Can We Really Trust what We Have Been Taught?
“Pastor, I need to ask you a question.” Can we talk privately, please? The next few steps from the public to the privacy of my office are the most agonizing ever. Thoughts flood my mind. “What did I do? I wonder what they are upset about? I know I didn’t do anything.”
Questions tend to make us very uncomfortable. Our stomach drops. Immediately we feel like our authority is under attack or a choice we made is put in question. We often get defensive and try to eliminate the question before anyone asks it.
Questions about the Bible or our faith make us extremely uneasy. We wonder how anyone could question God. When our teenagers ask difficult questions, we tell them to stop doubting or questioning and just trust.
But doubts are natural. Questions are going to come. C.H. Spurgeon once said, “Some of us who have preached the word for years and have worked faith in the lives and hearts of others and have been the means to established them in the bible have been the subjects of the most violent doubts of the gospel that we have preached.”
In his blog titled, “In Here, Out There: On Assessing Spiritual Threats,” Daniel Darling said this about answering questions and combating cultural ideas:
“We are not arguing with the world, but trying to equip the next generation of Christians whose faith will be challenged by ideas that run contrary to Scripture. Our people are inundated on every side by messages that are at odds with Jesus’ teachings. Pop culture, social media, friends, etc form a powerful influence on this cohort of young people. Even those raised in faithful Christian homes face enormous pressure to give up faithful Christian orthodoxy. Of course ‘the world’ can be cultural influences from multiple directions: right-wing conspiracy theories or left-wing sexual ethics, to name two. Parents and pastors and anyone who has a responsibility to teach are tasked with discipleship in a way that prepares people to live out their faith in a world that opposes Jesus.”
I know the earth is a sphere, but I also know people personally who would be glad to argue it is flat. I know that the sea turtles will be fine, but I still prefer paper straws. And I know that there are certain genetic, biological factors that determine the sex of a person.
There are homosexual theologians, priests, and even John Piper’s son who are continually opposing Biblical truth on social media with their “TikTok theology.” With millions of followers, this is without a doubt going to raise questions in areas we might be uncomfortable with.
So how do we find our way through a realm of endless questions?
1. Understand questions and doubts are not sin.
We must be careful not to take offense to questions. When kids or even adults throw out questions doubting their salvation, the eternality of God, or heaven, it is ok. Think about the disciples. They spent their whole ministry doubting God. Even after the resurrection, they had a ton of doubts. The Bible is full of men and women who doubted God. Thomas. Peter. Abraham & Sarah. Elijah.
2. Just because it was something you were taught doesn’t make it wrong.
We have a mentality that the things we were taught at home or church are no longer relevant in the current age.
Truth is truth.
Now, it is possible that some things we were taught are not true. Opinions do not equate truth. Truth (not necessarily tradition) should be what we teach and pass down from generation to generation.
3. Compare questions to the truth of God’s Word.
For instance: Let’s just say these people are correct, and homophobic translators added the word “homosexual” to the Bible in the early 1900s. Regardless, I am pretty sure Romans 1 is clear on God’s take.
They also argue that being in God’s image means we are spirit beings. Our spirits are then subject to receiving the wrong vessel at birth. We very well could be female spirits born in a genetically defected male body, they say. However, we are not a mistake! Creation in the image of God means body and spirit, not spirit alone. In addition, for believers, our bodies are also temples under the ownership of Christ. We do not have the authority to destroy it or demean it with our sexual practices or surgical procedures.
As we face a world of questions it is of the utmost importance that we are grounded in God’s Word. The Bible is sufficient to answer any question or face any cultural challenge that will be coming our way.
Treg Spicer is pastor of Faith Baptist Church – Morgantown, WV. Follow his blog here. We republish his articles by permission.