I've been a pastor for more than two decades. In those years, people have asked me some great questions about the Christian faith. Here are short answers to perennial issues:
What is the "unpardonable sin"?
Jesus has just healed a demon-possessed man. The amazed crowds began to speculate that he might be the Messiah. His enemies retort that he drives out demons because he is in league with the devil himself. Our Lord responds with the most severe warning in the gospels: "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin" (Mark 3:29). What did he mean? What is this "unpardonable" sin?
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Does God still love the Jews?
I will never forget my visit to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Each moment of those hours has haunted me for years. The pile of shoes which is all that remains of thousands of cremation victims; images of living skeletons and sunken eyes; Nazi tattoos on arms and souls.
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How can I study the Bible for myself?
Visitors to Hampton Court in London are amazed by the maze they find there. Bushes form solid walls, head high. In the center sits a guide high on a platform. When pilgrims get lost wandering through the hedges, they look up to this guide, who points them to the next turn on their way.
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How can you know the will of God?
In 1870 the Methodists in Indiana were holding their Annual Conference. At one point in the proceedings, the president of the college where they were meeting said, "I think we are living in a very exciting age." The presiding bishop asked him, "What do you see for the future?" The college president responded, "I believe we are coming into a time of great inventions. I believe, for example, that men will fly through the air like birds." The bishop said, "That's heresy! The Bible says that flight is reserved for the angels. We'll have no more such talk here."
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How can you pray more effectively?
Blaise Pascal, the mathematical and spiritual genius, believed that "all the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms." Oswald Chambers agreed: "Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible's idea of prayer is that we may get to know God himself." How can we know our Father more fully, by praying more effectively?
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How should we view the "end times"?
Someone asked a wise older pastor his view of the "end times." He smiled and said, "The Lord put me on the preparation committee, not the planning committee." He spoke for us all. We cannot control how the Lord chooses to end history. Our theories about the future are just that. The word of God is too practical to focus extensively on an issue which possesses no pragmatic value for our lives. If I could prove a particular theory of the end times to you, would such knowledge change your life today?
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Is hell real? How could a loving God send me there?
Remember the Y2K scare? One problem created by the turn of the millennium was very real. Perhaps you've been to a cemetery and noticed the headstones already in place for the spouse of the deceased, with the birth year followed by 19--. What's now to be done? Some monument companies created epoxys to fill in the numbers, but without much luck. It was a Y2K problem etched in stone.
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Isn't the Bible filled with contradictions?
Here is one of the most common ways skeptics justify their skepticism about the Bible. The question is based on the commonplace supposition that contradictions are bad. If you can find a statement I make which disagrees with something I've already said, you'll feel justified in rejecting both. Even though one may be right. Even though they both may be. Why?
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Were Adam and Eve real people?
We all know that Eve ate the apple in the Garden of Eden, so that the Fall is all her fault. Except that Genesis nowhere states that the forbidden fruit was an apple. In fact, unless climatic conditions were much different then in that region, apples would likely not have grown in the area. And Adam was with Eve in the Garden, and ate the fruit as well. What else do we know that we don't?
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What about evolution?
Several pejoratives are popular these days. "Liberal," for instance, means by definition to be tolerant or generous. But in Christian theology, it usually depreciates a person's belief in biblical authority or lack thereof. "Secular" means to be connected with the world. Given that God called his creation "very good" (Gen 1:31), this shouldn't be a bad thing. But it is. And "evolutionist," from a word meaning to develop, has itself evolved to the top (or bottom) of things not to be. Why is this? Why does the subject matter?
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Can we believe in miracles today?
A recent survey revealed that 79% of Americans say they believe in miracles. Even among those who seldom or never attend church, 70% believe miracles occur. Nearly everyone has a personal story which he or she considers to be miraculous, but our scientific worldview makes it difficult to tell our stories to each other.
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What about the Apocrypha? What translation should I use?
Serving as a summer missionary in East Malaysia in 1979, I was privileged to bring a hundred or so paperback Malay New Testaments to the people. At one church, members stood in a long line to receive a copy. At the end of the line was an elderly woman. She took her Bible from me with trembling hands, held it close to her heart, and wept. I thought of all my Bibles at home gathering dust.
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Why are there Protestant denominations today? What do they believe?
A Baptist pastor was inviting people in his neighborhood to visit his church. An elderly lady said, "No thank you, young man, I'm a Methodist." "If you don't mind telling me," he asked, "why are you a Methodist?" "Well," she replied, "you see, my parents were Methodist, my grandparents were Methodist, and my great-grandparents were Methodist." The frustrated young pastor responded, "That's no reason, just because all your relatives are Methodists. What would you do if all your relatives were idiots?" "In that case," she smiled, "I'd probably be a member of your church."
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What are angels?
306 biblical verses contain specific references to an angel or angels. 210 times a singular angel is mentioned; 96 times angels are found together. . An angel is first mentioned in Scripture when God sends angelic help to Hagar (Genesis 16:7). Angels are last mentioned in Revelation 22:16 when Jesus says, "I have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches."
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What are demons?
An African proverb says, "When elephants fight, the grass always loses." In the realm of spiritual warfare, Christians are the "grass": "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12).
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What distinguishes Catholics from Protestants?
Church history used to be the subject seminary students dreaded most, because it seemed the least relevant to practical ministry. That was before the denominational era ended and people began visiting and joining churches from completely different faith traditions. Now more than ever, understanding where we come from is crucial to knowing where we're going together.
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What happens to babies when they die? What is the "age of accountability"?
I will never forget that day. A nine-month-old daughter of one of our church members had fallen victim to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. I was asked to perform the funeral. As I looked into that tiny casket, I suddenly saw the face of my own nine-month-old son. I had to step out of the room and gather myself. My sons are my greatest treasure. I cannot imagine the unspeakable pain of burying one. But death comes to all—some late, some early. What happens to those who die so young?
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What happens to people who have never heard of Jesus?
I spent the summer of 1979 working in East Malaysia as a Baptist student missionary. For the first time in my life, I met people who had never heard the gospel. Some had never even heard the syllables, "Jesus Christ." To them, our Lord's name was as unfamiliar as the ancient Persian kings are to us. Missiologists estimate that as much as one-third of the world's population has no realistic opportunity to know or understand God's offer of salvation through Christ. What happens to them when they die?
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What is heaven like?
When Ronald Reagan was running for Governor of California, a woman confronted him by his car one day and berated him severely. Finally she said, "I wouldn't vote for you if you were St. Peter." He smiled and replied, "No problem. If I were St. Peter, you wouldn't be living in my district."
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What should we believe about creation?
The next three questions deal with the intersection of faith and science. So let's lay some groundwork first. Then we'll apply what we discover to creation, evolution, and the miraculous.
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When is Jesus coming back?
Martin Luther, the medieval reformer, thought the Pope was the Antichrist, and expected Jesus' return during his lifetime. Christopher Columbus thought the world would end in 1656, and that his explorations would lead a Christian army in the final crusade to convert the world. Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, predicted the "rapture" in 1910 and the end of the world in 1914.
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Who decided what books should be in the Bible?
My earliest experience with the Bible was leafing through an ancient King James Version my parents kept in the guest room. The fountain-penned family tree calligraphied in the first pages fascinated me. The printed thees and thous made no sense, the begats even less. I assumed the entire thing had been handed from God to man in black leather.
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Who is Satan?
C. S. Lewis once suggested that we make two mistakes regarding the devil. One is to give him more authority than he deserves--then he can do what he wants. The other is to deny that he exists--then he can do what he wants. People today typically think of Satan as a symbol of evil, wearing red tights and a tail, the stuff of Saturday cartoons. He's just as happy to be ignored as to be feared.
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What about predestination and election?
With this essay, we step into the most enduring debate in Christian theology. It's all about a single word, "election." The term means to choose, as in electing a candidate. You "elected" to buy this book, and to read this chapter. In theological use, the word relates to the idea that God chooses (or has chosen) a people or individuals to belong to him in a unique way.
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