So by pointing to Christ one is really pointing to themselves? And it’s no different than pointing to Buddha or Allah? I know you don’t mean this, but isn’t that what your saying? This certainly doesn’t read like giving someone the benefit of the doubt.

Aren’t we to praise God for all that happens to us both good and bad? We most likely won’t get to see much more of Zack Johnson’s faith and how it lives out so we probably won’t know about his trials.

Have you read what John Piper said about bringing his wife flowers on their anniversary? He talks about being me-centered, etc. It’s a great analogy.

I really can’t grasp what you are criticizing here. On the one hand we are not to look to ourselves for our successes in life, but on the other if we thank Jesus we are holding ourselves up? What’s a brother to do?

Mark

I only wanted to point out how an unbeliever would hear his words. Frankly, if I was an unbeliever and I heard that ‘Jesus helped me every step of the way’, that would just give me more reason to hate Christians. Even still, if Johnson is a Mormon, a Catholic, or a JW, we would never know from his comments.

Our faith isn’t rooted in our experiences. As Paul said, if Christ did not raise, all our hope is in vain. Thus, our faith is rooted in the resurrection and what DID happened, not what IS happening in us. I only wanted to point that out.

SDG

I’ve gotta say I’m having some trouble with this one. I’m sympathetic with JohnMark’s comment.

Surely it can’t be that we ought not give public thanks to God if we lack the time to go through a complete presentation of the gospel, or to explain “which Jesus” we’re talking about?

And, truly, at the end of the day, the unregenerate who hear even the most detailed and cogent presentation are going to hate Christians anyway. Right?

Snazzy new blog!

I am confused by your recent post and am hoping you can elaborate for me. Can you give an example of a better response he could have given?

In recent months with my father’s illness and death, a number of my co-workers have asked me how I manage to come to work, do my job and even have joy in the midst of all everything. I could respond by saying, “Christ lived a sinless life, died, was buried and rose again,” and everyone would look at me like I had ten heads and walk away. The gist of my answer is God is with me and sustains me; and, everyone looks at me like I have ten heads and they walk away but, many of them have come back and they keep coming back and they ask questions.

I don’t understand how saying that God sustains me points people to me. What is the practical application to what you are saying? What does that look like in day-to-day life?

Blessings,
Kim

I am the first to get frustrated when people say God helped them win the game, or pray before that God would help them win. I still have friends who think the Georgia Bulldogs will continue to see success because their coach is a believer. However in this case I don’t hear that at all. He didn’t say “Jesus helped me get the win,” or even that “Jesus helped him every step of the way”, he simply said Jesus was with me. Here is what I heard when I heard his comment, I admit this may not be his actual intention: “Since it is Easter and my faith is really important to me, and I’m not in a church service worshiping, I want you to know that Jesus is still with me.” I heard him making a statement to let people know that Jesus does not simply reside or belong in big church buildings.

With that in mind, I agree with your point that unbelievers most likely heard the wrong message, but perhaps there was one who heard what he actually did say.

Gordan:
I applaud Johnson for giving credit to the Lord –especially his comment about glorifying God. But, without judging his motives, I was kind of bothered by the ‘Jesus was with me all the way’, as I can assure you many took that comment to be a selfish pronouncement of Jesus being on his side –though I’m sure Johnson did not mean it in such a way.

Kim:
You make an excellent point in such a candid way No, I’m not implying that you reply with the ‘facts’ of the gospel. But, I do not see much of a correlation between Johnson’s situation and your own. Consider that you are going through a very serious circumstance where God’s grace has produced peace and joy (spiritual fruit), while Johnson has just won a sporting event under a lot of ‘pressure’ that is culturally fabricated and that has absolutely nothing to do with eternity. Millions of people getting the impression that you are saying that ‘God is on your side’ in a sporting event, and real friends and colleagues hearing about God’s grace as they see real evidence of it in your life are two completely different things.

But, to elaborate even more, I think that a response testifying of God’s work in your life is wonderful to the ears of believers. Believers no doubt are edified by such things. However, the point that I tried to make in the post was that the unbelieving world undoubtedly looked at Johnson’s comments as an apologetic. They will see right through the comments and realize that every Buddhist, Muslim, Mormon, Jew, and Catholic gives credit to their deity when coming out of tough trials. The question we need to ask is: did Christ have to die to make what I just said true? And the answer to that, I believe in Johnson’s situation, is no.

In your situation, I would encourage you to continue to give a personal testimony when spiritual fruit is the subject. But, when giving a reason for your faith, for your belief in God, etc., the huge mistake would be to point to your experience instead of pointing to what Christ did. And it is here where I dropped the ball in my post: I viewed his TV appearance as an apologetic, as in the face of millions of unbelievers, him essentially giving ‘evidence’ so to speak for his faith. And in that situation, the worst thing we can do is point to experience. But…I failed to clarify that I was coming at it from that approach. Sorry

Tiff:
I agree with you; I have no reason to doubt that he isn’t the real deal (though playing on the Lord’s Day does trouble me a bit). I honestly didn’t meant to criticize him so much; I mainly just wanted to use him as an example.

Jay Z:
I didn’t take Johnson’s comments to mean what you took them as, but I could be wrong. I do believe he was sincere and I was delighted to hear that he communicated that God’s glory rises above everything else. Again (as I said to Kim), I viewed his responses as more of an apologetic, and I didn’t make things clear in my post that this is where I was coming from.

Brenda:
Very well put. Though Johnson may have been sincere, unbelievers probably took some of his comments the wrong way –though of course they will always pull out what they want. I just wanted to use Johnson as example to make a point about experience-driven testimonies, and I fear that I just made a mess of things instead.

SDG

I know Johnson. I’ve been tracking his progress on tour and I walked and talked with him at the Buick Open two years ago. He is just a simple, humble guy from Iowa. He’s not a theologian or scholar.

Having said that, I do think it was an important point that was brought up relative to athletes commenting on God or Jesus or Allah as a point of their success. When I hear these kind of comments from an athlete I think that they are simply using religion as an aegis to help show the public that they are good people. I think that is a thing that most of the viewing public doesn’t want to hear and I don’t think it has anything to do with the viewer being a believer or not.

In the same vein I wouldn’t want to hear somebody criticizing God because they felt he was responsible for their non-success.

Barry

Thank you for the comment, as I was delighted to hear your assessment of Zack. Unfortunately, I came across way too harsh in my post, as I did not specifically intend to lob accusations at him, but only intended to use his comments to make a point.

Who’s exalting Easter as if it is ordained by God? I see your point in Zack’s comment (thus my reference to ‘holy week’ and the Muslims), but I don’t seriously think that he meant that Easter was special in God’s eyes, but only in his eyes.

That being said, I too believe Easter is simply a day each year we set aside to specifically remember Christ’s resurrection. It is of course man-made, but not all man-made traditions are sinful. We’ve discussed this before, but you better stop celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, right?

No apology needed.

Zach is just a golfer who happens to believe in Christ and, like many of us, thinks that Easter is special. He would be the last person to suggest that there are underlying currents in what he spoke.

Barry

You guys have obviously not been reading your plenary-inspired KJB 1611’s. It’s clear that the apostles celebrated Easter in Acts, you Alexandrian-cult heretics.

(Kidding, kidding)

I’ll go back to burying my nose in my ESV now.