Fairly recently, I discovered that an old friend of mine recently "came out".
As I thought about this situation, I found myself contemplating what a Christian's response should be to such a thing.
On one hand – I could throw my hands up in the air, acknowledge that this person does not hold the same beliefs as I do, and just say and do nothing. Mind my own business.
On the other hand – as someone who believes that Hell is a very real place, I feel that sometimes the cruelest, and most hateful things we can do is to passively stand by and watch people barrel directly towards it.
Obviously the former is the "easier" approach, and frankly, most of the world would say that is 100%, without a doubt, what I should do. When it comes to matters of homosexuality, society has made its stance abundantly clear – don't push your "hateful", "oppressive" righteousness on us.
And as I thought further, it occurred to me that even if I DID decide to have a conversation with this person – if I just came at them saying "I don't think you should embrace this lifestyle, and I think you should flee from it..." would that have any impact at all? No. It wouldn't. 1000% of the time, it would have no impact. Even if the person had a deep level of respect or fondness for me – I hold no illusion that approaching the subject in that way would make even the slightest of difference, except for the other person to have a little (or a lot) less respect for me and my opinions.
But, in the imaginary conversation I had in my head, it played out like this:
Me: "I think you are heading down a bad path here, and think you should give pause before making this your identity."
Friend: "Why?"
Me: "Because the Bible is very clear that God abhors homosexuality. It states it repeatedly. Embracing it is the ultimate rejection of God and His will. It is you saying to Him, no, I'm not going to change. YOU change."
Friend: "That may be true, but I don't particularly believe the Bible, much less use it as a guiding authority for the way I live my life."
Ahh... there it is.
At the end of the day, most of the problems our world has with God, religion, faith, etc., is simply a lack of belief in the Bible.
As I see it, I basically see four levels of Biblical belief:
- The Bible is not true at all, and ought to be rejected outright.
- The Bible has some moral merit, in the same way that Aesop's Fables do, but never so much that it should cause one to apply it as a way of life.
- The Bible is true, but is not intended to be taken literally. It is filled with allegory, poetry, and metaphors, for us to find meaning in.
- The Bible is the inerrant word of God, and should be taken exactly as it is written.
The fact that we have at least four different levels of belief is what ultimately leads to every problem we have in the world today.
If everybody were to believe, live, and act as though the Bible were the inerrant word of God, and that everything contained therein was truth – well... that would be Heaven.
Unfortunately, any alternate belief tends to create disruption and division.
The entire reason that me having a conversation with my recently "outed" friend would fall flat is because we are on opposite sides of the Biblical Truth Scale.
In order for unity to occur, I would either need to get them to move up the scale, or they would need to get me to move down the scale. Either way, someone is going to have to change their deeply held beliefs, which is no small feat to ask of anybody.
But that got me thinking... what would it take to get somebody to move "up" this belief scale?
This, incidentally, goes back to one of the first questions that I asked, as I truly began my Christian journey.
"How do we even know that the Bible is real? How do we know that it wasn't just a work of fiction that got taken WILDLY out of context? Do I really believe these crazy stories like a guy building a massive boat, and putting two of every animal on it? Or that there was a snake in some mythical garden that convinced a woman to eat an apple that lead to the destruction of mankind?"
I had these doubts for a really long time, but often suppressed them, out of guilt. I wasn't ready to admit that I had doubts about my faith, and thought that maybe if I just pretended that I didn't have those doubts, that they would go away.
Alas, they didn't.
So – I spoke to a trusted pastor, and started seeking answers.
I was surprised, actually, that I wasn't rebuked by my pastor, or chastised for my questions or lack of belief. Quite the contrary, I was encouraged to continue seeking those answers, and was given a few resources to get started with.
When I first started on this journey, I would say I was between the second and third rungs of the Biblical Truth Scale. I don't know that I ever fully doubted the truth of Christ, but, I certainly could have arrived at that point, if in my seeking I found little truth in the reliability of the Bible.
While it is far beyond my capabilities to discuss all of the reasons why I have found the Bible to be a valid, historical, and truth-filled set of books – I will suffice it to say that there are other, more skilled writers who have written volumes of books on why we can indeed trust the Bible as a reliable source. I will include links to some of my favorites below.
From this point however, we arrive at three potentials:
The first potential outcome is that people will ignore the availability of these resources, and continue living their life as they have been. Perhaps they are afraid of reading something that will require them to change, or possibly out of sheer laziness or disinterest – they will continue in their unbelief.
The second possible outcome is that people will actually consume these resources, but also continue rejecting them. The most likely case is that the cost of change is too painful for them, and so they reject the information, without a well-formed counter-argument. Or, the far less likely scenario is that they have some information that genuinely does refute the facts contained in scripture. People LOVE to boast that they have completely dismantled the truth found in scripture – but alas, 2000 some odd years later, there are more Christians than ever before in history.
And the third possible outcome is that people will accept that what they are reading has merit and truth, and begin to let it change how they feel about the Bible. This leads to them moving up a rung in the Biblical Truth Scale.
Now – if you have any belief in the Bible whatsoever – then the next question becomes... can we believe all of it?
While many Christians may consider it a win if somebody makes the leap from Atheist/Agnostic to Theist... people believing that the Bible is filled with half-truths, contradictions, and allegorical stories that are meant to provide wisdom, but not to be adhered to as truth can be equally, if not more dangerous.
This is how we arrive at different denominations within the church. This is how we end up with churches that twist scripture, and somehow arrive at the conclusion that homosexuality is actually okay, or that God changes his stance on things, just because society has.
This is indeed a very slippery slope.
The implication here is that if any part of the Bible is untrue - then it stands to reason that ANY part of the Bible could feasibly be untrue. And who gets to determine what is true and what is false? This is a direct path for people to cherry-pick which parts of the Bible they wish to adhere to and which parts they conveniently ignore – such as their stance on homosexuality, abortion, greed & wealth, and so many other sins.
The stark reality is – it either HAS to all be true, or, the entire thing should be discarded.
I would like to point out though that one common argument that I see when I discuss the resources that I have used that have enabled me to trust the Bible implicitly, is that people will try to say "You didn't actually properly or fairly research both sides of the issue, in order to make a logical conclusion. You simply sought out resources that would defend the views you already had."
Alas – that is not at all a true statement. Much of the research that I have done has been actively trying to find merit in other systems of belief. Indeed – for the past 60 years or so, we have all been indoctrinated, to a large degree, AGAINST the claims of the Bible. I would even go so far as to say that for "most" people, atheism/agnosticism is their default state.
The reality is – both sides of the spectrum require a leap of faith. Theists have not conclusively been able to show evidence of God... and Atheists have likewise not conclusively been able to show that there is no God. So, regardless of which side you are inclined to believe, it requires a leap of faith.
For me however, the leap of faith to believe Christianity and Creationism was much more reasonable and logical.
In my eyes, creation itself is evidence of a creator. The fact that we live on an earth that is perfectly and delicately balanced to house life – and the fact that if that balance were to be off by even a small degree would cause mass extinction, indicates to me that it was intentionally made.
Think of it this way. Imagine going into the Louvre in Paris, and looking at the Mona Lisa. But, instead of concluding that Leonardo Da Vinci painted it centuries ago, to where it was passed down through the ages, ultimately into the hands of a museum curator, and placed upon a secure display, you conclude that that isn't how it happened at all. Instead, you conclude that the very museum you are standing in was once a gigantic piece of rock... and that over billions of years, it eventually eroded... and through countless biological processes, stalactites and stalagmites dripping... tectonic plates shifting.. dirt, debris and bacteria settling, you ultimately ended up with the museum as you are experiencing it now. And the very painting that you are looking at, is actually a sheer stroke of radical improbability, of randomly colored "rain drops" that just so happened to form in the shape of a smiling woman.. which also happened to form behind bulletproof glass.
Do you see how much more of an unnatural leap it takes to believe the latter, rather than just believing that it was created intentionally?
Sadly – when it comes to the theories of evolution, the big bang, and "survival of the fittest", our culture perpetuates it as assumed truth. There is no further discussion about it. It is a foregone conclusion. This is what happened, and anybody who even suggests otherwise is a science-denying moron. Never mind the fact that none of it has ever been proven. Never mind that there has never been, even one single, solitary fossil found that shows a species transitioning from one thing to another, in order to "evolve". Never mind that in the history of mankind, in all of the billions of people that are alive today and were alive in the past have we seen a single genetic flaw turn into a handy new "feature" that becomes critical for our survival.
Look – I'm not a scientist. I'm not an archaeologist. And I don't have various PhD's. However, I'm also not stupid. I would happily weigh my intelligence against any test that you want to throw at me to demonstrate that point. And in my experience, when people attempt to have you believe that you can't appreciate or understand something because you're not intelligent enough – they're usually full of it.
I see this a lot in the art world. There are people who will pay stupid amounts of money for garbage, because they have been duped into believing that it is something other than garbage. But, they do so with their nose in the air, because if people don't "get it", they're just not sophisticated, or intelligent enough.
Forgive my juvenile expression... but what a load of crap.
We "used" to construct buildings that looked like this:
We "used" to paint masterpieces like this:
And we "used" to create sculptures like this:
Now... we peddle absurdity like this, and claim that it's art – and anybody who says otherwise, just doesn't "get it".
I suppose if people truly desire to pretend that the latter has as much value as the former, then it is perfectly understandable why they would also prefer to remain ignorant on matters such as faith.
My encouragement to anybody who may be reading this, would be to seek out your own facts, and make the decision for yourself. Which is more logical? Can we actually believe the Bible?
To get you started, here are a few resources that I have personally read, and found very useful.