The relevance and the effectiveness of genuine faith

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5: I would like to address guest columnist Sharla-Cavonne Bean’s article in the Bermuda Sun on July 14 that speaks to Christianity (among other religions) as “. . . causing confusion, seclusion, repressive fear-mongering . . . feeding an unrealistic desire of the afterlife”.

She added that the Lord’s Prayer should be taken out of schools and goes on to state that prayer does not change things and does not work. 

As a result, she has summarized that religion, namely Christianity, is “an antiquated school of thought that is no longer relevant or helpful to the life that we are living today”.

I think it necessary to address these statements because although her article is entitled “Religion promotes division in our Island,” most of her article mercilessly criticizes the role of Christianity in Bermuda.

First of all, I will be the first to admit that nominal Christianity has been around for many years. It occurs either when people attend church but do not commit to a real relationship with God, or when we, as believers, do not live out our faith.

In other words, it is the belief that church attendance alone is sufficient to qualify one as a Christian; the application of God’s Word to their daily lives becomes completely neglected. 

This leads to hypocrisy and can turn many people away from Christianity.  Admittedly, there have been instances of fear-tactics being used to build churches, or situations in which persons have been hurt or used in the name of Christianity; however, these situations are far from the norm.

Rather, we must balance these occurrences with a clear understanding that there are many real, genuine, compassionate Christians on our island who are giving countless hours of volunteerism in numerous sectors of our society and are truly making a difference.

God has never been one who celebrates hypocrisy — in fact He hates it too.  Jesus made it very clear when He spoke to the legalistic religious of His day. 

Listen to the strong words of Jesus: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean”.

That’s an illustration that we can certainly relate to in Bermuda because, like Israel in Jesus’ time, we have whitewashed tombs in our graveyards.

The reality is simply this: there are hypocritical people in every sector of society, in businesses, governments, consumer dealerships, and even within churches and mosques. 

However, just because some are hypocritical doesn’t mean we throw the baby out with the bath-water. For example, a friend of mine got ripped-off in Philadelphia by a used-car salesman, but he didn’t boycott all dealerships — he still drives a car today. 

The actions of the few hypocrites should not cause a shutdown of the whole.  Frankly, if that were the case every social, political and religious system on planet Earth would have to cease!

I would like to directly correct three fundamental accusations that Ms Bean has concluded in her article against the churches in Bermuda and Christianity as a whole. I will address the first two this week.

The first point is that the biblical definition of salvation, according to the Bible, clearly teaches that salvation is not about a tabulation board that God keeps of our works to determine if He “will grant us or deny us entry into heaven”. Secondly, I would like to expose some of the works of the church and other faith-based organizations on our island to show that a relationship with God does not lead our people or our youth into confusion, seclusion and repression, causing them to rebel against religion.

Next week we will discuss the third topic: present and irrefutable examples of lives that have been changed by a real, dynamic, and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So, let’s look at the first topic. Ms Bean states that the church teaches children that God is tabulating our every action on some type of tally board to see if He will “grant us or deny us entry into heaven”. 

Sadly, some have taught this. For example, World Wide Church of God, which used to exist in Bermuda, boldly and falsely taught that “works” get you into heaven.

However, upon study of the Bible, the religion’s organization recanted, made a major shift in their belief and, reminiscent of Martin Luther and the Reformation, returned to the Word of God which teaches that one does not earn eternal life by works. 

How do we gain entry into heaven? We are given eternal life as a free gift by believing or accepting Jesus as Saviour. John 3:16, the most memorized verse in Scripture, speaks of this.

Also Ephesians 2:8, 9 states clearly, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast”.

It is emphatically clear that the common error that we can earn our salvation is far from the truth. If that were the case there would be no need for Jesus to die on the cross for us. He took our place so that because of His resurrection we can place our trust in Him.

Therefore, no tabulation of works — no tally board —salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Free to anyone who wants it.

Secondly, I get weary of those who downplay the role of biblical Christianity in history as well as on our island.

First let me say that I am aware that some Christians are judgmental; others try to turn church services into fashion shows, and still others do not follow the clear teaching of God regarding meeting the needs of their people. I do not agree with those actions. 

However, to go to the extreme and say that Christianity should be thrown out altogether is evidence that one is out of touch with the history of our island and also with the contributions that the church and faith-based organizations are making in society today.

Maybe that’s because many churches and faith-based organizations do their charitable works faithfully and quietly, rather than broadcasting what they are doing.

Let’s take a brief look at real and tangible ways that believers all over this island are uniting and working to make a difference.

Many children’s services were begun by people of faith, the oldest being founded over 90 years ago.

• On January 28, 1919 The Sunshine League was opened to take in children who were in need. Miss Agnes May Robinson, a devout Christian, founded the Sunshine League with a meagre one pound 15 shillings and thruppence. While its future seems threatened, Minister Blakeney and I have had talks regarding how people of faith and those in the community can unite to keep this charity up and running after the summer. 

• The Salvation Army has become the ‘poster child’ for reaching out to the homeless and those addicted to drugs. In fact, statistics show that faith-based drug addiction programmes are the most effective in the world.

• First Church of God North Shore for many years conducted feeding programmes in Bermuda’s schools.

• Word of Life Bermuda has been and still is one of the most effective youth outreaches in Bermuda with thousands of children and teens participating in their Superbowls, youth camps, and Olympian Game events through the years.

• Calvary Gospel Chapel continues to conduct effective Vacation Bible Schools, taking place this summer, reaching out to children in the neighbourhood. 

• Cornerstone Bible Fellowship has over 200 teenagers and children every Friday night at CedarBridge Academy reaching a vast cross section in the community.  They also conduct parenting seminars. 

• Cornerstone Foundation facilitates a separate charity entitled Chain Reaction Bermuda, a pro-kindness programme for Bermuda’s middle and high schools, which aids in keeping our youth out of gangs and from the bullying and teasing behaviour, which has led to violent outbreaks in the schools in the past. 

• Chain Reaction is the most effective high school programme in the United States. Cornerstone Foundation also conducts the Co-Ed Mentoring programme for our young men so that they have a hope and a future by preventing them from “graduating” to West Gate. 

• Allen Temple has conducted a feeding programme in the western end of the island for years and has helped so many disadvantaged families. 

• Better Covenant has taken the lead to develop leadership in our island with their annual conferences; and Pastor Jonathan Lambe of Evening Light Pentecostal Church has conducted various events for our youth across the island.

• Tricray, Geneman, Junior C and others have produced music albums and have effectively ministered to our youth throughout the island.

• United for Change, a group of 65 churches has come together, despite our different backgrounds or denominational groups, to see how we can work together to do more for our island.

Other alliances and pastoral groups have conducted many joint efforts this year alone promoting unity and community events.

The list goes on, and on, and I am sorry I cannot mention all the programmes, churches and faith-based organizations that are busy doing good things all over our island.

Ironically, when the Centre on Philanthropy did their survey on who is conducting volunteerism in our island, to our surprise, over 50 per cent of it was done by churches and faith-based organizations.

Throughout history orphanages, youth outreaches, camps, drug rehabilitation programmes, homeless shelters, prison outreaches, and so on, were started and maintained by people of faith. 

The declaration that Christianity causes division, confusion, and repressive fear-mongering is inaccurate at best. While this maybe the experience of some, it is not true for the whole population. 

If Ms Bean, or others, have been hurt by a church experience in the past it is no more a reason to give up on God than a person hurt by a teacher should give up on education. It still works.

Next week I would like to address the accusation that Christianity is an antiquated school of thought that is no longer relevant or helpful to people’s lives today.

This is far from the truth. Bermuda is full of irrefutable living examples of lives transformed by Jesus Christ — and those examples are people in government, the medical profession, education, social services, and every other area of our society. 

It is a proven fact that children, teens and adults have been changed because of others who got involved in their lives in time of need.

People of faith have given their hearts, time and energy to make a difference in the lives of people. Our recipients and we have discovered by experience, “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving” (Amy Carmichael).

Yes, on behalf of people of faith in our country as pastors, ministers and believers, we unite to say: God is real and absolutely prayer still works.

It is easy to point the finger at the church and say you are not doing anything, but like water from a well, sometimes we can all take it for granted and don’t appreciate its purpose until it is gone. However, faith cannot be destroyed — it has existed for generations and I pray will only grow stronger as the catalyst to make a real difference in our society.