“How do I know that Christianity is the right religion?”

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi Pete.
Pete Allenson: Hey, how are you doing?
Steve Brown: I'm doing really good, and now much better since you're here. You have that effect on me. I kind of feel like I can do this a little bit longer as long as you show.
Pete Allenson: Well, I had some caffeine so I'm ready to go. There it is.
Steve Brown: That's Pete, and he comes in every Friday, and we spend this time answering questions. And I don't just say it, I really mean it. We love your questions and we take you and your questions seriously. You can you can send your questions to Key Life Network, Post Office Box 5000, Maitland, Florida. If you're in Canada, it's Key Life Canada, Post Office Box 2060, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8. Or you can email your questions to [email protected]. Or if you really want to get an answer quick, pick up the phone and call 1-800 Key Life. That's 1-800-539-5433. And follow instructions and we'll record your question and probably put you on your voice on the program. And as I said, we love your questions. Those addresses are a good place to send a gift for this ministry if God puts that on your heart. I promise to be faithful, as faithful as you were in giving it. So be as generous as you can and we'll help some brothers and sisters with what you send. And if you can't, we understand, just say a prayer for this ministry. Pete, speaking of prayer, why don't you pray for us, and we'll and we'll answer these questions.
Pete Allenson: I think we should pray. Our great God, we thank you for your goodness and revealing yourself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We thank you for how you've revealed yourself to us powerfully through the book of creation as well as the book of your word, the Old and New Testaments. But preeminently in you, Jesus, when you came and you walked among us and you did miracles. So we praise you for being the God who is a great communicator. And so as we come into your presence today, we realize at the end of this week, how much we need you. And Lord, you know us and we you know our needs. And we we we come to you this weekend planning to worship and praise and to be taught. So we pray for our pastors and teachers and leaders and priests and ask that you would be with them in a powerful way to open your word, to lead us in worship and to guide our souls. We come now into a time of Q&A, and we ask that you would use it and draw us to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Steve Brown: Amen.
Steve Brown: Pete, this is an email. There are a lot of different religions, so how do you know that Christianity is the right one?
Pete Allenson: Yeah. That's a great question, and I think so many people would say, well, there's no religion that is true.
Steve Brown: That's right. Charles Taylor wrote a big book in 2014 called The Secular Age.
Pete Allenson: In America, we live in a secular age.
Steve Brown: Pretty much. So some people would say forget them all, they're wrong.
Pete Allenson: Forget them all. We live in a day and age now that where it's possible to live without any belief in the Western world.
Steve Brown: Yeah.
Pete Allenson: However, it's fascinating that most of the world still is very religious.
Steve Brown: So true, and it's fascinating that in so far as we as a nation, in Canada, in the United States, move into secularism, the suicide rate goes up.
Pete Allenson: Amazing, isn't it?
Steve Brown: Oh, it really is, and depression is a rampant epidemic across our countries because of it.
Pete Allenson: That's right. So, when you think of in in in in India there are what 300 or 800 deities believed over there. So, how do we know that Christianity is the right one? I think preeminently for me, theologically as we think of the book of creation and then the book of Jesus and then the book of the New Testament and Old Testament.
Steve Brown: Yeah.
Pete Allenson: Those those those help me.
Steve Brown: And Christians shouldn't be weary of checking it out.
Pete Allenson: That's right.
Steve Brown: You know, the more I check, the more sure I am. I just think we have a rational God who wants us to know what is true and what isn't and has given us clarity with that.
Pete Allenson: That's right.
Steve Brown: And I think the more you investigate, the more you answer ask honest questions and you look, the more you become certain. Good night, this is true.
Pete Allenson: It's true. I think you're absolutely right. And I think so in the the one, the first whole area of of looking at the world, there has to be a creator. Nothing in our experience comes from nothing. Nothing produces nothing. So there has to be a creator. And then when you start comparing different religions, Christianity is really is really the simplest and most straightforward and logical.
Steve Brown: Yeah.
Pete Allenson: Even though even though there is a spiritual faith dimension to it.
Steve Brown: Yeah, that's so true.
Pete Allenson: But
Steve Brown: You know, I I basically came to Christ not emotionally. I came to Christ because I checked.
Pete Allenson: That's right.
Steve Brown: And it made sense. And I I used to when I was a young pastor, and that's when it happened to me. I looked out over the congregation and people were emotional, some were crying, and I didn't understand that.
Pete Allenson: That's right.
Steve Brown: And I God has fixed me in some of those ways since then. But I remember thinking at the time, my faith and its truth is not dissimilar from believing in the multiplication table.
Pete Allenson: Yeah.
Steve Brown: It just is true.
Pete Allenson: That's right. It just makes sense. 2 + 2 = 4.
Steve Brown: Yeah.
Pete Allenson: And there has to be a God. But when you when you really investigate Jesus, and I think this is why we have four gospels, because he is absolutely unexplainable. Even when you read all the gospels, you go, okay, this has to be God come in the flesh.
Steve Brown: Yeah. I mean, it just slaps you upside the head.
Pete Allenson: That's right. It just it it makes sense. And so, really investigate Jesus, the idea that that there are spirits or anything in the world have to come from some place. There has to be a creator God. But then look at Jesus, who is God come in the flesh. We believe, and we believe that's the clearest explanation.
Steve Brown: And don't be afraid of checking out other world views.
Pete Allenson: That's right.
Steve Brown: Because what will happen when you do that is that you will realize how true what Pete said really is.
Pete Allenson: Yeah. Yeah, no, it's and I've never I've only had my faith in Christ strengthened by reading other religions.
Steve Brown: That's true.
Pete Allenson: And and even human philosophy.
Steve Brown: That's true. This is a good question. Is it acceptable for Christians to be cremated?
Pete Allenson: If you're really cold, absolutely.
Steve Brown: That's right. My wife says, she's going to be cremated because it'll be the only time she was ever warm.
Pete Allenson: Oh, man. I feel like the other day, Florida gets really hot. It was like 98 degrees when I got into my it was 100 degrees when I got into my truck.
Steve Brown: Yeah.
Pete Allenson: I feel like I I'm about ready to be cremated right now. I don't have a choice.
Steve Brown: God.
Pete Allenson: Resurrection of the body is is not a is not a molecule by molecule thing. It's a supernatural work of God. So I am not of the opinion that cremation is is unbiblical. I do feel the weight of the fact that at a Christian funeral, having the body there in a casket sends the message of the resurrection at the end of time.
Steve Brown: Yeah. And that's a powerful image.
Pete Allenson: It really is.
Pete Allenson: But I don't.
Steve Brown: And it's psychologically a good image. It's good for people who have lost loved ones to not look at a pile of ashes, but to be present and say, this is final.
Pete Allenson: Yeah.
Steve Brown: This is this is death, but there is a resurrection. And and that's what's important.
Pete Allenson: That's right. That's right. That's right. But no no biblical verse would would prove against that per se.
Steve Brown: This is an email too, Pete. It's probably just stating what you and I agree with. Does the Bible really mean what it says? How can the Bible be believed and used authoritatively if it's not all true, some of it being symbolic like the use of numbers in Revelation?
Pete Allenson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you want to go about that?
Steve Brown: Well, the first part of the question is something you and I agree with.
Pete Allenson: Right.
Steve Brown: What you got to do if you're if you're going to study the Bible is to recognize there really is different kinds of literature.
Pete Allenson: That's right.
Steve Brown: And you have to take the Bible on its own. If you're looking at the book of Revelation and you don't see the symbols there, then you're missing what the book of Revelation is trying to do.
Pete Allenson: Mhm.
Steve Brown: There is poetry in scripture, and you can go to proverbs. Don't make proverbs, which is general wisdom into commandments of God with preconceived outcomes.
Pete Allenson: Yeah.
Steve Brown: There are principles, those are not commands. And you allow the Bible to speak for itself in the places where it speaks.
Pete Allenson: That's well said. Well said. I mean, the Bible is a unique book, 66 books with different types of genre literature as you said.
Steve Brown: Sure.
Pete Allenson: And and we never and we do that all the time. We we we crack jokes, we use sarcasm, there's different kinds of literature that we read. We don't read poetry. In fact, I struggle with poetry.
Steve Brown: I do too.
Pete Allenson: If you have something to say, say it.
Steve Brown: Don't put it in a poem.
Pete Allenson: Because I don't understand it. But Hebrew poetry is actually different from English poetry.
Steve Brown: It really is.
Pete Allenson: So, yeah, the Bible was spoken in a particular context. You have to engage your mind as you study the Bible, as you read it.
Steve Brown: That's true. And so we agree pretty much with what you said. Those who have a liberal theological and biblical bent, want to choose what they believe and what they don't believe.
Pete Allenson: Right.
Steve Brown: And certainly, you can't do that.
Pete Allenson: Agree.
Steve Brown: Yeah, because if God will lie in one place, he'll lie in another. So you got to say it's either all truth or it's all not truth. Guys, we got to go. But first, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.