We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Another Sneak Peek from Benefit of the Doubt

bannerAs we approach our ReKnew conference next month, we’ll be posting snippets of Greg’s book, Benefit of the Doubt. We hope you’ll be joining us. We extended the deadline for early bird registration. Get on that before Friday at midnight!

What Is Your Actual God?

In light of all this, what should be said about the certainty-seeking model of faith? To put it bluntly, I find it hard to avoid the conclusion that, for all their sincerity, the certainty-seeking, doubt-shunning understanding of faith reflects the same religious idolatry that entrapped the religious leaders of Jesus’s day. The things that make certainty-seeking Christians feel loved, worthwhile, and secure before God—that is, the thing that assures them they are “saved”—is that they feel confident they believe the right things with a sufficient level of certainty. Doesn’t this mean that it is their certainty in what they believe about God, rather than God himself, that is their source of life?

Is this honestly any different from the idolatry that Jesus confronted in the religious leaders of his day?

The Evidence of How We Live

If further proof is needed, consider this. As long as a person remained confident enough in the belief that Jesus is the true revelation of God that they can get their life from him (about which I’ll say more below), would they ever be afraid of confronting ideas that might cause them to doubt any of their other beliefs? I, for one, don’t see how it is possible.

Think about it. If I was confident that God unconditionally loves me because of what he did for me on Calvary, then wouldn’t I be confident that his love for me does not increase or decrease based on how accurate or inaccurate my other beliefs are? So too, if I was confident God ascribes unsurpassable worth to me on the basis of Calvary, then wouldn’t I be confident that my worth can’t be increased because I hold correct beliefs and can’t be decreased because I hold mistaken beliefs? These questions answer themselves.

Boyd, Gregory, Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty, Baker, 2013

Related Reading

Everybody’s Got A Hungry Heart [Sermon, 7/1/12]

Check out Greg’s latest sermon!

Description from WHC website:

Paul wrote the Colossians to confront a false religion of invoking angels. These invocations were being done because people thought Jesus wasn’t enough. This same type of thought pervades our own society, where people with hungry hearts are searching for more than what Jesus offers. In this sermon, Greg talks about the fullness that Jesus brings.

Tags:

Quotes to Chew On: Conflicting Depictions of God

“This is something like the way I believe we should respond when we encounter biblical narratives that depict God doing things we can’t imagine Christ doing. For example, I can’t for a moment imagine Jesus—the one who made refusing violence and loving enemies a condition for being considered a child of God—commanding anyone to mercilessly…

According to Your Faith

In his sermon from this last weekend, Greg deals with Scriptures that have created some misunderstandings regarding the nature of faith. He shows how we can replace the gimmickry we normally associate with faith with something much more beautiful and lasting. You can download the sermon here. How have Greg’s thoughts on faith impacted the…

Tags: ,

Lighten Up: The Seeds of Doubt

Sometimes you have to follow where doubt leads you.

Last Minute Preparations

We’re all busy here at ReKnew making last minute preparations for the Open2013 conference here in St. Paul, MN. It’s our first ever event of this kind and there’s a nervous energy and anticipation. I wonder if you’ll hold this up in prayer if you weren’t able to join us? We have a last minute…

Happy Birthday to Us

 A♥ via Compfight It’s hard to believe, but it was on this day (June 30) one year ago that we launched the ReKnew website. Happy Birthday ReKnew!! As reflected in the ReKnew Manifesto, our goal is to stimulate Christians to rethink foundational aspects of the faith they embrace and to motivate skeptics to take a…