Posted on 01/26/2022 9:15:28 PM PST by SeekAndFind
As reported by Josh Shepherd on the Roys Report, “Brady ‘Phanatik’ Goodwin, founding member of Grammy-nominated Christian hip-hop group, The Cross Movement, and in recent years an apologetics teacher, stated Monday in a video posted online that he has renounced his Christian faith.”
As he stated in his Facebook video, “I sent a letter to my church withdrawing my membership and saying that I am denouncing the Christian faith that I have believed, professed, proclaimed, and defended for the last 30 years of my life.”
In Goodwin’s video, which is delivered with candor and pain and graciousness, he explains how his doubts began to develop when studying at Lancaster Bible College, only to deepen in 2014 when he began studying at Westminster Theological Seminary.
As Shepherd writes, “Specifically, he said learning how scholars use preexisting ‘theological commitments’ to arrive at translation and interpretation of the biblical text raised questions for him.
“He compared Christian theology to a Rubik’s cube. ‘I began to look at the faith and say, ‘Man you could turn this Rubik’s cube any particular way and end up with a different understanding.’ And who can say that understanding is right or that understanding is wrong?’ asked Goodwin.”
Personally, I was unfamiliar with Goodwin and his work until reading this announcement. But since then, I’ve heard good things about him, and I have no reason not to take him at his word when he explains his reasons for leaving his faith, and it’s clear from his video that he is not gloating or mocking.
It’s also clear he doesn’t want to hurt the faith of others. And so, at least at this point in time, he is not aggressively attacking what he once believed.
Hopefully, this is not the last chapter in his faith journey, and he would not be the first leader to fall away and then, with God’s help and true repentance, turn back to the Lord.
But what about the points he makes in his video? What about the feeling that we can basically make the Bible say whatever we want it to say? Or that it’s our prior theological commitments that determine how we understand Scripture?
Put another way, is there no objective truth when it comes to God and the Bible? Does it come down to, “You have your truth and I have my truth, but there is no absolute truth?”
Speaking candidly, I know all too well what it is to struggle with the faith.
That’s because as a Jewish believer in Jesus, from my first moments in the faith, I was challenged over my beliefs. As my dad said to me shortly after my life was transformed in late 1971, “Michael, I’m glad you’re off drugs. But we’re Jews. We don’t believe this.”
That led to immediate, intensive interaction with learned rabbis (which has continued for 50 years) along with serious academic study, culminating with a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University.
And in all my college and graduate studies, not one of my professors was a Bible-believing Christian. Some were even hostile to the faith, taking every opportunity to ridicule conservative biblical beliefs.
But the whole reason I earned the degrees that I did (all of which were in ancient languages) was so that I could read the original biblical text in its original cultural and linguistic context, not having to rely on other dictionaries or commentaries to understand what I was reading (although, to be sure, there can be great value in many of those dictionaries, commentaries, and other books).
Over the years, the more I studied and the more I wrestled with objections to my faith, the stronger my faith became. My mind was now in complete harmony with my heart, my intellect now matching my experience.
Others, sadly, have had different experiences and have ended up leaving the faith rather than growing in the faith. And Goodwin is careful to say, “Hey, don’t blame seminaries or put this on intellectualism, since others in my class were strengthened in their faith through their studies” (my paraphrase of his words).
But here’s the thing. Just because there are different opinions as to how to translate a biblical verse doesn’t mean that the original author was ambiguous in his writing, even if we debate the meaning today.
And just because Jewish translators of the Bible render certain keywords one way and Christian translators render those same words another way doesn’t mean that one translation is not ultimately better than the other.
In the same way, just because Hindus conceive of the Godhead in a polytheistic way while Jews, Christians, and Muslims conceive of the Godhead in different monotheistic ways doesn’t mean that all these competing ideologies are equally true. God is who He is, regardless of what we think or believe.
Just look at our political views today. Or our views on moral, cultural, and social issues.
The fact that we are deeply divided doesn’t mean that all sides are equally right. And the fact that our presuppositions color our worldview doesn’t mean that all presuppositions are equally valid (or invalid).
When it comes to the Bible, we do not read it in a vacuum, nor did the authors of the Scripture write it in a vacuum.
To give one example, the disciples of Jesus knew that His interpretation of the Bible was true because they saw it with their own eyes. They heard Him say that He would be rejected and crucified. They heard Him say that He would rise from the dead. And they heard Him say, “It is all written in our Bible in advance!”
Then, after His crucifixion and resurrection, when He pointed back to the Hebrew Bible and said, “It’s all predicted here!” their eyes were opened. There it was, in black and white, written centuries in advance by the prophets. (See Luke 24:13-49.) That settled things, forever. Who could possibly convince them otherwise?
In my case, my life was undeniably transformed by Jesus the Messiah. And, over the last 50 years, I could point to countless examples of God’s reality in my life (and the lives of those I’m close with). In fact, I would have to shut off my mind to deny my faith. In the words of the bestselling book by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.
But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t wrestle with intellectual arguments and questions of biblical interpretation. On the contrary, I wrestled deeply, and to this day, I’m engaging these questions and challenges.
Yet what I can say is this: My studies confirmed my beliefs. And should I have a question about which theological system is correct, my experience in God tells me which theology is right.
So, there is a beautiful, continuous loop, one in which the truth of Scripture is confirmed through experience, and as that truth is shared with others, they too experience God for themselves. And as we dig deeper in study, we find answers to our deepest questions.
Again, to be clear, I do not sit in judgment of “Phanatik.” On the contrary, my heart goes out to him.
But I will say this to everyone struggling with his or her faith. G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
And for many, that is the key. The Scriptures say repeatedly that God rewards those who diligently seek Him, who search for Him and His truth more than a miner searches for gold and silver (see, e.g., Deuteronomy 4:29; Jeremiah 29:13; Proverbs 3:13-18; Luke 18:1-8; Hebrews 11:6). We are to seek Him with heart and mind, spirit and intellect.
Yet the fact is that very few of us really seek God and His truth this earnestly – by which I do not mean simply studying but rather literally seeking Him in prayer and fasting day and night until we encounter Him. I mean crying out to Him for reality and truth and encounter as if our very life depended on it.
If we will do that, refusing to quit or give up until a breakthrough comes, He will reveal Himself and He will confirm the truth of His Word. He cannot deny Himself.
For those struggling with your faith, I invite you to call my radio show or to contact us at AskDrBrown.org. You might also find my recent book helpful, Has God Failed You? Finding Faith When You’re Not Even Sure God Is Real.
Dr. Michael Brown(www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Revival Or We Die: A Great Awakening Is Our Only Hope. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
Very timely. Thank you for posting this article.
I suspect his falling away began with wanting to engage in some favorite sin or sins, or simply a desire to be accepted by the current degenerate culture, and he rationalized his decision by using what he claims above as justification.
Many people change emotionally, intellectually throughout their lives. This may be a phase. I recall in my late teens, declaring myself ‘Atheist, or at least Agnostic’.
I didn’t put anyone down for their belief, but I was speaking only of myself. My Catholic father was devastated. No amount of me ‘explaining’ my change of belief made any difference.
By the time I was in my early 30’s and I had felt some of the Speed Bumps on the road of life, I began to reconsider my opinions. I declared myself a renewed Christian by age 34.
I decided on my own. Nobody was nagging me about it. Maybe this Rapper will come around too, but on his own terms and in his own time.
Praying the perfect person will lead this young rapper back to the LORD.
But he deserves no praise for his revelation.
Come back around,,
Perhaps but to make a big
deal about it?
.
The article stated;
“Absolute Truth” and
I believe That is Correct
Concerning the Bible.
I could not twist Scripture
because when I study a topic or Character the search Fascinates me with
“Absolute Truth!”
If one’s faith is based upon a set of ideas, however rigorously achieved, it will fail. God is not an idea. God is the Creator of the universe who we can know and experience. We know Him in our heart, not in our mind. He is personal, private, my foundation, my rock, not a belief but an unshakable knowing.
when someone takes objective truth, and twists it subjectively, they are creating a god in their own image- Satan caused Eve to create God in her own image by suggesting that God didn’t really mean what he said, and that He was trying to hide something from them b y forbidding them to eat from the one tree=-
Satan attacked God’s truth back then, and he has been attacking it ever since- causing people to doubt so that they turn their backs on it- That’s wat Satan does (among other things). We are seeing it even in his attacks on current worldly objective Truths- where subjective interpretations are held in higher regard than actual objective truth is- men are said ot be women, there are now supposedly hundreds of genders, ‘science is settled’ on issues like climate change according to the subjective interpreters of evidence- etc- Folks must now accept people’s subjective interpretations as absolute objective truth, or else folks will be cancelled- Don’t you dare question ‘their truth’
The bible has many objective truths in it- and some truths that are open to interpretation because the text isn’t 100% clear one way or the other- (such as the rapture- when it will be, and other scriptures that are kind of obscure-)
“Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus said, “but My words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33).
“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail” (Luke 16:17).
Brady’s problem is that he relied on fallible man’s interpretations instead of relying on infallible God’s timing and revelation to him
I woudl say that he hasn’t become an apostate- as he hasn’t attributed the works of God to the Evil one- but he certainly has listened to man, become confused, and walked away- instead of relying on God and allowing God to reveal more objective truths to him when the time is right-
[[If one’s faith is based upon a set of ideas, however rigorously achieved, it will fail. God is not an idea. ]]
Well stated- I think one problem is that folks get revelation, glory in receiving it, but lust for more and m ore, and when it hasn’t arrived quick enough to keep them satisfied, they begin looking outward, away from God for the answers- that is when the Evil one strikes and causes doubt to slowly creep in like poison- little by little poisoning them ind against God- like Satan did to Eve- and she was vulnerable becasue she took her eyes off the objective truth that she was given by God previously-
He was part of a few groups that tend to populate Social Media; Grammy Award Winner/ Christian (back then)/ Hip Hop and Rap/
All of those groups do a lot of chattering online.
They often buy products based on what certain ‘Influencers’ are now using. Or say that they are using.
He probably has a lot of ‘followers’ and may have wanted to state what was going on himself before a follower started rumors about it.
which they absolutely woudl do if he were to stop making music because of his conflicts- folks would surmise all sorts of reasons why- (Christians aint perfect- they gossip too- and start rumors etc- it’s just a fact of life- Christians are just saved sinners, not perfect sinless saints)
like you said- he’s likely getting out ahead of the rumors-
Gay? Looking for rationalization of homosexuality?
I’m from the SF Bay Area and I’m picking up some pings on my gaydar.
Yeah, a lot of us thought we were atheists in our 20’s.
I have no idea how old this guy is or who he is.
He is obviously vain and craves attention.
I DO NOT CLAIM TO BELIEVE IN GOD. I KNOW GOD. I AM LITERALLY WASHED IN HIS BLOOD.
not sure why you are yelling and not sure why you are even saying that in response to my post- i never said that you ‘believed in God’- why the yelling cps?
Child like faith....who is this rapper clown? Gee, I should question my faith because of some ass who just kept himself out of heaven by denouncing Gods name? Sad ...people are so easily swayed.....not Americans if you ask me.
Heck, i even agreed with your comment that God was not an idea to be believed in- again- your response is baffling-
I believe that this is what the author of this piece was actually trying to say (however, it does NOT reflect my belief).
Regards,
People who reject or denounce the Christian faith prove that God coerces no one to worship Him against their will.
God respects the people He created so much, He lets them make up their own minds about Him. We all make the ultimate most important decision on our own. Even though God knows some people will choose not what He would want them to.
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