Do Not Pray Like a Pagan

The following is a sermon delivered on the Lord's Day, May 31, 2020, at First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, KS. The text was from Matthew 6:7-8 on the subject of not praying like a pagan.

5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 9 Pray then like this:

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen."

In case you haven't been watching the news lately, our culture is currently in chaos. That is an evergreen observation. Really, is there ever a time in our world where it could not be said that everything is a mess? Someone ten years from now may hear a recording of this sermon and think, "Wow, did he record this just yesterday?"

Perhaps you woke up this morning, you got ready to come to church, and you asked yourself, "I wonder if Gabe is going to preach a sermon related to all the crazy stuff that's going on." The answer is yes. No matter what the current events may be, I can think of nothing better to preach on than the power of prayer.

Jesus begins His lesson on prayer by teaching us how not to pray, which we considered last week in verses 5 and 6. He said, "When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites," once again confronting matters of the heart. Don't behave one way in view of others and in your heart be far from God. You may fool others, but you cannot fool God. He knows the mind and heart of every man, and He will render to each person according to his ways (Jeremiah 17:10). So take heart that the Lord is near.

Jesus says, "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret." Do not pray wanting man to see you. Pray knowing that God sees you.

Notice that Jesus describes our Father as being in secret. Why is God in secret? Because He is holy and we are not. Because man has sinned against God, we are separated from God. Part of the curse upon mankind is that God would be more difficult for us to see. And yet as Paul preached at the Areopagus in Acts 17:27, "He is actually not far from each one of us." He said in Romans 1:20, "His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made."

So it may be difficult to see God, but we can certainly know that He is there—most especially because Jesus reveals the Father to us. John 1:18 says, "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side," that is Christ, "He has made Him known." Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus "is the image of the invisible God." Verse 19 says, "For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." In Matthew 11:27, Jesus said, "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him."

We know the Father in heaven through Jesus Christ the Son. And when I say know, I don't simply mean we know of the Father. I mean we know the Father as intimately as anyone may know their own earthly father. We have a relationship with the Father through the Son. We have been adopted as sons and daughters of God through Christ the Son of God. For now, we see God by faith. But as Horatio Spafford so famously penned, "Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight."

The rest of verse 6 says, "And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." There's some interesting phraseology there in the Greek. The King James Bible and the Young's Literal Translation both say that the Father will reward you openly. "Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." The point being that you pray to the Father in secret not to be seen by others, and the Father will reward you in such a way as to be seen by others. Now, that doesn't mean God is going to heap open reward on you so that you will become the envy of all your friends.

Remember again 1 Peter 5:6 which says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you." There's a proper time when the Father will reward you, and that time may be in heaven among the saints, who will see the reward your Father gives you, and we will all glorify God because of it. So do not pray to be known by men. Pray as you are known by your Father who is in heaven.

Don't pray like the hypocrites—that's the instruction in verses 5 and 6. But then we get to verses 7 and 8, and Jesus says, "Don't pray like the Gentiles either." I want you to notice something before you continue on. Notice that in verse 6, Jesus says, "When you pray, go into your room and shut the door."

Many pious Jews loved to pray near open windows so that they could be heard by others. You might pass by someone's house and hear them praying even from their own dwelling, so you will think, "Wow, that guy must be really godly. Listen to how often he prays, even in his own home."

That's why Jesus says, "Go to an inner place in the house and shut the door." You're probably familiar with the King James Version that says, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet." This was the part of the house where extra garments and vessels and sleeping mats were stored. Jesus was basically saying, "Don't pray to be heard by others. Go pray where only the mats will hear you."

Now notice that in verse 7, Jesus says, "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do." So here's the flow of Jesus' instructions. First, He says don't pray like the hypocrites. Don't stand up in the synagogues or out on the street corners with your arms in the air so that others will see you.

(By the way, if you have ever wondered why a standard posture of prayer is to bow your head and close your eyes, this is why. It's a posture contrary to the way the hypocrites prayed. They lifted the head and their hands, standing out in public so they might be seen by others. But you close your eyes and bow your head. Pray to the Father in secret. Now, even bowing your head and closing your eyes can be hypocritical, but anyway—I'm just sharing with you a fun fact as to why we pray with heads bowed and eyes closed.)

The point remains, don't pray out in the open to be seen by others. "Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward," Jesus says. If the recognition of man is what they want, then that's all they're going to get. "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door."

So a disciple of Jesus has followed Jesus' instructions, they go into their room to pray, and how do they pray? Well first of all, Jesus says, "Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words." This instruction is in the context of private prayer. Assuming you've gone into your room and closed the door, don't start praying like a pagan. There is a way to pray to your heavenly Father, and it's not the way the pagans pray to their gods.

Yes, we have the word Gentiles here, but pagan is synonymous with Gentile. The Greek word is ethnikos, and in addition to Gentile, it also means pagan or heathen. This is anyone who is a non-Jew. If you were not of the people of God descended from Abraham, you were a pagan. The same is true today in this way—if you are not of the people of God through Christ, you are a pagan.

What is a pagan? Basically a pagan is someone who worships the created rather than the Creator. Even those who claim to worship God may still actually be pagans. For example, a Mormon may claim to worship the Creator, but they worship a created Jesus. Literally, their Jesus is created. He is the literal offspring of God the father. A Muslim may claim to worship the Creator, but they worship a version of god created by Muhammad.

Other gods are obviously the creations of men—gods like Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon among the Greeks; Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva among Hindus; Yama, Mahakala, and Yamantaka among the Buddhists. These are not creators, they are created. They are idols wrought by man to do man's bidding.

Even atheists, agnostics, and other secular humanists worship gods. He worships the god of self. He worships the god of naturalism. He worships the god of materialism. His moral standard is whatever he wants it to be.

I have never met an atheist who wasn't spiritual. I've known atheists who were into various forms of Buddhism or Taoism or finding inner peace or getting in touch with nature or new ageism or reading horoscopes or communicating with the dead or dabbling in witchcraft or the occult. Atheists are some of the most spiritual people I've ever met. They just hate the God of the Bible.

The late atheist Carl Sagan was really into searching for extraterrestrial life. Now, you may have never thought of this before, but the search for extraterrestrial life is pagan. It is attempting to communicate with or hear from intelligences on a plain of existence beyond our own. Does that not also sound like the definition of a séance—in which the participants attempt to channel ghosts or evil spirits?

A few weeks ago, the Pentagon declassified several videos that show UAPs: Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. (This is the new term they're using to replace UFO, which is an Unidentified Flying Object. I've always said, "Yeah, I've seen a UFO. I saw a flying object I couldn't identify—hence, a UFO." But saying that is totally different than saying, "I believe in aliens from another planet.")

Anyway, I've watched these videos that were released by the Pentagon, and what they show are flying objects that cannot be identified, and what they do in the air defies physics. No one knows what they are, where they came from, or where they go. These are not video tricks. It's not a bug on the lens of a camera or anything like that. They are verified by our own military intelligence as airborne objects defying what we know of natural law.

A documentary film recently came out entitled Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: Contact Has Begun. This documentary is not another one of those films interviewing people who are speculating what's inside Area 51 or talking about a UFO they might have seen. This documentary includes real-life prestigious scientists who say we have already made contact with these extra-terrestrials, and they tell you how you can communicate with them, too.

One of the things that is stated in the documentary is that these extra-terrestrials—not aliens, but ETs, who exist and communicate on a whole other level—they are not a threat to our national security, they are not a threat to our planet, but they are a threat to how we view ourselves, theologically and philosophically. That doesn't mean we should fear these entities, the filmmakers say. It means we should want to learn more about them. As Carl Sagan said decades ago, "When we learn who they are, we will learn who we are."

Building a certain narrative, the documentary pushes the viewer to believe that we need more people to make contact with these entities. The film even uses the word "relationship." We need to have a "relationship" with them. Since these beings travel and communicate on a whole other quantum level, we also need to communicate with them on their level. How do we do that if their technology is so much more advanced than ours? We communicate with them—no kidding—through thought and meditation. The documentary tells the viewer how to make contact with extra-terrestrials using meditative practices and shares the testimonies of people, including educated scientists, who have accomplished this.

Friends, this is the occult. It's a satanic ritual. These are the same practices pagans have employed for centuries to communicate with their spirits. It doesn't matter that you now want to call your séance science. It's still demonic. I don't deny that they're making contact with something. I absolutely believe they are. But they're communicating with demons, not ALF. You might be able to reach across the void and communicate with these intelligences, too, and you may not like what you find there.

In Deuteronomy 18:10-14, the Lord says to His people, "There shall not be found among you… anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this."

A pagan priest can even look like a scientist. What we call sorcery might be modern medicine, and what we call divination might be an attempt to communicate with an extra-terrestrial intelligence. The point being: even secular naturalists pray. They pray like pagans. And what does Jesus say here? Don't pray like pagans.

Prayer is not a mindless, thoughtless enterprise. We're not trying to empty our thinking and become one with everything around us. Our union is with the Father. He is a person. Yes, He is God, but He is a person—the first person of the Trinity. And like any conversation you have with any person, prayer is talking to God.

Though God is invisible, He is not absent. He is with us when we pray. There must be substance to our prayers. Furthermore, there must be sense in the words that we pray. You don't utter nonsense when you're talking with a friend—at least I hope you don't. Maybe I need to ask your friends. Likewise, don't speak nonsense when you talk to God.

Jesus says here, "And when you pray, do no heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do," or in the King James, "as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words." What are these many words that we are talking about? When we read "empty phrases" or "vain repetitions" or "mindless speech," the Greek word here is battalogeo. This is the only place in the New Testament the word appears. It's actually a composite of two words: batta and logos, meaning "to speak." Literally, the word is "batta-speak."

The pagans would pray these prayers that were long on noise but short on meaning. They might pick one word or sound and repeat it over and over and over again, to remain in a state of prayer but not actually saying anything. The standard way of describing such prayers was "batta-speak." It's as if they were reciting "batta" over and over, and it just sounded like "batta-batta-batta-batta-batta-batta." (When I learned this, it reminded me of being at a baseball game, and saying, "Hey, batta batta batta batta batta, swing batta!") It's like the way we use the word "yadda." So this kind of prayer would be like saying, "Dear God, yadda yadda yadda."

Is there any kind of prayer in the church today that might resemble this kind of prayer that Jesus is telling us not to pray? Perhaps you thought of the practice we call "speaking in tongues." But what the Assemblies of God church or the Pentecostal church down the street calls "speaking in tongues" is not what the Bible calls "speaking in tongues." In the Bible, speaking in tongues is speaking other human languages. But the charismatic notion of speaking in tongues is nonsensical gibberish.

In his book Strange Fire, John MacArthur points out that the Pentecostal charismatic movement "radically changed their interpretation of the New Testament, manipulating the text in order to justify and preserve a counterfeit. Thus, the clear teaching of Scripture about languages was twisted in order to redefine tongues as nonsensical gibberish and thereby fit the modern phenomenon" (pg. 72).

My friends, if praying in gibberish is really how you want to pray, I can teach you how to do that. You will be able to pray with the best of the nonsensical preachers, like Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and Joyce Meyer. Are you interested? Here is a prayer following the charismatic practice of praying in tongues:

"She came in on a Honda. O my shin, O my knee. See my bow tie. Tie my bow tie."

And now I will interpret this prayer for you: "She came in on a Honda. O my shin, O my knee. See my bow tie. Tie my bow tie." There you have it. Praying in tongues.

Perhaps you saw the video that went viral a few months ago featuring televangelist Perry Stone, praying in tongues while he was playing on his cell phone. At first he prayed the gibberish I just demonstrated for you. Then he started going, "Yes, Lord, have your way, have your way, have your way." Then it looks like he gets a text message or something, for he starts playing on his phone, but he's still trying to speak in tongues, and he can't do two things at the same time. So what comes out of him is just obnoxious groaning. Then he goes back to mindless repetition again saying, "By the anointing, by the anointing, by the anointing, by the anointing."

Jesus called this kind of prayer pagan because that's what it is. The pagans pray just like this: batta batta batta batta batta. It's nonsense. No where in the Bible do you find any instruction to pray this way. Every prayer in the Bible—from Moses to Joshua, from David to Solomon, from Elijah to Elisha, from Isaiah to Ezekiel, from Jesus to Paul—every prayer makes sense. When Jesus teaches us how to pray, He teaches us a clear, articulate prayer. This gibberish that is called "speaking in tongues" is pagan. Don't pray like a pagan.

Verse 7 again: "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words." Ecclesiastes 10:14 says, "A fool multiplies words." Jesus goes on to say, "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him."

In other words, there's no need to drone on and on believing as the pagans do that the longer you're in a state of prayer, the greater the likelihood that God will hear you. If you are a Christian, God is with you. Of course He hears you. You are His child. And if you know that God knows all, then you know that God knows your needs even better than you know your needs. He who searches mind and heart knows what you're going to say before you say it.

Read Psalm 139.

That's a prayer we just read. All one hundred and fifty Psalms are prayers. If you need more examples on what to pray, there's literally a whole book of the Bible filled with them. Here David has said, "Before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." Your thoughts aren't nonsense, are they? (Again, I might have to ask your friends about that.) If your thoughts aren't nonsense, don't let your words be nonsense. Pray clear prayers to the Lord as He has taught us to pray.

Now, just because God knows what we are going to pray before we pray it, that's no excuse not to pray. Don't say to yourself, "Well if God knows what I'm going to ask for, then why do I even need to bother asking?" That's prideful. That's like saying, "Well, my wife is supposed to love me no matter what, so why do I need to talk to her?" You talk to her because you want to—because you love her.

Likewise, pray to God because you want to. Just like you should talk to your spouse because you want to, because you love your spouse, pray to God because you love Him. You cannot have a relationship with someone you never talk to, and so it is the same with God. To neglect to pray to God is selfish. It's prideful. It's to say you've got this whole thing figured out and you don't need God.

Read Isaiah 7.

Hawk Nelson Responds to Lead Singer's Apostasy, and Their Response is Terrible

James 1:5-8 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

Last week, I wrote an open letter to Jon Steingard, [former?] lead singer of the Christian rock band Hawk Nelson, who announced through a letter he posted on Instagram that he no longer believed in God. The band made a public statement a couple days ago, also via Instagram. (This seems to be the chosen medium to proclaim apostasy. Last year, evangelical celebrities Joshua Harris and Marty Sampson both announced on Instagram they were no longer Christians.)

In Jon's letter, he admitted he'd been faking it for some time. He presented various questions about Christianity he said no one could answer for him. They were very basic ideas, like, "Why does a loving God allow evil?" and, "Why did Jesus have to die?" The answers are very easy to find, and Jon, who grew up in church and was raised a preacher's kid, has no excuse for his ignorance.

The Bible answers these questions, of course, and the answers I gave Jon were backed with Scripture. But admittedly, the Bible is a big book and many deep doctrines can be complicated. Thankfully, we have great historic church confessions as helpful guides, like the Westminster Confession or the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Just a simple reading of a basic catechism (click here) answers what Jon claimed to be insurmountable quandaries.

But Jon is not interested in those answers. Otherwise, he would seek the Lord instead of making a public spectacle of himself on Instagram. The attention his letter received also brought a lot of traffic to my blog since I responded so early. I did tag Jon in my letter, and he replied a little over an hour after I published it. Via Twitter, he said the following:

"Hey, man. You seem really angry. I’m sorry—I clearly offended you deeply. Christian or not, I suspect we would have always seen things differently. I wish you the best man." —Jon Steingard

Let me make three points about this reply. First, notice what he did not say. He did not say, "Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions," because Steingard doesn't actually want answers to his questions. His questions about Christianity were more like implications than inquiries. He's pointing a finger at God to say, "You are the reason I don't believe!" But as I cited from Romans 9:20, "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this'?"

Secondly, I did not express anger, and if that was Jon's takeaway, I find it difficult to believe he actually read the letter. I clearly qualified my comments as stern yet affectionate and loving. He responded by poisoning the well, making it look like I'm full of bitterness whereas he wants "the best" for me. On the contrary, the bitterness is Steingard's. His letter was dripping with it.

Third, while I was not angry, I was most certainly offended. Steingard, by his own admission, lied to people (though he did not use the word "lied," nor did he confess to any wrongdoing). He used Christianity to make money though he himself did not believe it. He also admitted there are other false teachers just like him who are scared to "come out" as unbelievers. So of course I'm offended, and so should any Christian be regarding those who malign the faith (see Jude 1:4).

But even worse than you or me being offended, God is offended. He is not sitting on His throne over heaven and earth patting Steingard on the back and saying, "Oh, Jon, it's okay." Scripture says, "If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword" (Psalm 7:12). He will judge the godless, and Jon Steingard, by his own admission, is godless. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). Those who truly love Jon will warn him and tell him to repent.

But that's not what has been happening. According to the numerous news sources that have picked up the story of Jon Steingard's "deconversion," he has received mountains of support across the music landscape—including artists Jeremy Camp, Tenth Avenue North, and Sanctus Real. They aren't rebuking his apostasy. There's been no public call to repentance. He has renounced God, and professing-Christians are supporting him for it.

Jon has even responded to this "outpouring of support" by saying, "Thank you all for the love. I feel it more than ever."

Imagine that. A bunch of "likes" on Instagram is more meaningful than the love of Christ. Lord, have mercy.

Jon's supporters include his bandmates, the other members of Hawk Nelson. Just a couple days ago, they released a statement expressing approval for their lead singer. The following is that letter in bold. My comments will follow. (I also responded to this letter on today's podcast, which you can listen to here.)

"One of our best friends, one with whom we have walked, worked and lived alongside for 20+ years revealed some of his innermost feelings on his faith journey this past week.

"Our mission as Hawk Nelson has always been to inspire and encourage all people with the truth that God is FOR them and not against them. In that message's most simple and purest form, that THEY matter."

I would think that the mission of any Christian band would be first to exalt Christ and make Him known, wouldn't you agree? Jesus' mission on earth was not to "encourage all people" and tell them, "God is for you, not against you." On the contrary, Jesus told them they were under condemnation, and only He is the way of salvation.

In John 6:38-40, Jesus said, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

Jesus' mission was to do the will of His Father. Likewise, the Father's will should also be our greatest desire. His will, according to Jesus, is that we look upon Christ and believe in Him, and that we live according to the word He has spoken. Jesus said, "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:50).

But that's not Hawk Nelson's primary objective. In fact, they're primary purpose is a lie. Did you not see that in what they said? Again, they say, "Our mission as Hawk Nelson has always been to inspire and encourage all people with the truth that God is FOR them and not against them." Is that true? Is God for everyone and against no one?

God has said, "This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:2). We read in Psalm 34:15-16, "The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth."

As I stated in my letter to Jon Steingard, on the day of judgment, there are many who will say, "Lord, Lord, didn't we do many mighty works in your name?" And Jesus will reply, "Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you" (Matthew 7:21-23). Only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have received the favor of God. But Romans 8:9 says, "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him."

I care for you too much to tell you otherwise. But that is not the heart of Hawk Nelson. Their letter continues:

"So now we turn that truth towards one of our own. That God is still FOR Jon and he still matters. Why? Because that truth doesn't change just because we question it.

"How we treat one another when they are at a different stage in their journey based on their life experiences is part of a bigger conversation. We are called to love one another unconditionally, as God loves us. We should also encourage and challenge one another in our Faith, seeking truth."

Where does it say in the Bible, "We are called to love one another unconditionally, as God loves us"? The Bible does not say that God loves everyone unconditionally. In fact, that is a lie from the pit of hell.

"Whoa, what did you just say?"

I know. I'm aware this lie goes deep. Bear with me. This really is a life or death issue.

The term "unconditional love" comes not from the Bible. It was coined by a 20th century German psychologist, socialist, and atheist named Erich Fromm. In his 1956 book The Art of Loving, Fromm suggested that a father's love is conditional (contingent upon success, good behavior, etc.), but a mother's love is unconditional (not forfeited by failure or bad behavior). You may have heard this argument before. Now you know where it comes Fromm.

I agree that dad is often the disciplinarian and mom is the nurturer, but I disagree that this translates into "conditional" and "unconditional" love. Whether one accepts Fromm's categories, anyone should realize that just as a child needs both a father and a mother, love must be both tough and nurturing. But far be it from our world to have some common sense. Instead, our soft-men and feminist-dominated culture has gone the way of deciding discipline is harsh and unloving, and we're all supposed to be effeminate saps. The cultural theology has also come to demand this of God.

This is why my rebuke of Jon Steingard is seen largely as unloving, but a response like Hawk Nelson's is considered loving. However, it's Hawk Nelson's that is steeped in a secular cultural ideal, not biblical truth.



Now someone might say, "But wait, doesn't the Greek word agape literally mean 'unconditional love'?" I believe that view comes from C.S. Lewis in his book The Four Loves. It's true that agape is one of several Greek words for love, but it simply means to esteem or take pleasure in. It doesn't mean "unconditional love."

In Luke 11:43, Jesus said, "Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces!" Well, the Greek word there for "love" is agape. I think we would all agree that the love the Pharisees have was not unconditional. The reason they loved the best seats in the synagogues was precisely because of they wanted the benefits.

God's love is not unconditional. To point out the obvious, does God love birds the same way He loves people? Of course not. Jesus even said so: "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:26). If God's love was unconditional, He'd love birds and people the same.

But God's love for people is also not unconditional. The whole need for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ "presupposes a condition of estrangement between God and man," said Dr. R.C. Sproul. "The Bible says we are God's enemies by nature. This enmity is expressed in our sinful rebellion against Him. The common contemporary view of this is that we are estranged from God, but He is not estranged from us. The enmity is all one-sided. The picture we get is that God goes on loving us with an unconditional love while we remain hateful toward Him."

But the cross of Christ contradicts this understanding. "Yes, the cross occurred because God loves us. His love stands behind His plan of salvation," said Dr. Sproul. However, Christ did not sacrifice Himself on the cross to placate us. He sacrificed Himself as a propitiation to satisfy the wrath of God. "The effect of the cross was to remove the divine estrangement from us, not our estrangement from Him. If we deny God's estrangement from us, the cross is reduced to a pathetic and anemic moral influence with no substitutionary satisfaction of God."

God receives you on the condition that Christ has atoned for your sin. The Bible is clear that you receive this justification before God on the condition of faith (Romans 3:21-25). Again, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed int he name of the only Son of God" (John 3:18). Not everyone is under the love of God. Whoever does not follow Jesus remains under His wrath (John 3:36).

As Dr. Sproul has also said, "People aren't afraid of the wrath of God anymore because 'preachers' are out there telling people God loves them unconditionally." That is what Hawk Nelson has presented to Jon Steingard and to the millions of they're adoring fans. The letter continues:

"Are we the authors of our own salvation and eternity? Has God provided a way to salvation for us through Jesus? These are the questions that we each must ask and explore."

The answer to the first question is "No." The answer to the second question is "Yes." Hawk Nelson doesn't give even simple answers to questions they present. It does not even appear to me that they even presuppose those answers. They're so ambiguous and so vague, how can they claim their mission is to "inspire and encourage all people with the truth" when they don't speak truth?

Ephesians 4:15 instructs us to "speak the truth in love." If you love people truly, then you will tell them the truth. If you withhold the truth, that's not loving. Proverbs 13:24 says, "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." But Hawk Nelson continues to pedel a universal love of God that includes everyone:

"In the Bible (Romans 8:38) Paul writes, '…I am convinced that nothing can separate us from God's love… Neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.'"

That is the New Living Translation, which is one of the softer translations of the Bible (I recommend the ESV or NASB). That aside, who was Romans 8:38 written to? It was written to Christians. So the promise in Romans 8:38 is only true of believers. It is not true of unbelievers, like Jon Steingard. As I quoted earlier from this chapter, "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him" (verse 9). Hawk Nelson concludes their letter this way:

"The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' Ever thankful and grateful for how God has used this band, the music and the relationships and how He continues to do so."

The verse they quoted but didn't reference is from Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13. Yes, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But the whole point of Jon Steingard's letter is that he doesn't even believe God exists! Therefore, he is not saved.

Did Hawk Nelson not actually listen to to their friend? I typed out his entire letter and responded to him word-for-word. Yet some accused me of not listening at all. The following are some of the responses I received to my open letter:

"Don't be like this. Listen to people when they give reasons for their de-conversion. Don't be presumptuous... You accused Jon Steingard of lying, not just of having been formerly mistaken. You're assuming that you know his former intentions and experiences better than he did (or my intentions and experiences when I was a Christian for 20 years of my life)." —Chad (Arlington, VA)

Chad, I believe I read Jon's letter more intently than you did. He not only admitted that he was faking his Christianity and making money off of it though he didn't truly believe, he also said, "I am stunned by the number of people in visible positions within Christian circles that feel the same way as I do." For what his word is worth, many others are lying about their faith and making money from it.

Furthermore, do not neglect understanding who my audience is. I was not writing to a teenage kid in a youth group who is teetering between belief and unbelief, or to a mother whose child just died and she is struggling to see God in her circumstance. I was addressing an adult man who is almost my age, who is a famous Christian, who grew up in church, who is a preacher's kid married to a preacher's kid, and yet he does not know even basic Christian truths like why there's evil in the world or why Jesus had to die. That's inexcusable. How could he ever have called himself a Christian?

Jon Steingard never knew Jesus Christ. I know that because of what his letter said and because of what Jesus said. You were never truly a Christian either. You must repent of your sin and put your faith in Christ, or you will be judged with the godless at the final judgment (Revelation 21:8).

"[Jon] finds scripture to be fallible, so quoting verses at him won't work. I'm a believer, but I too take issue with scripture. The Bible may have 'divine inspiration' but it was ultimately written/rewritten by imperfect man. His concerns are valid and enforced by many modern Christians." —Kelcey (Dallas, TX)

His concerns are valid and enforced by many unbelievers pretending to be Christians, just like you. I will not stop sharing the gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). Unfortunately, you think God is so puny, man's will is more powerful than God's, and God has been unable to preserve His word. But what does the Scripture say? "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21).

"Gabriel, there is more then one way to God, and maybe Jon Steingard has found another way. God seeks you where ever you are regardless of religious ideals and doctrine. Instead of judgement you should be giving him support." —Kaelyn

You might be shocked to hear me say that I agree every road leads to God. But only one way leads to eternal life with God. Every other way leads to the judgment of God. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Jesus also said, "The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day" (John 12:48).

"You were very up-front about your 'stern' tone. I’m curious why you chose to use that tone rather than one of understanding. Your tone implies that you cannot fathom the idea that someone may have questions about God and our relationship to Him, which I’m sure you disagree with." —Bob (Atlanta, GA)

How does a "stern" tone lack understanding? First, understand what is being said; then, respond in the appropriate tone. What tone are you suggesting I take? In Matthew 23, Jesus called the Pharisees sons of hell producing more sons of hell and white-washed tombs full of dead men's bones. Both of those labels fit Jon Steingard. So if you think a tone that is more like Jesus would be the right approach, I agree.

"Your letter wasn't bad. There was a ton of biblical truth in there. However, you mentioned he could lead others astray. This as you know is impossible in light of God's sovereignty. As you rightly mentioned, what can he as a man do?" —Sean (Louisianna)

If it's impossible for a false teacher to lead others astray, what's the point of warning about false teachers? Even Jesus warned against false teachers. In Mark 8:15, He said, "Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." The sovereignty of God is not fatalism. I as a pastor have a responsibility to identify wolves, call them out, and defend the flock of God (Acts 20:29-30, Titus 1:9). I know that God is sovereign, and He works all things to the council of His will. And His will, as revealed in His word, is that pastors warn the flock against false teachers.

Again, I cannot reiterate passionately enough that the state of Jon Steingard's heart grieves me. I am frustrated by the words of Hawk Nelson who seem more concerned with their public image than saving dying souls. I write these things not to thump my own chest and proclaim my own goodness. I have no righteousness of my own but the righteousness of Christ He has graciously given to me. I am a sinner saved by grace through faith in Jesus. I write this so that you also may know Jesus truly, and you will be saved.

As I quoted from the beginning, if you lack wisdom, ask of God. He will give it to you. But ask in faith with no doubting. Know what God has said in His word and believe it. As Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him."

How NOT to Pray (Matthew 6:5-6)

The following is a sermon delivered on the Lord's Day, May 24, 2020, at First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, KS. The text was from Matthew 6:5-6 on the subject of how not to pray

5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 9 Pray then like this:

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen."

We are going to spend the next several weeks studying on how to pray. And it's interesting here that as Jesus begins His instructions to His disciples, He starts off by telling them how not to pray. As we go over this passage, we're going to divide this up into twos. We have how not to pray, followed by how to pray. And within how not to pray, we have this divided up into hypocrites and Gentiles. Under how to pray, we have the Lord's Prayer divided up into divine exaltation and personal petition.

We will spend most of our time today regarding Jesus' instructions on how not to pray like the hypocrites. Next week, we're going to consider how not to pray like the Gentiles. And then for the weeks that follow, we will concentrate on the parts of the Lord's prayer. What we want to glean from this as believers is a healthy practice of right, biblical, God-pleasing prayer.

When it comes to spiritual disciplines, you may be like me—prayer is just not one of those things that comes to you naturally. Of course it doesn't come to any one of us naturally—it is a supernatural enterprise to converse with the Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth. But when I say it doesn't come to you naturally, I mean that even as a Christian, as someone who is to be spiritually minded, prayer is just not the first thing you think about. You're not the kind of person who says, "I need to stop what I'm doing and pray. I need to get away from everyone for a little while and pray. I need to turn off the TV and the video games, and I need to pray. Kids, leave daddy alone for a little while. I'm praying."

Maybe it surprises some of you to hear me say I just don't believe I'm very good at praying. Recently our local radio station here in JC called me up and asked me to record daily prayers which they prayed every day for a month. All I did was pray the Scriptures. I opened up to the Psalms or a few places in the New Testament, and I would just pray what was on the page. The guy at the radio station who recognized what I was doing texted me back and said, "I think you plagiarized these prayers."

I was involved in a community production, and before we went out on stage, the director would ask me to pray. It was a privilege that I got to pray before every performance. Now, I knew that most of the cast were not believers, so I would put Scripture in my prayers without references, or I would just put the gospel in my prayer.

One night the director came up to me, and I thought she was going to tell me to tone it down a little bit. Maybe I was getting a little too preachy. But instead, she said, "Can we just have you come and pray before every show we do, even if you're not in it?"
   
I've been privileged to have been asked to pray before military funerals. Brother Dave asked me to pray at a couple of the Veterans motorcycle gatherings. I prayed at the governor's mansion a few years ago, when Sam Brownback was governor (I highly doubt Governor Kelly would ever ask me to come and pray). Prisoners at the jail and patients at the hospital have requested that I come and pray with them. You've probably asked me to come pray with you.

Yet I've just never thought of myself as someone who was very good at prayer. In fact, even when it comes to the act of prayer itself, I'm ashamed to say that more often than not, I hesitate to pray. Now, that's pride. I would certainly never pat myself on the back for that. When we refuse to pray or when we think we don't need to pray, that's prideful.

Perhaps you know 1 Peter 5:7 which says, "Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you." That's a pretty popular verse. You might have that as a magnet on your fridge. But consider what is said right before that: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your cares [your anxieties] upon Him, because He cares for you."

Humble yourself and take your concerns before the Lord. If you think that prayer is a last ditch effort—it's only a thing you do when all else fails—you have a wrong attitude about prayer. Prayer should actually be the first thing we do, not the last.

There's a famous quote attributed to Martin Luther who said, "I have so much to do today, I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." Yet for many of us—for most of us, I should say—the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In the most distressing time of prayer in His life, in which Jesus shed drops of blood, He came and found His disciples sleeping, and said to them, "Could you not pray with me for one hour?"

I'd have been that disciple. Like I said, most of the time, I hesitate to make prayer a priority. As a husband and as a father, I'm confessing to you that I've done a poor job leading my family in prayer. So you really have a poor prayer teacher standing in front of you today about to teach you about prayer. This is as pressing upon me as it might be to you. But we have a teacher who is even greater than I am. May the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth as we look into the word of God and ask the Lord to teach us how to pray.

In keeping with Jesus' instructions here, we're going to begin by learning how not to pray, and this is just as important as learning how to pray—so important, that Jesus decided to mention this first.


Do Not Be Like the Hypocrites

Notice that verse 5 begins, "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites." Remember that I said to you last week that everything we read in chapter 6 flows from verse 1: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Taking that theme, Jesus applies that to prayer: don't pray as to be seen by others. Pray to your Father in heaven. That's who you're talking to. Talk to Him, not everyone else around you.

A friend of mine told me about a church he grew up in, and he talked about how funny that pastor's prayers were. It sounded like he was talking to God, but he was using the pastoral prayer to talk to people in the congregation without mentioning their names.

It would be something like, "Oh, God, we know you don't like it when a woman comes into your church, O Lord, and her skirt just doesn't come down over her knees."

And my friend said, "Some of us younger ones, we'd start looking around trying to figure out which of the women came in today with a skirt that wasn't low enough."

Then the pastor would pray, "Lord, please forgive some of us when we think we can start cutting back on our tithe, and we think that no one will notice. You notice, O Lord. Can a man rob from God? Maybe we don't need to buy that 70 inch television. Maybe we can settle with the 50 inch, and give the rest to the building fund."

And my friend said, "Brother Bill had just been boasting the week before about his new TV, so we knew exactly who the pastor was talking about."

That's not praying to God. That's using prayer as gossip time. Many will use the promise of prayer to fish for gossip: "Hey, is there anything that I can be praying for you about?" Which, by the way, that's a fine question. We should pray for one another. I'm saying check your heart and be sure you're not using that question to treat yourself to some personal information.

Avoid using prayer to spread gossip. "Hey, Philip. Pray for Jack and Gretchen, they're having marriage problems." When it's something personal, whether it's a medical issue or a death in the family or a disagreement or someone's just going through a difficult time—make sure you check with the person first before you start sharing their prayer needs. Be able to say, "I've checked with so-and-so, and they told me they were okay with me telling you this." Especially check the intentions of your heart. Do you have a genuine concern for people? Do you desire that your church is a praying church? Or do you just want to be the guy or gal that everyone thinks is in the know? Do you want to impress people?

Are you using prayer to complain about others? You get some people together and you say, "Me and so-and-so are not getting along right now. I'm having a really difficult time with this. Can you pray for us right now?" It might look like a genuine request for prayer, but what you're actually doing is poisoning the well. You're trying to get people on your side of a conflict. If that's your heart, then in your prayer, you are blaspheming God and taking His name in vain.

Now, I want to reiterate—there's nothing wrong with asking people to pray for you, even if you're in a difficult trial with someone else. The point I'm making is the point Jesus is making: examine yourself and check your heart. What is your motivation? Is this about the Lord, or is this about yourself? Do you want the name of God to be exalted? Do you want the person you're praying for to excel? Or do you just want other people to think you're the exceptional one?

Once again, "When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites." May your heart's desire be for God. He should be the very focus of our prayers. If you want to have a healthy practice of prayer, desire God. Don't be like the hypocrites who look to themselves in prayer. If your endgame in prayer is to glorify yourself rather than glorify God, that is going to become evident outwardly as well.

Do Not Pray to Be Seen By Others

Consider the next part of verse 5: "For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others." Now, the key part here is that they do this in order to "be seen by others." Jesus is not condemning public prayer. In 1 Timothy 2:8, the Apostle Paul says, "I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands." The men in the church are to set an example for prayer, and they do this by leading prayers openly. The keep their hands holy, meaning that they way they live is consistent with the way they pray. When a man leads an open, public prayer, people hear a man who is consistent in his speech and in his actions.

Public prayer, praying aloud in the church, leading prayer at prayer gatherings or in Bible study, leading prayer for your family—these are all good things. So Jesus is not prohibiting public prayer. Once again, he's confronting a heart issue. The hypocrites pray in the synagogues and at the street corners not to glorify God, but so they may be seen by others.

Prayer was a very common practice among the Jews. Twice a day, at sunrise and at sunset, the Jews would pray the Shema, which is Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This is the passage that begins, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." They prayed that section of Scripture twice a day.

Then there were public prayers in the synagogue and at the temple using a liturgy—meaning that these prayers were written out, they were traditional prayers, everyone knew them, and everyone recited them. Then there was the tefillah, a series of benedictions recited two or three times a day. Then there were the offering prayers, which were at 9am, noon, and 3pm. This practiced was derived from a legalistic rendering of Psalm 55:17, "Evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice." We see in Daniel 6:10 that Daniel prayed three times a day.

In Acts 3, Peter and John went into the temple for the hour of prayer at the ninth hour, when everyone else was going to pray. It was during one of those offering prayers when they healed the lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate. There was also a prayer called the minhah that coincided with the time of the daily burnt offering in the temple. You had mealtime prayers, and then there were spontaneous prayers after the meal was over. So as you can see, prayer was a regular practice for the Jew.

The problem was that it had all become very mechanical. The people did it, but they didn't mean it. This was the very issue that Isaiah warned about in Isaiah 29:13: "This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me." Jesus quotes this passage in Matthew 15:8. The Jews were a ridiculously religious people, but it wasn't real. Prayer for the sake of prayer is not good.

In 2006, the New York Times published an article entitled, "Long Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer." The study was conducted over a period of 10 years and involved more than 1,800 patients. And the basic conclusion to the story was this: prayer doesn't work. According to the study, prayer by strangers had no effect on the recovery time of patients undergoing heart surgery, whether they knew they were being prayed for or not.

I remember when the results of the study were released, I was in Christian radio at the time. Just about every atheist on the internet fell all over themselves, touting what they claimed was scientific proof that prayer doesn't work. If atheists had a bible, they'd have entered the study as canon. I mean, it was the greatest pseudo-science since Darwinism. I still get this bunk study thrown in my face 14 years later.

There was an internet atheist who made me a hobby-horse at the time. He went by the name Zero (we actually met in person once). On his blog, he wrote an entire article calling me out, saying that this study concluded once and for all just how foolish Christians like Gabe can be, praying to their non-existent sky-fairy. He even turned my name into an acronym—GABE: Grasping at Any Biblical Excuse.

Well, I responded to him and said, "Did you read who was actually involved in this study?"

And he said, "Yes, and everything was verified. But you Christians are so anti-science and anti-data, it wouldn't matter if Einstein conducted the study, you still wouldn't accept it."

I replied, "No, I'm not talking about the organization who conducted the study or even if it was peer-reviewed. I mean did you look and see who in the study was actually praying for these patients?" Those who were praying consisted of a contemplative Catholic order called the Teresian Carmelites, and a Catholic monastery and convent, both of whom deny the gospel, that we are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone. There was also a New Thought organization called Unity, who denies the Trinity of God, and that Jesus is God incarnate.

He said to me, "I suppose you're going to say those groups don't count."

And I simply told him this: "John 14:6, Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father but by me.' If anyone prays by any other means than through faith in Jesus, or if anyone thinks that by virtue of their own merit they have earned a place before the Father, God does not listen to their prayers."

How do we know God does not hear a Muslim's prayer? Because they reject that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It's even written in the Koran 4:171, "Exalted is [Allah] above having a son." How do we know that God does not hear the prayer of an orthodox Jew? Because they likewise reject that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

How do we know that God does not listen to the prayer of a Jehovah's Witness? Because they believe that Jesus is not God but the archangel Michael. How do we know that God does not listen to the prayer of a Mormon? Because they believe in a completely different Jesus who is the literal brother of Satan and not the Creator of all things. God does not receive every prayer, no matter how solemn or religious the ceremony the prayer came from.

I went on to tell Zero the Atheist, "Even if study had concluded that the patients who were prayed for recovered faster than those who received no prayer, I still would not have received the study as legitimate." In Matthew 4:7 Jesus said, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test," and here, He says do not pray to be seen by others or you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. So if you don't mind, I'm going to continue believing what the Bible says about prayer and not the New York Times.

I think you and I would agree that the Apostle Paul was more righteous, more humble a man than anyone in this room. He said in 2 Corinthians 12 that a messenger of Satan was sent to torment him, and three times he prayed to be relieved of it. How did the Lord answer him? "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness."

Now, you might look at that and say, "Why didn't God answer Paul's prayer?" But He did answer his prayer! He answered Paul with the greatest answer—Himself. Jesus answered Paul's prayer with Himself. And Paul said, "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

My friends, if you think God does not answer prayer, because you did not get the answer that you wanted, could it be that the answer you rejected was Christ Himself? As we read from Psalm 34 this morning, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."

The Bible tells us that there are other conditions for prayer. In Isaiah 1:15, the Lord said to wayward Israel, "When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen." Unless what? Isaiah 66:2, "But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word."

Psalm 66:18 says, "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." In 1 Peter 3:7, we are told strife in a marriage hinders our prayers. James 1:6 says that one who doubts will not receive from the Lord. James 4:3 says, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."

Just consider 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says, "If my people who are called by my name." Brothers and sisters in the Lord, followers of Jesus Christ, that's you and me. That's not the United States of America, as this verse is often applied to. That's anyone who bears the name of a son or a daughter of God, adopted into His family by faith in Christ.

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways." So what do we have in our prayers? We have being humble before God, seeking God, turning from anything that is against God. He says, "Then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal—only then will I heal their land."

The hypocrites are not humble, they do not seek God's glory but they're own, and they do not turn from their wicked ways because they think they are righteous. That's the whole reason they put on the show that they do when they pray—because they want everyone else to see how righteous they are. "Truly, I say to you," Jesus says, "they have received their reward."

Instead of the public places to be seen by others, Jesus tells you where you should go to discipline yourself that your prayer habits would be about God and not yourself.

Pray to Your Father Who is In Secret

Look finally at verse 6: "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Now, don't let these warnings about hypocritical prayer, praying to be seen by others, or even the conditions for genuine prayer hinder you from praying at all. You might be thinking, "Goodness, there's just so much here. All those qualifications. How can I be certain that I'm doing it right?"

My friend, it's very simple—seek God. Do you want to be with God? Then talk to Him. "But God is so holy and I am not!" You're right, you're not. But as I said to you when we were going through our study in Galatians, what God demands of you, He gives to you. Jesus said in the previous chapter that your righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees. He said, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." If you are a follower of Jesus, then you have that righteousness He's demanded of you. You have the righteousness of Christ.

If you still ask, "But how can I be certain that He is listening to me?" Because Jesus said that He would. John 14:13 says, "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Now, that doesn't mean you ask for a Ferrari in Jesus' name and it will be given to you, because remember, our request in the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray is "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." If we ask God that His will be done in our lives to the praise of His glorious grace, it will be done. Jesus has promised us this.

We read in 1 John 2:1 that "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one." An advocate is a representative who speaks favorably on behalf of another. So think about that—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is speaking favorably of you before the Father.

We read in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time." Romans 8:26-27 says that the Spirit of God "helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

So we have the Son of God mediating for us. We have the Spirit of God interceding for us. Even when we don't know what to pray for as we ought, we haven't lost touch with God. He's still holding on to us. He is a loving Father. Pray to Him.

An Open Letter to Jonathan Steingard, Lead Singer of Hawk Nelson

Dear Jon

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Gabriel, pastor of a Baptist church in Junction City, KS. We have never met, but I have followed the band Hawk Nelson for a long time. Before you joined, I was in Christian radio and hosted a Christian rock program that aired all across the Midwest. I've done interviews with the band and hung out backstage with Daniel Biro and Jason Dunn. I emceed Hawk shows when they played various gigs in Kansas, including Dodge City and Wichita. I was also that guy who drove the band from the venue to the hotel.

I read the story you posted on your Instagram this week about leaving the Christian faith, and my heart is grieved. More than grieved, I fear for you—I'm afraid for your soul, for your wife, and for your children, and my concern extends to the many you will lead astray by your comments. You say, "I hope that my openness and transparency can be an encouragement to... you, if you feel the same." So you are not simply out to tell your story. You want to lead people, if possible, out of saving faith.

It is out of love for you, for your family, and for your fans that I am responding, and I am responding openly since the comments you have made were open. I have been careful to represent your remarks accurately, which you will read in bold. My comments follow in regular type. Consider this as if we were sitting down and having a conversation.

In addition to being a pastor, I am the oldest of six, and my siblings—many of whom are also not walking with the Lord—will tell you that I am a stern older brother. That is the way that I will also respond to you. My comments may hit hard, but this is a serious matter, and I am not going to pull my punches. Let us begin.

"This is not a post I ever thought that I would write, but now I feel like I really need to. I've agonized over whether to say this publicly, and if so, how to do it, but now I feel that it's less important how I do it, and more important that I do it. So here goes.

"After growing up in a Christian home, being a pastor's kid, playing and singing in a Christian band, and having the word "Christian" in front of most of the things in my life—I am now finding that I no longer believe in God.

"The last few words of that sentence were hard to write. I still find myself wanting to soften that statement by wording it differently or less specifically—but it wouldn't be as true.

"The process of getting to that sentence has been several years in the making. It didn't happen overnight or all of a sudden. It's been more like pulling on the threads of a sweater, and one day discovering that there's no more sweater left."

You use the analogy of a sweater, which comes up occasionally in your letter. I would liken this less to pulling on the thread of a sweater and more to pulling the thread out of a Christian t-shirt. You stood in front of audiences in Christian attire, but your faith was only on the surface. Underneath was a young man who didn't truly believe in God. You may have thought you did, but it will become more evident as we continue through your comments that you never knew Him. I hope you and your audience see that, and that you come to true repentance and faith.

"I have been terrified to be honest about this publicly for quite some time, because of all that I thought I would lose. I'm still scared, but I'm writing about this now for a few reasons.

"Firstly, I simply can no longer avoid it. Processing this quietly felt right when I simply had doubts, but once they solidified into a genuine point of view, it began to feel dishonest not to talk about it."

You seem to be driven by what you feel, not what is true. You think you're being honest now, yet you are not willing to admit that you were being dishonest and lying to everyone before now. As for being terrified, you should be, for "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).

"Secondly, I have had private conversations with trusted friends about my doubts, and discovered to my absolute shock that they are shared by nearly every close friend my age who also grew up in the church. I am stunned by the number of people in visible positions within Christian circles that feel the same way as I do. Like me, they fear losing everything if they're open about it. I hope that my openness and transparency can be an encouragement to them, and to you, if you feel the same."

To be honest, I also hope that your openness exposes these hypocrites who are using the name of Jesus to profit themselves but do not actually believe in Him. Better still, as my wife expressed on our podcast, I hope your comments make those false teachers realize that they've been hypocrites, they will repent of their sin, and they will truly love God and the people of God and stop putting on airs.

Perhaps you wince at being called a hypocrite, but that is what you are. Have you not read the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:1, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them"? Is that not what you and your false teaching friends have been doing? You've been pretending to be Christians when you were not. Jesus says to Pharisees, "For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness" (Matthew 23:27).

You believe you are being transparent. But you are merely rolling back the stone and revealing that you've been full of deadness the entire time. You are still dead in your sins, and you have never been saved.

"Thirdly, I've got a whole lot less to lose now. The band isn't playing shows or making new music at the moment, and we've all found other work and careers to focus on for the time being. In order to make sure I'm able to keep providing for my family, that had to be the case before I could be totally honest—and that fact is one of the issues I have with the church and Christian culture in general."

This was simply an astonishing statement. It was okay to lie to everyone when that lie was profitable. But now that you've found other means of income, you say you're ready to be honest? What a manipulative lie, Jon! You're throwing what you call "Christian culture in general" under the bus as if it was all someone else's fault, but you were part of the fakery you say is to blame.

Consider carefully these words in Romans 2:1-5. The Spirit says, "Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed."

"So if you're someone who follows me because of Hawk Nelson, and my involvement in Christian music, you are probably thinking, "Wait—were you lying to me this whole time? Were you just pretending to be a Christian? What about all those songs you wrote? Did you mean those?"

"The short answer is that I was not lying. I did believe those things at the time. I have been pulling on the threads of the sweater, but there was still some sweater left back then."

No, you were lying then and you're lying now, leading others into darkness and unbelief. You may not have been aware that you were lying when you called yourself a Christian. You may have believed the lie yourself. But it was still a lie. Permit me to use a better example than your sweater analogy.

Let's say you vow to your wife on your wedding day that you will love her, to have and to hold from this day forward, as long as you both shall live, 'til death do you part. But five years later you no longer feel in love and you want to get a divorce. Did you lie on your wedding day?

The answer is yes. You lied.

You may have felt like you were telling the truth—you really, really meant it—when you said, "Our love is the greatest love that's ever been loved and I will always love you!" But you made a life-long commitment, and if you don't keep that lifelong commitment, you didn't really mean it. You responded to fleeting feelings and convenient circumstances, but you weren't really committed to the person or to your vow.

Following Jesus is more than a lifelong commitment. It's the promise of eternal life, sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. You don't step in and out of eternity. You either have it, or the life you claimed you had was not eternal. If you did not have it, your "I love Jesus!" moment was nothing but a passing opinion. If you say you love Jesus with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, then you will affirm that by living for Him to the end. Jesus said, "The one who endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

If you do not make it to the end, then you are of the rocks or of the thorns, as Jesus told in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23). You may have heard the message of God's kingdom and immediately received it with joy (v.20), yet if you were not rooted in Christ, you either whither away, or the cares of this world choke the word and it proves to be unfruitful (v.22). Had you truly been rooted in Christ, you'd have produced fruit and endured until the harvest.

In 1 John 2:19, we are told, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."

"So what did this sweater-thread-pulling process look like then? Okay, let's get into it.

"I grew up in a loving Christian home. My dad was a pastor (and still is), and as far back as I can remember, life was all about the church. It was our community. It was our family.

"It feels important to point out that church wasn't something we went to once a week—it was more like something we came home to as often as possible, after bravely venturing out into "the world" when necessary. It wasn't a part of our life. It was our life.

"When you grow up in a community that holds a shared belief, and that shared belief is so incredibly central to everything, you simply adopt it. Everyone I was close to believed in God, accepted Jesus into their hearts, prayed for signs and wonders, and participated in church, youth groups, conferences, and ministry. So I did, too.

"I became interested in music, began playing and singing on worship teams, and started leading worship at church and youth events. Even then I remember being uncomfortable with certain things. Praying in public always felt like some kind of weird performance art. Emotional cries such as "Holy Spirit, come fill this place," always felt clunky and awkward leaving my lips. A youth conference I attended encouraged every teen to sign a pledge that they would "date Jesus" for a year. It felt manipulative and unsettling to me. I didn't sign it."

In none of your growing-up experience do you mention being taught what the Bible says. It sounds like you were loaded with a lot of seeker-sensitive, Christian-culture gimmicks and emotionally-driven charismaticism. Of course none of that stuff is lasting, and it's hardly ever meaningful. I've been preaching against exactly this kind of thing my whole pastoral ministry.

We do not come to faith by witnessing signs and wonders, for those signs had their place and they have  accomplished their purpose (Hebrews 1:1-2, 2:1-4). The children of Israel who saw the Red Sea part and heard the voice of God from the mountain all perished in the wilderness. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." In John 6:29, Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

We do not believe by feelings-based emotionalism, which surely you understand is subjective and fleeting. We believe by faith in the Son of God, and faith comes through the Word of God. If the Word of God was not central to your faith, it's of little wonder why you don't have any.

"At the age of 20, I joined Hawk Nelson and began touring with the band. It was a blast. Our music wasn't overtly "Christian," but as time went on we became more outspoken about our faith in our music. To be fair, I was one of the loudest voices pushing for that shift, because I believed it would lead to more success in the Christian music world."

I get that Hawk Nelson was part of an industry more than a ministry. As much as I loved the Christian music I grew up around, I'm not naive. But it sounds like here you were pushing to be more "Christian" because it would make more money. Is that right?

"When I became the lead singer and main songwriter in 2012, this shift was fully realized. We went from singing songs like "Bring 'Em Out" to songs like "Drops in the Ocean." Google the lyrics—the difference is not subtle.

"Even through this shift, there were still many things about Christian culture that made me uncomfortable. In fact, the list was growing. There were things that just didn't make sense to me.

"If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why is there evil in the world?"

Have you not read? It's because of the sin of mankind (see Genesis 3).

"Can he not do anything about it? Does he choose not to?"

He is doing something about it. That's what the Bible is about: how God through the Son, Jesus Christ, is reconciling "to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:20).

"Is the evil in the world a result of his desire to give us free-will?"

Where is "his desire to give us free-will" mentioned in the Bible? Our will never supersedes God's will. "Consider the work of God: who can make straight what He has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other" (Ecclesiastes 7:13-14).

He will be glorified in all that comes to pass, both in the salvation of the godly and in the destruction of the ungodly. It's not about our will; it's about God's will. What man means for evil, God means for good (Genesis 50:20).

"Ok then, what about famine and disease and floods and all the suffering that isn't caused by humans and our free-will?"

Romans 8:20 says that all of creation is under a curse, subjected to futility because of the sinfulness of man. "Famine and disease and floods and all the suffering" may not directly be the result of someone sinning, but they exist because of the sin of man. Come on, man! This is Genesis 3! It's literally at the beginning of your Bible.

"If God is loving, why does he sent people to hell?"

He doesn't send anyone He loves to hell. He sends people to hell who "are condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:18), "who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians 2:12).

Those whom God loves love Him. Surely you have heard this from the time you were in Sunday school! "In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins... We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:10, 19).

Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one" (John 10:13-15, 27-30).

You demonstrate throughout your letter that you have never known the voice of the Shepherd, nor have you followed Him. You are still lost. If you do not repent and follow Jesus, then on the day of judgment, you will hear Jesus say, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). Not, "Well, I knew you for a time." He never knew you at all. You do not know Jesus, and He does not know you.

"My whole life people always said, "You have to go back to what the Bible says."

"I found, however, that consulting and discussing the Bible didn't answer my questions, it only amplified them.

"Why does God seem so [ticked] off in most of the Old Testament, and then all of a sudden he's a loving father in the New Testament?"

The key word in your question is "seem." Your perspective is a mess. God is a God of love, but that's not all He is. He is also a righteous judge who feels indignation every day (Psalm 7:11). He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but will by no means clear the guilty (Exodus 34:6-7).

To those who love God and did the will of the Father, Jesus will give His kingdom that was prepared for them from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34), but the cursed who did not do the will of God will depart into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angles (v.41). Jesus is a loving Savior who will deliver His own into a glorious, perfect kingdom (Revelation 21:1-4), but He will cover His sword with the blood of the wicked whom He will strike down in judgment (Revelation 19:11-16).

Notice that these references are from both the Old and the New Testament. You read about God's love and His justice throughout the whole Bible. The God on the left side of the book is the same God on the right side of the book. Jesus was not absent at the judgment of Sodom, nor was He in disagreement. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit will all be present and will be glorified in the eternal kingdom in which the redeemed will rejoice forever.

"Why does he say not to kill, but then instruct Israel to turn around and kill men, women, and children to take the promised land?"

Murder is killing unjustly. What is the penalty for murder? Death (Exodus 21:12). The sixth commandment is not a blanket prohibition on any and all kinds of killing. But if from a wicked heart you destroy a life with contempt for a person who has been made in the image of God—this is condemnable sin (see also Jesus' words in Matthew 5:21-22 and 43-48).

God told Abraham in Genesis 15 that He would deliver Abraham's children from affliction. He also said that He would give Abraham's children the land that belonged to the Amorites when their wickedness was complete (v.16). So God would save the Israelites from captivity and give them a promised land, and He would use the Israelites to punish the people of that land for the full measure of their sin.

Before they were about to inherit the promised land, Deuteronomy 9:4-5 says to Israel, "Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,' whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that He may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

Likewise, there is a day that is coming on which Jesus will be "revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed" (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

No one is saved because they had a righteousness of their own. Rather, the ones who are saved are saved because "He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills. You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory?" (Romans 9:18-23).

"Why does God let Job suffer horrible things just to.... win a bet with Satan?!"

What a puny view of God you have. It's no wonder you don't believe in Him. I wouldn't believe in your god either!

Who taught you the Bible? You've missed the whole point of the book of Job. What Job endured was so Job would see God, and when he did, he was fully satisfied, even with the calamity he went through (also the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing (Job 1:22, 2:10), but you are!

God is in the heavens and He does all that He pleases (Psalm 115:3). He tests whomever He wills, and when He afflicts His children, He does so in love, that we may share in Christ's sufferings, we are made to be more like Him, and we rely not on ourselves but on Him who raises the dead (Psalm 119:50, 71; Romans 8:28-30; 2 Corinthians 1:8-9).

Hebrews 12:5-6 says, "And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.' It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons."

But if, Jon, you do not endure, then you demonstrate that you were never really a son of God. Instead, you are a son of Satan (John 8:44). Even in the Old Testament, God tested Israel that it would be known who truly loved God and who were the children of the devil (Deuteronomy 8:2, 13:3).

"Why does he tell Abraham to kill his son (more killing again) and then basically say 'just kidding! That was a test.'"

Because once again, He tests whomever He wills. Isaac did not die, and no where in the Bible does God receive a sacrifice of children (apart from the giving of His own Son). The whole point was so that Abraham would see and that we would see, "'The Lord will provide'; as it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided'" (Genesis 22:14). God provided the ram in place of Isaac, and from the line Isaac would come the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

Do you not know that visible from the very spot where Abraham made his altar, you would have been able to see the place where the Son of God would be sacrificed to atone for sins 2,000 years later? God decreed the way of salvation, and He provided the means to that end—the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Why does Jesus have to die for our sins (more killing again)? If God can do anything, can't He forgive without someone dying? I mean, my parents taught me to forgive people—nobody dies in that scenario."

Because, "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23), and, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22).

You don't think sin is that big a deal, and you have little to no understanding of the holiness of God. The Bible says His eyes are so holy that He cannot even look upon our sin (Habakkuk 1:13). God is so righteous, and your sin is so awful, the penalty for your sin is death. To be cleansed of this injustice that you have committed against Holy God, it takes the sacrifice of His righteous Son, Jesus Christ, who gave His life in the place of mine.

Yes, when people wrong you, you must forgive them. But when you forgive, you do not cover over the injustice that was done. You may have borne the offense, but can you clear the guilty of their guilt? When we put faith in Christ, Jesus has borne our guilt in His body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). He gave His life as an atoning sacrifice so that we who believe in Him are cleared of any offense, and we are justified before God. We are able to stand before Him as righteous because of the righteousness of Christ. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

Continually, you are pointing the finger at God, claiming that you know better than He does. Will not God be completely vindicated in wiping you out for this arrogant display of self-righteousness against the Creator of heaven and earth? You are a puny man. Stand in fear of Him before His righteous judgment falls on you.

"I was raised to believe that the Bible was the perfect Word of God. Sure, it was written by human beings, but those people were divinely inspired—and we can consider the words they wrote to be the Word of God.

"I began to have questions and doubts about that. It seemed like there were a lot of contradictions in the Bible that didn't make sense. I don't want to get too deep in the weeds here so I'll leave the details for another time."

Fine. Then I'm content with this simple answer: You're wrong, the Bible is right. It was right before you showed up to have your doubts about it. It will be right long after you're gone. As the Scripture says, "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever" (1 Peter 1:24-25).

"Suffice it to say that when I began to believe that the Bible was simply a book written by people as flawed and imperfect as I am—that was when my belief in God truly began to unravel.

"During a vacation to Mexico with my wife's family, I had a revealing conversation with my father-in-law, who is also a pastor. Like my dad, he is a loving father. He is patient and sincere, and believes in God with all his heart.

"I was asking about a verse in 1 Timothy that seems really oppressive of women. It indicates that women shouldn't be in church leadership, shouldn't teach men, and shouldn't wear their hair in braids. To me, that seemed less like the message of the loving God that most Christians believe in now, and more like the ideas that would have been present in the culture at the time... a male-dominated society where women were treated less like equals and more like property."

Do you even know what "oppressive" means? Because women can't be pastors—like they also cannot be husbands or fathers—you read that as oppression and that women are property? Don't you think you're being overly dramatic? Does not the Scripture say that women are fellow heirs of salvation with men, and that men and women together are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28, 1 Peter 3:7)?

Why is it that you think the Apostle Paul was the one who was affected by the culture of his time to write the way that he did, but you are not being affected by the secular culture of your time to read the Bible the way that you do? What makes you so much smarter than the writers of holy Scripture, which was not "produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit"? (2 Peter 1:21)

Paul gives his reasoning for his instructions regarding the roles of men and women in the church. He does not appeal to the culture. He appeals to the creation order going all the way back to the book of Genesis. Watch this 90-second video if you truly want to understand.

"My father-in-law asked me if I had been reading the King James Version—because he felt that King James had put his own spin on a lot of things, and that version couldn't fully be trusted.

"'You have to go back to the original Greek,' he said.

"This is something I've heard a lot over the years. I asked him, 'So it sounds like you believe that modern translations can't fully be trusted, because they are human, flawed, and imperfect? I am simply taking that thought to its next natural conclusion—that the original Greek is also human, flawed, and imperfect, and also can't fully be trusted.'

"He replied, 'Well, if you believe that, what do you have left?'

"I said, 'Exactly.'"

Given that your representation of your father-in-law is correct, he's not a very good apologist. There are plenty of answers to the questions you've raised. In an internet age and with the plethora of books that are available, there's simply no excuse for your ignorance.

You and I are able to read the same Bible, but you don't understand it because the naturally-minded man cannot understand spiritual things. The Apostle Paul wrote in the Spirit of Christ, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God... The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 1:18, 2:14).

If you were saved, you would have rejoiced at the message of the cross. But because at present you are a man who is perishing, you have never rejoiced to hear this gospel and believe it. Instead, you have mocked it.

"Once I found that I didn't believe the Bible was the perfect Word of God—it didn't take long to realize that I was no longer sure he was there at all. That thought terrified me. It sent me into a tailspin. The implications of that idea were absolutely massive.

"I began to ask myself, 'What now?'

"Over the past year, I've occasionally mentioned publicly my struggles with depression. This is what really kicked that off.

"What do you do when the rug is pulled out from under your feet? When you find yourself no longer believing the thing at the core of how you see yourself and see the world? What do I teach my own children? If I'm honest about this, will all my Christian friends abandon me? Will this alienate me from my family? Will this leave me with nothing?

"Those are the questions that led me into a very dark place for a while."

So you began to realize you don't believe in God, and you became depressed and life became meaningless? You don't see the connection? If there is no God, what else is there? Your life is nothing but a cosmic accident and you are heading no where in a purposeless universe that doesn't care about you or the people you love. The feelings and emotions you have toward your family are just brain gas. Of course that's depressing!

"I feel like I've mostly emerged from that dark place now—because I've discovered that life really does go on. I have trusted friends that know this about me, and love me anyways. My family is showing me incredible love and support, even though I know this grieves them. While I know I can no longer stand on stage and in good conscience sing songs like 'Drops In the Ocean,' I no longer fear losing my place in Christian music. I know this means giving it up voluntarily.

"I'm ready to be transparent and open."

Right, when you no longer have the record deal and touring schedule to lose. How brave of you.

"I think that 'open' part is key.

"I'm open to the idea that God is there. I'd prefer it if he was. I suspect if he is there, he is very different than what I was taught. I know my parents pray that God reveals himself to me. If he's there, I hope he does.

"Until then—I feel like the best thing I can do is be honest."

It's not honest. You continue to lie and believe lies. You lead others astray, you lead your wife astray, and you will be leading your children astray. What you are saying and what you are doing has eternal ramifications. You are literally playing with the fire of God's judgment. And you think that's "honest"? I tremble to think about what will happen to you if you do not repent.

I do agree with you on one thing—the God of the Bible is very different than what you have been taught. I hope you come to know Him, because He is incredibly loving and gracious. How much space could I take up talking about all the wonderful mercies God has shown to me!

I was a sinful, pitiful, wretch who used others to benefit myself. Like you, I wore the Christian t-shirt. I knew how to put on a show, too. But God convicted me of my sin. He broke me and showed me how fake I was. I knew that what I deserved was judgment. But what He showed me was mercy. I am forgiven. I have eternal life with Christ my Savior. He is a Savior to all who humble themselves, who repent of their sin, who follow Him, and you will receive the righteousness of God.

Jon, you have never had faith in God, so stop saying that you did. The faith you say that you once had feels so empty to you because it was as purposeless and as useless as the universe you see yourself in now.

Psalm 92:5-8 says, "How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever. But you, O Lord, are on high forever."

"Stepping away from belief in God has felt like a loss in some ways—but it's felt like freedom in others. Jess and I both always had this sense that we weren't doing enough of the things we were supposed to do as Christians. We didn't enjoy going to church. We didn't enjoy reading the Bible. We didn't enjoy praying. We didn't enjoy worship. It all felt like obligation, and our lack of enthusiasm about those things always made us feel something was wrong with us.

"Now I don't believe anything was wrong with us. We simply didn't believe—and we were too afraid to admit that to ourselves. So in that sense, we have a tremendous sense of relief now.

"I am hoping that writing this contributes to that relief. As I've processed these thoughts and feelings over the past year or so, I've avoided writing online about matters of faith. I didn't want to pretend to believe anything I didn't believe—but I also didn't want to rock the boat.

"I am not sure how much this will rock the boat. I don't know if this will surprise anyone. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that I've finally worked up the courage to tell my story. To share my deepest truth. And that feels like freedom, too.

"It's going to be 72 degrees here in San Diego today. The sun is shining. It's a beautiful day. No sweater needed."

Your Christian t-shirt is gone, and what is beneath is a naked man who has never truly loved God but has pleasure in unrighteousness. I pray you recognize your errors and repent, before it's too late—for you, for your wife, and for your children.

Jesus said, "For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:17-19).

Jon Steingard responded to this letter shortly after it was published. Hawk Nelson replied to Jon Steingard's letter with a public statement of their own. Read both in part 2 of this article by clicking here.