Colossians 1:23 – Is it possible to fall away from faith? How can we be sure we are saved? How can we hold on? With a great quote from Calvin and preaching and teaching the Bible coldly!
The Blog of David Robertson
The Blog of David Robertson
Colossians 1:23 – Is it possible to fall away from faith? How can we be sure we are saved? How can we hold on? With a great quote from Calvin and preaching and teaching the Bible coldly!
This is a decidedly delayed reply to your rather pompous comment (below).
I’ve only stumbled across it now although I think you posted it back in 2018 so I hope you’ll excuse my extremely tardy response.
There are a couple of things that I could probably take issue with but the primary one is your confident assertion that the Campbell case has absolutely nothing to do with atheists having no interest in Christianity.
I fully accept that most atheists, and people in general, have minimal interest in the goings-on of the Free Church. I’d be most surprised if they did.
I can therefore only speak to my own experience. I was probably having some doubts about my faith anyway 5 years ago but the Campbell situation definitely contributed to my becoming an atheist.
Clearly his case was about the ‘sins’ and hypocrisy of just one individual, albeit a ‘star’ in the Free Church, and it would certainly be wrong to make judgments about the entire existence of God based on that alone!
Obviously no one is infallible and I have no doubt that I probably have several large ‘beams’ in my own eye
As I’m sure you do yourself.
However, the deception, casuistry and peccancy involved in this case highlighted for me the flagrant hypocrisy in Christianity and, in particular, within the Free Church. It significantly contributed to ‘nudging me along’ towards my current position regarding matters of faith.
You say that you “have never met an atheist for whom that is the case “. I don’t know how many atheists you’re acquainted with but I’m familiar with quite a few and, for those who could summon a minuscule level of interest in the transgressions and hypocrisy of a minister in the Free Church, the Campbell situation, while not the reason for their position, most certainly affirmed and strengthened it.
Your statement seems glib, dismissive and rather belligerent. You assert that “atheists have no interest in Christianity because they are dead in sins and trespasses and they are enemies of God!”
As a ‘man of God’ I’m sure that is what you believe but you are entirely wrong to belittle the impact that this case has had on many individuals, myself included.
“It is not because of men like Campbell and Zacharias that atheists have no interest in Christianity. I have never met an atheist yet for whom that is the case. They have no interest in Christianity because they are dead in sins and trespasses and they are enemies of God! If you are a bible believing Christian then you should act like one and believe what the bible says about not entertaining an accusation against an elder without two or three real witnesses – and the process for church discipline that Christ puts forth in Matthew 18. You seem to think that you have the right to act as judge and jury on the basis of gossip. That is hardly the action of a bible believing Christian. I would suggest that you should take the beam out of your own eye before you take the speck out of others. I have no qualms in being a judgemental minister and telling you that in my judgement it is you who sounds like the wicked hypocrite!“
Thank you David for this timely message