Christianity Still Makes Sense

If You Don't Believe What We Believe You Are Going To.Hell? Episode 63

In this episode of 'Christianity Still Makes Sense' Tim and Bobby dive into the pluralist objection to Christianity that many people struggle with. Though this objection certainly isn't new, it is hardly surprising that it has become an even greater hindrance to people over recent years. Particularly when one considers the cultural climate we find ourselves in today that values diversity, equity, and inclusion above all things. Bobby answers questions such as:

- Can't there be more than one way to a destination?

- Can the validity of someone's beliefs be measured by their sincerity?

- Are Christians too dogmatic about the idea that Jesus is the only way to heaven?

- Isn't love the only thing that matters?

And much more!

Episode 62: A Skeptic Grills Bobby

In this episode we are introduced to Tim's non-Christian, super skeptical twin, Mit who explodes onto the scene with lots of questions for the Doc. Some of the objections covered include:

• The hiddenness of God.
• What would God's presence even feel like?
• What evidence is there for the existence of God?
• Isn't morality just a social construct?
• What about people who do evil in the name of God?

The Truth Objection Episode 61

Oprah says the most important tool you have is "speaking your truth". But what does that mean if we're living in a post-truth era. If truth can mean anything, it quickly means nothing. I this episode of 'Christianity Still Makes Sense' Tim and Bobby discuss some of the philosophy that got us here and how we can respond.

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Encountering Gospel Freedom Romans 6:1-14

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Encountering Gospel Freedom

Romans 6:1-14

 

“I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.” Christopher Hitchens

 

“If Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

 

“Jesus said..., “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

 

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

 

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come”( 2 Corinthians 5:17).

7 Marks of a Spiritually Mature Christian 1 Corinthians 16

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7 Marks of a Spiritually Mature Christian

1 Corinthians 16

 

1.      Spiritually Mature Christians Are Marked by Generosity

 

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:1-4).

 

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:2-6).

 

 

2.  Spiritually Mature Christians Are Marked by Discernment

 

“Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth” (Ephesians 4:14, NLT).

 

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3).

 

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

 

 

3. Spiritually Mature Christians Are Marked by Resilience

 

4. Spiritually Mature Christians Are Marked by Courageous Strength

 

5. Spiritually Mature Christians Are Marked by Love

 

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

6. Spiritually Mature Christians Are Marked by Faithful Service

7. Spiritually Mature Christians Are Marked their Encouragement of Others

Hope Beyond the Grave 1 Corinthians 15

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Hope Beyond the Grave

1 Corinthians 15

 

Questions to Ponder:

 

First off, do you believe in Jesus? I mean, are you trusting in the death, burial, and resurrection as your hope for both now and beyond the grave?

 

Second, if not, what’s preventing you from believing? Like what’s it going to take to remove the barriers to belief you’re experiencing?

 

Third, given that this life is our rehearsal for eternity what adjustments do you need to make in your life to make it count the most for Christ?

 

Fourth, knowing that we aren’t meant to keep our faith to ourselves, is there anyone you can offer some hope to by extending an invite to our upcoming Easter service?

When We Gather 1 Corinthians 14:26-40

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1. When we gather, each of us has a part to play in building up the church.

2. When we gather, our words are meant to provide clarity to each other, not confusion and chaos.

3. When we gather, it should be both tasteful and orderly.

 

“Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control” (1 Timothy 2:11-15).

Making Sense of Church 1 Corinthians 14:1-25

Thoughts to Ponder:
 
-While everything may not make sense in the church, we shouldn’t go out of our way to make nonsense out of what is supposed to make sense. 
-Spiritual gifts aren’t given to us to create confusion and chaos, but rather they’re given to unify the church and build it up. 
-When we gather, our aim should be to encounter God through our collective worship. 
-Finally, when it comes to the non-believer in our midst, our goal is to make sense of church so people can make sense of God. 
 

Ways of the Cross 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

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“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” Jean-Jacque Rousseau. 

‘Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.” (G.K. Chesterton, emphasis added)
 
 
“What would you think of a woman student who entered the college quad wearing an earring stamped with the mushroom cloud of Hiroshima on it? What would you think of a church building adorned with a fresco of the mass graves of Auschwitz, the worst of the Nazi death camps? Even to ask questions like that produces a kind of shudder of embarrassment. The images are so grotesque and abhorrent and shocking because of Western history in the last 50 or 60 years, but that was the sort of shocking overtone associated with the word cross or crucifixion in the first century…Yet today, crosses dangle from our ears. We sport them upon our lapels... We put them on our buildings. Our bishops wear them around their necks. Nobody’s embarrassed, and thus it is hard to hear the sheer audacity of a verse like 1 Corinthians 1:18.” D.A. Carson

God’s Reconciling Grace The Book of Philemon

God’s Reconciling Grace

The Book of Philemon

 

 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;that is,

 

in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

 

“Slaves were found in all professions and generally had more opportunity for social advancement than free peasants; unlike the vast majority of slaves in the United States and the Caribbean, they were able to work for and achieve freedom, and some freed slaves became independently wealthy.

 

This social mobility applied especially to the household slaves—the only kind of slave addressed in Paul’s writings. Economically, socially, and with regard to freedom to determine their future, these slaves were better off than most free persons in the Roman Empire; most free persons were rural peasants working as tenant farmers on the vast estates of wealthy landowners.” Craig Keener

 

“From the standpoint of ancient slave owners, the lost time of an escaped slave was lost money and was legally viewed as stolen property, to which one harboring him was liable. But more important, slaves themselves were not cheap, and Philemon might have already bought another slave to replace him.)

 

Recapture normally meant severe punishment. Old Testament law required harboring escaped slaves (Deut 23:15–16), but Roman law required Paul to return Onesimus to his master, with serious penalties if he failed to do so. Paul uses his relationship with Philemon to seek Onesimus’s release: in a standard “letter of recommendation,” one would plead with someone of equal (or sometimes lower)

 

status on behalf of someone of lower status. Paul was not Philemon’s equal socially or economically, but as his spiritual father he had grounds to claim the equality that characterized ancient friendship.” Keener

 

 

Six Feautures Regarding God’s Reconciling Grace

1. God’s Reconciling Grace Encounters Each of Us in An Undeserved State

 

2. God’s Reconciling Grace Is Designed to Change Us

 

3. God’s Reconciling Grace Should Motivate Us to Reconcile with Those We’ve Wronged

“No Christian should grumble at extra demands of love. They are golden opportunities to draw on the reserves of divine love, and in so doing to become more fully oneself in Christ, more completely in the image of God, more authentically human. It is not merely Onesimus for whom Paul is here pastorally concerned.” N.T. Wright

 

4. God’s Reconciling Grace Is Always Costly

 

5. God’s Reconciling Grace Contains Within It the Power to Overcome Social Evils

“Paul’s message to Philemon goes beyond other documents of his time in not only pleading for clemency for an escaped slave but asking that he be released because he is now a Christian. So powerful was this precedent that many early U.S.

 

slaveholders did not want their slaves to be exposed to Christianity, for fear that they would be compelled to free them; only in time was a distorted enough form of the Christian message available for use in sustaining slavery.” Craig Keener

 

6. God’s Reconciling Grace Transforms Relationships

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18).