Should I Be Concerned About My Child Studying World Religions in College? with Special Guest Dr. Michael Horton

My son is taking a religious studies class in college.

Is it okay for Christians to study other world religions, or is that something I should warn him against? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-The-Core.

That's 1-833-843-2673. And of course, you can email us with your question at questions at corechristianity.com. Today we're honored to have Dr. Michael Horton join us. Dr. Horton is on the leadership team here at Core Christianity, and he's a theology professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Southern California. Mike's also the author of numerous books, including the book that inspired this program, Core Christianity, Finding Yourself in God's Story. Welcome back, Mike. Thanks, Bill.

Always great to be with you and Adriel. I feel like when we introduce Mike, we should have that background applause or maybe fireworks or something like that. You would have to have background applause. It would have to be canned. You can't find people to do that.

We'll try to work that in next time. Okay, I know both of you guys have day jobs, but here is something that might interest you for the future. Conservation officials in Australia have announced they are seeking someone to take a full-time job living on a tropical island surrounded by the Great Barrier Reef. Queensland's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has announced it's seeking a caretaker for this isolated tropical island about nine miles off the coast of Port Douglas, Queensland. The position requires the winning candidate to live full-time on the island and complete a variety of duties, including maintaining buildings and the solar power system.

Making sure the sewage treatment plant is functioning properly, working with tourist operators, cleaning toilets, caring for the grounds, and counting the bird population. Wow. You know, guys, I love working with both of you, but living on a tropical island sounds pretty attractive. Yeah, you know, Bill, I would sign up for that and I'd get on the plane and unpack my bags and find out that half of the hours actually are living in a cage in the water with the sharks. Let's hope not.

Well, if you're interested in that job, you can probably just go to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park website and put in your application. Well, guys, let's get to our first question of the day and Adriel Blanca posted this on our Instagram account. Yes, Blanca, thank you for that question. I would say you're going to want to focus on Jesus, who he is and what he's done. I've been convicted about this personally as well. Friends of ours invited us over to their house after church not too long ago. They don't go to church.

I don't think they would call themselves believers. And they asked me, What did you preach on? This is back when I was preaching through 1 Peter at the time.

And I just sort of froze and I responded in a very, very short way. And I said, Well, I'm preaching through the Epistle of Peter. And Peter is writing to believers scattered abroad in the diaspora.

And as I was talking, I could just see this person, their eyes sort of slowly glaze over. And I thought to myself afterwards, man, what an opportunity to share about Jesus. I mean, what are we supposed to be preaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ? And of course, I did preach the gospel, but we got to get to the gospel when we're sharing our faith. We got to get to Jesus. And we can get caught up with these other sort of peripheral things, talking about ourselves, even our own story. What we have to focus on is the story of God, what he's done.

Let me just encourage you. I mean, even the apostles, they needed to pray for boldness. In Acts chapter four, you have them praying for boldness to continue to preach the word of God. And so we need the help of the Holy Spirit as we think about sharing our faith. And so I would say pray, focus on the gospel, focus on who Jesus is, what he's done, what he's accomplished, where he's at right now at the right hand of the Father, praying for us, he rose again from the dead, and know what you believe. That's another key is the deeper you understand God's word, the doctrines that we embrace as Christians, the easier it's going to be for you to articulate those truths to others, to people that you that you want to share with that need to hear the truth. And so pray, focus on the gospel and know what it is that you believe.

That would be my advice. Well, Adriel, I didn't know you were so socially awkward. Yeah, you did.

I think we've all had those experiences that we've hopefully learned from. And, you know, as you were saying that, Adriel, I was thinking how Paul couldn't get out of the gate in one of his letters without summarizing the gospel all over again. I mean, I never, you know, when I write a letter or an email, summarize the gospel in the, you know, dear Fred, a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which happens to be about his living and dying for us and being raised on the third day, that's exactly how Paul opens his letters. That's his salutation. There's more gospel in Paul's salutation than in a lot of sermons. So I'm with you 100%. Try to turn everything back to Christ crucified for sinners and raised on the third day.

That's the meat and potatoes. And if you can, there's a great resource on our website. Go to corechristianity.com and pick up Why Should I Believe Jesus Rose from the Dead? It'll really help you as you get that into your bones to be able to explain in a clear, concise way why we believe in the resurrection, which is the linchpin of everything.

It walks you through some of the basic arguments that you can kind of get deep down in your bones so that they're your arguments and you can share them as you're able with people who are wondering, well, but how do I know Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life? Well, the resurrection. Amen. Hey, guys, I have a follow up for you on that. In the past, my kids had a youth pastor who would constantly tell the kids, the high schoolers in the group, well, the most important thing is to share your personal testimony, share your own story. And while that can be a positive thing, I'm thinking that in today's postmodern world, the response can often be, well, that's nice for you. That's a great story. I'm glad that happened for you. But I think what I hear you saying is the most important thing is to point back to the truth of the gospel.

Yes, it's great that you have this relationship with Jesus Christ. And again, we shouldn't ignore that. But should we make that the foundation of the conversation?

Right. Yeah, you can't do everything in a brief conversation on the plane. What I think is the best outcome even of a five minute conversation is moving the needle away from that's nice for you to, oh, this either did or didn't actually happen. You never respond to when a history teacher says, you know, such and such a date to the Battle of Waterloo happened, this was the victory. You'd never have the class divided between those who shrug and say, well, that's good for you to believe that.

And the other half saying, yeah, it's just it's not for me. It either did or didn't happen. Now, if it did happen, then that means as Paul says in Acts 17, he is who he said he was and there is a judgment coming and he will be the one who judges and all who trust in him are saved, all who do not believe in him are lost and condemned forever. So this is not just the Battle of Waterloo. This is the watershed of history. And it makes a difference for everybody. Even if you can't say everything you'd like to say, just for people to walk out saying, oh, it wasn't just about this person and the difference Jesus has made in this person's life.

This is about the difference Jesus has made in history. It's objective. It's outside of us. And because it's outside of us, it's for us. And that means we do have a personal testimony, but that's not the gospel. That's the effect of the gospel in our life. The other thing I would add is what's so wonderful about that is it just takes the pressure off of us. I mean, I think I mean, I remember years ago being in youth group and everybody sort of feeling like they need they needed to have this amazing, spectacular testimony. And and as people are sharing, you know, they just get better and better and better because everybody's trying to one up each other.

You know, I didn't know you were the leader of the mafia. That's pretty embellished just a tad. Exactly.

It's really like Mike was just saying there. I mean, when the focus becomes the story of God, what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ. Well, that takes the pressure off of me. I don't need to have this spectacular conversion story.

It really is about the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. That's the message that people need to hear. Amen. So important.

Thanks, guys. This is Core Christianity with Adriel Sanchez and Dr. Michael Horton. And here's a question for you, Mike. Gloria emailed us and she said, My son is taking a religious studies class in college. Is it okay for Christians to study other world religions, or is that something I should warn him against? I've really done my best to help him be grounded in the Word of God, but I'm nervous that his professors might lead him astray. Yeah, I've been in a lot of these classes, Gloria.

Some good, some not so good. Well, first of all, on the danger side and then on the positive side, the approach that's usually taken is what's called comparative religion. So essentially, you are looking at the similarities and differences between Christianity and Hinduism and Buddhism and so forth.

And so comparisons are kind of key there. Well, just as there's baptism in Christianity, you have all sorts of ablutions and water rights and other religions. And just as you have this idea of a dying and rising savior, so too, in Greek myth, you have that also in Christianity and so forth. Well, first of all, I'm not just knocking religion departments, but a lot of comparative religion departments haven't gotten the memo from scholars of ancient Christianity and ancient Roman religions, because that's not actually the view that is held by a majority of scholars today.

It was a couple generations ago. Let's compare all the different religions. But we now know Christianity didn't arise out of these Greco-Roman mystery religions.

As C.S. Lewis said, in Christianity, you have the myth that became fact. In the myths, you have, you know, Balder living somewhere, you have the myths of dying and rising gods, but no date, no time, happened once upon a time somewhere, but then you get this shocking message that while Quirinius was governor of Syria, in the days of Caesar Augustus, when a decree was issued for all the world to be taxed, pinning this to real dates that we actually can compare with Roman historians, in that particular little dusty town called Bethlehem, the savior of the world was born. And tying the rest of the story to dateable particular pegs of history.

So I would say, you know, the approach makes all the difference. They can't approach Christianity as true. They have to approach it as, you know, here's a little bit about Christianity, here's a little bit about Hinduism and Buddhism. I think if your son approaches it from that standpoint, realizing that Christianity is the only religion that actually can make a claim to being historically fact.

It can be really helpful. You know, when I was growing up, you had conversations with Roman Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals and Methodists and Lutherans, you know. Now it's with Buddhists and Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims. The worst thing in the world is for us as Christians just to start off with our message showing no interest in what other people believe.

I mean, what makes them tick at the deepest level of their life. So just to love them and care for them, to be ready to give them an answer for the hope we have, but with gentleness and respect, Peter says. That requires, I think, knowing something about what they believe. Look, the good news here, Gloria, is that we don't have to, we still need missionaries, but we don't have to, to be missionaries, leave the United States and go to another country. The Lord has brought the nations here into our own backyard, into our own neighborhoods, and so I would encourage your son to know what he believes and why he believes it, and then to be a good neighbor and listen with respect to understand what other people believe. He will definitely, it's like learning another language, you get to know your own native tongue better.

The more you learn about other religions, the more you just shake your head and wonder at the distinctiveness of the claims of Jesus Christ and of the evidence, overwhelming evidence in favor of it. And, you know, Gloria, I can tell just by your email that you're really concerned about, you know, what's going to happen with your son as he's off at college. I would say one of the other really important things, and this is what I've seen, when people get untethered from the church, they go off to college and then they stop going to church, they don't have any Christian community, that becomes, I think, when they begin to drift. There's zero accountability, and so I would say one of the things that's really important is just making sure, encouraging your son and making sure that he's in a good church where he's still, despite the fact that he's taking these college classes, hearing the gospel preached every Sunday. And there are people there who are encouraging him in his faith, maybe getting plugged into a, you know, one of those college campus ministries, that kind of a thing, but continuing to foster that Christian community, being a part of the local church, even while he's out there, I think is going to be huge.

And that's part of what helps us stay tethered, even when we're hearing things that aren't true about the word. In a good church, it doesn't have to be the pastor, even in a good church, there's going to be an older guy there he can talk to who will be able to kind of help disciple him. And when he has questions, to be able to answer those questions, man, you're absolutely right, Adriel, he's got to be rooted in the concrete life of the local church. This is Core Christianity with Adriel Sanchez and Dr. Michael Horton.

If you or someone you love is suffering in some way right now, and we know a lot of people are due to COVID and other issues, and we have this excellent resource we know you will find helpful. Adriel, can you tell us a little bit about this book? Yeah, we're offering our listeners a wonderful little book by Harold Sankbeil called Christ and Calamity. It's easy to think of God has forgotten us in the midst of everything going on when things get tough. And this book really does a great job of showing us how God is faithful and why he can be trusted. I mean, really, no matter what you're going through, what kind of calamity is that you're facing, so get a hold of this. Harold Sankbeil is a friend and a really gracious pastor and a professor of pastoral practice, a counselor. And this is just a wonderful book, very practical. It's like you're talking to a generous pastor or father about the things that you're going through, the crises that you're facing.

And this is a really helpful book. You can reserve your copy of Christ and Calamity today by making a donation of any amount. Just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. You can also call us for any one of our offers at 833-843-2673.

That's 833 the core. Well, let's get to another question. Adriel, this one is for you.

Cindy called in from New York. I have a question. There's a verse in the Bible that speaks on you will be judged on both the good and the bad done in the body. Does that mean that your previous sins though forgiven will be will be reoccurred before the throne of grace? Or is it just the works that you have done? Did you do it in good intentions or bad intentions? Please help me answer this question and have has our sins been blotted out due to the blood of Jesus and repentance and asking for forgiveness as believers. Thank you.

Hey, thanks for reaching out to us, Cindy. Now, I don't think this means our past sins are going to be reviewed before the throne of grace. I mean, those have been washed away, right? In fact, one of the most beautiful things that God says about scripture is that he's going to forget our sins.

I mean, it's pretty wild when you think about it. The author of the Hebrews, for example, quoting from Jeremiah 31. It's the promise of the New Covenant. He's quoting Jeremiah 31 in verse 12, God said, I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. I mean, this is at the heart of the New Covenant that Jesus instituted. You remember when he was with his disciples there in the upper room prior to his death, instituting the Lord's Supper.

He said, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood. That's all about the forgiveness of sins. God's saying, I'm going to forget about your sins.

You see this also in other places in the Bible. Isaiah 43 verse 25, God said, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins. Let me just say, we all have things in our lives that we've done that we wish we could just erase. Stuff we wish I think that we could just completely forget about. You've seen maybe the movie Men in Black, those special agents that have that neat gadget that you look into it and it just sort of erases your memory.

Sometimes I wish I had one of those. I wish I could just forget about these things. Well, God so blots out your sins that it's as if he forgets about them. They're covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. So the judgment doesn't determine our justification or our entering into life. Jesus said in John 5 that the one who believes has already passed from death to life and doesn't enter into judgment. Yet at the same time, we're going to stand before the Lord and give an account and God is going to commend us, reward us for the things we've done in the body. I think some of that could be related to the way in which we serve the Lord. We don't really know entirely what that's going to look like, what those rewards are going to look like. I often say some people assume that some people are going to have the nice big mansion in heaven.

Other people are going to be in the two bedroom, one bath, the smaller one. Well, scripture doesn't say that and so we want to be careful when it comes to speculating. But I think we can say God isn't going to parade our sins around at the final judgment to shame us. No, our sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's one of the promises that we have in the new covenant where God says, I'm not going to remember your sins anymore. And yet at the same time, I think we have to do justice to those texts of scripture that talk about standing before the Lord and giving an account for what we've done. So that's how I'd approach your question, Cindy.

Yeah, if I could just add, I think of an award ceremony. First of all, there's the judgment and we already know the verdict. There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So for believers, we've actually heard the judge deliver the verdict. Not only not guilty, but righteous, just in Jesus Christ.

But then there's an awards ceremony, an awards banquet that's different. And only believers go to that. I think of Corrie Ten Boom. I always think of her when I think of these verses. Here's a woman who quietly, humbly, without looking for anybody to see what she was doing, was preserving Jewish lives from the Holocaust. And in the name of Jesus, giving a cup of cold water to those in need.

Just really an amazing person. I'm going to be standing on top of the table applauding and whoop whoop whoop when she walks up to receive that award. We're going to be thrilled to see people receiving rewards. That's not the heavenly reward, the inheritance of eternal life. That's on top of everything else. And even that is a gift of God. You know, Mike, as you were speaking there, it just reminded me of what John says in 1 John, where he talks about there being no fear in judgment.

This idea of perfect love casting out all fear. And I think that there are a lot of believers who think about the final judgment. And they're sort of thinking of it in terms of God is going to weigh my good works and weigh my bad works.

And whatever's heavier, that's what's going to get me in. I mean, it really is a sad reality. That's how a lot of people think about salvation. And so this truth of justification, you talked about how we've already been justified.

The verdict has already been given. Now there's no condemnation. Do you think a lot of believers today still don't completely grasp that truth?

Yeah, because it's not in us by nature, right? That's why the statistics tell us that even most professing Christians in America don't believe in justification. They believe that we're saved by exactly what you're talking about, the good outweighing the bad.

Look, here's the thing. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one who does good.

No, not even one. There is no one righteous, right? So Paul's whole argument leading up to the announcement of the gospel is that if you really want to be justified by those scale pans, by your good works outweighing your bad, you better know what the law requires. And the law requires absolute perfect obedience.

Therefore, Paul says, not one person will be justified according to the law, that is, according to those scale pans. Well, then how can we be saved? Well, he goes on to say, but now God has revealed a righteousness that is a gift in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

So now I don't have to wonder about those scale pans. The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, credited to my account, is the only reason. His righteousness weighs in his and our favor completely. There isn't one work he failed to do. There isn't one temptation that he ever gave into. There isn't one sinful thought that he entertained and chased down.

There is not one moment in his entire life where he was not 100% devoted to his father and the mission that he had given him. And that status, that status is mine so that I'm not just forgiven, but I am righteous in Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.