Brad Stine Gods Comic - Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot!: 11 Assumed Truths That Make Us Look Stupid

A FIDELIS BOOKS BOOK

An Imprint of Post Hill Press

ISBN: 978-1-64293-525-7

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-526-4

Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot!:

11 Assumed Truths That Make Us Look Stupid

2020 by Brad Stine

All Rights Reserved

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture is taken from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, which is in the public domain.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

Nothing matters but God.

Brad Stine

Contents

(The Rise of the Neo-Believer)

Hello, my fellow pilgrims, and welcome to my book.

The purpose of this book is to provoke thought, introspection, and even meditation on its ideas. Its contents may take many of you by surprise. I hope so, anyway, because if you saw this coming then you are a prophet and certainly in no need of my insight. Then again, if you were a prophet you wouldnt have had to buy this book in the first place, so I guess we can rule out that premise after all. But for you mere mortals I am not a theologian or intellectualas anyone who has seen my show or watched me try to balance a checkbook can attestnor am I a pastor, teacher, professor, or scholar. I am a comediana layman, a moron. Im like you.

I am also a follower of Jesus Christ, which defines the very core of my life. Because I am a Conservative as well, most of my social/cultural dogma comes from that ilk of thought. (I dont know if thats an actual coherent phrase, but it sounded clever and now that Im an author I need as much cleverness as I can muster.) But if there is one thing I am sure of in my Christian walk, its the fact there are many things in my walk Im not sure of. It was that simple but obvious revelation that jump-started this whole project. For instance, I always believed in the death penalty; yet, I am also an ardent pro-life advocate. I have performed for years at fundraisers for pregnancy resource centers and various pro-life events. One of the dynamics of many of these events was how ecumenical they were. There were often many Catholic priests attending even though the event was put on by Protestants. As a result, I found myself in conflict with many of my Catholic brethren, who were very much anti-death penalty.

As I explored this, I came to the realization the reason I was pro-death penalty was because I always assumed thats what the Bible taught. As I began to explore that notion, I found myself unable to discover exactly where this idea was located in the New Testament, which surprised me. You see, for me it was a foregone conclusion the death penalty was a true Christian position; only, I found that this position was a lot grayer than I realized. I took a personal stance on an extremely important position I assumed was true. That being said, while I still am in favor of the death penalty at this time (although the term death penalty sounds anti-Christian to my ears), I am now willing to examine my stance to see if it is biblically justified. Not only am I willing but as a true believer it is my DUTY!

From this experience, I realized how many believers are making moral and spiritual decisions based on Christian truths they assume to be true, when in reality they have become true based on a TRADITION of a particular denomination or group. This has often played out in my own life.

For instance, God uses meand a very unorthodox communication scheme, comedyto present a message. Even though I know this is my purpose, I have had to battle some Christians who felt my comedy style was distinctly UN-Christian. It was in these moments I most realized how Satan will use this Assumed Truth (that is, what style a comedian who is also a Christian is supposed to have) to undermine the work of God through fellow believers, who demand all fellow followers march to their cadence.

It was because of my personal experiences I chose these eleven concepts to consider as a Christian. Are they really true or do we just believe them to be, even though theres no biblical support for them? More importantly, how does the belief in their veracity affect nonbelievers if were wrong? Jesus said, The truth shall set you free, which, by implication, must mean, The false will imprison you. I, for one, am no longer willing to imprison the amazing grace and liberty my faith has given me to reach out to a world begging for authentic Christianity to save their terminally ill souls.

I have carefully considered these ideas as well as lived many of them. Some of you reading this may disagree with some of my conclusions, and that I dont mind, but if I have done nothing more than cause you to reevaluate what your faith means to you and in what shape it can come to you, then I have done my job. There is basically one overriding theme of this book and its the fact Christians are different from each other in our theology, denominations, and social interaction, and you know what? Thats AS IT SHOULD BE! The wider variety we come in, the more people we can reach! Christians on the Assumed Truth platform who historically have taken the position, If you dont all behave exactly like me, then youre not really a Christian have done, in my opinion, the greatest disservice to furthering the Gospel!

The groundwork for this book lies on that one presupposition.

I believe Im where God wants me. After all, I couldnt do the work Hes called me to do unless Im where He wants me. He wants me on stage, and I believe this book was something God wanted me to write for a time such as this. God has decided to use the gift of comedy, which He gave me, to communicate to the unbelieving world, of that I am sure. It is my purpose. But I also believe God gave me an equally important message: to challenge fellow believers in the quality of their faith. Believe me, my friends, I dont take that lightly. And, trust me, not a day goes by when I dont recognize this message is perhaps more for me than you!

But, again, Im like you, whether you like it or not. I am taking the liberty to write this book just as I do comedyaggressively and unapologetically! I do that, not because I dont respect you, the reader, but because I do. If youre a Christian then we are brethren and FAMILY should be able to be the most honest with each other. We have no time for anything less.

We are at a place in our American history where the Christian worldview is mocked, ridiculed, and ignored. Though it is true there is a spiritual battle taking place with warriors who want to see this happen, I believe we have also brought much of this phenomenon on ourselves. This is not the time to be simply sweet and harmless and wonder why no one takes us seriously. The time of Stephen has passed. Its time to start wearing camels hair coats, eating bugs, and tipping over tables! Not necessarily from a physical sense, mind you, but, and more importantly, from an intellectual place. Its time to take our beliefs seriously and start cleaning house, and that cleaning begins in our own house first!