IT'S NOT ABOUT FEELINGS

Last week a recent poll was released stating that almost 15% of Americans say they either have no religion or have left behind organized religion. You know what? I think those numbers are soft and it has been that way for a long time.

Another poll was released this week that I find even more disturbing. There is an alarming ignorance of who God is and what He is like, even among professing Christians. This was shown in recent poll conducted by Barna.

According to the poll, half of Americans who call themselves “Christian” don’t believe that Satan exists and fully one-third are confident that Jesus sinned while on Earth. Further, 25% dismiss the idea that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches.”

The pollster concluded, “Growing numbers of people now serve as their own ‘theologian-in-residence.’ One consequence is that Americans are embracing an unpredictable and contradictory body of beliefs.”

So it’s time to help people change the way they “think.”

God wants us to think and not just feel. The Lord entreats us in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together” (NKJV), or another translation puts it, “Sit down, let’s argue this out!” (THE MESSAGE)

When you become a follower of Jesus, you do not have to “check your brains at the door.” Christianity is a reasonable, even logical, faith.

That is not to say we don’t need to have great faith to follow Christ, but it is to say the teachings of the Bible quite simply make sense!

What you feel is not the issue

Far too many people, when stating their opinion, will say, “I think,” ”I feel,” ”I believe,” or “My God would never do thus and so.”

We need more “The Bible says,” because then we will learn to think, feel, and believe the right things. This is called theology, and we neglect it at our own peril.

Experience is never to be the basis for theology. Sound theology, however, is the basis for experience.

C.S. Lewis gave this warning years ago: “If you do not listen to theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones!”

We ought, also, to be a people of sound theology without apology. Because what we believe about God will affect the way that we live. As 1 Timothy 4:16 says, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (NIV).

Sunday at Gatetree

Easter is a month away and we begin a new message series this Sunday that I’m calling “The Final Solution.” This series will focus our attention on the events surrounding the cross and the resurrection. The messages will be on our website, but if you’re in the Danville area, you ought to drop in for worship at 10:45 AM. I look forward to meeting you.