Posted on by Abe Austin

The Danger of Growth

Predetermined Expectations)

I grew up in an active Christian household. Every Sunday, I attended church with my family. There was never any consideration of not going, and through my childhood it never even dawned on me that that would even be an option.

Of course, at a certain point, I became a young adult and stopped living in my parents’ home. I started taking care of myself, making my own plans, my own decisions for the day. I remember it dawned on me that I didn’t have to go to church. I could just sleep in, or get chores down, or play. I could go once in a while, whenever I started to feel guilty about being away for too long. Or, I could keep going every Sunday, maintaining the same pattern I had been raised with.

I had a choice, and having realized such, my relationship with my faith could no longer be taken for granted. If I was going to remain a Churchgoer, it would not be by accident. It would be because I had actively chosen it for myself. And if I was going to be tepid in my faith, or backslide entirely, that would also not be by accident. It would be because I had actively chosen it.

I have heard that young adulthood is a point where many churches lose large swathes of their congregation, and given my own experiences at that time, I am not surprised. In our culture, his is the age in which we give full autonomy, and for many Christians, this the first time that they start considering other options. I have heard a lot of Church leaders asking how we can change this trend, how we can ensure we don’t lose people at this pivotal moment. Frankly, I think this falloff is inevitable. It is not a flaw in the system. It is simply a byproduct of choice.

Stronger Ties)

Having a choice means having the ability to choose the worse option, and there will always be some that choose it. If the ability to choose the worse option is removed, then there isn’t really any choice. And maybe that seems like a good thing. It prevents the bad outcomes. However, it also prevents the possibility for growth.

Growth requires a choice. Character development requires deciding to do what is right even when there are other tempting offers. Church attendance is just one example of this, but there are countless others. No one is truly courageous until he has chosen action over fearful retreat. No one is truly virtuous until he has turned down the opportunity to act out his lusts. No one is truly good until he has conquered the desire to be bad.

To have growth, you must have genuine choices, and genuine choices are dangerous things. It creates the possibility of failure but also creates the possibility of entering a new level of discipleship.

Some of those who recognize they can stop attending church choose to keep going anyway. Some decide to take a step away from church, but later on decided to come back. And for both of these groups of people, their status in the church is now more genuine, more real, more mature than ever before. Having made an actual choice, they are actually invested, they are there because they want to be, and they are giving up something else to make this a priority. They are attending church on purpose. They are successful, because they had the real possibility of failure.

There is no getting around this. Growth will always come with danger. The only way to remove danger is to deny growth, and that is an even worse outcome than failure.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Faith vs Works- Two Common Myths

Over the past two days I have shared a collection of verses that establish both that salvation is by grace, through faith, and also that works and ordinances are essential to our salvation. Too often I hear people take up just one side or the other, sharing the verses that support that view, and ignoring those for the other side.

Over the next two days, I would like to further break down the walls between these two camps by dispelling the common myths that each one makes. By the end of this, I hope to have established an understanding that we must seek a theology that embraces all of God’s word, not just half of it. Let us look at two of the broader myths today and focus on two othes tomorrow.

Myth #1: The reason for the different perspectives in the Bible is because this was one of the first schisms in the early church. Paul and James had different theologies, and we must align with whichever one of them was “right” and abandon the other.

It is true that Paul leans much more heavily on faith in his teachings, and James on works, but it would not be accurate to say that Paul denies the need for good works, or that James denies the need for faith. People have cherry-picked their verses to create the illusion of opposing sides, but both apostles held a wider view of the gospel that encompassed both perspectives.

From James: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him, (James 5:15).

From Paul: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

Not only this, but if we just look at the words of Christ, himself, we find statements that make clear the primacy of both faith and works.

If ye love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15).

And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace, (Luke 7:50).

So never matter what differing opinions the early church fathers did or didn’t have, even Jesus put top emphasis on both faith and works. There is no way to be in alignment with him unless we are willing to fully embrace both.

Myth #2: We are saved by faith/grace, but the evidence of it is in our works. Thus, both will be present in the truly saved soul, but one takes precedent over the other.

While it is certainly true that both faith and works must be present in the saved soul, it does not seem appropriate to put faith in a more fundamental place than works, or to say that works merely follow faith.

If this were the case, then no specific work would be considered essential for salvation. If you had sincere faith and did good works generally, that would be enough. But that is not what we see in the words of Jesus. He called people to do specific works as direct requirements for their salvation.

Jesus told the rich ruler that the one thing he lacked was selling all of his belongings, giving to the poor, and following him. Clearly the man already had faith, but Jesus prescribed for him a specific work to make his journey complete.

Jesus told his disciples that “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). That is clearly a requirement for faith and an ordinance. He did not say, “he that believeth and does something good, like being baptized for example, shall be saved.” He is specific on both belief and baptism, suggesting that each is a necessary part of one’s spiritual foundation. We must have a theology that elevates both equally.

Tomorrow we will look at a couple more myths that do not agree with the written word of God. We will put them to rest, and then we can move on to finding a solution that actually satisfies all of our theological needs.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Pivotal Moment- Possible Outcomes

Back and Forth)

I have discussed how some aspects of America’s historical treatment of women and the black population were immoral, how many of those issues were addressed, and how the pendulum kept swinging so that now there is much that is immoral in the treatment of men and white people also.

Now, there is a movement pushing against that most recent unfair treatment, but does this actually represent change and progress? If all we’re doing is changing which side has the stick to beat the other with, that would only be a continuation of the same.

As I mentioned before, this sort of tribalism and zero-sum game and cyclical oppression all seem to stem from our loss of spiritual identity, and shared purpose, and sense of one another as children of God. Unless we see a positive change at this deeper level, then I cannot be optimistic about any shift happening on the surface. So long as we remain godless, each shift is more likely to be an escalation of offense, not a return to balance.

What is Happening Now)

So, do we see any of those deeper shifts that would represent a return to godly living? Unsurprisingly, the answer is mixed. Let us look at the dynamic of men versus women specifically. On the one hand, there does seem to be a real movement of men back towards religion. A recent Axios article noted that “Gen Z men are more likely to attend weekly religious services than millennials and even some younger Gen X-ers.” It also noted that while historically there have been more women in church than men, that the female decline in church attendance continues. Thus, if the latest trajectories persist, eventually there will be more men in church than women.

Of course, this trend must be observed longer to see if it is going to actually have any lasting results. The numbers are still developing. Speaking anecdotally, though, I have also perceived a shift of men around me moving back to God and religion. Even I, who always called myself religious, had a shift seven years ago that has made my relationship with God far more real.

But that’s just one side of what’s happening. At the same time, we are seeing movements like MGTOW, which is built on resentment and rejection of women and society as a whole. We also see figures like Andrew Tate growing in popularity, who encourage men to treat women as products. And just like I have seen some men around me moving towards God, I have also seen other men moving towards anger.

For an entire generation, men have been told that they are irredeemable monsters. This is a gross lie, but my great fear is that this oft-repeated incantation will summon forth a generation of men filled with cruel indifference, men who truly are beasts, and thus become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Hope and Fear)

It is an unclear picture, with many parts still moving, and difficulty in telling how things will land. There is reason for hope and there is reason for fear. A time of potential, but also of danger.

I admit that my assumptions are pessimistic. I see the world following a downward trend overall. Also, I am a Christian, and I believe the Biblical prophecies that the world will be a hellish place before the return of Christ. I suspect we are in the last age before that return, so even if things do get better in the short term, I suspect that overall it is worse times that lay ahead.

Still, I could be wrong. There is reason for hope. Even if this shift turned out to be negative overall, there could still be a treasure of good within its midst. I will finish this series tomorrow by exploring that more hopeful view.