Addressing doubt and disappointment

Posted on August 16, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Doubt is not sin

Doubt An interaction with a man who claimed belief in the past but walked away from Christianity got me thinking about doubt and how to respond to it.

In a Sunday School class when I was young, a zealous Bible School student confidently told me that it is a sin to doubt. I cannot recall if he supported this claim with any Scripture.

I suppose you could find some support in James 1:6 where we are told that the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea. But I have not found any other support for calling doubt a sin.

An example from John the Baptist

All his adult life, John knew that he was the forerunner for the Messiah. He did not fail in this mission. John went out into the desert with his message of repentance and cleansing. He challenged the religious leaders of the day and pointed the hears of the people toward the coming Messiah.

But something went terribly wrong. John got on the wrong side of Herod and was thrown in prison as a result. In Matthew 11, we find John the Baptist in prison even though he faithfully proclaimed the message he was sent to preach. John did exactly what he was commissioned to do and it did not turn out so well.

It can be inferred that as a result of his imprisonment, John was working through some doubts about his calling and whether he has misunderstood who Jesus was. Matthew 11:3 records that John sends a delegation to Jesus to ask, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” In other words, did I misunderstand that you are the long-expected Messiah? Are you who I thought you to be? Also implied in this question is, if you are the Messiah, why am I in prison right now?

Responding like Jesus

I think that Jesus’ response is instructive.

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” As these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (Matthew 11:4–7, NASB)

Notice that Jesus does not rebuke John for his doubt and questions. Instead he offers evidence that John was correct in his understanding. He addressed the doubt by offering affirmation and evidence.

Provide a forum for doubts to be addressed

In every church, in every service, there are people who are struggling with doubts. Some are big doubts and some are small, but those doubts need to be addressed. The church has often failed to provide a forum for these doubts to be expressed and discussed.

Here are a few ideas that church leaders could employ to address doubts:

Provide an email address so that people in your church can send in questions and receive answers
Post answers to the question on the church web site so that all who look there can benefit
Take a Sunday night or midweek service to do a Q & A instead of a teaching time
Provide a class on the foundational truths of Christianity and provide time at the end for Q & A.
Encourage small group leaders to draw out doubts and questions so that they can be addressed

If you are a church leader and none of these work for you, find something that does work. This is especially important for the teens in your church. A recent survey shows that 60% of our kids walk away from faith; we certainly cannot argue that we’ve done this well.

Remember the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Let’s do something different and move toward sanity.

Question

What has been done in your church that has proven effective in addressing doubt?

Righteousness, Scribes and Pharisees

Posted on August 4, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 4 Comments

#16 in the Sermon on the Mount Series

Rule keeping as religious observance

There is something in man that gravitates toward rule keeping as the means of religious observance. We think those who live an austere life are more holy or more deserving of God’s favor.

We see this tendency displayed by the Pharisees in the Gospels. We would be foolish to think that this tendency ended there. Christendom has had 2,000 years of experience of struggling with this the drive to keep rules. Whether they be monks, priests or televangelists, we have always had Pharisees among us.

In addition to organizational Pharisees, each of us has to deal with his own inner Pharisee. I believe it is because our our own tendency to become spiritually proud that the Gospel writers spend so much time cataloging the errors of the Pharisees. The lesson to learn is that we should not be like them even though we have the innate capability of doing so.

Rule keeping isn’t enough

If you take righteous to mean external compliance with a set of rules, Jesus comment in Matthew 5:20 is hard to understand:

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (NASB)

If rule keeping is the means of obtaining righteousness, few would surpass the Pharisees in righteousness. As a group the Pharisees were committed to keeping the law, most of them with real intention to serve and please God. If rule keeping is the means of getting into Heaven and if we have to do it better than the Pharisees, then we have a problem because few of us would meet this standard.

It is exactly this problem that caused Martin Luther the distress that lead to the Reformation. If rule keeping is the means of satisfying God, how would any of us get in? We are doomed if we are dependent upon our own righteousness.

The real source of righteousness

In Habakkuk 2:4 (and quoted in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38) we are told that the righteous will live by faith. Faith is the means by which we can surpass the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 that the source of salvation comes from outside ourselves and is obtained by faith. We cannot manufacture this salvation or provide it for ourselves.

This is good news. If we are honest, even the best of us has doubts (legitimate doubts) about his worthiness for Heaven. Without the provision of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, we would have no hope of gaining entrance to Heaven.

As the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 7:24 – 8:1:

“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (NASB)

It is in Christ and only in Christ that we can surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. We don’t have to work ourselves to death in service, study and self denial.

Can we take a few moments to rest in our position and let go of our striving? What do you think?

Yes, that is a log in my eye, thank-you

Posted on August 2, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 8 Comments

The Illustration

Jesus was not opposed to using humor to get his point across. One of his funniest illustrations is the story of the beam and the speck. This illustration is found in Matthew 7:3-5.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?’ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ‘You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.’ (Matthew 7:3–5, NASB)

The log-eye is me

We’ve all been the log-eye at one time or another. I think that Jesus gave us this story so that we can be reminded that we have the tendency to see others’ faults and ignore our own. We are reminded of this fault so that we can recognize it and take corrective action when it surfaces.

Those who seldom or never see themselves as the one with the log are a problem. They are dangerous and often used by Satan to sow confusion and disharmony wherever they go within the Church.

How do you know when you’re being a log-eye? I thought of three types of behavior that are indications that a log-eye is in operation. If one of these describes your behavior, then it is likely that you are a log-eye:

The inspector– These are the ones that are happy to do a “fruit inspection” on you and give a detailed analysis of where you are wrong. This is sometimes done under the guise of helping you toward spiritual maturity.
The lecturer– These are the ones that will use what ever shortcoming you might have as the pretext for a lecture. The lecture usually includes how the log-eye had your fault and overcame it.
The manager – These are the ones who find your problem before you do and give you detailed instructions on how to fix your problem. These instructions will sometimes include memorization of verses that speak to your fault. After all, how can Scripture memorization be a bad thing?

The Fix

The fix for being a log-eye is to ask forgiveness from the one whose speck we tried to remove. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:23 that if we are going to worship and remember that someone has something against us we are to stop everything and seek reconciliation.

As a preventive measure we need to follow the Apostle Paul’s advice in Philippians 2:3 where he presents humility as the means of building and preserving unity. When we are humble, we are more likely to see our log and be willing to have it dealt with before we go hunting for specks.

So before you try to remove your brother’s speck, read Philippians 2:3 and look in the mirror.

Care to add any types of log-eyes that I missed?

Toward a response to the moral chaos that surrounds us

Posted on July 28, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 10 Comments

The church is surrounded by moral chaos and we rightly feel the need to respond. It is this writer’s opinion that some of our response is not helpful. Calls for boycott and angry rhetoric about the moral decline seem to escalate the problem rather than help it. Too often we become two groups of people screaming at each other over a great divide.

Transformation of culture is not our job

In my reading of the New Testament, I see no commands to transform our culture. I believe that a transformed culture is a consequence of the church fulfilling her mission and not a primary goal.

The cultural context in which the Apostle Paul wrote his epistles had many similarities to today. Homosexuality, the breakdown of the family, materialism and philosophical confusion were prevalent.

In this context, Paul writes about personal transformation (Romans 12:1-2), but I cannot find any examples of where Paul encourages the church to participate in boycotts or any other behavior intended to force Christian morality on the society at large.

The church is called to make disciples. The miracle associated with disciple making is that God transforms the hearts of those who receive the Gospel. Those with transformed hearts then behave differently in society. It is this transformation of individual hearts and behavior that transforms culture.

We are called to teach the entirely of the Bible and allow God to operate through his word. But I do not see where we are to force others into accepting our beliefs.

Preaching to the deaf

Some will intentionally distort what we say. One example is the recent brouhaha over Dan Cathy’s remarks on traditional marriage. He said nothing against homosexuals or homosexual marriage, but did make statements in favor of traditional marriage. Those who were looking for an offense found it because an exclusive claim for marriage violates their sense of fairness.

Why is this the case? Isaiah 8:13-14 gives us a clue when Isaiah writes:

It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread,
Then He shall become a sanctuary

Similarly, John Newton penned these words in his song Amazing Grace:

T’was Grace that taught…
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear…
the hour I first believed.

The point is that until the Grace of God is operative in the people we are speaking with, they cannot understand much of what we say with regard to morality and social issues. It is grace that teaches hearts to respect a higher authority.

If you do not believe that God or anyone else has the authority to sanction a particular form of marriage, then “fairness” would seem to be in favor of not excluding homosexuals from the institution of marriage. It is not until someone has the recognition of authority that our statements about traditional marriage make any sense.

They cannot hear us because they are spiritually deaf.

Toward a proper response

Jesus left us with two Great Commands and one mission. The commands are to love God and love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). The mission is to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). The Great Commands and our mission should determine how we go about interacting with our culture.

There will be discussion and perhaps even argument, but in that discussion we need to keep in mind that we are called to a higher standard. We should reason with Christianity’s critics with the fruit of the Spirit in action. As a reminder, here is the list from Galatians 5:22-23:

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

Paul tells us that against these traits there is no law. In other words, reasonable people will not take offense if we operate with these traits in action.

When we speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) then we put ourselves in the position to be used by God to transform lives.

We must remember that God does the transformation and he does it at the level of the individual.

What do you think? When is the Church justified in taking social action such as a boycott or protest?