New Hope Ministry

Welcome to the New Hope Ministry!

This ministry was founded in July, 1999 for the purpose to show that Christianity is a belief system that makes sense; it does not require the believer to check his brain in at the front door of the church.  It can be as engaging as any field of science or mathematics, and can be shown to be true as well as any fact of nature.  There is more objectively verifiable evidence for the existence of its main figure - Jesus Christ - than any other figure in antiquity by far, as well as good reason to believe that he was exactly what the gospels proclaim.  Today, there is a great awakening throughout the world with literally tens of millions of new converts coming to Christianity, people coming in greater numbers than ever before in the history of the world.  For example, while in 1850 there were only about two million believers in Africa, today there are more believers there than in all the countries of North America combined! While in 1900 there were fewer than 1000 new converts to Christianity throughout the world per day, today there are 200,000 new converts to Christianity per day.  Never before has belief in Christ been so widespread and fervent throughout the world as today!

And yet...

...there is the other side of the story.  Most Christians are terribly ignorant concerning their faith - why they believe what they do.  In America, Many Christians are embarrassingly ignorant concerning the Bible.  Christians are told from the pulpit by their ministers and pastors that they need to read the Bible daily in order to understand God's word and be able to discern truth from falsehood.  Yet, many American Christians are unable to answer even the simplest questions concerning the Bible, let along give a coherent explanation as to what they believe concerning Christ, and where their beliefs are located within Scripture.  This ignorance concerning God's Word makes many American Christians impotent in the face of materialism and modern day secular humanism.  Indeed, most Americans merely carry beliefs taught them by their parents or Sunday School teachers, and have done little to verify these beliefs in God's Word.  They then become easy targets for false prophets and teachers who lead them away into false gospels, cults, unproductive ministries, or even apostasy.

Then there is the threat of liberalism, the notion of tolerance, and the fear of rejection.  

The liberal church has so emasculated Christianity that it bears little if any resemblance to the mighty institution that rocked the world nearly 2000 years ago.  In its fullest representation, liberalism is really an application of modern social beliefs upon the church reducing the power of the Christian message to to a social gospel more interested in the financial and social welfare of members rather than in their eternal destiny and spiritual faith.  Rather than merely applying Biblical standards to today's world, the liberal church applies today's world to Biblical standards.  No longer do we hear that Christ is the only way to God, but rather we hear about tolerance of other religious traditions and ethnicities.  No longer do we hear the challenge to preach the gospel to every living person on earth, but rather we hear about not forcing our religious ideas down other people's throats.  No longer are homosexuality, promiscuity, adultery, and fornication sinful and against the will of God, but rather these behaviors are merely expressions of one's genetic makeup, childhood traumas, midlife crisis, or sexual addiction.  By so weakening the basic Christian message concerning sin, repentance, and redemption we have rather made Christianity another social outlet where hurt souls might come to feel accepted and forgiven.  Biblical Christianity is so much more than a love fest and feel-good pity party for each other.  What makes Christianity so powerful is its message to change; to become a new man, a new creature in Christ.  We are to become transformed into a Christ-like image and discard our old habits and sinful nature.  While this transformation does not happen overnight (indeed, it does not ever happen fully until we are with God), and while this transformation is a difficult, arduous process with many failures along the way, it is this transformation from sin unto righteousness with God's help that is the Christian message, and not that we excuse our sinful behavior as merely to be expected by our sinful natures.  It is the Christ-like ideal toward which we strive, not to excuse our earthly behavior in some form of liberal social philosophy. 

The notion of tolerance is another great threat toward Biblical Christianity.  We are living in a very pluralistic society, and it is tempting to try to import this pluralism into the Church.   We are told we must accept other religious traditions as equally valid as our own for we all, after all, believe in the same God.  Or, even more broadly, we are told that even not to believe in God at all is an equally valid stance with Biblical Christianity.  Therefore, as Christians, we should not become concerned with prayer is taken out of the public schools for after all, schools are meant solely to teach children about how to live as a functioning adult in society and not to propagate any particular religious dogma.   Indeed, any reference at all to any religious tradition in a public school might be construed as using tax dollars to support religion which would be illegal as it opposes the Constitutional dogma of the wall of separation between church and state - an atheist might become offended (never mind there is no reference to a wall of separation in the Constitution!).  We cannot have student led prayer at a football game because such a game is purely a social event and not a religious occasion - again, somebody might be offended.  We must above all have tolerance.  We cannot have a nativity scene on public ground at Christmas-time as it might somehow offend some passerby who does not believe in religious myth and dogma. We certainly must not speak out against the Biblical sin of homosexuality as that would certainly be unkind, politically incorrect, and demonstrate our homophobia; rather, we must welcome practicing homosexuals as having a different "sexual orientation" into our churches and places of employment.  They must also be allowed to marry and enjoy the same legal rights as "heterosexuals."  We must above all be tolerant of others even when their behavior is clearly offensive to the Bible.

Or do we?  Certainly as Christians we need to be tolerant toward all people even thought we need not be tolerant toward their behavior.  We are commanded to love everybody else the same way that we love ourselves, regardless of their sexual orientation, socioeconomic standing, or criminal record.  But, we are never commanded to tolerate sin, to allow unrighteous, unrepentant people into full fellowship in our churches.  Christians have for the most part finally figured out that we must become politically active in protecting our own rights against the intolerance of those all about us who paradoxically preach just the opposite message.  We have learned to elect lawmakers who will represent our own interests, to elect Presidents who will (hopefully) nominate justices to the federal court who will represent the Constitution and not assume powers of the legislative branch of government and invent law to their own liking.  We have learned to fight back.

Another factor which has limited progress of the church is that many are afraid of rejection.  We live in a society where being accepted by our peers and friends is important.  We don't want to be seen as "fanatics" - we don't want to "wear our religion on our sleeve" or "push our beliefs down the throats of others."  In short, we fear the rejection of people more than we wish for the acceptance of Christ.  We are intimidated.  Our churches fear that if they become politically active the ACLU will sue and try to revoke their tax exempt status.  We are worried lest our employers discipline us for discussing our faith with others.  We want to fit in - we don't want to be different.

The fear of being different is not limited to teenagers; it is shared by most Christians who fail to show their faith, afraid of what others may think.  Perhaps as we have seen, one reason why we are silent is that we cannot defend our faith; we aren't sure why we believe in Christ, and how we might answer some of the "harder" questions.  But other people don't expect us to be Bible scholars or theologians; rather, they expect us to be different, to stand out.  Why should a non-believer want to investigate Christianity if all they see are hypocrites - if the lives of believers are no more holy than others?  We need to be a light unto the world, the salt of the earth; instead, we put our light "under a bushel" and hide our salt from the sight of others.  In order to make a difference we first must stand up to be counted, we must organize, stand together for a common goal.

It is the hope of New Hope Ministry that we might present some of the reason why Christians believe in God; why we are Christians rather than Hindus or Islam.  It is not, I hope, just because most of us were born into the Christian faith, but rather because there is something unique about Christianity that is simply not present in other faiths.  There is a "ring of truth" that shatters through all our pretenses and inhibitions and brings us into the marketplace of ideas to show the world the reason for the hope that lies within.  We need to be a light unto the world to influence the world toward God and away from liberalism, from humanism, and from false religions and ideas.  Christ is THE truth and THE light - there are no others.  This is the exclusivity that we proclaim to the world.  

Let's get busy.

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