But in the episode last night, David never repents.  He reacts defiantly to the pronouncement that his infant son will die as punishment.  That was a stunning omission to me because it was the point of the story.

The Bible isn't just a series of events about the nation of Israel.  The significance is what God was doing through the nation and individuals.  It's about God.  And that's what is disappointing to me in this series.

How to Start a Conversation (Video)

What's the best way to start a conversation with a stranger?