OBJECTIONS to the GOSPEL pt4.

We need not view all challenges & objections to the truth as a bad thing. Some folks are just trying to work through the differences from what they’ve been falsely taught.

For the most part it is a necessary step in presenting the gospel. Challenges and objections are necessary to help a person to learn how to study and determine scriptural authority.

It can be viewed as a sign that a person is interested. It can also be a sign of someone who is rejecting the gospel.

As long as they’re asking questions, we can be prepared to answer them. [Col 4:6; 1Peter 3:15].

 

OBJECTIONS #7; I THINK.

This is a subtle objection that I find myself saying. The phrase “I Think” needs to be replaced with “God’s word says.” We live in a world that has embraced the idea of ‘my truth, your truth’ as if everyone has their own version of what is true. We need to have discussions about what does the Bible say?

Naaman is a great illustration for this very point. [2Kings 5:1-14] He had leprosy, learned of the cure and was told by ‘then man of God’ what he had to do to be cured. His first words? I THOUGHT… He thought the cure should look different, be more dramatic or at least be more comfortable. [v11] What we want things to be, doesn’t change the way things are. We need to obey the cure God commands.

For some they think the way to go is through TRADITIONS of their family or culture. Jesus pointed out that the religious leaders were laying aside the commands of God for their TRADITIONS. “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” [Mark 7:9]

Others thing that their HEART will lead them to the truth, that they can feel they’re saved. Experience tells us this is no way to go. Emotion neither proves nor disproves anything. It’s possible to believe a lie, [2Thess 2:11-12; cf. Gen 37:30-35]

God’s word says through the Apostle Paul, IF ANYONE preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. [Gal 1:6-10] We need to check out everyone, especially our own selves. Search the scriptures [Acts 17:11; 2Tim 2:15; 3:16-17].

This touches on the real problem. More and more people, even among believers, just do NOT KNOW the Scriptures. Jesus pointed this out to the Sadducees in Mat 22:26; “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” God said it this way, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,” [Hosea 4:6]

The last part of this objection comes in the form of an appeal to what our KIN folk have done. Very similar to tradition, but this takes it further by adding an emotional spin to it. “I go to the church my grandparents used to go. I even sit in their pew.”

What if your parents, grandparents were wrong? Are you going to allow yourself to be lost because they got it wrong? Here’s a question to ask yourself, What do your grandparents want for you now that they have sight? [cf. Luke 16:27-28] No parent or grandparent wants their children to repeat their mistakes.

Jesus gave a very difficult saying, “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” [Mat 10:34-38]. This is not a physical sword, rather it’s a spiritual sword. [cf. Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12]

The solution to I THINK is to ask;

• What does the BIBLE SAY?
• What does GOD SAY? (I repeat myself)
• What does JESUS SAY? (I repeat, repeat myself)

“This is my beloved Son: hear him.”

[Mark 9:7; cr. Heb 1:1-2]

 

–Spencer