Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 31

The Divine Paradox of God’s Sovereignty and Meaningful Human Choice

I once spoke to eighty college students about a sensitive theological question: “Can true Christians lose their salvation?” First, I asked them to commit themselves to a yes or no answer. I separated them, according to their answers, on opposite sides of the room, breaking them up into small groups.

Next I gave everyone a handout featuring twenty passages of Scripture. After reading these aloud, the students were to discuss in their groups and decide: “If these were the only Scripture passages I had, would I answer the question yes or no?”

Tensions rose. On both sides of the room, students looked confused, and some were angry.

Only afterward did I explain that I’d given each group different handouts consisting of entirely different passages. The Scriptures each group was given appeared to teach an answer exactly opposite to the position they’d said they believed.

My main take-away was that we need to establish our positions in light of all Scripture, not just our preferred passages that support what we wish to believe.

The issue of whether Christians can lose their salvation is one that involves matters of God’s sovereignty and human choice. The question typically gets one answer from those called Arminians (“yes”) and the opposite answer from those called Calvinists (“no”). John Wesley is seen as the classic Arminian, while John Calvin (surprise!) is the classic Calvinist; but, trust me, neither Calvin nor Wesley were idiots (which I wanted to help those eighty college students understand).

These jokes are light-hearted illustrations of the two views:

How many Calvinists does it take to change a light bulb?

None. Only God can change a light bulb. Since He has ordained the darkness and predestined when the lights will come on, stay seated and trust Him.

How many Arminians does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one. But first the bulb must want to be changed.

How do you confuse a Calvinist?

Take him to a buffet and tell him he can choose whatever he wants.

Calvinists have their TULIP; what flower do Arminians prefer?

The daisy. Why? “He loves me, He loves me not. He loves me, He loves me not…”

(TULIP is an acronym representing Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. These “five points of Calvinism” were stated at the Synod of Dort in the early 1600s in response to five assertions of the Arminian “Remonstrants.”)

In terms of belief in the Bible and love for Christ, Calvinists and Arminians have a lot in common. Most Calvinists live daily as Arminians do—freely making choices for which they take personal responsibility. Most Arminians pray like Calvinists—believing a sovereign God can and does change people’s hearts, swaying their wills.

Better questions than “Are you a Calvinist or an Arminian?” are “What does the Bible actually teach?” And “Do you believe it?” Let’s trust all of God’s words, not just the ones that fit neatly into a preferred theological system or church tradition.

We can agree that God is sovereign and all-powerful without agreeing about how He chooses to exercise His power.

God is “the Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!” (Psalm 24:8, ESV). The rhetorical question “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” implies the answer no (Genesis 18:14; compare Jeremiah 32:27). Gabriel said to Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Jesus said, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

God is the “Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8). He is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, ESV). John the Baptist said, “God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9, ESV).

God’s sovereignty is real, but not every statement people make about it is true. Scripture emphasizes God’s sovereignty, yet it fully recognizes the role of evil people as well as Satan and demons.

Scripture makes clear that Satan and demons in fact have a powerful influence on the course of events in this world (see 2 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Timothy 4:1; 1 John 5:19; Revelation 12:9). An emphasis on God’s sovereignty should not undermine or negate horrible evils.

In a sovereignty-only perspective, human choice can become buried so deep that it’s nominal, essentially an illusion. “Since God is sovereign, it really doesn’t matter how we live. Even if I choose sin, it will be according to God’s plan. Why should I work hard at my job, my marriage, or my parenting when my effort doesn’t matter and it’s all in God’s hands?” Yet Scripture is full of verses that contradict such a conclusion. When Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:19, “Choose life in order that you may live” (NASB), surely he wasn’t saying, “God has predetermined all your choices, so although you imagine you’re choosing, it’s really God making you choose rightly or wrongly.”

When Joshua said, “Choose this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15, ESV), didn’t he mean they really could choose, and that whether they chose either idols or God, it was genuinely their choice? We should of course call upon God to empower us to make right choices. But that’s not the same as calling on God to make our decisions for us.

What about the many passages of Scripture that show the tragic results of sin? When Achan’s sin resulted in the death of his family (see Joshua 7:10–26) and when Herod killed children in an attempt to murder Christ (see Matthew 2:16–18)—were these not real choices which God permitted and used, but which He did not determine in the sense of causing anyone to sin?

No Calvinist pastor says to his congregation, “Your choices don’t matter, since God has sovereignly predetermined everything, including your sins and your Arminian theology!”

No, he admonishes his people to repent and avoid sin, and to change their theology by choosing to believe something different. Doesn’t every sermon call on people to make good choices? And aren’t most of those choices ones that can actually be made?

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). God has given all of us the capacity to make right choices; doesn’t the fact that we often make wrong ones suggest that we, as well as God, are involved in determining our life direction?

Biblically, God’s sovereignty is affirmed emphatically, yet it doesn’t swallow up our ability to choose or our responsibility for the choices we make.

God’s sovereignty and our meaningful choices are the parallel tracks that allow the train of our faith to move smoothly in the right direction.

Excerpted from Randy's book  hand in Hand: The Beauty of God’s Sovereignty and Meaningful Human Choice .

Photo: Unsplash

9 Lessons God Teaches Us Through Sickness

During her four-year battle with cancer, my precious wife and soulmate, Nanci, immersed herself daily in God’s Word, read great books about His attributes, and wrote to Him in her journal. Together we turned to Jesus in prayer and worship as we drew close to God and each other and faced her death side by side. Nanci’s physical decline was heartbreaking, but her spiritual growth was stunning and profound.

Recently I read “9 Lessons from God Concerning Sickness” from J. C. Ryle, an Anglican bishop (1816–1900). Every lesson he shares applies to how Nanci lived out her last years before relocating to Heaven. In fact, I was surprised I’d never read this before. Nanci would’ve loved it, and she probably loves it now more than ever. Praise God for J. C. Ryle!

He wrote:

Affliction is a friendly letter from Heaven. It is a knock at the door of conscience. It is the voice of the Savior knocking at the heart’s door. Happy is he who opens the letter and reads it, who hears the knock and opens the door, who welcomes Christ to the sick room. Come now, and let me show you a few of the lessons which He by sickness would teach us.

1. To make us think, to remind us that we have a soul as well as a body—an immortal soul, a soul that will live forever in happiness or in misery—and that if this soul is not saved we had better never have been born.

2. To teach us that there is a world beyond the grave, and that the world we now live in is only a training place for another dwelling, where there will be no decay, no sorrow, no tears, no misery, and no sin.

3. To make us look at our past lives honestly, fairly, and conscientiously. Am I ready for my great change if I should not get better? Do I repent truly of my sins? Are my sins forgiven and washed away in Christ’s blood? Am I prepared to meet God?

4. To make us see the emptiness of the world and its utter inability to satisfy the highest and deepest needs of the soul.

5. To send us to our Bibles. That blessed Book, in the days of health, is too often left on the shelf, becomes the safest place in which to put a bank-note, and is never opened from January to December. But sickness often brings it down from the shelf and throws new light on its pages.

6. To make us pray. Too many, I fear, never pray at all, or they only rattle over a few hurried words morning and evening without thinking what they do. But prayer often becomes a reality when the valley of the shadow of death is in sight.

7. To make us repent and break off our sins. If we will not hear the voice of mercies, God sometimes makes us “hear the rod.”

8. To draw us to Christ. Naturally we do not see the full value of that blessed Savior. We secretly imagine that our prayers, good deeds, and sacrament-receiving will save our souls. But when flesh begins to fail, the absolute necessity of a Redeemer, a Mediator, and an Advocate with the Father, stands out before men’s eyes like fire, and makes them understand those words, “Simply to Your cross I cling,” as they never did before. Sickness has done this for many—they have found Christ in the sick room.

9. To make us feeling and sympathizing towards others. By nature we are all far below our blessed Master’s example, who had not only a hand to help all, but a heart to feel for all. None, I suspect, are so unable to sympathize as those who have never had trouble themselves—and none are so able to feel as those who have drunk most deeply the cup of pain and sorrow.

Summary: Beware of fretting, murmuring, complaining, and giving way to an impatient spirit. Regard your sickness as a blessing in disguise—a good and not an evil—a friend and not an enemy. No doubt we should all prefer to learn spiritual lessons in the school of ease and not under the rod. But rest assured that God knows better than we do how to teach us. The light of the last day will show you that there was a meaning and a “need be” in all your bodily ailments. The lessons that we learn on a sick-bed, when we are shut out from the world, are often lessons which we should never learn elsewhere.

Source: The J.C. Ryle Archive

I saw each of these points play out in Nanci’s life. She had always been a godly woman who loved Jesus, and no one knew that better than I did. But God’s supernatural work in her life as she faced death was breathtaking. Her relationship with Jesus reached new depths, and I had the privilege of witnessing and benefiting from her eternal perspective, a perspective we had each sought to cultivate and live by.

Yes, sometimes Nanci felt anxious, but she instructed herself by God’s Words, and the anxiety was replaced by peace and hope and rest in the great God she knew to be her Father, and the Jesus she knew not only as Savior and Lord, but friend. After reflecting on Psalm 119, which says in verse 93, “all things are your servants,” she wrote:

My cancer is God’s servant in my life. He is using it in ways He has revealed to me in these verses and in many more I have yet to understand. I can rest knowing that my cancer is under the control of a sovereign God who IS good and DOES good.

I never saw a hint of resentment in Nanci. The question was never Why Me, Lord? She had no sense of entitlement. God was God. Her job wasn’t to question Him, but to honor Him and embrace His plans and purposes. She was determined not to waste her life, including her cancer.

And because of that, Nanci finished well. She flourished in her time of sickness, and she leaned into the finish line. May we follow her example in our own times of suffering.

(See “My Cancer Is God’s Servant”: Reflections by Nanci Alcorn, Why the Year After Her Cancer Diagnosis Was the Best Year of Nanci’s Life, and Can Cancer Be God’s Servant? What I Saw in My Wife’s Last Four Years.)

Photo: Unsplash

What Is God’s Common Grace?

Common grace is one of my very favorite doctrines. I so love it and wish it were better understood and more often celebrated.

“Common grace” points out that God loves the whole world, and exercises patience and kindness even to those who ultimately reject Him. In his excellent book Bible Doctrine, Wayne Grudem says, “Common grace is the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation. The word common here means something that is common to all people and is not restricted to believers or to the elect only.”

This magnificent and beautiful doctrine flows right off the pages of Scripture and is repeatedly confirmed by daily observation. It is demonstrated in Christ’s words, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45). 

We Ask the Wrong Question

Common grace emphasizes the goodness of God. It exactly reverses the standard logic most people use. For example, Rabbi Kushner asked, “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?” and concluded in his bestselling book that God is either not all-good or not all-powerful. He bailed God out (so he thought), rescuing Him from not being good by concluding God is not all-powerful.

Understanding neither God’s holiness nor the reality and extent of our sin, we fail to realize that the question of why bad things happen to good people is exactly backwards. It’s the wrong question. The real question (which angels likely ask, having seen their angelic brethren permanently evicted from Heaven for their rebellion) is “Why Do Good Things Happen to Bad People?” If we understood who God is and how we are, that is exactly the question we would ask.

This is the wonder and awesomeness of the doctrine of common grace. God graciously and kindly brings good to people who deserve the fires of Hell not simply eventually, but right now. It is characteristic of bad people to not think of themselves as being bad. We imagine we are good (not perfect, but good enough), so we fail to marvel at God’s common grace. When a tsunami happens, we ask, “Where is a good God?” But when a tsunami doesn’t happen, we usually fail to thank Him for restraining from us the devastations of a world in rebellion against God. And certainly we never say, “Where is a just God? Why hasn’t He struck me down for my sin today?” Instead, we moan that we can’t find a close parking space on a rainy day.

Jesus appeals to God’s common grace as a basis for our extending grace to others, even those who hate us (Luke 6:35-36). If not for God’s common grace—if God brought immediate terrible judgment on unbelievers—the world as we know it wouldn’t exist. Among other things, no one would have an opportunity to come to Christ, since we would be immediately cast into Hell.

He Is Good to All

Paul said to unbelievers, “In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways; yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:16-17). I find this a very touching statement of God’s grace toward all, and an appeal for all people to realize His love, even in a world under the curse. Satan is taking his toll on this world in bondage to sin, but even though none of us deserve His grace, God extends it to us. This world gives foretastes of both Heaven and Hell. Tragically, it is the closest to Heaven the unbeliever will ever know, and wonderfully, it is the closest to Hell the child of God will ever know.

David says, “The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. . . . The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand, you satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:9, 15-16). God cares for His creation and extends His grace to all—not only people but animals, though they suffer under the Curse and will until Christ’s return.

Another thing I appreciate about common grace is its irony. God gives atheists not only food to eat and air to breathe, but also the very minds and wills and logic that they use to argue against Him. The man who says God cannot be good since He allows suffering doesn’t grasp that God is withholding from him the full extent of suffering he deserves for his evil, and that is the very thing that gives the man the luxury of formulating and leveling his accusations against God.

Let’s Praise God for the Breadth of His Grace

Common grace, along with the fact that we are created in God’s image, also explains how sinners can still do good. Jesus says, “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same” (Luke 6:33). This means human culture has developed much that is good alongside the evil.

I love John 1:9, which says that Jesus came as the light that “enlightens every man.” I think this reflects that fact that all people in history have benefited from the coming of Christ, even those who reject Him. The model of Christ, His grace and truth, His elevation of women and conciliatory words, created a reference point for bringing freedom and civil rights to many societies. As far as we still have to go, the progress in affirming the rights of women and racial minorities in our own culture is due not to the current beliefs of moral relativism, but to the teaching and model of Christ which sowed the seeds for later reversal of the injustice (including slavery, women unable to vote, etc.) that still hung over this country when it was founded.

To me common grace is a wonderful doctrine, true to Scripture and true to the world we see around us. If someone prefers to call it something different, that’s fine (though I like the term), but whatever we call it, it’s biblical and significant, and it causes me to praise God for the breadth of His grace.

Photo: Unsplash

Will We Know Everything in Heaven or Will We Learn?

People often say, “We don’t understand now, but in Heaven we’ll know everything.”

Is this true? Definitely not.

God alone is omniscient. When we die, we’ll see things far more clearly, and we’ll know much more than we do now, but we’ll never know everything. (If we did, we’d be God!)

The apostle Paul writes, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

To “know fully” doesn’t mean that we’ll be omniscient but that we will know without error and misconception. We’ll “get it.” We’ll see God’s face and therefore truly know him. But he will remain infinite and we will remain finite. We will know accurately, but not comprehensively.

In Heaven we’ll be flawless, but not knowing everything isn’t a flaw. It’s just part of being finite. Angels don’t know everything, and they long to know more (1 Peter 1:12). They’re flawless, but finite. We should expect to long for greater knowledge, as angels do. And we’ll spend eternity gaining the greater knowledge we seek.

One poll indicated that less than one in five people believe we will grow intellectually once we’re in Heaven. I heard a pastor say on the radio, “There will be no more learning in Heaven.” One writer says that in Heaven, “Activities such as investigation, comprehending, and probing will never be necessary. Our understanding will be complete.”

But that’s not what Scripture says.

Paul, in Ephesians 2:6-7, writes, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace.” The word translated show means “to reveal.” The phrase in the coming ages clearly indicates that this will be a progressive, ongoing revelation, in which we learn more and more about God’s grace.

I often learn new things about my daughters, grandsons, and closest friends, even though I’ve known them for many years. If I can always be learning something new about finite, limited human beings, how much more will I be learning about Jesus in the ages to come? None of us will ever begin to exhaust His depths.

Jesus said to His disciples, “Learn from me” (Matthew 11:29). On the New Earth we’ll have the privilege of sitting at Jesus’ feet as Mary did, walking with Him over the countryside as His disciples did, and always learning from Him. In Heaven, we’ll continually learn new things about God, going ever deeper in our understanding.

Occasionally we hear stories that provide a small taste of what we’ll learn in eternity. One morning when I was speaking at a church, a young woman came up to me and said, “Do you remember a young man headed to college sitting next to you on a plane? You gave him your novel Deadline.”

I give away a lot of my books on planes, but after some prompting, I remembered him. He was an unbeliever. We talked about Jesus, and I gave him the book and prayed for him as we got off the plane.

I was amazed when the young woman said, “He told me he never contacted you, so you wouldn’t know what happened. He got to college, checked into the dorm, sat down, and read your book. When he was done, he confessed his sins and gave his life to Jesus. And I can honestly tell you, he’s the most dynamic Christian I’ve ever met.”

All I did was talk to a college student on an airplane, give him a book, and pray for him. But if the young woman hadn’t told me what happened later, I wouldn’t have had a clue. This made me think about how many great stories await us in Heaven, and how many we may not hear until we’ve been there a long time. We won’t ever know everything, and even what we know, we won’t know all at once. We’ll be learners forever. Few things excite me more than that.

Jonathan Edwards maintained that we will continually become happier in Heaven in “a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of more and more of God’s glory with greater and greater joy in him.” He said there will never be a time when there is “no more glory for the redeemed to discover and enjoy.”

When we enter Heaven, we’ll presumably begin with the knowledge we had at the time of death. God may enhance our knowledge and will correct countless wrong perceptions. I imagine He’ll reveal many new things to us and then set us on a course of continual learning like that of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Perhaps angels or loved ones already in Heaven will be assigned to tutor us.

Think of what it will be like to discuss science with Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and Thomas Edison, or to discuss mathematics with Blaise Pascal. Imagine long talks with Malcolm Muggeridge or Francis Schaeffer. Think about discussing the writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, or Dorothy Sayers with the authors themselves. How would you like to talk about the power of fiction at a roundtable with John Milton, Daniel Defoe, Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Flannery O’Connor?

Imagine discussing the sermons of George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, or Charles Spurgeon with the preachers themselves. Or talking about faith with George Mueller or Bill Bright and hearing their stories firsthand. You might cover the Civil War era with Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Or the history of missions with William Carey, Amy Carmichael, Lottie Moon, or Hudson and Maria Taylor.

Consider how exciting intellectual development will be. Father Boudreau writes in The Happiness of Heaven, “The life of Heaven is one of intellectual pleasure. . . . There the intellect of man receives a supernatural light. . . . It is purified, strengthened, enlarged, and enabled to see God as He is in His very essence. It is enabled to contemplate, face to face, Him who is the first essential Truth. Who can fathom the exquisite pleasures of the human intellect when it thus sees all truth as it is in itself!”

Imagine what Heaven will be like for those who never had the benefits of literacy and education. What joy they will have in drawing truths ever deeper and ever more from their God, the Well who will never run dry.

Browse more resources on the topic of Heaven, and see Randy’s related books, including Heaven and The Promise of the New Earth.

Photo: Unsplash

Few Things Are More Dangerous Than the Quest for Cultural Acceptance

Note from Randy: Something is seriously wrong when Christians crave cultural popularity and acceptance. That’s why I greatly appreciated the points made in this article by Brett McCracken, a senior editor and director of communications at The Gospel Coalition. May it remind us that God is the one we should seek to please and glorify. So by all means, let’s be motivated by seeking approval—not the acceptance of men or the approval of our culture—but the approval of God.

Beware the Corrosive Quest for Respectability

By Brett McCracken

Few things are worse for the individual Christian’s soul—and the broader Christian witness—than the quest for cultural acceptance. To consciously pursue credibility among the “cool” and applause from the cosmopolitan elite is, almost always, a step in the direction of theological compromise and spiritual atrophy.

I’ve written about this several times over the last 15 years, but it’s a problem that keeps popping up. Why? Because our fallen flesh is stubbornly drawn to the idol of respectability.

Whatever culture a Christ follower happens to be in, the temptation is to be an insider rather than an outsider, acknowledged rather than dismissed, respected rather than ridiculed, a high-status power player rather than a powerless pawn.

Where This Plays Out

In contemporary Western culture, the temptation is especially pronounced in industries where the label “evangelical Christian” has long been maligned and associated with all manner of stigma (words like “ghetto,” “cheap,” “sentimentalized,” “subculture,” “bigoted,” “backward,” “outdated,” “anti-intellectual,” and so forth). I’ve observed it and I’ve experienced it myself, in these three spheres.

Arts

The arts, culture, and entertainment world is notoriously skeptical of evangelical artists, who have a reputation for poor quality and preachiness and tend to be low-status outsiders. Plus, this world is highly secular and morally transgressive; it tends to find Christian morality repugnant. As a result, Christians seeking success in this sphere have an uphill battle and are tempted to hide, downplay, or disown aspects of their faith that might prove obstacles to respectability.

Academia

I attended Wheaton College, an unofficial tagline of which is “The Harvard of Christian Schools.” That identifier is mostly an inside joke among students and alumni, in part because it speaks to an awkward aspirational reality. Christian colleges like Wheaton do seek to shed the reputation of the scandalously bad evangelical mind; they want to be seen as more like Harvard and less like a backwater “Bible college.”

Practical pressures play into this too: mainstream accreditation, NCAA requirements, fierce competition for a dwindling pool of applicants, and professors seeking research grants and peer approval in their respective disciplines. It often leads to institutional embarrassment about or disassociation from the culturally reviled tenets of Christian orthodoxy, which then sets the stage for institutional mission drift.

Media

In the contemporary media landscape (including print, broadcast, web, and social media), fortune favors the biased, not the objective. The more you appeal to in-group talking points and always affirm (but never challenge) your audience’s particular bent, the more you’ll be rewarded with clicks, ratings, subscriptions, and high page rank. No one gains a boatload of social media followers by being nuanced and multidirectional in his or her criticism. No pundit becomes a star by consistently defying partisan categories.

Rather, profits and platform follow fan service: telling your audience what they want to hear. This is a form of respectability-seeking that plagues many of us in today’s social media. The dopamine hit from viral affirmation is often irresistible. Yet gaining an audience in today’s media environment often comes at the cost of integrity.

‘Not One of Those Evangelicals’

One of the telltale signs you’re a Christian with an unhealthy hunger for respectability is that you constantly bash those other Christians as a way to boost your credibility.

This is the Christian artist who describes her aesthetic vision as “very anti–Thomas Kinkade” or the Christian filmmaker who prefaces a pitch by underscoring how aware he is of the egregious quality of the “faith-based” genre.

This is the Christian college professor at a secular academic conference who feels she must apologize for and disown the “crazy Trump evangelicals” who give her school a bad name.

It’s the Christian podcaster, pundit, or TikTok influencer who spends less time talking about the beauty of Jesus than about the ugliness of so many of his followers—as if every potshot at the worst elements of our faith somehow makes our expression of Christianity palatable and respectable.

This approach is spiritually corrosive and will breed division within the church, seeding resentment in your heart for your fellow Christians. It’s also a futile strategy.

Whatever credibility your constant digs at “those other Christians” earns you in the eyes of cultural elites, it’ll all be lost the minute they find out you actually believe what the Bible says about sexuality or the exclusivity of Christ (among other things). That’s perhaps the greatest reason efforts at “respectability” are a fool’s errand. Even if you say and do all the right things, if you believe a few wrong things, respectability will be elusive and elite access will be denied.

How to Resist the Temptation of Respectability

How can Christians resist the temptation to pursue respectability? Here are four suggestions.

1. Strive for excellence, not respectability.

Christians need to recognize the important distinction between excellence and respectability. Excellence is within our control. Respectability isn’t. In whatever vocational sphere or cultural context we’re in, we should seek excellence—for God’s glory, not man’s approval.

Christians should be better artists because excellent art glorifies God. We should be top-notch scholars and scientists because excellent scholarship and science glorify God. If such excellence results in accolades and a rise in cultural status, that’s fine. But it should be a byproduct, not an incentive.

Make no mistake: cultural approval always ebbs and flows. If you’re in favor one day, you’ll be out the next. Christians in every industry must come to terms with this and pursue excellence anyway. Christians laboring in anonymity for decades, frustrated that their perseverance hasn’t resulted in the respect they think they deserve, should strive for excellence nonetheless.

Respectability is an unsustainable carrot for those exhausted by the grueling rigors and requirements of excellence. God’s glory, on the other hand, is a motivation that can fuel us through the ups and downs of work and life.

2. Pursue truth, not talking points.

College and university campuses used to be the most trustworthy bastions of truth telling in the world. That’s no longer the case, in part because the pursuit of truth among academics has become a lesser priority than the pursuit of tenure and scholarly respectability.

On many campuses, knowledge of speech codes (what’s OK to say and what’s not) has replaced free thinking and open debate, resulting in a culture where discourse and research have become more about signaling in-group bona fides than blazing trails in pursuit of truth.

Christians must resist this temptation to value saying the “right” things over the true things. The former might lead to lucrative opportunities and elite invitations, but the latter is your calling.

For Christians in politics especially, the pragmatism of seeking in-group credibility (saying what I need to say to gain status in the halls of power or among these voters) is prevalent, tragic, and toxic. Whatever is gained in respectability and status by always toeing the party line, much more is lost when Christians in politics refuse to speak biblical truth that’s inconvenient or costly.

3. Be disrespected for the right reasons.

None of the above is an excuse for Christians to be rude or combative. Nor is it an excuse for Christians to mischaracterize the arguments of opposing views or engage in any of the other bad-faith rhetorical tactics so pervasive in online discourse. We should still speak respectfully even if we’re not aiming for respectability.

Sadly, many Christians are disrespected in today’s world not because we’re faithful Jesus followers but because we’re jerks. It’s one thing to peacefully accept that cultural respectability will be elusive for us. It’s another to go out of our way to provoke nonbelievers and give them more reasons to disrespect us. We may be cultural exiles, but we should still live honorably among the pagans—not because we want to get invited to pagan parties but because God’s Word commands us (1 Pet. 2:12).

4. Cultivate love for fellow Christians.

Almost every quest for respectability requires a virtue-signaling disassociation from those other, cringeworthy Christians (whichever types of Christians mar our reputation). To fight this tendency, we need to actively cultivate love in our hearts for our brethren in Christ—especially the ones we resent because they “give us a bad name.”

This is hard. I struggle with this. And judging by the constant, venomous infighting among Christians on social media, most other believers struggle with it too. But Christians need to train our hearts to love what Christ loves. And he loves his people. If Jesus isn’t ashamed of his blood-bought people (Heb. 2:11–12), should we be ashamed of them? If Jesus isn’t embarrassed to own them “in the midst of the congregation,” should we be?

When Jesus tells his disciples to not be surprised by the world’s hatred (John 15:18–19), it’s interesting that what immediately precedes this is his command for them to “love one another” (vv. 12, 17). Jesus knows that love and unity among Christians shore up resilient faith in the face of cultural disrespect.

Better than Respectability

You might protest: Without respectability, how will Christians ever rise in the ranks of important cultural spheres? Don’t we need Christians to achieve influence at the highest levels of government, art, and media? And if that ascent requires some short-term compromises, isn’t the long-term gain worth it?

No. The end goal for every Christian—in every place and time and vocational situation—is to glorify God, to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18), and to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1).

When we walk in this manner, it may mean our influence in the worldly sense is limited. But what influence we do have will be more potent, flavored as it is with the transcendent aroma of Christ rather than with the fleeting perfumes of this world.

We’ll incur many losses as we live in this faithful way, with our integrity intact: loss of power, respectability, influence, fame, and fortune, to name a few. But as Paul reminds us, anything lost is mere “rubbish” compared to the immeasurable gain of knowing Christ and being found in him (Phil. 3:8–9).

Worldly respectability is a fragile, fickle, fleeting thing. It’s rubbish. Our Savior’s love is steadfast and everlasting. An infinitely better reward.

This article was originally posted on The Gospel Coalition , and is used with the author’s permission.

Photo: Unsplash

The Dedication of the Nanci Alcorn Memorial Library

It was six years ago, but I remember like yesterday when Nanci and I traveled to Jamaica, where I spoke at a donors’ conference to help raise funds for Operation Mobilization’s ship Logos Hope. We were very familiar with it from a distance, partly because of a close relationship with OM founder George Verwer. I asked if it would be possible for Nanci and me to stay on board the ship after the conference. It turned out that it was one of the best experiences of our lives.

I wrote a blog shortly after we returned home. Here are 27 seconds of that trip, when crew-member Audrey was telling us a story, and you can hear Nanci’s voice right next to me saying “Oh my goodness” three times and an emphatic “Yes.” Her voice says it all.

It was only natural that after Nanci went to be with Jesus, we set up a memorial fund where 100% of the donations will be dispersed to ministries Nanci cared deeply about, and Logos Hope would be one of those. So when people have given in honor of Nanci, Logos Hope has been touched by Nanci and part of her legacy too.

Last year, OM told me they wanted to honor her influence on the ministry by renaming the library on board Logos Hope, “The Nanci Alcorn Memorial Library.” Seelan Govender, the CEO and President of OM Ships International, wrote:

We are so grateful for Nanci’s example of a godly life well-lived. To celebrate and commemorate her legacy with the Ship Ministry and her love of reading and literature, today we honor her influence on our ministry by renaming the library on board Logos Hope, “The Nanci Alcorn Memorial Library.”

It is our desire that future guests and crewmembers will use this space as a place of growth and prayer as they strengthen and sustain their daily walk with our precious Heavenly Father. Both are things that Nanci modeled extraordinarily well for us with her own life.

I’m so thankful for the memories I have of countless trips with Nanci now that flying across the world as an insulin-dependent diabetic has become more difficult. As hard as it was to say no to visiting the ship for the dedication this October, it prompted me to ask our daughters Karina and Angela if they wanted to make the trip to Tanzania. I am so happy that they were able to witness firsthand their mom being honored by one of the favorite ministries she ever saw (and she saw many over our years together)!

Karina and Angela are two of the godliest women I know. They are wonderful wives and wonderful moms. Both are Christ-centered and biblically grounded and have servants’ hearts and compassion for people. I respect them both deeply. They are full of insight and wisdom, and they love God and people. Nanci is more alive and aware than ever, and has certainly not lost her love and interest in and respect for her daughters—hence, I will not say she loved them and was proud of them. I will say she loves them and is proud of them.  And so am I.

I believe Nanci is aware of the dedication, and was as excited for our daughters’ trip as I was. I can just see that smile on her face and hear her delighted laughter! ♥️ How deeply grateful I am to King Jesus for His everlasting love and friendship.

Here is the video of the dedication.

Karina and Angela wrote about their time on the ship, and I believe their words are honoring to the Lord and to their mom. Karina wrote:

It was fantastic getting to worship and live alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world. We were able to tour the ship and see the school, the galley, the engine room, and experience all the different teams that come together to make life on the ship possible. I enjoyed meeting professionals who are bringing their skills to life on board, as well as young volunteers who are learning on the job. 

We were able to join in the community prayer meeting, participate in a women’s conference on board for local Tanzanian women, and check out the book fair, which was full of elementary school students at the time we were there. There’s a huge variety of books available, and it was interesting seeing behind the scenes where those books are organized and stored. So much thought and care goes into this ministry! A huge team of people—including administrators, maritime professionals, food service professionals, travel coordinators, volunteers, and young people from all over the world—make up this traveling community, which brings the gospel and resources for Christian growth to port communities around the globe.

Crewmembers are assigned a work detail and schedule, which includes outreach into the local community each week. The advance team goes ahead and prepares connections, but of course, a lot of flexibility is required as well.

I’m so thankful we were able to be here to celebrate the dedication of the library in mom’s honor and experience life aboard ship. We had so many fascinating conversations and were able to meet a wide variety of people from many nations. It does make me feel a little ashamed I only speak English! We met several people who speak three, four, or more languages! 

What a great reminder that we serve a God who is worshiped all around the world, and who is accomplishing His purposes in many languages, tribes, and tongues. Worshiping, praying, and sharing meals with our international brothers and sisters was a great privilege and blessing.

Angela wrote:

To be totally honest, before I left for this trip to Tanzania to honor my mom with the library dedication, my thoughts and emotions were all over the map (excuse the lame travel pun). I knew my mom would be the first one to tell Karina and I to have an absolute blast, so that helped, but I knew this was going to be a big deal. It was going to be an important step in this journey of grief I’ve been on for the past year and a half, and as much as I wanted to do it, I also really didn’t. I was anticipating big feelings, and even though I’ve resigned myself to carrying Kleenex with me wherever I go, I still hate to cry.

However, even though I had geared myself up for massive waves of emotion and the need to process through all my grief once again, God had other things in mind for this trip. As Karina and I walked around Logos Hope, meeting the crew of people representing 70+ different countries and hearing their stories, I began to realize just how self-focused I was. With each person I met, I was struck with the fact that although we looked different, spoke different languages, and live continents apart, everyone on board had a story like mine: full of ups and downs, with great joys and heartbreaking losses.

Logos Hope is a microcosm, full of people like you and me, stumbling through this broken world, but who have made the choice to take their eyes off themselves and put them on Jesus and on those who don’t yet know Him.

This trip wasn’t about me or my experience. This was about honoring my mom, and my mom's life was spent honoring people like the members of this crew, and most importantly honoring the Lord. The people on the ship—and for that matter, the ship itself—aren’t fancy or flashy, but neither was my mom. These are people who have ordinary lives, but are choosing, by the grace of God, to do something extraordinary with them. Like my mom did.

Over the course of just a few days on Logos Hope, I saw what I believe my mom saw and fell in love with: a foretaste of Heaven. A beautiful picture of “every tribe, tongue and nation.” And now she is there, a part of the great multitude that no one could number, worshiping before the throne of God. I can’t wait to join her there!

Note from Eternal Perspective Ministries: The Nanci Alcorn Memorial Fund

Those who would like to give a gift in honor of Nanci may give online (select the “Nanci Alcorn Memorial Fund”). If you wish to send a check, make it payable to Eternal Perspective Ministries and send to: 39065 Pioneer Blvd, Suite 100, Sandy, OR 97055. Be sure to write “Nanci” in the notation area. 100% of any donations will be divided among ministries that were dear to her heart: ministry in Cuba, persecuted Christians, and the Logos Hope Ship (Operation Mobilization).

He Who Is a Happy Creator Is a Happy Redeemer

If we are going to fully trust God, it’s vital that we believe in a happy God who cares deeply for our welfare and is active in creation and redemption.

In his sermon “A Free Salvation,” Charles Spurgeon said,

Let a man truly know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will be a happy man! And the deeper he drinks into the spirit of Christ, the more happy will he become! That religion which teaches misery to be a duty is false upon the very face of it, for God, when He made the world, studied the happiness of His creatures. You cannot help thinking, as you see everything around you, that God has diligently, with the most strict attention, sought ways of pleasing man. He has not just given us our absolute necessities, He has given us more—not simply the useful, but even the ornamental! The flowers . . . the stars . . . the hill and the valley—all these things were intended not merely because we needed them, but because God would show us how He loved us and how anxious He was that we should be happy!

Now, it is not likely that the God who made a happy world would send a miserable salvation! He who is a happy Creator will be a happy Redeemer!

God spun the galaxies into being and spoke life into His creation. What joy we feel when we see His handiwork and realize that He made it not just to keep it to Himself but to share it with us. I can imagine Him laughing out loud as He formed some of this world’s crazy-looking creatures. (Some of them, in the deepest part of the oceans and perhaps in other worlds, haven’t even been discovered yet!)

God has kindly entrusted to us a glorious variety of gifts. And in the ages to come He won’t cease to be a Creator of what’s new and wonderful!

Browse more resources on the topic of happiness, and see Randy's books, including  Does God Want Us to Be Happy?

Photo: Pexels

George Washington Carver: A Life of Self-Forgetful Service

George Washington Carver (1864–1943) was born into slavery on a Missouri plantation. He was a frail and sickly baby whose father had recently died. While still an infant, George and his mother were kidnapped. He was later returned to the plantation and traded for a horse, while his mother was never heard from again.

Carver was ten when he went to Kansas and put himself through high school. In 1891, he entered the college that’s now called Iowa State University. He graduated in 1894 with a bachelor’s degree and two years later with a master’s, becoming the first black student and professor at the university.

Carver became an internationally known botanist, educator, and agricultural researcher, famous for his innovative development of crops, including peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes. He was also an accomplished musician and artist.

He wrote in a 1930 letter about seeing God’s hand in creation: 

“The singing birds, the buzzing bees, the opening flower, and the budding trees all have their marvelous creation story to tell each searcher for truth . . . from the frail little mushroom, which seems to spring up in a night and perish ere the morning sun sinks to rest in the western horizon, to the giant redwoods of the Pacific slope that have stood the storms for centuries . . . Nature in its varied forms are the little windows through which God permits me to commune with Him, and to see much of His glory, majesty, and power by simply lifting the curtain and looking in . . . I love to think of nature as unlimited broadcasting stations, through which God speaks to us every day, every hour and every moment of our lives, if we will only tune in and remain so . . . I am more and more convinced, as I search for truth, that no ardent student of nature can ‘Behold the lilies of the field,’ or ‘Look unto the hills,’ or study even the microscopic wonders of a stagnant pool of water, and honestly declare himself to be an infidel.”

Carver wrote to a friend who was facing racism, “Keep your hand in that of the Master, walk daily by His side, so that you may lead others into the realms of true happiness, where a religion of hate (which poisons both body and soul) will be unknown” (George Washington Carver: In His Own Words).

At the Tuskegee Institute, Carver’s tombstone reads: “A Life that stood out as a gospel of Self-Forgetful Service. He could have added Fortune to Fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honour in being helpful to the world.”

He wrote, “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me.”

George Washington Carver is remembered for his life of brilliant, humble service. That inscription connects his happiness with his “Self-Forgetful Service” (I like that the phrase is capitalized, suggesting it has substance and importance).

Here are some more resources about his life:

George Washington Carver’s Inspirational Faith

George Washington Carver: Journey from Slave to Scientist by God’s Grace

And here’s a 51-minute documentary made about Carver, showing photographs and footage from his life.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

What I Would Tell My Younger Self

During a Q&A interview earlier this year, I was asked “What would you say to your younger self?” Here was my answer:

And for those who would like to read a summary of what I shared, and want more resources:

1) Learn to say no to even very good things so that you can be free to say yes to those few wonderful things God has called you to do. 

Years ago I wrote an article on Planned Neglect: Saying No to Good Things So We Can Say Yes to the Best. I said then, and I still believe it to be true: We need to neglect doing the things that countless people want us to do, so that we will be available to do what God wants. Instead of exhausting ourselves doing many secondary things, may we do a few primary things well. And that begins with our daily time with God.

I later wrote a related but not redundant blog: A Lesson Hard Learned: Being Content with Saying No to Truly Good Opportunities. I also wrote on Does It Matter How We Spend Our Free Time? And here’s a short article on understanding the difference between the urgent and the important. Finally, years ago I wrote about Mary and Martha in an article: Can’t You See That I’m Busy?

2) Don’t listen to those voices (including the ones coming even from the church) who are saying, “Don’t be radical for Jesus.”

Jesus Himself expected radical obedience from His followers: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). To follow Christ is not about being comfortable—it’s about being sold-out to the God with the nailed-scarred hands, being radical for Him, standing up for Him, and speaking the truth in love, with grace.

A day of judgment is coming upon all men. God promises great reward for all who have served him faithfully. He will reward ­every­ loyal servant for works done in this life: “At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5). This is a particularly encouraging passage, suggesting that God will find something to praise and reward each one of us for. Shouldn’t that motivate us to do more for our Father that He will take pleasure in and be proud of?

Let’s follow Jesus wherever He leads, then depend upon Him to give us more courage to take the next step. “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:26).

See my article Our Mission: Make More Disciples and Fewer Performers, and the books Radical and Follow Me by David Platt.

Photo: Unsplash

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

Note from Randy: Costi Hinn has seen close-up the hyping of the Holy Spirit for personal gain. Acutely aware of the dangers of false doctrine, he carefully grounds his new book Knowing the Spirit in God’s Word. If you’re looking for a biblical and pastoral treatment of the Holy Spirit, His person, His works, and His importance in the Christian life, you’ve found it! Hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book.

I clicked the play button on the video of a woman sitting in a chair on a stage, microphone in hand, seemingly ready to share something from the Bible to a crowd of eager listeners. She was a well-known singer and songwriter, so the crowd undoubtedly was on the edge of their seats in anticipation. The video began: “The Holy Spirit, to me, is like the genie from Aladdin.”

The crowd responded immediately with laughter, engaged with her right from the start. I tried hard to fully understand what she was saying and not be hasty to judge her. Perhaps she was just attempting to have a little fun and bring levity to a theological subject. As she went on, however, no well-intentioned motive could account for what she said, and my concern deepened because of how much confusion abounds in the church today when it comes to the Holy Spirit.

She continued, “That’s who He is to me. He’s funny, and He’s sneaky, and He’s silly. He’s wonderful. He’s like the wind. He’s all around.”

When studies show that only 6 percent of professing Christians have an accurate Christian worldview, and nearly 60 percent of those who identify as Christians do not believe the Holy Spirit is real, likening Him to a chaotic Disney character is the last thing a professing Christian with a microphone should be doing.

The truth is that the Holy Spirit is not funny and definitely is not silly. If He is sneaky, it’s because you can’t predict Him or because in His sovereign power he does incredible things that you never see or know about. He’s not at all like the genie from Aladdin, for He’s not some magical force you can coerce and control with just the right phrase. He is active and powerful, and Scripture has made it possible for you and me to know enough about Him that we need not be lured away from the truth by comical versions of Him.

When it comes to the Holy Spirit, we need to make sure everything we believe lines up with Scripture. I’ve often heard this quote attributed to Charles Spurgeon (though I can never find the original source) that says, “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”

You and I must get our understanding of the Holy Spirit right if we love the truth and want to glorify Jesus Christ with our lives.

The Holy Spirit Is God

First and foremost, we need to understand that the Holy Spirit is God and that He is an equal and active part of what we call the Trinity. While few people who claim to be Christians would argue against God the Father or Jesus the Son being God, there is widespread confusion among us regarding the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Is He just an expression of Jesus in spirit form? Is He a less than divine force that God uses to express His power? Is He an angel?

The Bible answers these questions with absolute clarity.

Several key passages from both the Old and New Testaments give us evidence that the Holy Spirit is an equal part of the Trinity: which is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In Christianity we understand that God is one, yet He exists in three persons. This may seem a bit confusing to the human mind, but God is infinite, beyond our comprehension, and outside of the limits that creation is bound by. That God is three in one is possible because he is God, though it’s a mystery to us. When you think that such teaching is a contradiction to logic, remember the words of renowned theologian R. C. Sproul, who wrote, “The doctrine of the Trinity is not a contradiction but a mystery, for we cannot fully understand how God can exist in three persons.” The word trinity is not found in the Bible, but we use the word to describe the triunity of God because in the Bible we clearly see the three persons of God in action, equally divine and unified.

The Holy Spirit is seen as operating as God in a number of passages in the Old Testament, including:

Hovering over the waters before creation (Gen. 1:2)
Filling certain men under Moses (Exod. 35:30–35)
Empowering Joshua to lead Israel (Num. 27:18)
Coming upon Gideon (Judg. 6:34)
Coming upon Samson (Judg. 13:25)
Rushing upon David when he was anointed as king (1 Sam. 16:13)
Departing from Saul (1 Sam. 16:14)
Carrying along the word of the prophets (2 Peter 1:21)
Enabling Ezekiel to prophesy (Ezek. 2:2)
Prophesied to one day rest upon the Messiah (Isa. 61:1)

Anyone confused about where the Holy Spirit was in the Old Testament can rest assured that He was very much present and active before what is commonly known as Pentecost (Acts 2). While Jesus did promise that the Holy Spirit would come and move powerfully in the life of the church from Pentecost onward, that incredible moment was not the first time the Holy Spirit was revealed as an equal part of the Trinity.

In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is undeniably present and divine. He moves from coming “upon” believers in the Old Testament to entering “into” believers under the new covenant through Christ. The Holy Spirit is God, and we can see this in a number of passages in the New Testament, including:

He is mentioned almost one hundred times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
He conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb (Matt. 1:20).
He was present at Jesus’ baptism (Matt. 3:16).
He was sent by the Father (John 14:16).
He teaches the disciples all things and reminds them of what Jesus taught (John 14:26).
He is God, and believers are baptized in his name (Matt. 28:19–20).
He is eternal (Heb. 9:14).
He has the power to seal believers so that nothing can steal their salvation (Eph. 4:30).
He dwells within believers and makes them his temple (1 Cor. 6:19–20).
He has the power to make believers new and washes away sin (Titus 3:5).

It’s not hard to find in Scripture the Holy Spirit operating as God. The Holy Spirit is everywhere. You could probably add twenty more items to each list in no time at all.

One of my favorite slam-dunk pieces of evidence for the Holy Spirit being God is in Acts when a husband and wife named Ananias and Sapphira put on an elaborate show of generosity when actually they had lied to God about the money they were giving to the church. The apostle Peter confronts them, saying, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the land?” Peter goes on to say, “You have not lied to men, but to God” (Acts 5:3–4). If the Holy Spirit is not equally God, why would Peter say that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit and refer to Him as God?

These passages were pivotal to my understanding of the Holy Spirit years ago, and I hope they help you grasp the remarkable truth about who He is. According to Scripture, our God is three in one, the Holy Spirit is equally God, and the Holy Spirit is distinctly God (meaning that He is not merely an expression of Jesus in spirit form). As you study what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit, you will find that this is essential doctrine, which is why I want you to know the Spirit in a deeper way.

Photo: Unsplash