Things I Wish I'd Learned in Sunday School

Things

I wish I’d learned in Sunday School.

Travis Collins FBC, Huntsville

CONTENTS

Our First Step: Salvation/Conversion, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Spiritual Growth

How we got the Bible and why it is our guide

The Trinity and the Incarnation

The Cross and Resurrection

End Times

What makes a Baptist a Baptist?

Appendices:

Why I Believe What I Believe

“Why I Believe in God”

“Why I’m a Christian”

Scripture references are from the New International Version

Introduction

The late UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden was a legend One of Wooden’s secrets to success was his emphasis on the basics.

On the first day of practice every season he’d teach young men how to lace up their shoes. So, all those greats who came through UCLA Kareem Abdul Jabar, Bill Walton and others spent their first day learning to tie their laces. Wooden said that if his players got blisters they wouldn’t run well, so they needed to learn how to lace up their basketball shoes.

Wooden began with the basics and reviewed them every year.

Well, this is also a review of the basics the essential, foundational teachings of the Christian faith. Some of you are new Christians and eager to learn about your new life. Others of you have been followers of Jesus for years and either want to brush up on the basics or, perhaps, to catch up on what you missed along the way. Others may be considering the decision to follow Jesus. For whatever reason you have picked up this little guide, thank you for your interest in learning more.

This review of these foundational truths obviously is written from my personal perspective. Others might choose a slightly different list, or approach the basics differently. And, of course, I write as the pastor of First Baptist Church of Huntsville, and from that perspective. There are Baptist distinctives in a couple of the topics here, such as baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And yet, this booklet is about Christian basics; not just First Baptist Huntsville basics.

Granted, this is not an exhaustive list. One could argue, in fact, that I should have included some other basics in this collection. My intention here was to try and address the most basic basics, as well as those basics which are hardest to grasp.

As we begin, pray that God will teach you, and open your eyes and heart to life-transforming truths.

Now, let’s get started.

Travis Collins

January, 2025

Our first step

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” says the Chinese proverb. The journey of following Jesus begins with a transformative experience.

Salvation / Conversion)

In the Christian faith, the first step is a conversion, a spiritual new beginning. In the Bible there are lots of descriptions of that spiritual starting point, for conversion is multi-faceted. Let’s look at the most common descriptions.

The phrase “be saved” is common in Scripture. Romans 10:13, as an example, says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And Acts 16:31 reads, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”

In everyday conversations, if someone mentions being “saved,” it probably is in reference to some sort of rescue. Similarly, when the Bible uses the word “saved” it refers to being rescued from the enslaving power of our sinful nature. (More on that later). And, it refers to being rescued from the eternal penalty of our sins separation from God. (More on that later, too.)

It’s important to know that we cannot earn that salvation. Ephesians 2l:8&9 reads, “It is by grace that you are saved, through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Salvation is a gift from God when we place our faith in Jesus. It is not about what we can do; but about placing our hopes in what Jesus has done

“Repentance” is another common reference to spiritual conversion. Peter described conversion as repentance when he declared to the crowds on the Day of Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) A simple definition of “repent” is “to turn and think differently.”

When Jesus spoke of conversion, he most often spoke of people “following” him. In reading what we call the New Testament we find Jesus’ recurring call: “Follow me.” The invitation to follow him was at the heart of Jesus’ message to humans.

As I count it, the faith decision referred to as “following Jesus” is referred to forty-six times in the four Gospels (the accounts of Jesus’ life by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Jesus issues the same invitation to all people of all time: “Follow me.”

“Following” implies an open-ended commitment. No guarantee about how things will unfold along the way. A dynamic pilgrimage, a journey. Completely trusting the one in front the unquestionable One-In-Charge. Surrendering to the agenda of the Leader/Master.

Being a follower is to be a “disciple” of Jesus. (Jesus used the word “disciple” a lot.) A “disciple” is an apprentice. A full-time, he-knows-how-to-do-this-and-I-don’t, let-the Masterpour-his-life-into-me, apprentice.

“Following” is not a hobby. Jesus’ demands of his followers are considerable. Here, in his own words, Jesus sets the bar high:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it,” (Matthew 16:23-24).

What does Jesus want? Followers. Real…courageous…Jesus-is-the-boss-o’-me…followers.

To be “born again” is yet another way of describing the conversion experience. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:1-21). Let’s take a moment to talk about that about an experience so profound that Jesus said it’s like being born a second time.

The Bible describes this new birth in a number of ways. Romans 6 calls it being “alive from the dead.” Colossians 3 describes it as “putting off the old self and putting on a new self.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, old things have passed away and all things become new.”

Simply put, the new birth is a spiritual new beginning. The past doesn’t vanish, of course. God doesn’t turn back the clock or undo what has been done. Memories neither the individual’s nor those of others are not erased. But in God’s eyes, and in that individual’s heart, it is a new beginning.

The new birth is a reconciliation with one’s Creator, a renovation of one’s heart. The new birth is a reconstruction of one’s perspective on life, a re-creation of one’s nature.

I like Neil Anderson’s analogy of the new birth. He wrote about orange trees in Arizona. He explained that, in a lot of city parks and along streets in Arizona, orange trees are common. The Arizona heat is such that only the sturdiest of trees can survive, so the experts plant ornamental orange trees. It seems that, although they don't produce good fruit, ornamental orange trees are sturdy.

Then, when the trees reach a certain height, the trees are cut off and a new kind of tree with a sweet orange, such as a navel orange tree, is grafted in. Everything that grows above the graft takes on the new nature of the tree sweet fruit. Everything below the graft takes on the old nature of the tree, the “old fruit.”

When we become followers of Jesus and experience the new birth, we get a new nature grafted into us a spiritual, Christ-like nature. We still have our roots in the old nature, and we often choose to live out of our “pre-graft” nature. (Sometimes we produce some unsweet fruit!) But we’ve experienced a new beginning, an opportunity to live like new people

All these different terms and images refer to a spiritual conversion. When we experience this new spiritual beginning, our eternal destination changes, God’s Spirit comes to live in us, and our way of looking at life changes. We place our hope for here and forever in Jesus, not in our goodness, and we become new people. We are freed from the power of our “sin nature” (our overwhelming tendency to do the wrong thing) and are empowered to live life as God wants us to live it. That doesn’t mean we become perfect; it simply means we have new desires and new strength to be who God created us to be.

Let’s look for a moment at what is perhaps the most well-known passage in all the Bible, John 3:16. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

There is an interesting little detail in the original language of John 3:16. When speaking of eternal life this verse does not use the Greek word bios, from which we get the word “biology.” Rather, the verse uses the term, zoe. The Greek lexicon (dictionary) defines zoe as “the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate…life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous.”

You see? There’s life…then there’s life! Life at its best in an imperfect world is possible only through Jesus.

Yet, in this world, all that God has for us is not available. Fanny Crosby, the blind hymnwriter, wrote, “There are depths of love that I cannot know ‘till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights of joy that I may not reach ‘till I rest in peace with Thee.” That is a poetic way of saying the best is yet to come beyond this life.

(By the way, you might notice that a common saying, “Let Jesus into your heart,” is not in the Bible. That doesn’t make it a bad saying; it’s just not as helpful as the language of Scripture.)

Is this spiritual transformation revolutionary or evolutionary?

(In other words, does it

happen all of a sudden or is it a process?)

Often a person’s conversion experience is both immediate and obvious. There is an old gospel song that says, “I can tell you now the time, I can take you to the place where the Lord saved me by his wonderful grace.” That is the testimony of a lot of people people who know exactly when and where they experienced this “new birth.”

Others, however, do not have that experience. For some, conversion does not seem so instantaneous. For example, Jimmy Carter, who made the phrase “born again” popular during his 1976 presidential campaign, wrote, “Rather than a flash of light or a sudden vision of God speaking, it involved a series of steps that have brought me steadily closer to Christ.”

John Claypool wrote of two types of conversion experiences. One type he called a “revolutionary” conversion and the other the “evolutionary” conversion. By “revolutionary” he meant immediate and obvious. By “evolutionary” he meant that the conversion seems to take place through a number of experiences, a pilgrimage or process. Some of you might describe your spiritual conversion as “revolutionary,” while others would say your experience has been “evolutionary.” Both are legitimate.

Think of it this way: There is a point when a baby “gets born.” Delivery might take a few minutes or several hours. The birth might be by a sudden C-section or after a long, natural delivery. But there is a point when one enters this cold, cruel world a moment in time which can be recorded and placed on the certificate of birth. And the same is true in the spiritual sense, although that moment of new birth is often difficult to determine, knowable perhaps only by God Himself.

The point is that you shouldn’t try to “match” someone else’s experience, nor should you expect everyone’s experience to “match” your own. And, furthermore, the real question is not “When or where were you born again?” The question is, “Have you been born again? Is your faith completely in Jesus, and is he the Master of your life? Have you decided on, and by God’s help have you had, a spiritual new beginning?”

What does it boil down to?

It boils down to the basic problem of every human…and the answer to that problem. Our fundamental problem is what the Bible calls “sin.” Sin is the condition, and the thoughts and behaviors resulting from that condition, that displease God and separate us from Him. The answer to that problem is Jesus.

We experience this spiritual conversion of which we’ve been speaking when we are willing to believe the fundamental truths about Jesus to accept the mystery by faith. (By the way, in Greek, the word translated “believe” is the word pistevo, which means “to give one’s heart to.” It’s not just believing facts; it’s believing with all we have and all we are.)

The basics about Jesus can be articulated like this:

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan about which we read in what we call the Old Testament. He is God the Son, born to Mary 2,000 years ago and lived a sinless life.

By his death He made possible our forgiveness.

He was resurrected and ascended into heaven after that, and now lives with the Father. One day he will return and bring history as we know it to a close.

And today he offers life at its best and life that never ends.

Those are the fundamentals of our faith. (New Testament scholars call these truths the kerygma, from the Greek word meaning “that which was preached.”) You must believe these basics so deeply that you are willing to bet your life on them, and so deeply that they change your life.

The two “ordinances” (commands) from Jesus for the church: Baptism and Lord’s Supper

Jesus commanded us to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22 when he celebrated the supper with his disciples in the upper room and then said to them, “Do this in remembrance of me.” He didn’t say how often; he just said, “Do it.”

Furthermore, in what we call the “Great Commission,” found in Matthew 28, Jesus said, “Go, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

Thus the Lord’s Supper and Baptism are “ordinances,” or mandates, from Jesus. They also are opportunities for profound reflection and a beautiful experience of grace. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are important acts of Christian discipleship.

Whereas Baptists view Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as profound symbols, some Christian traditions see Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as “sacraments” channels of God’s grace.

Baptism

Baptism is the way we “go public” with our faith in Jesus. (Sometimes “going public” also involves going forward in a worship service to let people know of our decision.) Baptism is a conscious choice of the one who has decided to follow Jesus. It is a powerful symbol.

Think about a wedding ring. It is important, of course. It is symbolic of a deep relationship. The ring is not the relationship, but the symbolism is profound. Such is baptism.

Baptism is a beautiful symbol. When the person being baptized goes under the water and comes back up it symbolizes two things: 1) Jesus died and was resurrected; and 2) that person being baptized has died to an old life and has been re-born to a new life.

Baptists practice what we call “believer’s baptism by immersion.” It’s the way we understand baptism was practiced in the New Testament. The “believer’s” part means that folks have made a conscious decision, on their own, to follow Jesus. The “immersion” part means we put people under the water. The Greek word, baptizo, in fact, means, “to immerse.”

Often, followers of Jesus from other denominations want to be members of our church. Maybe they were baptized as infants. Or maybe they were sprinkled instead of being immersed. We invite them to be baptized again, but not because the first baptism was invalid or meaningless. Certainly not. Absolutely not. Rather, we invite them to be baptized again because of our understanding of baptism, and because we hope people will want to identify with our church through believer’s baptism by immersion.

One way to think about that is to remember that Jesus chose to be baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus certainly didn’t need baptism, but he chose to identify with John the Baptist’s ministry. In the same way, often Christians who’ve been part of another denomination choose to identify with our church by baptism.

By the way, why do some churches baptize infants, and sprinkle instead of immersing? I’m not really qualified to answer that, but I’ll give it a shot based on what I’ve read from other traditions.

The baptism of an infant is a sign that the child is part of the Christian family, a part of the covenant relationship within that church. Most do not believe it is a “guarantee” that the child will live for God and go to Heaven. Rather, when the child grows older, he or she will be asked to embrace the meaning of his or her baptism to make it his or her “own.”

And as for “sprinkling,” or “affusion” (pouring water over the person’s head)…it is true that the word baptizo, the Greek word from which we get the word “baptize,” means “to immerse.” But there is an important Christian document from about 100 AD that says if it is not possible to immerse, then it is acceptable to pour water over a person’s head. Again, that is called “affusion.”

Affusion was a practical matter. Say, as examples, a person was sick or in prison. In cases like that, many church leaders contended, then affusion is the pragmatic, suitable option. Then, with time, in some branches of the Christian faith, this method of sprinkling or pouring simply became more than a practical choice; it became the preferred method.

Although Baptists practice full immersion, and only baptize those who have made a conscious choice to follow Jesus, we affirm the beauty and deep meaningfulness of other forms of baptism. In fact, on more than one occasion I have baptized people by affusion. Two of those I baptized by affusion were in hospital beds; another was a young man who was a quadriplegic and had a tracheotomy.

Baptism is a beautiful and meaningful event, no matter how it is administered.

Lord’s Supper (also called Communion)

The first “Lord’s Supper” was on the night before Jesus was crucified. That is described in all four of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and in 1 Corinthians 11:23 ff.. Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” so we “re-enact” that event from time to time.

You will notice that, at FBC Huntsville, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in different ways. Sometimes we pass the plates with wafers and cups to each other. Sometimes we come forward and receive the juice and bread from deacons or ministers. There is no right and wrong way to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Branches of the Christian family tree look at the Lord’s Supper differently.

Some see communion as a “sacrament” a channel through which God’s grace flows. Baptists view both baptism and the Lord’s Supper as symbols. Baptists need to be careful, however, not to say “ mere symbols.” There is something mysterious about baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Not magical, but more than can be explained in simple words.

Although there are nuances and variations, there are three basic views of the bread and juice/wine.*

Our Roman Catholic friends believe the wine/juice and bread somehow spiritually become the very body and blood of Christ (although their outward appearance remain unchanged). That is called “transubstantiation.” The prefix “trans,” means “across” or “to change.” As in “transfer” bringing something from one place across to another. So, transubstantiation means somehow the wafers and the juice we will take come across to us, change, become, the actual body and blood of Jesus.

Some believe the body and blood of Jesus are present with the bread and juice/wine. That is often called “consubstantiation.” The prefix “con” means “with,” or “together,” as in “confluence,” the flowing together of two streams, or “conjunction,” as in “joined together.” So, consubstantiation means that the body and blood of Jesus are somehow alongside the bread and wine. Martin Luther used these words: (“in, with and under”).

Some believe the bread and wine are symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus. (Symbolic, for example, in the same way that Jesus said, “I am the door.”) Baptists fall into this last category. But, again, we need to be careful not to cheapen the Lord’s Supper by saying “ mere symbol.”

Some churches insist that, in order to receive communion, you have to be a member of their church, or at least their denomination. That is called “closed communion.” At FBC we practice “open communion.” You will hear me say, “You don’t have to be a Baptist, or a member of First Baptist. If your heart is turned toward Jesus you are welcome to celebrate with us. For this is not our table; it’s the Lord’s table.”

Furthermore, some churches celebrate communion every week. Our tradition at First Baptist, Huntsville, is to do it at least once a quarter on Sunday mornings, and on other occasions such as Christmas Eve.

Back to conversion/salvation for a moment…

Perhaps someone is thinking, “I’m not sure I have had that conversion experience described above. I’m not sure I’ve had that spiritual new beginning. What should I do?”

First, remember that you shouldn’t judge your experience by someone else’s experience. Sometimes we hear of someone else’s dramatic conversion and we are tempted to doubt the validity of our own. We shouldn’t do that.

We also shouldn’t judge our salvation by our emotions. Sometimes, for varying reasons, we don’t feel very close to God. Our salvation is based on our sincere decision to follow Jesus and our assurance of His love; not on our feelings.

However, if there is a voice from deep within you consistently whispering that you never have had the experience described here, and if you are sincerely ready to follow Jesus with all you have and all you are, then I recommend you talk to God about that.

Use you own words, with the following prayer as a suggestion…

God, I confess that by my nature and my choices I am a sinner. I acknowledge that I need Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins.

I believe Jesus somehow died for my sins, and that he rose again on the third day.

I choose right now to place my faith, my hope, my trust…for here and forever…in Jesus.

I pledge to learn about Him, to love Him, and to follow His example for my life.

I surrender my will, God, to Yours.

At this moment I begin the journey of following Jesus and I will continue that journey the rest of my life until I enter Your presence in Heaven.

* Martin Luther (Germany) and Ulrich Zwingli (Switzerland) were leaders in what we call the Protestant Reformation the movement launched by Martin Luther in the 1500’s when he attempted to reform the Catholic Church but ended up accidentally starting the Protestant movement.

Luther and Zwingli agreed on lots of things but differed on the nature of the Lord’s Supper. Zwingli believed the bread and wine are symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus. Luther, however, believed that somehow, mysteriously, the body and blood of Jesus actually become present with the wine and wafer once the minister blesses them.

On October 1-4, 1529, the two in Marburg Castle near Frankfurt, Germany, along with their entourages. After four days of intensive debate it became obvious that their differences were too deep to be resolved. Zwingli, with tears in his eyes it is said, stretched out his hand toward Luther to say, “If we can’t agree on communion, at least we can be Christian brothers.” But Luther refused to shake Zwingli’s hand. Merely because they disagreed about communion.

This is an illustration of how, if we are not careful, we will let beliefs about non-essentials divide us. Let’s stand firmly, but humbly, on our convictions.

Spiritual growth

We begin a new life when we become followers of Jesus. As we have seen, Jesus referred to the beginning of this new life as a “new birth” (see John 3). And, just as a child grows and matures, we also should grow and mature spiritually. In 1 Corinthians 3 the Bible laments that some Christians are still immature; they are still “drinking milk” instead of “eating meat.” It is important that we engage in constant spiritual growth. We never will attain full maturity (perfection); but growth is important.

Just as there are things that can impede the growth of a child, there are things that can impede our spiritual growth. We have to be intentional. Growth does not happen automatically. Maturity requires choices.

So, how do we mature spiritually?

We rid ourselves of things that aren’t good for us.

1 Peter 2:11 reads, “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.” Some of us might need to get rid of some things that are “waging war against our souls.”

Here is an illustration: Keri and I had been trying to get grass to grow in our back yard in Richmond, VA, for a long time. We'd been told that the folks who lived there before us tried to grow grass there, too. But that area had been covered by trees, and as long as all those trees were back there, we'd never have grass. Those who know what they're talking about said trees 1) suck up the nutrients from the soil, and 2) keep the sun out so that the grass just wouldn't grow.

I liked those trees, though, so I talked Keri into keeping them.

Then, one night we had a bunch of folks over to our house. Keri went out with three little children and played with them in the back yard. The ground was so dirty and rocky she told me that night that our yard was not fit for children to play in. This was before we had grandchildren, and Keri said, “If we want our future grandchildren to have a good place to play at our house, we are going to have to have grass!”

So, we had lots of trees cut down out there. And the result was thick grass in that previously grassless place!

To get grass to grow…we had to get rid of some trees.

Likewise, if we want to grow spiritually, we have to rid ourselves of those things that impede that growth. We have to get rid of practices that just plain are unhealthy for our souls. It could be a relationship. It could be pornography. It could be shady business dealings that might not be illegal but are clearly immoral. It could be hatred. It could be a number of things.

We have to ask God to show us those things that are limiting our spiritual growth, and to give us the will to turn away from them.

We practice spiritual disciplines.

1 Timothy 4:8 reads, “Train yourself in godliness.”

“Training” is important. You see, you can’t just decide to do better. You have become a better person a more able follower of Jesus. And you have to train for that. We might call it “Soul training.”

Once I was watching a football game on tv and the commentators were talking about how much better the offensive line was that year than the previous year. The commentators gave credit for the players’ improvement to their new coach.

The coach didn't just show up and say, “Guys, I want you to try harder.” No, he put them on a training program strength training, agility training, speed training, and diet training. So, they became stronger and faster. They lost an average of 40 pounds each. And they became the kinds of players who, when they tried harder, had the capacity to play better.

Spiritual maturity requires more than just trying harder. It requires becoming the kind of people who are able to make mature choices. And that “training,” for followers of Jesus, consists of spiritual disciplines.

In thinking of spiritual disciplines, think of three pillars: Prayer, Scripture, and Community.

Prayer

Psalm 116:2 tells us, “Because He has turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.” What an honor! The Creator of the universe has “turned His ear” to mortals like us! God listens attentively…to you!

So, if you are going to set aside a few minutes to pray, how would you get started? What would you say? There is no singular, “right” way to pray. I have found that, to keep me focused, a good model for praying is “ACTS” (A-C-T-S)

• Adoration (spend time talking about how wonderful our God is).

• Confession (name your sins and ask for forgiveness).

• Thanksgiving (go down the list of all the things you are thankful for).

• Supplication (ask God for things that are important to you)

(By the way, I have started adding a “To Do” at the top of the page in my prayer journal. When I go ahead and write down my “to dos”, it helps me focus on my prayer time.)

Prayer sometimes involves fasting. Fasting simply means going for a determined period of time without food, drinking only water or something like Gatorade, for spiritual reasons. That period of time could be twenty-four hours, or you might skip lunch for a week and pray during that time. If you can’t fast from food, for physical reasons, you can fast from something else important to you.

Prayer also sometimes involves solitude the decision to be intentionally alone. Often Jesus withdrew to be alone with the Father for extended periods of time. Jesus knew that it is much easier to hear the voice of the Father in quiet solitude than in the middle of a noisy, busy, day.

Scripture

Get a translation of the Bible that you can understand, preferably one with study notes in the margins and or at the bottom, and become a student of the Bible. (My favorite is the NIV Study Bible, but there are lots of good ones.) Read it like a love letter from your Heavenly Father to you.

Furthermore, find a Sunday morning Bible Study (also often called “Sunday School”) class, or a discipleship small group. That is where you will learn from each other, and truly invest in each others’ lives.

A number of our church members are participating in the Bible Recap program, by Tara Leigh Coble, guiding them through reading the entire Bible in a year. There are a number of such programs available.

Community

This is about being connected to your faith community. By involving ourselves in our local church we find both encouragement and accountability. That connection is critical to our spiritual growth, and to our faithfulness.

A commitment to our faith community means more than just sitting in a seat. Maturing means doing our part in God’s mission to the world. We can find great places of service through the church.

A commitment to our community also means a commitment to public worship. That involves the decision to join with people who aren’t perfect…to adore The One Who is. Worship should be a discipline, not a decision we make based on our moods or schedules on days of worship. In addition, we have a financial responsibility to give to God through our faith community. Jesus spoke more about the proper attitude toward money and possessions than perhaps any other subject. Financial faithfulness begins with a decision to trust God to take care of our needs, and the willingness to use our finances in ways that invest in things of eternal value.

The Bible teaches the giving of a tithe (one-tenth of our income) and offerings (gifts we give to special causes above our tithes) toward God’s mission in the world That requires commitment, budgeting, and discipline. Your church, by the way, is a wonderful place to invest in things of eternal value.

Finally, a commitment to community means a willingness to extend grace when relationships are difficult. Church conflict is not unheard of, and in some congregations it’s far too common. One of the major components of “community” is a willingness to love people who are hard to love.

I appreciate the story about the man named Gurdjieff, the leader of a spiritual community in Europe. Gurdjieff had a community, a commune-like group of folks who lived in community with Gurdjieff and his other students. One of the members of that community was a crotchety guy whom no one liked. Finally, the old crab got so tired of being unliked and marginalized that he left the community altogether.

Everyone was relieved that the pain-in-the-neck had gone. Everyone except Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff followed the malcontent to Paris and tried to convince him to return to the community. The man

refused, so Gurdjieff offered him a stipend. Gurdjieff said he’d pay the guy to come back, even though all the other students were paying to be there!

Well, when the cranky old man agreed to return to the community, the others were outraged, particularly when they found out he was being paid to be there. Gurdjieff explained to those who were complaining, “You came to me so that I could help you work on your maturity, the development of your character. You need this man among you so that you will learn patience and compassion.”i

Spiritual maturity comes from the discipline of choosing to love people we find difficult to love.

Every once in a while, the people in a church people have to decide between fight, flight or unite. And all too often the decision is fight or flight. Some church fights have been ugly. And lots of people have left over conflict, leaving churches devastated. Because “unite” isn’t easy.

I used to help churches in conflict as a consultant. Church conflict is very difficult. I’ve often said that “church hurt hurts worse.” And when conflict is seriously impeding our spiritual growth, finding another church family is necessary. We should not, however, abandon a church family too quickly.

How we got the Bible and why it is our guide

Some of the most important work international missionaries have done has been the translation of the Bible into the “mother tongues,” the “heart languages,” of people around the world. William Townsend, founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, often said, “The greatest missionary is the Bible in the Mother tongue.”

Why would translators be so passionate about the tedious work of making sure everyone can read the Bible in his or her language? Because, other than Jesus, nothing is more basic to the Christian faith than the Bible.

When I was a kid in church we sang this little song…

The B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E.

Let’s talk about why the Bible so important to us.

How we got the Bible

The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word, biblos, which referred to the papyrus plant on which things were written.

There are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the Old Testament (also known as the Hebrew Scriptures) and 27 in the New Testament. The Old Testament begins at the very beginning of time as we know it at the beginning of history starting with creation. Beginning at Genesis Chapter 12 and throughout the rest of the Old Testament, the Old Testament tells the story of the people of Israel, whom God chose to be His representatives in the world.

There were about 400 years between the last words written in the Old Testament and the first words of the New Testament. The first four books of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are called the “Gospels” (meaning “good news”) because they tell the story of Jesus.

The rest of the New Testament is made up largely of the history of the early church (the Book of Acts) and letters (called “Epistles”) God inspired writers like the Apostle (missionary) Paul to write to early churches. (Romans, for example, is the letter of Paul to the church located in Rome, etc.) The last book in the New Testament, Revelation, is a highly figurative book written to persecuted Christians in the first century. Of course, it also has lessons for us today.

The Books of the New Testament were written between A.D. 50 and 125.

How the Bible was handed down

For centuries, explanations of the work of God in the world were passed down from generation to generation through the telling of stories. The first actual writing of Scripture is thought to have been during the lifetime of Moses (around the 15th century B.C.). So, the stories of such

figures as Adam & Eve, Noah, Elijah and Abraham were passed down orally. Let’s remember that in oral cultures great care is taken to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the stories. Furthermore, one of the suppositions of the Christian faith is that God oversaw, or superintended, the oral transmission of information. Therefore, we can be confident in the accuracy of those oral accounts of God’s work.

Once books of the Bible were completed, the copying and distribution of the documents was the job of scribes. Imagine one person, the reader, sitting in front of a semi-circle of people with quills and papyrus or animal skins. As the reader would read the copy of the book before him (Genesis, for example), the scribes would write what the reader read aloud. When those manuscripts were complete, they would be circulated.

When the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon around 500 BC, they got serious about collecting Books of the Hebrew Scriptures. Copies of the Hebrew Scriptures were kept in the newly rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Then, as new Books were added, the written works were shared with the synagogues, the outposts of the Temple.

Scribes continued that same kind of work when the New Testament came along, writing and replicating their copies of Scripture. Then those copies circulated among the churches (meeting mainly in houses) that were springing up.

We do not have any of the original manuscripts of either the Old Testament or New Testament Books, but we do have some very old copies. You might have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were discovered in a cave near the Dead Sea by a shepherd boy in 1947. Those scrolls date back to A.D. 70. They contain portions of multiple Bible Books and a complete copy of Isaiah. The older copies of Scripture are better, for the further back we go, the more reliable the manuscripts are. As copies were made, and copies were made of the copies, human imprecision inevitably became a factor. Yet, the wonderful consistency between earlier and later manuscripts reinforces our confidence in the accuracy of the Bible we hold in our hands. One of the things celebrated when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found was that they confirmed the credibility and reliability of more recent manuscripts

This is a good place to note that the original manuscripts of Scripture don’t have chapters and verses. In 1551, a French printer named Robert Estienne divided his Greek New Testament into chapters and verses for readability. Those divisions were adopted by English translators and that’s why we have chapters and verses today. It’s also true that the original writers did not write with the same punctuation that you and I are accustomed to, so from time to time there will be some confusion and/or debate over what is a quotation and what is not, or where a new paragraph begins.

Christians always have believed God’s Spirit not only inspired the writing of Scripture, but also oversaw the transmission of Scripture, so that no substantive errors were made.

Translation from the original languages

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew; the New Testament was originally written in Greek. Besides the original languages, for the first fifteen centuries after Christ, the Bible was

available only in Latin and readable only by the educated clergy. The Bible was first translated into English by John Wycliffe in the 1380’s.

William Tyndale printed the first full Bible in English in 1525, shortly after the invention of the printing press. (The famous Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1455, and was the first book printed using movable type. The Gutenberg Bible was printed in Latin.)

The most popular English translation until a few decades ago was the King James Version (KJV), translated in England in 1611. More recent translations now are more popular, for the “olde English” of the KJV, though beautiful, is often hard to understand.

Translating from one language to the next is not an exact science. That’s why translations will differ on specific words or phrases. All the translations are good, though I prefer the NIV (New International Version). I also like The Message. The Message is not a translation, but a paraphrase. And yet it is a very accurate paraphrase. It does not violate the meaning of the original text and, often, makes the meaning clearer.

The “Apocrypha”

There is a collection of books found in Catholic Bibles that are not found in Protestant Bibles. That collection is known by us as the Apocrypha. (“Apocrypha” means “hidden things,” and implies a doubtful origin and authority. Therefore, those who include those books in their version of the Bible would not be comfortable with that term.)

The Apocrypha is the collection of books written between the Old and New Testaments, roughly the last two centuries before the birth of Christ.

In the century or so before the birth of Jesus, Hebrew-speaking Jewish people in Judea (the land we now refer to as “Israel”) were collecting the books that we know as the Old Testament. Those Jews in Judea did not include the books that make up the Apocrypha. They did not consider the Apocrypha as authoritative Scripture.

At the same time, Jewish people living in Egypt also were collecting copies of the Old Testament books. These Jews spoke Greek, so they compiled copies of the Old Testament that had been translated into the Greek language. That collection of Old Testament books in Greek is called the Septuagint. The Septuagint includes the thirty-nine books we know as the Old Testament, but it also includes the Apocrypha.

Then, when the Bible (Old and New Testaments) was translated into Latin by Jerome in the 4th century A.D. (that Latin translation is called the “Vulgate”), the Septuagint was the version (not the Judean version) used. Therefore, the Apocrypha was included.

Since Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church for all those centuries, Catholic Christians used the Latin Vulgate. That is why the Apocrypha is a part of the Roman Catholic version of the Bible.

Martin Luther, however, believed that the Apocrypha should not be a part of the Christian Bible because it was not a part of the Bible of Judean Jews (Hebrew-speaking Jews living in ancient Israel). Thus, the Apocrypha is not a part of the Protestant version of the Bible. Luther believed these books are profitable, but not divinely inspired and not authoritative. He described the Apocrypha as “books which are not held equal to the sacred Scriptures, and nevertheless are

useful and good to read.” I believe an objective reading of the Apocrypha would result in that same opinion.

Inspired by God

2 Timothy 3:16 says Scripture is “God-breathed.” Some translations of that verse read, “given by inspiration of God.” What does that mean? There are three basic views on how the inspiration of Scripture took place:

1. Writers of Scripture recorded their best thinking about God. This view makes the Bible a special book, but not a divinely inspired book.

2. The Holy Spirit overcame the writers in such a way that the Spirit effectively removed their personalities from the process. This is also called the “Dictation” Theory. This is the idea that the writers of Scripture served like administrative assistants who take dictation and then type the exact words of their bosses.

3. God worked through the personalities, backgrounds and contexts of the writers of Scripture to give us the message we need to hear. This is the idea that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, inspired the thoughts rather than the actual words. The writers thus had the freedom to express the truths revealed to them by God in their own words and that would make sense to their hearers.

I believe the third theory best reflects how the Bible came to us. I don’t believe God dictated the Bible word for word (stylistic differences are obvious among individual writers), but I absolutely believe God “gave us” the Bible.

There is no indication that the writers (Moses, David, Isaiah, Matthew, Paul, Peter, and so on) were in a trance (with a couple of exceptions). God didn’t dictate the exact words (with a couple of exceptions). Generally speaking, God inspired the writing of Scripture in the way that Peter was talking about when he said that Paul wrote, “with the wisdom that God gave him” (2 Peter 3:15)

The writers of Scripture were not merely passive recipients: Luke 1:3 reads, “…since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I, too, decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.” Luke had done his homework!

God chose, prepared, and oversaw those writing Scripture. Therefore, although the individuals who penned the words used their own expressions, and reflected their own contexts, and wrote according to the style of literature common in their day, what they wrote was what God wanted written. So, as Martin Luther once said, “When Scripture speaks, God speaks.”

There was a supernatural, mysterious confluence, or flowing together, of the mind of God and the pens of humans such that what we have is exactly what God wanted us to have.

2 Peter 1:21 reads, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” An interesting comparison is to look at the Greek verb, phero, translated here “carried along” as it is used in another place, Acts 27:15. There we read, “The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were carried along.” So, just as the wind “carried along” that ship, God’s Spirit “carried along” those who were writing Scripture.

God did not dictate the Scriptures verbatim, but somehow He guided the thoughts of the writers so that what they said was exactly what He wanted said. They used their own vocabularies and styles, yet what they recorded in the Scriptures is the message of God to humankind.

How these, exact, 66 books became the Bible (canonization)

“Canon” comes from a Greek word, kanon, that means a measurement, and possibly came from the Hebrew word, qaneh, which described a measuring reed that was six feet long. The point is that the sixty-six books that make up the Bible were “measured” and found to “fit” in this collection.

So, when Bible scholars speak of the “canon,” they are speaking of the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures we refer to as the Old Testament together with the twenty-seven books that make up the New Testament. (Together, the Old Testament and New Testament make up the sixty-six books of the Christian canon.)

The Books of the Old Testament were written over several centuries, going back around 1,500 years before Christ, and eventually were compiled into one volume.

There are certain suggestions within the Old Testament that its first five books received official recognition early on, with the other books following over the centuries. The specific collection of thirty-nine books, forming what we now call the Old Testament, was finalized in the 2nd century A.D.

What we call the New Testament was written over several decades during the first century A.D. and, as with the Old Testament, the individual books eventually were compiled into one volume. There were a number of other books that emerged and circulated among Christians besides the ones in our Bible. (1 Corinthians 5:9 and Colossians 4:16 mention that.) But it became obvious to Christian leaders which books were to be considered Holy Scripture.

There wasn’t a vote on these books. It was simply recognized that these books are the ones God wanted us to have. 2 Peter 3:16 tells us, as an example, that Paul’s letters were seen as “Scripture” early on: “His (Paul’s) letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Christians believe that the early church no more created the Bible than Isaac Newton created the law of gravity. The Church merely recognized in a formal way what had become obvious with time these were the books that God had inspired and planned to become Holy Christian Scripture.

The earliest list of the twenty-seven books that make up the New Testament appeared in a letter by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in A. D. 367. An important meeting of Christian leaders, gathered in Carthage (in North Africa) in 397, formally acknowledged what had been recognized for decades by churches the New Testament as we know it.

When debate was being carried on as to which book should be included in the canon, several questions were asked about each book: Had the book proved to be edifying to the churches? Was it recognized by the major Christian centers, such as Rome and Antioch? Did it seem authentic? Could it be traced to the apostles, or to one who knew the apostles and had access to “first-hand”

information? Was it widely recognized by local churches and leaders as transformational and authoritative? Did it ring true? Did it match other recognized writings?

Christians believe God’s Spirit oversaw the compiling of the Bible’s books as well as the writing of those books.

The Bible as our Guide

The words we read in the Bible were written hundreds of years ago, in another land and culture, in one of two non-English languages Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament). So, it’s not like reading something written by someone in North Alabama yesterday. Scripture requires interpretation.

Let’s think about it this way: What if we were to bring someone forward from biblical times? Say Moses, Paul or Peter.

Ø They would not be at home in our culture.

Ø Their worldview would be that of a Middle Easterner from the 1st century, or, in Moses’ case, from c. the 15th century B.C.

Ø They would need someone to help them understand our way of thinking, and someone to help us understand their way of thinking.

Likewise, the Bible is from a different place and time. It speaks with the accent of one from the Middle East…and from long ago. It is not indecipherable, of course. It is, however, sometimes hard to understand. You can’t check your brain at the door if you want to know what God is saying through the pages of Scripture.

Interpreting the Bible means we want to know what a Bible text meant originally and what it means today. We can’t know the second until we know the first as best we can.

Here are a few basic principles in interpreting biblical texts:

1) Remember to pray and ask the Holy Spirit Who inspired the Bible to enlighten you as you seek to understand the Bible.

2) Get help.

I suggest a Study Bible, a Bible with explanatory notes in the margins. You might also invest in commentaries books by Bible scholars that give exclusive explanations of passages, or find some good online tools. I also suggest studying the Bible in a class or small group with good teachers, facilitators, and fellow students who can learn from each other.

3) Remember to practice the “Golden Rule.”

There is a “golden rule” of Bible interpretation: Interpret the Bible writers as you would want others to interpret your writings You wouldn’t want someone to ignore the context of your

words, or to read something into your writings that you never intended. You wouldn’t want people to say, “To me it means…” without knowing your original meaning. Let’s treat Scripture with the same respect.

4) Know the context, for the context helps us understand meaning.;

When we say the context helps us understand meaning, that means we have to do our best to understand the context in which a particular passage was written. It is also important to acknowledge our own contexts trends in culture that influence us, our own biases and experiences anything that might unconsciously shape our assumptions about what we’re reading.

Could our culture’s increasingly permissive view of sexuality, for example, affect the way we read biblical texts that deal with the topic? We should be careful not to be influenced too much by our own contexts.

5) Read broadly, for Scripture interprets Scripture.

When we say “Scripture interprets Scripture,” we mean that if something is unclear in one text, there might be another text that “sheds light” on the unclear portion. Since we believe all the Bible is inspired by God and trustworthy, we believe the Bible will not contradict itself.

6) Ask what kind of literature this is.

Is the portion of Scripture you’re reading poetry? Is it wisdom literature? History? An Epistle (letter)? Is it apocalyptic, highly figurative, literature (like Daniel, or Revelation)? The way we interpret something from the Gospels, for example, is different from how we’d interpret the highly figurative words of Daniel

One good example is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Lots of good, Christian parents have beaten themselves up over that verse because their adult children have strayed from the faith. But remember: That’s a proverb. It is a divinely-inspired proverb, for sure, yet it is still a proverb. That means it’s generally true, but it’s not a promise or guarantee.

Another example would be the apocalyptic Book of Revelation. Lots of Christians have made unfounded predictions about the end of time by trying to read today’s headlines into the bizarre images, poetic language, spectacular drama, and secret codes (some of which may not be “decodable” today) in the last book of the Bible. Considering the kind of literature you are reading is important.

Here, by the way, are the Major Genres, or Literary Types, in the Bible Law: The first five books of the Bible Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, contain passages that make up the Law, or “Divine Guidelines” for the

people of Israel. (If these laws are repeated or affirmed in the New Testament, they apply to Christians as well.)

History: Just about every book in the Bible contains history. But some books, like 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles, are primarily history books

Wisdom: This includes the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

Poetry: Found in books such as Psalms, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations.

Gospel: This word means the "good news," and the Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John) tell the good news of Jesus.

Parables: Stories in both the Old Testament and New Testament that demonstrate spiritual truth. (Usually a parable has one, main spiritual truth and should not be pushed too far to make too many points. By the way, some biblical scholars view such Old Testament stories as Job as parables.)

Epistle: An epistle is simply a letter, so the epistles are the twenty-one letters of the New Testament. They were written to specific churches, but are applicable to us as well.

Prophecy: Lots of Old Testament books were written by prophets. Sometimes they spoke of the future, but often they were simply delivering God’s message for people where they were. Some of the best-known prophets in the Bible are Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Apocalyptic: These sections of the Bible are written in poetic, dramatic, highly figurative and symbolic language, and often speak of future events. These sections appear, to us, as if they are written in “code.” Daniel and Revelation are Apocalyptic books.

If you’re thinking the Bible is really hard for you to understand, and that it must just be you, here’s good news: It’s not just you; the Bible is hard to understand sometimes. (2 Peter 3:16 says this about Paul: “His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”)

See?! It’s not just you. I think we all can agree that interpreting the Bible is important, but not always easy.

Trustworthiness / Credibility

The logic is simple. The Bible is the revelation of the Creator of the Universe. And, since God is true and trustworthy, the Bible is thus true and trustworthy.

Of course, the writers wrote in a different day, and we have to consider that. When we interpret the Bible in light of the circumstances in which it was written and the intention of the authors, it is completely reliable.

When Jesus said the mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, for example, and we know it isn’t, that does not constitute an error in the Bible. It is accurate by first-century standards, and the writer wasn’t making a statement about horticulture, anyway. The point made is accurate. (This is

often called “phenomenological” language descriptions of things as they appeared to observers.)

Furthermore, some of the statistics in the Old Testament are a bit contradictory. That doesn’t mean the Bible contains mistakes. It simply means that, in that era, attention to precision and accuracy was not considered to be of greatest importance. Their purpose, after all, was to record the activity of God, not to get mired down in trivial details. (And, remember, God didn’t dictate the stats and dates to the writers. They used records.)

I believe we must read the Bible as it was intended to be read, not with the same lenses with which we would read a textbook today. Nevertheless, it is true and trustworthy. That means that when the Bible says such things as God parted the waters for Moses, toppled the walls of Jericho for Joshua, supernaturally impregnated a virgin named Mary, and raised Jesus from the dead, it is credible

From its commencement to its conclusion, from its miracles to its morals, from its stories to its standards for our lives, the Bible like He who breathed it into being is true and trustworthy.

Authority

FBC’s Statement of Beliefs (titled “We Believe”) includes this declaration: We believe in the Bible as the trustworthy authority for what we believe and practice. That doesn’t mean we will agree on its interpretation at all points. It does mean that when we’re having discussions on hot topics and core values, and what we should do and believe, the conversation should start with, “The Bible, as I understand it, says…”

There are four sources we might legitimately turn for our spiritual authority for deciding what to believe and how to live

1) Reason - our ability to reason in our minds what is right or wrong, good or bad, etc.

2) Tradition - the belief that our predecessors’ perspectives are accurate

3) Experience - determining truth based on what we believe is right based on our life lessons.

4) Scripture - the truth God has revealed in written form.

John Wesley (the founder of the Methodists) believed our thinking about God should reflect a balance of those four “proofs”: Scripture, experience, reason and tradition. Yet, for Wesley, Scripture was the clear test of the other three, and appropriately so. Neither experience, nor reason, nor tradition should be considered to be on the same level of authority as the Bible. The balance is difficult to maintain, and yet it is critical.

I believe Wesley is right; Scripture is our final and determinative source of authority. There is obvious value in each of the first three (reason, tradition, experience), and we should not set them aside when we are trying to find truth. However, Scripture is God's revelation of truth to us. Since God makes no mistakes, His Word is completely reliable and true, and must be the authority for our lives. Our authority must not be what we think, what we feel, or what “they say ”

This means Scripture judges our feelings, experiences and opinions, instead of our own feelings, experiences and opinions judging Scripture. And so the Bible, as best we understand it, is our standard, our guide, our authority for the way we live and what we believe.

Hard work

Even when we accept the Bible as the authority for what we believe and practice, the hard work of understanding what the Bible is saying to us remains necessary. Don’t forget that the Bible was written in a far-off place and time. Relating its words to our twenty-first century, American world requires our best efforts.

Some texts have historically seemed obviously applicable to Christians. Mandates to love God and love others, to serve and forgive, as examples, are obviously applicable.

There also are texts that have seemed obviously not applicable. That includes some of the more obscure practices we read in the Old Testament. One principle for applying an instruction we read in the Old Testament is to ask if it is repeated in the New Testament. If it is not, it very well might have been intended for the nation of Israel alone.

But there are even a few texts in the New Testament that seem not to apply to everyone, everywhere. Acts 15:29, for example, quotes a letter from James in which he gives some instructions on what not to eat. The context of that letter, and the fact that he is merely reflecting Old Testament dietary restrictions, indicates we are not obligated to follow that.

And then, there are texts which apply to us in principle, but perhaps not in detail. One example comes from 1 Corinthians 8, where the Bible talks about eating meat that had been offered to idols. We know from the context that the point is not to do things that would offend those who believe the practices to be wrong. We know there is a message, a principle, for us in that. We, then, have to figure out how to live that out today.

Again, we have to make hard decisions about the application of Scripture, and sometimes we will disagree. We can make sure we are prayerfully dependent on God’s Spirit, and well connected to other believers for encouragement and accountability.

Applying what we learn

So, where do we go from here? Perhaps you have come to a place in your spiritual journey where you would like the Bible to be your guide for your vocational life, your relational life, your recreational life, and so on. But the Bible doesn’t give you specific instructions for every contingency. So, how can we make sure the Bible is our guide for everyday living?

The point is to learn spiritual, biblical principles. Those principles will be relevant in the wide variety of life’s situations, some of which didn’t exist when the Bible was written. What does the Bible say, for example, about cloning, or equal access to good public education no matter our address? The Bible, of course, doesn’t speak directly to a number of contemporary issues, but its truths can be employed widely.

A friend once said, “God often brings to my mind verses of Scripture that I need at the moment. But God never called to my mind verses of Scripture that I never have learned.” This was his point: If Scripture is going to guide us in the living of our lives, then we’re going to have to learn it.

Make it a practice of reading the Bible. Perhaps start with Luke or John and read one chapter per day. Learning, loving, and living the Bible will make a big difference.

There is nothing quite like gathering together with others to study how the Bible applies to our lives. If you aren’t involved in a Bible study group, you’re missing out on a depth of understanding of God’s word. You’re also missing out on the kinds of relationships that come through getting together with people who are studying Scripture, learning together how to live it out, and encouraging each other along the way.

Some of you are perhaps hesitant to join a Bible study class because you think you’re going to be embarrassed somehow, or because you think you have to have a certain level of knowledge to start with. Please don’t be afraid. Remember: You will be joining people like you who haven’t gotten it all figured out, but who wish to understand who God is and who He created us to be. For discouraging days and difficult decisions. For family issues as well as faith issues. For Sundays and Mondays it teaches us. The Bible is not like a math book with the answers in the back, but the learning of its principles teaches us for the living of life.

A spiritual, life-shaping choice

Billy Graham was one of our nation’s most influential Christian leaders. It is hard to imagine anyone else assuming such spiritual prominence as he did. And a defining moment in his life had to do with how he would view the Bible.

When Billy Graham (1918-2018) was thirty-years-old, a close friend of his, Charles Templeton, had a spiritual about-face. Whereas Templeton had once shared Graham’s love for the Bible and allegiance to the Bible as his authority for belief and practice, Templeton abandoned that position and denied that the Bible is the authoritative and trustworthy word of God. It shook Graham to his core, for he loved and admired Templeton. If such a man as Templeton could abandon his commitment to Scripture, what was Graham to do? Was he naïve to continue in his faithfulness to the Bible?

About the night when his faith crisis reached its climax, Graham later wrote,

As that night wore on, my heart became heavily burdened. With the Los Angeles campaign galloping toward me, I had to have an answer. If I could not trust the Bible, I could not go on. I would have to quit the school presidency. I would have to leave pulpit evangelism. I was only thirty years of age. It was not too late to become a dairy farmer. But that night I believed with all my heart that the God who had saved my soul would never let go of me …..

“O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution. There are many seeming contradictions. There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science. I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Chuck and others are raising.” …At last the Holy Spirit freed me to say it. “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word by faith! I

am going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.” When I got up from my knees at Forest Home that August night, my eyes stung with tears. I sensed the presence and power of God as I had not sensed it in months. Not all my questions had been answered, but a major bridge had been crossed. In my heart and mind, I knew a spiritual battle in my soul had been fought and won.

I believe if you will surrender to the truth that when the Bible speaks God speaks, that the Bible is God’s trustworthy revelation, a spiritual battle in your soul will have been fought and won, and that you never will be the same.

The Trinity and the Incarnation

How does one cover the “basics” of God Almighty in just a few pages? Well, that’s impossible. However, two basics that seem hardest for many of us to grasp are the Trinity and the Incarnation, so that is where we will focus our attention here.

God as Three-in-One

Since before Adam and Eve and the Milky Way…since the time before time…God has been. God was, is, and will be, Father, Son and Spirit.

The beloved hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, ends with these words: God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity.

Another popular hymn reads, Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Spirit, Three in One.

Our FBC Statement of Beliefs begins, We believe in the One God Who exists eternally in Three Persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Father is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. Yet the Father is God, the Spirit is God, and the Son is God. God is Three-in-One. Father, Son and Spirit are equally and eternally God.

Everybody got that? If not, join the club.

We’re talking about the teaching of the Trinity God as Three-in-One Father, Son and Spirit. It is a mystery Christians believe by faith, though we never will be able to wrap our heads around it.

Human vocabulary and categories are inadequate. Historically, though, Christians have tried to describe the Trinity using words like this: Father, Son, and Spirit are distinguishable as Persons, yet are One in essence or being. In the words of theologian, Millard Erickson, “God is one and yet there are three who are God.” Those words are helpful, but they fall short of a complete explanation. All the words we use to speak of the Trinity fall far short of the ultimate reality of Who God is.

Nevertheless, despite all those caveats, let’s talk about the Trinity God as Three Persons. Someone might say, “I thought we were doing the basics!” Well, the Trinity is a basic. And basics aren’t necessarily simple.

So

where did the doctrine, or teaching, of the Trinity come from?

If you have a hard time grasping the doctrine of the Trinity, don’t be discouraged. It took the Christian Church a long time to articulate this important teaching. And it still cannot be said that anyone fully grasps this deep and mysterious truth.

The New Testament was written by different people in different places over several years. So, the books of the New Testament circulated separately at first. Of course, those were the days before we could scan something with our phone and text it to anyone in the world. Those were the days before photocopiers and printing presses. In those days, individual scribes were making handwritten copies of the books that comprise what we call the New Testament. And they could not overnight those handwritten copies via UPS. Therefore, it took several years before any one congregation had all the books.

Eventually, as scribes made copies and individual churches accumulated more and more of the New Testament documents, and as the churches read those documents alongside each other, they noticed a pattern. They began to put two and two together, as it were. They took note: when the Bible speaks of God, it speaks of Father, Son, and Spirit.

The early Christians knew there is only one God, so we can imagine their confusion. Then, as God’s Spirit enlightened and illumined them, they began to understand (as well as humans can understand such a profound mystery) that God is Three-in-One.

With time, leading Christian thinkers prayerfully and carefully articulated the doctrine of the Trinity. Largely in response to really bad teachings being spread by a man named Arius, Christian leaders decided to get together and prayerfully formulate what they believed the Bible says about this topic. At a big meeting called the Council of Nicea (present-day Iznik, Turkey) in A. D. 325, leaders affirmed the following statement: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ…true God of true God…of one substance with the Father.”

The statement from Nicea spoke of the Father and Son, but didn’t address the debate over the Holy Spirit. That happened in Constantinople (presently Istanbul, Turkey), in A.D. 381. The statement issued by Church leaders at the Council of Constantinople echoed the earlier statements about the Father and the Son, then added: And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son. The Church had thus formally expressed the belief long held by Christ-followers: God is One, yet Three-In-One.

These Christian leaders who gathered in Nicea and Constantinople to issue statements about God weren’t defining who God is for the first time. They were upholding and formalizing the understanding that Christians held that God is one, yet in three Persons. Let me say it another way: From the early days of the Christian faith, Christ-followers recognized that somehow God the Father, God the Son (who had become human in Jesus), and the Holy Spirit, all were divine God. Until the 4th century they didn’t have a formula or formal statement, but they knew and talked about the divine nature of the Father, Son and Spirit. After the 4th century after the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople Christians had language to describe, as best human language can, God as Trinity.

What does the Bible say about the Trinity?

The word “Trinity” appears nowhere in the pages of Scripture; yet the Trinity appears in the New Testament as a recurring, clearly implied truth and is one of the central beliefs of the Christian faith.

Scripture is clear: There is but one God. In the Bible we read, “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” (Deuteronomy 6:4). This is the Shema, written on animal skin, folded, and worn in small cases (phylacteries) tied to the forehand or left arm of faithful Jews. It is the heart of the Jewish faith God is One.

Yet there are hints at the Trinity even in what we call the Old Testament, such as Genesis 1:26, when God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness.” And Isaiah 6:8, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Many of the brightest and best biblical scholars see hints of the Trinity in those verses.

When we turn to the New Testament we see God’s oneness re-affirmed, such as in Galatians 3:20, “God is one.” And we see multiple references to “God the Father” (i.e. 1 Peter 1:2). Yet we also see the Spirit and the Son named as “God.” Look at this passage: “Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit…You have not lied to men but to God’” (Acts 5:3-4). Do you see how Peter equated God and the Holy Spirit?

And Titus 2:13 makes a clear declaration: “He is our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Furthermore, “Father,” “Son,” and “Spirit” are used interchangeably in a number of New Testament passages. The complexity of God is not encapsulated in one text, but when we read them all together we see that he is Father, Son and Spirit.

You often will hear references to the First Person (the Father), the Second Person (the Son), and the Third Person (the Spirit) of the Holy Trinity. Those designations do not imply a hierarchy of importance, but simply the order in which they usually are mentioned. Jesus, for example, said in Matthew 28:19, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Lots of folks have suggested analogies to try and describe the Trinity.

H20 is one analogy of the Trinity, since H20 can be water, steam, and ice. Those are indeed three forms of the same substance, so you can see why H20 might be thought of as an example of the Trinity. However, H20 cannot be water, steam, and ice at the same time, whereas God is Father, Son and Spirit, always and forever. All at once Therefore, H20 doesn’t work as an accurate metaphor.

Some say the Trinity is like an egg, for an egg is white, yolk, and shell. All three are the egg, right? Well, not really. You wouldn’t hold a yoke and say, “This is an egg!” You would, however, accurately say, “This is part of an egg.” The white, the yolk and the shell really are all three parts of the egg. Not one of those parts is fully and wholly the egg.

Likewise, you would not accurately say that the Holy Spirit is part of God or that the Father or the Son is part of God. The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Spirit is fully God. So, the egg analogy doesn’t work. either

Here’s one more. Some say God is like a one-man play, in which the same actor plays multiple roles. Thus, some say, “Sometimes God is Father; sometimes He is Son; at other times He is Spirit.” But that analogy misses the point entirely. God is eternally, always, Father, Son and Spirit. He is not the Father in one period of history, and the Son or Spirit at another part of history. He is, in the language of theologians, “co-eternally” Father, Son and Spirit. God is always Trinity. Thus, alas, the one-man-play example doesn’t work either. (The belief that God merely manifests Himself as Father at one point, as Son at another point, and Spirit at another point, is called “modalism,” and is regarded as heresy, or wrong teaching.)

The point is that no analogy is adequate to describe One-God-in-Three-Persons. Human vocabulary simply fails us. We believe the mystery of the Trinity, though we cannot fully understand it, because the Bible depicts God as Three-in-One.

Beyond our Reach

“Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? asked Job’s friend, Zophar (Job 11:7). And the question is answered later in the book: “The Almighty is beyond our reach” (Job 37:23).

Any attempt at explaining the Trinity is like lighting a campfire on a dark night in the woods. The fire illumines the night around it, but when you stand at the edge of the fire’s light you realize there is a lot out there that your campfire does not enable you to see.

We cannot probe the limits of the Almighty. He is beyond our reach. The Trinity is mystery.

Then why would we include, in our study of the basics, the mysterious doctrine (teaching) of the Trinity? For one thing, it is a fundamental truth of the Christian faith. Christians disagree on lots of things, but we agree that God is Father, Son and Spirit. For another thing, studying God is one way we love God. Jesus said, “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind” (Luke 10:27).

God the Son in Flesh

God is eternal. That means, of course, there has never been a time when God was not. God also is Trinity Father, Son and Spirit. Therefore, because God is both eternal and Trinity, there never has been a time when God did not exist as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

In this session we are going to talk about the pre-existence and incarnation of God the Son. When we speak of the pre-existence of God the Son we are speaking of His existence before time. We simply mean He always has been. We remember Jesus’ claim, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). We also remember Jesus’ prayer, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5).

When we speak of His incarnation we speak of that moment when God the Son became embodied in the baby born miraculously to Mary. In that moment, to quote from John 1, “the Word (God the Son) became flesh.” God the Son became the God-Man in Jesus.

The story of Christmas is the story of the incarnation. “Jesus,” of course, was the name given to the incarnation, or embodiment, of God the Son. Thus, Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. He is the God-man, both human and divine.

Why the incarnation?

In the beginning, God created the sky and the earth. And He breathed life into humankind. Somewhere near the beginning, the story of the first two humans turned tragic. The humans disobeyed and the result was the dramatic entrance of what the Bible calls “sin” into the human story. Everything changed…for the worse. This event is referred to in the Christian story as “the Fall.”

From Genesis 3 forward we see God calling people back into right relationship with Him. God had sent prophets to preach and writers to write and had thus communicated with these humans. But God knew more would be required.

A decision was made. God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, would become one of those humans. We speak of that story in our FBC, Huntsville, statement which we call “We Believe”: “We believe in Jesus, the perfect incarnation of God the Son ”

This is how God inspired John to tell that story…

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

Then, a few verses later, John 1:14 reads,

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In the paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, John 1:14 is translated like this:

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

Let’s take a moment to consider that word, “Word,” with a capital “W.”

“Word” is a translation of the Greek word, Logos. The fact that John began with a reference to the Logos, without introduction or explanation, tells us that his readers were acquainted with that expression. Logos was so common to John’s readers that no clarification was needed. It is as if he was saying to them, “Do you remember that philosophical term, Logos, that refers to the principle behind our universe? Well, let me tell you, Logos has a name, and his name is Jesus.”

We know Logos was not a term unfamiliar to the early Christians, for we find that term in reference to Jesus in Revelation 19:13. Speaking of Jesus, after Jesus’ time on earth and His ascension back into Heaven, John wrote, “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.” So, we know that when John says, “The Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word was made flesh,” He is talking about God the Son who became one of us in the Person of Jesus. His readers would have understood that far better than we do.

So, although we don’t fully understand the concept of “Word,” we know this: It referred to Jesus.

Remember from our last lesson that God is One, and yet He is Father, Son and Spirit. What we celebrate at Christmas is the incarnation, the enfleshment, of God the Son. The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology says it like this: “Incarnation is the act whereby the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, without ceasing to be what he is, God the Son, took into union with himself what he before that act did not possess, a human nature.”

Jesus is Human.

Back in 1995 the folk singer, Joan Osborne, sang, What if God was one of us? Every Christmas Christians celebrate just that God becoming one of us.

The mysterious beauty of the incarnation the miraculous enfleshment, or enfleshing, of God the Son is that He did not merely don human clothes, eat human food, adopt human customs, and speak a human language. He fully became a human in all senses of the word. As much God as if He were not human; yet as much human as if He were not God! God the Son knew the same limitations, frustrations, trepidations, even temptations, that we know. God the Son did not only identify with us. God the Son became one of us.

He knew thirst. From the cross Jesus declared, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28).

He was tempted. Hebrews 4:15 says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet he did not sin.

He became sad and afraid. Mark 14:33-36 tells us, He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he

said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Perhaps the most powerful statement about Christ’s humanity is this: God the Son “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

The Infinite One became the Infant One.

The Good Shepherd was born among ordinary sheep.

He Whose hands once shaped the universe suddenly had hands so small they would have fit easily into yours.

He Whose mind understood all things, past, present, and future, would have to study and learn.

He Who breathed life into Adam breathed for nine months through an umbilical cord.

He Who wore the regal robe of Heaven had to wear swaddling cloths, a make-shift diaper.

He Who had been attended by legions of angels could attract only a handful of shepherds to his birth.

He Who was above it all became a part of it all.

The King of Heaven became an embryo a fetus, the likes of which we now take pictures with ultrasound. He was born as we were born and grew as we grew. God became one of us.

We love him so deeply and revere him so highly that we don’t want to be disrespectful or irreverent toward him in any way. But it is not disrespectful or irreverent to say that Jesus became human. It’s true. Christmas says clearly that God the Son became flesh. Human. Completely, fully human.

Jesus is God.

We know that Jesus is the incarnation of God the Son, and that means he is fully human. It is also true that Jesus is fully God. Look at some of the verses that assure us of that:

• “I and the Father are one,” (Jesus, quoted in John 10:30).

• “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58).

• “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity (‘God-ness’) lives in bodily form,” (Colossians 2:9)

• Matthew recorded the message of the angel to Joseph: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).

• “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage,” (Philippians 2:5-6).

• “Then Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:27-28).

Let’s talk about that declaration of Thomas, “My Lord and my God ” To allow one’s self to be called “God” would have been considered blasphemous by a faithful Jew, so it is significant that Jesus didn’t rebuke Thomas. Jesus didn’t say, “Now, wait, Thomas. I am your teacher and your leader and your mentor, but don’t call me ‘God.’” Jesus didn’t refuse Thomas’ affirmation of Jesus’ divinity because, in fact, Jesus was, is, divine. God Himself.

Jesus declared what not even the Buddha or Mohammed declared: “I am God.”

Let’s go back to John Chapter One. John 1:1 expresses the Christian belief, held since the earliest days of the faith, that Jesus is God. A couple of pages back I mentioned the Greek word, Logos, meaning “the Word.” Well, the Amplified Bible translates John 1:1 as, “the Word was God Himself.” The Contemporary English Version reads, “the Word ... was truly God.”

Let’s talk again, for a moment, about the big Church Councils, in which so much of Christian faith was articulated.

Earlier I mentioned a man named Arius who, in the third century A.D., challenged the Church’s teaching about incarnation of God the Son. Arius taught that Jesus was created by God, not one with God. Arius taught that Jesus was a son of God, but not God the Son; a messenger of God, but not God.

Church leaders were so troubled by the teachings of Arius that they convened a big meeting a Church Council in 325 A.D. Church leaders gathered in the ancient city of Nicea (in Turkey). (We talked about this gathering in the previous session on the Trinity.) At Nicea they examined Scripture and determined that Arius was a heretic. They agreed that, indeed, Jesus is God in the flesh. Within their published statement from that meeting the Nicene Creed are these words: “We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ…God from God, light from light, true God from true God…”

Then, just a few decades later, an attack on the truth of the Incarnation came from the other side. Apollinarius said the Nicene Creed is right, that Jesus is God (divine). However, Apollonarius argued, he was not truly human. Jesus just looked and acted human, Apollinarius said, but Jesus was really only divine.

Church leaders again gathered for a big meeting, this time in Alexandria, Egypt, in 362 A.D They understood that Apollinarius was as wrong as Arius had been, just for a different reason. They affirmed that Jesus is fully human as well as fully divine

It was in the fifth century, at another large council in the Greek city of Chalcedon, that the Incarnation was most fully explained, as well as humans can explain such a deep mystery. The Chalcedon Creed uses these wonderful words: Our Lord Jesus Christ…truly God and truly man… in two natures, without confusion… without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union. Or, in words you are more likely to hear today, “As much human as if He were not God, and as much God as if He were not human.”

That Council of Christian leaders in Chalcedon settled the issue at least as far as traditional Christian teaching goes. Nevertheless, what we celebrate at Christmas is mystery deep mystery.

God? Really?

It is popular, at least in the Western World, to view Jesus as a terrific teacher, superb sage and a first-class philosopher. But not God.

Yet the Bible teaches that Jesus is God incarnate! God in the flesh!

Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band, U2, was being interviewed by French writer, Michka Assayas. Assayas said, “Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But son of God, isn’t that far-fetched?”

Bono answered, “It’s not far-fetched to me. Either Jesus was God, as he said he was, or he was a nutcase.” And Bono continued: “The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched.”

C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, put it this way:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I'm readv to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to

When we believe Jesus really is God in the flesh it makes a great deal of difference.

First, if Jesus is God then his words are more than just the words of an ancient sage. His teachings are not the same as those of Plato and Confucious. These are God’s words, and they are divine truths worth building a life on.

Second, if Jesus really is divine then he has the power to transform our lives to give us a radical, new beginning to save us. Our condition is such that a mere teacher or philosopher could point the way, but could not redeem and give us eternal life. If Jesus were only human, we would still be lost in our sin.

Now, here is an important truth about the incarnation: Being God in the flesh makes Jesus the Unique Savior.

It sounds so narrow-minded, so backward, so intolerant, to say that Jesus is the only way to God. It can be offensive. And yet, it’s true.

I concede that there is mystery here that I can neither explain nor even resolve in my own mind. And if God has provided another means to Himself, that is His business, but we have to live by what we understand from Scripture, and that is that people without Jesus are without God and without hope for this world and the next.

Consider the following truths in the Bible:

Jesus claimed to be, as quoted in John 14:6, “The way, the truth, and the life.”

Jesus declared, as quoted in John 3, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.”

Jesus was born into a world as religiously pluralistic as our own. And about him Acts 4:12 says, “There is no other name under Heaven whereby we can be saved.”

The apostle Paul understood pluralism. Yet he responded to the inspiration of God’s Spirit and wrote, in 1 Timothy 2:5, “There is one God and one mediator between God and man, Jesus.”

One man I know was asked, “Is everyone going to be saved in the end?” He answered, “I hope so.” And I do, too! God forbid that I hope otherwise. God forbid that I hope anyone would be eternally separated from God. But to hope it, and to believe it likely, are two different things.

I find on the pages of Scripture no way to God other than through Jesus. Jesus, after all, is God in the flesh.

The Cross and Resurrection

At the heart of the Christian faith is a cross and an empty tomb.

The Cross

We are born with a “sin nature,” a natural, overwhelming tendency to do the wrong thing Those thoughts, behaviors, and decisions that displease God have fractured our relationship with Him. Isaiah 59:2 tells us, “Your sins have separated you from your God.”

When we are separated from Him (at odds with God, if you will), then something significant is missing from our lives. There is within us a God-shaped hole that nothing else can fill. God created us for relationship with Himself. When that relationship is missing, nothing can take its place. Like a perfectly shaped piece of a complicated puzzle there is no substitute.

St. Augustine demonstrated that clearly when he wrote one of the most often quoted Christian statement outside Scripture: “O God, You created us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless ‘till they find rest in You.”

Our greatest need is one that we cannot meet on our own. There is a chasm between ourselves and God, and we do not have the power to cross that chasm ourselves.

The initiative had to come from God. Reconciliation between us and God had to be initiated by God Himself. We had neither the right nor the power to bring about that reconciliation. The first step had to be God’s.

It was in the death of Jesus that God took that initiative and made possible our reconciliation. Romans 5:10 says, “We were God’s enemies, but were reconciled to him through the death of His Son.”

An old hymn says, “Oh the mighty gulf that God did span…at Calvary.” Somehow, Jesus took upon himself our sin and our judgment, suffering on our behalf. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “Jesus took upon himself our sins in his body on the tree.” The death of Christ thereby removed the barrier that separated us from God, spanned the chasm, and made reconciliation possible.

How does the cross make our forgiveness possible?

N. T. Wright is a British theologian whose writings help lots of us understand the Bible more clearly. He reminded us that you don’t have to understand music theory to appreciate good music. And you don’t have to be able to understand everything that’s going on in the atmosphere to be moved by a breathtaking sunset. Likewise, we don’t have to be able to fully comprehend the meaning of the death of Jesus in order to benefit from it

The Bible does, however, give us glimpses into the work of Jesus on our behalf. The power of the death of Jesus has been described in various ways throughout the New Testament:

From the slave market, his death is described as that which redeemed us.

From the courtroom, his death is described as that which justified us.

From the Temple, his death is described as that which was the sacrifice for our sins.

From the beautiful rituals of the Jewish Faith, He is described as the Passover Lamb.

Ultimately, the miracle of the cross is richer and deeper than any human explanation. Many years ago I was interim preacher at the First Baptist Church of Andalusia, AL. On a Sunday morning I was meeting with the deacons in the fellowship hall before the worship service in preparation for the Lord’s Supper. As we prepared to enter the sanctuary, one of the deacons led us in praying. He prayed, “Lord, I don’t know how Jesus’ death makes forgiveness possible, but I’m glad it does.”

I couldn’t say it better myself. I cannot comprehend how Jesus’ death 2,000 years ago somehow made possible the forgiveness of my many sins, and my reconciliation to God, today. But I believe with all my heart that it does. And I’m sure glad!

Resurrection

Arguably, the most important day of the year for Christians is Easter, for that is the day we celebrate that Jesus was dead on Friday and his lifeless body was laid in a tomb…and then on Sunday morning he was alive.

Belief in the resurrection is at the heart of what it means to be a Christ-follower. One of the most important sentences in the Bible is Romans 10:9 which reads, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

When we say we believe God raised Jesus from the dead we are embracing some key biblical truths. To believe God raised Him from the dead is to believe that God’s power is supreme. Even the darkest reality known to humankind death is subject to God.

To believe God raised Jesus from the dead is to agree with what the Bible teaches about the uniqueness of Jesus. He is more than a role model. He is more than a philosopher. Jesus is the center of history, the hub of the universe.

To believe God raised Jesus from the dead is to believe God can be trusted. Even when darkness falls over our lives.

To believe God raised Jesus from the dead is to know that Jesus is not an ancient historical figure whose body lies in some unknown tomb. It is to believe that he is alive and present by His Spirit.

To be a full-fledged Jesus-follower, belief in the resurrection is a non-negotiable. Without the resurrection, the Christian faith is neutered.

I was sitting in a gym years ago with a friend who is not a follower of Jesus. We were watching a basketball game. Out of the blue my friend asked me if I believe it’s necessary to believe that Jesus rose from the dead in order to follow Him. I answered with some of the most powerful lines in all the Bible, from the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians that without the resurrection, “our faith is futile.”

N. T. Wright wrote, “Take away the stories of Jesus’s birth, and you lose only two chapters of Matthew and two of Luke. Take away the resurrection, and you lose the entire New Testament and most of the second-century fathers as well.”

Wright further wrote, “Jesus’s bodily resurrection marks a watershed. If you accept the bodily resurrection of Jesus all the streams flow in one direction, and if you don’t they flow in the other direction. And, to put it kindly but bluntly, if you go in the other direction, away from the bodily resurrection, you may be left with something that looks a bit like Christianity, but it won’t be what the New Testament writers were talking about.”

End Times

Now we talk about the “last things” the culmination of history. We begin with the truth that, beyond this world, one of two real existences awaits us all.

Heaven

We don’t know what Heaven is like. What we do know is this: God inspired humans to use the best, most wonderfully unusual language they could come up with to talk about Heaven a place too magnificent for words.

Heaven is the home of our Creator and Father, and the promised home of all whose trust and hope are in Jesus. Paul described the ultimate home-going: “We will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:18). When that great missionary, Paul, anticipated Heaven he wasn’t concerned about pearly gates or golden streets or whether there are pets and golf in Heaven. He longed to see Jesus, and to be home.

Heaven is that real, literal place which we can only imagine and where we will be with our God and Savior forever. And listen to 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

We don’t know what Heaven will look like. Some believe Jesus will establish His Kingdom here on earth a renewed earth which will be “Heaven.” Others believe we immediately will go to a faraway place. Either way, it’s a bit like children when their parents say, “Get in the car, we’re going on a trip!” The children don’t know where they are going, but they know who they’re going with. That’s what counts.

This is the message: In the end, God wins, and His people are at home with Him. If you and I know nothing more about the “end of time” than that, we know all we need to know.

Hell

The opening lines of John Grisham’s novel, The Testament, are the words of a miserable billionaire. Before he jumps 14 floors to his death the billionaire writes in his suicide note,“I am ready for the hereafter; it has to be better than this.”

The truth, however, is that the hereafter does not have to be better than this. The Bible is clear: after we die, there comes a day of reckoning. There is a richness to God’s love, yes. There is a wideness to His mercy, and an amazing-ness to His grace. But there also is a fierceness to His righteous judgment

There is coming an eternal separation from God for those who’ve refused to trust themselves to Jesus, preferring to trust their own goodness. A separation from God is an awful concept, the mystery of which is matched only by its gravity.

For Jesus, Gehenna (the garbage dump of Jerusalem) was a symbol of the horror and waste of Hell. That is the image that Jesus used to speak of a real, literal, awful place of eternal separation from God.

There’s a book with an interesting title: Whatever Happened to Hell? On the closing page, British author John Blanchard wrote about an accident on December 10, 1984, when a dense fog enveloped a highway in Surrey, a few miles south of London. At 6:15 p.m. a large truck wrecked. Unable to see the wrecked truck, a car rammed it from behind. Then came another. Then another. Before policemen could arrive, several people had met their end in that deadly fog.

When policemen arrived on the scene they ran back up the highway in the direction from which the cars were coming. They waved their arms and shouted . . . but people either didn’t see them in the fog or didn’t pay attention.

Eventually eleven people had died and dozens were hospitalized.

To quote Blanchard, “One (policeman) told how tears streamed down his face as car after car went by, and he waited for the sickening sound of impact as they hit the growing mass of wreckage further down the road.”

Given the diversity and gravity of depictions of Hell in the Bible, I don’t know of any better description than that: “the growing mass of wreckage further down the road.”

The Second Coming of Jesus

Jesus’ literal, physical return will mark the end of time as we know it. When the Bible speaks of the conclusion of history, it speaks of a return to earth by Jesus Christ.

The return of Jesus is a central theme of the Bible. One student of the New Testament has reported that the Second Coming is mentioned 318 times in the New Testament alone.

Yet the Bible does not address the timing, order, or other details of the so-called end of time. Any detailed predictions you see or hear about the Second Coming of Jesus should be taken with a grain of salt. Some have assumed to know a lot more than we can know about the “hows” and the “whens.” (I believe the “Left Behind” series of books and movies is one example of this.) We simply cannot know the particulars of the events that will surround Jesus’ return.

We do know that that event is going to be so grand, so dramatic, that there are no words to describe it. It will be an event indescribable in nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs. That is going to be the cataclysmic, universe shaking, mind-boggling, end-of-time as we know it.

One day Jesus will return.

(If you’re interested, you can Google such terms as “rapture,” “tribulation,” and “millennialism.” I am glad to talk about those topics, but I believe many people get far too wrapped up in theories that are divisive, debatable, confusing, and ultimately unverifiable via Scripture.)

Judgment

1 Corinthians 4:5 reads, “(When) the Lord comes, He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts.”

In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 we read the following:

“This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”

Nothing more certain than this day of reckoning appears in the pages of holy Scripture. And the good news is that all whose hope is in Jesus, not their own goodness, don’t have to afraid of that day.

What makes a Baptist a Baptist?

Baptists affirm the above basics. In that sense, Baptists are the same as Methodists, Presbyterians, Community Churches, and others. And yet there are Baptist Distinctives those matters that are not limited to Baptists, but which define Baptists

Baptists usually are identified with “Evangelicals.” That word demands a brief explanation.

Evangelicals

Evangelicalism is a movement traced roughly to the 1940’s in the U.S. that emphasizes the authority, trustworthiness, and inspiration of the Bible, as well as missions and evangelism.

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines Evangelicalism as “the movement in modern Christianity, transcending denominational and confessional boundaries, that emphasizes conformity to the basic tenets of the faith and a missionary outreach of compassion and urgency.”

Unfortunately, due to the secular media’s misunderstanding of nuances and important distinctions within the Protestant world, the word “Evangelical” is almost always linked directly to Republican politics. That is not always an accurate assumption

Now that we have covered Evangelicalism, let’s talk about the Baptist distinctives…

Believers’ baptism by immersion

Every example in the New Testament of baptism we find is the result of someone’s conscious decision. And the Greek word, baptizo, means “to immerse.” Hence the phrase, “believers’ baptism by immersion.” That doesn’t mean Baptists don’t honor, value, and affirm other baptismal practices. Yet, most Baptist churches insist on believers baptism by immersion for full membership.

Autonomous congregations

Baptists are not “connectional” in the sense that Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Episcopalians are connectional. In a “connectional” denomination, church properties may be owned by the denominational body, pastors may be assigned by bishops, and “apportionments” (payments to the denomination based on church size and budget) might be demanded Also,

decisions by the larger denominational bodies or officials have a direct impact (may be binding) on the local congregations.

As autonomous churches, our connection to larger regional or national bodies is purely voluntary. Even if a Baptist church wants to link itself to a body outside itself (i.e. Southern Baptist Convention or Cooperative Baptist Fellowship), the level of participation, including financial support, is purely up to the local congregation. Furthermore, decisions at the regional or national level are not binding on the local congregation. In FBC’s case, Southern Baptists or Cooperative Baptists might issue a statement that FBC would distance itself from. Furthermore, Baptist churches call their own staff ministers, own their own buildings, and thus are independent entities.

Strengths of connectivity include such things as support and accountability. Strengths of autonomy include the ability of a congregation to follow their sense of God’s leadership and not be defined by the larger denominational body.

In my favorite Christmas movie, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” Kirby the wannabe dentist and Rudolph, both running from ridicule, find each other. Both express their desire to be independent. Kirby suggests, “Whaddaya say we both be independent together?”

That line is a good description of Baptists. We are “independent together.”

Congregational church governance

By “governance” I mean, how a congregation makes decisions.

There are three forms of church governance (and each can be defended by the Bible).

Episcopal. In an Episcopal form of church governance there is a bishop who presides over a number of churches.

Presbyterian. In a Presbyterian form of church governance a group of Elders are elected by the congregation to make decisions for the congregation.

Congregational. In a Congregational form of church governance the congregation makes all big decisions, with each member getting a vote. (The definition of “big decisions” really depends on the size and complexity of the church. A small church might vote on the purchase of a new copier, whereas a large church would vote only on such decisions as the budget, the calling of ministers, and matters having to do with the property.)

Religious freedom

A small band of Christian believers led by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys fled England for Holland in 1607 to escape the expectation that all British citizens were Anglicans. In 1609, in Amsterdam, they founded a church the first church to embrace the particular teachings and principles that we call “Baptist.”

Thus, the first Baptist church in history was born out of a passion for religious liberty.

Roger Williams was staunchly opposed to the Puritans and others who wanted to establish a theocracy (government by God and his representatives) in America. That got him ousted from Massachusetts. In 1636 he petitioned for, and was granted from the King of England, the charter of the new colony of Rhode Island where he started the first Baptist church in America. That church is located in Providence. Rhode Island was founded by Williams on the principle of religious liberty and soon was populated by folks who believed deeply that the government shouldn’t tell people what religion to embrace or, in fact, whether the people should embrace any religion at all.

The beginning of Baptists in America was rooted in a passion for religious freedom.

John Leland, a Virginia Baptist, was largely responsible for the first amendment to our constitution, the guarantee of religious liberty. In 1791 the First Amendment was added which begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In other words, government will be neutral regarding religion, neither advancing nor repressing it.

The 1963 Baptist Faith and Message states,

Church and state should be separate . . . no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others . . . the church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work . . . The state has no right to impose religious penalties of any kind . . . a free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.

Baptist churches who honor our heritage are non-partisan, and neither oppose nor endorse candidates.

It’s important to know that the early Baptists, who fought for religious freedom, didn’t just fight for freedom for themselves. John Leland, that Baptist behind the First Amendment, declared that “all should be equally free, Jews, Turks (Muslims), pagans and Christians.”

The priesthood of believers and soul competence

The priesthood of believers means that every believer, every Christ-follower, is a minister (a priest). Its doctrinal cousin, “soul competency,” means that as Christ-followers each of us is competent to interpret Scripture and the prompting of God’s Spirit.

Priesthood of believers

As priests, Christians may go directly to God through faith in Christ without the need of any human mediation. Moreover, we may confess to trusted Christian friends (James 5:16) and not

only to the minister. Each member of the family of faith is expected to pray for each other and to do ministry (some churches have as a slogan, “every member a minister”).

Ephesians 4:11-13 tells us that the responsibility of those we might today call “church staff” is “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” And in verse 16 of that same chapter we read that the body of Christ will be “built up in love” only when “each part does its work.”

Soul Competency

The Holy Spirit lives within every believer, guiding, teaching, and convicting us of that which does not please God and affirming that which does. Max Lucado’s words are applicable here: “You have a Bible? You can study? You have a heart? You can pray. You have a mind? You can think.”

If you are a follower of Jesus you are a priest, and competent as a Christian to interpret Scripture as well as the promptings of God’s Spirit in your life.

Soul Competency is one of Baptists’ greatest strengths and yet is often the source of conflict. Without a clear hierarchy, divisions seem inevitable.

How are Baptists (and other Protestant Christians) different from Roman Catholic Christians?

1. Authority

Many of the differences between Roman Catholics and Baptists have to do with the source of our authority. Roman Catholics hold the Bible, Tradition, and the Teaching of the Church as equal sources of their authority in matters of belief and practice. Baptists and other Protestants look solely to the Bible as the authority for belief and practice.

In March of 1994 a gathering of Evangelicals (including Baptists) and Roman Catholics resulted in a document titled, Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millenium. In that document was included the following statement which illustrates our differing perspectives on the source(s) of authority:

Evangelicals hold that the Catholic Church has gone beyond Scripture, adding teachings and practices that detract from or compromise the Gospel of God’s saving faith in Christ. Catholics, in turn, hold that such teachings and practices are grounded in Scripture and belong to the fullness of God’s revelation. Their rejection, Catholics say, results in a truncated and reduced understanding of the Christian reality.

As an example, Mary, Mother of Jesus, is viewed differently by Protestants than by Catholics. That is due mainly to this distinction between the authority of Scripture and the authority of the Church. Catholics believe that Mary “was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.” That comes not from the New Testament, but from the Tradition of the Church.

2. Worship

In a Roman Catholic worship service the Mass, at the heart of which is the Eucharist (what we would call Communion), is the focal point. The sermon is secondary. For Baptists, the proclamation of the Bible has traditionally been the focal point of the service. The very placement of our church furniture symbolizes our differences, with the table being central to a Catholic sanctuary and the pulpit being central for most Protestant sanctuaries.

3. Sacraments/Ordinances

Roman Catholics practice seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders (ordination), and matrimony. A sacrament is understood as a channel of grace. Baptists hold that there are two ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. An ordinance is seen as a symbol of God’s grace.

4. Priesthood of the Believer and Soul Competency/Authority of the Church

One of the hallmarks of Baptists is our insistence upon the “priesthood of believers” and the “competency of the soul.” (See above.) Roman Catholics are much more inclined to look to Church leaders (priests, bishops, Pope) for interpretation of spiritual truths.

Conclusion

Our daughter, Brennan, got an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. At that school, they don’t call their students “Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors.” Rather, they are “First Years, Second Years, Third Years, and Fourth Years.” Thomas Jefferson, UVA’s founder, believed that finishing one’s “Senior” year would imply learning was completed. He knew better than that. He wanted the graduates of his university to be life-long learners.

Well, your “graduation” from this study does not complete your learning about the Christian faith. Even those of us who have been followers of Jesus for many years are still learning, even the basics. We learn all the time not only new information, but new principles of living.

So, thank you for your commitment to learning, both in this course and beyond.

Travis Collins

Appendix

Why I Believe What I Believe

Travis Collins

Why I Believe in God

Psalm 19:1-14

A sermon preached at FBC, Huntsville, on July 21, 2019

One of the most powerful experiences I ever have had was in the small sanctuary of the Lucas Grove Baptist Church, the first church I served as pastor. On Saturday nights I used to walk across the parking lot from our house (the parsonage) to the church to practice my sermon and pray. It was on just such a Saturday night that I had the most mystical experience of my life.

I don’t think I was doing anything different from what I normally did. Yet as I closed my eyes to pray I experienced what I would describe as a visitation from God. I suddenly experienced the palpable, feel-able presence of God’s Spirit. It was so real that I was afraid to open my eyes. I know that God is Spirit. But it was just so overwhelming that I felt like if I opened my eyes I’d be looking at God and I wasn’t ready for that! It was an incredible experience.

Within what must have been a few, maybe a couple, minutes, the experience passed.

Now…if that were a common occurrence…if I lived with a constant, overwhelming sense of God in the room with me, then describing why I believe in God would be easy.

But I cannot point to any other event in my life quite like that.

I don’t believe in God because I see Him visibly, hear Him audibly, or even feel Him emotionally.

So why do I believe in an invisible, inaudible God Who sometimes seems rather reserved? Well, let’s talk about that.

Dr. Wernher von Braun used to love to quote Immanuel Kant: “Two things never fail to spark my utmost admiration: The starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”

Our text for today, Psalm 19, addresses both the planets flung across the sky and God’s expectations imprinted on the human heart. And our text lays out the foundation of why I believe in God.

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his

course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth. The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Now, let’s talk about the starry sky above me and the moral law within me…

1) The Starry Sky Above Me

I guess you know you can go to Star Registry and name a star for somebody! Before there was a Star Registry, where you could go and name a star in honor of someone for their birthday…God named the stars.

In fact, Genesis 2 says Adam named the animals. But Psalm 147 says God counted the stars named them all. Adam didn’t have time to count and name the stars.

Sometimes I read numbers that are staggering. A NASA story in 2018 was titled, “Hubble Discovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen,” and reads, “The star, harbored in a very distant spiral galaxy, is so far away that its light has taken 9 billion years to reach Earth.”

I understand that a galaxy is made up of millions or billions of stars. And there are millions of galaxies. That’s a lot of numbers!

I imagine that when we made it to the moon, God smiled. Because He loves us, and I believe He loves us to love His creation, His playground, that must have made Him proud. But He knew, as we know, there is so much beyond the moon.

Wernher von Braun believed in a Personal Creator and a Divine Plan behind the cosmos. He was surprised that so many rational people would dismiss the idea of a Divine hand in the dawning of our universe.

Von Braun challenged what he believed to be the rather arrogant, naïve, position that our magnificent universe came to be by random chance, without a Creator. And von Braun wrote… [O]ne of the most fundamental laws of natural science is that nothing ever happens without a cause. From nothing, nothing can come. There simply cannot be a creation without some kind of a creator.

And I like his sense of humor here:

There is only one alternative to the conclusion that there is a Creator: the assumption of a miracle, and atheists do not believe in miracles.

On this day when we remember Apollo 11 on the moon, it is appropriate to hear one more, brief, wonderful, von Braun quote:

Manned space flight is an amazing achievement. But it has opened for us thus far only a tiny door for viewing the awesome reaches of space. Our outlook through this peephole at the vast mysteries or the universe only confirms our belief in the certainty of its creator.

Von Braun died on June 16, 1977. A simple headstone marks his grave in Alexandria, VA. On it is inscribed, “Psalms 19:1.” That, one of his favorite verses, reads, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

Why do I believe in God? One, the starry sky above me.

2) The Moral Law Within Me

Right and wrong are written on the human heart. Of course there are disagreements about what is right and what is wrong, and there are those who dismiss the idea of right and wrong altogether.

But there is a sense of right and wrong written onto the human heart. That is what Romans 2 is talking about when it says that God’s requirements are written on our hearts and in our consciences (Romans 2:15). Without that, our world would be chaotic.

Stephen Covey wrote that several years ago he was speaking to a crowd of young men and women of sororities and fraternities on a university campus. The topic was the “new morality.” He proposed that there are moral absolutes, that there are timeless standards of right and wrong. The students pushed back. They felt that definitions of right and wrong depend on the situation and the person. Right and wrong, they said, are relative.

Realizing that debate was not going to convince them, Covey suggested that if everybody there would be quiet and listen to their hearts they would know what is right. Although they scoffed at first, the vast majority took his advice. They sat quietly and pensively. They were listening to their consciences to the moral law within them.

After some time of honest reflection the students had to admit that their claims of “freedom” did not fit with what they were hearing in their hearts, for their hearts said that there are moral absolutes things that are right and wrong.

The moral law is written by God on our hearts.

So when you, for example, make a racist statement, then feel badly about it…that’s the moral law written by God on your heart.

When you are thinking about an inappropriate sexual relationship and feeling it wouldn’t be right…that’s the moral law written by God on your heart.

When you are living beyond your means, being poor managers of your resources, and feeling ashamed of it…that’s the moral law written by God on your heart.

On the other hand…

When you help someone who is in need without judging and condemning them, and you feel great about it…that’s the moral law written by God on your heart.

When you are sharing your faith with someone who is seeking spiritual help and you feel deep satisfaction …that’s the moral law written by God on your heart.

When you take time to listen to someone who is hurting although it inconveniences you and you feel a great sense of satisfaction about it…that’s the moral law written by God on your heart.

Right and wrong are written on the human heart.

And in the lives of those who know Him, and love Him, there is evidence for God.

A pastor told of a college sophomore who came home for the Christmas holidays. The sophomore had learned enough in his year-and-a-half in college to dispute and debunk the faith of his parents the unsophisticated and unfashionable, the small-minded and narrow-minded, religious beliefs of his mom and dad. In such courses as philosophy, psychology, biology and geology he had learned enough to poke gigantic holes in their religion. He could not wait to enlighten and disprove his parents.

After dinner he sat with his parents in front of the fire, waiting for the right time to demonstrate his learning and expose the weaknesses of his parents’ beliefs.

As he sat there, waiting for an opening, he looked at his mother the deep lines in her face and hands which reminded him of the personal life battles she had won because of her faith.

He looked at his father and remembered the addiction that had nearly ruined his father’s life and almost destroyed their home. He remembered how his father had overcome that addiction through his religion, his faith.

Looking at his father and mother, the notion of dismissing and debunking their religion seemed not only unnecessary; it seemed inappropriate. He knew what he had seen in the lives of his parents. He could not argue with that.

Remember: when you wonder about whether there is a God or whether, if there is a God, He matters to our story…look at the lives of those who truly know and love Him. There is beautiful, convincing evidence of God in their lives.

So why do I believe in God? The starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

So why is religion so important?

I know there are atheists those who don’t believe in God.

And there are skeptics who say, “I don’t know,” and agnostics who say, “We can’t know.”

(Lots of atheists, agnostics and skeptics are really good people, by the way.)

I also know that even those of us who believe have questions about God’s ways and thoughts for which there are no human answers. We wonder why God does not intervene sometimes, and why He allows bad things. Even among those who believe sometimes there are doubts.

I know there are atheists and skeptics and agnostics and those with hard questioners and occasional doubts.

But I also know that throughout history and all over the planet, the overwhelming majority of people have known…have known because we are wired to know…the reality of Somebody bigger than you and I.

And I know stories like the story of Russia.

For decades people like Karl Marx said, “There is no God. Religion is a drug, an opiate, for weak people.”

Communist teachers said to their students, “God is a figment of your imaginations, a projection of your desires.”

Over the communist airwaves citizens were told, “Religion is the propaganda of capitalist politicians.”

When American astronauts read from Genesis on Apollo 8 Russia publicly scoffed!

For decades atheistic communists tried to stamp out religion.

But I’ve been to Russia. I met men who were imprisoned for their faith but would not renounce Jesus. I met grandmothers who wouldn’t let faith die in their families. I’ve seen the vibrant churches that didn’t die even when people had to sneak around to worship. Despite the communist crackdown on religion, the faith of the faithful was unwavering.

You can tell people God is not real, that God is a mere figment of their imaginations, a projection of their desires. But you cannot say that loud enough to drown out the whisper of our Creator: “I am.”

According to most sources, the word “Religion” comes from the prefix “re,” meaning, of course, “again,” and “ligare” meaning “to connect.” As in “ligament.” Religion, then, is “reconnecting.” Religion is re-connecting to our Creator.

Which brings me back to Apollo.

In his book, Solid Living, the late Dr. Bill Hinson, a widely-known and loved Methodist pastor, told the story of an astronaut who had returned from one of the Apollo flights.

The wife of the Apollo astronaut was being interviewed. (There always was a lot of interest in the families of those Apollo astronauts, you know.) Well, in the interview this astronaut’s wife was asked about the most exciting moment of the space flight for her.

“Was it when your husband got into orbit?”

“No.”

“Was it when he stepped on the moon?”

“No.”

“Was it when they blasted off coming back?”

“No.”

Perplexed, the reporter asked, “What, then, was the most exciting moment for you?”

She answered, “The most exciting moment for me was when he put his foot on the deck of the ship that was plucking them from the ocean.”

He’d been flying through space…and he’d come home.

Do you need to come home?

There is, within us all, a hunger and thirst for God. St. Augustine prayed, “You created us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless ‘till they find rest in You.”

Our overwhelming tendency to do the wrong thing what the Bible calls “sin” has separated us from God. Unless we get “re-ligioned,” re-connected, to our Creator there is going to be a restlessness in our hearts.

Next week I’m going to talk about the means by which we get re-ligioned, re-connected Jesus.

Why I’m a Christian

John 1:1,14; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4,14,20; Romans 3:24-25.

A sermon preached at FBC, Huntsville, on July 28, 2019

Last week I began a sermon series titled, “Why I Believe What I Believe.” I began with “Why I Believe in God,” and I talked about the “starry sky above me (the marvelous work of the Creator’s hands) and the moral law within me (what Romans 2 describes as God’s standards written on our hearts and in our consciences).”

Today I’m going to talk about “Why I’m a Christian.”

Why not a Buddhist or Muslim, Hindu, Jew or Sikh? Why not join the seemingly growing number of people who believe there is a God but don’t want to be part of any official, organized, religion?

After all, it’s true that Christians have gotten a lot wrong.

In the Middle Ages Christians killed fellow Christians during the Inquisition and brutally killed Muslims in the Crusades, both in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

In many cases we have defended racism and ignored poverty. Often still do.

In many cases we have been hypocritical and judgmental. Often still are.

Christian leaders have acted selfishly, often even abusively. And sometimes, frankly, some of those who assume the role of Christianity’s spokespersons embarrass many of us.

Yet it’s also true that God has used Christians through the centuries, despite our scars and flaws, for immeasurable good.

Despite the fact that sometimes Christians defended slavery it is also true that Christians were responsible for abolishing slavery.

All over the globe, hospitals, orphanages and leper clinics sprang out of the Christian faith.

Countless universities and schools were begun by Christians.

Christian missionaries have preached not only spiritual transformation, but also the dignity of humans, and their message is often credited with the rise of democracy all over the world.

The failures of Christianity are not enough to push me away. After all, we are imperfect humans.

But the accomplishments of Christianity are not enough to draw me in. After all, lots of organizations have done good things.

So why am I a Christian? Three words…

Incarnation

Resurrection

Redemption

First, Incarnation

In John 1, Jesus, the embodiment of God the Son, is referred to as “the Word.” There we read…

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,” (John 1:1,14)

Christians believe there is one God. (In Deuteronomy 6:4 we read, “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”) Christians also believe God eternally exists as what we refer to as the “Trinity” of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father, Son and Spirit co-equal and co-eternal.

Christians also believe the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, became one of us. That mystery the incarnation of God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity is at the heart of what Christians believe. The second syllable of incarnation, “carn,” comes from the Latin word for flesh, so incarnation simply means the miraculous enfleshment, or enfleshing the embodiment of God.

Every Christmas, Christians celebrate that.

Now, if that is true if it’s true that God, the Creator, became enfleshed in Jesus that makes Jesus the unique Savior of the world.

The late John Hick, a British philosopher of religion, was one who does not believe Jesus was God in the flesh. John Hick was one who would say Jesus was a terrific teacher, a superb sage and first-class philosopher. But not God in the flesh.

However, Hick said,

If Jesus was literally God incarnate, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity living a human life, so that the Christian religion was founded by God-on-earth in person, it is then very hard to escape from the traditional view that all mankind must be converted to the Christian faith.

If Jesus really was (is) God incarnate, then it follows logically that He is the means of salvation. Unlike John Hick, I do believe that Jesus is the incarnation of God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Therefore I believe that He, and He alone, is the Savior of the world.

Last Sunday we celebrated the expansive beauty of God’s creation and even celebrated Apollo 11. At the conclusion of the 10:30 service, John Lemons had the closing prayer and he so appropriately quoted Jim Irwin, Apollo 15 astronaut: “Jesus walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon.”

I am a Christian because I believe the Christian faith was founded by God-on-earth-in-Person.

Why am I a Christian? First word, Incarnation.

Second, Resurrection

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… (I)f Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4,14,20)

On a Friday morning Roman soldiers forced Jesus to carry the instrument of his death, a cross, through the streets of Old Jerusalem. Jesus carried it until he physically could not bear it any longer.

For six hours he suffered a pain that was so severe they invented a word in Latin to describe it: “excruciating.” “Ex,” meaning “from,” and “cruc” meaning the cross.

Then, at 3:00 in the afternoon the sky grew dark above them. The earth quaked violently beneath them. Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” and gave up his spirit.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took Jesus’ lifeless body a short distance to a tomb that belonged to Joseph’s family. They laid his corpse on that cold slab of the borrowed tomb and rubbed spices into his increasingly clammy skin. Then they wrapped him much like you and I imagine a mummy being wrapped. Then Joseph and Nicodemus rolled a stone in front of the tomb where his body lay and walked away, for there was nothing left to do.

Matthew 27 says Pilate demanded a “guard,” a detail of 16 soldiers, be posted and that the soldiers place the Roman wax seal on it to make sure there would be no tomb tampering.

Why would Pilate have done such a thing? Of course, to prove that Jesus remained dead. People remembered Jesus had said he’d rise from the dead. I don’t know if Pilate believed that or not, but he understood if suddenly there was no body in the tomb, and the story circulated that Jesus was alive, that would be bad PR for Rome. Sealing the tomb with wax and posting a guard was the best he could do.

But imagine, just imagine with me, that in Jesus’ day they’d had the kind of monitoring equipment we have today. Just imagine. Imagine that they had a video camera on that lifeless body. And imagine they had a heart monitor hooked up to his chest. And probes monitoring his brain waves. Again, all to prove that he remained dead.

Imagine a Roman security guard sitting there watching the screens. The video. The heart monitor. The brain probes.

It’s dawn on Sunday morning. The guard is dozing off. He’s been up all night.

There’s a little beep on the heart monitor.

And then a beep on the brain monitor.

Must be a malfunction, the guard thinks. And closes his eyes again.

But then the heart monitor signals a strong heartbeat. And the brain monitor signals normal brain waves.

He looks at the camera and the shrouded body begins to move. The guard rubs his eyes and looks again as the body sits up! He calls his supervisor in and says, “You’re not gonna believe this. But Jesus…he ain’t dead no more.”

In the words of the late S. M. Lockridge, “Herod couldn’t kill Him. Death couldn’t handle Him, and the grave couldn’t hold Him.”

If it weren’t for the resurrection...we could follow any spiritual path we choose.

If it weren’t for the resurrection, it would be easy to say “I prefer Jesus,” much like someone might say, “I prefer Oprah,” and another would say, “I prefer Deepak Chopra.” One says, “I like Old Time Religion” and another “I like New Age Religion.”

If it weren’t for the resurrection religion would be like the buffet at Golden Corral. Just take what you want.

But Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.” And the resurrection adds an exclamation point.

Why am I a Christian? Incarnation. Resurrection.

And, third, Redemption

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,” (Romans 3:24-25).

The Christian faith points to verses like that and says…

One, the Bible diagnoses the deepest, most fundamental problem of humankind: Sin, our overwhelming tendency to do the wrong thing.

And two, the Bible prescribes the answer to our deepest need. It’s not more education. It’s not enlightenment. It’s not more rules. It’s not better government. The answer to our deepest need is Grace, God’s unconditional, undeserved, unlimited, unrelenting love, which offers to us Redemption through Jesus.

The Greek word translated “redemption” in English (apolytrosis) carries the image of freedom from slavery.

In biblical days the Greek word translated “redemption” in English (apolytrosis) also was the word most often used to describe the great Exodus from Egypt when the Jews were enslaved under the Pharaohs until God intervened, led them out of their bondage, and ultimately to the Promised Land.

And not so many decades ago Bible translators were having trouble finding a word in the Bambara language to translate the word “redeem.” There seemed to be no corresponding word that carried the same meaning.

Finally, however, translators learned of a common practice in days gone by. Many of the ancestors of the modern-day Bambara were captured by slave traders deep within the bush. Their captors would place iron collars around their necks, and chain the captives together for their trek to the sea.

As they passed through villages on their way to the ocean and the slave ships, sometimes someone within that village would recognize a relative among those in chains being taken to the slaves ships. If one had enough money or gold, the slave trader would agree to set the captive

free. He would go to the captive and, with his keys, unlock the iron collar. Then he would take the slave’s head out of the chains that bound him or her. The slave had been redeemed.

So that’s how the Bible translators translated “redeem”: “Takes our heads out.”

Redemption, in the Christian faith, is exodus, freedom, from the shackles of the power and penalty, the shame and the guilt, of our sinfulness.

I believe in God because of the starry sky above me and the moral law within me. I am a Christian, a Christ-follower, because of Incarnation, Resurrection and Redemption.

i In Arthur Paul Boers, Never Call Them Jerks (Alban, 1999), 119.