Allow me to share a cautionary tale.
Lisa Gungor, wife of Michael Gungor, the other half of the CCM group, “Gungor” shares in Relevant Magazine about her “evolving faith.”
https://relevantmagazine.com/issues/issue-94/the-evolving-faith-of-lisa-gungor/
The short version is that both she and her husband have evolved their way past Christianity, and they’re cool with it. They’re a little disappointed when churches aren’t as excited about booking atheists for their Christian music needs, but hey, those small-minded folks who haven’t yet “evolved” just don’t get how cool it is to be a Christian singer who doesn’t believe in God.
Her story is that growing up, she had doubts she wasn’t able to express and questions she wasn’t allowed to ask. I have a hard time believing that’s what really happened. I remember asking lots of questions growing up. My friends asked questions. We didn’t get in trouble for asking! We had lots of great discussions and debates. We weren’t the first and we won’t be the last to ask the hard questions. By the time I graduated high school, I read everything C.S. Lewis ever wrote wrestling with these questions.
Now that Lisa is older and has been asking these questions, she sees evil in the world and unanswered prayer as evidence that perhaps God isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. God hasn’t given her sufficient answers to these problems, so she’s done believing. So sorry God, but you’ve clearly been underperforming, so we’re going to have to cut you.
I don’t mean to be flippant. She’s sincere. She is also deceived.
This is the inevitable result of humanism – self is on the throne of judgement and God had better give a good explanation for himself. We’ll sit back and see how he does, but it’s not looking good for him.
The truth is, there are good answers to the problems of evil, pain, unanswered prayer, origin, textual criticism, seeming contradictions, etc.. If you start with the mindset that perhaps you don’t know everything yet and are not the center of the universe, these answers are easy to find and very satisfying. If you have started down the road of humanism, then these answers don’t seem to stem the tide of your growing doubt.
I went to see Gungor several years ago at a local college. His music was wonderful. But he also felt the need to philosophize with this simple Christian crowd at a Christian school. He shared with us his viewpoint that evolution was the instrument through which God created everything. Biblical creation is a nice myth, but not true. He didn’t see this as a contradiction with his Christianity. He went on to express lots of other “hip” ideas that, convinced of his own brilliance, we should be enlightened to hear.
When Christians reacted negatively to his “hip” views, he lectured us and called for unity. How dare we say he is a heretic leading others astray? How dare we question his faith!
Well now his faith is gone – his faith in God that is. His faith in himself appears intact. And now his wife has finally “evolved” with him. And they’re still lecturing us.
It never fails. I’ve seen it too many times. When people have cool, hip, non-orthodox “takes” on Christianity, it quickly devolves from there. Creation is a myth and evolution is settled science, right? (Read EVOLUTION – Man’s best attempt at explaining where he came from without any help from a supernatural creator for more on this.) Once we’ve explained how we got here without God, now we can do away with hell, the Bible, and eventually God himself.
And so now self can sit securely on the throne of judgement, with no pesky “God” to whom one must give an account. This “evolved” faith (in self instead of God), is far superior, as it is more loving, compassionate, and “tolerant” (of everything except orthodox Christianity.)
There’s nothing new under the sun.
Here is the caution:
Doubt creeps in when you listen to the enemy saying, “Did God really say…?”
Which voice are you listening to?
The voice of the One who says you are created in the image of God?
Or the snake that would have you to believe that you know better?
Andrew's Thoughts 