Before reading this post, I recommend you read the three introductory posts - (1) Why The Faith Pyramid? and (2) What Is The Faith Pyramid? and (3) FP Methodology: Engage, Listen, & Adjust.
Since I did not know this person (let's call him "Joe"), I engaged him by simply asking if he went to church with our mutual friends. Joe said he didn't, so now it was my time to listen. I simply asked Joe a series of conversational questions that helped me discover his "location" on the Pyramid. (Understand that the logic of the Faith Pyramid is second-nature to me, so I don't have to consciously think about the FP when I'm sharing with someone.) I also asked Joe about himself (because I was genuinely interested in getting to know him), and Joe told me that he was in school to be a math teacher (this fact was helpful to me later). Through the course of asking questions and listening, Joe told me that he did believe in God (first layer already laid), but he clearly had indirect issues with a trust in the Bible. Joe is the quintessential postmodern thinker. Although he did believe in God, religion is incapable of providing knowledge for Joe (i.e. real facts). This is what is called the fact-value distinction. In essence, science and math are "good" because they provide us with facts (or knowledge), whereas religion is good because it can be valuable to a person; therefore, religion does not provide a path to truth - it provides a path to meaning (for some people). If you view Christianity as merely an exercise in finding meaning (and not an exercise in discovering truth), you can probably see how someone might be perfectly comfortable holding such a view if value-searching is the furthest thing from their mind. For Joe, he believed he could please God without adopting any particular religion or faith. His good works were sufficient. I decided Joe shouldn't be comfortable holding this view anymore, but I was going to have to adjust, and meet him at his worldview.
Since Joe's lack of trust in the Bible was not based on skepticism of it's truthfulness, but more about his ignorance of it's contents, I knew I could appeal to the Bible to throw a wrench in his worldview. Joe needed to understand that the Bible is not merely a "value-finding" document, as opposed to his math textbooks, which exist to help you gain facts.
When someone holds to this fact-value distinction (and applies the value half to religion), this usually means they believe the Bible to be full of only religious jargon and is not attempting to tell us accurate history. A good short passage to turn to, in this case, is Luke 3:1-2, which states:
"Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness."
Now does this sound like someone who is making up something or who is only interested in uttering religious jargon? Clearly, Luke's intention here is to share accurate history. The Bible gives us true narrative, as well as spiritual truth claims.
In Joe's case, I told him I recognized that he must appreciate mathematics and the way in which you can come to a universal truth on a piece of paper. He agreed that was something very appealing to him. I told him that, likewise, the Bible espouses universal truth claims on it's pages as well. The Bible's opening verse is, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (which he supposedly believed), and the rest of the book goes on to make certain truth claims that we have to decide what to do with - claims such as Jesus stating, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 NIV). I told him that such a claim made by Jesus is either true or not true. If it is true, then Christ really is the only way to God (and Joe's works would not suffice). But if he was not telling the truth, then we should disregard the Christian faith (because either Jesus was lying or saying something crazy). The question is then thrust upon us, "What do I do with Jesus?" This is the ultimate question, and the one I wanted to leave him with, as our conversation was naturally coming to a close.
I engaged Joe in a very simplistic way, by asking if he attended church and what he believed about God and religion. I listened to his thoughts on the purpose of religion (to find personal meaning), as well as his view that adopting any particular set of beliefs is unnecessary to please God, because good works is good enough. After discovering that Joe ultimately had a lack of trust in the Bible (although this being based on a clear misunderstanding of its content and purpose), I then adjusted to meet him at his worldview and clear up his misconceptions of the Bible's make-up. I showed Joe that the Bible, indeed, declares universal truth claims, and that the ultimate question for all us is truly, "What do I do with this Jesus?"
Although Joe never "moved up" the FP, (hopefully and prayerfully) I left him with some important things to think about. And I continue to pray for "Joe" as the missionaries in Argentina continue to engage him with the gospel message.
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