“Truth, Apostasy, and the Narrow Gate”
Harvest Baptist Aug. ‘24
Good Morning and welcome to Philosophy 101. My name is Professor Nitz. And by the way it is not “Knits”, and any of you who write my name that way on one of your papers, will get marked down!
Some of you might be having bad flashbacks right now, if for you, like me, philosophy was the most mind-numbingly boring class you had to grind through in college. Plato, Kant, Descartes, John Locke, snooooore. At that time I didn’t really see the relevance. With a lot more miles on the odometer I understand it a little better now—I think. Philosophy tries to understand the basis for knowledge and reality. Where the rubber meets the road, it’s about coming up with answers to life’s ultimate questions. Whether or not you think of it in these terms, we all have a philosophy of life. I prefer the term “worldview”.
All people act and live in certain ways because they are guided by a particular worldview. Don’t be put off by that term. Your “worldview” is simply the cluster of beliefs you hold about the life’s most significant questions. These beliefs determine for you what is valuable, what is good and bad, and what you consider ultimately to be true. Philosophers have– for as long as we can peer back into cultural history– been grappling with the same big questions, like:
How and why did the universe begin?
Who are we humans and how did we get here?
Is there a point to life, and if so what in the world is it?
What is wrong in our world, and why is there so much evil?
How do we decide what is right and wrong? Are any values absolute?
Is there even such a thing as absolute truth?
What is death, and does anything come after that?
Your answer to these critical questions, and a few others like them, form your “worldview”, your personal philosophy of life. And that determines how you interpret information, the choices you make, and ultimately how you will live your life.
60 years ago I sat in a public school classroom on 4th Street in Greensburg, PA. I can’t remember people I met last week, but I distinctly remember every one of my elementary school teachers—is that weird? Miss Andrews, Mrs Campbell, Miss Sample, Mrs. Robinson, Miss Collier. Miss Sample seemed unnecessarily cross much of the time, but I liked the others. Mrs. Robinson was my favorite and I was fortunate to have her in both 4th and 5thgrades; she was a silver haired, neat as a pin, 60 something, firm but kind woman. I can still easily close my eyes and transport my mind back to 1963 when I was in her 4th grade classroom. She wore half glasses that always hung on a chain around her neck. And every school day morning in 1963, after the Pledge of Allegiance, we sat down behind our small wooden desks and Mrs. Robinson put on her reading glasses, opened her well-worn Bible and started the day by reading to us a passage from God’s Word, then praying over the day’s activities, and over us, the students in her classroom.
It was, at the time, actually the law in Pennsylvania, that every public school day begin with the reading of no fewer than ten verses from the Holy Bible. But something happened in 1963 called “Abingdon School District vs. Schemp”, and by 1964 when I was in 5th grade, Mrs. Robinson was no longer allowed to read to us from her Bible, nor to pray in our hearing in her classroom. I don’t think I need to tell you what would happen today, a mere 60 years later, if a public school teacher in America even tried.
But you see, sixty years ago there was still a consensus Christian worldview guiding American society. Mrs. Robinson’s morning routine of Bible reading and prayer in a public school classroom was a way of reinforcing what most Americans would have agreed then was good and true. I’m not saying popular culture was dominated by Biblical Christianity then, but it was still tempered by it and not overtly antagonistic to it. Christians, and those not religious at all, could easily co-exist. Those who feared God, believed his Word, and acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord– and most Americans who didn’t– were still seemingly traveling on parallel roads, going in the same general direction. But in the 1960’s those roads began to diverge. And over each successive decade since, the divide has grown wider, developing into what many termed a “culture war”, a struggle for which world-view would dominate American society, the traditional/Christian, or the new secular/progressive. I don’t think this is breaking NEWS but it’s now 2024. The culture war is largely over, and Christians have all but lost it. Today Bible believing Christians increasingly find themselves in situations hostile to our faith, to our values, to our core beliefs. Christianity is regularly held up to ridicule by those who control most of the media, the education system especially at the university level, Hollywood and the popular culture—all the influences that most shape our society. Our faith is frequently characterized as for weak-minded, superstitious, backwards folks– and even described by some as a dangerous kind of brainwashing or even mental illness. We are seemingly heading into a progressive “brave new world”, but many of us with the advantage of experience do not agree most of what has been happening is any kind of “progress”, with one or two exceptions.
On the way to a pastor’s convention in Baltimore several years back, I played for the guys in the van I was in an excerpt from a Bill Maher interview with a Christian leader named Ralph Reed. Maher did his best in front of a clearly anti-Christian audience to make Mr. Reed’s faith sound bizarre and silly really. The tell-tale line that showed where things were going was, just after introducing Mr. Reed– who is president of an organization called “Faith and Freedom Coalition– before he could even get settled in his seat Maher said, “Faith: the purposeful suspension of critical thinking”. That was how he threw down a gauntlet to see how Mr. Reed would react. He was positing, condecendingly, that to be a person of faith, by definition, means you are a person who has on purpose chosen not to think about things. And they call US close-minded? The interview only got more sarcastic and disingenuous from there as Maher posed complex philosophical and moral questions and gave Mr. Reed five or ten seconds to try and answer before cutting him off with a snide or crude remark as his studio audience erupted in laughter. I have to hand it to Ralph Reed though. He kept a smile on his face throughout. He did not respond in kind. He did his best to answer Maher’s barbs with a good attitude, and didn’t lose his cool although he was treated very unfairly.
It might surprise Bill Maher, but I am a Christian, a person of deep faith, and I actually like to think about things. I’m not a Christian because I decided to turn my brain off so I could believe nonsense. I’m a Christian because I have thought a lot about the answers Jesus and the Bible give to life’s biggest questions, and I find them reasonable and credible. I feel like the evidence is on my side as a Christian believer. Thinking back on the list of ultimate questions I mentioned a moment ago, take the first one for example about how and why the universe began. You know it has only been relatively recently that science has caught up to the Bible’s explanation for the origin of the universe. Scientists like to call it the “Big Bang”. Most physicists today believe that all the energy which now makes up everything in the cosmos was once squeezed down into an area smaller than a grain of sand. Then unimaginably and for some unknown reason it exploded! KABOOOM!! And somehow from that massive explosion the concepts of time, space, and the laws of physics emerged. And from there order started to emerge out of chaos. . . But doesn’t that sound suspiciously like Genesis’ description of God commanding the universe into being out of nothing (minus the grain of sand part!) in one massive, instantaneous flash of light and energy? Dr. Arno Penzias, the German scientist who earned a Nobel Prize for his theories and discoveries in this area wrote this, listen: “Astronomy has lead us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, and one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, one which has an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan“. Isn’t this precisely what Genesis says, “ex nihilo”, creation by God out of nothing? Then in the midst of the vast cosmos resulting from a mammoth explosion of energy and matter one planet emerges from the utter chaos perfectly tuned to support the delicate balances of life? How could that accidentally happen? Dr. Penzias could not bring himself to say the word, “God” I guess, but if the universe did not have a natural cause, but rather—in his words—“one might say a supernatural” one, the implication is clear. Common sense should tell those who do NOT turn off their brains that very complex things require a Designer. If you were walking along the shore and saw washed up on the sand a highly complicated mechanical pocket watch, would you conclude that it had somehow formed after eons of different particles mingled together on the ocean floor? Or maybe landed there after an explosion at a nearby junkyard? Or that it was made by the skilled watchmaker whose name was on the dial? We all know the answer to that, don’t we?
Thinking about the second big question about us humans and how we got here– although most scientists still cling to the notion of evolution somehow being responsible for producing human beings on this planet, I keep reading about very smart scientists who are conceding that that is, in and of itself, a very inadequate answer. For example, the man who was at the head of the “Human Genome Project”, perhaps the greatest scientific research project of the last 50 years, Dr. Francis Collins, a geneticist, actually became a Christian as a result of his groundbreaking research into DNA. He simply found it too incredible to believe that life could have arisen by random genetic accidents once he saw the amazing complexity of human DNA. He realized there had to be an incredibly brilliant Designer behind it. It is simply far, far too complex . . . The Bible has reasonable answers for the big questions, and the more science keeps probing, if they are honest, the more their findings bear out what God has told us already—although many will probably never concede that. The Apostle Paul—a pretty smart guy—argues in Romans chapter 1 that recognition of God and his hand in Creation is not an intellectual problem, but a moral one. He writes that there is ample evidence for God all around us, as well as inside of us—by that he meant in our conscience and moral nature– but in his words “men suppress the Truth in unrighteousness”. In other words they don’t believe it because they do not want to believe it.
Now the big question we are going to especially focus on this morning is the one that asks: Is there any such thing as absolute Truth?” It is common today to hear people talk about “MY truth” and say things like: “You have your truth, and I have mine”, i.e. You can believe what you choose to believe, and I will believe what I choose to believe, and our conclusions can be equally valid. There doesn’t need to be a “right” or “wrong” answer. That’s called “intellectual subjectivism”, the idea that we each can decide for ourselves what is true—for us. Have you ever been talking with someone about what you believe and had them smile politely, but dismissively, and say, “Well that’s great if it works for you, but that’s not MY truth.” Talk about the purposeful suspension of critical thinking! Hello! It’s either the truth, or it’s not the truth! If someone were to tell me that gravity may “work for me”—that is my truth—but it does not work for them, I would warn them not to test that notion by jumping off any bridges or tall buildings, because the reality is, it applies to everyone, whether they acknowledge it or not.
Thinking back thru that list of Big Questions, there is a way the universe came into existence, not multiple ways. There is an answer to how humans got on this planet. There is a reason that evil exists. There is something that happens after people die, not different things you can choose from on a multiple choice form someone hands you on your death bed. What I am saying is, there are real answers, true answers to life’s biggest questions. There is ultimate reality and truth. There has to be.
Think about this. See if this makes sense to you. Our world is governed by Laws. I’m not talking about laws people make. I’m talking about immutable laws, laws of nature, laws of physics, things that must remain unchangeable for our world to work the way it does. One term for this is “constants”. There are constants in math, constants in physics, constants in biology, chemistry, etc. These are things that do not change. For example, the speed of light is a constant. Does anyone know what that is? Me neither, but it’s fast and always the same. It’s a constant. The pull of gravity is a constant. That’s how scientists can send a rocket into space and bring it back safely to earth. They can calculate using laws of physics and mathematics that do not change. Wouldn’t our world be crazy if there weren’t such constants? Using my critical thinking then, it seems very likely to me that if in the physical realm there are laws that govern everything, there are constants, things that do not change, things we can bank on always being true, then isn’t it likely that in the metaphysical realm, in the spiritual realm there are also constants? Things that do not change? Things that are always true? Things that we can know for sure?
“OK Paul, I thought I was in church! When you going to get to the Bible?” Right now actually. Jesus was insistent that there ARE metaphysical absolutes–constants–in the spiritual realm. Absolute truths. Did you realize the most frequently repeated phrase coming out of Jesus’ mouth, according to those who were with him—and this is written down in their accounts (I’m talking about the NT gospels)– was “I tell you the truth”, or in the older King James translation of the Bible, “Verily, I say unto you”? For example, Matthew 5:18 “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not even the stroke of the pen, will by any means disappear from the Law of God until everything is accomplished”. Doesn’t that sound to you like Matthew heard Jesus say that everything in the OT that God promised would happen, will in fact happen? That the promises in the Bible are, according to Jesus, metaphysical “constants”? Absolute truths?
This is interesting. The formula translated in our Bibles, “I tell you the truth” is just one word in the language Jesus spoke- “Amen”. When I say something you agree with and someone says “Amen!”—and you are Baptists so you can do that by the way– did you know what they are really saying is, “Truth!”? “I agree what that guy just said is the truth!” Jesus, many many times, used this term at the beginning of his teachings, assuring his listeners that what came out of his mouth next was something they could depend on—to use our terms—a “metaphysical constant”, something in the spiritual realm as reliable, as unchangeable, as gravity or the speed of light is in the physical. Sometimes He even doubled down on it and said, “Truly Truly”, or “Verily Verily”. John particularly took note of these statements and recorded 25 of them in his Gospel. That “Amen, Amen” preceding key statements Jesus made was His way of underscoring them even bolder—we’d call it doubly emphatic– as when for example He told a very religious man some years his senior who came to interview him one evening, “Verily, verily, or Truly truly I say to you sir, except a man is born again He cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again.” This man was one of the most respected teachers in Judaism at that time, yet Jesus looked him in the eye and solemnly confronted him with the “Amen, Amen”. “What I’m telling you now is an absolute truth, Mr. Nicodemus” . . .
Who talks like that? Well, Jesus continually talked like that! How could he presume to make such pronouncements about what other people should believe!? Well, Jesus insisted actually that He was in fact the only one who was qualified to do that! Listen to these statements excerpted from John chapter 8 spoken during a sharp exchange at the temple one day between Jesus and his religious opponents. Think about exactly what Jesus was claiming. John was so struck by this back and forth, and especially by Jesus’ assertions, that he devoted an entire chapter to it. . . Jesus began: “I know where I have come from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I have come from . . . I am one who testifies for myself. My other witness is the Father who sent me. You are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. If you do not believe I am the one I claim to be, you will die in your sins. I am telling you only what I have seen in the Father’s presence”. Turning to the Jews who had believed in Him Jesus said: “If you hold on to my teaching, you are truly my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.” Then his opponents exclaimed: Wait just a minute, “Abraham died, and so did the prophets, and you are claiming that if anyone keeps YOUR word they will not taste death? Are you saying you are greater than our father Abraham?” Jesus replied, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day, and he saw it and was glad.” They scoffed, “You are not 50 years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “Before Abraham was born, I AM”
Boy, there is a LOT I could say about that exchange, but it would be a different sermon. What I DON’T want you to miss though is that Jesus explicitly claimed to be a lot more than any one of us. He explicitly claimed to have pre-existed his 1rst century incarnation, to have come down from heaven from God the Father, and that the information He brought with Him, what He was teaching, was the Absolute Truth: Truth, which if rejected, meant that the rejecters would die in their sins. Truth, which if accepted, meant those who received it would be set free from their sins and conquer death. Did you hear him? Do you believe Him? I have come out of heaven to explain the absolute truths of the spiritual realm, things you could never figure out for yourselves, to tell you the constants, the unchangeable realities about God who made you, about sin which is what’s wrong in you and your world, about life and how to live it, about death and how to beat it. . . Far from saying: “You decide what is true for you. Or believe what you want as long as you are sincere . . .” Jesus said: “Believe in me, receive the Truth which I’m revealing to you . . . or die in your sins”.
This theme of there being spiritual constants, absolute truths, is throughout the Bible, not only in Jesus’ declarations. It’s also in the writings of the authors of Scripture. Just listen to how this idea shows up repeatedly in different passages. For example, in the 119th Psalm at the 89th verse it says “Thy Word O Lord is forever settled in heaven”. Say “forever settled”. That’s just another way of saying “God’s Word is unchangeable. It’s a spiritual constant.”
In the midst of another debate with the Pharisees recorded in John chapter 10, Jesus concluded his rejoinder with this certitude: “And the Scriptures cannot be broken”. Say “cannot be broken”. That’s saying the Bible can’t be contradicted because it’s an utterly reliable source of truth. (John 10: 35)
In his last prayer for his disciples on the night before he was crucified, John records that Jesus prayed for them to the Heavenly Father with these words: “Sanctify them by Your Word. Your Word is truth.” Say “God’s Word is truth.” There’s no room for misunderstanding that. Not “contains some truth”. Not “works for some people”. No. God’s Word is absolute truth, according to Jesus Christ. (John 17:17)
Jesus’ brother Jude, writing to early Christians after Jesus was no longer with them– challenged them, and us, this way: “Contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to God’s holy people”. Say “once for all”. T-H-E, the definite article, “faith” refers to the body of doctrine, the body of teachings, produced by Jesus and His Apostles. “Once for all” means it’s unalterable. It’s a constant. That means historic Christian doctrine is not open for reinterpretation, for reinvention to adapt it to changing sensibilities and cultural norms. We are instructed to “contend earnestly”, or as another translation puts it “Stand strong in defense of the faith once for all delivered to God’s holy people”. (Jude 3)
One more—and this one is so strong. This is from John chapter 18: Jesus, having been interrogated and beaten up all night by the Sanhedrin and their temple policemen, was taken to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate very early on what we call Good Friday morning. They demanded of Pilate that he be put to death for blasphemy (a religious crime) and also for claiming to be a king (a political crime). The Governor had Jesus brought inside his residence so he could question Him privately. He reminded Jesus that he had the absolute power to kill him or to let him go, and then tried to get to the bottom of the real issues between him and the Jewish authorities. Jesus told him, under questioning, that he actually had no power over him except what was given him by God, but assured him he was not claiming to be a political king. He did insist though that he had a kingdom, but it was not one “of this world”. Then in answer to Pilate’s queries as to what then he was trying to accomplish, Jesus explained himself in these fascinating terms: “It is for this reason I was born, and for this cause I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” He said, I have come into the world to tell people the truth, to explain spiritual realities. Everyone on the side of truth will listen to me, will receive me and my message. Pilate had no idea what to do with that so he decided to leave Jesus’ fate in the hands of the Jewish leaders and the mob they had gathered outside his judgment hall. He took Jesus back outside to them, and when they saw him they demanded even more urgently, “Let him be crucified! We will not have this man ruling over us”. So Pilate signed the death warrant, unwittingly fulfilling the plan of God for the atoning sacrifice of His Son on the cross.
You know, nothing will get you into conflict any faster these days than to suggest that you have absolute truth on your side. If you think I am exaggerating, just get on the comments after an article online, or on Facebook, or some other public forum, and take a clear-cut Biblical stand on pretty much any current hot social topic and watch what happens. Most in our society have been deceived into buying into the nonsense that absolute truths do not exist, that all belief systems are human constructs. . . Why is there such a strong reaction to those of us who disagree, who instead agree with Jesus? I’ll let you in on a secret. It’s not simply a philosophical difference of opinion. It’s really no different now than 2000 years ago in Pilate’s courtyard. Most people do not want Jesus Christ ruling over them. Imprinted on every human heart is the knowledge that we are answerable to God who ultimately determines what is true, but to remind someone who doesn’t want to hear that is like striking a raw nerve. Just as many in Jesus’ day reacted by picking up stones when He claimed to be the source of truth, when he said people would die in their sins who didn’t accept Him, it’s still the same dynamic. It arouses a visceral reaction from those who do not want Jesus Christ and his truth ruling over them. Any view is tolerable, and any values OK, any beliefs are acceptable — except, except the biblical worldview, what Jesus revealed as being the Truth. For agreeing with Jesus, Christians are somehow viewed by many today as “haters”.
When people get triggered at me for sounding like I’m saying I have the truth and they don’t—although I try never to couch it in those argumentative terms– like Ralph Reed, I try and smile and as kindly as I can point out that their beef is really not with me, but with Jesus Christ. As a Christian, i.e. as a follower of Christ, I am simply agreeing with what He taught. To disagree with Him and suppose I know better would be absurd! How could anyone calling themselves a “Christian” do that? That would be, to use Bill Maher’s terms “the suspension of critical thinking”.
Yet we are in a period marked by exactly that, people calling themselves Christians who contradict the plain teaching of Christ and his apostles, the authors of the NT. The Bible has a name for this. It’s “apostasy”. Apostasy is “a rebellion against the truth, a wilful turning away from, or turning against the truth”. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that apostasy would be a mark of the “Last Days”. There’s not just a giant gulf between Bible-believing Christians and the secular progressive world today, it’s also between those of us who accept Jesus’ claims and the Bible as “truth”, and many who profess to be Christians,yet in fact reject many of the most fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. Let me give you one example I read about not too long ago. An article caught my eye about a controversy in one of the mainline Protestant denominations. It was over whether to include a hymn—actually my favorite hymn– in the new edition of their denominational hymnal. The problem revolved around a couple lines in the 2nd verse of this anthem, “In Christ Alone”. Some on the committee responsible to decide which songs should make the cut for the new hymn book had a problem with these lyrics:
In Christ alone who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones he came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied;
For every sin on Him was laid—Here in the death of Christ I live.
Mary Louise Bringle, who chaired the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Songs, explained the objectionable part was about Jesus’ death on the cross satisfying the “wrath of God”. She wrote for the committee who rejected it, “Although we recognize this was a view held historically by some (i.e. that God’s wrath against sin had to be satisfied by a blood “atonement”) we did not feel this was appropriate for our churches today. The hymnal is not a vehicle for one group’s perspective but rather a collection for use by a diverse body”.
I have news for Ms. Bringle. 2000 years ago Jesus the Christ, under a decree from Pontius Pilate was crucified on a hill just outside Jerusalem called Calvary. What actually transpired there was that the God-Man out of great love for us sinners, willingly laid down his life as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. He did so in order to satisfy a holy God’s justice because His blood was the only sacrifice valuable enough and powerful enough to atone for the world’s sin. So Jesus bled and died in our place, suffering our punishment, appeasing the wrath of a holy God; because, because, either our deserved wrath fell on Him that day, or one day in the future, when we stand before God’s judgment throne, it would have to fall on us. This is the Truth, an unchangeable reality, a constant of the Christian faith. And to deny this is true, is to be in a state of “apostasy”.
Perhaps you are thinking after listening to what I have shared this morning, “Wow! you are pretty narrow minded, Paul”. Well, if by “narrow minded” you mean I do not think about other people’s points of view, I would respectfully disagree. The fact is there are a lot of voices in the marketplace of ideas in our culture, all kinds of voices, and I listen and think about what influential people have to say– all the voices doing their best to convince us of their version of “Truth”. But so far as I know, none of them has been so bold as to say: “I’ve come down out of heaven to tell you the truth!” And when challenged on their views, none of them has responded: “If you don’t believe me then I will give you this sign: Kill me and in three days I will rise again”. Much less could any of them make good on that! So, when it comes to Truth, I’m taking my stand with Jesus Christ. I understand that will be increasingly unpopular going forward; but if being “broadminded” means disregarding the claims of the One I’m convinced was God on earth in human form, then count me as one man whose feet will stay locked on the narrow way.
I’ll leave you with this thought: Jesus, foreseeing this tension between the many voices who would offer other answers to life’s biggest questions, who would contradict the Truth He came to reveal to us, once said: “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad and the gate is wide for the many that choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow, and the road is difficult, and only a few find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14)
The days ahead may well grow more difficult friends. But regardless of where the culture is headed, I hope you have decided—or will decide right now–to lock your feet onto the narrow road, casting your lot with the One who came down out of heaven to tell us the Truth.
