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CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
Now, Contending for the faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and TA, having recently sat through an Easter service at a fairly large Evangelical church, many things that you have been talking about came to mind. First of all, it was primarily a production, dramatic readings, a large choir, and a full orchestra took up most of the service. It was definitely impressive but hardly convicting. Rather than quoting scripture, Bible content was given as stories. That seems to be the method many churches prefer today, impress the lost, tell them stories rather than present the scriptures that convict them of sin. One last thing before you comment, the Bible story given emphasized Friday as the day Christ was crucified.
Tom:
Well Dave, you know, some people would say, Well most times the lost only attend church on Easter and Christmas.
Dave:
Right.
Tom:
So let’s reshape our presentation, our service so that it appeals to the lost, or those who have sort of wandered away, but then came back with family, and so on. So that’s really the target, so what do you think?
Dave:
Well Tom, you know what I would say. The gospel was never declared to be appealing, to tell someone they’re a sinner, separated from God by their own wickedness, their own rebellion, self-centeredness, and you’ve got to repent, and there’s only one way, that is Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for your sins, you either accept Him or you reject Him, it’s up to you. Tom, that’s not an appealing message, that’s not going to give people a warm, fuzzy feeling, and they want to—well, we should come back to this church next week, or listen—tune in on this radio program or TV show, Oh, we love it! Now there is much to be grateful for, and when you receive Christ you have a whole new universe of blessings. Relationship with God awakens, but you can’t tell them about that until they’ve come to the point of repenting of their sins, and recognizing that Christ had a reason for dying. It was our sins that nailed Him there. If it were not for our sins He wouldn’t have had to die.
Tom:
Yeah, and Dave, it seems to me, and I’m not setting a format for every resurrection day, which I like that term better than Easter, but I would just love to have the gospel explained.
Dave:
Right.
Tom:
For 30 years as a Roman Catholic, you know, we had all the imagery, all the liturgy, all of those things that were impressive, yet I never understood what it was all about. And it’s only through an explanation of the gospel; what do you mean, I am separated from God, eternal separation? I mean, what did I ever do? You know, explaining that the wages of sin is death, and that God is a just God and the penalty must be paid, it had to be paid. Either I pay for it, which is separation from God for all eternity, or Christ paid that penalty for me. Anyway…
Dave:
Well, Tom, I’m thinking what you said about yourself not understanding the gospel, reminds me of a mutual friend, my interpreter in Russia, who was raised in the Soviet Union, I think wore the red scarves as a young girl. And when she got saved, and went to see her grandmother, who was in the Orthodox church, to try to give her the gospel, it was almost impossible. She couldn’t explain it to her because her grandmother was—she knew which icons to kiss in which order, she knew all the ritual of the Orthodox church. But finally, when this friend had finished here presentation of the gospel it just went right over her head. She says, Yeah, that’s one thing I never could understand, why did that boy have to be on the cross? Can you imagine! This lady was in her eighties, and she’s been going to church faithfully, even during Soviet days.
Tom:
I can imagine it quite vividly, Dave.
Dave:
Wow!
Tom:
“One last thing before your comment,” the Bible story given emphasized Friday as the day Christ was crucified.
Dave:
Well, Tom—
Tom:
Well, let’s give the simple explanation—
Dave:
The simple explanation.
Tom:
—start with Friday and count them all.
Dave:
Yeah. Well, Jesus said, and he’s quoting the scriptures, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so the Son of man must be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, you may get three days, part of Friday and Saturday and part of Sunday, but you can’t get three nights. You’ve got Fridays night, then you’ve got Saturday night, going on two of them, you cannot get three days and three nights, and the scripture is very specific, so I won’t go into all the details, but Jesus was crucified on Thursday. There is no getting around that, and the Last Supper was not the Passover. But Tom, we have to devote a whole program to that.
Tom:
Well, I think you have given our audience something to think about here. It’s amazing, and we’ve addressed this before, Dave. Some ideas come up and we just accept them without thinking, such as the idea that there were three wise men, all right? You know, you’d say, well it’s not a big deal. Well it is a big deal. Let’s get the scriptures right, let’s believe what the scriptures teach, and take that into our heart and mind and live that way.
Dave:
Well, I’ll give them one more quick one. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the day that the lambs were taken out of the flock to be put under observation for four days to know whether they were without spot and blemish, and then they were killed. This was the Passover lamb, all right? Count it. If He rode into Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisson, that was the day the lambs were taken out of the flock, and on the 14th they were slain. Count it out. That brings you to Thursday. The lambs were slain on Thursday, and Jesus had to be on the cross, the Lamb of God, the same time that the lambs were being slain in Israel. Nothing works out except you follow the scriptures.
If you have a question for Dave and Tom to address in a future Contending for the Faith, stay with us, we’ll have our contact information at the end of the program. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.
