Today's episode is largely for me. Now, of course, you can listen; I hope you do. I'm speaking to myself here more than I usually do. Usually, I'm speaking from something that I'm confident in, that I've researched, that I speak on, that I write on, those types of things, but today I'm speaking from more an area of weakness and something that I need to remind myself of: remembering that there is usually a heart behind the question.

Now, of course, everyone who asks a question has a heart, has a soul, that type of thing. What I mean, is that a lot of times the person asking the question isn't just wanting to bat around an intellectual idea. They're not looking for a stimulating academic conversation. A lot of times, there's something emotionally attached to the question they ask, and I often forget that, honestly. I don’t take that into account. That’s not my first response much of the time.

I think this is a liability that we need to be aware of as we seek to be more informed and as we seek to address issues and topics and culture that we often talk about on this podcast, because there are liabilities that comes when you have well thought-out views and you know exactly where you, stand and you're confident: that can come across as cold and heartless. It comes across as academic.

Now I think some of this is due to our unique cultural moment that we're in, where if someone speaks definitively about something, that they don’t pause and they don’t say "um" a lot, that it sometimes comes across as closed-minded or sterile at the least. When we get a question on salvation and, “Is Jesus the only way of salvation?” We might quickly reply “Yes, most assuredly. John 14:6 says, ‘Jesus is the way to truth and light. No one comes to the Father but through him.’ Paul makes it clear that there's no other name under heaven where men can be saved, these types of things.”

We can just launch into that and give a very thorough explanation, but the person may be thinking that their grandparents never actually had opportunity to hear the gospel. Maybe they have a relative or maybe they just can't bring themselves to believe that God exists or Jesus exists. They realize that on this view you're putting forth, that this means they will suffer in hell for eternity. There's something very real in terms of the consequences of the idea that’s involved in your answer. Yet, all too often (I’ll just speak for myself), I hop in and give the answer to the question, and I don’t even think of the heart behind it. Now I've gotten better at this over the years, but I still find myself surprised at how often I miss this point.

For instance, recently I was having a conversation and a question was asked, and I just thought it was kind of an intellectual curiosity: "Do you think people need to have a moment, kind of a Paul Damascus Road type of moment where they become distinctly aware of the fact that they're a Christian? Do you need to be able to cite when you became a Christian to the day?” I said, "No. You know, it's interesting. I've been doing some reading and there are people who think you should just have a child that grows up and they never know anything different than being a Christian." The person said, "Well, is this a good thing?" I said, "Yeah."

I go to move on, talk about something else (we're in a group of people), and I look back and this person is very emotional at this point. They look upset, and I’m thinking, "Oh, gosh, what did I say? What did I say this time?" It turns out that this person had been told throughout their life that they needed to have a “moment.” If you didn’t have a moment, then you probably weren't a Christian and that type of thing.

There's no Biblical foundation for that at all, and I think often this vie…