Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 07/November/2021]

I’ve had several conversations very recently with people about subjects which some of my Christian friends wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.
Things like …
1) Is evolution compatible with the Bible?
2) What is Jesus’s view on many sexual issues?
3) Is hell, as most people understand it, real?
4) What should be our position on the assisted dying debate?
… There are many more.

Before you make a sign of the cross with your fingers, please give me a hearing. ALL of us come to such questions with our own preconceptions. Depending on which company you’ve kept for most of your adult life, you may believe that the Bible is pretty clear on such questions.

I DON’T THINK IT IS! I believe Jesus expects us to examine them honestly, openly, and with much love towards those who disagree with us. I think His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 is a model example of how to talk about important issues.

On a related subject: isn’t one reason thinking youngsters want nothing to do with church after the age of, say 12, that no-one discusses with them things that really matter? No, there is nothing that shouldn’t be touched with a 10 foot pole. If I feel unable to engage with serious questioners, let me refer him/her to someone who can!

These are ‘grown up’ questions.
They deserve ‘grown up’ exploration.

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