Core 1 Year Live Anniversary: Are My Questions a Sign that I Lack Faith?

Are my questions about Christianity a sign that I lack faith? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, 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 also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, and you can always email us your question at questions at corechristianity.com. Well, today marks an important milestone here at CORE Christianity. It's our one year anniversary of going live on the air and taking your calls.

And Adriel, I did a little quick calculating. And since you answer about five questions every day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, you can always email us at questions at corechristianity.com. You have now answered approximately 1,300 questions in the past year. Yeah, you would think I would have covered it all by now, but the calls keep coming in. And yeah, it's been honestly, we were just thanking God earlier today for His faithfulness to us and praising the Lord for His kindness. And so thank you all for your support and pray we continue to bless you with answers from the Word of God.

And one of the things I think we're realizing is that we are really meeting a need. So many people have questions about the Bible and the Christian faith, and they don't know where to go to get those questions answered. So they, they do know they can turn here for a trusted voice. So Adriel, thank you for providing that trusted voice for us every day. Thanks, Bill. Well, let's go to the phones.

Mary is on the line from St. Louis, Missouri. Mary, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I am a trustee with my church. And I really want to do the Word of God. And they were suggesting to have me go to seminary school.

And I thought about it was a good idea. But then, you know, the more I read about the Bible, and it says you're, you know, you're in the Bible. Women are not supposed to preach. And then also, it is I've also had people say it's okay, that that was back then.

And, but it also the Bible says to not add or subtract. So I'm kind of like in a dilemma of wanting to know, is this truly what God wants? Mm hmm.

So it sounds to me like you're serving right now, Mary as a trustee in your church, and they're wanting you to pursue ordination. Is that is that right? Yes. Yes, sir.

Okay. So when Paul talks about the qualifications for ordination, especially, you know, ordination to the office of elder, he outlines this in First Timothy, chapter three, and in Titus, chapter one, and there are really three distinct things that he outlines there. There's first the the calling. An individual who is to be ordained should have a sense of calling, a sense that God is the one who is calling me to this. And the way we discern that calling is the two ways we sometimes talk about the internal and the external call. The internal call is this this sense that you have, or that an individual would have personally that God was calling them to the ministry. The external call would be the call of the church, the church saying, Yes, we see that, you know, the gifts that God has given this individual, the gifts that God has given you.

And they indicate to us as well that you should be doing this. So the calling is one thing. Another thing is character. That's very clear in First Timothy three in Titus, chapter one.

Another thing is competency. Paul says there in First Timothy three that an elder has to be able to teach. But one of the qualifications and you mentioned this, it seems to me that Paul gives there in First Timothy, chapter three is that an elder should be a man, the husband of one wife.

He begins by saying in chapter three, verse one, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, not not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? And so I appreciate the fact that you're concerned with what the Bible teaches and that you want to be faithful to scripture. And so, you know, I'm a pastor of a local church, a tradition that I'm a part of. We do not ordain women to the office of elder or deacon on the basis of what Paul says in places like First Timothy three and elsewhere. Now, that does not mean, Mary, that you can't serve the church with gifts that God has given to you. And it sounds like you already do as a trustee. And if you don't feel comfortable with this suggestion, then it's clear, as I said, you have to imagine for individuals who are truly called to this, it's something that they sense as well. And it sounds to me like there are a couple of things that would be in the way of you standing and fulfilling this office. One, just I think the basic teaching there in First Timothy chapter three. But it sounds to me like it's not even something that you're seriously interested in.

While you may want to serve the church, and it sounds like you do, I would encourage you to continue serving in the capacity that you're serving as a trustee, as a faithful member of the church, and see how the Lord continues to bless you there. This is an issue where there are differences. I mentioned my view and the view of the tradition that I'm a part of. There are other churches out there where they say, well, no, we think that those commandments are more cultural, that they're not binding for today. I don't take that view. But that is a view that's out there.

And I wouldn't say that Christians who hold that view are not Christians. But I think ultimately, and it sounds to me that this is what you want, Mary, we want to be faithful to God's word and align ourselves with it as much as we can. And so may the Lord bless you as you seek to do that. God bless. Mary, thanks so much for calling and for listening to Core Christianity.

We really do appreciate you. You know, one of the things that we do here on this program, one of our goals is to answer those tough questions that people have about the Bible and the Christian life. And we actually have a brand new free resource that answers many of those tough questions in a very helpful booklet form.

Absolutely, Bill. We definitely want to do that here at Core Christianity. We made a special booklet for our one year anniversary answering the questions that we know many of you have. We want to help you be confident in your faith and in your ability to respond to the difficult questions that people are asking.

So we have this resource, Tough Questions Answered. The booklet is only about 50 pages long, but it's going to help you defend your faith. It answers questions like, doesn't science make religion unnecessary? Why is Christianity so exclusive? What about other religions like Buddhism and Islam? Isn't the Bible just a bunch of myths? Isn't the Bible's view of sexuality and gender overly restrictive?

I mean, these are questions that people are asking, questions that many of you have asked. And so I want to get this resource in your hands. It would be a great gift for friends or family as well. And you can pick up the booklet for free over at CoreChristianity.com. This is such a fantastic resource, especially if you have a friend or relative who might be an agnostic or an atheist and who's constantly peppering you with questions.

This will help you answer some of those tough questions and maybe even a book you could read with your kids, especially teenagers, as they pose some of those difficult questions. You can find it by going to CoreChristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, CoreChristianity.com forward slash offers and look for Tough Questions Answered.

You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-THE-CORE. Now, we mentioned we do get a lot of emails here at CoreChristianity and, Adriel, here's one from one of our listeners named Doug. He says, I've always felt that I've had a strong walk with God since childhood, but recently I find myself struggling with the ideas of eternal judgment and even some of the ways doctrines and spiritual things are put so bluntly. Instead of receiving God's word without question, I find myself having to examine it, which makes me think that God may see this as a lack of faith.

Can you help me with this? Yeah. Hey, Doug, thank you for that question. I guess it just really depends on what you mean by questioning or examining God's word. I don't think we should approach God's word as critics. The word of God judges us.

We stand beneath it. We come before the Lord and God speaks to us through his word. Let the word of God do its work in you. We're called as Christians to study the scriptures and to examine them in one sense. The passage of scripture that I think about is in Acts 17 where Paul and Silas are at Berea. It's really a wonderful passage. In verse 10 it says, The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness. That's how you want to receive God's word, with eagerness, not as a critic, not thinking, I don't know that I want to embrace this doctrine or that doctrine.

There are doctrines, brothers and sisters, that you may not want to embrace, that you may not understand, and yet we submit to the word of God because it's God himself who speaks to us through the scriptures. The Jews there at Berea, they received the word with all eagerness, so that's what you're going to want to do, but listen to what it says next. Examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. The word that's used there by Luke, examining, it's the Greek word anakrinou, and it means to question, if you will.

This is exactly what you're asking. Is it okay to ask these kinds of questions, to question, to examine, to interrogate even? It's used sometimes in the context of interrogations in the New Testament. For example, Luke uses this same word in his gospels to describe Pilate questioning or interrogating Jesus, finding him to be innocent. We should search the scriptures, interrogate them, if you will, not so that we can reject them or be critical of them, but so that we might understand them. If that's what you're doing, if you're opening up the word of God and you're thinking about these doctrines that you've heard about and you're being Berean, you're examining the scripture, you're wanting to grow in it and understand it, then I would commend you. But if what you're doing is what sadly a lot of people in society have done today and you're approaching the scriptures as a critic, just saying, well, I don't know if I want to embrace that, I'm going to reject that, you're putting yourself over the word of God instead of submitting to it, well, then there needs to be a shift, there needs to be a change. In that situation, we're called to repentance, to submit to what the word of God teaches, to embrace it. It may be that there are difficult doctrines that we have a hard time understanding to begin with. Peter says, Paul, in his writings, he says all sorts of difficult things, the unlearned twist to their own destruction. But I would encourage you to continue to grow in the word of God, to ask those hard questions. I pray that you're in a good church where you're being cared for by a pastor who's able to walk with you through some of these things, but continue to search the scriptures and to submit to them. And as you do, you will experience the grace of God more and more in your life. And so thank you for that question and may the Lord help you to continue to search the scriptures.

Great counsel. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, our phone lines will be open for the next 10 minutes or so. And you can hop on the phone right now and give us a call. 833-843-2673. We are open to questions about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, maybe how your Christian walk intersects with what's going on in today's culture. Give us a call.

833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Bobby in Wichita, Kansas. Bobby, what is your question for Pastor Adriel? Afternoon, brothers. How are you today? I'm doing well, Bobby. How are you? I'm doing great. Doing great. Yesterday was my birthday.

I'm 53 years old. All right. Hey, happy belated birthday.

I hope you were able to celebrate, brother. What's your question? You know, I love the word and I love the Lord Jesus. And as I'm reading, I ponder kind of in between the inspired works, you know, and there's that big gap in the life of Jesus that nobody knows about between 12 and 30-ish. And he was a carpenter's son and he grew to be a carpenter. And I've always wondered, what do you think Jesus said when he smashed his thumb with a hammer?

Oh. Well, yeah, I wouldn't want to speculate. He never sinned, so he probably just praised the Father.

No, I'm not sure. I mean, this is an interesting question. And it's interesting that the Bible doesn't really give us a lot of indication what was taking place during that time. Now, there have been other people who wrote after the apostles and the disciples of our Lord Jesus who have tried to sort of fill in the gap. And you have these stories about this sort of childhood Jesus, which are all made up. I mean, you read about them in some of these extra biblical, quote unquote, you know, writings, and they just sort of make you laugh because Jesus does things as a kid, like he, you know, makes his friends disappear or he's actually known as kind of a little bit of a troublemaker.

So it's just out there. The scriptures don't tell us. And in fact, I think one thing that we can glean is, you know, when Jesus goes back to his hometown, to Nazareth, you remember how the people greeted him there? Isn't this just, you know, Mary and Joseph's kid? Aren't his brothers here? You know, it isn't his family.

We know him. We've seen him grow up. There didn't seem to be anything miraculous about him. And so they were caused to stumble. They couldn't grasp how the hometown Jesus was the Messiah. And so I think right there you have an indication that what was happening during that time wasn't, you know, teenage Jesus doing miracles and so on and so forth.

That he was growing. I think we could say he was growing in the grace and knowledge of his father, if you will, as the second person of the Holy Trinity, living a perfect life of obedience every step of the way for us, Bobby. I mean, that's what the Bible teaches. And then scripture focuses, when it comes to the life of Jesus, focuses on his earthly ministry, the miracles he did beginning there in Cana of Galilee, John chapter 2, casting out devils, binding Satan, going to the cross and rising from the dead. That's where the biblical writers want to direct our attention. That's where we should be focusing. And so when we start speculating about, you know, what was Jesus doing when he was 17 or what was Jesus doing when he was 18? That's not what God wants us to be focusing on. God wants to direct our eyes to the work of Christ, in particular the work of redemption, what he accomplished on the cross and through his resurrection. So I think that's why the scriptures speak so clearly to that.

And that's where we should direct our eyes. God bless, Bobby. Thanks for that question.

Thanks, Bobby. Appreciate you being a regular listener to CORE Christianity. By the way, if you have a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life, you can leave a voicemail 24 hours a day. We do our best to check our voicemails regularly and they'll get back to you. So feel free to do that at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Melissa, who's calling in from Topeka, Kansas. Melissa, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, I guess you sort of started to talk about this a little bit earlier with the woman who was asking about ordination, but I have maybe a bit more of a general question. I was talking to one of my friends and she said that at her church, they pretty much only ever use the New Testament because the New Testament, they feel kind of overrides or, you know, negates the Old Testament. So that just doesn't sound right to me.

And I was just curious what your thoughts were on that or what I could say to her. Yeah. Hey, Melissa, I appreciate that question and a lot of people really struggle with how to understand the relationship between the Old and the New Testament because you read the Old Testament and there are these laws, these ceremonies, these practices that we don't do as Christians. And so is it relevant to us and in what sense is it relevant to us?

Well, let me just say first and foremost, absolutely, yes, it is. It's so relevant to us. In fact, the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that those things that happened in the Old Testament happened and were written down for our instruction so that we might learn from them. So that's one passage of scripture that you could go to and maybe read through that chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, with your friend.

This is for us. But Paul also makes it very clear in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 that, here's what he says, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Now, when Paul was writing this, this is during the time where the New Testament is being written, so when they're thinking of the scripture, first and foremost, they're thinking of the Old Testament, of those scriptures, the prophets that they would look to as they were anticipating the Messiah. And he says so clearly, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable, for who?

For us. As Christians, you cannot fully understand the work of Jesus Christ for you unless you understand the Old Testament background. When Jesus shows up in the Gospel of John, what does John say in John chapter 1 verse 29? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Well, if you don't understand the Old Testament, the sacrificial system, that's not going to make very much sense to you. And so I encourage people by saying, look, don't neglect the Old Testament. The Old Testament helps to illuminate so much of what we read in the New Testament. It gives us a deeper understanding of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ for us. As I said, what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, those things happened for our instruction. When we read about the Exodus, when we read about the wilderness wanderings, we're meant to learn from those things. And so I would just encourage your friend to dig into the scriptures. And honestly, if an individual is in a church that rejects the Old Testament, that doesn't teach the Old Testament, I would say you're probably going to want to find a different church because it's God's word for us.

And if we're going to faithfully preach the whole counsel of God's word, we need to also be in the Old Testament. God bless. Amen. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Once again, we have that free resource available to you today.

Tough Questions Answered. This is an excellent book. It's about 50 pages long, and it really helps you to answer some of those difficult questions people have about the Christian faith and to defend your faith when you're talking to somebody who maybe is a skeptic or an agnostic or atheist. You can get that for free by going to our website corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Just look for Tough Questions Answered. Well, let's go back to the phone. Samantha is on the line from Kansas City, Missouri. Samantha, what's your question for Adriel? Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call. Hey, good afternoon, Samantha.

What's your question? My husband and I are both Christians. We're Jesus followers, and our grandson, who is Muslim, is coming to live with us. And we have, you know, traditions and habits to honor the Lord, like saying grace at our meals and thanking God, and we pray in Jesus' name. Do you have any scriptural advice for how to navigate Christian hospitality to someone who's not of the faith, who might be offended by Jesus' name, but also being loyal to Christ? And, you know, I was just reading this morning in my devotion that if I'm ashamed of the name of Jesus, then he'll be ashamed of me with the Father. Samantha, boy, one of the things I want to do is I want to pray for you. This sounds like an opportunity to be able to share the love of Jesus with your grants. And I would say do all the things that you normally do as a follower of Jesus. Don't feel like you have to, you know, walk on eggshells and he's coming into your home.

And let me just encourage you with this. I started walking with the Lord when I was in high school as a result of Christian hospitality. I was invited, you know, to a friend's home and I spent a lot of time there. His family were believers. They would pray before meals. They would read the scriptures in the morning. They would have conversations about the Lord. And, you know, they weren't, you know, trying to ram it down my throat, that kind of thing.

I was just watching. I was a fly on the wall, basically. And the Lord used that. The Lord used their lives to really speak to me.

And I heard the gospel. And that was what the Lord, I mean, just Christian hospitality to bring me in. And so I would say pray. Pray to Jesus. You know, worship the Lord. Be in the Word.

Talk about Jesus. Don't be ashamed to do those things. I think it's fine to ask questions as well, to see kind of where he's coming from. But don't feel like you need to cower.

I mean, we are, as Christians, called to be lights. And it sounds like the Lord is giving you an opportunity to do just that for your grandson. And so I would encourage you to do all the things that you do already and maybe even more. Opening the scriptures, maybe at the dinner table or having talked specifically about who Jesus is and the gospel and what Christ has done in your life. And so let me pray for you, Samantha, as you have this opportunity and pray for your grandson as well who's going to be staying with you. Father, thank you for Samantha. Thank you for the hospitality, Lord, the gift of hospitality that you've given to her and to her husband.

And for this opportunity to be hospitable to their grandson. I pray that you would use these circumstances to open his heart, Lord, to your gospel. I pray that you would give them wisdom as they have conversations, that you would give them boldness, Lord, not to be ashamed of the gospel, but to speak freely of who you are and Jesus, what you've done. And I pray that you would use that, Lord God, use your word to work in this young man's heart. And so would you be with them? Would you give them wisdom? Would you just cause him staying with them to be a wonderful, just blessed time, full of joy and full of your word and the work of your spirit? We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Samantha, we will continue to pray for you as your grandson comes to visit. What a great opportunity, as Adriel said. And Adriel, I was just thinking how nowadays the whole world is coming to our door with so many different immigrant groups and refugees coming to the United States. What a great opportunity for all of us to share the love of Christ. Yeah, I mean, it's something we're called to. We're talking about the qualifications for an elder earlier in 1 Timothy 3. And one of the things that Paul mentions there is hospitality.

We minimize it, but hospitality was such a big thing in the ancient Near Eastern world. And it's something that we as Christians are called to practice. And what's so wonderful is the Lord uses that frequently to get his word out.

People coming to us to hear about Jesus. 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 program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.