Among the guests at the “bed and breakfast” where we stayed in Antigua were two women from Quebec, Canada. One evening we four–they and Jan and I–were sitting in the living room visiting and they brought up the subject of religion, asking about our work and activities. One of the woman explained (in beginning Spanish) that she was an unbeliever, had taught biology and the sciences all her life, and did not believe in creation. She called herself a scientist. Eventually she admitted that she might believe in God at some level, but that she had no use for “church.” Her religious background was in Catholicism but she no longer practiced religion. The other woman also had a religious background in Catholicism, but attended only on special days like Easter.
After they finished their explanations, I told them about the simplicity of the plea to follow the Bible’s teaching, to restore the practices, teachings, and experiences of the New Testament church. They observed that churches had a lot of points of disagreement, and I asked if we might be able to agree on the “center”, the things that were essential to the Christian faith. The “scientist” explained that the Bible was quite undependable after centuries of translation and retranslation, and I explained that the manuscripts are quite well documented and dependable, with a high degree of certainty about the original message of Scripture.
When the scientist returned to the point of churches with varying teachings, I asked again if we could agree to accept the basic, central teachings of the Bible as followers of Jesus. I observed that the life shared by the early church was vibrant and exciting, powered by God’s spirit, sharing deep fellowship as spiritual family. The more religious of the two women expressed her desire that the church might be more like a family. The scientist said she needed to talk in French.
They left the living room area, and went to the patio to share a different conversation. I hope something we said was helpful. It was an interesting occasion–four people who would not have been able to communicate at all, or to discuss the Bible, had it not been for the fact that all were working in a second language.