Questions and Answers 2010-06-27

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I. Question One – “Is Christianity a religion or a relationship? Or both?”

“A lot of my friends have been saying that Christianity is just a relationship with God. I understand that you need to go through the steps of salvation to be saved but they think you just need to pray, read the Bible, etc. So what I’m really asking is, “Is Christianity a religion or a relationship? Or both?”

A. First, we need to stress that everyone is in a relationship with God whether they realize it or not.

1. Matthew 12:30. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

2. One is either with God or against God. There is no middle ground.

3. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15.

4. Jesus said…

a) John 8:24. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

b) Luke 13:3. I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

c) Matthew 10:32. “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

d) Mark 16:16. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

5. If we don’t believe or practice these things which Jesus commanded, do we love him? According to Jesus, we do not!

6. So is Christianity a relationship… I would say that it is a term that describes one’s relationship with God. If one is a Christian, then that one is in a RIGHT relationship with God.

B. Is Christianity a religion?

1. Religion – the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power.

2. In the Bible, the word for “religion” as applied to Christianity is threskeia.

a) This word focuses on the external aspect of one’s faith.

b) How one expresses his faith.

c) James 1:26-27. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

3. So, yes, Christianity is a religion.

a) It is a belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power.

b) It is an outward expression of that belief in the way we behave.

II. Question Two – “Why did God make the earth?”

A. Wow! What a question!

B. The easiest answer is that God made the earth for us to live on! But I think the one who asked the question maybe wanted to know why God made Us.

C. Why did God make us?

1. Some things we can not know for sure.

2. We do know this. God is love. 1 John 4:8. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

a) Everything that God does issues forth from His love.

b) Therefore, I believe that God loved the idea of us.

c) God loved us before He created us.

d) Much like a man and a woman love the idea of having a child.

(1) Even before that child is conceived, they love the idea of it.

(2) Therefore, they decide to bring a child into existence.

e) Remember that God is described as our Father.

III. Question Three – “Why did God give us the Bible?”

A. God gave us the Bible as a guide. Psalm 119:105.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

B. We can’t read God’s mind, so he had to give us a book to tell us what He wants us to know. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10.

But as it is written: “ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

C. The Bible gives us everything we need to be pleasing to God.

1. 2 Peter 1:3. As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.

2. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

IV. Question Four – “What constitutes worship?”

“Do we need to include the five acts that we do on Sunday for it to be true worship?”

A. The most basic definition of the word “worship” is “to show reverence and respect toward another.”

B. As the question states, God has authorized five ways in which we are to worship Him.

1. Singing. Ephesians 5:19.

2. Praying. 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

3. Bible Study. Acts 20:7.

4. The Lord’s Supper. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

5. Giving as we have been prospered. 1 Corinthians 16:1-2.

C. By example, we know that Christians gathered together on the first day of the week to worship. Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:18; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2.

D. However, only two of the acts of worship are LIMITED to the first day of the week.

1. Those two are giving and the Lord’s Supper.

2. We have plenty of examples of singing, praying, and Bible study being performed at other times.

a) Acts 16:25. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

b) 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Pray without ceasing.

E. No, I do not believe that all five acts of worship must be present for one to be worshiping God.

1. On Wednesday evenings when we gather together, study, sing, and pray, we are worshiping God.

2. However, on the first day of the week, we need to have all five acts of worship present to be pleasing to God.

V. Question Five – “A wife is to keep silent in church but ask her husband. If a husband understands or tells her something that is not correct is she lost because of what her husband tells her?”

A. The relevant passage is 1 Corinthians 14:26-35.

How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

1. This passage teaches that a woman is to keep completely silent in the assembly.

2. She is not to utter a sound.

3. This would mean that it would be wrong for a woman to sing.

4. Furthermore, what if a woman did not have a husband? She would have no one to ask her questions!

5. We must ask, “Does is passage apply to us today?”

B. I have never attended an assembly like the one mentioned in the above passage.

1. I have never attended an assembly when someone spoke in a language they had never studied.

2. I have never observed on in the process of receiving a revelation.

3. I have never been to a service where there had to be an interpreter present who had the gift of interpretation.

4. Three classes of people are told to keep silent in this passage:

a) One who spoke in another tongue if there was not interpreter present.

b) A prophet who is speaking must be silent when another receives a revelation.

c) Women must keep silent.

5. Silent – sigao. To keep silent. To hold one’s peace.

6. This was an assembly different from any we will come across today.

7. These women who were told to ask their husbands questions at home would have been asking prophets! There was no need for them to worry about getting bad information.

C. Today, women are not commanded to be completely silent but to learn in submission. 1 Timothy 2:11.

Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.

1. “Silence” – hesuchia. Quietness. Tranquility arising from within. Causing no disturbance to others. Meek.

2. Does not mean that they are not to utter a sound.

3. A woman is not forbidden to ask a question as long as she is not disrupting the service or taking control of the service in doing so.

4. Furthermore, a woman today has the Bible available to her. Not true for those to whom Paul was writing in 1 Corinthians 14.

VI. Question Six – “what verse specifically tells the wife to love her husband and what Greek word is used?”

“In the Father’s Day sermon you closed saying wives are to respect and love their husbands. Other than the general commands for Christians to agape one another, what verse specifically tells the wife to love her husband and what Greek word is used?”

A. The verse I was thinking of was Titus 2:3-4.

The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children…

B. The Greek word that is used is philandros.

1. Comes from the Greek word for love, phileo. Which means tender affection.

2. And from Andros which means man or husband (implied when “wife” is used in context).

VII. Question Seven – “Cursing is wrong.  What about euphemisms?”

“Cursing is wrong. What about phrases that most of us use like, “Oh shoot,” “Son of a gun,” “Holy cow,” etc. How can these be ok when you are meaning the same thing just substituting another word?”

A. You have a good question.

B. These phrases are called “euphemisms.”

1. Euphemism – a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt.

2. If you look up the word “shoot” you will see that it is a euphemism for a certain four letter word that also starts with “sh.”

a) Now, the word “shoot” is not wrong when you are using it in any other way.

b) But if you are saying it as a substitute for that other “s” word, then it is wrong.

3. Look up “heck.”

4. Look up “son of a gun.”

5. “Golly”

6. “Darn”

7. “Freakin” (I won’t even say it.)

8. All of these words are merely substitutes for more harsh words.

C. As Christians, we ought to refrain from using euphemisms.

VIII. “Is it wrong for a Christian family to put up a nativity scene at Christmas?”

A. In my mind, the one thing that sets the church of Christ apart from false churches is it’s view of the authority of the Scriptures.

1. Colossians 3:17. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

2. We understand that we must have authority for those things we practice.

3. We understand that the silence of the Scriptures does not authorize.

B. The Bible nowhere authorizes Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a special holiday.

1. How can we claim to respect the authority of the Scriptures as a church but then promote a religious holiday that is not authorized?

2. This does not mean that we cannot celebrate Christmas as a simple national holiday.

3. But to attach religious significance to it is unauthorized.

C. Some claim to find authority in Romans 14:5-6.

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.

1. It seems a stretch to me to apply this passage to Christmas.

2. Nevertheless, some feel that this passage authorizes them to pick a day to celebrate Jesus’ birth as long as they don’t bind it on other people.

D. Is it wrong to set up a nativity scene?

1. At the very best, I believe it is very unwise.

2. At the worst, it could be sin for promoting an unscriptural holiday.