ENGAGING THE WORLD LIKE JESUS DID

Pharisees by James Tissot

Today, Christians tend to relate to the world either as separatist Christians or as cultural Christians. Neither way works well and these approaches have been seen before.
Pharisees insistently enforced rigid obedience to God’s Law and developed additional traditions in order to protect Judaism against the impact of Greek culture. Pharisees held on to their Jewish identity at the expense of relevancy, (Matthew 15:8-14).
Sadducees contrarily clutched relevancy at the expense of their identity, seeking to assimilate with culture, even if it meant surrendering some doctrine. Resurrection was objectionable to the Greeks so the book of Acts reveals that Sadducees threw it out, Acts 17:3; Acts 23:7-8; Matthew 22:23. Into this religious climate Jesus came.

SPECTRUM OF BELIEF

Yes, No, Maybe are words reflective of viewpoints on the spectrum of belief and unbelief. If the spectrum is pictured as a linear indicator, then 'Yes' is dogmatic faith at one end, with 'Maybe' representative of uncertainty or doubt in the middle and at the extreme other end stands 'No' which conveys firm nonbelief.

The range is from Absolute Belief to Absolute Non Belief with Lack of Belief somewhere in between the two poles.