This weekend I was part of a panel discussion at Oasis Church called Oasis Live. It was intertwined with serious subjects, humor, compassion and a Jay Leno look a like Pastor named Guy Melton j/k! On the panel I dealt with the question "What does the Bible say about Horoscopes and Palm reading?" It was exciting to get peoples response after service. One young lady said, "The scriptures shared had given her some tools needed to engage a friend who was also mixing Christianity with Astrology" (syncretism).

The main aspect I appreciated was talking to one of the members who is also a police officer. The subject of "killing" was a hot issue for him due to his vocation. The question asked in the panel was, "Is it ok for law enforcement to kill according to the Bible?" Of course this is a controversial issue because citizens in marginalized areas tend to look at police officers more suspiciously then most. In fact one young lady who was Jamaican and also a New York native told me she had seen a lot of police abuse their power while living in NYC. She had an external and internal insight because her husband was a police officer who gave her the inside scoop. She was very fired up about the whole panel discussion. I told her I understood her anger and tried to calm her down by reminding her of the essential point of the question, "Does the Bible sanction justified killing by law enforcement officers", "not unjustified killing"!

But, the gentlemen who was a police officer was standing right there and he felt like the criminals are so dangerous in our times, that they need a tough response from law enforcement and killing a few of them is inevitable and justifiable. Both of them were right and had Biblical warrant for their views, as both saw the issue from two different perspectives.

What was beautiful for me about this whole situation is that in the church we have so many different kinds of people with unique perspectives on various issues. It is always good to have a panels like this because people get to hear truth, interpreted and presented in various ways. It's the same coin, just a different side. It's the same diamond, but just a different angle and shade.

I hope that more churches will take on such interactive approaches that are dealing head on with the tough questions that people ask. Jesus was a question and answer teacher, well as a topical preacher and expositor of scripture. He dealt with the hidden motives and faulty premises of the people. Here goes an example:

Jesus clearly exposed their faulty reasoning. If these men claimed to have scripture as their reference point for developing a theology that there is "no after life" (like modern day liberal theologians), they couldn't justify that with the faulty scenario of a woman who was married 7 times. First of all Jesus pointed out that their 1st premise wrapped up in the "marriage" scenario was wrong. WHY? There is no marriage in the after life.We become like angels (30).So, Jesus exposed the error of their thinking by appealing to a factual impossibility.

Secondly, the Sadducees underlying theology of "no after life" was addressed when Jesus pointed their attention to scriptures where God pronounced, To be the God of Abraham in the "present tense" even after many years Abraham had physically died. Thus proving that Abraham is alive, because how can Yahweh be the "present tense" God of a non-existent being. This kind of searching and transformational teaching can only happen in a conversational style of teaching. That is why small groups, small classrooms, open dialogical preaching, Internet chats, one on one interaction are vital for Christian students and sceptics. They can ask questions and the teacher can hear the students thoughts (good or bad)!

What's the point? Kudos to churches, pastors and congregations like Oasis who take on the hard questions of our times with a proper use of scripture and reasoning like Jesus. What's your thoughts on this subject?

Written by :

Jack Hakimian