Cedarville Magazine Summer 2018

CHAPEL NOTES That whole “Jesus saves you from your sin” shtick was deeply offensive to me. How could that system actually work for me? I didn’t think my lesbianism was hurting anyone. I believed I was being my authentic self, and I recoiled at the idea that being a lesbian was living in sin. The Bible declares that we are made in the image of God and have a sin orientation in Adam and a soul orientation in eternity and, once born again in Christ, a new citizenship, one that came in exchange for the life you loved, not in addition to it. In spite of believing, living, and teaching the idea that sexuality and gender were social constructs, the Bible made it clear to me that God has set ethical and moral responsibilities, blessings, and constraints for being born male and female. For the first time in my life, I wondered if I was wrong. Well, that’s when this research project came to a halt. And I tried to toss the Bible and its teachings in the trash. I really tried. I was fighting with the idea that the Bible is inspired and inerrant; that is, that the biblical authors were moved by the Holy Spirit to record the revealed Word of God, not the constructed Word of God, and that the Bible is completely true and without error. How in the world could a smart cookie like me actually embrace such things? I was a postmodernist. I did not believe in truth. I believed in truth claims. I believed that the reader constructed the text — that a text’s meaning only found its power in the reader’s interpretation of it. How dare this one book lay claim to a birthright and a progeny totally different from every other book in the world. After years and years of this, something happened. The Word of God revealed to me two things: who God is and who I am. I have never been the same after this revelation. The Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. Rosaria Butterfield is a speaker and author of The Secrets Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and The Gospel Comes with a House Key . She and her husband, Kent, a Reformed Presbyterian pastor, live in Durham, North Carolina. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert The following is an excerpt from an April 4, 2018, chapel presentation by Rosaria Butterfield. Butterfield was a keynote speaker for the LivingWater apologetics conference. Listen to her full remarks at cedarville.edu/chapel . The Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. October 9–10 Jennifer Marshall Vice President, Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity The Heritage Foundation Washington, D.C. October 15 David Mathis Pastor, Author Cities Church Minneapolis, MN October 23 Jonathan Leeman Editorial Director 9Marks Washington, D.C. Sharing the Gospel in a Sexually Broken World For additional resources from our 2018 Living Water conference with Rosaria Butterfield and Sam Allberry, visit cedarville.edu/livingwaterconference . Cedarville Magazine | 21