Christianity is both a vertical and a horizontal relationship. It is a vertical relationship of the believer with God; and, it is a horizontal relationship of a believer with other believers who are also a part of the body of Christ. This horizontal relationship is transacted within a local context in which God places the believer. Below are the ten priorities and purposes for a local church in which the believer is a vital participant…
Nearly everything we do is built on trust. When we eat we trust that we will not be poisoned by the cook. When we go for a walk we trust that other walkers will not bump us out of their way. When someone tells us something we trust that they are telling us the truth. In fact, there is hardly anything we do in our everyday lives that does not involve trust. While we generally trust those we have come to know, we readily trust some people whom we do not know if they are people possessing appropriate authority such as a policeman, or a medical doctor or an airline pilot. The right authority invites and engenders trust. Christians trust the Bible because it derives from the highest authority – God. In fact, Christians have good reasons (a rationale) for believing that the Bible is divinely inspired and the only infallible and authoritative written Word of God.
Clive Staples Lewis was born in 1898 in Northern Ireland. As a young child he was a voracious reader. He developed a passion for the classics, medieval poetry, and mythology. He entered into Oxford University College in 1915, enlisted as an officer in the British Army, was wounded in France just after his 19th birthday, returned to England to recuperate, and after the war returned to Oxford where he completed three Firsts.
The Bible is remarkably silent about the origin of the Evil One (the term used by Christ in Matt. 13:19, 38; and, John 17:15 to describe the devil). Oddly, it is not until the last book of the bible that we are told about the identity of the “serpent” in Genesis 3. “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9). Heiser (2020) notes that this account in Revelation 12, about the serpent’s identity, cannot explain his origin because the episode it describes occurs after the ascension of Christ (244). The allusions to the prelapsarian state of the Evil One are possibly seen in Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:2-10. At the very least, both of these references seem to indicate that the original state of the Evil One reveals he was a heavenly being who was created as a good and powerful being made to serve Yahweh and who was originally present in Eden. While we are not explicitly told in Scripture what his act of pride was that led to his rebellion, we can surmise it from the Genesis 2 and 3 passages and support this from Rabbinic traditions that is was connected to the creation of the woman (Morris and Scharl 2021). This is also supported if we simply take the progressive revelation contained in the opening chapters of Genesis, where the introduction of the Evil One (“the serpent”, Gen. 3:1) occurs with the creation of the Ish’ah – the woman.
Several high-profile Christian performing artists have famously deconstructed their Christianity and have frequently also described it as deconverting. This includes DC Talk’s Kevin Max, and Hawk Nelson’s John Steingard and former pastor and best-selling author, Josh Harris. These stories have frequently rocked the faith of younger believers—especially since many of these deconstructed celebrities actually encourage these younger believers to deconvert. If you’re being influenced by a deconverted Christian celebrity to consider deconverting yourself, then please consider the following information.