George Whitefield was a well-known Eighteenth Century evangelist. One day Whitefield asked a man what he believed, and the man replied, “I believe what my church believes.” “But what does your church believe?” queried Whitefield. “My church believes what I believe,” he retorted. “Well,” the evangelist questioned, “what do you believe?” “We both believe the same thing!“
Unfortunately, many people today are in the same boat with that man, not really knowing what they believe. Even if they could identify their beliefs, they’re not completely sure why they hold them. Part of the reason for this is that more and more we’ve become ambiguous in our “God talk.” If I were facing a life threatening disease, I certainly wouldn’t want the doctor to communicate with me in vague terms. I’d want the doctor to be as clear and direct as possible because of its life and death consequences.
Naturally there are some things in scripture that are deep and mysterious. For example, the greatness and majesty of God have aspects that are beyond the grasp of our finite minds. In this regard, you and I can probe: and we can speculate all we want, but in the end we’ll need to conclude with the Psalmist in that “…His greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:3b).
In some areas we must be honest enough to accept mystery. However, the scriptures reveal many things that are clear and direct. For example, Jesus revealed that He was the only way for humans to come to God, and that apart from faith in Him and His atoning sacrifice on Calvary, people would die in their sins (see John 14:6 and 1 Peter 3:18).
Ambiguous language might be considered politically correct in some aspects of life, but we can never afford to embrace it on matters of eternal consequence. It’s never enough to say that we believe what our church believes. We must know what and why we believe what we do!
November/December 1999