I know that it is becoming harder all the time for people to accept the fact that intelligent 20th century people can actually still be “Bible-believers”. Some of the incredulity that I face in our age and society is the fault of the many bad examples that exist in the form of TV evangelists. Faith healers and fund raisers in white suits cry crocodile tears over the poverty of orphans in Haiti while driving Cadillacs to their TV studios and wearing diamond rings on their pinky fingers. It reminds me of the country song, “Would Jesus wear a Rolex on His TV Show?” This cause for unbelief is deserved and justifiable, and if that is all Christianity had, I would be the first to “eat, drink and party, for tomorrow we die.”
Bad examples aside though, I suspect there are some deeper reasons for unbelief in our age. It has become too easy to blame the phony ones. If Jesus were physically among us today, He would no doubt refer to many of Christendom’s superstars in like manner as he did the Scribes and Pharisees of his day, or the merchants in the temple.
Another reason some people are uncomfortable with Bible-believing Christianity is that it would mean a return to a belief in miracles. But even that is not the real issue for most. Especially when you look at what people are opting for instead. Psychics are having a heyday feeding off of the masses. And so is anyone who espouses a New Age tenet and can write a book about it.
I believe the real reason people are uncomfortable with the Bible is because it is too revealing of man’s nature. Each of us has the tendency to self-defensively scurry for cover when the light of God shines into our hearts. One mechanism we reach for in this maneuver is to create our own belief system (no matter how ridiculous) or to acquire someone else’s, as long as it meets my deep commitment to leave the heart unexposed. Show me a god that doesn’t require personal repentance of its followers and I will show you a popular religion.
A man got in his car to go to work one day. He turned on his radio as he entered the on-ramp to the expressway. Being exhausted, he wasn’t watching very carefully, but he snapped out of his apathy as he heard the excited voice of the radio traffic reporter interrupting his regular routine report, “Drivers, please be careful. We have reports of a car going down the wrong side of the freeway!” The man at the wheel snapped up his head to look, and said to himself, “One car? There’s hundreds of them!”
Sometimes, in my affair with Truth, I look up and see so many people streaming in the opposite direction. And I ask myself, “Can it really be that so many people are wrong? Am I really certain of the direction that I am going?”
At times like that, I carefully go over the principles I've chosen once more. And my heart fills with joy and confidence once again, and sorrow, all at the same time. Sorrow, because I know that the majority believes that truth is determined by consensus. The crowds are rushing towards disaster while pursuing empty promises.
It is in the opposite direction that Jesus stands, with wounded hands and feet and side, saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” Even if no one comes, it would still stand true for all of eternity. Happily, some do.