What Do I Do When Non-believers Take Advantage of My Christ-Like Kindness?

What do I do if I feel that non-believers are taking advantage of my Christ-like kindness? 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. Here's our phone number. If you have a question, it's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also leave a voicemail at that number anytime, or email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Tom, calling in from Missouri. Tom, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi, Adriel. I was curious to know, I've been looking at the doctrine of accommodation lately. Somebody presented it to me as a frame of reference on how to look at the Bible. And I was just curious if you believed in that, because everything that I've seen about it, it seems pretty heretical to me. And it basically says, as I understand it, that God spoke to us in poetic ways, and He doesn't actually mean what He says. That may be a little bit more loose than what the actual doctrine is, or I may have looked at it wrong, but I believe that there's parts of Revelation and in the Psalms that have poetic language, but I also believe you can speak in poetic language and still speak truth. And the doctrine just seems kind of heretical to me, so I just wanted your thoughts on that.

Hey, Tom, thanks for reaching out. So I do believe in the doctrine of accommodation. Sometimes people will refer to the doctrine of analogy as well.

But the way you've presented it, I'm not really comfortable with. I mean, obviously there are different genres in Scripture, and I don't think that the idea with the doctrine of accommodation is that God doesn't really mean what He says. So let me just take a step back for a moment and talk about the fact that we have this great gap between us as creatures and God as the Creator. It's the Creator-creature distinction. I mean, it's at the heart of Orthodox Christian theology. And so it's not just that God is different from us in some ways.

There's a qualitative difference. He's the Creator, infinite, eternal, unchangeable. We're finite creatures who can't wrap our minds around the infinity of God or God as He is in His essence because He's God. And so how does this God, who is infinite, communicate to us creatures? It would be like me trying to communicate to an ant or something like that.

There's just an example, and obviously those always fall apart. But you just think of the immensity of God and God trying to communicate to us. Well, what He does is He condescends to us. He speaks to us in ways that we can grasp as creatures.

He lisps to us. As one theologian put it, it's almost like God giving us baby talk. That's another way that I've heard it described. This quote-unquote baby talk is real. It's God's revelation.

It's true. But it doesn't exhaust who God is so that when we read about these things in Scripture, we're not putting God in a box. We're realizing that God is condescending to us as the sovereign Lord. And what this should do, I think, this understanding, this doctrine of accommodation, one, it helps to safeguard that foundational principle of the creator-creature distinction.

That's one thing. But it also, I just think, recognizes or takes into account the fact that God is God and we're human beings, finite. And so if somebody presented it to me the way that you've presented it and said, do you believe that, that God, when he speaks to us, he's not really being truthful or honest? I would say, no, that's not what the doctrine of accommodation is, because we do believe this revelation is indeed true and real and coming to us from God who can't speak a lie.

This is what the author of the Hebrews said. Nevertheless, we recognize that in God's glory, in infinite power, it's not encompassing all that he is. And what I mean by that is when we talk about God being holy or just or righteous, we're getting true revelation from God, and yet at the same time we realize that those words in and of themselves can't fully encompass all that God is in terms of defining God as he is in his essence, as it were. And so it's really an amazing thing. When you think about it, I'm reminded of Paul and that doxology that he gives at the end of Romans 11, where he's just talking about the greatness of God's power and glory.

How unsearchable are his ways beyond finding out? And all of this should lead us to glorify him. So thanks for that question, Tom, and yeah, I would say keep looking into it and maybe find some good writers who are talking about this. One of the guys—I mean, we're oftentimes sharing Dr. Horton's book, Michael Horton, Core Christianity, an introduction to the core doctrines of the Christian faith.

That's a great resource, but he also has another book called Pilgrim Theology, and even a larger systematic theology called The Christian Faith, where he gets into this doctrine of analogy or God's accommodation to us, which I think would be helpful to read in terms of a more accurate representation. God bless. Thanks for that, and thanks for listening, Tom.

Appreciate that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. You can always post on one of our social media sites, including YouTube, where you can watch Adriel Monday through Friday at 1130 a.m. Pacific time and see what we're up to in the studio and send him your question. And of course, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Let's go to John in Oklahoma. John, what's your question for Adriel? Okay.

Hi, Adriel. The question is, I have a 15-year-old grandson who's been going to church with me for years, and I go to a non-denominational, I mean, John MacArthur, Adriel Sanchez-type pastor. But his family was Mormon, and they baptized him Mormon when he turned eight. But they never took him to church, and he's always gone to church with me, and so does he need to be re-baptized?

Great question, John. So the answer, I would say, is he doesn't need to be re-baptized. He needs to be properly baptized for the first time. So it would be his actual baptism. Being baptized in the Mormon church is not a Christian baptism. It's not the sacrament of baptism as described by Jesus, fundamentally because the Mormon church rejects the gospel and rejects the proper doctrine of God. And so when Jesus says, go in all the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, just because Mormons baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and I believe they do, doesn't mean it's true baptism because they reject the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. They don't embrace the doctrine of the Trinity. They don't believe that Jesus is consubstantial of the same substance as the Father. And so because of that, they're using the same words, but they mean something totally different. And that's one of the concerning things I would say about Mormonism is oftentimes they'll use Christian jargon and terminology and words like grace and salvation and heavenly Father and so forth, but they define those words in ways that are very different.

And so that's actually quite deceptive, I think, and not helpful. And so I would say my encouragement to you would be to go through the process of having your grandson baptized in that church that you're a part of for the first time and seeing it as his actual baptism. Now he's 15 years old, he's believing in Jesus Christ, he wants to follow Jesus. Definitely, he should be baptized or commanded in Scripture to be baptized as this sign and seal of God's grace to his people, that gospel grace. And so I would say, yeah, get on that and talk to the leadership of the church and say, we want my grandson to be baptized, what's the process like for that here, because he's not ever really been baptized. What happened in the Mormon Church was not a baptism.

God bless John. We've talked about this before, there are some definite doctrines within the Mormon Church that are not Christian, that do not fit within the realm of Orthodox Christian theology. We don't mean to offend any of our listeners who might be Latter-day Saints, but that's just a fact. If you really dig into your Mormon theology, you will find that it's not what the Bible teaches.

Yeah, that's right, Bill. My heart breaks for so many people that go to these kinds of churches where they're taught certain things, and again, I just think the deception is so heavy with Mormonism because it just seems like, oh boy, you know, the family values, and we're talking about Jesus and the atonement and so forth, but there's so much overlap, but there's such a strong delusion, truly, and the gospel is not clearly proclaimed there. The Word of God isn't clearly taught in Mormon churches. I had a friend who was Mormon, who would oftentimes get into conversations—great guy, we'd go back and forth on this—and one of the things that was interesting, he was a lifelong Mormon, he visited a Bible study that was at my house, and he liked to come because he said, we just don't do this in Mormonism, we don't just go to a pastor's house and sit down and open up the Scriptures and have discussions about it and pray. We don't study the Word of God, the Bible like that, or have theological discussions like this. We're just taught what to think and what to believe. And of course, he would always say, and we don't have clergy, we don't have paid clergy or pastors, and he really saw that, Bill, as a good thing. We don't have to pay our pastors, we don't have anyone in that position, and I would always tease him and I'd say, my friend, if you guys paid someone to study the Bible, you just couldn't do that, because if you paid someone to study the Bible full-time, they would stop being Mormon. And he always said, no, really, no. But it's a sad reality, so I think it's just so important for us to know the Scriptures and not just to use the same words, but to really understand the meaning behind those words.

Really well said. Thank you for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You can leave us a voicemail with your question anytime at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to John, who's calling in from Tulsa. John, what's your question for Adriel? Hey there, thank you very much, how are you doing? I'm doing well, how are you doing, John?

I'm doing pretty well. My question is, is there a legitimate or biblical study of numerology in the Bible? When you read through the Bible, you really see some patterns emerge, like of course the number seven, multiples of seven, forty years, the number twelve. Is there really any reason to really get into the study of, is there any patterns that God actually does outside of just the context of Scripture itself?

You know what I'm saying? When you say outside of the context of Scripture itself, you mean? With each individual Scripture, of course, there's going to be a reason for that number there that will be interpreted on its own. But I'm just talking about the study of numbers itself, does God have any patterns? I think so, John. It is very clear, you gave some examples there, but it is clear, I was preaching through the book of Revelation not too long ago, especially in the prophetic literature, apocalyptic literature, you do see oftentimes this relationship between numbers and symbols, and you see patterns there, but you see that in other places as well, I think there are places in the Old Testament where you see that, you see it in the way things are ordered even, and so there is something to that.

I think we can also issue a little bit of a warning there. I think sometimes people can read a little bit too much into this idea, and so then they're starting to try to unlock these secret numerological codes in Scripture, and people have sort of gone down that route and ended up just with a bunch of confusing things, but that doesn't discount the fact that numbers in Scripture have meaning. Everything in Scripture has meaning, and sometimes there's symbolic meaning attached to it, sometimes these numerical values do sort of communicate something interesting or unique, or that God is trying to clue us into something. I think you even see that in the book of Revelation at certain places, and so I would say, here's what I would say. It's amazing to me when we really get into the serious study of Scripture, and we're not just brushing over things, but we're going deep and we're asking questions, okay, why this pattern here or these numbers there, and we dig deeper and deeper and begin to look for answers.

That's when you really start to see amazing, amazing things. There's the whole tapestry of the Word of God. There are so many treasures to be discovered for the serious Bible student, and so I think we do want to read the Scripture in that way where we're investigating, we're studying, and at the same time we want to be careful that we're not reading things into the text.

That's what we call eisegesis, and sometimes I think people can get carried away with some of these things, like numerology, and begin to read things into the text of Scripture that maybe aren't there. I do think that there's a good reason to think about these things and to pursue them, and we just want to exercise caution as well. I appreciate that question, John. May God bless you as you dig deep into the Word. I know that Jesus told us to forgive others seventy times seven, so I've done that for you, Adriel. I just want to let you know.

Seven seventy times seven for me, Bill, I'm sure it's been good. That's right. That's right. You don't want to take that one too literally. There's one that's symbolic for just an infinite amount of times, right?

That's what's really been communicated, because we need more than just seventy times seven. We need forgiveness every day. Amen.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can email us. Here's our email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com, and if you email us, let us know where you are listening and what radio station you listen to.

That'd be helpful. By the way, we have a great resource we want to tell you about today. We have listeners to this program who are Protestants and listeners who are Catholics, and there are some definite differences between those two churches, those two schools of theology, and we've created this resource to really help you understand what those differences are. You can read it over at corechristianity.com forward slash radio, the resource is called What Still Divides Us? The Differences Between Protestants and Roman Catholics, about seventy pages, a little booklet, which will be illuminating for you. I think if this is something that interests you, if you want to get into the major differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity, get a hold of this resource. It'd be a great resource to have if you have a family member who is a Catholic and you're trying to explain to them how you feel about Catholic doctrine versus what your beliefs are as a Protestant, as an evangelical Christian.

Again, it's called What Still Divides Us? You can find that at corechristianity.com forward slash radio. While you're at our website, browse around, check out some of the other free resources. We have lots of them, our core guides, our core questions, and we have some awesome Bible studies as well that you can purchase. So check that out at corechristianity.com.

We do receive voicemails here at the core, and here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Terry. My question is kind of compounding on the first one we had with the gentleman that was asking if he should continue to pray. I have kind of the same situation where, especially family members, they get mad at you when they say Jesus isn't real or whatever. But then on the other hand, they want to take advantage of you trying to be Christ-like, you know, where it says if someone asks you to go a mile to go two miles or, you know, if they ask for your coat or shirt, give them your coat too or something like that. To me, that's just taking advantage of you, you know, trying to help people.

So I was wondering, you know, if you can add to that. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you for that question. You are reading that text correctly. I've been preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. What an interesting statement that Jesus gives there in Matthew chapter 5.

Let me just read it. You've heard that it was said, this is verse 38, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have to imagine how Jesus' words would have sounded here. And in particular, that statement, if somebody says, hey, go one mile with me, go with them two, that doesn't really make sense to us. But at that time, it seems like, based on historical records, one of the things that Roman soldiers could do is they could require you, as a civilian, as a Jew or just as a person on the street, to help them with a task.

Some people say it was about a mile, they could compel you to go about a mile with them. But you had this practice that was often abused, where Roman soldiers would abuse this right that they had been given, they're this occupying force. And they would go to people, and they would say, hey, you need to help me with this task.

And you need to go with me this one mile. And you have to imagine, as a Jewish person, getting that command in the middle of whatever it was you were doing, your own work. And here you have the occupying Gentile Romans, how that would have made you feel. And so for Jesus to say, hey, when they say go with me one mile, go with them two.

I think that the audience, the crowd, the people listening to Jesus preach here would have just been flabbergasted, and some of them probably quite offended. This is one of the reasons, by the way, why at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount it says, when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. And so there are instances where, for the cause of Christ, we do go an extra mile. And we are taken advantage of.

I mean, that's just the case. You don't want to try to get around that text of Scripture. Now does that mean that we should just put up with abuse at all times?

No. Here's where I think we have to call for wisdom and exercise wisdom. But what I just don't want to do is I don't want to strip the words of Jesus of their meaning here. There are, brothers and sisters, this call to take up our cross and follow Jesus, it isn't easy. But the disciple of Jesus sometimes does look like going the extra mile for people who bother us or offend us or who are taking advantage of us, not in this, you know, begrudged type way, but with joy, as though we were serving Christ, as though we were going the extra mile with Jesus Himself. And you know what's interesting? Here in Matthew's Gospel, there's actually an example of an individual who was commanded to go a mile, if you will, or to travel with Jesus by a Roman soldier.

You know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Simon of Cyrene, the individual who carried the cross of our Lord as he was headed to Calvary. And if you're familiar with that text, it was a Roman soldier.

Because our Lord had been so brutalized that he couldn't carry the cross anymore to the place of crucifixion, that just an average Joe, Simon the Cyrene, walking there with the crowd, was commanded by a Roman soldier to take up the cross, to go the extra mile. And sometimes, brothers and sisters, that's what we have to do, too. Of course, I'm not talking about the exact same thing, I'm just saying sometimes following Jesus looks like that. And that's what it means to suffer with Jesus as Christians. And so I would say for you listening right now, thinking about this in your own life, you know, the people that bother you, that frustrate you, that do take advantage of you, rather than fighting all the time with them, what would it look like for you to display the love of Jesus Christ and a heart of service unto God toward them? That's not easy. But no one said that following Jesus would be. So God help us, brothers and sisters, to do it not out of this sense of law, but out of a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving because he loved us and gave himself for us. Thank you.