I once heard about a birthday card that on the outside read: “I was in a card store the other day looking for a card with a message that would fit you when suddenly this born again Christian guy came up to me and started quoting Scripture.” On the inside of the card it read: “So I shot him. Happy Birthday!”
Well, if you don’t like Christian truth, I suppose that’s one way of dealing with it.
In God in the Dock, C.S. Lewis describes another approach. “The man is shirking. He is deliberately trying not to know whether Christianity is true or false, because he foresees endless trouble if it should turn out to be true. He is like the man who deliberately ‘forgets’ to look at the notice board because, if he did, he might find his name down for some unpleasant duty. He is like the man who won’t look at his bank account because he’s afraid of what he might find there. He is like the man who won’t go to the doctor when he first feels a mysterious pain, because he is afraid of what the doctor might tell him.”
Lewis continues: “The man who remains an unbeliever for such reasons is not in a state of honest error. He is in a state of dishonest error, and that dishonesty will spread through all his thoughts and actions: a certain shiftiness, a vague worry in the background, a blunting of his whole mental edge, will result. He has lost his intellectual virginity.”
Lewis concludes by saying that to evade Jesus and His claims, “to look the other way, to pretend you haven’t noticed, to become suddenly absorbed in something on the other side of the street, to leave the receiver off the telephone because it might be He who was ringing up, to leave unopened certain letters in a strange handwriting because they might be from Him—this is a different matter [than having honest objections]. You may not be certain yet whether you ought to be a Christian; but you do know you ought to be a Man, not an ostrich, hiding its head in the sand.”
Scott Sauls is the pastor of a large Presbyterian church in Nashville TN. He wrote this in his blog on April 4, 2018:
“Recently, I spoke with a man who had heard the story of Jesus and the ‘many convincing proofs’ of the resurrection several times in his life. Yet, this man seemed deeply defensive, even overtly hostile, to the idea of becoming a Christian himself. I pointed out to my friend that he seemed not merely to disagree with the Gospel message, but that he seemed prone to also attack it. I asked him why this was so.
After a quiet pause, he answered, ‘Okay, Scott, I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll tell you the real reason why I dislike Christianity. It’s not because the evidence is unconvincing to me. In fact, the opposite is true. But I still don’t ever want to become a Christian because if I do, Jesus will ask me to forgive my father for the ways that he hurt me.’
Then Pastor Sauls wrote this: “I have had many similar conversations in which the person in front of me, when push came to shove, had no issues with the rational aspect of faith—but used the rational arguments as a smokescreen. For each of these friends and family members, beneath the surface was something about Christian discipleship—something about the narrow path of Jesus—that bothered them on a visceral level about the call to agree with and follow Jesus in every area of life. For my friend with the difficult father story, it was a painful memory of his deceased father that he didn’t want to release to God.” Sauls adds: “For others, it is difficult to envision surrendering to Jesus their approach to money, their sexuality, their prejudice, their addictions, their divisive and partisan attitudes, or their self-righteousness. And yet, the call to consider Christ remains the same. Embracing the resurrection and absolute lordship of Jesus Christ come as a package deal.”
Today’s culture regularly attacks Christian truth by marginalizing its message and openly ridiculing Christians, often with sharp sarcasm. Christian truth claims are seldom given the benefit of the doubt. They are viewed skeptically. They are not politically correct. Christian values are routinely assaulted, directly and subtly.
The Bible says that God becomes angry when people suppress and crack down on the truth that He exists in order to go on living and promoting immorality (Romans 1:18). But He will deal in mercy with those who accept the truth about Him in Jesus and turn to Him. He will welcome them as children (John 1:12).
Have you been shirking truth, ignoring truth, avoiding truth, attacking truth, or suppressing truth? Let me invite you to turn to the One who is truth. The meaning and peace in life that will result from knowing Jesus personally will surpass whatever cost there may be for you in turning to Christ. And God will grant you grace and strength to pay those costs.
If you are already a follower of Jesus and want to persuade others to Christ, keep in mind that some of those with whom you share the gospel, who cite intellectual objections as their reason for not believing, are actually throwing up a smokescreen. This is especially key for every Christian who strives to be an effective apologist for the faith (which should be every Christian) At some point we may have to realize that a particular person’s real reason for rejecting Christ is not intellectual at all. It’s stubbornness and selfishness. We may have to call them out on that score.
I remember once answering question after question that a man brought to me about Christian belief. I would answer one question and he would raise another. Finally I said to him, “Dennis, what would you accept as sufficient evidence? If I was to answer 101 more questions to your satisfaction, what then? Even at that point would you be prepared to turn to Jesus?” He looked at me and grinned. He knew the game was up.
