About Celebrities Leaving the Faith

Dear friend,

I am sure you are hearing about all these celebrities abandoning the faith. Some say it’s the contradictions in the Bible. Well, rest assured that supposed contradictions in the Bible have been addressed ad infinitum in the last 2,000 years of Church History. Contradictions only exist if someone denies that God is all-powerful and if they deny that the Spirit inspired men to write accounts that preserve the integrity of their humanity and their perspectives on events. Assume someone says, “Hey, I can’t believe a man would live in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights. That’s just impossible.” In this case, he is denying that God is all-powerful. After all, if God created the world out of nothing, then for a sea creature to swallow a Hebrew prophet is actually a playground miracle in God’s repertoire.

If someone says, “But the Gospel accounts are different from each other.” In this case, they are denying the humanity of the authors. If these authors wrote identical accounts, then we should be skeptical. But they added their individual nuances to the narratives which prove indisputably that we are dealing with a reliable source.

I say all these things because when someone leaves the faith because they cannot “reconcile,” for example, Judas’ death in Matthew and Luke, they are actually using such silliness to justify some kind of moral and ethical decision they have made and the Bible is used as a scapegoat for their validation. Ultimately, what they really want is a way out of obeying God and following Jesus. The road to the cross can be difficult; self-control is hard; repentance is not for the weak. So, why not use the fallibility of God’s word to make a case for your fallible actions, they think.

Don’t be sucked into this chaos! Those who leave Jesus are leaving true life. You keep pressing on! The cross leads to an open tomb!

Sincerely,
Pastor Brito