Exchange with a Coworker: His First Response

Earlier, I sent an opening letter on a discussion I'm having with a coworker. On the second of this month he sent his reply. I've edited his response to take out personal information, but everything else is intact.

[Berlzebub], I appreciate you taking the time to share with me your thoughts and beliefs. After having read your brief explanation, there’s no doubt you’ve done a lot of reading and research and have given a great deal of consideration to what you believe. That’s good. It shows you’re a thinking man. Albert Einstein was once asked back in the 1950’s, “Doctor, what’s wrong with man?” He was quoted and answering, “Men simply don’t think.” By simple observation, it would appear a fair number a people seem to go through this life giving little to no thoughts about what they really believe as their basic values and deepest beliefs.

Before going too much further, I’m sure you know I come from an entirely different view point than what you have expressed. My background is one of being raised up in the church. My dad was raised in the Methodist church and my mother joined that church when they married. My dad’s family on both sides had Bible believing, church going Christians for generations. So it would seem only logical that my brother and sister and I would grow up be taught the Bible and learning about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I do believe in God and his eternal existence. I believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son if the living God and I believe that he gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in him and claim him as their Lord and Savior. For the last forty plus years, I have been a member of the [Local] Church of Christ. I have served as a teacher, a deacon (servant of some particular ministry), and as an elder (a position of leadership responsible for the church working together alongside other elders).

Perhaps James A. Garfield, former President of the United States, summed up best what Christian churches and Churches of Christ believe. Quoting from an article written for the Christian Standard publication November 14, 1993, it states that:
“President Garfield even served as a “lay preacher.” To answer the many questions he received about the group of believers with whom he worshipped, he wrote a classic statement:

1. We call ourselves Christians, or Disciples of Christ.
2. We believe in God the Father.
3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and our Savior. We regard the divinity as the fundamental truth of the Christian system.
4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to His agency in conversion and as indwelling in the heart of the Christian.
5. We accept both the Old Testament and the New Testament Scriptures as the inspired Word of God.
6. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and the future reward of the righteous.
7. We believe that the Deity is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God.
8. We believe the institution of the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day. To this table we neither invite nor debar; we say it is the Lord’s Supper for all of the Lord’s children.
9. We plead for the union of God’s people on the Bible and the Bible alone.
10. The Christ is our only creed.
11. We maintain that all ordinances should be observed as they were in the days of the apostles.”


With that said, I need for you to do something for me. As you read what is being shared, I want you to read it as though your read a letter from a good friend from back home, someone who you know cares about you. If the words are read in a different manner or taken wrong, one could get the feeling of animosity or that someone is shouting at you. That’s not at all what I want to portray. I want you to know if a sentence or phrase that gives you that kind of feeling, that is certainly not my intention. Our agreement was to share our ideas, thoughts, beliefs and values with one another. As a believer in Christ and the written Word, we are told to share the Good News with others. Sharing the Gospel or Good News and it’s called is what we are asked to do in God’s Word, the Bible. It is not for us to convict someone else or to “save” anyone. We are simply to share the Gospel with anyone who might be willing to listen. The Bible says it takes that which man thinks is the weakest and uses it for His work. The Holy Spirit takes the written Word and uses it to build God’s kingdom. If a person is willing to listen to what is being said (or read the Bible for themselves), and consider the facts and evidence, then we believe the Holy Spirit will work with that person. Christians also understand the Bible when it says the Lord gives us freedom to choose Him or reject Him for ourselves. In so doing He knows that many will reject Him even though there is evidence to support His claim.


In your writing you mentioned a number of individuals who have influenced your thinking. Just as I mentioned my background and why I believe what I now believe, perhaps we can agree you believe what you believe for the same reason. You have read and studied what different individuals have learned and written about and you agree with their assessment. In this, you and I share a common approach to our belief system. I think the people we are closest to while growing up, our teachers we had in school from the early years to college, preachers if we went to a church or place of worship, the authors of books we read. All these are our influences that have led us to where we are now. I think everyone is influenced to a large degree by these factors. Most of what we consider our basic values and core beliefs don’t just appear. It takes years of love, care, of teaching, nurturing and mentoring from those around us. Along with this, we include the experiences we had along the way. One day we get to a point and look at what’s going on in the world around us and we say to ourselves, “Well, this isn’t right,” or “that ought to be this way”, or “they should/shouldn’t be doing that to those people.” Suddenly, however young or old we may be, we actually have a belief about certain things. We realize there are people and things and ideals that we value deeply. And when we look at others around us and the rest of the world, we suddenly realize that not everyone believes the same things that we do. We find ourselves asking what, how, why and why not about both good things and bad things going on all around us.


Well, that’s probably enough for now. It may be what you were wanting to know or expecting or maybe not. But perhaps it’s some food for thought.

Thanks for sharing,
[Coworker]

I know it really doesn't matter, but I wrote my opening in one day. It took my coworker 73 days to send this response. According to his letter, I'm assuming (and I've emailed him to confirm it before I respond) that his philosophy copies that of the Church of Christ. Considering the quote from his first paragraph, I find that interesting. I also found it slightly humorous that it wasn't Einstein, but Dr. Albert Schweitzer who the quote is attributed to, but even then I can't find a reference to the article the quote appeared in.

I'm working on a response to send him, but you're just going to have to wait to see. I don't want to spoil the surprise [wink & smile].