Don't Just Take My Word for It!

October 29th, 2021

I didn’t understand how they could be worshiping¹ the same God I had just met.

Being a former devout atheist, it was a little strange for me when I first got saved. I entered the church on fire for my new-found faith, only to find a stagnant, mediocre church that seemed to be bowing to any of the pressures that the secular society was throwing at them. I was tenaciously working my way through the Bible trying to understand all that it had to say, while at the same time noticing that the church seemed indifferent to the truths found within the pages of the Word. I couldn’t help but see that for the most part, people were almost zombie-like in the way they approached their Christian faith. Simply checking off the box for weekly church attendance and putting a dollar or two in the offering plate was good enough for them. I didn’t understand how they could be worshiping¹ the same God I had just met.

There can be no doubt that one cause for much of the spiritual apathy I observed came down to a lack of fundamental faith in the Bible as the absolute standard of Truth in our world. If Christians actually read and applied the Word of God to their lives and culture, not only would the mass exodus from the church stop, but the church would look entirely different from the world around them. On top of that, evolution and relativism are hurled at believers with an incensed emotionalism, and many Christians don’t know the first thing about the fallacies of evolution or what it takes for life to form at all.

It’s the “Goo-to-You” worldview and along the way, Christians began feeling defeated by such lunacy!

Portions of Scripture like the “creation of man” that people used to believe by faith have now been attacked and questioned. Could we have somehow accidentally evolved from a prebiotic “soup” to a complex multicellular organism and share a “common ancestry” with all other life forms? It’s the “Goo-to-You” worldview and along the way, Christians began feeling defeated by such lunacy! Because many rely on the world’s supposed “experts” to explain our origins, their belief in a literal Genesis account for creation has been tainted, and doubts about their faith are born.

Are you doubtful?

Doubt, in itself, is not a problem. In fact, it is a healthy and natural part of life. To say that a person never has doubts about something, is like saying that Hollywood actors never use the bathroom. We may never see them doing it, but we certainly know that they do! In every world view around the globe, including Atheism, doubt is evidenced by every person. We need to make sure that we deal with our doubts by actually testing them, however, and not letting them result in untested unbelief!

The Columbo Tactic²

One of the best ways to examine your doubts is to use what’s known as the “Columbo Tactic.” Columbo was a seemingly incompetent TV investigator whose remarkable success at solving crimes was always based on a couple of simple questions. By asking these questions, Columbo was able to uncover the truth about any given circumstance he faced, leading to the conviction of the correct assailant.

1) What do you mean by that?
It is vitally important to clarify the exact nature of the question in order to know what you are looking to figure out without unnecessary confusion. Be like the Bereans who didn’t just believe something somebody said, they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)

2) How did you come to that conclusion?
Knowing WHY you believe something is the most important thing! Without absolute knowledge we may be “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4:14)

Be a Berean--Study for Yourself!

In a world of growing confusion, we should all seek to “Be a Berean” and study the Word of God to “present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). By doing so we can “frustrate the devices and schemes of the crafty, so that their hands cannot attain success or achieve anything of [lasting] worth” (Job 5:12 Amplified Bible).

The enemy has no foothold in those who know and live out the everlasting Word of the living God.

Being a Berean means taking back Truth in a world set on perpetuating lies that are meant to destroy God’s plans on earth. When we “have stored up God’s word in our hearts” (Psalm 119:11), we will “know the plans God has for us, declared by the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). The enemy has no foothold in those who know and live out the everlasting Word of the living God. Be a Berean!
Be Bold!

To learn more about Dave Glander, our blogger for this week, or to book him as a speaker, please click HERE.

Footnotes:

This spelling of "worshiping" is in line with Webster's spelling rules for two-syllable words where the first syllable is the stressed syllable, and the second syllable ends with a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. It is also the preferred spelling in American English Bible versions, though "worshipping" may show up as a more common spelling in general American English. (https://strategiesforparents.com/worshiped-or-worshipped-which-spelling-is-correct/ )
Gregory Koukl, Tactics. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Reflective, 2019), pp. 52-86.