August 13, 2019

• Marty Sampson

  Last week it was Josh Harris... this week it is Marty Sampson (former songwriter for Hillsong) who is announcing he no longer believes in Jesus Christ.
  https://pjmedia.com/…/songwriter-for-hillsong-tells-fans-h…/
  Here are some of my thoughts, adding to the good thoughts from John Ellis and Paula Bolyard at that link.

  People these days seem to be leaving Christianity for three main reasons:
  (1) They see hypocritical, unloving, greedy, or abusive behavior from Christians they know (family or church),
  (2) They have intellectual doubts about the Bible (and instead of their questions being openly discussed, the questions are stifled, either by others or just bottled up inside because they are paid church staff), or
  (3) they consider the personal cost too high to follow Christ, because of societal or family persecution.

  Regarding (1), the church has always had broken and sinful people in it, like a hospital has sick people. That will not change. Some people will leave because they focus on the mess in the church, not the Lord Jesus Christ and what He is doing to redeem people's lives. Some churches have real problems with prosperity gospel teaching (google "Preachers N Sneakers", "Prophets N Watches"), other churches have other issues, but all churches have sinful people. Good resource on the prosperity gospel problem - http://www.americangospelfilm.com/ (There's a free shortened version of the film online.) As Ravi Zacharias says, "Put aside your anger at the church for a moment. What about Jesus Christ? Consider his life/death/resurrection..."

  Regarding (2), this is an area we can get directly involved to help our friends! I'm extremely excited about this because I used to have these same questions, and now that I have found good answers, I love helping other people find them too. Marty Sampson wrote:
  "I want genuine truth. Not the 'I just believe it' kind of truth. Science keeps piercing the truth of every religion.... How many miracles happen. Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love yet send four billion people to a place, all 'coz they don’t believe? No one talks about it."

  Marty is right that we need to "talk about it!" There are solid, satisfactory answers for these questions, but too often, the questions are pushed under the rug and glossed over with a sentiment of "stop questioning and just believe", or even, fluffy worship choruses.
  Marty is right that very few miracles happen these days (most that are publicized are fake...), and we shouldn't be basing our faith on them anyway (see the "American Gospel" film). Alleged Bible contradictions, science, archaeology, and God's justice in sending people to Hell - we SHOULD discuss these things. We should encourage our friends to be willing to voice these questions and others that they are struggling with.

  There are so many good resources these days for helping to answer our questions. These may or may not be helpful to simply give to a questioner, but they are helpful for us who believe (and to answer our OWN questions), so we can prepare ourselves to answer, so we are ready when our friends ask us tough questions. Here are a few resources:

  - Science and the Bible - https://creation.com/qa

  - Bible seeming-contradictions and difficulties: https://www.gluefox.com/min/contrad.htm and http://christianthinktank.com/objedex.html and https://www.answering-islam.org/Bible/Contra/index.html

  - Hell: https://coldcasechristianity.com/…/quick-shot-a-loving-god…/

  Regarding (3), as Jesus said, we will have to make a choice. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:24-26

  Many around the world today are choosing to follow Jesus despite losing everything in the process.

  Please feel free to contact me personally if you have more questions about Jesus and Christianity and the Bible!! I would love to discuss with you....

  • 11:35 pm
  • Comments Off