Pastoral Resources

The study found that households with incomes below $10,000 give away an average of 2.8% of their income, while households with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 give away only 1.5%. Nearly half of the total contributions to charity in the U.S. comes from households with incomes below $30,000. The average total giving to charity per household was $790.

(From Independent Sector, a Washington based non-profit organization that recently conducted a study on giving to charity)

Dr. William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education and also “drug czar,” issued an important report two months ago entitled “The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators.” He described the mess we have created for ourselves and how we can get out of it. These are a few of the statistics presented, comparing our welfare today with 1963:

Violent crime has increased over 500 percent.

Illegitimate births have increased 400 percent.

Divorces have increased 400 percent.

Children living in single-parent homes have increased 300 percent.

Child abuse has increased 340 percent since 1976.

Teenage suicide has increased 200 percent.

S.A.T. scores have dropped almost 80 points, despite huge increases in support for education. Focus on the Family , Newsletter, May, 1993

What is culture? It is the ways of thinking, living, and behaving that define a people and underlie its achievements. It is a nation’s collective mind, its sense of right and wrong, the way it perceives reality, and its definition of self. Culture is the morals and habits a mother strives to instill in her children. It is the obligations we acknowledge toward our neighbors, our community, and our government. It is the worker’s dedication to craftsmanship and the owner’s acceptance of the responsibilities of stewardship. It is the standards we set and enforce for ourselves and for others: our definitions of duty, honor, and character. It is our collective conscience.

A total of 36,000 Sadhus (Hindu holy men) were part of the estimated crowd of 40 million attending the two month Kumbh Mela festival in India last spring. More than 200 American Sadhus of the Hari Krishna groups brought millions of dollars worth of Hindu literature to the festival. One of our partners in South India explains the purpose of the ritual bathing in the river,

“They come for forgiveness of sins and salvation. Some thousands come stark naked—some of them rolling on the rough roads for miles, believing the festering sores on their bodies would earn them salvation...Hundreds have kept one arm lifted up for years until the arm gets shriveled with dry gangrene...others have stood on one leg for years, hanging on to a suspended sling while sleeping...all these are done to appease angry gods.”

During the festival, which takes place in the heat of summer, our Indian Christian partners set up free medical clinics. About 150 Christian students passed out literature and talked with pilgrims about the love of Christ. “Some received us with friendliness, some merely tolerated us, and others ferociously objected to the spread of Christianity,” wrote our partner. A number of pilgrims accepted Christ, though circumstances prevented them from taking an open stand at the Kumbh Mela. But five Hindus, including two Sadhus, were baptized—the ultimate step of courage for a Hindu.

When the first missionaries came to Alberta, Canada, they were savagely opposed by a young chief of the Cree Indians named Maskepetoon. But he responded to the gospel and accepted Christ. Shortly afterward, a member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father. Maskepetoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him. Confronting the guilty man, he said, “You have killed my father, so now you must be my father. You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes.”

In utter amazement and remorse his enemy exclaimed, “My son, now you have killed me!” He meant, of course, that the hate in his own heart had been completely erased by the forgiveness and kindness of the Indian chief.

Race car driver Bill Vukovich won the famed Indianapolis 500 race in 1953 and 1954, a record of success few other drivers had matched. Asked the secret of his success in Indianapolis, Vukovich replied, “There’s no secret. You just press the accelerator to the floor and steer left.”

Thomas Manton says on indulging: "There were but two common parents of all mankind, Adam the Protoplast (the first created), and Noah the Restorer, and both failed due to appetite, the one fell by eating, and the other by drinking."

Martin Luther said, "If anyone knocks at the door of my breast and says, 'Who lives there?rsquo; my answer is, 'Jesus Christ lives here, not Martin Luther.' "

Race car driver Bill Vukovich won the famed Indianapolis 500 race in 1953 and 1954, a record of success few other drivers had matched.

Asked the secret of his success in Indianapolis, Vukovich replied, “There’s no secret. You just press the accelerator to the floor and steer left.”

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

In his recent book Integrity, Ted Engstrom told his story:

For Coach Cleveland Stroud and the Bulldogs of Rockdale County High School (Conyers, Georgia), it was their championship season: 21 wins and 5 losses on the way to the Georgia boys’ basketball tournament last March, then a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the state finals. “But now the new glass trophy case outside the high school gymnasium is bare. Earlier this month the Georgia High School Association deprived Rockdale County of the championship after school officials said that a player who was scholastically ineligible had played 45 seconds in the first of the school’s five postseason games. ‘We didn’t know he was ineligible at the time; we didn’t know it until a few weeks ago,’ Mr. Stroud said. ‘Some people have said we should have just kept quiet about it, that it was just 45 seconds and the player wasn’t an impact player. But you’ve got to do what’s honest and right and what the rules say. I told my team that people forget the scores of basketball games; they don’t ever forget what you’re made of.’

The end result of all of this is sadly illustrated in the book, Reforming Fundamentalism, by George A. Marsden, which informs that 85% of the students in one of America’s largest evangelical seminaries stated that they do not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Beyond that, a poll of 10,000 U. S. A. clergymen (of whom 74% replied) by sociologist Jeffrey Hadden in 1987 clearly reveals the effects of this significant change of belief through the passage of time. When asked if they believed that the Scriptures are the inspired and inerrant Word of God in faith, history, and secular matters:

95% of Episcopalians said “No.”

87% of Methodists said “No.”

82% of Presbyterians said “No.”

77% of American Lutherans said “No.”

67% of American Baptists said “No.”

This sad commentary speaks for itself.

For practical purposes the words infallible and inerrant are interchangeable. When we apply them to the Bible, what we are saying is that only those who accept as from God all that Scripture proves to tell us, promise us, or require of us, can ever fully please him. Both words thus have religious as well as theological significance; their function is to impose on our handling of the Bible a procedure which expresses faith in the reality and veracity of the God who speaks to us in and through what it says and who requires us to heed every word that proceeds from his mouth. This procedure requires us not to deny, disregard, or arbitrarily relativize anything that the writers teach or to discount any of the practical implications for worship and service which their teaching carries or to cut the knot of any problem of Bible harmony, factual or theological, by allowing ourselves to assume that the writers were not necessarily consistent with themselves or with each other.

For me to confess that Scripture is infallible and inerrant is to bind myself in advance to follow the method of harmonizing and integrating all that Scripture declares, without exception, I must believe that it is from God, however little I may like it, and whatever change of present beliefs, ways, and commitments it may require, and I must actively seek to live by it.

A man went to a psychiatrist and complained about an inferiority complex. The doctor listened to him for a while, then gave him a good news/bad news diagnosis:

“The good news,” said the doctor, “Is that you don’t have a complex. The bad news is—you are inferior!”

- Gary Inrig

If you stop to ask yourself why you don't believe in Christ, is there really any reason? People read infidel books and wonder, why they are unbelievers, I ask why they read such books. They think they must read both sides. I say that book is a lie, how can it be one side when it is a lie? It is not one side at all. Suppose a man tells right down lies about my family, and I read them so as to hear both sides; it would not be long before some suspicion would creep into my mind. I said to a man once, "Have you got a wife?" "Yes, and a good one." I asked: "Now what if I should come to you and cast out insinuations against her?" And he said, "Well your life would not be safe long if you did." I told him just to treat the devil as he would treat a man who went around with such stories. We are not to blame for having doubts flitting through our minds, but for harboring them. Let us go out trusting the Lord with heart and soul to-day.

Dear Ann Landers: You have printed many letters about extramarital affairs. Here are some things your readers should be aware of:

About half the men and a third of the women who are cheating say they are perfectly content and there is nothing wrong with their marriages.

Being religious does not prevent infidelity.

Women are as willing as men to have an affair.

Fewer than 10 percent of those having an affair will divorce their spouses to marry their lovers. A large percentage of those who do often have another divorce.

People who have affairs are more likely to be divorced, distressed and disappointed.

The chemistry that drives an affair lasts anywhere from a few weeks to three years before it cools down.

Infidelity can happen to anyone. Here are a few tips for your readers to affair-proof their marriages. I call them “the four P’s” for prevention:

Be protective of your marriage. Avoid risky situations such as long lunches with a co-worker or drinks for two after work. Most people do not plan to be unfaithful.

Be positive. Look for what is right in your spouse and tell him or her daily. People who have love affairs are often looking for appreciation and affirmation.

Be polite. Always talk to your spouse with respect. Be careful what you say to each other and how you say it. Show courtesy and caring in the way you treat one another.

Be playful, and make fun, sex, and humor a mainstay in your marriage. Schedule time to play with one another, and have a “date night” at least once a week.

Marriages can and do survive affairs, and many become stronger having weathered the crisis but not without pain and a genuine desire to recommit.

Drop a pebble in the water

And its ripples reach out far;

And the sunbeam dancing on them

May reflect them to a star.

Give a smile to someone passing

Thereby making his morning glad;

It may greet you in the evening

When your own heart may be sad.

Do a simple deed of kindness;

Though its end you may not see,

It may reach like widening ripples,

Down a long eternity.

Jesus was speaking about this danger in His comments on leaven (yeast). He warned His disciples to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6, RSV) “and the leaven of Herod (Mark 8:15 , RSV). Leaven symbolizes human imperfection (see Exodus 12:15-20, 13:3-8; Leviticus 2:11; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8). Jesus was warning against mixing imperfect human ideas with God’s truth. The Pharisees had mixed their own religious traditions with the teaching of the Scriptures; the Sadducees were the philosophers of Jewish society; and Herod represented the world system. These three influences—tradition, philosophy, and society—seem inevitably to work their way into and become part of the value system of any Christian community to such an extent that it is possible to be a Christian, but live almost entirely within a pagan value system, and not even perceive it.

This possibility began to dawn on me when we moved to Brazil and changed cultures. Culture is hardly perceived as long as we do not leave the only one we really know. A fish doesn’t perceive the water in which it swims, and neither are we aware of our culture, or the influence it exerts on our thoughts and actions. Often we must step outside of it to understand it—and to understand ourselves!

Many years ago, as the story is told, a devout king was disturbed by the ingratitude of his royal court. He prepared a large banquet for them. When the king and his royal guests were seated, by prearrangement, a beggar shuffled into the hall, sat down at the king’s table, and gorged himself with food. Without saying a word, he then left the room. The guests were furious and asked permission to seize the tramp and tear him limb from limb for his ingratitude. The king replied, “That beggar has done only once to an earthly king what each of you does three times each day to God. You sit there at the table and eat until you are satisfied. Then you walk away without recognizing God, or expressing one word of thanks to Him.”

What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves, or it will not be yours. - Goethe

We begin by trusting or ignorance and calling it innocence, by trusting our innocence and calling it purity. And when we hear these rugged statements of our Lord’s (Matthew 15:18), we shrink and say: “But I never felt any of those awful things in my heart.” Either Jesus Christ is the supreme authority on the human heart or He is not worth paying attention to. Am I prepared to trust His judgment or do I prefer to trust my innocent ignorance? As long as I remain under the refuge of innocence, I am living in a fool’s paradise. The only thing that safeguards is the redemption found in Jesus Christ. Purity is too deep down for me to get to naturally; but when the Holy Spirit comes in, He brings into the center of my life the very Spirit that was manifested in the life of Jesus Christ—the Holy Spirit, who is unsullied purity.” - Oswald Chambers

Prussian king Frederick the Great was once touring a Berlin prison. The prisoners fell on their knees before him to proclaim their innocence—except for one man, who remained silent. Frederick called to him, “Why are you here?”

“Armed robbery, Your Majesty,” was the reply.

“And are you guilty?”

“Yes indeed, Your Majesty, I deserve my punishment.”

Frederick then summoned the jailer and ordered him, “Release this guilty wretch at once. I will not have him kept in this prison where he will corrupt all the fine innocent people who occupy it.”

When Jean-Claude Killy made the French national ski team in the early 1960s, he was prepared to work harder than anyone else to be the best. At the crack of dawn he would run up the slopes with his skis on, an unbelievably grueling activity. In the evening he would lift weights, run sprints—anything to get an edge. But the other team members were working as hard and long as he was. He realized instinctively that simply training harder would never be enough. Killy then began challenging the basic theories of racing technique. Each week he would try something different to see if he could find a better, faster way down the mountain. His experiments resulted in a new style that was almost exactly opposite the accepted technique of the time. It involved skiing with his legs apart (not together) for better balance and sitting back (not forward) on the skis when he came to a turn. He also used ski poles in an unorthodox way—to propel himself as he skied. The explosive new style helped cut Killy’s racing times dramatically. In 1966 and 1967 he captured virtually every major skiing trophy. The next year he won three gold medals in the Winter Olympics, a record in ski racing that has never been topped. Killy learned an important secret shared by many creative people: innovations don’t require genius, just a willingness to question the way things have always been done.

But little is gained if opinions are crammed into men; and this is likely to be the case where they are not permitted to inquire and to doubt. At the same time it must be remembered that no spirit is more unfriendly to that indifference of mind so essential to freedom of inquiry than that which arises in the conduct of controversy. When we become advocates we lay aside the garb of philosophers. The desire of victory is often stronger than the love of truth; and pride, jealousy, ambition and envy, identifying ourselves with our opinions, will lend their aid to pervert our judgments and to seduce us from our candor. A disputatious spirit is always the mark of a little mind. The cynic may growl, but he can never aspire to the dignity of character. There are undoubtedly occasions when we must contend earnestly for the truth; but...we should look well to our own hearts, that no motives animate us but the love of truth and zeal for the highest interests of man.

The baseball season is upon us and an office manager we know passes along this explanation of the game, given to her by her grandson:

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s on the side that’s in goes out and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When three men are out, the side that’s out come in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. When both sides have been in and out nine times, including the not outs, that’s the end of the game.

Insanity is hereditary—you can get it from your children. - Sam Levenson

Fans of the American Wild West will find in a Deadwood, South Dakota, museum this inscription left by a beleaguered prospector: “I lost my gun. I lost my horse. I am out of food. The Indians are after me. But I’ve got all the gold I can carry!”

A manager and a sales rep stood looking at a map on which colored pins indicated the company representative in each area. “I’m not going to fire you, Wilson,” the manager said, “but I’m loosening your pin a bit just to emphasize the insecurity of your situation.”

A little girl in London held up her broken wrist and said, "Look, Mommy, my hand is bent the wrong way!" There were no tears in her eyes. She felt no pain whatever. That was when she was four years old.

When she was six, her parents noticed that she was walking with a limp. A doctor discovered that the girl had a fractured thigh. Still she felt no pain.

The girl is now 14 years old. She is careful now, but occasionally looks at blisters and burns on her hands and wonders, "How did this happen?" She is insensitive to pain! Medical specialists are baffled by the case. It is called ganglineuropathy.

There is another insensitiveness which is deadlier and more dangerous-insensitiveness to sin! Paul said of people with this malady: they had "their consciences seared as with a hot iron" (1Ti 4:2).

Number of times a child laughs each day, on average:

400

Number of times an adult laughs each day, on overage:

15

Number of Americans with stress-related insomnia:

1 in 5

Number on any given day who need more sleep;

45 million

Percentage decrease in average sleep time, since 1900:

20

Robert Wood Johnson, the former chairman of Johnson & Johnson, was known to be a terror when he inspected his plants. On one such unannounced visit, the plant manager had a fortunate 30-minute tip prior to his arrival. Hastily he had things spruced up by ordering several large rolls of paper transported to the roof of the building. When Johnson arrived, he was furious. “What in the hell is all that junk on the roof?” were his first words. How were they to know that he would arrive in his personal helicopter?

IA. The main issues.

1B. Revelation.

2B. Inspiration.

3B. Canonization.

4B. Illumination.

5B. Interpretation.

6B. Application.

1C. First three issues deal with the Bible’s authority in our lives.

2C. Second three issues deal with the Bible’s impact upon our lives.

2A. Revelation: the problem of communication: Hebrews 1:1-2.

1B. Nature: Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1-4.

2B. Miracles: II Kings 5:14-15.

3B. Christ: Hebrews 1:1-2; John 1:18.

4B. Bible: I John 5:9-13.

3A. Inspiration: the problem of accuracy: II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:20-21.

Definition: Inspiration is the act of God by which He directly controlled the writers so that what was written (original autographs) was free from error.

1B. It refers to the writings, not the writers.

2B. It demands inerrancy (three reasons).

1C. Trustworthiness of God’s character: Romans 3:4.

2C. Consistency of the Holy Spirit: Acts 1:16 (cf. Psalm 41:9).

3C. Teaching of Christ: Matthew 5:18.

4A. Canonization: the problem of recognition.

1B. Criteria.

1C. Its own claim of divine authorship: Hebrews 1:1-2.

2C. Written by selected spokesmen: Ephesians 2:20, 3:5.

3C. Agrees with itself (cf. Romans 4:3,6; 9:6,0,15,17,25,27,29,33; 10:11,15,16,18,19,20,; 11:2,7-10,27).

4C. Universally accepted by believers: II Peter 3:15-18

5A. Illumination: the problem of understanding: I Corinthians 2:14; John 16:7-8,13.

6A. Interpretation: the problem of study:

— II Timothy 2:15.

— II Peter 1:20: “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.”

7A. Application: the problem of change:

II Timothy 3:16-17.

— “Profitable” root: “to increase.” Comes to mean “making a profit” or “advantage.”

1B. Doctrine: teaching us what God says and wants us to do.

2B. Reproof: convicting us of sin and rebuking us when we are going the wrong way or believing the wrong thing.

3B. Correction: “to stand or set up straight.” Rebuilding and reconstructing our lives when we stumble and fall.

4B. Instruction in righteousness: discipling and educating us in what is right.

8A. Purpose.

1B. To be prepared: “complete.”

2B. To be effective: “thoroughly equipped.”

I think of David Livingstone, the pioneer missionary to Africa, who walked over 29,000 miles. His wife died early in their ministry and he faced stiff opposition from his Scottish brethren. He ministered half blind. His kind of perseverance spurs me on. As I run, I remember the words in his diary: Send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever me from any tie but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart.

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

0. Integrated

0. Management

0. Options

1. Total

1. Organizational

1. Flexibility

2. Systematized

2. Monitored

2. Compatibility

3. Parallel

3. Reciprocal

3. Mobility

4. Functional

4. Digital

4. Programming

5. Responsive

5. Logic

5. Concept

6. Optical

6. Transitional

6. Time phase

7. Synchronized

7. Incremental

7. Projection

8. compatible

8. Third generation

8. Hardware

9. Balanced

9. Policy

9. Contingency

I. Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, called the Lord’s Supper, to be observed in his church unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of himself in his death, the sealing all benefits thereof unto true believers, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto him, and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other, as members of his mystical body.

II. In this sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sins of the quick or dead; but only a commemoration of that one offering up of himself, by himself, upon the cross, once for all, and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God for the same...

III. The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed his ministers to declare his word of institution to the people, to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to an holy use; and to take and break the bread, to take the cup, and (they communicating also themselves) to give both to the communicants; but to none who are not then present in the congregation.

V. The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to him crucified, as that truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, to wit, the body and blood of Christ; albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and wine, as they were before.

VII. Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this sacrament, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.

VIII Although ignorant and wicked men receive the outward elements in this sacrament, yet they receive not the thing signified thereby; but by their unworthy coming thereunto are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their own damnation. Wherefore all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with him, so are they unworthy of the Lord’s table, and cannot, without great sin against Christ, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto.

The great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, willed his marvelous violin to Genoa—the city of his birth—but only on condition that the instrument never be played upon. It was an unfortunate condition, for it is a peculiarity of wood that as long as it is used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, it begins to Decay. The exquisite, mellow-toned violin has become worm-eaten in its beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. The moldering instrument is a reminder that a life withdrawn from all service to others loses its meaning.

He not only overflowed with learning, but stood in the slop.

After more than twenty years in pastoral activity, I am clearer now that failure is integral to Christian ministry. It was for Jesus in His ministry: He failed with the young ruler; He failed in Nazareth because of the people’s unbelief; He failed with Judas Iscariot; He failed with the bulk of His fellow countrymen; He failed with the religious leadership; He failed with nine of the ten lepers; He failed with Pontius Pilate. In the face of repeated failure, Jesus learned to abide firmly in the love of His Father and to keep His Father’s Word.

These events in His ministry were not mistakes. He took the risk of being open with people with the love of God: many responded favorably, many did not. If, then, we live in the love of God and listen to the Word of God, we will meet constant failure. It will be tempting, because we live in such a results-dominated society, to see failure as reprehensible and therefore to be avoided. One way to avoid failure is to call it a mistake—and then to try to eliminate any mistakes, to make sure we get things right and that we succeed. Many local churches base their activities on such priorities and virtually reject anything that is at all risky, because “we cannot afford to make mistakes.”

Justin Martyr may have been the first Christian to express what we today call “the integration of faith and learning.” He wrote, “Whatever has been uttered aright by any man in any place belongs to us Christians.”

"My boy," said the store owner to his new employee, "wisdom and integrity are essential to the retail business. By 'integrity'I mean if you promise a customer something, you have got to keep that promise-even if it means we lose money."

"And what," asked the teenager, "is wisdom?"

"That," answered the boss, "is not making any stupid promises."

Josh McDowell relates how he was counseling a student who said she was fed up with Christianity because she did not think it was historically accurate nor that there was actually anything to it. She had convinced everyone in her circle that she had searched and found profound intellectual problems with Christianity as a result of her university studies.

One after another of her classmates tried to persuade her otherwise; but to no avail. Josh asked her several pointed questions. Within 30 minutes she admitted that she had fooled everyone including herself, and that she had developed her intellectual doubts in order to excuse her immoral life.

Existing things are not the result of chance. No one ever saw a rude heap of bricks dumped from a cart onto the ground arrange themselves into the walls, rooms, and chimneys of a house. The dust filings on a brassfounder's table have never been known to form themselves into the wheels and mechanism of a watch. The types loosely flung from the founder's mold never yet fell into the form of a poem, such as Homer, or Dante, or Milton would have constructed. Only an illogical person could believe that nature's magnificent temple was built without an architect, her flowers of glorious beauty were colored without a painter, and her intricate, complicated, but perfect machinery constructed without an intelligent mind. That man gave the atheist a crushing answer, who told him that the very feather with which he penned the words, "There is no God," refuted the audacious lie. It takes logic to come to the conclusion that there must have been a l�gos, an intelligence behind what we see.

Georges Clemenceau was twice the prime minister of France, and played a major role in the treaties that concluded WWI. At the Versailles conference, Clemenceau was on his way to a meeting with President Woodrow Wilson’s adviser when he was shot at by a young anarchist named Emile Cottin. As Clemenceaus’s car sped away Cottin fired at least six more shots, one of which struck Clemenceau near his heart.

Cottin was captured and the death penalty demanded, but Clemenceau asked for leniency, recommending eight years in prison “with intensive training in a shooting gallery.”

Evangelism is communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ with the immediate intent of converting the hearer to faith in Christ, and with the ultimate intent of instructing the convert in the Word of God so that he can become a mature believer.

Studies in Theology, L. Boettner, Eerdmans, 1947, pp. 9-43

HOME |

LATEST ADDITIONS |

NET BIBLE |

SEARCH |

CONTENTS |

BSF STORE

(C) 1995-2000, Biblical Studies Foundation. All rights reserved.

We cannot arrive at a true understanding of God’s Word by detaching texts from their contexts to find personal meaning in them and be feeding them into the world of our private preoccupations and letting that world impose new senses on old phrases.

A theological student whom later I knew as a senior friend had committed himself to starting his ministry in the north of England when he received a very attractive invitation to join a teaching institution in South Wales instead. He did not feel able to withdraw from his commitments, but one day he read in Isaiah 43:6 (Authorized Version), “I will say to the north, Give up”, and concluded that this was God telling him that he would be providentially released from his promise and so set free to accept the second invitation. No such thing happened, however, so he went north after all wondering what had gone wrong. Then he reread Isaiah 43:6 and noticed that it continued, “…and to the south, Do not withhold.” At this point it dawned on him that he had been finding meaning in the text that was never really there. Instead, the concerns which he brought to his reading of the text had governed his interpretation of it.

To impose meaning on the text is not the way to learn God’s Law. Yet we constantly do this (don’t we?), and it is one chronic obstacle to understanding.

One hour of quiet concentration in any business can be worth two hours of normal working time, according to the management of a Denver business, quoted in a Success magazine item.

“Interruptions are the biggest enemy of creativity,” says Gary Desmond, a principal of Hoover Berg Desmond (HBD) a $30 million a year architectural firm. To minimize the inevitable interruptions in the firm’s large, open offices, Desmond came up with the idea which is more familiar with kids than corporations—the quiet hour. Every morning from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., no one at HBD including the principals, may communicate with anyone else inside or outside the office. “Basically, we’re sitting at our desks for that hour,” says Desmond, who makes allowances for emergency phone calls. “We try to focus totally on our clients’ designs.” Initially, HBD’s 25 employees balked at the concept. “Management had to explain that this was not a response to bad work habits. It was a vehicle to make us concentrate even more rigorously,” says Desmond, although he now concedes that quiet hour is an excellent crack-the-whip technique too. But what do the clients think of it? At first, the firm chose to hide the policy from the outside world.

“Businesses that found out used to ask if we served milk and cookies at quiet hour,” says Desmond. “But we stuck to it and now those same firms respect how much we’re trying to accomplish every morning.” Quiet hour has worked out so well, in fact, that HBD wants to start a second one, perhaps in midafternoon. “Our employees all wish they had more quiet hours,” says Desmond. “It gives us what most businesses need so badly, a little time to think.”

The preaching of a witness has a spontaneity about it, an infectious warmth, a simple directness, a depth of reality, which are all due to an intimate knowledge of God. So we must hunger and thirst after Him. We must claim the promise of Jesus that He will manifest Himself to those who love Him and who prove their love by their obedience (John 14:21). We shall remember that the real preparation of a sermon is not the few hours which are specifically devoted to it, but the whole stream of the preacher’s Christian experience thus far, of which the sermon is a distilled drop. As E. M. Bounds has put it, ‘The man, the whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make a man.’

A black preacher introduced a guest speaker with the following: “The man we have speaking to us is a man who knows the unknowable, can solve the unsolvable and can screw the inscrutable.” - S. L. Johnson

Early in his career, Thomas Edison invented a vote-recording machine for use in legislative chambers. By moving a switch to the right or left, an official could vote for or against a proposal without leaving his desk. The machine would replace the tedious business of marking ballots, counting them, etc.

Elated with the prospects, Edison obtained a patent—his first—and headed for Washington. Eagerly he demonstrated his machine to the Chairman of Congressional Committees. This gentleman, while complimenting Edison on his ingenuity, promptly turned it down. “Filibustering and delay in the tabulation of votes are often the only means we have for defeating bad or improper legislation.” he told Edison.

The young inventor was stunned. The invention was good; he knew it and the chairman knew it. Still, it wasn’t wanted. Said Edison later: “There and then I made a vow that I would never again invent anything which was not wanted.”

Between 1962 and 1977 Arthur Pedrick patented 162 inventions. Sounds impressive until you realize that none of them were taken up commercially. Among his greatest inventions were:

a bicycle with amphibious capability.

an arrangement whereby a car could be driven from the back seat.

several golf inventions, including a golf ball that could be steered in flight.

The grandest scheme of Pedrick, who described himself as the “One-Man-Think-Tank Basic Research Laboratories of Sussex,” was to irrigate deserts of the world by sending a constant supply of snowballs from the polar region through a massive network of giant peashooters.

Some onlookers thought it was unusual, but few noticed when the pastor wheeled into the church parking lot in a borrowed pickup truck. But everyone’s eyes were upon him when he backed the truck across the lawn to his study door. Refusing comment or assistance, he began to empty his office onto the truck bed. He was impassive and systematic: first the desk drawers, then the files, and last his library of books, which he tossed carelessly into a heap, many of them flopping askew like slain birds. His task done, the pastor left the church and, as was later learned, drove some miles to the city dump where he committed everything to the waiting garbage. It was his way of putting behind him the overwhelming sense of failure and loss that he had experienced in the ministry. This young, gifted pastor was determined never to return to the ministry. Indeed, he never did.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

Several years ago I was invited to the White House to meet with a few key religious leaders and the President of the United States. NOW that was a pretty good offer, wasn’t it? It was the first invitation from a president this old country boy from Mississippi had ever received. I’d been out of town during the first part of the week and between flights I called home to check in. When I did, I learned that my son Ben’s basketball game originally scheduled for mid-week had been re-scheduled for the end of the week—and I’d missed one game already!

The question was one of simple priority: “What’s the most important thing to me?” Since the government had been running pretty well without me for a number of years, I called the White House and said, “Ed Young won’t be coming.” (They recovered from this news beautifully.) Instead I went to the game and had the fun of seeing my son shoot the winning basket. I have to confess that deciding between the White House and the school gym was not too tough. My wife and my boys are my highest priority.

Given the many details which a presidential inaugural committee must cope with, mistakes are inevitable. So it was that Franklin Delano Roosevelt received an invitation to his own January 20, 1937 presidential inauguration! Through the White House social bureau, he solemnly sent word that the press of official business would keep him away. Then, relenting, he sent a further note in his own handwriting: “I have rearranged my engagements and think I may be able to go. Will know definitely January 19. F.D.R.”

A layman visited a great city church in Ohio during a business trip. After the service he congratulated the minister on his service and sermon. "But," said the manufacturer, "if you were my salesman, I'd discharge you. You got my attention by your appearance, voice, and manner; your prayer, reading, and logical discourse aroused my interest; you warmed my heart with a desire for what you preached; then you stopped without asking me to do something about it. In business, the important thing is to get people to sign on the dotted line."

One man came out of his house on his way to church on Sunday morning, just as his neighbor came out of his with his golf clubs. The golfer said, "Henry, come play golf with me today." Henry, with an expression of horror on his face, replied, "This is the Lord's day, and I go to church. Certainly I would not play golf with you." After a moment's silence, the golfer quietly said, "You know, Henry, I have often wondered about your church, and I have admired your fidelity. You know also that this is the seventh time I have invited you to play golf with me, and you have never invited me to go to church with you."

I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath—these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely—these are my native air.

A John Hopkins University doctor says, “We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact.” But I, who am simple of mind, think I know; We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality.

It was Christmas Eve 1875 and Ira Sankey was traveling on a Delaware River steamboat when he was recognized by some of the passangers. His picture had been in the newspaper because he was the song leader for the famous evangelist D.L. Moody. They asked him to sing one of his own hymns, but Sankey demurred, saying that he preferred to sing William B. Bradbury’s Hymn, “Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us.” As he sang, one of the stanzas began, “We are Thine; do Thou befriend us. Be the Guardian of our way.”

When he finished, a man stepped from the shadows and asked, “Did you ever serve in the Union Army?” “Yes,” Mr. Sankey answered, “in the spring of 1860.” Can you remember if you were doing picket duty on a bright, moonlit night in 1862?” “Yes,” Mr. Sankey answered, very much surprised. “So did I, but I was serving in the Confederate army. When I saw you standing at your post, I thought to myself, ‘That fellow will never get away alive.’ I raised my musket and took aim. I was standing in the shadow, completely concealed, while the full light of the moon was falling upon you. At that instant, just as a moment ago, you raised your eyes to heaven and began to sing…’Let him sing his song to the end,’ I said to myself, ‘I can shoot him afterwards. He’s my victim at all events, and my bullet cannot miss him.’ But the song you sang then was the song you sang just now. I heard the words perfectly: ‘We are Thine; do Thou befriend us. Be the Guardian of our way.’ Those words stirred up many memories. I began to think of my childhood and my God-fearing mother. She had many times sung that song to me. When you had finished your song, it was impossible for me to take aim again. I thought, ‘The Lord who is able to save that man from certain death must surely be great and mighty.’ And my arm of its own accord dropped limp at my side.”

It was Christmas Eve 1875 and Ira Sankey was traveling on a Delaware River steamboat when he was recognized by some of the passengers. His picture had been in the newspaper because he was the song leader for the famous evangelist D. L. Moody. They asked him to sing one of his own hymns, but Sankey demurred, saying that he preferred to sing William B. Bradbury’s hymn, “Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us.”

As he sang, one of the stanzas began, “We are Thine; do Thou befriend us. Be the Guardian of our way.” When he finished, a man stepped from the shadows and asked, “Did you ever serve in the Union Army?” “Yes,” Mr. Sankey answered, “in the spring of 1860.”

Can you remember if you were doing picket duty on a bright, moonlit night in 1862?”

“Yes,” Mr. Sankey answered, very much surprised.

“So did I, but I was serving in the Confederate army. When I saw you standing at your post, I thought to myself, ‘That fellow will never get away alive.’ I raised my musket and took aim. I was standing in the shadow, completely concealed, while the full light of the moon was falling upon you. At that instant, just as a moment ago, you raised your eyes to heaven and began to sing… ‘Let him sing his song to the end,’ I said to myself, ‘I can shoot him afterwards.’ He’s my victim at all events, and my bullet cannot miss him.’

But the song you sang then was the song you sang just now. I heard the words perfectly: ‘We are Thine; do Thou befriend us. Be the Guardian of our way.’ Those words stirred up many memories. I began to think of my childhood and my God-fearing mother. She had many times sung that song to me. When you had finished your song, it was impossible for me to take aim again. I thought, ‘The Lord who is able to save that man from certain death must surely be great and mighty.’ And my arm of its own accord dropped limp at my side.”

The Irish Potato Famine (1846-1851) resulted in a 30 percent drop in the population of the west of Ireland. The prolonged suffering of the Irish peasantry had broken the survivors in body and spirit. John Bloomfield, the owner of Castle Caldwell in County Fermanagh, was working on the recovery of his estate when he noticed that the exteriors of his tenant farmers’ small cottages had a vivid white finish. He was informed that there was a clay deposit on his property of unusually fine quality. To generate revenue and provide employment on his estate, he built a pottery at the village of Belleek in 1857. The unusually fine clay yielded a porcelain china that was translucent with a glass-like finish. It was worked into traditional Irish designs and was an immediate success. Today, Belleek’s delicate strength and its iridescent pearlized glaze is enthusiastically purchased the world over. This multimillion-dollar industry arose from innovative thinking during some very anxious times.

In his book Folk Psalms Of Faith, Ray Stedman tells of an experience H.A. Ironside had in a crowded restaurant. Just as Ironside was about to begin his meal, a man approached and asked if he could join him. Ironside invited his to have a seat. Then, as was his custom, Ironside bowed his head in prayer. When he opened his eyes, the other man asked, “Do you have a headache?” Ironside replied, “No, I don’t.” The other man asked, Well, is there something wrong with your food?” Ironside replied, “No, I was simply thanking God as I always do before I eat.” The man said, “Oh, you’re one of those, are you? Well, I want you to know I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow and I don’t have to give thanks to anybody when I eat. I just start right in!” Ironside said, “Yes, you’re just like my dog. That’s what he does too!”

Louis Pasteur is reported to have had such an irrational fear of dirt and infection he refused to shake hands.

President and Mrs. Benjamin Harrison were so intimidated by the newfangled electricity installed in the White House they didn’t dare touch the switches. If there were no servants around to turn off the lights when the Harrisons went to bed, they slept with them on.

A survey was made of 4000 laymen in 114 evangelical churches across the U. S. They were asked, “Do you feel the preaching on Sunday relates to what’s going on in your life?” Over 83% saw virtually no connection between what they heard on Sunday morning and what they faced on Monday morning.

A survey performed for the IRS with 2200 people discovered: 23% admitted cheating by either underreporting income or overstating deductions. 52% think at least one in four of their fellow taxpayers is cheating too, and that cheating is becoming more prevalent. 63% say it is fear of getting caught that keeps people from cheating.

Perhaps no composer has captured the musical heart and soul of America as did Irving Berlin. In addition to familiar favorites such as “God Bless America” and “Easter Parade,” he wrote, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” which still ranks as the all-time best-selling musical score.

In an interview for the San Diego Union, Don Freemand asked Berlin, “Is there any question you’ve never been asked that you would like someone to ask you?”

“Well, yes, there is one,” he replied. “‘What do you think of the many songs you’ve written that didn’t become hits?’ My reply would be that I still think they are wonderful.”

God, too, has an unshakable delight in what—and whom—he has made. He thinks each of his children is wonderful, and whether they’re a “hit” in the eyes of others or not, he will always think they’re wonderful.

People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply acknowledging a great debt we owe to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny? It is emphatically no sacrifice. Rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, danger, foregoing the common conveniences of this life—these may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing compared with the glory which shall later be revealed in and through us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us.

Seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960, John F. Kennedy visited a coal mine in West Virginia, where a miner asked him, “Is it true that you’re the son of one of our wealthiest men?” Kennedy said it was so.

The miner continued, “Is it true you’ve never done a day’s work with your hands all your life?” Kennedy nodded.

“Well, let me tell you this,” the miner replied, “you haven’t missed a thing.”

Two drunks were in a railroad station at midnight, discussing the difference between irritation, aggravation, and frustration. They couldn’t agree. One finally said, “I’ll show you the difference.” He went to the phone booth, circled a number in the book and called it. After ringing and ringing, it was finally answered. “Is Ned there?” “NO! There’s no Ned here,” and the phone was slammed down. “That’s irritation,” he said to his friend. After another 20 minutes he called again. The phone rang and rang. Finally someone answered and the drunk asked, “Is Ned there?” The answer came back, “There is no Ned here! I told you before!” —SLAM. “That’s aggravation,” he said to his partner. Another 20 minutes went by, and the drunk said, “Now I’ll show you frustration,” and he made another call. Finally the phone was answered, “I told you before, there’s no Ned here!!!” “But this is Ned—any messages for me?”

Will our bodies one day be raised from the dead or not? How can we know? Impossible, says one group. Before you make such a flat declaration, look at that unattractive insect upon the blade of grass. In just a few short days you will find that insect floating in the air, a beautiful gossamer creature with wings that rival the rainbow. Look at the dry root in the dark, cold winter. When spring comes, out of that root will blossom forth a profusion of beautiful blossoms. Look at the egg, an inert and earthbound shape. Yet in it lies the eagle that can wing and soar above all other birds, or the tiny hummingbird that remains poised in mid-air before some flower, defying the pull of gravity. The doctrine of the resurrection is not inconsistent with the analogies of nature or the experience of our common history.

"Wisdom" may best describe our present scientific and cultural plateau, yet spiritually we are foolish indeed. Many men, seen as wise in the eyes of the world, are fools in the eyes of our God.

The atheist who audaciously affirms, "I know there is no God," is elevated upon the pedestal of intellectualism and wisdom by the world of pseudo-science, yet God calls him a fool (Psa 14:1).

Humanists, who deny the existence of sin, and contend that one's conduct should best be determined by the circumstances in which he finds himself, are applauded and lauded as the wise men of our age. God, in no uncertain terms, has said, "Fools make a mock at sin" (Pro 14:9).

The world cries out, "Do what makes you feel good; do your own thing!" God has decreed, "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool" (Pro 28:26).

The rich farmer in the twelfth chapter of Luke, who found comfort in his accumulation of worldly goods, would be seen by many among us today as a wise man indeed. God called him a fool (Luk 12:20).

How does God see you, my friend? Our nation seems to be floating with the tide of moral and spiritual corruption. Are you drifting with the tide, or are you willing to stem the tide? I would rather be a fool in the eyes of a foolish world, than a fool in the eyes of my all-wise Creator.

How would you like to spend 2 years making phone calls to people who aren’t home? Sound absurd? According to one time management study, that’s how much time the average person spends trying to return calls to people who never seem to be in. Not only that, we spend 6 months waiting for the traffic light to turn green, and another 8 months reading junk mail.

These unusual statistics should cause us to do time-use evaluation. Once we recognize that simple “life maintenance” can chip away at our time in such huge blocks, we will see how vital it is that we don’t busy ourselves “in vain” (Ps 39:6).

Psalm 39 gives us some perspective. In David’s complaint to God, he said, “You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You” (V. 5). He meant that to an eternal God our time on earth is brief. And He doesn’t want us to waste it. When we do, we throw away one of the most precious commodities He gives us. Each minute is an irretrievable gift—and unredeemable slice of eternity.

Sure, we have to make the phone calls, and we must wait at the light. But what about the rest of our time? Are we using it to advance the cause of Christ and to enhance our relationship with Him? Is our time well spent?

Richard Nixon's book, In The Arena, has an attention-grabbing paragraph on television:

"Computer specialists have a saying-'Garbage in, garbage out'-which they use when they want to make the point that a computer is only a mechanism for processing information, not creating it. The same principle applies to television. Young people used to learn their lessons from McGuffey's Readers; the baby-boomers learned them from the Beaver and Gilligan. As the postwar generation came of age, it spawned a new generation of TV programmers, who in turn have put more triviality, sex, violence, and bad manners on the air than anyone ever thought possible. Trash TV could only have been created by people who were raised on the tube. 'Garbage in, garbage out.'"

Fabricated "news" programs, "re-enactments," peeping-tom journalism, heavy-metal rock music, slasher movies, and programs which glorify homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle can hardly be considered neutral as they relate to our culture. Soap operas are chock-full of unfaithfulness, vindictiveness, revenge, materialism and murder, while comedy gives way to lewd and suggestive material. Television has become more than a "vast wasteland" in recent years. It is a sinkhole of depravity with eroticism and occultism being fed to us on a daily basis.

It is certainly sub-Christian, and in many cases even sub-human. Harmless? Hardly! Dangerous? Certainly! Fatal? Possibly.

Some church members are as stubborn as a Missouri mule about doing church work, but as sly as a fox in their own business deals; as busy as a bee in spreading the latest gossip, but as quiet as a mouse in spreading the gospel of Christ. Many are as blind as a bat to see the needs of others, but have eyes of a hawk to see the faults of a few. Some are as eager as a beaver about a barbecue, but as lazy as a dog about the prayer meetings. Some will roar like a lion when things do not go just to suit them, but they are as gentle as a lamb when they need the preacher of the church. Some are as noisy as a blue jay when calling on the church for advice, but as timid as a kitten about talking to the lost and as slow as a snail about visiting absentees and shut-ins. Many are night owls on Saturday nights, but "bed bugs" Sunday mornings and as scarce as hen's teeth on Wednesday nights.

On June 2, 1940, a little girl was born. She cost money from the moment she was born. As she grew from babyhood to girlhood, she cost even more. Her dresses and shoes were more expensive as well as the doctor through all those childhood diseases. She was even more expensive during her school and teen years. She needed long dresses to go to parties. When she went to college, it was discovered that all college expenses are not listed in the catalog. Then after graduation she fell in love and married. She had a church wedding, and that, too, cost a lot of money.

Then, five months after her marriage she suddenly sickened and within a week she was dead. She has not cost a penny since the day the parents walked away from her grave.

As long as the church is alive she will cost money, and the more alive a church is, the more money she will cost. Only a dead church, like a dead child, is no longer expensive!

Once upon a time a person was touched by God, and God gave him a priceless gift. This gift was the capacity for love. He was grateful and humble, and he knew what an extraordinary thing had happened to him. He carried it like a jewel and he walked tall and with Purpose. From time to time he would show this gift to others, and they would smile and stroke his jewel. But it seemed that they’d also dirty it up a little. Now, this was no way to treat such a precious thing, so the person built a box to protect his jewel. And he decided to show it only to those who would treat it with respect and meet it with reverent love of their Own. Even that didn’t work, for some tried to break into the box. So he built a bigger, stronger box—one that no one could get into—and the man felt good. At last he was protecting the jewel as it should be. Upon occasion, when he decided that someone had earned the right to see it, he’d show it proudly. But they sometimes refused, or kind of smudged it, or just glanced at it disinterestedly. Much time went by, and then only once in awhile would one pass by the man, the aging man; he would pat his box and say, “I have the loveliest of jewels in here.” Once or twice he opened the box and offered it saying, “Look and see. I want you to.” And the passerby would look and look, and look. And then he would back away from the old man, shaking his head.

The man died, and he went to God, and he said, “You gave me a precious gift many years ago, and I’ve kept it safe, and it is as lovely as the day you gave it to me.” And he opened the box and held it out to God. He glanced in it, and in it was a lizard—an ugly, laughing lizard. And God walked away from him. Yes, there is a hell.

An incorrect doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Purgatory is the belief that there exists a place after death where some of the sins of people are purged through suffering. After a period of time corresponding to the suffering necessary for the sins committed, the person is then set free and enters heaven. “Gifts or services rendered to the church, prayers by the priests, and masses provided by relatives or friends in behalf of the deceased can shorten, alleviate or eliminate the sojourn of the soul in purgatory.”1

This is an unbiblical doctrine rejected by the Protestant church. It reflects the misunderstanding of the atonement of Christ as well as adding insult to the finished work of the cross. The error of purgatory is the teaching that we might perfect ourselves and remove sin through our sufferings. If that were possible, then why did Christ need to die? Gal. 2:21 says, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (NIV)

Additionally, on the cross Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). In the Greek, this was an accounting term which meant a debt was paid in full. If the payment for our sins was paid in full on the cross, then how could purgatory be a reality—especially when the scriptures don’t mention it and even contradict it: “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

A recent Barna Research Group survey on what Americans believe confirms what this brief scenario illustrates: we are in danger of becoming a nation of relativists. The Barna survey asked, “Is there absolute truth?” Amazingly, 66 percent of American adults responded that they believe that “there is no such thing as absolute truth; different people can define truth in conflicting ways and still be correct.” The figure rises to 72 percent when it comes to those between the ages of 18 and 25.