Nobody Dies for Paschal’s Wager

Mike Leake

Have you heard of Paschal’s Wager? If you haven’t its an apologetic philosophy encouraging one that there is more risk in unbelief than in belief. The argument is quite simple. There are four basic options:

  • Option #1: You believe and God does exist. This leads to infinite gain.
  • Option #2: You believe and God does not exist. This leads (according to Paschal) to minimal loss.
  • Option #3: You don’t believe and God does exist. This leads to infinite loss.
  • Option #4: You don’t believe and God does not exist. This leads to minimal gain.

According to Paschal it is safer to believe in God even if there is no evidence that He exists.

There are numerous philosophical and even biblical reasons why Paschal’s wager is not a great apologetic. For one, he contradicts the apostle Paul when he says that believing and then finding God does not exist leads to only a minimal loss. According to 1 Corinthians if there is no resurrection (God does not exist) we are to be pitied more than all.

My main concern isn’t to engage Paschal’s Wager philosophically but pastorally. I believe there are many in our congregations that have embraced this wager and it is detrimental to missions.

The main problem, pastorally speaking, is that nobody dies for Paschal’s Wager.

If I believe simply because I think it’s safer, then I’m doing nothing more than hedging my bets. Nobody dies for a hedged bet. You don’t take the gospel to areas of violent opposition “just in case” it is true.

A person that hedges his bets could come to the end of his life–find out that God did not really exist–and still be able to say, “Well at least I still had ______”. Such a life is foreign to that envisioned by the apostles. Consider Peter’s words in John 6: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Peter was all-in. He wasn’t hedging his bets. If Jesus isn’t who he says he is, then Peter has nothing.

Or consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Why are we of all people most to be pitied? Because we’ve foolishly thrown away everything for a farce.

You’ve got to ask yourself today, do I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only way to the Father or do I not? Enough of this living as if belief in Jesus is just a safe bet. It isn’t a safe bet. It’s an all-in bet or it’s nothing.

Today in Blogworld 03.17.14

Mike Leake 1 Comment

Got a Case of the Monday’s? You’re Not Alone.

You are what you Tweet, and it turns out that many of us tweet the same words on the same days.

Why We Argue Like Jerks

Excellent.

10 Types of Church Leader

I appreciate his ending. I’m pretty sure I know which ones I gravitate towards.

Gospel-Centered Reduction: Slighting the Spirit

I appreciate what Nate Claiborne is saying here.

Today is St. Patrick’s day. Who was he, really?

31 Days of Purity—Day Seventeen

Mike Leake

Day Seventeen: God’s View of Women

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father,younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (1 Timothy 5:1-2, ESV)

As men, we are trained from a young age to objectify women, to see them not as people created in God’s image, but as objects who exist for our pleasure. As we battle for purity, we trust that God begins to transform our minds, our hearts, and our view of women. It is a wonderful relief when the Lord extends his grace and we begin to see growing evidence that we are putting to death this sin of sexual immorality. Every victory is a victory we ought to celebrate. Yet one victory is not the end point in our quest for personal holiness. The Lord does not call and empower us to merely put off sin, but he also calls and empowers us to put on righteousness.

It is one thing, a very good thing, to stop looking at pornography. It is another thing, a much greater thing, to have the Lord transform and restore our view of women. Apart from his grace we will continue to view women as objects—only this time, they will be objects to be avoided instead of objects to be consumed. The Lord’s aim is much higher. He tells us to view younger women as our sisters in Christ, and older women as our mothers in the Lord. Let us pray that the Lord would transform our view of women, and see them with His eyes.

Father, I thank you for the gift of women. They are fearfully and wonderfully made to uniquely reflect your glory. It grieves me that our culture views your daughters as nothing more than sexual objects. It further grieves me that I have been guilty of joining in this. Lord, captivate my heart and transform my mind in such a way that I view the opposite sex correctly. Let me treat younger women as sisters with all purity, and let me treat older women as mothers with all dignity. Stir up in my heart a deep and holy love for my sisters in Christ. Amen.

—

Mike Leake is associate pastor of First Baptist Church of Jasper, IN. He and his wife, Nikki have 2 children (Isaiah and Hannah). Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and regularly blogs athttp://mikeleake.net

31 Days of Purity—Day Sixteen

Mike Leake

Day Sixteen: Faithfully Stewarding Our Sexuality

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

In the heat of the battle for purity, sexuality can feel like a burden and a curse. We might even find ourselves wishing that God had made us asexual beings, or that he would just take away all those feelings and all those desires. Yet we know that God is a loving Father who looks upon his people with kindness. Far be it from this Father to give us something that is bad for us!

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul addresses some of the sexual immorality among those people. He rebukes the church for this immorality, and gives them this command: Glorify God in your body. This is a command he gives to the married and to the unmarried. Our sexuality has been entrusted to us as a gift from God. We serve as faithful stewards when we use it only in the ways God intends. For those who are married, that will mean regularly and joyfully enjoying sex with your wife; for those who are unmarried it will mean regularly and joyfully denying yourself those physical desires. In either case, it is God who owns our bodies, not us; it is God who owns our sexuality, not us. Be a faithful steward of what God has entrusted to you.

Father, you tell me that I can and must glorify you in my body. I believe that you have given sexuality to me as a gift. I may not always understand why you have done this because it does not always feel like a gift. But I do understand that you are good and kind and that you love me. I pray that I would be a faithful steward of this gift, that in that final day you would look at how I have stewarded this gift and say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

—

Tim Chalies is husband to Aileen and a father to three children aged 7 to 13. He worships and serves as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, where he primarily gives attention to mentoring and discipleship. He blogs daily at challies.com, is a book reviewer for WORLD magazine, co-founded Cruciform Press, and has written four books.