GodQuest: Six Signposts for Your Spiritual Journey Continued

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Signpost 1: The Quest

What you believe determines where you go in life.

THE JOURNEY OF ULTIMATE DISCOVERY

Nobody quests after trivial things. Making a connection to and having a relationship with the greatest Force, the greatest Power, and the greatest Person in the universe can be a reality for one very simple reason: God is real and He wants to have a relationship with you.

There is a need in the human heart and the human mind to connect with something bigger than ourselves that provides meaning, a future, and a hope. Because God is the ultimate source of all life, truth, and reality, God is ultimately the only being capable of giving your life meaning.

Besides the overarching signpost that gets you going on your GodQuest, there are five other signposts:

1. The Beginning: What you believe about creation determines how you view yourself and life.
2. The Word: What you believe about the Bible determines how you live your life.
3. The Question: What you believe about God’s goodness defines your relationship with Him.
4. The King: What you believe about Jesus’ identity determines your path in life.
5. The Path: The path you follow in your spiritual journey determines your destination.

How you view God and what you believe about Him will shape your life more than any other belief. What you believe about God is the most important thing about you.

Putting money in its proper perspective and understanding that material things cannot buy happiness should help you focus on the importance of searching for those things that do have eternal value.

A new emphasis on the non-existence of God, even though it comes from a small minority of the population (less than 5 percent of all people are self-professing atheists), has changed the spiritual landscape. Even for the vast majority of people who believe in God, the impact of aggressive unbelievers has left many of them with doubts about God’s goodness and His direct involvement in the world.

In the landmark book, Souls in Transition, Christian Smith labeled this new kind of spirituality “Moralistic Therapuetic Deism.” The core beliefs of this “religion,” according to Smith, looks like this:

1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not want to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to solve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

This is the kind of God most people believe in, and it’s the God most people think they have a relationship with.

Francis Bacon said, “Men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true.”

When you commit to your GodQuest, God is the guide who will reveal truth to you through the wisdom of others (Proverbs 15:22), trustworthy information (2 Timothy 3:16–17) and most importantly, through the inner working of the Holy Spirit in your life (John 14:26).

Despite all of our timesaving devices, our lives are characterized by three words: busy, busy, busy. We have work, school, places to go, and people to see. Yet isn’t it amazing that Jesus—without question the greatest Hero who ever lived on earth—always found time for what was important, even in the middle of His many responsibilities? He found time to pray, be alone, teach, and to share a meal with people. We make time for what is most important to us.

If we were truly content with ourselves, we would have no need for distraction. But we aren’t content, so we escape reality through diversion—busyness.

Recent surveys about trends in church attendance, especially among students, indicate many are leaving the church because they are looking for more meaning, more challenge, and more truth than the church is giving them.

It’s no coincidence that Jesus tells His followers that the greatest commandment of all is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). As you move on to explore the truth about truth, engage every part of you—your mind, your heart, and your soul—in pursuit of God. It’s the most you can give, and it’s all that God asks.

THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUTH

You need to do whatever it takes to get to the truth. Jesus claimed to be “the truth” (John 14:6).

Google “truth” on Wikipedia, and you will find this opening paragraph in a very long article: Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with a particular fact or reality, or being in accord with the body of real things, real events or actualities. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common archaic usage, it also meant constancy or sincerity in action or character. The direct opposite of truth is “falsehood,” which can correspondingly take logical, factual or ethical meanings.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, wrote this about the value of spiritual honesty, “Young people are more spiritually honest. The days of feeling some sort of cultural pressure to adhere to historic Christian truths is simply gone. Subsequently, we may not be seeing younger people less devoted to Jesus Christ but simply more people being honest so that those who in the past would have professed faith they did not possess or practice are simply being honest, which is more admirable than being a hypocrite.”

Don’t settle for a “surrogate” faith. “There are many Christians who are carrying a faith that is not their own,” explains Todd Clark, founding pastor of Discovery Church in Simi Valley, California. “Everything they know about God comes from their favorite author, or their pastor and they never spend any time directly with God so it all comes to them in a surrogate way.”

Make it your goal to discover the truth about God for yourself, because ultimately your relationship with God depends on it.

C. S. Lewis makes this brilliant observation, “If Truth is objective, if we live in a world we did not create and cannot change merely by thinking, if the world is not really a dream of our own, than the most destructive belief we could possibly believe would be the denial of this primary fact. It would be like closing your eyes while driving, or blissfully ignoring the doctor’s warnings.”

It’s important to understand that the Bible does not offer a unique view of truth. Rather, the Bible assumes the common-sense view of truth that we all use in our everyday lives. In both the Old and New Testaments, truth is viewed as something that is rooted in reality and fact. The Hebrew term most often translated as “truth” is emet, a word that conveys the idea of conformity to fact.

Each member of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—is associated with truth.

• God is routinely identified with truth (Psalm 31:5).
• Jesus Christ claimed to be truth when he told his disciples on the night before he was executed, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
• And the Holy Spirit, who is called “the Spirit of truth,” and specializes in guiding the followers of Jesus “into all truth” (John 16:13).

Roger Nicole gives a nice summary of what all of this means when he writes, “The biblical view of truth (emet-aletheia) is like a rope with several intertwined strands”; it “involves factuality, faithfulness, and completeness.”

In The Unshakable Truth, Sean co-wrote with his father, Josh McDowell, they answer the question of truth and moral authority. The McDowells assert that moral truth is not based on subjective preferences but on objective reality, which is rooted in God.

Knowing what we believe about God forms our belief system, and knowing why we believe these things develops our personal convictions. In other words, what you believe determines the choices you make.

The Bible tells us, “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence” (1 John 3:19).

IN SEARCH OF THE TRUE STORY

You could say Steve Jobs’ view on life is a combination of the popular saying, “To thine own self be true” and the ancient adage, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

As you continue searching for truth on your GodQuest, what you’re really looking for is a relationship with God and a true story: a story you can live in, a story that provides meaning, not just for this life but for the life to come. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” isn’t a good enough story for you.

At its root, gospel means “good news” or “good story.”

Consider these statistics about young adults today:

• Two-thirds consider themselves “spiritual but not religious”
• Sixty-five percent rarely or never pray with others
• Thirty-eight percent never pray by themselves
• Sixty-five percent never attend church
• Sixty-seven percent don’t read the Bible or other sacred texts
• Fifty percent don’t believe Jesus is the only way to heaven

Many young adults are delaying most major life decisions—from career path, to marriage and having children, to a “set of spiritual beliefs they will adhere to”—until their early thirties. Subsequently, their ambiguity and lack of certainty about Christian doctrine is not surprising in light of their entire life.

The days of feeling cultural pressure to adhere to historic Christian truths are gone. Unfortunately, many spiritual but not religious people are embracing a kind of Burger King spirituality. You know the Burger King theme: “Have it your way.”

Why believe in a God whom other people follow when you can have a god just the way you like him (or her)?

Heather Cariou, a New York City-based author who considers herself spiritual but not religious, has adopted a blended spirituality piece together from different faith traditions. “I don’t need to define myself to any community by putting myself in a box labeled Baptist, or Catholic, or Muslim,” she says. “When I die, I believe all my accounting will be done to God, and that when I enter the eternal realm, I will not walk through a door with a label on it.”

After initially believing in God, people often experience doubts once they realize how inconvenient Christianity can really be. The main reason people leave or stay away from Christianity is because it claims to have the only true story. Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, goes even farther and says the exclusive truth claims of Christianity are the biggest reason people are skeptical about God.

As Keller puts it, “It isn’t that Christians don’t believe their story. They do. But many of them, especially young adults, are uncomfortable saying that their beliefs are the only valid ones. They will say something like, ‘I think Christianity is true, but God is much too loving to condemn people whose beliefs are different than mine.’ They want God to be generous and non-judgmental, so they come to the conclusion that all religions basically teach the same thing.”

Religion scholar Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor, puts it even more bluntly. The notion of “pretend pluralism”—that all religions are essentially the same—may be well intentioned, but it is “dangerous, disrespectful, and untrue.” Prothero writes, “Christians who think they’re doing non-Christians a favor by saying they too can be ‘saved’ ignore the fact that Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Confucians either don’t believe in sin or don’t focus on salvation from it.”

All religions include Jesus in one way or another, but only Christianity says Jesus is the only way to God. In his book, The Reason for God, and in a talk he gave at the University of Chicago in 2008, Tim Keller shows four ways people deal with the idea that just one religion, belief system, or story is true.

1. By hoping there’s another way.
2. By making it illegal.
3. By explaining it away. Keller puts it this way: “They say that if you believe in God, it’s not because there is a God out there, but because you’re hard-wired to believe in God. You kind of can’t help it.”
4. By keeping your beliefs to yourself. A lot of people believe religion and discussions about God are strictly personal matters and should never be a subject for public debate, least of all in a political forum. But this is absurd when you consider what religion really is. “It is a set of beliefs that explain what life is all about, who we are, and the most important things that human beings should spend their time doing,” says Keller.

Signpost 1 is the understanding that what you believe determines where you go in life.

Tim Keller puts it this way: “Everyone lives and operates out of some narrative identity, whether it is thought out and reflected upon or not.”

Christianity is testable. There is no other religion or belief system entirely based on a testable, historic event: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his letter to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul writes that without the resurrection, there is no Christian faith (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).

Every other religion is about man trying to get to God; Christianity is uniquely about God coming to us. The truths of Christianity are consistent with reason. This means that rational beings can objectively evaluate the Christian belief system and find that it is reasonable and noncontradictory in its approach to the human condition.

Christianity alone has Jesus at the center as the self-proclaimed Son of God who is equal to God in every way. As the Bible says: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:15–20).

Signpost 2: The Beginning

What you believe about creation determines how you view yourself and life.

THE SEARCH FOR GOD

It’s the nature of human beings to search. We can’t help it. If you’re like most people, your search for God isn’t at the top of your priority list. You look to God when it’s convenient, when you have time, when you have a problem, when you’re in a contemplative kind of mood, or maybe after you check a bunch of other things off your list—like finishing school, getting a job, finding that perfect soul mate, getting married, and having kids.

Two Competing Realities

1. The First Reality: God Exists.  God created the universe and everything in it, including you. You’re here on earth for a reason; your life has a purpose. God created you with a free will; therefore, you have choices. Just about every choice you make is a choice between what God wants you to do—God’s will—and what you want to do.
2. The Second Reality: God Doesn’t Exist.  Nobody knows more about you than you do; you are the final authority for your choices.

Three things to know that will help you in your GodQuest:

1. Know the correct perspective

Erwin Lutzer says that the “bottom up” approach to God leads us to idolatry: “Whenever we begin with man and reason upward, we manufacture an idol. Our temptation is to invite ideas of God into our minds that are either just wrong or are notions that diminish Him. Idolatry is more than dancing around a statue of silver or gold; it is constructing a mental idea of a deity that bears little resemblance to the God who actually exists.”

We get impatient with God’s silence. When God doesn’t answer our prayers as soon as we would like, we tend to get impatient and lose hope. We want God to be more tolerant of us. We don’t like the idea of a demanding, judgmental God, so we cast him as a God who judges no one, turns a blind eye on sin, and tolerates everything in the name of love. But this isn’t the real God. This is an idol. We idolize the God we want, and He ends up being just like us.

2. Know the Unique Challenges

God isn’t easy to understand, which is what you would expect from an infinite, invisible, independent, incomprehensible God. If God were easily understood, as St. Augustine once remarked that He would be an idol.

3. Know That God Can Be Known

Theologians refer to this quality of God as divine revelation, which Albert Mohler calls the “starting point for all genuinely Christian thinking.” God’s self-revelation is His gift to us, for not only does God give us information about Himself, but He also gives us the capacity to grasp it.

God reveals Himself to your mind. The natural world is the created world, which tells us so much about God. And it’s there for everyone to observe. As the psalmist David writes: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world (Psalm 19:1–4).

Whenever we are exposed to the natural world with all of its splendor and order and majesty, we are in touch with divine revelation.

The second way God reveals Himself to your mind is through His Word—the Bible, God’s written revelation of Himself—His creation, and His desire to have a relationship with you.

God reveals Himself to your heart through the inner conviction you have that there is something more to life than what you can experience with your five senses. God has given us a visible image of Himself through the person of Jesus, who is God in the flesh (John 1:14, Colossians 1:15).

HOW DO YOU KNOW GOD EXISTS?

Like Thomas, some people refuse to believe until they can see it with their own eyes.

Just because God can’t be detected by any of the five senses doesn’t mean He isn’t real. There are many things in life we accept as real even though we can’t prove them scientifically—love, for example. How do you scientifically prove that love exists?

As Jesus told Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Apostle Paul writes, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). This is the part of faith that moves from your head to your heart, from merely believing in the existence of God to believing that God desires to have a relationship with you.

Sign #1 Contingency Question—Why is there something rather than nothing?

Anything that exists is dependent (or contingent) upon something else. A corollary to this principle is that nothing that exists is necessary. This idea of contingency has a big problem. You can’t have an endless series of contingent things. At some point, the process has to start with something that isn’t contingent.

The only way to overcome the impossibility of infinite regression is to propose a source for all contingent objects and events that in itself is not contingent. Philosophers call this a necessary being.

Sign #2 Causation Question—What is the first cause that started all the other causes?

If the universe had a beginning, then the beginning had a cause. The only question that remains is whether this first cause is an impersonal event, like the Big Bang, or a personal agent.

As Tim Keller puts it, “The theory that there is a God who made the world accounts for the evidence we see better than the theory that there is no God.”

Sign #3 Character Question—Why do we have a moral obligation?

The sense of right and wrong is just in us. Here’s how C. S. Lewis explains this innate moral sense that all of us possess, “This Rule of Right and Wrong, or Law of Human Nature, or whatever you call it, must somehow or other be a real thing—a thing that is really there, not made up by ourselves.”

As the Apostle Paul says to the philosophers in the city of Athens: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:24–25).

The Bible starts out with this truth: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED

Do you think about God as the awesome Creator of the universe, who made everything and gives life to all things down to the smallest detail, and who would very much like to be involved in the details of your life if you would just invite Him to do so?  Or do you think about a God who stands off to the side, not interfering with your life unless you really need Him, and then it’s hit-and-miss whether you may or may not improve?

What you believe about creation determines how you view yourself and life.

In a book he-coauthored with William Dembski, Sean McDowell writes that Darwinism makes two big controversial claims:

1. All organisms, life forms, are related back through time to a common ancestor.  This is typically called common descent or universal common ancestry.
2. The process that brought all organisms into existence from a common ancestor is natural selection acting on random variations.  This process operates by chance and necessity, apart from any evident intention or direct design.  The whole point of Darwinism is to explain the world in a way that excludes any role for a supernatural Creator.

Theistic evolutionists think they can reconcile Darwinism and Christianity, but Darwinism by definition is an unguided and random process. Does it make sense to say God guided an unguided and random process to create life?

Old Earth Creationism—also known as progressive creationism—says that God created the universe ten to fifteen billion years ago.  Some old earth creationists believe the days of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2 are long periods of time (this is the day-age view), while others believe that each day of Creation was a literal 24-hour day separated by long periods of time (this is the gap or intermittent-day view).

The theistic view of origins maintains that God—who alone is self-existent, self-sufficient, and eternal—brought the universe into existence without using pre-existing material.

The more science discovers about the universe, from the outer reaches of space to the inner world of microscopic organisms, the more scientists and non-scientists alike have come to believe that life is too complicated and intricate to have arisen by natural forces alone.  Instead, the complexity and order we find in nature can only come from an intelligent agent.

As noted astrophysicist Hugh Ross points out, the indications of exquisite design are becoming irrefutable.  Astronomers and physicists, even the few who still hesitate to call themselves theists, widely acknowledge that the only reasonable explanation for the intricately harmonious features of the universe, our solar system, our planet—all ingeniously focused on the requirements for life—is the action and ongoing involvement of a personal, intelligent designer.

We live in a just-right Earth.  A change in any of the following parameters would make life extremely unpleasant, if not downright impossible:

• The orbital pattern around the sun. 
• The tilt of the earth’s axis. 
• The speed of earth’s rotation. 
• Earth’s age.

Looking at physical constants like these, plus the phenomena of the first Big Bang creation event, the prominent scientist Francis Collins makes this observation, “The chance that all of these constants would take on the values necessary to result in a stable universe capable of sustaining complex life forms is almost infinitesimal.  And yet those are exactly the parameters that we observe.  In sum, our universe is wildly improbable.”

God has revealed Himself to those who want to know Him.  From the tiniest DNA strand to the vast structures of the universe, creation reveals the glory of God.

Signpost 3: The Word

What you believe about the Bible determines how you live your life.

THE STORY OF GOD’S WORD

For your GodQuest, the guide, the map, and the instructions—everything you need for your journey—are found in one source, the Bible.

Moses, the great deliverer and author of the first five books in the Bible, declares, “These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life” (Deuteronomy 6:1–2).

David, the mighty King of Israel and the world’s greatest poet, writes:

Jesus, the Son of God sent to earth to show us God, says: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

The Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary in history, writes: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). 

It’s one thing to know that your search for Truth (Signpost 1) will eventually lead you to a search for God (Signpost 2), but how can you truly know God personally?

Essentially it is God’s biography. The Bible is God’s story, told not to just one writer but forty writers (God is a big personality, so it takes a lot of writers to tell His story). The Bible tells the sweeping story of God from eternity past to eternity future, including His own words as well as the words of others about Him. Most of all, the Bible reveals God’s plan and God’s intention to have a personal relationship with us, His human creation, those He made uniquely in His image.

How about this four-act summary of God’s story:

• Act 1: Creation
• Act 2: The Fall
• Act 3: Redemption (of which Israel, Jesus, and the church are all parts)
• Act 4: Restoration (the renewal of all creation)

God’s love story written for humankind, describing the incredible lengths God has gone to in order to have a relationship with you:

• Act 1: God creates humanity, and it’s very good
• Act 2: Humanity disobeys God, bringing sin and death into God’s perfect creation
• Act 3: God demonstrates His love by sending Jesus to save us from our sins
• Act 4: All who accept God’s redemption plan live forever

If the Bible is fiction, your GodQuest is an exercise in futility. But if the story of God as found in the Bible is true, your GodQuest is not just meaningful but life altering.

When you read Genesis 3:1–5, you can see the progression of lies Satan tells in order to undermine God’s goodness, starting with, “Did God really say” that? See if these lies don’t sound kind of familiar—because Satan still uses them today.

• Lie #1: God is placing an unreasonable restriction on you.
• Lie #2: Restriction is bad because you would be better off without it.
• Lie #3: God’s rule is bad.
• Lie #4: You’d be better off if you didn’t pay attention to the restriction.

God gives Israel the Ten Commandments in order to show them the conditions of the agreement (Exodus 20). “They reflect God’s purposes for humanity and show Israel how to live in ways that mirror God’s character.”

The almighty, eternal, invisible God Himself comes down to earth in the form of a human being called Immanuel, “God with us,” and He is given the name Jesus, “because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

God’s plan has always been to be in relationship with us; it’s why He created us in the first place. Sin disrupted that plan, but it didn’t take God by surprise. In fact, we know from Revelation 13:8 that Jesus is the lamb sacrificed before the foundations of the world. God had a plan all along.

At some time in the future that no one knows, Jesus will come to earth a second time to gather all who have called on Him for salvation. Living in God’s story means our death isn’t the end of our lives. As Mike Erre writes, “God will not abandon this world; He will redeem it. When He restores and renews it, He will raise His people (those in Christ) to live in it in physical resurrection bodies.”

God is on a quest for you.

CAN YOU BELIEVE GOD’S STORY?

The Bible truly is a global phenomenon—it has been translated into more than twenty-four hundred languages—and no book is more popular online.

As important as the Bible is, the Bible should never be the object of your faith. Just as God is distinct from all He created, God is distinct from all He has said.

The Bible is made up of sixty-six books written by forty different authors. Think about this amazing truth: The same breath God used to give life to the human race gave life to His Word, the very Word you can read and study any time you like!

Theologian R. C. Sproul writes, “The word inspiration also calls attention to the process by which the Holy Spirit superintended the production of Scripture. The Holy Spirit guided the human authors so that their words would be nothing less than the word of God.”

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars had manuscripts dated around 125 BC. Amazingly, they found that nearly eleven hundred years of copying the Old Testament “had produced only excruciatingly minor variations, none of which altered the clear meaning of the text or brought the manuscript’s fundamental integrity into question.” What does that mean to you? Where the Old Testament is concerned, you can be confident that what you are reading is the trustworthy, reliable, authoritative, accurate Word of God.

Concerning the New Testament documents, archaeologists have uncovered more copies of ancient Bible manuscripts than any other document of antiquity. There are more than twenty-five thousand various manuscript fragments of the New Testament Scriptures alone!

FINDING YOUR PLACE IN GOD’S WORD

If God exists, and the Bible is His Word, and the story of God found in the Bible is true, then we have to realize that our individual stories—as important as they are to us—are nothing apart from the larger story of God. It’s only through God that we find ultimate meaning and purpose in this life, and the assurance that there is a life after this life where we will be with God forever.

If you’re the center of the universe, then the Bible will be just one more thing to add to your life, like a self-help book. But if God is the center of the universe, then the Bible becomes something you will want to read, study, and know. You can orient your life—your habits, your behaviors, your morality, and your beliefs—around the Bible.

Mike Erre explains the right way of approaching our relationship with God: “We exist to discover how to get on board with God’s program, not the other way around. Your life will never be a success if you spend all your time and energy trying to figure out how Christianity can help you.”

Walt Russell, professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology, emphasizes this point: “The focus of both the Old and New Testaments is on the fulfillment of God’s plan, not on our individual plans.”

Just like the universe is not about you, The Bible is not about you. The Bible is about God. But it was written by God for you, that you may understand who God is, believe that He wants to have a relationship with you, and trust Him with your life—both now and forever.

This is the message the Apostle Paul delivers to the Christians in Rome: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

Because the Bible is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12), it has the power to influence you—and your life—in a way that other books or readings could not possibly duplicate, simply because no other book has been inspired by God Himself.

As you are intentional, systematic, and consistent in your Bible reading and study, the Holy Spirit will help you understand and apply God’s Word to your life.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). This is huge! God approves when you “correctly handle” His Word.

Remember, there’s nothing in the Bible that doesn’t have meaning for your life in one way or another. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

For your GodQuest, these are the most important priorities you can have, and they come from the Law: Love God and love others.

James 1:22 (considered the Proverbs of the New Testament), encapsulates the importance of turning wisdom into obedience: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

The Gospel writers selected their material differently based on their intent and the direction of the Holy Spirit. For example, Matthew wrote his biography primarily for Jews and therefore emphasizes Jesus as the Messiah. Mark wrote his biography for a Roman audience, so there’s lots of action and Jesus is always on the move. Luke, a Greek physician, writes with precision for a Greek and non-Jewish audience and he emphasizes the human side of Christ’s nature. John’s Gospel is very personal and quite different from the other three. John’s intent is to prove that Jesus was God.

In a dramatic way, Revelation finishes what Genesis began. “Revelation is a wonderful way to finish the story which began in Genesis,” writes Henrietta Mears. “All that was begun in the book of beginnings is consummated in Revelation.” In Genesis, sin is born; in Revelation, sin is destroyed. In Genesis, Satan makes his entrance; in Revelation, Satan makes his exit. In Genesis, death comes to humankind; in Revelation, death dies.

Here are seven habits of highly skilled Bible interpreters:

1. Remember that context rules. Whenever you read a chapter, a verse, or even a word of Scripture, always take it in context, which means, “that which goes with the text.”
2. Always seek the full counsel of God’s Word. Don’t develop an idea on just one or two isolated verses. R. C. Sproul writes, “What is obscure in one part of Scripture may be made clear in another.”
3. Remember that Scripture will never contradict Scripture. The Bible never contradicts itself because God is the author and God cannot lie or contradict Himself.
4. Don’t base your doctrine on an obscure passage of Scripture. Base your faith on the clear and repeated messages of the Bible. Here’s a good phrase to remember: The plain thing is the main thing.
5. Interpret Scripture literally. What this means is that you should interpret the Bible as it is written. “To interpret the Bible literally is to interpret it as literature,” Sproul writes.
6. Look for the author’s intended meaning. We need to determine what the author meant to say to the original audience by first asking, “What does it mean?” before we can move on to personal application.
7. Check your conclusions by using outside sources. When you read and study a passage, you should always start with your own observations.  Once you’ve encountered Scripture for yourself, then it’s entirely appropriate and useful to consult with a reliable Bible commentary or a skilled Bible teacher.

Many people want to study the Bible, if they can just have a simple, understandable, practical plan. Dictionaries, commentaries, and Bible atlases are all critical, but understanding of the Bible can be mostly attained by simply reading it with a purposeful plan.

Repetition is one of the most important Bible study principles. This is true in two ways. First, reading the same passages continually brings out certain truths we often miss on initial reading. Second, important truths in the Bible are often repeated for emphasis.

The best Bible study plan is to start from the big picture and then work down to the details because the particulars only make sense in light of the whole.

Signpost 4: The Question

What you believe about God’s goodness defines your relationship with Him.

DEALING WITH DOUBT AND QUESTIONS ABOUT GOD

Fuller Theological Seminary recently conducted a study of young adults who left the church after high school. The researchers came to this conclusion: “The more college students felt they had the opportunity to express their doubt while they were in high school, the higher [their] levels of faith maturity and spiritual maturity.”

Reasons for Doubting God come in two categories: intellectual and emotional.

Intellectual Doubts

• You have doubts because you don’t know God. Very often your doubts about God or something God has said in His Word are there because you don’t have enough information or knowledge.
• You have doubts because you don’t understand God. You may have knowledge about God, but there are certain things you don’t understand, such as how a loving God could allow suffering and evil.
• You have doubts because you don’t believe God. This was Adam and Eve’s problem. They doubted that God’s Word was true.

Emotional Doubts

• You have doubts because you are disillusioned or disappointed. Sometimes other people let you down (it’s inevitable), and you feel deeply hurt or wounded.
• You have doubts because you are disheartened or afraid. You may have a tendency to focus on your own weakness rather than God’s strength.
• You have doubts because you are discouraged. You may be weary from the cares and pressures of life.
• You have doubts because you are living immorally. Let’s face it, if we are doing wrong things, we need to justify them intellectually so we aren’t living in tension.

Most of all—and we can’t emphasize this enough—ask God for help. He is the ultimate encourager, prayer partner, teacher, and mentor. As James writes, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

Question #1: If God Is Really Good, Why Is There Evil & Suffering?

Here’s a classic argument that’s been offered by atheists for many years:

• An all-powerful God would be able to eliminate evil.
• An all-good God would want to eliminate evil.
• An all-knowing God would know how to eliminate evil.
• But evil exists.
• Therefore, God is not all-powerful, all-good, nor all-knowing.
• Therefore, the God of Christianity does not exist.

The problem with this argument is that the first three statements, upon which this argument rises or falls, are fundamentally flawed. God cannot make free moral agents and guarantee they always choose right.

What is the highest good for all free beings? It’s love (Matthew 22:36–39), which is impossible without freedom, whether we freely love God or our fellow human beings.

Best-selling author Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadraplegic who is also fighting cancer, expresses this truth with understanding and eloquence: “The rule of thumb is that we experience much suffering because we live in a fallen world, and it is groaning under the weight of a heavy curse. If God being good means he has to get rid of sin, it means he would have to get rid of sinners. God is a God of great generosity and great mercy, so he is keeping the execution of suffering. He’s not closing the curtain on suffering until there is more time to gather more people into the fold of Christ’s fellowship.” 

At some point in the future, God will deal with evil once and for all. “If we restate the argument to correct this oversight in temporal perspective,” write Norm Geisler and Ron Brooks, “it turns out to be an argument that vindicates God.” Here’s what that argument looks like:

• If God is all-good, He will defeat evil.
• If God is all-powerful, He can defeat evil.
• Evil is not yet defeated.
• Therefore, God can and will one day defeat evil.

Question #2: If God Is Really Good, Why Doesn’t He Accept Us for Who We Are?

The idea that we are all sinners goes against the dominant idea in our culture that sin and evil are, as R. C. Sproul observes, “something peripheral or tangential to our nature.” We think evil resides in other people, not in us. “Basically, it is assumed, people are inherently good.”

Clay Jones, who teaches in the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University, has become an expert in the topic of human depravity.  “We prefer to think that great evil is limited to a few depraved individuals, but that’s not true. Large populations commit heinous crimes.”

If we have the view that human nature is basically good, what need do we have of God’s mercy—not giving us what we deserve, which is death (Romans 6:23a)—or God’s grace—giving us what we don’t deserve, which is life (Romans 6:23b)? Thank goodness, God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows we are depraved.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Romans 5:6–9)

Question #3: If God Is Really Good, How Could He Send Anyone to Hell?

Having a personal relationship with God is the highest priority God has for you, so it should not surprise you that relational separation from God, characterized by utter agony and despair, is the root of hell. Hell is truly the greatest loss imaginable. To be in hell is to be excluded from the very source of life, goodness, and hope—God Himself.

The “How could a loving God send someone to hell?” question is flawed by its very nature, for God does not “send” anyone to hell. Rather, people freely choose to reject God’s gift of salvation. God has given people freedom of will, which means some may choose to resist the Holy Spirit forever (Acts 7:51). While God desires that everyone believe in Him (2 Peter 3:9), the sad reality is many people do not want to submit their lives to their Creator. God gives people permission to live their lives as they please.

Does God Send Children to Hell? There is a biblical precedent to believe in an “age of accountability,” in which children who die go directly to God’s presence. Isaiah 7:16 mentions a period before a child is morally accountable to God. It seems likely that people are not held accountable for their sins until they are old enough to embrace either right or wrong.

God doesn’t want robots; He desires a relationship with beings who freely choose to love Him. Exodus 34:14 describes God as a jealous God. He wants his relationship with you to be personal and unique.

Signpost 5: The King

What you believe about Jesus’ identity determines your path in life.

THE PERSON OF JESUS

Truth is, all kinds of people are curious about Jesus—scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, teachers, social-justice activists, students, religious people, agnostics, even atheists. Because of what He did and who He claimed to be when he lived on earth nearly two thousand years ago. Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of human history and the key figure in the religion that bears His name.

It’s time to introduce Jesus, the answer to the question, “How do you approach God?” He’s also the answer to the question, “How can you know God?” Even more, Jesus makes it possible for us to approach and know God without fear. In fact, Jesus was announced to the world with the words, “Do not be afraid” (Luke 2:10).

“You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37).

You began your GodQuest with a comprehensive look at truth and why it’s important to determine what is truly true.

In a private dinner with His closest followers, Jesus had declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And now Jesus is telling the world that He is the ultimate truth.

In the New Testament, Jesus is often called “Jesus Christ.” Jesus is a personal name, meaning “one who saves” (Matthew 1:21), but Christ is a title, meaning “Anointed One.” This is a title fit for a king. In fact, in the Old Testament, kings were anointed as representatives of God to the people (1 Samuel 24:6).

Jews in first-century Palestine were an oppressed people, and there were zealots among them who were calling for a full-blown revolution. If they were to follow a king, he would have to be a king like David, a warrior and a political deliverer. But that wasn’t God’s plan. God’s plan for redemption has never been about saving people from earthly powers and oppression, but about freeing them from the bondage of sin and its effects.

As predicted by the prophet Isaiah, however, God’s people—the descendants of Abraham—did not accept or receive Jesus as their Messiah (Isaiah 53:3).

If you insist on being politically correct, then somehow you have to get Jesus out of the way. For his radical, personal claims to be the unique Son of God, the absolute revelation of God the Father, the sole mediator between God and man, are frankly embarrassing and offensive to the politically correct mindset.

Jesus Knew His Mission

New Testament scholar Scot McKnight lists several places in the Gospels where Jesus responded to comments and criticisms about His life and ministry by saying, “I have come …”

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Jesus claimed that if people didn’t confess Him before others, they would not be accepted by God. Jesus demanded that His followers show their true colors. Either they would tell the world they believed in Jesus, or make it clear they didn’t. Jesus had no room for followers who said one thing and then did another.

“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

C. S. Lewis famously said it best in response to those who want a safe, moral, predictable Jesus: You can’t say, “I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sorts of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS

Two things about the person and life of Jesus are incontrovertible: He is the most significant figure in history, and He is the most controversial.

Martha Woodroof, an award-winning broadcast reporter, speaks for many people when she says this about Jesus: “Personally, I admire and wish to admire him, without having any urge to deify him.”1 What people aren’t as interested in is the deified Jesus, the controversial Jesus. This is the Jesus who is, in the words of Mike Erre, “a threat to everything, for he turns all things upside down.”

Consider these seven highlights of His life:

1. Jesus was born of a virgin.
2. Jesus had a human but perfect life. Jesus never committed a sin. He never had to ask for forgiveness because, as Paul explains, He “had no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
3. Jesus performed miracles. The Bible reports about thirty-five miracles performed by Jesus during his three-year public ministry.
4. Jesus died by crucifixion.
5. Jesus came back to life from the dead.  The tomb was empty. Gripping accounts in Luke 24 and John 20 show that Jesus did not just rise from the dead in spirit. He came back to life in bodily form as well.
6. Jesus ascended into heaven forty days after the resurrection.
7. Jesus has promised to return to earth.

There’s no question the disciples knew who Jesus was. They declared their belief and allegiance to Him in their words and their writings, and perhaps most telling of all, these disciples gave up everything to follow Him. Had any one of them detected that Jesus was not who He said He was, they would have abandoned Him. But none of them did.

No one ever contradicted the claims and teachings of Jesus. No one ever successfully argued with Jesus and proved Him wrong.

In every single instance when Jesus was confronted by a demon or a swarm of demons, they obeyed Jesus as one who had authority over them (Mark 1:27), and they recognized Jesus as “the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34).

Deists don’t go for miracles. Thomas Jefferson famously removed all the miracles from the New Testament and published what is known as The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. His goal was to present Jesus as a great moral teacher, without the miracles of the resurrection.

If a supernatural being wanted to reveal Himself to His created beings, would He not do so in the form of miracles, which are by definition supernatural events? When you look at miracles in this way, Geivett writes, they act like a kind of “divine signature, confirming God’s actual sponsorship of a particular revelation claim.”

Jesus uniquely did the miracles by His own authority and power. His miracles invite us to respond, because they show us that Jesus was no ordinary man. They show us that He was the Son of God, equal to God in every way, whose supernatural power can change us from the inside out.

Besides the miracles that Jesus performed, there was something else Jesus did that only God can do: He forgave sins. One day He was preaching to a standing-room-only crowd when several men lowered their paralyzed friend down through the house’s roof, hoping Jesus would heal him. The first thing Jesus did was to tell the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Some “teachers of the law” who were in the house knew immediately what this meant. “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:1–12)

Traits that proved His humanity:

1. Jesus got hungry (Matthew 4:2)
2. He got thirsty (John 19:28)
3. Jesus grew weary (John 4:6)
4. He experienced human love and compassion (Matthew 9:36)
5. Jesus knew what it was like to grieve (John 11:35)

The work that Christ did in His life and in His death to earn our salvation is called the atonement. The death of Jesus by crucifixion was the pivotal event that allowed sinful humankind to get back into a right relationship with God.

This is why Jesus is described as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The death of Jesus was the divinely designed plan of God, centered in Jesus Christ on our behalf.

Craig Hazen, chairman of the Department of Apologetics at Biola University, is fond of saying that the Christian faith hangs on a single thread: Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

The Apostle Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Here are three “proofs” for the resurrection of Jesus Christ that support what the Bible clearly says:

1. The proof of the empty tomb.
2. The proof of hundreds of eyewitnesses. Jesus clearly wanted people to see Him after His resurrection, and hundreds did. The Bible records ten different appearances from the time He rose from the dead until His ascension, including one appearance to more than five hundred people (1 Corinthians 15:6).
3. The proof of transformed believers. When the religious leaders tried to stop them, Peter and John replied, “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). And that’s the way it’s been in ever since.

THE EXCLUSIVITY OF JESUS

Within the church the issue of exclusivity makes some Christians cringe because they do not want to appear to be narrow-minded, unloving, disengaged, arrogant, parochial, and isolated from culture. Outside the church the claim of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the only way to know God comes off as prideful, uninformed, and sophomoric.

Why Should You Believe Jesus Is the Only Way to God?

Consider these six claims Jesus made about Himself:

1. Jesus claimed to be the only way to God. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
2. Jesus claimed to be God. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5–8).
3. Jesus claimed to act and speak with divine authority.
4. Jesus claimed to perform miracles.
5. Jesus claimed that He came to replace religion with Himself. Tim Keller argues that most religions except Christianity are based on the principle that the way to have a relationship with God is to be a good person. In effect, Jesus says, “The law isn’t a bad thing; it’s just impossible to keep. So, I’ll keep it for you.” By living a perfect life on your behalf, and then dying for you so His perfection can become your perfection, Jesus does something very significant for you. He makes it possible for you to obey God out of a heart of gratitude for what He’s done for you rather than a burden of obligation for what you think you should do for Him. That’s how Jesus replaces religion with Himself, and only He is able to do it.
6. Jesus claimed to determine people’s eternal destiny before God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

In his classic book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis famously proposed:

Jesus did rise, so you can count on Him doing at least three things for you. Jesus can save you. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). Jesus can give you eternal life. If the only hope we have is in this life, then “we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Philosopher Doug Geivett has done a beautiful job of articulating this tension between knowing what to do, but not quite being ready to do it.  “If you think the Christian worldview is reasonable, but your heart has not caught up with your mind, you need to understand that this is a normal part of spiritual development in the Christian way. In countless ways, our passions prevent us from taking prudent action. But once we recognize this, we are in a better position to be led by rational considerations rather than impulse.”

Signpost 6: The Path

The path you follow in your spiritual journey determines your destination.

THE RELATIONSHIP YOU’VE ALWAYS LONGED FOR

Let’s do a little review of the previous five Signposts in order to summarize how the belief system centered in Christ matches up.

1. Signpost 1: The Quest – What You Believe Determines Where You Go in Life. Christianity is true to the way the world really is.
2. Signpost 2: The Beginning – What You Believe About Creation Determines How You View Yourself and Life. Christianity fits this Signpost because Christianity is true in what it says about God.  The evidence for an intelligent designer points to the kind of all-knowing, all-powerful, purposeful creator portrayed in the Bible: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge (Psalm 19:1–2).
3. Signpost 3: The Word – What You Believe About the Bible Determines How You Live Your Life. For thoughtful people who want to make sure their beliefs are linked to historic, verifiable facts, Christianity as presented in the Word of God stands apart because Christianity is testable.
4. Signpost 4: The Question – What You Believe About God’s Goodness Defines Your Relationship with Him. Christianity is unique in that it has an answer to the universal problem of suffering and evil. Christianity alone provides an answer to evil and suffering found in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who knows what it’s like to suffer and die.
5. Signpost 5: The King – What You Believe About Jesus’ Identity Determines Your Path in Life. Unlike all the other religions and belief systems in the world, Christianity alone has Jesus at the center. The common belief that all religions are basically the same breaks down at this very point. Christianity alone offers the followers of its founder the opportunity to be in a constant, personal, real-time relationship with God Himself through the person of Jesus.

Popular writer and speaker Brian McLaren states the obvious: “If Christians, Muslims, and Jews are at each other’s throats, nobody in the world is safe.” Besides doing our best to live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18), there’s another reason why we need to show respect for and do our best to understand other religions and belief systems. By denying that there is truth anywhere outside of the Bible and Christianity, we are in effect denying any opportunity others may have to consider the claims of Jesus.

Christians need to follow Jesus by engaging the culture with God’s truth, not being afraid to find out what we have in common with others.  As Mike Erre says, “Christ followers need not be threatened by truth outside the Bible, for all truth is a reflection of the Holy Creator God.”

Another way to show respect for other beliefs without coming across as arrogant: Don’t be arrogant.  Instead, show true humility.

What bad impressions do Christians leave?

• Hypocrisy.
• Christians don’t take their religion seriously. Why don’t they read, study, and follow the Bible?
• Non-Christians often criticize us for not having good reasons for what we believe, but when pressed, they can’t provide evidence for their beliefs either.
• Christians notice the faults in others but not in themselves.
• Christians often discourage questions once they have the truth. In fact, knowing truth tends to silence further inquiry.

Paul knew it was futile to talk about his faith without respecting and even loving his enemies. Here’s what he wrote to the Corinthian believers:

In your GodQuest, believing the truth about God is imperative, but belief alone won’t give your life meaning and purpose. Belief alone won’t give you the relationship you’ve always longed for.

Having a personal and purposeful relationship with God is about being transformed by God from a self-centered, sin-infested existence to a life infused with the transforming power of the gospel—the good news that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection have made it possible for you to live a life of meaning and purpose.

Finally, if you truly believe God exists, and the questions you have about God aren’t insurmountable, why not give God a try? Consider what the psalmist David tells us: