In reading this passage I can’t help but wonder two things. One, why is putting the things given to us before our brothers make us a good servant of Jesus? Second, if godliness is of value in every way, and grants us the promise of the present life and life to come, why, as a Christian is this not what we hold of value?

     The answers to these questions go beyond the obvious answers. I want to capture the reasons as to the expectations that are placed on us as Christians, and the mediocrity that we accept in our lives. Why does godliness hold the promise? What is found within it that we can trust it? What does Paul mean in reference to being a good servant and putting “these things before our brothers” (which are listed in the verse)?

     Give me some feed back guys. I want to elaborate, but I need some thoughts to work with, let me know.

 Another weakness is that people are often left with little or no choice as to which Bible study they would like to be in. You might be able to choose between two classes, if you are kind of in between, like college and career or single adults. But most of the time the choice is, “Do you want to go to the class for your age group, or volunteer to teach somewhere else?”

 Also, what happens when you dont click with your group? There are no alternatives if that is where you fit. Unless you want to be the only 21 year old in a group of 50 year old married couples. Or you could try to awkwardly named single adults ministry, which sounds like a room full of people more interested in finding a mate than learning their lesson. Get ready for a lot of pressure to date once you join that class right?

 So, what is the alternative for setting up education within the church? I think that having two sets of classes (Sunday Morning, Wednesday Night?), with only one being gender/age/maritial – educational status oriented (Discipleship Training or Sunday School) and the other being topic/teacher oriented. (Pedotheology/ Dr. Garza or Worship / Drs. Williams) What this does is allow people to connect with others of the same age and life experience, while at the same time actually choose what they wish to learn about in the other class.

 This goes way beyond just how we set it up. As a church, the pastor needs to be more intentional about what is taught every week than essential connections. Making classes based on specific topics and having qualified people teach them is a system much more likely of generating a positive attitude about learning.

 I would suggest that every church have a mandatory new members class, that was several hours long, spread over the course of at least a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks.

 I would also suggest that every church have a couple of church-wide functions that were applicable to everyone’s lives. (Financial Stewardship - a one day seminar with  Dr. Atwood or Healthy Relationships – a two day seminar with break-out sessions on marriage, dating, parenting, friendship and leadership.  Dr. Borofsky, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Komatsu.) Obviously Ive thought about speakers and topics ahead of time that would be beneficial to the entire church body. 

 All this is to say, are churches even putting thought into the way we disciple our members? Or are we just putting the normal cookie cutter systems in place everywhere we go? We have got to do a better job of maturing people properly both spiritually as well as emotionally. What do you guys think?

1. Atheism does not allow for an absolute system of morality.

 All moral claims within Atheism are subjective to a certain extent. There is no absolute reference point for determining what is right and what is wrong. What do you appeal to in order to prove that murder is wrong, or that marriage is the only proper outlet for sex? Personal opinion? Those differ from one person to the next. National Laws? The Holocaust was perfectly legal and in accordance with the laws of Germany, as well as the philosophy behind those laws. Cultural opinion? While culture might have a consensus on certain issues, it definitely changes over time. Look at abortion, 100 years ago, culture in general overwhelmingly believed it was wrong, even murder. Today, society  in general, with the exception of religious conservatives, believes that the right to choose is an unalienable right of a mother. In a world without God, without a moral-law giver and a moral-law-sustainer, there is no reason to do whats right unless you want to.

2. There is no Hope.

 What hope do we have to see justice carried out if not in this life? What hope is there to see loved ones again after death? Everything will end, and there is no hope for anything more. Those that do wrong and get away with it have no higher authority to call them to account. When your wife is gone she is gone. When you child is killed by a murderer and they never find him, the pain is doubled. What cause for hope is there in such an evil world? Ah, but according to the last point, this is not evil, its just life. So why do we blame God for the bad things in life if according to the atheistic worldview there is no evil? Because we as humans know that certain things are wrong, and need a  reason to hope! We want to see our loved ones again. We want justice beyond this life. We know there is a natural order to things, that there is a proper way for things to function.

3. Atheism provides no meaning for life.

  Atheism says that we are the accidental result of nothing. If we are accidents, the result of chance, then what meaning is there to life. What purpose is there for our existence? There is no intention behind our lives, our being. Nothing means anything. And yet we are encouraged to be good citizens. To find meaning in our achievements. What is this? Zacharias point out this looks like small dots of “punctuated purpose” beneath an “over-arching meaninglessness”. Basically, we are encouraged to distract ourselves, and lie to ourselves and say that more money, a bigger house, a prettier wife, or more kids will satisfy us. Distract yourself with shiny things until you die.

Atheism tells you to live as though you were able to take comfort in the ideals of religion – to lie to yourself in order to make life bearable. To pretend, that life has meaning, that there is a reason to respect each other, and a reason to hope that tomorrow will be better than today. I wont lie to myself. I believe in these things, and I take comfort in the assurance that there is a God that cares.

 Just to set the record straight, I dont just hate that question. When I was a kid, I remember vividly several different itinerant preachers coming through my church, and at some point in their sermon making statements like this one, “I have never doubted, in my entire life, even for a moment, in my salvation” or “I have no doubts that if I were to die today, I would wake up in glory.”

     It should be clear by now that I cannot stand these statements because of their implications about doubt. I believe that these statements have two very dangerous effects. #1 They condemn doubters. #2 Which causes people to close up about their doubts.

     Lets delve into why these are bad things. Firstly, I want to provide you with the famous text that people use to condemn doubt. 1 John 5:13 – I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.  John writes earlier in his book about what the gospel actually is, and seems to be clarifying things for the early Christians. So when we come to this verse, it appears as though he is trying to ease their doubts as to the validity of the gospel they had heard. He is giving the message that was preached to them validity through his authority as an apostle. The terribly important thing to keep in mind when reading this verse is, the very fact that John is writing thing at all to Christians in order for them to know that they have eternal life, means that they were Christians before and yet still doubted.

     Doubt is in fact a part of salvation. In Philippians 2:12 Paul exhorts the Philippians to,  ”work out your own salvation with fear and trenbling.” I believe that Paul is saying that there is a weight to salvation that we should all feel. This passages goes along with 2 Corinthians 13:5, which says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test youselves. Or do you not know realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? -unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” Clearly certain early Christians were doubting – not the truth of God’s message, but whether or not they were personally regenerate.

     And oftentimes there is reason to doubt whether or not you are regnerate, Biblically. Matthew 7:21-23 says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Its a long passage, but an important one, because it shows that you can do everything right and not “pass the test” that determines whether or not you are a Christian. Works dont get you to Heaven, its complete devotion and submission to as well as dependence on Christ. If your heart hasnt changed, then all the good deeds in the world, even miracles, wont save you. With this knowledge in hand, its hard not to doubt some things. And its definitely hard to condemn doubt using Scripture.

     So, just to recap on #1 (those statements [directly or indirectly] condemn doubters) – its absolutely wrong! Just because you have doubt does not mean that you are unsaved. Actually, its probably the opposite. You are probably feeling the weight of salvation. You might be feeling this because you are putting more on the line than ever before, or you might be calling your salvation into question because of unconfessed sin in your life, but your doubt is probably not the result of an unregenerate heart. Not the kind of doubt we are talking about anyway. Healthy doubt. Asking the hard questions. Bravely seeking the truth. Thats healthy doubt. That doubt grows us. It forces us to test ourselves – which brings us to #2.

     #2 is that these statements cause Christians to close up about their doubts. This is a very simple case of cause-and-effect. If a person who doubts is unsaved, then that person, at least in most people’s eyes, is a bad church person, because somehow they havent managed to give themselves to Christ. Damning doubters makes them second class citizens, both in everyone’s eyes. If its not ok to go to Hell, then its not ok to doubt. If doubting gets you unsaved, then no one wants to doubt, no one is brave enough to ask the hard questions, and all of the sudden you have a lot of people who are trying as hard as they can to look like they are content in Christ, when in reality they are broken over their inability to be honest with what they struggle with. As a result, church is rarely ever a place for people to be honest with the things they question, and more of a contest to see who can put on their best Christian ‘front’.

     This is the problem that I mentioned earlier, and I think its probably the biggest problem that the church faces today. The simplest name for that problem is hypocrisy. When you arent being honest about your struggles, you are lying, youre being a hypocrite. As a church, because we have labelled doubt and hard questions as sins, we have forced many of the members of our churches into forced hypocrisy. Whats the biggest reason why Christians are respected by the world. Strike that, whats the biggest accusation levelled at Christian parents by their children. “You are such a hypocrite!”

     This isnt what the apostles wanted. This isnt what the Bible calls us to do. Paul clearly calls on Christians to test themselves – to ask the tough questions and be honest enough to face the real answers. Am I regenerate? Do I show fruit? Do you I Jesus Christ? Have I surrendered everything to Him? Am I living in dependence on Him? Am I completely submitted to His will? If we arent ourselves and others within the church these questions, then we arent really a church, because we have no true accountability. We have no security without the ability to question things, and so really the kind of statements that condemn doubters and doubt are counterproductive.

     Im not necessarily encouraging people to doubt, dont hear me saying that. Im not saying that doubt is a necessary component of salvation. Im also not telling you to lie and say you do doubt when you dont. I am also not saying that everyone who has ever asked that question, or made one of those statements meant to condemn doubt or doubters. One thing that I will say is the aforementioned question and statements are usually used very irresponsiblly. I am also saying that as Christians involved in a local church, we have to be sensitive to the needs of others, and we must create an atmosphere where its ok to not be ok. People are broken, and they need a place to go with their burdens where they wont be judged. The difference between us and the world is, we have the answer, Jesus. So while its ok to not be ok, its not ok to stay that way.