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How to Get Out of a Corner

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How to Get Out of a Corner

by Greg Koukl

The Christian gets pigeon-holed as the judgmental one, but everyone else is judging, too. It’s an inescapable consequence of believing in morality.

I have a friend who is a deeply committed Christian woman and whose boss is a lesbian. That in itself isn’t a problem. My friend has the maturity to know you can’t expect non-Christians to live like Christians. But her boss posed a difficult question to her, and talking about it with you might help expand your horizons on how to get out of a tough situation. 

The boss wanted to know what my friend’s attitude was toward homosexuality.

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Now that’s a tough one, isn’t it, because she’s a Christian and has strong views on the issue. At the same time, she was concerned that expressing her own personal views to her employer (for whom the question was not merely academic) might compromise her situation. 

My friend’s response was, “Please tell me what my feelings about homosexuality have to do with our professional relationship?” In sword fighting that’s called a parry. She deflected her boss’s question, pushing it aside by asking about its relevance. Because she was quick, my friend avoided what might have been an unpleasant confrontation.

It was a fair response. Sometimes you’re asked a personal question when it’s not the best time to express your opinion. When we make our case about the Lord or our religious or ethical views, we want to choose the time and place so we can be the most sensitive to the person we’re talking to. We don’t want our views misunderstood or twisted.

In less-than-ideal circumstances it’s entirely fair to say, “You know, I’m not really comfortable offering my point of view at this time,” or something like that. Or, as my friend did, “Could you clarify what this has to do with our relationship?”   

My friend had successfully parried the issue for the moment, but suspected it would come up again. She might not be able to sidestep twice. What should she do?

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Stand to Reason | How to Get Out of a Corner

What Does Faith in Christ Mean?

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What Does Faith in Christ Mean?

by Greg Koukl

The three aspects of faith – knowledge, assent, and trust – are all necessary for saving faith.

This issue has gotten me a little bit worked up, to be honest with you. It's one thing when you're dealing with a somewhat academic issue and you're talking about something that is important, but merely factual, as opposed to something that hits at the heart of who you are and also relationships that are close to you. I've been trying to sharpen my thinking (bring it into clearer focus) on this issue of salvation and lordship. The ironic thing is that characteristically I have argued against the idea of repentance/lordship in relationship to salvation on the air. The reason is that it just seems to me that it is not a prerequisite for a person who is not a Christian to somehow surrender their lives and turn from their sins as a condition to receive salvation. My view is that Jesus catches his fish first and then cleans them. So, I've kind of been resistant to that, but at the same time I've been very serious about the issue of obedience and holy living and having your life make a difference, and not just getting fire insurance by saying some magical prayer that never ultimately influences your life.

But recently I found myself in two conversations with family members that forced me to do some more work on this issue. I found myself sounding like I was arguing on both sides of this issue. By the way, it's no one here in Southern California so no one here knows them. But I want you to know they're family so you know that this was not merely an academic exercise.

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One claimed she was a Christian because at some point, as I recall it was about eighteen years ago, she "received" Christ. When I questioned her she believed that Jesus died for her sins. That sounds like she's in. She's got the right answers on that issue. But I'll tell you quite frankly, from a practical point of view, she is living the life of an atheist. I asked her at one point, how would I know by looking at your life that you're a Christian? She said that she doesn't use the Lord's name in vain too often. I said, that sounds to me like you trying to convince me that you love your husband because you only call him an S.O.B. once a week. That to me is not a compelling argument that either you love your husband or you love Christ. She asked me if I thought she was a Christian and I said no. Now, I don't know what's in her heart. I don't know what God thinks about it. I've got to judge based on what I see, and except for this somewhat banal confession of faith, there is nothing that indicates to me that there is any more dimension to her Christian life than that one statement.

Now, another person in my family is leading a very thorough-going Christian life but he heard a tape in which John MacArthur was very exercised on this issue of lordship/salvation and he began doubting his faith. Now, how do I make sense out of this? Actually, my encouragement to both was quite different.

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Stand to Reason | What Does Faith in Christ Mean?

A problem only a supernatural solution can fix

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YOUR GIVING KEEPS US GROWING!

If you’re searching for that perfect line of logic capable of subduing any objection, you’re wasting your time. There is no magic, no silver bullet, no clever turn of thought or phrase that’s guaranteed to compel belief…We have very limited control over how other people respond to us.That’s largely in God’s hands. We can remove some of the negatives or dispel some of the fog—and we ought to try to do both. But at the end of the day, a person’s deep-seated rebellion against God is a problem only a supernatural solution can fix. —Greg Koukl  (from: When Your Argument Lacks Impact)

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How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians Today?

How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians Today?

by Greg Koukl

As New Testament Christians in the New Covenant, which commands or moral principles are obligatory and would apply regardless of the covenants because they are universal morals that transcend the Mosaic Law?

God's laws – from both the Old Testament and New Testament – are not just arbitrary expressions of His power. God does not make one thing up today and make up something contradictory tomorrow. He is not a nasty monster asserting that whatever He says goes, even if He says the opposite of what He said yesterday.

The Mosaic Law of the Old Testament was written for the chosen people of Israel. Let me make a distinction between how the Israelites were chosen then and how we as Christians are chosen now because it relates to the purpose of the Law and how we apply it today.

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Israel was chosen for a purpose – Genesis 12:1-3. They were God's instruments to accomplish a plan of rescue for the world: God becoming man as a member of the Jewish race and dying on the cross for man's crimes against God. They were not chosen to be saved, rather they were chosen to be used to accomplish God’s plan of salvation. Many of those Jews took advantage of the mercy offered through that plan, and many went wayward. Israel's being chosen did not secure their salvation. It secured a salvation plan for the world, and whether they individually participated in it or not was another question.

Christians are the chosen in the sense that those who are in Christ, putting their trust in Him, are the ones that benefitted from that plan of salvation God was working out through Israel. We put our confidence in Him, so we are chosen regarding salvation.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever because He is God. God doesn't change, but that does not mean the way He deals with mankind doesn't change. God dealt with Adam and Eve in one way, and He dealt with the Jews through Abraham with a different plan. He deals with Christians now through a new plan, a new covenant…

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Stand to Reason | How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians Today?

 

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A Desperate Need

I’m animated by the conviction that Christianity and Christian values, if properly understood and properly articulated, can “stand to reason” in the public square. The truth is on our side, but whether that truth will make a difference depends on whether or not the church is trained to engage others in gracious yet incisive dialog. There’s a desperate need to equip followers of Jesus Christ to explain and defend Christian beliefs and values with people who don’t understand our language and who don’t accept our source of authority. That need is especially acute for two groups: an emerging post-modern generation that has lost confidence that any claims to truth are legitimate, and an increasingly relativistic church grounded more on personal experience than in biblical truth. —Greg Koukl

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