Gustavo’s Musings (#8 of 10)

(July 2005)

Talking religion
Questioning how we share the Christian faith

…But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who
asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. (1 Peter 4:15)

I recently had an e-mail conversation with a friend of mine whose belief system is very different
than mine.
I’m a product of that strand of evangelical Christianity, which stands firm in its convictions
regarding original sin, man’s depravity, his need for a savior, the gift of salvation and eternal life that
comes only through faith in God’s son, Jesus Christ, as well as the reality of the hereafter. I also believe
the Bible to be the true and inspired word of God.
My friend Peter (not his real name) engaged me in a series of discussions on God and the
Christian faith. By the end of an exhausting back and forth argument, we had covered the gamut of
intellectual barriers that many people have with respect to God and with respect to the Christian religion.
Here are some of the questions I attempted to tackle during our e-mail discussion:

• Why does God allow good and decent people to die of incurable diseases?
• Why doesn’t God answer my prayers for healing?
• Why does God allow so much evil in the world?
• What does a relationship with God give me that I don’t already have?
• Won’t God accept good-hearted and kind people into heaven?
• Will God forgive someone for truly heinous crimes they have committed if they sincerely repent
and ask for forgiveness?
• Isn’t one sin (say murder) more serious than another?
• Why must I go to church if I’m a Christian?
• What about those who have never heard of Jesus?
• Don’t all religions basically lead to the same God?

Before I continue, let me say that if you are a Christian reading this article, you should have
reasonably, well thought out biblical responses to questions like these. They raise valid issues that are
part of our pluralistic, post-modern, popular culture. The source of these pointed inquiries goes right to
the heart of God’s character as well as to his plan for the redemption of mankind through Jesus Christ.
While we may turn to prepared resources to help formulate our answers, it is ultimately our
responsibility to be adequately equipped to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

Beyond good apologetics

But in that same breath, my purpose for writing goes far beyond a call to good apologetics.
Rather, in the aftermath of my discussion with Peter, I couldn’t help but feel a vague dissatisfaction, not
because I wholly failed to convince my friend of key beliefs, but rather, because of my approach to the
entire debate.
The first disheartening development was how I quickly and instinctually moved into evangelism
attack mode once Peter gave me the green light to discuss spiritual matters. I fired off every salvo in my
arsenal including the four spiritual laws, how easily we break the 10 commandments, and all those
highly unsatisfactory answers on suffering, evil and other religions that you find in cheesy apologetics
books. I threw everything at poor Peter but the spiritual kitchen sink.
Never once, in my whole conversation, did I deal sincerely with Peter’s inquiries on prayer, for
example, and the ambivalence he may have felt when God didn’t answer them. Sure, I replied to his
questions as best I could, but it was all really a prelude and a pretext for driving him to what I felt really
mattered, the Roman’s Road, of course. Peter needed to be convinced; he needed to be spiritually
conquered. Alas! He needed to be saved! And it would be accomplished through the sheer force of my
superior arguments. One could describe it as downright comical were it not for the earnestness in which
I went about my task.
You can imagine my shock when Peter claimed he had already accepted Jesus Christ as his
savior, a point I heartily challenged based on the “fruit,” or lack thereof, that I had seen in his life since
the time we had known each other. In one fell swoop (or conversation as it were), in the twinkling of an
electronic “i,” I had objectified Peter and called into question his eternal salvation. That’s mighty
Christian of me, wouldn’t you say?
Instead of dealing with Peter as a complex living being, with real needs, I dealt with him as a
statistic that needed to be moved over into the right spiritual category. Instead of a warm personal
touch, I gave him a coldly calculated thesis. In so many ways where compassion was needed, I instead
turned to brute logic to make my case. (Yes! Peter and I are still good friends, which makes my
treatment of him all the worse.)

Beyond a Technique-Driven, Abstract Gospel

Beyond treating people as objects, my other troubling realization was how much I had adopted a
technique-driven approach to sharing my faith. My answers to Peter were wooden, not sensitive to his
particular spiritual situation, and goal-oriented (his salvation) as I stated before. Nearly everything I said
had been borrowed from popular books on evangelism and apologetics, which took their cues from the
models developed by Campus Crusade’s Four Spiritual Laws (upon which nearly every evangelistic
tract is currently based.) Most churches in Paraguay today also use this model exclusively in all of their
evangelistic efforts.
It’s not to say that this model didn’t have its place, and that it hasn’t been used effectively to
communicate our need for salvation. It’s simply to say that techniques and how-to’s can never
substitute for genuine care and concern. In addition, people are multi-faceted and deserve to be given
more than one-dimensional answers. Finally and perhaps most importantly, issues related to God, faith,
and salvation are way too complex to break down into one easy four-step model. If I had truly wanted to
communicate “the hope that I have in me,” I had to be willing to offer Peter something more than an
electronic gospel tract.
Finally, in my conversations with Peter, I couldn’t help but be dissatisfied with the actual content
of my replies. Again, so much of my thinking on these issues came from a particular brand of
evangelical Christianity, which is as theologically abstract as it is smug. Its characteristic trait was
defining the gospel away from an intimate encounter with a truly personal and passionately loving God
(hmmm…someone like Jesus for example), to a gospel defined more as a legal transaction between a
repentant criminal and a merciful judge.
The truth was that somewhere between my own conversion (1992) and my seminary training
(2003), I had somehow morphed from a deeply caring, spiritually sensitive individual with an intimate
view of God to a cardboard cutout of abstract western theological thinking.
Yes, man was a sinner in need of being justified, but he was also a prodigal son in need of being
reconciled to his heavenly Father. The divinely sovereign God whose thoughts are so far beyond ours (a
favorite refrain often used to force acceptance of difficult issues) was also Emmanuel, God with us, who
took on the form of a servant and partook of our human sufferings. Christ the eternal king also wept
internally when he encountered the needy, the downtrodden, and the marginalized. All of this was
glaringly missing from my so-called gospel presentation. One might say I misrepresented God, which is
putting it kindly.
Peter was a good sparring partner in our debates. Thankfully, he was a good sport too. I’m
certain that as I tried to enlighten him about God, faith and the Christian message, he never imagined
that he would be teaching me a few things as well. My hope is that he’ll notice a difference in me if we
ever take up the discussion again. God bless the Peters of the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gustavo Karakey was born in Durango, Mexico and grew up in Southern California. Currently,
he lives in Boston with his wife and three children.
From 2004-2008, he served as a missionary to Paraguay, South America teaching at the
Methodist Bible Institute just outside of Asunción.
In 2011, Gustavo and his family will be moving to Medellín, Colombia, where Gustavo will
serve as a professor of New Testament at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia (www.fusbc.edu.co).
Gustavo’s passion is to help develop pastors and leaders for the church in Colombia and Latin
America as well as to prepare missionaries from Colombia for the unfinished task of global missions.

*****

To learn more about this exciting ministry in Colombia visit: http://www.karakey.com

To sample or purchase a copy of Gustavo’s book “Making Sense of the Bible” which provides a step-
by-step method to better understand the Scriptures visit:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/22475