Author of Contradict – They Can't All Be True.
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Andy is in the process of turning his book, Contradict – They Can’t All Be True, into an audio edition. This episode is a sampling of the work in progress as he reads the first chapter. The influence of Hinduism in the West with its connections to religious pluralism is addressed, which leads perfectly into next week’s episode asking the question, “Is it OK for Christians to do yoga?”
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I (Andy) have recently noticed, on the Contradict Facebook page I administer and on other pages, that most posts on homosexuality speak just the Law of God ( i.e. his standards, commands, and expectations). The Gospel is typically missing.
I took a photo of a gay wedding cake and then added the text, “Jesus died for this sin too!” off to the side of the image. With this single statement the Gospel is proclaimed, and at the same time homosexuality is still shown to be sinful.
Jesus is the Savior of all adulterers. I am one of them. To clarify, in Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”, he defines adultery as any lust. He defines murder as hating anyone. Jesus essentially shows us that we all have broken God’s Law, that we are all sinners in need of divine redemption. He provided that redemption through the shedding of his blood for our sins, through his life, death, burial, and resurrection.
“To share or not to share?” That is the question. In this episode George shares why he chooses to abstain from sharing religious posts on social media sites, while I share why I am in full support of such posts. To close George shares four Facebook posts pertaining with homosexuality and wants to know if I’d share them or not. Putting the Law and Gospel principle into action, I decide to share or not to share.
To learn more about Law and Gospel watch the videos with Law and Gospel in their titles in the following playlist I created on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS-hGmUdPsUnbaRFbrhQqhy9zj-h5mwub
I saw an image on a friend’s Facebook wall. It was shared from a radio station’s page, presumably a rock station with the references to AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”.
I decided to share it to my Contradict – They Can’t All Be True Facebook page. To stick to the basic theme of the page, I typically share posts that demonstrate some sort of exclusive statement or contradiction or inconsistency within religious teachings, worldview thinking, or moral codes. I thought that the image of a highway versus a stairway are very contrasting by nature. One is typically flat, wide, and fast, whereas the other is typically narrow, ascending, and not fast-going. Their destinations were also very different. The fast tract leads to hell. The steps lead to heaven.
Bionically speaking these places are exact opposites. Their natures, though both eternal, are contradictory. Hell is a place of unrest. It’s a place of fire that cannot be quenched, yet it’s also a place of total darkness. Agony and misery belong for eternity for those in hell, and there is no hope… just despair. (Matthew 25:41, Matthew 8:12, Revelation 14:11, Luke 16:24, and 2 Thessalonians 1:9 to list a few verses) Heaven is a place of eternal rest. It’s a place of peace. A place where we will see the Lord face to face. There will be no hardships, no suffering, no evil, no death. The glory of the Lord shall light heaven forever. (Revelation 22:4, Revelation 7:16-17, and Revelation 21:23-25)
From what we know in Scripture, the only way to heaven is through faith in Jesus Christ. (John 14:6) Those who believe shall have eternal life and those who do not shall be eternally condemned. (John 3:36). There is no other name than Jesus’ by which we can be saved. (Acts 4:12) With this in mind, all roads besides the path that Christ provides must lead to hell, that is if the Words of the Bible are true, which I most certainly do believe to be the case.
Jesus spoke of a broad road that leads to destruction. He says that many enter through it. (Matthew 7:13) I think the many religions of this fallen and depraved world make up the lanes of this massive highway to hell. Jesus also spoke of a narrow road that leads to heaven. He said few find it. (Matthew 7:14) Elsewhere Jesus speaks of a great wedding banquet to which many are called but few are chosen. (Matthew 22) From Jesus’ words we can see that it does appear that many more will be in hell than those in heaven. Simply looking at the number of Christians in the world compared to the number of non-Christians, this certainly appears to be the situation.
To further support the Biblical nature of this radio station’s image, Scripture does speak of a “Stairway to Heaven”. It’s found in a dream that Jacob had at Bethel. (Genesis 28:12) Jesus later references this dream and places himself into the dream as the “Stairway to Heaven.” (John 1:51) In other words, Jesus is the “Stairway to Heaven”.
Based on the Word of God, I take the stance that it is a fact that there’s a “Highway to Hell” and a “Stairway to Heaven” and as their descriptions imply, many more will take the highway. Though these are song lyrics, it doesn’t mean they don’t echo the truth of Scripture in some ways. I shared this image on Facebook and then wrote this blog post to encourage us to consider the road we are on and to note that there is still time to change the one you’re on if it’s the highway. And if you are on the stairway, it’s time to start inviting more people to Jesus.
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A student of mine wanted to write an apologetics paper on the role or place of doubts in the life of a Christian. He wanted to find an answer to the question, “Is it OK for Christians to have Doubts?”
His conclusion after reading non-Christian and Christian sources was that one will still be saved even if that person doubts his or her salvation in Christ.
Here were his arguments:
1. Doubting your salvation is actually good! Doubting leads one to grow spiritually and intellectually, because a doubter will want to know the answer for the doubt, and through the research can increase trust or connection with the subject he or she had doubt. For Scriptural support, he cited 2 Cor. 13:5.
2. There is no reason to doubt your salvation. Doubts show a lack of understanding, but God has revealed all that we need to know for our salvation. “These things I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).
3. Salvation is important to any religion and every religion includes doubts as an important step to reach their goals. Overcoming doubt in Hinduism is an important step to reaching moksha. Buddhism calls for believers to overcome their religious doubts. His conclusion here was, “It is important to know how other religions take care of this problem because by knowing those religions, one can increase interactions with other religious believers and convince them to become Christian since it is easier for people to move towards Christ if they know that they can still have doubts and be a Christian.” It thought this was an interesting point. Other religions require a person to overcome doubts for salvation. Christianity allows a believer to still have doubts. It’s a more inviting offer.
4. God will always love you and tries to save you even if you are unfaithful to Him. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he [God] remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.” Luke 11:10 says, “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.” The student concluding this point by quoting John 3:16 and saying, “Even though we have sinned too much that we should be eternally separated from Him and put to death, He still saved us and took our punishment upon himself.”
The final conclusion was “you will still be saved even if you doubt your salvation as doubting is an integral part of growing faith in God and trust in the Bible, which is the only source that answers questions beyond our natural knowledge. This student also stated that this research has “made it easier for me to invite more people to Christ because Christianity is the only religion that only requires faith for salvation, while still allowing a person to be saved even if they have doubts.”
I’ll keep the student’s name anonymous, but I’d also like to share that he is a Japanese international student.
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Christian apologists typically favor a specific approach to defending the Christian faith. These approaches, or methods, are numerous and each school of apologetics touts its top apologists as the best models to follow when training in apologetics. It’s not uncommon to see advocates for certain schools of apologetics debate why their chosen method is superior. J. Warner Wallace however argues that we don’t need to argue over which method is the best, but instead says we need to embrace and train in all of these various schools of apologetics. He calls this training in Mixed Martial Apologetics!
Andy asks Wallace to name and explain some of the branches of Christian apologetics and when he thinks they are best utilized. Andy closes by sharing arguments he has heard against such a mix-bag approach to apologetics, asking Wallace to make a case for Mixed Martial Apologetics.
J. Warner Wallace is the author of Cold-Case Christianity and God’s Crime Scene. Wallace’s many resources for training in Mixed Martial Apologetics are available at his site, coldcasechristianity.com.
Episode Links:
“What is Apologetics” by Andy Wrasman
“It’s Time to Train in MMA: Mixed Martial Apologetics” by J. Warner Wallace
Andy Wrasman 