“The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1).
Stephen Charnock: “It is fit we should know why we believe, that our belief of a God may appear to be upon undeniable evidence, and that we may give a better reason for His existence than that we have heard our parents and teachers tell us so, and our acquaintance think so. It is as much as to say there is no God, when we know not why we believe there is, and would not consider arguments for his existence.”
Clay Miller: I went through a time, in my early 20’s where I began to ask myself why I believed what I did. I was frustrated with the way churches operated. I was frustrated with the lack of commitment by church members. I was frustrated especially by the indifference of church people in the area of defending what they said they believed. I could not defend much. I was taught verses here and there to defend certain things, but when someone brought up other passages that seemed to teach something different, I was confused. I totally believed the Bible was the word of God (an issue I would deal with during that time too) which means I totally believed in God. But I just didn’t believe that things were right where I was going at the time…that testimony is for another day. I almost gave up. But God, in His providence, led me to read a book my old youth minister had given me when he was concerned I might be getting into the health/wealth, name-it-claim-it, prosperity heresy…which I was a little at the time. He had given me that book years before…for some reason, near quitting, I read it, of all books. It was an eye opener for one reason…I saw for the first time that Christianity had real answers and there were reasons that some disagreements were really important, even to the point of disqualifying certain systems as heretical. For the first time, I learned about apologetics.
This peaked my curiosity and I began to search out more information. I resolved to read my Bible again with a more focused deliberation and to accept what it taught, but not to let any system with contradictions be acceptable. This was hard for me. I am not what you would call intellectual. But God was taking a simple minded person and showing me things I knew were there, but people had explained away, and He was convincing me of those truths. I found myself making sense of the Bible more than ever and I found that everyone has a system with a name, whether they know that or not. Contradictions bothered me. But the one system I found that I truly believe is consistent throughout is reformed theology…and I am speaking in the areas of justification, sovereignty of God, and the depravity of man especially. Now I can say I thought for myself my worldview. I don’t believe it just because my parents taught me, though they were used by God tremendously. I don’t believe what I believe because my youth pastor or other pastors told me to…though God used them greatly as well in many ways. And I do not believe because my friends do…I lost most all of my friends because of my beliefs, though God brought me great like-minded friends immediately.
I really think everyone should consider/think through why they believe what they believe and force themselves to honestly think it through and while they may have to accept some hard truths and humbling truths, they should not accept blatant, unexplainable contradictions. We will not be saved because we are riding the coattails of our parents or teachers or friends. As the illustration goes…just because you are born in a garage, it does not make you a car. Just because you are born into a Christian home, it does not make you a Christian…And just because you were raised to think one way, that does not mean it is right. May God help us all to see truth. Truth matters.
