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by Charlie Wolcott

Here I am taking yet another one week hiatus off my response to Matthew Vines and his Ten Reasons on why the Bible supports homosexuality. I’ll return to do the responses to the final three arguments next week.

To kick off the year, Worldview Warriors has been studying the book of Habakkuk and one of the verses that stands out to me is Habakkuk 2:2: “Write his answer. Make it clear….”

Those of you have been following my posts may have known that I am a published author, and one of the key things that God placed in my life to get published is the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, held in May at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado. Starting in 2012, I have been to this conference every year, the last two as a speaker. God has closed the door for me to speak this year, which is perfectly fine with me, however the theme verse for this conference each year happens to be Habakkuk 2:2. So I have been asked to write about this verse and the conference this week.

“Write his answer. Make it clear…”

In his book, Habakkuk complains to God, wondering why he turned is back on Israel and why the nation was left in ruin. This verse is God’s response to Habakkuk. “Write my answer. Make it clear…” God tells Habakkuk how it was Israel’s sin that brought down God’s hand of judgment, and that God is not going to rescue them this time. Here at Worldview Warriors, we are given the same call. To all the questions being asked of God: “Write His answer and make it clear,” so those who hear it may run and deliver it.

Many people complain that Scripture is not very clear, and that there are many different interpretations to what it says. Yes, many do interpret it many different ways, but what it actually says is very clear, straight-forward, and often makes us very uncomfortable. God made his Word very clear, clear enough that it passes from generation to generation, language to language, culture to culture, without changing and yet it is easy to understand.

Is the Bible clear? Absolutely. Now there are some parts that require some digging, but as one friend of mine put it, at least 85% is very easy to get the core concept, and the rest has more to do with dealing with our worldview versus what the text says. But the great thing about Scripture is that it is an ever-increasing purity mine. The deeper you dig, the more precious and pure the jewels, all the while NEVER contradicting the basic truths that even a child can read and understand. Now what is our responsibility? At the CCWC, our charge as Christian writers is to give our readers material that reveals God’s answer to the questions that are being asked. But what questions are being asked? Are they the right ones? A friend of mine often points out that the answer becomes very obvious when we start asking the right questions. Habakkuk learned he was not asking the right questions. He was asking God why he left Israel desolate. God told him it wasn’t God’s fault, but Israel’s sin that brought about its own judgment. Even Job had to learn this one. He kept asking, “What did I do wrong to deserve this?” And God had to set him straight, asking Job who was worthy of advising God on what he should or should not do.

Many times I will see atheists ask all kinds of questions, but they really aren’t asking questions. They are making statements or accusations in the form of a question. They really don’t want an answer; they just want to make a point. But even when that is their motive, we are still called to give God’s answer. It will often not be one we want to hear, but we must write it and we must make it clear.

One thing that has impressed me with Worldview Warriors and our bloggers is that while we have many different writing styles, approaches, and topical emphases, we all tend to write what God is telling us to write and we are writing it clearly. Now we are not perfect and there are some posts we certainly butchered, but as a whole, we have written clearly and we have written the answer we see God giving us through his Word.

This is the same push we are given at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference. It is made up of all sorts of different authors, different genres, different styles, different angles, yet each one strives to write the answer God gives us and to make it clear.

And this is also a reason why we have to be careful about who we read: many out there strive to muddy the waters so we CANNOT see God’s answer clearly. Why? Because they don’t want to see God’s answer. Look at Tyler Francke as Steve Risner has been addressing him. Look at Matthew Vines as I have addressed him. Look at some of these so called “church leaders” whose books do nothing to make any sort of lucid response to what God is saying. I will call out Hugh Ross here. He teaches “Progressive Creation,” an Old Earth Creation Model. I have not once heard him make a clear defense for his position. When asked about how to interpret the word “day” or “yom,” he just says, “There’s multiple definitions.” He never explains why his is better from the context of Scripture than any other. That’s not making a clear answer. It’s making a muddy answer. And all three of these people I will dare say are not writing God’s answer because they aren’t seeking the Lord and what he says. How can I tell? By how they use Scripture and mold it around their models, rather than take the clear meaning of Scripture and mold a model around it.

How can we write God’s answer unless we are in the Word? Studying Scripture, seeking the truth God wrote. God did not mess around with the writing of his Word. And how can we make it clear unless we accept what God says as what God said? Yes, we need to learn how to communicate it, but we must NEVER alter the message. We can play with the mechanism we use to transmit the message, but we must not change the message itself. If we do, we are NOT God’s messengers as we say “Thus says the Lord,” when God has not spoken.

We need to write God’s answer as HE intended it to be, even if it costs us popularity, a promotion, a job, or even our life. And we need to write it clearly so no one can mistake it for something else. This is a charge I take seriously and I see my fellow Worldview Warriors writers doing so as well. Take up this charge and help me to continue to write God’s answer and to make it clear both for Worldview Warriors and all my other writing endeavors.

Next week, back to Matthew Vines.

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