Why Should Christians Study Other Religions?

Why Should Christians Study Other Religions? You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Matthew calling in from St. Louis, Missouri. Matthew, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor Adriel.

Just really enjoy your guys show. And I had a question about kind of Jewish prayers that kind of correspond to today. I've watched The Chosen recently, and it's a really fascinating take on the Gospels and the story of Jesus and the Apostles. But the most fascinating part to me was kind of learning these old Jewish prayers that they would have been saying throughout the day, like the Shema or even morning prayers or evening prayers. And I grew up in the church and I just had never heard of these before until now. And I was curious if there was a point in our church history where we stopped either like putting emphasis on those or just learning them all together, because they seemed like they'd be really enriching. Totally.

I think they are. And thanks for your encouragement. You know, it's really interesting in Acts 2, verse 42, it says that the early disciples devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread. The bread, I think, is a better translation. And the prayers. And the prayers there are probably in reference to some of those prayers that you're thinking about. And of course, in the book of Acts and elsewhere, you have examples of the disciples going to the synagogue at the hour of prayer, gathering at certain points specifically to pray. It's as if they were setting apart time to pray.

Would you think of that? And part of that is there's this whole sort of tradition built into Hebrew piety. Of course, you know, daily they would say, pious Jews would say the Shema, Deuteronomy 6.4. It was almost like a confession of faith, like a creed.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And then there would be prayers in the mornings and in the evenings, sort of aligning yourself with the rhythms of the temple and the sacrifices, the morning and evening sacrifices. And many of those prayers were written prayers that an individual or family would do. And again, you see that also I think in the New Testament, and some people have said this is sort of the background for what people have called the liturgy of hours, the sort of different times throughout the day and throughout the week where we're approaching God and setting apart time for prayer specifically.

It is a good thing. And historically throughout the Christian church, it's something that has also been done, morning and evening prayer. There have been all sorts of different traditions. There are also helpful little prayer books, even that you could think of, there's Puritan prayers, there's different things that came even out of the time of the Reformation that were meant to be aids in helping people to pray and helping people to pray daily.

I suspect, in terms of, boy, brought up in the church, how come I don't hear about these things? It just seems like you pray whenever you feel like it kind of a thing. I suspect that when many of us think about prayer today, we think it just has to be spontaneous.

And for so many of us, that's what it is. Real spiritual prayer just sort of rises out of your heart and so you pray when you feel like it. But how often is it the case that you sit down to pray and you don't feel like praying?

You're just so easily distracted. So I think it's helpful to say, I'm going to set apart some time in the morning, in the evening, just to pray. And what do you use? You use the Lord's Prayer. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. You use the Psalms. Man, there's so many rich, all the Psalms are rich prayers and we can use those.

We can make them our own. Even the creeds of the Christian faith, that's something historically that Christians have done throughout church history is confessed the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed every day, waking up, saying the Lord's Prayer, saying the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed and reading a Psalm, that kind of a thing. Not to be legalistic, not to burden yourself down, but just to sort of set your eyes on God and calling upon his name day after day as Jesus taught us to do. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Give us this day our daily bread, he goes on to say. So I think in North American Christianity, in the way we've thought about worship and the way we've thought about prayer, we've sort of, I think, minimized the goodness, the blessing of some of those written prayers and even setting apart time to pray, which is so spontaneous.

I think that could be part of the issue. But I would say, man, if you're wanting to pray in the mornings and the evenings and you're looking for resources to help you with that, use the scriptures, use the Psalms, use the Lord's Prayer. And it really is something that it seems like the early church did and was done throughout the history of the church. And even something, as I mentioned, that was rooted in the pride of the Old Testament and the people there who were saying the Shema every day and gathering for morning prayers or evening prayers. And so God bless you as you seek to pray and draw near to the Lord. Thank you for your question. I love your advice to pray the Psalms.

What a beautiful thing to do. But should we pray the imprecatory Psalms if we're really mad at somebody? That's probably not. If you're really mad at someone, I would say no. Don't just be whipping out the imprecatory Psalms when somebody cuts you off.

We've gotten that question before, Bill, on the broadcast as you know. And so I don't want to get into that right now, but I'll just say don't just pray them against the cashier at McDonald's because it's going too slow. I will not. I promise.

I promise. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We have a wonderful resource we want to offer you that actually talks about something we get a lot of calls about, and that is heaven. So many people call, what is heaven going to be really like?

Or how do I know I'm going to get to heaven? And so we want to offer this resource to you today for free. The resource is called Seven Things You Need to Know About Heaven.

And as Bill said, it's completely free. And it's one of those topics that we do indeed get a lot of questions about as people think about their lives. And the hope that we have as Christians, wondering what is heaven going to be like?

Boy, there are several scriptures I think that we can go to in answering that question. That's what we've tried to do with this resource, Seven Things You Need to Know About Heaven, is dig into the Word and give you a biblical understanding of heaven and ultimately the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, the new creation that we're looking forward to as the people of God. And so please get a hold of this free resource over at corechristianity.com.

We'd love to have you get this in your hands maybe this weekend. And if you're a parent, maybe even read this to your kids and go talk to them about what heaven is all about, having them look forward to that beautiful promise that we have from God's Word. Again, it's called Seven Things You Need to Know About Heaven. You can find it by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Let's go back to the phones. Joshua is on the line calling in from Nashville, Tennessee, beautiful city. Joshua, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Good afternoon.

Thanks for taking my call. This has stumped me. This is a mystery. Revelation 2, 6. Who on earth were the Nicolaitans and how do we avoid their practices?

Yeah. Well, they're not talked about a lot in scripture. You do have Revelation chapter 2. And by the way, let me just say, I was not too long ago in Nashville and you guys have the best hot chicken. We don't have hot chicken like you guys have here in San Diego. So God bless you, man.

I hope you take advantage of that. But the Nicolaitans. Okay. Revelation chapter 2, verse 6. Jesus says, Yet this you have, as he's speaking to the church at Ephesus, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Okay. So let's try to gather some information here. One, whatever it is, what they do, Jesus does not like.

He hates it. More clarity is given to us in just the verses that come in verse 15. Actually beginning it, how about in verse 14? This is Jesus speaking to the church at Pergamum.

He says, I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, therefore repent. Now there, the teaching of the Nicolaitans is associated with this false prophet in the Old Testament who was putting a stumbling block before the people of God, leading them astray, into sin, into sexual immorality, into idolatry.

And so I think whatever's happening with the Nicolaitans, and again, we're sort of working our way backwards to understand what their teaching was. And I think maybe there's this syncretism, maybe mixing together the true faith with some of these pagan practices, or potentially justifying sinful behavior. Those who put a stumbling block before the people of God committing sexual immorality, it seems like that's what's taking place in the context here.

And so some have said these are probably a group of people who were lawless in their behavior. Maybe they had claimed Christ and accepted Christ, but they were also mingling the teachings of Christ with some pagan practices, with sexual immorality. And here Jesus calls the churches to repent.

He says, no, this is not okay. And so how do we avoid the teaching of the Nicolaitans? Well, the good news is that group in particular, there aren't a lot of Nicolaitan churches out there anymore, at least specifically. But I think insofar as still, we're tempted to compromise as Christians with the culture, with sin, with false worship.

We have to be on guard against that. And that certainly is something that we see still in the church as prevalent and something that we have to avoid and repent of when we as Christians or when churches begin to fall into this pattern of compromise, this pattern of sinful behavior and justifying our sinful behavior in whatever way that we can. That's when I think Jesus says to us as the church and as Christians, repent. I mean, what you're doing, this sort of mingling of the true faith with false religion or the true faith with immorality and lawlessness, I hate that. That's hypocrisy.

And so there is an application for us here. And it's very clear that Jesus wants his church to be pure, not to be full of hypocrisy, not to be full of immorality. And that when she is those things that she calls her to repent. He calls us to repent, lest our churches are shuttered. I mean, that's one of the things that he gets at there in Revelation 2 and 3 saying, look, I'm going to remove your lampstand. I'm going to come against you. If you don't deal with these things, and so often that's what happened, isn't it?

Churches begin to compromise theologically or morally, and it just gets worse and worse and worse until the Spirit of God is no longer at work there because the Word of God is not being taught and people are not being called to repentance and faith. And so I think that's the best that we can say. I mean, we are speculating a little bit about the Nicolaitans, but sexual immorality, idolatry, they seem to be wrapped up in some of those things.

Thanks, Joshua. And hot chicken. They ate a lot of hot chicken.

Let's not say that. No, there's nothing in the text that would indicate that they had a liking for hot chicken. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a follow up to what you just said, Adriel. How should we as believers respond when we're interacting with, let's say, a friend or a relative who is involved in a church that is synchronistic, like the Unitarian Church or churches that say all roads lead to heaven and they bring in elements of Christianity, but then they bring in a variety of other elements that are completely contrary to the gospel?

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think there's a spectrum, right? So like there are some places that aren't even churches. There might be a gathering and they might have a religious teaching, but I mean, it's so out there. They've drifted so far away from the gospel, from the teachings of Jesus that, yeah, they might come together and sing songs and have moral lessons, but actually the Spirit of God has not worked in that place at all.

The lampstand has been removed, if you will, and if you have a friend or a family member who's going to church like that, I would say you warn them. You plead with them about what the church is and what the church is supposed to be and how ultimately what we go to church to do or to hear is the gospel and God's word to us. And if we're not getting that, then whatever we're getting is not going to help us spiritually.

And so I think that it's important for us to have conversations. Now, there are some people who maybe go to churches that are different than the church we're in and they're seeking to be faithful to Jesus and to God's word, but we have some theological disagreements. I don't think you need to go to that person and act as if, well, boy, your church is apostate, that kind of a thing. No, I mean, I think you can be charitable and you can search the scriptures and say, here's some of the differences. Here's why I believe what I believe biblically speaking. Ultimately, we want to grow together in the scriptures and follow Jesus according to his word.

And so I would say have conversations, talk about these things, dig into the scriptures, and in all of that, do so with charity and prayerfully as well, asking that the Spirit would guide you in those conversations. Great counsel. Thanks for that, Adriel.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, you can email us over the weekend if you have a question we didn't get to today. Here's our email address.

It's questions at corechristianity.com. And you can leave us a voicemail over the weekend as well. Here's the number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Ania. I have been studying the Bible a lot lately, diving in a little bit more in depth than I had in the past. And I'm feeling more and more comfortable speaking with people about Christ, about the Bible, why I believe in the Bible back all the way to creation.

I'm feeling more and more comfortable as I dive in. The problem I seem to be struggling with is when people ask why Christianity is right and other religions are wrong. And if they speak to me about certain other religions, I'm just not familiar with it. I have not studied other religions. I really don't know the beliefs of other religions. And I think I need to in order to defend Christianity, but I don't know that I really want to read a lot and study a lot about religions that are not mine. And so I just want some guidance on if you believe I need to learn more about these other religions or if you have other guidance to give to help me there. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Yeah, thank you. And I'm just so encouraged to hear how you want to represent Jesus well and you want to also understand what other people believe so you can talk with them in an intelligent manner and share the Gospel in a way that's going to be compelling and really speak to the questions that someone else has. I would say focus on knowing the truth first and foremost. Be consumed with God's Word, with prayer, with your local church. Focus on those things. And if God brings someone into your life, let's say God brings someone into your life who's a practicing Muslim or some other religion, and you're able to have conversations, I would say, well, in that situation, I think it's wise to learn more.

So that way as you're talking, you can ask good questions. You can get to the heart of what it is that they believe, of what the differences are. I mean, so many people when they think about religions today, they just think, oh, they're all basically the same, aren't they? I mean, that's often what I hear, even from people who practice other religions is, oh, man, that's great that you believe what you believe.

I sort of associate with this a little bit better. And basically at the end of the day, we're all saying just love each other and be a good person, right? Well, no, that's actually not what we're all saying. And it's important to understand what it is that we're saying and what others are saying so that as you're having conversations, as I said, you can do so thoughtfully. It's not helpful when we just pretend like we know what somebody else believes and then we make statements and it's clear that we're ignorant about what we're talking about.

I don't think that that reflects positively on us. And so I think if you want to engage your neighbors well, you have to understand what it is that they worship, who it is that they worship, whether they're, you know, it's another religion, whether it's just even the sort of religion of atheism, of secularism, right? Everybody has gods. Everybody is worshiping something and understanding what the quote unquote gods are of your neighbors is really helpful in terms of the conversations that you have with them and being able to apply the gospel and the teachings of Jesus to their situation particularly. And I think this is exactly what you see in the New Testament. Your question reminded me of Paul in Acts 17 in the Areopagus where we read in verse 22, Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive in every way that you are very religious for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship is unknown.

This I proclaim to you. And then he begins to share the gospel with them. In other words, he's using their quote unquote religions, their pagan religions as an inroad to talk about the true religion, the true faith, the gospel, the God that they worship as unknown.

You don't know him yet, but I'm going to present him to you, Paul says. And so I think that's what we want to do in terms of understanding other religions. We want to be able to say, okay, how can I have a conversation with this individual ultimately for the purpose of sharing Christ and the truth of the gospel with them?

Let me just say, let's not be ashamed about that. I read a statistic the other day that was saying something like most people, younger people, younger generation in particular, think that it's wrong to try and convert another person to your religion. You just don't do that.

You shouldn't do that. No, actually sharing Jesus with people is a good thing. And the disciples, I mean, I think there are ways that we can go about it that are not helpful, but ultimately we're called as Christians to be lights in this world. The church is called to make disciples, preaching the gospel, calling all people everywhere to submit to Jesus the King, to receive his grace and his mercy because there is salvation in no other name. There's no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved. And so God has given us this glorious good news, this grace, this gospel, not so that we would, you know, look at the people around and think, ah, you know, whatever you believe is fine.

This is what I believe. No, if we really understand the gospel, that our sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus alone, well, that's a message we want to share. And may God help us to want to share it as well. I mean, he worked in our hearts so that we communicated as we ought, that we're not ashamed of the gospel, as Paul said in Romans chapter one. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

I know it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And so, sister, God bless you in wanting to share that gospel and in wanting to do so in a way that's charitable, that's thoughtful, intelligent, that takes into consideration what other people actually believe so you can engage with them honestly. And may God bless you as you do that. And may God grant you favor and open the hearts of those who you speak to. And, Ania, you are giving a great example to all of us for sharing with those in our lives who may have different religious beliefs. So thank you for your passion, for sharing the gospel and wanting to learn more about them and their lives and what they believe before launching into a discussion about the gospels. That's a great example. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We do receive emails here, and here's one from Austin. He says, Last year, my wife was involved in a car accident that resulted in an injury of the other person. There was a chance this will go beyond our policy limit.

Given what Jesus says in Matthew 5.40, should I not dispute it if it carries into a lawsuit? Yeah. This is a really complex question.

First, I'm just sorry, Austin, to hear about the situation and this person who has been injured. Sounds like a very sticky thing. I don't know that I can give you a clear answer in terms of what you should or shouldn't do. I think, obviously, if you're responsible for this, then, yeah, you need to figure out a way, I think, to address the problem, to take responsibility.

And, again, I don't know how. There's typically an investigation that's associated with these things. I think you submit to that.

If somebody has been injured and there needs to be payment, then, yeah, I don't know. I think that maybe the right approach would be to not dispute it. But, again, I don't know your situation entirely, and so I want to be careful. I would encourage you. I hope that you're in a church where you have a pastor who knows your situation better and you can go to them and go to the wise people in your life and your family around you who can speak to this as well. But what I want to do just is pray for wisdom for you, for healing for this other person, and that God would resolve this situation in a way that's good for everyone. So, Father, I lift Austin up to you, and, Lord, we pray for him, pray for his family, pray that you would give them wisdom from you to know how to act in the manner that would be most honoring to you and faithful to your word, faithful to your law, so that if he needs to take responsibility here, Lord, that he would do so and that you would provide for him. We pray for this other person as well, gracious God, that you would bring healing, that there wouldn't be further complications from injury, Lord, and that this would come to a peaceful resolution. Gracious God, we look to you, pray for this situation and ask for your blessing. In Jesus' name, amen. 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.