{"id":4471,"date":"2021-02-17T17:00:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/?page_id=4471"},"modified":"2022-06-14T22:56:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T20:56:35","slug":"eight-reasons-intro","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/eight-reasons-intro\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Reasons why people won\u2019t accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Introduction<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"iframe-container\">\r\n<iframe id=\"lbry-iframe\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/$\/embed\/eight-reasons-why-people-won-t-accept\/de622a89034f92a07f296579523a3779f0f6cb1a?\" allowfullscreen frameBorder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>I\u2019ve been making 20 videos in which I tried to give simple\r\nanswers on regular critical questions. I called this series the\r\n\u2018silly Christian series\u2019. Some, especially my kids, were\r\nwondering why I did that. One of them said that it is kind of\r\noffending to her. And she is quit right. I am not sure whether\r\nChristians are nicknamed as being silly in English-speaking\r\ncountries, but in the Netherlands I\u2019ve heard it pretty often. In\r\nthe Netherlands some use the word <i>\u2018silly\u2019<\/i> in a patronising\r\nway. It is hard to translate but it sounds a bit like \u2018<i>oh you\r\nsilly boy!\u2019 <\/i>in the sense of <i>\u2018oh, that\u2019s cute, you still\r\nbelieve in a sky-daddy\u2019<\/i>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I have never had any problem with that attitude towards\r\nChristians. I mean, take the name \u2018Christian\u2019. The name,\r\n<i>\u2018Christian\u2019,<\/i> used to be a scolding name towards the\r\n<i>\u2018Followers of the Way\u2019<\/i>. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"margin-left: 12.51mm\"><i>Acts 9:2 (ESV) \u2018&#8230;and [Saul]\r\nasked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he\r\nfound <b>any belonging to the Way<\/b>, men or women, he might bring\r\nthem bound to Jerusalem.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>You see, that was the original name of Christians, people of the\r\nWay. I do prefer that name, people of the Way, but I don\u2019t mind\r\nwhen people call me Christian because the first believers received\r\nthat name in a time of great persecution (Acts 11:19-26). It was, and\r\nin some countries it still is, a nickname which is used with honour\r\nby believers but with contempt by many anti-believers. In any case, I\r\nbelieve Christians shouldn\u2019t be so quickly offended and that\u2019s\r\nwhy I came up with the title <i>\u2018silly Christian\u2019<\/i>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Now, after 20 videos, I guess I can do something new. One question\r\nthat keeps popping up is that of why people won\u2019t accept the Gospel\r\nof Jesus Christ. To some, this is a rather easy question to answer.\r\nIf you accept the Calvinistic view on the Gospel you might just say:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"margin-left: 12.51mm\">\u201c<i>It did not please the Father to\r\ngive them saving faith (Matthew 11:25). If you do not believe, it is\r\nbecause God did not elect you.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Now, if that would be the case I\r\nwould not have to live and work as missionary in the middle\r\nof nowhere on Madagascar,\r\nwould I?\r\nIn that case my wife would still be working as a lawyer and I would\r\nprefer to live in a fancy house with two cars in the garage. The fact\r\nthat we decided to trade that fancy life for a sober life in a wooden\r\nhouse in a noisy village betrays that I definitely do not believe the\r\nCalvinistic view on salvation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>So, what than are the reasons\r\npeople don\u2019t accept the Gospel? The\r\nreasons can be all sorts of things such as religious traditions, peer\r\npressure within the family or within friendships, the work of Satan,\r\nor even doubting of God\u2019s Word. These are all legitimate reasons\r\nbut I will not tackle these in particular. I came across an\r\neighteenth-century Scottish Presbyterian church leader, theologian\r\nand philosopher, named Thomas\r\nBoston.<a class=\"scroll\" id=\"sdendnote1anc\" href=\"#sdendnote1sym\"><sup><b>i<\/b><\/sup><\/a>\r\nBoston said in one of his\r\nsermons that people\r\nreject the gospel because of\r\nactual\r\nsinful vulnerabilities.<a class=\"scroll\" id=\"sdendnote2anc\" href=\"#sdendnote2sym\"><sup><b>ii<\/b><\/sup><\/a>  <a class=\"scroll\" id=\"sdendnote3anc\" href=\"#sdendnote3sym\"><sup><b>iii<\/b><\/sup><\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Working in a different culture\r\nall together, I have been placed in a position where it is easier to\r\nlook critically\r\nat our own culture in the west. Then reading through Boston\u2019s\r\nsermon I was amazed by his insights. In\r\nthe videos to come I will\r\ncite from\r\none of Boston\u2019s eight\r\nmain findings\r\neach time, and\r\nthen add my own ideas and\r\ncomments as well. Obviously that means I will approach it from my own\r\nbackground as well as from the background we work and live in right\r\nnow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-style: normal\">This video was just to introduce the\r\nnew series of eight on the question of why people reject the Gospel.\r\nYou can follow me on Odysee or subscribe to my channel on YouTube so\r\nyou\u2019ll never miss out on any new video!<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Stay\r\ntuned for the next one! The\r\nfirst of the eight\r\nreasons\r\nwe will discuss is that people have <i>\u2018No due sense of\r\nspiritual wants\u2019<\/i>. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-style: normal\">God bless you and we\u2019ll see each\r\nother in the next video!<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0mm; line-height: 100%\"><br\/>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p><a class=\"scroll\" id=\"sdendnote1sym\" href=\"#sdendnote1anc\"><b>i<\/b><\/a>   Thomas Boston, <i>wikipedia.org<\/i>, internet &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Boston\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Boston<\/a>&gt; (accessed 11-02-2021).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><a class=\"scroll\" id=\"sdendnote2sym\" href=\"#sdendnote2anc\"><b>ii<\/b><\/a>   Thomas Boston, <i>digitalpuritan.net<\/i>, internet &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/digitalpuritan.net\/thomas-boston\/\">http:\/\/digitalpuritan.net\/thomas-boston\/<\/a>&gt;, Digital Puritan Press, Westfield Indiana, (accessed 11-02-2021).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><a class=\"scroll\" id=\"sdendnote3sym\" href=\"#sdendnote3anc\"><b>iii<\/b><\/a>   Thomas Boston, <i>digitalpuritan.net<\/i>, internet &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalpuritan.net\/Digital%20Puritan%20Resources\/Boston,%20Thomas\/The%20Whole%20Works%20of%20Thomas%20Boston%20(vol.9).pdf\">http:\/\/www.digitalpuritan.net\/Digital%20Puritan%20Resources\/Boston,%20Thomas\/The%20Whole%20Works%20of%20Thomas%20Boston%20(vol.9).pdf<\/a>&gt;, Boston on Isaiah 61:1 (<i>Works, vol. 9, pp. 540-541)<\/i>, (accessed on 11.02.2021).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction I\u2019ve been making 20 videos in which I tried to give simple answers on regular critical questions. I called this series the \u2018silly Christian series\u2019. Some, especially my kids, were wondering why I did that. One of them said that it is kind of offending to her. And she is quit right. I am [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4475,"parent":1086,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[225,308],"tags":[260,257,258,259,242,239],"folder":[98],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4471\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4471"},{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=4471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}