Gospel.com Blog

Earlier this week I ran across a post on Experimental Theology that discusses different approaches to the theology of demons. The author provides two viewpoints on either end of a spectrum: the Liberal and the Literalist. The former being a sort of demythologizing of the New Testament and the latter a sort of high-alert “demons are everywhere!” approach. Most people fit somewhere in between those two stances.

Hop on over and read the entire article, the author presents some fascinating descriptions of where those views on demons go wrong.

The post got me thinking about whether or not belief in God necessitates a belief in the devil and demons. Can you believe in God without believing in Demons? It would seem to follow that if one believes in a higher supernatural power like God, you then they open up the possibility for other beings who exist on the supernatural plane: some of which would be sources of evil. The Bible would seem to corroborate this, yet few people actually live as if this is part of reality.

Truth be told, I personally put little stock in demons. What little belief I do have in the power of demons is balanced by my trust that God is far more powerful than any demonic force that may or may not exist. In short, I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about the powers of darkness; I’d rather spend time focusing on the good in the supernatural realm. Yet, the evidence points to evil forces in the world, so should I believe in them and—like the demons do towards God—”shudder?”

What about you though, what role do you see demonic forces play in our world? Do you believe that Satan has a hand in everything, is mainly an impotent being, or doesn’t even exist?

This mornings devotional comes from Charles Spurgeon’s classic devotional Morning and Evening. Spurgeon writes about Job’s burning desire to find God in the midst of his pain. It consumed his very being:

Finding God by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“O that I knew where I might find Him!”

–Job 23:3

In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’s face. His first prayer is not “O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!” nor even “O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!” but the first and uppermost cry is, “O that I knew where I might find HIM, who is my God! that I might come even to His seat!” God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer. A hypocrite, when afflicted by God, resents the infliction, and, like a slave, would run from the Master who has scourged him; but not so the true heir of heaven, he kisses the hand which smote him, and seeks shelter from the rod in the bosom of the God who frowned upon him.

Job’s desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation. The patriarch turned away from his sorry friends, and looked up to the celestial throne, just as a traveller turns from his empty skin bottle, and betakes himself with all speed to the well. He bids farewell to earth-born hopes, and cries, “O that I knew where I might find my God!” Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides. Turning away with bitter scorn from earth’s hives, where we find no honey, but many sharp stings, we rejoice in Him whose faithful word is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. In every trouble we should first seek to realize God’s presence with us. Only let us enjoy His smile, and we can bear our daily cross with a willing heart for His dear sake.
This is a public domain version of Morning and Evening.

Have you ever been in an inconsolable place in which you had nothing but God? How did it feel?

Are the world’s religions all just different paths to the same destination? Most Christians would answer “no,” as traditional Christianity teaches that Jesus alone can bring us into a relationship with God. But how would you respond to somebody who asked you, personally, if Islam or Buddhism or another religion ultimate led to God?

Here’s how RBC Ministries answers the question:

The major religions that still survive today have lasted a long time, gained many followers, and produced complex and highly developed cultures. Those that have survived into the 20th century generally uphold a moral law similar to the biblical 10 Commandments.  But the world’s major religions do not share a consensus about how to come to terms with our failure to live up to the moral standards of our faith.

While all major contemporary religions have a fairly close general consensus regarding the moral law—the kind of behavior that deserves to be classified as virtuous or sinful—they fall far short of showing us how to come to terms with our own failure to live up to the moral standards of our faith.

According to the New Testament gospel of Christ, knowledge of the moral law brings awareness of sin and guilt (Romans 3:19,20; 7:7-13; 1 Timothy 1:7-11), but is in itself not a means of salvation. Knowledge of the moral law only brings condemnation, and with condemnation comes guilt and the many destructive ways people try to suppress it (legalism, self-righteousness, scapegoating).Only reliance upon Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection in our behalf provides a solution to the awareness of moral condemnation and agony of guilt that rises out of knowledge of the moral law. Only Christianity offers access to God because it answers the problem of evil and guilt.

Read the rest of RBC Ministries’ answer at their website.

Is that a good answer to the question? Do you think that all religions lead to the same God—and if not, how would you answer somebody who asked you why not?

What do you think?

Sometimes, it’s easy to convince ourselves that quitting is the best option. Would it really be that bad if we were to break our diet? Would it be terrible to give up on a rocky relationship? Would it really hurt anybody if we just stopped reading the Bible?

In our best moments, I think we all know quitting difficult things just because they are difficult is never the best option. Yet, there’s often a very loud voice in our head screaming a panoply of reasons why we should reconsider those commitments.

Michael Hyatt—the CEO of Thomas Nelson, Inc.—articulates how he counteracts these thoughts in his post, What Keeps You Going When You Want to Quit. It really has me thinking about why I don’t give up on certain things, and why I have—possibly foolishly—quit others.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

What these same voices fail to tell you is that there is a distinction between the dream and the work required to obtain it. Everything important requires work. Hard work. And sometimes there is a long arc between the dream and it’s realization. That is where the work and the transformation occur.

In my experience, the thing that keeps me going is answering this question, “Why am I doing this?” I then try to remember the dream. “Why I am doing this hard thing that I am doing.” I try to get connected to the original vision, because that keeps me going when the going gets tough.

There are a few verses in the second chapter of Job that have stuck with me ever since I first read them. Job has just lost everything he owns and is covered in sores. Sitting destitute in the street, his wife comes to him and tells him to curse God and die. He amazingly responds, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Job’s wife has given up on the situation, and if we were honest, many of us would as well. We’d start to reconsider our commitment to a God that would allow such heartache. Yet, Job examines the situation and concludes that it’s not for him to judge his commitment to God based on his present circumstances. As Mr. Hyatt would say, he stayed “connected to the original vision.”

What about you? What keeps you going when times get hard?

For Sam Allberry, confessing that you believe in the Trinity is one thing, actually acting like it’s true is another.

Sam argues in his provocatively titled post, The Rise of Islamic Christianity, that it’s possible to hold to a stated belief in the Trinity, yet functionally act as if we are Unitarians. Unless we actively seek to involve Trinitarian thinking into our lives and community we’ll find ourselves in two predicaments:

1. Our view of church will become functional and not relational.
We will only meet to “do” things, and will not really see the point of meeting for merely social reasons. Our gatherings will become a matter of utility and not family….The minister will see his congregation as ‘clients’; his ministry as one of shunting people through the right programs. He will see himself as a professional ‘Bible teacher’. His people will feel handled rather than loved. The church will be the place to grow for a while in understanding, or at least in Bible knowledge, but will not be the place to find authentic Christian community.

2. Our aim for church will be uniformity and not diversity.
The Trinity shows us a God who is unity in diversity rather than unity in sameness. The Father, Son and Spirit are not interchangeable. They share an ontological unity, but function differently within the purposes of God. This lies behind Paul’s teaching on the variety of gifts found in the church in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.

He continues to argue that acting as Unitarians leads to conformity of the worst kind. We won’t value the diverse gifts of the kingdom. We won’t even be able to act as the body of Christ because instead of celebrating the cornucopia of spiritual gifts, we’ll uphold one gift as the only true one.

In my mind, Allberry’s key point is that our belief in the Trinity is both an intellectual and a spiritual matter.

Some struggle with the intellectual aspect of the Trinity, it might never make philosophical sense, but they can readily trust in it by faith. For others, they have no problem intellectually believing it, it’s the faith part they have a hard time with. Either way, it should be patently clear to anyone who has tried to discuss the Trinity that it’s not an easy concept to grasp, but—as Allberry points out—it has profound effects on everything to do with our faith: how we read the Bible, how we interact with God, how we pray, how we live in community, etc.

Do you agree with Allberry? Have you seen how your beliefs (or other’s beliefs) about the Trinity effect interactions with other people? Can a nominal belief in the Trinity really lead to a dismantling of Christian community?

Does God exist? Is there scientific evidence for the existence of a Creator? What reasons, if any, are there to believe that the God of the Bible is real?

The question of the existence of God is perhaps the most basic challenge that any Christian must face, and even believers can find it difficult to respond when asked to offer objective, scientific evidence for God’s existence. It’s such a common and important question that many of the apologetics ministries in the Gospel.com community have published material addressing it. Here’s how several community members answer the question of God’s existence:

• Is there rational evidence for the existence of God? from FaithFacts.
• Why believe in God’s existence if it can’t be proven scientifically? from RBC Ministries.
• Is there any evidence that God exists? from the Scibel science ministry.
• If God exists, why doesn’t he reveal himself? from Delve Into Jesus.
• Is there really a God? from Answers in Genesis.

The question of God’s existence has challenged theologians and philosophers for thousands of years, and there’s no quick and easy answer—but if it’s a question that’s bothered you (and who hasn’t wondered about this?), these essays can help you find the answer.