Challenging Faith

I know this may sound like heresy coming from a seminary-graduated former pastor, but if I’m to give advice to Christians who are caught at the crossroad of making an important decision, I’d tell them to stop praying, even though as a former pastor, I taught - like every other good pastor - about praying fervently on everything. From my own experience and from observing Christians around me, I’ve noticed how often prayers can become paralyzing. People either believe they must wait for a sign from God before taking any meaningful actions, or they use prayer as an excuse to procrastinate on making important decisions. But God has given us the faculty to analyze, make our own decisions, and own our lives. What I’m saying is not that you shouldn’t pray, but that prayers and actions must go together. We can certainly pray before making crucial decisions. But as we pray, we must also act. God gave us the faculty to take responsible steps: gather as much information as possible, analyze...

Reading the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10 with my Female Christian Ministry Leaders cohort this morning, a fresh perspective dawned on me. Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made - likely overwhelmed by fixing up a feast for Jesus and his entourage all by herself, while Mary, her sister, was sitting and listening to Jesus teach instead of helping. It’s not that Martha didn’t want to sit at Jesus’ feet and spend time with him like Mary did. But in a culture that valued hospitality and conditioned women into domestic roles, Martha felt obligated to all the busy work she was doing. But then Jesus’ response to Martha’s request for Mary to help was completely countercultural: Mary “has chosen” what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. Wait, what? Mary had a choice? This must have come as a shock to many who were present at the time. It’s mind-blowing, because women in that culture didn’t really have the option to not take on domestic res...

Truth be told, as Christians, what we consider “biblical” often has more to do with our preferences than we’d like to admit. We constantly pick and choose the kind of God we want and can resonate with. Some want a harsh God because they feel a deep-seated need for justice or even vengeance; some want a rigid God because they find security in the certainty of rules; others want a God who would never send anyone to hell because they struggle to reconcile love with eternal torment. We as Christians are constantly casting our own Golden Calves. This isn’t to say there’s no absolute Truth, but I highly question our human ability to comprehend the complete Truth of an infinite being. If you hold strong beliefs, present them with sound arguments and reasoning. Don’t just label something as biblical or unbiblical, expecting others to take your word for it. I’ve made this mistake myself, and I hope to do better moving forward. Also, just because you strongly believe something and other...

There are many churches near the seminary I attended, some of which are made up mostly of professors and students from the Christian university that the seminary is a part of. Once, I visited one of these churches with a friend. We sat through the entire service and stayed for lunch. During lunch, we noticed people engaged in deep theological discussions, and their passion for the Bible and theology was clear. However, to our surprise, throughout our time there, no one — absolutely no one — greeted us, the first-time visitors. After we left, my friend and I both agreed that the church felt rather cold. This is a church very different from my impression of what a church should be. My earliest impression of what a church looks like came from the "home church" of my paternal grandparents. Due to their declining health, my grandparents were no longer able to attend Sunday services at their church, even from as early as I can remember. Yet, every Sunday evening, brothers and si...

Recently, rumors have been circulating among Christians that attack the trustworthiness of certain modern English versions of the Bible, such as the NIV, ESV, and NASB. In these rumors, the modern English versions are often compared to the KJV, with claims that these versions have verses “intentionally omitted,” and that such omissions prove satanic control of modern Bible publishers. Thus, they are said not to be trusted. It is this “satanic” language that alerts me and prompts me to address these rumors. I believe a brief survey of how the modern English versions of the Bible came to be will be helpful in countering misunderstandings and lies, and in defending our faith. As you may know, the original writings of the Bible were in Hebrew for the Old Testament, and Greek and Aramaic for the New Testament. It was through handwritten copies of these original writings that the Scriptures were circulated among early Christians. In the late 4th and early 5th century, the patristic biblica...

It was from watching TV that I first learned of a simple ritual that Japanese people do before meals. They would place their hands together and say “i-ta-da-ki-ma-su.” Whenever I shared a meal with my Japanese friends, I did it as a friendly gesture and as a way to connect with them. But I had no idea what it meant until recently, when a Japanese friend explained it to me. “いただきます” means “I gratefully receive.” It expresses appreciation both to the cook for preparing the meal and to the animals or vegetables for their sacrifice so that we may have food. After learning the meaning behind it, the ritual took on a much deeper significance for me. This is just one example of how deeper cultural context and significance can be lost in cross-cultural communication. When the context and meaning are lost, we adopt the behavior without understanding it. This loss of context and significance happens not only between cultures but also between generations. I believe this has much to do with the ...