Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 152

Helping One Another Forsake Sin and Follow Jesus

The most commonly quoted (and often misunderstood) verse in churches is no longer John 3:16 but Matthew 7:1, “Judge not.” Ironically, people who routinely violate what the verse is really saying quote the verse to justify their own failure to assist other people in following Jesus. Hence, they interpret “Judge not” as if it were “Care not” and “Help not.”

All too often, as believers we don’t realize that the greatest kindness we can offer each other is the truth. Our job is not just to help each other feel good but to help each other be good. We often seem to think that our only options are to: 1) speak the truth hurtfully; or 2) say nothing in the name of grace. This is a lie.

Jesus came full of grace AND truth. We should not choose between them, but do both. We are told that we should be “speaking the truth in love” to each other (Ephesians 4:15). We should share the truth with humility, as an act of grace, reminding ourselves and each other that we desperately need God’s grace every bit as much as do those we’re offering it to.

Let’s say, for example, that you meet and befriend a young couple who are fairly new at your church. They are living together and say they want to follow Christ. You face a choice. Do you tell them what God says about sex outside of marriage, or do you assume it’s none of your business and say nothing?

I believe that when people who are living together visit our churches or small groups or homes, it’s not our first job to try to correct their behavior, but instead to demonstrate the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. I don’t believe we should expect Christian behavior among nonbelievers or even nominal believers. Where we should expect Christian behavior is among those who declare they are Christ’s followers and identify themselves with the church, the body of Christ. In such cases, if we fail to graciously tell them God’s truth about sex and marriage, and fail to assist them in making right choices, then we fail to help them fulfill their own stated goal of following Christ.

So when someone says “I want to follow Jesus” but is living in sin, I think we should point to what Christ commands of us, and remind them that He gives the power and strength to obey Him. Scripture says that the grace of God “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:12). God’s grace is not only for forgiveness of sin, but empowerment to live in holiness.

I was teaching the book of 1 Corinthians at a Bible college. We got into sexual purity in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. A couple in their thirties came up after this session and said, “We’ve never heard this before; we’ve been living together for eight years. We just came to Christ two years ago, and we’re very involved in our church. Are you really saying sex outside of marriage is something Jesus doesn’t want us to do?”

I commended them for wanting to follow Christ wholeheartedly. When we opened Scripture it was clear to them they needed to get married right away, and no longer live together until they did. But they felt confused and even betrayed that no one in their church had talked to them about this.

Many years ago Nanci and I were in a home Bible study in our church. The group had been meeting three months when someone mentioned in passing that one of the couples wasn’t married but was living together. I called the group leader and asked if this was true. He said yes. I asked if he had told the young man—who’d come to Christ at least two years earlier—that this wasn’t honoring to the Lord. He said he hadn’t mentioned it because he didn’t want to hurt them. He hoped eventually they would figure it out, but it was the group’s job to love them, not judge them. I said I agreed we should love them. And when you love someone, you don’t want them to sin, because sin is never in their best interests. Sin brings judgment, and we do not want those we love to fall under the judgment of God, but rather to embrace the forgiving grace He went to the cross to offer them.

I explained that now that I knew about this, I would need to go to the young man and share with him the truth. The leader and another guy from the group came with me that night. We called the young man and invited ourselves over, and while his girlfriend and the baby were with one of the ladies in the group, we sat down with him in his living room. He was super nervous. It wasn’t comfortable for any of us. What’s right often isn’t.

I asked him if he knew how much we loved him and his girlfriend. He said, “Sure.” Our group had helped them out in various ways. He knew.

I told him I wanted to share some Scripture with him. Then he looked at me and said, “Are you going to tell us we should get married?”

I said, “Yes.”

The words poured out from him. He said, “We really want to. We feel so bad we haven’t. We’re trying to read the Bible and we feel like we’re just a couple of losers. When we go to church, we feel like hypocrites. But we don’t have the money to have a decent wedding, and I can’t afford a ring. She’s so ashamed that we’re not married. It’s awkward because of our baby. And to be honest, I wondered if anyone was ever going to talk to us about it.”

Bottom line, we put our arms around this brother and challenged him to be a real man, God’s man, and honor Jesus and lead his girlfriend, and make this right. He prayed and asked God’s forgiveness for having sex outside of marriage. A burden was lifted from him. Together, we developed a plan for how they could move out from each other just for a few weeks until we could get them married. We laughed and hugged and this brother felt loved and incredibly relieved. Instead of being shamed, which was the leader’s fear, he had his shame removed.

Our small group immediately set up a wedding at our church. On short notice, the women in the group got the girlfriend a dress and everything else, and we found people at church to volunteer food and a cake. Their parents flew in from other parts of the country and everyone cried and celebrated. I had the honor of marrying this couple, and holding their precious baby in the ceremony. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been part of. I cannot tell you how honored and special this couple felt. God’s people had loved them by helping deliver them from the sin and guilt that entangled them, and bring them to purity and peace.

The sheer joy of that young couple floods my mind when I hear people talk as if they are taking the spiritual high ground by “not laying a guilt trip on Christians who are living together.” We can gently point out sin to each other without using a flame-thrower. God tells us to speak the truth in love, and if we are withholding the truth instead of speaking it, we are not being obedient or loving.

If you love someone who says they want to follow Jesus, you don’t ignore sin that is destroying their lives. You go to them humbly and prayerfully, and represent Jesus and help them fulfill their stated goal of honoring Christ as Lord. God calls us to bring love and grace and liberation to those whose sin is destroying them. Of course, exactly the same applies to other sins, including gossip and gluttony and slander and envy and sowing discord among brothers.

photo credit: Artem Nosenko via Unsplash

Heaven, Christians, and Hypocrisy: A Discussion with an Unbeliever, from the Novel Deception

In this excerpt from my novel Deception, Detective Ollie Chandler, who is an unbeliever, has some tough questions about Christianity for his friends Jake and Clarence, both followers of Christ. Ollie is the viewpoint character, so he speaks from his perspective:

I decided to stir things up.

“Why would anyone want to go to heaven? When my grandmother spoke about heaven, it was the last place I wanted to go. Who wants to be a ghost anyway? My idea of utopia was a place like earth, where you could have fun and ride bikes and play baseball and go deep into the forest and dive into lakes and eat good food.”

“Sounds to me like the new earth,” Clarence chimed in from the backseat.

“Exactly,” Jake said. “The Bible says the heaven we’ll live in forever will be a new earth, this same earth without the bad stuff. God doesn’t give up on His original creation. He redeems it. And we’ll have these same bodies made better. The Bible teaches the exact opposite of what you’re saying—we won’t be ghosts. We’ll eat and drink and be active on a redeemed earth.”

“So you’ll still be Jake Woods?” I asked.

“Yeah—without the bad parts. We’ll be able to enjoy creation’s beauty and rule the world the way God intended us to. Baseball and riding bikes? Why not?”

Clarence leaned forward. “The thing you want is exactly what God promises. Earth with all the good and none of the bad. Heaven on earth.”

“Wish I could believe that.”

“What’s stopping you?” Jake asked.

“Same song, different verse. A world of injustice and suffering is part of it. Another part is hypocrite Christians.”

“Okay,” Jake said, “suppose there is a God and Jesus really died on the cross for people’s sins. Suppose He rose from the grave and offers eternal life to everybody who trusts Him.”

“That’s a lot to suppose.”

“And suppose there really is a devil. Now, if you were the devil, what would you do to keep people from believing in Christ?”

“Never thought about it.”

“I know what I’d do. I’d get people to claim they’re Christians when they aren’t. I’d get them to do terrible things in Christ’s name. Then I’d try to persuade unbelievers to focus on those terrible things done by so-called Christians, instead of on the wonderful things done by Jesus. Then I’d try to get Christians to be self-righteous hypocrites who don’t care about the needy, but only themselves.”

“You’re blaming the devil for what Christians do? Like the Crusades?”

“I’m saying the devil’s behind lots of evil, yeah, but so are people. And I’m saying people can claim to be Christians even though they aren’t. And sure, people can be real Christians and mess up, big time. But true, humble followers of Jesus are everywhere, and if you knew them, Ollie, you’d be drawn to Christ. If not for Clarence’s sister being murdered, you’d never have met Obadiah Abernathy [Clarence’s dad]. You wouldn’t have been touched by him because you wouldn’t even know he existed.”

“He was one of a kind,” I said.

“Actually,” Clarence said, “there are plenty of good-hearted, humble, and lovable Christians like my daddy. All the attention falls on false Christians or loudmouths or hypocrites. But the gospel’s about Jesus.”

“The fact remains: Some Christians are mean and hateful. I’ve met them.”

“So have I,” Clarence said. “Read some of those Christian blogs, and look at how they love to gang up on people, kicking them with their words when half the time they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Christians can be jerks,” Jake said. “We’re unanimous on that one. Sometimes they’re just nominal Christians. Other times they may be real Christians full of flaws. I have plenty myself.”

“At least you admit it,” I said.

“But it makes no sense,” Jake said, “to reject Jesus because some of His followers are hypocrites. The Bible never says that to be saved you have to believe in Christians. It says you have to believe in Jesus.”

“I still don’t want to be associated with judgmental hypocrites.”

“It’s pretty judgmental to call all of us Christians hypocrites, isn’t it?” Clarence asked. “Speaking of which, if you discovered other detectives were withholding evidence because they thought it had been planted against them, wouldn’t you say they were wrong for covering it up?”

“Yes, but—”

“By your own standards you—Oliver Justice Chandler—have been unjust. That’s hypocrisy, isn’t it?”

“Well, I don’t claim to be godly.”

“You claim to love justice, don’t you? Yet you violate standards of justice. Lots of people, including you, don’t live consistently with what they profess to believe. Christians don’t have a monopoly on hypocrisy. The justice you believe in is good, even when you violate it, right? Well, the Jesus that Christians believe in is good, even when we violate His teachings. Even when we’re hypocrites.”

It’s scary when Jake and Clarence make sense.

photo credit: Thong Vo via Unsplash

11 Questions to Ask Ourselves About Debt

It’s one thing to trust God to provide for our present needs (Matthew 6:33). It’s another to presume upon Him by dictating (via a decision to incur debt) the terms of His future provision. By choosing to go into debt, we twist God’s arm to provide not only for our needs, but also our wants.

Do we believe God knows best what our needs are? Debt spends money we don’t have. So isn’t our decision to go into debt proof that we believe we need more than God has given us? If we don’t have the resources to buy something, and if we feel such need for it that we’re borrowing to get it, aren’t we saying God has failed to meet our needs?

If God knows best, and if He knows what we need, then why hasn’t He provided sufficient funds? Is He encouraging us to pray for provision rather than take things into our own hands by borrowing? In this age where we seem unwilling to wait for anything, does God want us to learn what it means to “wait on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14; Isaiah 30:18)?

Before we go into debt, we should ask ourselves the following questions:

1. Is debt our way of getting around depending on God? (Why trust God to provide when we can get a loan?)

2. Is debt our means of short-circuiting the God-created means of acquisition—including work, saving, planning, self-discipline, patience, and waiting for divine provision?

3. What message are we sending to God when we go into debt rather than live on what He has provided? What are we really saying when we take out a loan? How does it reflect on our view of God? What are we saying about His sovereignty, goodness, wisdom, or timing?

4. What effect will going into debt today have on our ability or willingness to tithe and give voluntary offerings tomorrow?

5. What effect will today’s decision to go into debt have on tomorrow’s freedom to follow God wherever He wants us to go?

6. By taking out a loan that commits us to make payments over a number of years, are we presuming upon God? (Certainly, if we will require more income to make the payments, we’re presuming on God. We may “know” that we’ll receive a promotion and pay raise in September, but God hasn’t guaranteed it. Plans change, companies go out of business, and employees fail to get “certain” promotions.)

7. Although our income today might be enough to make debt payments over the next twenty years, is it right to assume that we’ll continue to generate the same level of income? (Many people’s income increases over the years, but many others’ decreases. Many incur increased financial commitments beyond their control, such as health-related expenses or caring for an elderly relative. People get laid off. Has God promised that can’t happen to us?)

8. Are we mortgaging the future to pay for the whims of the present? Are we mortgaging God by supposing to commit Him to pay off something He may disapprove of?

9. Is debt our way of getting around depending on God? of circumventing prayer, patience, and waiting on God to provide?

10. If we “must” go into debt to provide for our “needs,” is it because our “needs” are really wants in disguise? Have we spent so much money on our wants that there’s not enough left for our needs? Have we robbed God and forfeited His financial blessing by failing to give Him the firstfruits?

11. Have we really exhausted all other avenues to avoid going into debt? Have we given up expensive activities, hobbies, and memberships, and liquidated valuable possessions? (Often, we think we have no choice but to go into debt, when in fact we’re making many unnecessary choices that drive us toward it.)

One of the strongest arguments for not going into debt is that we’re not God. We’re not sovereign, omniscient, or omnipotent. James 4:14 warns that we cannot know what will happen tomorrow. And if we don’t know and cannot control all that the future holds, how can we be sure that we can pay off new debts? We can be certain that God will provide for our basic material needs if we seek first His kingdom (Matthew 6:25-34), but where does the Bible promise that God will provide for all the debts we incur though our own greed, impatience, or presumption?

If we are seeking first His kingdom, will we put ourselves in bondage to debt?

Photo credit: Death to the Stock Photo

When It Comes to Book-Reading, Let’s Raise the Bar and Expand Our Minds

I write a lot of smaller books, and in some of them I try to put the cookies on the lower shelf. This is true, for instance, of my book Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven, The Treasure Principle, and my booklets Heaven, If God Is Good, and God’s Promise of Happiness.

However, I also write more meaty books, such as Money, Possessions and Eternity, Heaven, If God Is Good, hand in Hand: The Beauty of God's Sovereignty and Meaningful Human Choice and Happiness. One reason I write in-depth books is because I believe we are dumbing down not only our culture, but also our churches. I think teachers, writers, publishers and pastors sometimes greatly underestimate people's ability to study and think.

If we always put the cookies on the lower shelf, young people (and older people too) won’t learn to reach for anything higher. We popularize everything, and as a result, books and Bible studies and discussions of substance are becoming progressively unpopular. Not because they aren’t important and stimulating and enriching but because in a culture dominated by television, movies, video games and social media, our attention spans are decreasing and we’re shrinking both intellectually and spiritually.

I taught at a Bible college in the 1980s, and fifteen years later I taught again for a few years. I was shocked at the noticeable decrease in the students’ abilities to read and write—a far larger percentage of them seemed much less capable of producing quality work. What was the difference? Surely it wasn’t that their capacity for serious thought and self-expression had really diminished—somehow, serious study and thought had seemed to take a nose dive. Many teachers have witnessed the same trends.

More than ever, I believe there’s a need for pastors and teachers and writers of all sorts to encourage and not to ignore or dismiss people’s potential to be intelligent, informed, and studious and to love reading deep Bible and theology. Here’s a couple of great examples of this. Check out this picture that Tanya sent me of her 14-year-old son finishing my book Heaven. I love that he’s profiting from a book full of theology and quotations from church history!

@randyalcorn My 14yo is finishing reading "Heaven." Thank you Mr Alcorn! "Happiness" is next on his list #SolidTruth pic.twitter.com/4D2rIOQTTx

— Tanya Dean (@TanyaDean119) December 16, 2015

And Heather sent me this picture of her 11-year-old daughter:

@randyalcorn my 11year old loving your book. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/VO986WTJyg

— Heather Oltmans (@HeatherOltmans) December 3, 2015

Over the years, I’ve had some great responses from young people who’ve read my more serious and comprehensive books, both fiction and nonfiction. I once had a junior high boy come up to me at church and tell me he’d read my novel Dominion, a murder mystery which deals with racial themes, six times! (It’s the largest book I’ve ever written, and he knew it as well or better than I did.)

We received this letter: “I am an 11-year-old girl from Mississippi and read Safely Home and it was life changing!” A 12-year-old boy wrote to me, “Recently, my sister, mother and I have finished reading Safely Home. …I think my favorite part was all the Bible-oriented comments that come gushing out of Quan whenever he talks with Ben. I also like the way you depicted Ben's conversion.”

I also love hearing from young adults. A student wrote about one of my biggest and deepest books: “Thank you for writing Money, Possessions, and Eternity. I am a 21-year-old college student. God definitely used it in instructing me to surrender my finances to Him.”

There are numerous examples of young people and uneducated people who’ve found their lives totally transformed by reading challenging books. I know a man who was a terrible student and a poor reader in his youth. But after he came to Christ as a nineteen year old, he forced himself to read, as difficult as it was. He read book after book, and eventually worked his way through Bible college and seminary, and became one of the most theologically grounded people I know. Why? Because he chose to read books of substance that challenged and greatly expanded his thinking. The more he read, the more he understood. Had he believed his poor grades in school reflected his intellectual abilities, he would never have become the mature thinker he is, and his pastoral ministry would have been far less impactful than it’s been.

At our church, there are various small groups studying through Wayne Grudem’s outstanding (and big) book Bible Doctrine. A number of people in the studies have found themselves cultivating a new taste and thirst for great theology. They’d never have discovered this joy if someone hadn’t put together the study and invited them.

A woman who isn’t known as a student or deep thinker has read and reread my book Heaven, which is not always easy reading, with all its citations from people from church history. She says it has changed her life. I’m sure there are quotations she probably had to reread and ponder to get their meaning. But she has done it gladly, and the payoff has been great. I’ve heard from others that reading Happiness has changed their lives—these are regular people that you wouldn’t expect to be motivated to read 440 pages with frequent quotations from church fathers and Puritans!

Many years ago, John Stott wrote an excellent book called Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life. Our minds aren’t perfect, but they’re useable; and as we use them in biblical study and in reading quality books of substance, they should be increasingly renewed and sharpened. We’re commanded in Scripture, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). This change in thinking is our responsibility.  

Isn’t there room for movies and TV and kicking back and enjoying a lightweight novel? Sure, I enjoy these things myself. But I believe in an era dominated by superficial popular culture, there’s real value in expanding our thinking to God’s glory, and not just going broad but going deep. Deep is where the roots are, and they’re what keeps the tree or hedge or vine standing during hard winds and water that would otherwise erode and topple it. Likewise, deeply rooted beliefs—specifically a worldview grounded in Scripture—will allow us to persevere and hold on to a faith built on the solid rock of God’s truth.

We often forget that what ends up in the heart comes in through the head. The current tendency to minimize Bible study and sound theology in the interest of focusing on the heart is badly misguided. The anti-intellect, popular-culture-driven “all that matters is my heart” is wrong, but even if it were right, we would need to be cultivating our minds in order to cultivate our hearts.

Here are three things you can do to encourage intellectual growth in yourself and others:

Challenge yourself to read Christ-honoring books of substance. Ask God’s Holy Spirit to be your teacher, renew your mind, and warm your heart (see John 14:26; 1 John 2:27). Tony Reinke’s list of the 70 best books of 2015 is a great place for ideas to get you started. Consider making a 2016 reading goal for yourself. Trevin Wax has a list of ideas to help you set and keep your goal.
Encourage the young people in your life to read books that challenge their minds. Read to your children and with them and give them good books they want to read. Ask yourself, Am I helping my children stretch and develop their minds, or are my actions compelling them to just be content with not knowing and understanding? If we fail to do this, they will become mere products of movies, television, entertainment and social media. They’ll not become people of the Book, people of thought and substance.
Help develop a culture of reading in your local church. Check out this article for ideas.

Here are some helpful books on developing your mind to love God:

In addition to Your Mind Matters, as a young believer I read The Christian Mind by Harry Blamires, a friend of C. S. Lewis. More recently I read and enjoyed J. P. Moreland’s Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul. All great books, as are Loving God with All Your Mind by Gene Edward Veith and The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers.

As we read, and encourage others to do so, including our children, may God help us to renew our minds, set our minds on things above, and love God with all our hearts and minds. May we raise the bar of our thinking, not lower it, and experience the joy of discovery and the satisfaction of mental and spiritual growth. 

photo credit: João Silas via Unsplash

Biblical Optimism: The Glass That’s Half Full Now Will Forever Overflow

Regardless of our expectations or resolutions, 2016, like every year since we were evicted from Eden, will bring both wonderful and profoundly difficult moments.

What we need is a perspective on our coming year that’s hopeful, yet grounded in eternal certainties. No Christian should be a pessimist. We should be realists—focused on the actuality that we serve a sovereign and gracious God. Because of the reality of Christ’s atoning sacrifice and His promises, biblical realism is, ultimately, optimism.

If we build our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ’s eternity-shaping redemptive work, we can be optimists. Why? Because even our most painful experience is but a temporary setback. Our pain and suffering may or may not be relieved in this life, but will certainly be relieved in the next. That is Christ’s promise—no more death, crying or pain; he will wipe away all our tears (Revelation 21:4). Indeed, any other foundation is sand, not rock. It will inevitably disappoint us.

Knowing that our suffering will be once and for all relieved and God will use it for our eternal good (Romans 8:28) doesn’t make it easy, but it does make it bearable. So too does the promise, “The sufferings of this present time aren’t worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). Same for the profound truth that our present sufferings are light and momentary, but are achieving for us something weighty, glorious and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Locking our minds onto these truths allows joy in the midst of suffering. Jesus said, “Happy [makarios] are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you. . . . Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven” (Luke 6:22-23). We who will one day enter into our Master’s happiness can frontload that happiness into our lives today.

Paul said, “I rejoice in my sufferings” (Colossians 1:24), and James said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2). The apostles didn’t enjoy suffering, but they rejoiced in the midst of it, because they trusted their gracious God’s sovereign plan. They believed in His constant presence, that we are more than conquerors through Him, and nothing shall separate us from the love of Jesus (Romans 8). They looked forward to Christ’s return, their bodily resurrection, and the redemption of God’s creation.

Christ said to His disciples, who would suffer much, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke10:20). Our optimism isn’t “health and wealth gospel” wishful thinking which claims that God will spare us from suffering here and now. Peter said, “Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13). Christ’s future glory, in which His children will participate, is the reason for our present rejoicing while suffering.

As Christ’s followers, we know this world isn’t evolving into something better. Even if bright spots seem few, we have much to be grateful for. Thanking God and others feeds our perspective and helps us enter into our Master’s happiness today. It then spills over to those around us.

Understanding the biblical doctrine of Heaven, the New Earth and the resurrection will shift our center of gravity and radically change our perspective. We'll realize we never pass our peaks in this life. We don’t need a bucket list because we'll live forever as part of a great adventure far better than anything here and now. This realization is what the Bible calls “hope,” a word used six times in Romans 8:20-25, the passage in which Paul says that all creation longs for our resurrection and the world’s coming redemption.

Don’t place your hope in favorable circumstances, which cannot last. Place your hope in Christ and His promises. Jesus promised He will return, raise us, and live with us on a new, Redeemed Earth, where we’ll behold God’s face and joyfully serve Him forever (Revelation 22:3-4).

I’m not optimistic about everything, but I am very optimistic about the future of all who trust Jesus. Our glass is already half full and will one day, for God’s beloved children, be completely and eternally full to overflowing.

In Tolkien’s Return of the King, Aragorn says, “Dawn is ever the hope of men.” King David wrote, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

The night may seem long for God’s people, but the truth is: once morning comes, it will never end. Neither will Joy.  Every day will be better than the one before. It isn’t Pollyanna but Jesus who promises we really will live happily ever after.

photo credit: Maria Shanina via Unsplash

Do Christians, Muslims and Jews Worship the Same God?

In December, Dr. Larycia Hawkins, associate professor of Political Science at Wheaton College, become the center of controversy when she publically posted a statement on her Facebook page saying:

I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God. ...As part of my Advent Worship, I will wear the hijab to work at Wheaton College, to play in Chi-town, in the airport and on the airplane to my home state that initiated one of the first anti-Sharia laws (read: unconstitutional and Islamophobic), and at church.

She also invited others to join her campaign. A few days later, Dr. Hawkins cited “the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic tradition,” “Pontifical writings” and several theologians in a statement defending her argument that both Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

Wheaton subsequently placed Dr. Hawkins on administrative leave, to give them “more time to explore theological implications of her recent public statements concerning Christianity and Islam.” (They have since begun the process to initiate termination-for-cause proceedings.)

I don’t know the details, but I do believe Wheaton, as a historically evangelical Christian university, is right in taking this matter very seriously. I trust that their leadership is attempting to deal with the matter in a spirit of Christlike grace and truth.

I have tried to explain to other believers why I think it’s very unhelpful and inaccurate to say “Christians and Muslims and Jews worship the same God.” Sometimes the response is, “Well, what I mean when I agree with that is….” Okay, but the problem is, most people who hear and say this are NOT thinking anything that is consistent with revealed Scripture or a Christian worldview. So even if we imagine we can say it, making certain mental qualifications that permit us to do so, what’s the point when the great majority of people listening to us understand our statement in a way that is contrary to the truths of God’s Word?

While it feels closer to accurate to say “Christians and Jews worship the same God,” surely this also is not at all helpful when mainstream Jewish beliefs (the religion, not the race) deny the trinity, the deity of Christ, the incarnation, Jesus’ Messiahship, His redemptive work on the cross and His centrality in the fulfillment of God’s plan revealed in not only the New Testament but also the Old Testament.

Of course, Christianity is very Jewish in that three-quarters of the Bible centers around God’s work with Israel. And Jesus himself was Jewish, raised in a Jewish family, which means that Christianity and Judaism have much in common with each other that they do not share with Muslims. (Muslims affirm the Old Testament and recognize Jesus as a great prophet—which does not mean they believe and follow all that Jesus actually said.  Indeed, they deny that Jesus was actually crucified, while religious Jews deny that Christ’s death had redemptive properties that can save people.)

There are Messianic Jews and congregations that embrace the Gospel of Jesus, and countless ethnic Jews all over the world who love Jesus. But these people are racial Jews who as followers of Jesus the Messiah are included under “Christians” not “Jews” in the statement in question. Why? Because the statement “Christians and Jews worship the same God” is not about race, but religion; theological beliefs, not bloodlines. Similarly “Muslims” speaks of religion, and is not at all synonymous with “Arabs,” any more than “Christian” is synonymous with the western nations, including the U.S., who were traditionally called “Christian nations.”

In fact, there are many Arab Christians in the world who are faithful followers of Jesus. A Muslim can become a Christian or a Jew, but then he is no longer a Muslim. Likewise, one who was raised in a Christian home can become a Jew or a Muslim, and someone Jewish by race can become Christian or Muslim by religion. It’s vital not to confuse the racial and religious meanings of the terms. Otherwise confusion is inevitable.

There are certain beliefs that Christians have in common with Jews but not Muslims, and others that Jews and Muslims have in common that are utterly contrary to Christian beliefs—for instance that Christ is not God and there is no trinity. When one believes that God is not triune, and that Christ is not God, and that Jesus was not sent into the world by the Father to redeem lost humans, then the God he or she worships is definitely not the God Christians believe in.

I have had many conversations with sincere Christians who speak about Jews being saved by one covenant and Christians by another, and claim that the church and Israel are absolutely and completely different, but are both God’s chosen people and therefore go to Heaven when they die. But this ignores the fact that some Israelites under the Old Covenant clearly rejected the true God and were not part of God’s eternal family. It also ignores the reality that the New Testament Church was nearly exclusively Jewish from its beginning, and Gentile Christians only later outnumbered Jewish Christians later, after the gospel was taken to the Gentile cultures.

When Jews come to faith in Christ they remain ethnic Jews but are no longer religious Jews, though they are free to bring their Jewishness, including Sabbath rests and feasts and traditions, into their walk with Jesus. In their conversion, they become part of the church, the body of Christ, in union with Gentiles: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Yes, a slave is still a slave, men and women are still men and women, Jews remain ethnic Jews and Gentiles are Gentiles, but they are united once and for all in their common belief in Christ—which makes them distinctively different from those of any status, gender or ethnicity that do not know Jesus.

After Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit descended, some Jews came to Jesus, some did not. Those who did were saved, those who didn’t were not. Yet I have been told by some Christian “missionaries” to Israel, “We are here to help the people and serve and love the nation, not to evangelize.” Well, I’m all for helping and serving and loving, but if people don’t know Jesus as their Savior, it is ultimately terribly unloving not to share the Gospel with them because it’s imagined they are saved under the Old Covenant. The ethnically Jewish leaders of the early church, including all the apostles, recognized that for any Jew or Gentile to know God and be saved from their sins, they must turn to Jesus, and be saved by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:9-10).

People don’t just need a strong national or racial identity—they need a new identity in Christ that transcends nation and race. This is not just true of Irish living in Ireland or Massachusetts, Swedes living in Sweden or Minnesota, Arabs living in Iraq or California, but also those ethnically Jewish, whether or not they were raised as religious Jews, and whether they live in  New York, Australia, or Israel.  

So, it is obviously true that “Christianity, Judaism and Islam share certain beliefs, including monotheism, that there is one God.” But that is very different than saying the God we believe in is the same.

Every statement that blurs the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the center of all redemptive history, should be avoided by all followers of Jesus. That’s why I am convinced that we should thoughtfully reject statements such as “Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the same God.” It is sometimes a well-intentioned statement, but it blurs the utter uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, the God-Man, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the world’s sole Redeemer and Hope, who said to religious Jews and to all people of all religions and backgrounds, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, not one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).

Should we love and respect Jews and Muslims, and seek to live in harmony with them? Absolutely! But no one is helped by confusing the differences between these faiths. I don’t think many serious religious Jews are trying to downplay the differences between Judaism and Christianity and Islam, nor are serious Muslims trying to do so. It’s mainly modern professing Christians, more a product of our everything-is-equal-including-worldviews culture than historic biblical Christianity, who are minimizing the differences between the Objects of our faith. Despite our commonalities, we offer significantly different answers to the question, “Who is God, what is He like, what has He done for the world and what does He call us to do in response to Him?”

Kevin DeYoung, one of my favorite bloggers, says it well:

We have quite a few Wheaton alumni in our church, and we seem to send one or two high school graduates off to Wheaton every year. Recently, I got an email from one of our students at Wheaton. The email had a number of good questions (he’s a very bright young man), all having to do with the current controversy over whether Muslims and Christians (and Jews) worship the same God. I thought it might be worthwhile, with his permission, to post my brief letter on my blog.

******

Dear Mike [not his real name],

I was going to write you an even longer reply, but then I saw this article on The Gospel Coalition website. It does a great job explaining why we should not say Muslims and Christians worship the same God. It also gets into the question you asked about whether Jews and Christians worship the same God. In a redemptive historical sense, there is a way in which this is true (certainly more than is true with Islam). But on this side of the incarnation, we still have the same Trinitarian and Christological problems.

One of the reasons this controversy is so difficult is because the phrase “worship the same God” can mean different things and can be heard in vastly different ways.

Consider a few examples:

Do Muslims and Christians understand God in the same way? No. The differences are massive. Either God exists in three persons and Jesus of Nazareth was God in the flesh or these notions are blasphemous errors.

Do both Muslims and Christians worship God in ways that are pleasing to the one true God? No. As evangelical Christians, we must say that worship that is pleasing to God is worship centered on Christ. The central affirmation of our faith—Jesus Christ is Lord—is categorically rejected by Muslims. Their worship is an affront to God’s revelation in Christ. I imagine most Muslims would say our worship is an affront to Allah.

Do Muslims and Christians both find salvation in their worship of God? No. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ (John 14:6). While inclusivists argue that we can be saved through Jesus Christ apart from explicit faith in him, almost all evangelicals throughout history have insisted that conscious faith in Christ is necessary for salvation. Even if inclusivists are right (and they’re not), there is quite a difference between ignorance of Christ and a conscious rejection of Jesus as the Son of God. Moreover, I think many Muslims would find it insulting to their faith for Christians to say, “You’ll be saved because you believe in Christ without knowing it.”

Does the worship of Muslims and Christians reach the same God even though their theology about God is vastly different? Perhaps the object of worship ends up being the same, despite the fact that the worshiping subjects are thinking of very different Beings. This is the sophisticated argument some are trying to make. But I don’t think this argument works either. Since there is only one God, it is true that the one God—the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ–sees Muslims worshiping and, perhaps, we can even say that the prayers and alms of some Muslims “have ascended as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4) or that in one sense they are seeking after God and trying to feel their way toward him (Act 17:27). And yet, if this is what we mean to say, the language of “worshiping the same God” is bound to be confusing, for God does not “hear” the prayers of the Muslims (in the covenantal sense) and does not receive their “worship” as worship.

In other words, from a Christian understanding, the Muslim faith is not just a little off or incomplete, it is idolatrous, demonic, and false. It is hard to see how the language of “worshiping the same God”—despite whatever philosophical distinctions we may put in place—can stand alongside this theological evaluation.

In Christ,

Pastor Kevin

Brotherhood and the Color of Our Skin

Today, January 18, is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. While Eternal Perspective Ministries doesn’t close for every holiday, every year I make sure we’re closed for this one. I want to send a message that it’s a serious and legitimate holiday that deserves observance. It’s less about one man than it is about a vision, a movement, a value of reconciliation between people of every tribe, nation and language. (The picture above is of me greeting Dr. John Perkins, one of my heroes in the faith.)

I’ve been reading Under My Skin: Getting Real about Race—and Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations That Divide Us by Benjamin Watson, which I highly recommend. Much of what Benjamin writes about has reminded me of what I learned in researching for my novel Dominion, which addresses racism.

In this excerpt from Dominion below, my main character Clarence Abernathy, an African American journalist, discusses issues related to race with to his friend and coworker Jake. There’s a lot of action in the book, but this is a fairly long dialogue, one that will hopefully help you think a little differently about racial issues:

“Since you were a kid, how often have you really thought about the color of your skin?” Jake asked.

“Honestly?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

“Don’t say, ‘Of course.’ White folks think they want blacks to be honest with them, but usually it turns out they don’t. How often have I thought about the color of my skin? Try every waking hour of every day of my life.”

“Are you serious?”

“Dead serious. Did you ever look through those black magazines I gave you?”

“Yeah, I did. It was really amazing. Every picture was of blacks—every subject of a feature, every writer, every advertisement had people with black skin. I don’t know if I saw a single white, except a few in Urban Family.”

“Now imagine,” Clarence said, “if when you grew up every magazine was like that, every television commercial and every billboard showed only people of another skin color, not yours. How do you think it would have made you feel?”

“Marginalized, I suppose. Out of it. Like maybe something was wrong with being white.”

“Exactly,” Clarence said. “That’s just how it was when I grew up. I’d look through all those magazines and the Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogues and won­der what was wrong with being black. Now if I was white, I wouldn’t think about it either. When you’re in the driver’s seat, you don’t think about conditions in the back-seat. When you’re born into a privileged class you just take it for granted. The people who think about it are the ones who weren’t born privileged. It’s a birthright thing. Kids who have plenty of food don’t think about the fact they have food. But when you’re hungry, it’s always on your mind.”

“I guess I don’t think of myself as being privileged,” Jake said. “I mean, I’ve worked hard for what I’ve got.”

“I’m not saying you didn’t. And I’m not blaming you for anything, Jake. It could just as easily have been me born white and you born with my good looks. But that’s not how it happened. Didn’t you tell me once your grandfather ran a hotel?”

“Yeah, in Colorado. His father built it. He worked with him from the time he was a boy. They did the building and maintenance and my great-grandmother did all the cooking and cleaning, then passed that on to my grandmother. Nothing came easy for them.”

“I’m sure it didn’t. But you’re telling me your great-grandparents established their business back in the 1800s and they passed skills and resources and economic experience and training from their generation down to yours. Right?”

“Right.”

“So you’re the beneficiary of generations of hard work and education and opportunity and freedom. But see, while your great-grandparents were doing all that, my great-grandparents were forced to till the Mississippi soil and pick cotton until they couldn’t straighten their backs. They worked even harder than your ancestors, but

the difference was none of it benefited their children or grandchildren. It all benefited the next generation of white children.”

Jake sat there, not sure how to respond.

“So you see,” Clarence continued, “your ancestors worked to pass on advan­tages to you, and my ancestors worked to pass on advantages to you. I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on you. But you have to realize that’s the way it was.”

“But my ancestors weren’t slave owners,” Jake said.

“Are you sure?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure, at least going back to my great-grandparents.”

“But it’s not that easy. See, the whole country, south and north, benefited economically from the work of the slaves and the sharecroppers. Your ancestors worked hard. Mine worked even harder, but with one big difference. Yours worked hard as free people, choosing the kind of work they’d do. They experienced the rewards of their work. That’s capitalism at its best. But mine worked hard at the bloody end of a whip, and they didn’t receive the rewards of their work. Their white masters did, the white plantation owners did, and during sharecropping the white landowners did. With the dirt pay during Jim Crow days, the whole white community benefited at the expense of black folk, who just scraped by. Didn’t you tell me your daddy went to Harvard?”

“Yeah, he did.”

“I’m sure he worked hard to get there. But my daddy dropped out of school in third grade to work fourteen-hour days on land owned by white folks, to help feed his family. Your daddy was born with an opportunity my daddy wasn’t. Your daddy’s opportunity and your ancestors’ opportunity came, at least partially, at the expense of blacks.”

“I’ve never thought of myself as privileged—certainly not at somebody else’s expense.”

“Privilege is like being born tall in a world that revolves around basketball,” Clarence said. “If you’re a seven footer, basketball’s going to come easier than if you’re five foot six. Now a seven footer can say, ‘I had to work hard to become a great basketball player.’ Yeah he’s right, but he’d be a fool not to realize he was born with advantages that helped his dream come true. There’s no substitute for hard work. But your daddy’s hard work and my daddy’s hard work didn’t bring them equal advantages, not financially or educationally. Now character, that’s something else.”

 “Maybe I’ve gotten used to privilege and it feels like I earned it all,” Jake said.

“Well, if some white folk are too slow to see their advantages, some black folk are too quick to see their disadvantages. I’m the first one to admit that, Jake. See, my daddy never let his disadvantages rob him of hope or keep him from working hard and building the best life he could. I hear some black folk whining all the time, when the truth is they’ve got all these advantages Daddy never dreamed of. The whining makes me sick. But when I hear some white people born with the silver spoon in their mouths talk about how everybody just needs to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, well that makes me sick too. Truth is, black people have had freedom such a short time, we haven’t gotten real experienced at using it. Then there was the whole welfare thing and all those freethinking white university professors in the six­ties that pushed this me-first family-destroying lifestyle that cut us off at the knees. I don’t even want to talk about that, it makes me so angry. I’ve never been happy with liberals or conservatives on racial issues. Anyway, next time you think maybe I’m angry, there’s a good chance you’re right.”

Jake nodded. He seemed unsure what to ask next, but Clarence didn’t need more prompting.

“Tom Skinner used the example of a baseball game. The game starts, and one team—let’s call them the White Sox—takes the lead. Next thing you know they’re up 10-0. The other team, Black Sox, has been trying to get their attention that some­thing’s wrong. Well, come the seventh inning the White Sox finally notice the Black Sox have been playing the whole game with one hand tied behind their back. So, they say, ‘Okay, we’ll untie your hand. Batter up.’ Well, by now the score is 20-0, and we’re in the bottom of the seventh inning. The White Sox have mastered the skills necessary to play the game. The Black Sox are now able to play with both hands, true enough, but they’re used to playing with one and they don’t have the experi­ence yet and their one arm is really sore, some of their shoulders are dislocated, and they’ve still got the rope burns. Given all that, and the score being 20-0, who do you think is going to win the game?”

“Yeah,” Jake said. “I hear you.”

“And by this time, some of the Black Sox are going to give up trying because who can overcome that lopsided score? They’ve gotten so used to being disadvantaged that even when they’re untied they don’t think there’s any hope of catching up. Some of the black team adjust and excel, yes, but some just feel despair and anger, and some just give up and sit on the bench or throw rocks at the privileged team or fight with each other in the dugout.”

“Racial problems really aren’t getting better, are they?” Jake said, voice weighed down.

“For some people, they are,” Clarence said. “For others, it’s pretty much the same as always. And for other folks, it’s just getting worse.”

“I’m embarrassed to say I never used to understand all this talk about racism. But lately the lights have started to turn on. Race is a burden for you it’s never been for me.”

“Burden is a good word. More than anything else, I just get tired of it all. I’d like to put on white skin for a few weeks, not because I want to be white—I don’t—but just so I could take a break, have a vacation. Just get the hay bales off my back awhile, that’s all. So I wouldn’t have to face the issue again and again every time I see a police officer looking at me, or I drive up next to someone at a stoplight and hear them engage their power locks. Some days I’m just so worn out by it all. I can leave my briefcase at home, but I can’t leave my skin at home. Being black is a full-time job. Every class I was ever in, every white church I ever went to, I was expected to be the black voice, as if all blacks think alike. Somebody’s doing a story and they need to talk to a black man, they call me. You know Jake, if you ever get dog-tired at the Trib, you can put your head down on your desk and snooze a few minutes. I’ve seen you do it. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because when you do it, you’re just a man taking a snooze, probably because you stayed up late working hard. If I did it, I’d be a black man—lazy and probably up late partying or taking drugs. Cheating my employer by stealing his time. Proving black men are as bad as everyone thinks.”

“Come on, Clarence, you’re overreacting. Nobody would think that.”

“Maybe not everybody. But some would. That’s just a fact, Jake, whether or not you believe it. Dr. King used to tell the story of a man walking past ten drunk men, nine of them white, the other black. The man shook his head and said, ‘Just look at that black drunk, now would you?’”

Jake looked at Clarence like a student listening to a professor, in over his head, but struggling to understand.

“Have you ever figured out,” Clarence asked, “why I dress up when we go to a store, even a sporting goods store?”

“Beats me. Just thought you like dressing up. It’s always struck me as weird, I admit.”

“I love to go casual. Jeans and a sweatshirt, that’s what I really like,” Clarence said. “But I also want to shop in peace. I get tired of the salesclerks asking, ‘Can I help you?’ every five minutes.”

“What?”

“I don’t like being watched.”

“Clarence, what are you saying?”

“That I’m a black man,” Clarence’s voice thundered, “and black men are expected to be shoplifters! There. Can you understand that?”

“Sorry, man. Didn’t mean to upset you.”

“It wasn’t you. Sorry.” Clarence raised his hands and waited to regain his com­posure. “If you’re a white man wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, you’re just another customer. If you’re a black man wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, you’re just another suspect. Dressing up makes me look successful. So it helps compensate for my skin color. Sometimes it’s enough to keep store security from breathing down my neck all the time.”

“I had no idea,” Jake said. “Are you sure—”

“That I’m not overreacting? Hey, I’ve got friends who are doctors and attorneys, and they do the same thing. If they dress comfortable, they’re a suspect. It gets really old.”

Clarence and Jake talked for another hour.

“Got to get home, bro,” Clarence said. He hesitated, then added, “Hey, thanks for asking me about this stuff. And thanks for listening to me. I feel better just talking about it.”

Jake put his arm around him. “Thanks for talking to me, brother. It gives me a lot to think about. It helps me understand you better. And know how to pray for you.”

The two men walked out the door side by side.

Pastors, You Must Speak Up: One in 5 U.S. Abortions Are Performed on Women Identifying as Evangelical Christians

Some Christians may think, “Believers don’t have abortions, only un-churched people do.” This simply isn’t true. In fact, 43 percent of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27 percent identify themselves as Catholic. So two-thirds of America’s abortions are obtained by those with a Christian affiliation. As I share in my book Why ProLife?, one of every five US abortions—about a quarter-million a year—are performed on women who identify themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians.[i]

Many church-attending women, younger and older, have had abortions. Many church-attending men got those women pregnant and either pressured, encouraged, or at least agreed with the mother to abort their children.

EPM staff member Kathy Norquist, who prays with a group in front of Oregon’s largest abortion clinic, shares stories that reflect the reality of these statistics:

Talking with Christians Who Come to Abortion Clinics

Once a month, some friends and I stand outside the abortion clinic praying, holding signs, and seeking to offer alternatives to men and women who choose to abort their babies. It’s a difficult place to go to, and I often don’t look forward to it. But once I’m there, it becomes a powerful time of intercession and opportunities and the Lord blesses us in many ways.

Sadly, there are many Christians who come to the clinic for abortions or to assist others in getting them. Here are just a few of our encounters:

One young woman who already had an abortion was coming back for a checkup. It was heartbreaking to hear she was a Christian and involved in a church. We were able to offer her post-abortion healing information to deal with the obvious guilt she was carrying.

One of our women spoke with a young girl and her mother (presumably), parked on the street. “I could tell her conscience was working, because she said things like ‘This was such a hard decision for me. You don't know my situation. I put a lot of thought into this and it’s the best decision for me and my baby. I'm a Christian; I'm with you in spirit, but respect my decision and don't keep talking to me, and God bless you, Ma'am!’, shutting her eyes to block me out. I wasn't harassing her, but kept up with what I hoped was just gentle, logical suggestions, like adoption.”

Another morning we spoke with a grandmother who had brought her granddaughter for an abortion. She told us she was very much against it, but couldn’t talk her granddaughter out of it. Yet she was the one who drove her to the clinic. We told her to be prepared that one day her granddaughter might very well have anger toward her for facilitating her decision by driving her. It turns out the grandmother was a Christian, involved in an evangelical church which has a post-abortion Bible study for women, and her husband is a church planter!

We spoke with a woman who was just getting into her car. She was a committed believer who had brought her Christian daughter to get an abortion. The mother was adamantly opposed to the abortion and tried to talk with her daughter for days, but the daughter was determined. The mother was heartsick. Yet, she thought that even though she desperately didn’t want her daughter to go ahead with it, she had to bring her to support her and not let her go through it alone.

I believe this mom sincerely thought she had no other choice and was doing the right thing by her daughter. But I don’t think she truly believed it was a child (who at the moment of conception has a unique DNA with enough information to fill 50 sets of encyclopedias), a human life worthy of protection just like all of us. Because if she did believe it, she couldn’t have any part of helping her daughter kill her own grandchild. What would have happened if she had refused to bring her daughter? Possibly the daughter would have seen her mom’s commitment and changed her mind, possibly she wouldn’t have found another way to get there, possibly…we just don’t know, but her mom would have done the right thing.

We’ve encountered several people who said they were Christians, yet either brought someone or were getting an abortion themselves. Silence in the church sends a message that it’s okay. This hurts women who could be saved from an abortion decision, resulting in life for innocent preborn children. Abortion really does kill children.  

Note: EPM has officially become the sponsor for this outreach ministry. If you’re in the Portland area and would like to participate in prayer and presence, please contact me via EPM, and I will connect you with the right people. It would be a great encouragement to us if God were to lead you to this ministry!

Church leaders should take responsibility for the sad state of the church just described. The abortion issue isn’t about the church needing to speak to the world. It’s about the church needing to speak to itself first, and then to the world. Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is a great starting place, but it’s not enough. We must address the pervasive prochoice arguments that daily bombard Christians.

We must not hold back from speaking the truth just because there’s no consensus about abortion in our church. Consensus may never come—but our job is to still teach what the Bible says in no uncertain terms. And knowing that when we address this subject many women who’ve had abortions will be touched, we must offer forgiveness and emotional support.

Some pastors fear “laying a guilt trip” on women in our churches who’ve had abortions. On the contrary, we must address it for their sake. If we don’t speak out, our people will continue to suffer—and continue to kill their babies and assist others in killing their babies—without knowing the forgiveness and healing of Christ.

Pastors should resist the temptation to decide for their people not to see pictures that show the reality of what abortion is. No one should be forced to view such pictures, but neither should others be deprived of the opportunity. By not showing actual pictures of abortion, we keep people from emotionally experiencing the children’s humanity and the horrors of abortion, and leave them liable to consider abortion when they, their family, or friends face an unwanted pregnancy. (We should carefully prepare our audience, allowing people to look away or close their eyes with­out having to leave or call attention to themselves.)

As Christian leaders, we must realize that we’ll be held accountable, both in this life and in eternity, for how we deal with this issue. We need to take deliberate and significant measures to stop the killing, to minister to our hurting women, and to make a difference in our community. The desire to be popular and avoid people’s disapproval is a common reason for church leaders to hold back in pro-life efforts. But for every reason we have, we should be ready to answer a question on the last day: “Was that reason more important than the lives of all those children I created in my image?”

[i] Rachel K. Jones, Lawrence B. Finer, and Susheela Singh, “Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients, 2008,” Guttmacher Institute, May 2010.

Introducing the Happiness Bible Study (plus a giveaway)

The new Happiness: God’s Invitation to Delight, Celebration, and Joy study deals with an issue that’s important for us as followers of Jesus and critical to our mission of sharing Him with our world. For 1,800 years the church held a shared understanding of happiness. Preachers and theologians recognized happiness as a good thing God created, and they spoke accordingly. They recognized that the innate desire to be happy motivated people to seek Jesus.

The church’s message across the centuries was that following Jesus provided the way any person could find forgiveness, meaning, and fulfillment—that is, happiness. Then over the past hundred years a change occurred. A different idea of happiness took root in the church. Happiness came to be associated with the world. Words like blessed and joy, which originally meant happiness, took on new connotations.

Godly, well-meaning believers began to preach and teach that happiness is an enemy of holiness. Christians were told they shouldn’t desire happiness but rather an unemotional form of joy. Sadly, in the process many passages of Scripture lost their richness and strength because we no longer understood the true meanings of the words.

We need to reclaim the truths that our desire for happiness is God-given and that Jesus is the way to happiness. We need to reclaim the meanings of numerous biblical words that speak to us of happiness. We need to join God in transforming His church through the happiness He intended for us to enjoy. God knows that all people desire happiness. And He wants them to know that the happiness they seek is found in a relationship with Him. —Randy Alcorn

Learn more about the study:

The Happiness Leader Kit includes a Bible study book, a copy of Randy’s Happiness book, social-media content, and a DVD with a promotional video and six 15- to 20-minute teaching sessions from Randy Alcorn introducing each session. (Additional Bible study books are available from our store.)

Session titles include:

1. Joy and Happiness: The Conflict
2. Hardwired for Happiness
3. The Happiness of God
4. Idolatry and Happiness
5. Holiness and Happiness
6. The Happiness of Heaven

Features:

- Teaching videos with Randy Alcorn
- Biblically rooted and gospel-centered content
- Leader guidance
- Content and learning activities for individual study
- Six-session workbook with group and personal components (Read an excerpt from the Bible study book)

Watch excerpts from the DVD:

EPM is giving away one copy of the Happiness Leader Kit ($89.99 value). Enter below by Monday, January 18 at 11:59 p.m. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

John Stott and the Right to Life

Like many others, I deeply loved John Stott, his books and his contribution to the church of Christ. I really appreciated what he had to say about unborn children:

Since the life of the human fetus is a human life, with the potential of becoming a mature human being, we have to learn to think of mother and unborn child as two human beings at different stages of development. Doctors and nurses have to consider that they have two patients, not one, and must seek the well-being of both. Lawyers and politicians need to think similarly. As the UN’s “Declaration of the Rights of the Child” (1959) put it, the child “needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”. Christians would wish to add “extra care before birth”. For the Bible has much to say about God's concern for the defenseless, and the most defenseless of all people are unborn children. They are speechless to plead their own cause and helpless to protect their own life. So it is our responsibility to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.

From Authentic Christianity © 1995 John Stott and Timothy Dudley-Smith.

This Sunday, January 17, is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday 2016.

Here are some resources EPM recommends, and that you and your church can use:

EPM allows readers to download the free 2004 edition of Randy Alcorn’s book Why ProLife? (The thoroughly revised and updated print edition is available through our store.)

ERLC offers a free bulletin insert.

The Colson Center provides a free 21 day prolife prayer guide to help Christians intercede and engage.

A video of one of Randy’s past Sanctity of Human Life messages is available on our site. 

Photo credit: Oriol Martinez