Reasonable Hope

The author is Kenneth Scott Latourette. The book is A History of Christianity. It’s his shorter book, at only about 1,400 pages (in probably size 9 font), and I’m about 400-500 pages through it after only 3 months. It’s pretty intense, but it’s also very interesting.
Did you know, for example, that the early church though of images of God – even of Jesus – as potentially blasphemous? And yet, fast forward to today and the only ones getting ticked off about offensive cartoons are Muslims. I even own a t-shirt with a caricature of Jesus on it, which I have worn to church on occasion. And we see nothing wrong with that.
Now I don’t want to get into a debate about the “graven” ratings of these images, and whether we should smash out all the stained glass windows in the world or not – I personally think these are just signs of our culture, not to be taken in offense – but it does seem to me that, compared to Islam for example, Christianity has lost a great deal of its passion for the things that traditionally we have stood up for.
We have become a one-trick pony, condemning sexual immorality at every turn (if we even bother standing up for that), as if it’s the only thing left that good Christians have to be upset about. It seems that as long as we can convince people to marry, and be monogamous, straight, and possibly church attending, we have done our duty in the wider world.
To be fair, some of this pussyfooting has come in for quite legitimate reasons. Christianity does have a tendency to raise up loud-mouthed offensive bible-bashers who think that if we stuff enough bible verses into people’s ears without any other explanation, the world will be a better place. How many times have you read a letter to the editor by someone claiming to speak on God’s behalf, and just cringed as they called non-believers idiots or worse?
But on the other hand, there is a severe lack of modern day C.S. Lewis’s, Thomas Aquinas’s, and (to take a modern example) Ravi Zacharias’s, willing to stand up in the secular sector and give legitimate arguments as to why we believe in an outdated, unscientific, improbable God. As the editorials have questioned during this cartoon debate, why is it that Muslims kick up such a fuss over such a little thing, when tv, newspapers and radio can distort and ridicule Christianity to any extent they want and get away with it?
We have learnt from our past not to go to literal war against our enemies (another thing early Christians would never have dreamed of doing), and we have also learnt that being loud and condemning of everything around us doesn’t help the matter at all. So what is the answer?
Peter advises us to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3:15-16). That is advice I wish more Christians would adhere to. You see, God isn’t a God of disorder and stupidity. Everything he commands and does has a logical reason behind it, one that can be easily discovered. To take the old one-trick pony out of the stable again: God commands monogamy, but the reason for this is that God knows that without this, STI’s, and diseases like AIDS run rampant, not to mention the emotional devastation such an intimate relationship can result in when it breaks down.
Have a reason for the hope you have. If you are going to follow God, find out why. If someone is wanting to turn away from their saviour because they can’t take the hypocrisy of their sin, it pays to have an answer for their question of “Why should I bother?”
Why? Because God already knows the beginning from the end, and even though you might not be serving him wholeheartedly now, he wants to help you get through it. You can only see your past and your present, but God loves you, and sees you future.