 Would you date a non-Christian? Can you kiss before you get married? Can you have certainty about your faith? This is part two of Do All Christians Think the Same. Hey, what's up guys, my name is Isaac and this is The Daily Disciple where I help you follow Jesus daily. This is part two of Do All Christians Think the Same. I'm excited to get into this video again. It provided some good content in the first video and this next part of the video here, the second half, did not fail in terms of the juicy, interesting questions that it got into. The conversation is quite interesting so let's get into it now. Sorry, I'll go on this one now. I am married. I've been married for almost 10 years to a Christian man. For me, what I feel in the Bible that God describes as a Christian family is two people, husband and wife, who are devoted to serving the Lord together and we need somebody to come alongside us who is helping us to pursue our purpose and our calling in Christ. It's totally possible and often happens that people of different religions, or someone who's a Christian and that doesn't have a religion at all, are able to still work together and are able to still help people grow in their faith. I totally agree that I could learn from non-Christians, even benefit from relationships with Muslims, Buddhists or other non-Christians, but the Bible is specific about not being yoked in marriage to unbelievers. Whether you're a Muslim, Christian or a Buddhist and you find someone who doesn't share that, I think you're missing something core in that relationship which won't work for any marriage. But the thing is, when you break down so many of the major religions, a lot of the tenets are the same and we kind of believe the same thing inherently. Okay, now you see I was joking when it talked about touching a lot of interesting things. Okay, should Christians date somebody or get married to somebody that is not a Christian? Should they do that? Okay, I'll answer with my perspective, but first I wanna touch on the fact that he said one of these guys was saying that, look, it doesn't really matter because all religions are kind of the same. Anyway, the main tenets are the same. This really scares me honestly when I hear this from Christians because to me, it sets off warning bells in my head like they don't have an understanding, a true understanding of what Christianity, the message of Christianity actually is. And that's not me saying, oh my goodness, I'm so much smarter than you, but ultimately somebody miscommunicated what Christianity was about to him or the research that he did, it wasn't sufficient because ultimately when we look at religions, okay, I'm just gonna break it down really simply so I can understand because I'm not that smart. But ultimately, when we look at other religions, if you study different religions, they're all attempts to get to God. All attempts, maybe there's some other religions where it's like you gotta achieve peace or oneness, but ultimately they're trying to find peace, oneness, where their soul can rest or they can go to heaven or they can appease God in some way. It's all this kind of works. We have to do stuff in order to get to where we wanna get to. Christianity is very different. Actually, Christianity says in the Bible, no one has done good, no not one. No one seeks for God, no one does what is right for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God. We're all dead in our trespasses and sins. Those are all quotes from verses, paraphrases, from verses in the Bible. It's saying, hey, look, people on our own, we're not just great people and we can't get to heaven. We can't appease God just by our works. But that's why we need Jesus. Jesus came fully God and fully man to die on the cross, rose again on the third day, defeating death and the devil and making a path so we can have reconciliation with God, right? So it wasn't out of our works that we were, you know, reconciled to God. No, it's actually faith in God's grace, right? It's by God's grace that we can have faith in Him and trust Him. It's not our works, but it is grace. And so that is very different from other religions. So ultimately, when you get to the question of, okay, would you date or marry a non-Christian, it gets to the heart of, okay, what are we trying to do here on this earth? Are we like, what is marriage about number one? And also, what's our purpose here on earth as Christians and as people in general? Ultimately, we're here to image God. We're here to show creation. This is what God looks like. His loving kindness, His goodness, His holiness. Obviously, we cannot do that perfectly. That's why we need God's grace. And now we do this out of love for Him. We image Him out of love for Him and serve other people out of love for Him. But when it comes to marriage, you're saying about being in a very tight, right? A covenant relationship with somebody. And you contemplate maybe that person doesn't even believe in God or doesn't believe in that message that should overwhelm your life, impact every aspect of your life. It just doesn't seem compatible. Not only does the Bible say we shouldn't be unequally yoked in the Bible times or even just in times where they used oxen, they had these things called yolks. So there'd be like a yolk on top of like a whatever kind of animal or whatever. And that would just keep them together, keep them kind of even. But if you had one that was quite a bit bigger than the other, the yolks wouldn't be even and that would just cause a lot of problems in terms of whatever that those animals were trying to pull. All that to say is that we ought not be unequally yoked. That's where it comes from with somebody that's not a Christian. I think too often Christians can feel like, okay, hey, look, I can date in on Christian because it's not that big a deal. I can have my Christianity here. And when I talk with them, it's not really that big. It's just kind of, all the tenants kind of the same thing, just love other people, that kind of thing. To me, that's a clear sign that your Christianity has not made its way past like the start line. Like Christianity and Jesus and this whole lifestyle. The fact that we have been saved by God, by his grace, the implications of that ought to be life consuming. Every aspect of your life has been touched or should be touched by God, right? So what we watch, how we interact with people, how we, what choices we make, how we spend our money, all these aspects are so connected to our foundation, which is in Christ. So for Christian, I really encourage you if this is something that you're kind of wrestling with, if you see, hey, maybe I can make this work. I'd really evaluate, hey, am I letting the gospel impact every aspect of my life? Or am I trying to keep my Christianity in a box so that I can have these other boxes, like box of like a relationship with a non-Christian boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. Or box with stuff on TV that is inappropriate or nudity or all that or pornography or whatever that is. Maybe we're keeping different boxes and we're not letting the gospel impact every aspect of our lives. To me, it's like this is a non-negotiable. There's lots of practical reasons too. That's the argument in principle and according to what the Bible says and just kind of working through these issues, but practically having a faith that should impact so much of your life, there can be a lot of conflict that'll arise if the person that you're with does not believe the same things that you do on such a foundational level. I wish I could be over there, but I can't. Unfortunately, I made some bad decisions when I was younger. The people that I've been with prior, there's always a piece of me with them, you know what I mean? Like it's something I can never get back. It kind of bums me out a lot because it's like I wish I could have saved myself all the way until marriage in all aspects of physical relations. As far as sex goes, I mean, that's your party sold, but I do think that as a Christian, I should be dating to find someone to be with long-term or finding someone to marry. And so part of that does involve sometimes waiting a little bit longer, waiting longer to like have sex and to like really be intimate. Okay, so this is a big question. Sometimes we can, as Christians, we can jump into this issue and unnecessarily hurt some people that have been kind of gone through this, maybe made those bad decisions that this guy in the hat said, oh, he made these bad decisions. And he says, yeah, a piece of me has kind of been lost. But sometimes that actually goes overboard in a lot of what we say, maybe in the purity movement particularly. You know, this idea that, oh man, once you've kind of done this, you've given away yourself, you can never get that back, man. You'll just be incomplete. And in some ways, you're less than the people that have now, you know, saved this. And so now, you know, you've made this terrible decision and all this kind of thing. And I think that can be really hurtful sometimes. Ultimately, we don't want to neglect the truth of this and what it says in the Bible, right? If we're just looking for straight up, hey, is this, do Christians do this? Yes or no? And some things are, you know, we need to use our discernment. Some things we gotta wrestle with and they're a little bit more gray. This is actually not one of those issues. This is not one of those ones where we're like, well, I'm not sure. Maybe, maybe not. We can read in the Bible, look, fortification is wrong. Okay, so where do we move from there? Well, this other fellow, he says, hey, look, you know, sometimes I wait a little bit longer, depending, all this kind of thing. My question is, is where is he getting his morality from, right? He claims to be a Christian. And yet there seems to be a lack of understanding or even like a dependence on what the Bible says, as opposed to, you know, just general, hey, he's like, hey, you know, sometimes I try to wait a little bit longer, but that's kind of up to me. Hey, and look, no hate towards this guy. I love this guy, but at the same time, I just wanna ask him and if you're watching, I just wanna ask you, hey, where are you getting your morality from? Because if we're looking in the scriptures, if we're seeking to live our lives according to what the Bible says out of love for God, then we ought to try to listen to it, right? I just wanna say this, if you've had sex before, you are married and now you're kind of in this state where you're reading the Bible, you're learning, okay, God's, you're playing a purpose for your life and yet you feel, oh man, you know, why did I do this? This is, this sucks. And maybe you're hearing voices that say, hey, look, you know, you'll never be the same, you can never get that back and you're kind of less than innocence. Ultimately, you know, in Christ, in Christ we have redemption and we have restoration. And so you are not less than because you've done this because of the mistakes you've made in your past, Jesus covers those, right? You're not a worse Christian because you've made those mistakes in your past. No, Jesus grace, Jesus, the grace that God has for me is the same grace that God has for you. And all those things I've done in my past, Jesus has covered them, all the things that you've done in your past, Jesus has covered them. And now we can actually stand blameless before God. And it's not about, oh man, I gotta do all these things in order to make God love me. No, it's God accepts me by his grace and I wanna act and worship him through my life and through what I'm doing. And that's why I wanna read the Bible. That's why I wanna see what God has to say about this issue. This is why I wanna, I don't wanna just make up my own morality, but I wanna follow what God has for me. Because what ultimately what God has for me is best. So I personally am actually not even kissing until I get engaged, which a lot of people don't believe me about. But I had a two year relationship and I promise it happened and it was hard. I didn't particularly like it, but I just find so much strength and closeness to God in preserving my physical expression of love for people. Even though it's very, very far from easy, it's something I'm so excited for. To be able to tell that person, I saved this the most intimate part of myself for you. Because God was the only one who had a key to my heart before this. Okay, we're getting into it now. I don't know how it happens, but I keep touching on this. Okay, I have to be, this channel is a lot about authenticity, right? I wanna be real with you guys. I don't wanna just come across as some no-wit-all guy that just thinks he knows everything about the Bible or Christianity or whatever. Cause that's not true, right? I'm a single guy. I've never been in a relationship. So this, we're talking about relationships. This girl's talking about, oh, I've never kissed or not kissing until engaged. A lot of people have different standards for that, right? And you're gonna encounter, if you're a Christian or if you begin to dwell, being Christian in circles, you're gonna find out, look, a lot of Christians have different standards on this. And remember for the last question that I talked about, hey, this isn't a gray issue. This isn't a discernment issue. It's clear in the Bible what the Bible says about fornication. This is clear, right? Okay, this is kind of one of those more gray issues, one of those discernment issues. And this is actually an exciting thing because people will ask, you know, Christians, oh, should I do this? Should I do this? Should I do this? Ultimately, you know, my kind of response to that and, you know, hey, what do I know on this topic? But ultimately, you know, what I try to do, just taking it from my own personal experience on these kind of gray issues is seek wisdom from God. God says, ask, ask for wisdom from me. Wisdom comes from God. The fear of God is beginning of wisdom. So fear God, ask God, hey, give me that wisdom. I need wisdom, that comes from God. And consult and consult. It sounds like you're like a consulting firm. But no, like ask people in your life that are wise, that are, that have been through this stuff that maybe you haven't experienced. So ask them, hey, you know, how far should you go in this case and, you know, is kissing okay? Like, what do you think is wise here? And yeah, you're gonna get different perspectives, but that's gonna help you as you walk on your own journey and your relationship. I always say this, but if I ever start writing a relationship book, somebody please stop me because, you know, there are certain issues that are black and white, right? And then there are a lot of gray issues and I get nervous when Christians start putting gray issues in the black and white territory, saying, hey, you know, you cannot kiss before you're married or you cannot do this before you're married when the Bible doesn't say that. So I would be really careful about that. I'm really happy for the sister that she is, you know, pursuing God in her relationship here. She set up boundaries, she set up, like certain standards that she wants to keep to. I think that's awesome. But the important thing is, I think, and you know, I'm just speaking out of what I think is important for me as I go into future relationships is establishing those boundaries, relational boundaries. So these kind of physical boundaries, emotional boundaries, people without boundaries are bound to get hurt. And it's just wise to have those boundaries, but those will change depending on who you are, at least what I've seen. Yeah, I'm not saying that I'm a good person, but I'm saved by faith in Jesus Christ who forgives me of my sin. I know where I've placed my faith, and that's why I know where I'm gonna go. I don't know, it's hard to know exactly what specifically is considered the biggest sins that will keep someone from going to heaven, especially for me when I haven't put as much thought into it as I should. Christianity is not about just making sure you're checking off all the boxes to go to heaven. I feel like that robs us of the heaven that's present here on earth. All I'm responsible for is doing my best every day, and I pray that I do that every day, and I think that's true for everybody. Everybody is just responsible for their best. This is tough to kind of process and hear from these folks, because I desperately want them to find hope and ultimate peace and forgiveness in Jesus. The question is, hey, can you find, can you be certain you're going to heaven? If you die today, would you go to heaven? And I guess the sense I get from them is a very works-based worldview. It's this idea, hey, I gotta do these good things, and hopefully at the end, my good will outweigh my bad. Ultimately, can we find certainty that we're gonna go to heaven? First John here has some answers for us. First John five here, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him, and then we're gonna go down to verse 11. And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the son does not have life. I write these things to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. You know, ultimately, when we believe in Jesus, certainty is available, because ultimately the fact that we're going to heaven, us being saved, us being ransom is not up to us. It's not on us to keep our salvation. It's not on us to keep working in order to for God to love us or accept us. No, that is on God. So us believing in Jesus, that is enough, right? It's not like we do 99% and God does 1%, or we do 1% and God does the rest, we do 5% and God does 95%. God does 100% of the work. So ultimately, we can have certainty, not because of how good we are, but because of how good God is, and how loving he is, and how merciful he is. So it's not this, hey, I hope my goods will outweigh my bads, but I thank God because he has saved me, even though I don't deserve it. And that's what I can rest in. Will you have doubts in your salvation? Sometimes, yeah, you will. But ultimately, we can come back, and there's seasons of those doubts, right? But ultimately, we come back into the person of Jesus, and ultimately come back to the gospel, the message of the gospel, forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Jesus, not because of what we do, but because of what he does. We can find that certainty. We're not just random molecules in the universe with no purpose, no, we can have certainty that we are a child of God because of who Jesus says we are, not because of what we done, but because of what he has done for us. Ultimately, some of those folks in the video concern me. They're, you know, their state before God, based on what they've said, it's concerning. So my prayer is that they would come to know Jesus fully, that they would understand their sin before God, and come to repentance and faith, and just cling to Jesus for their salvation. I've really enjoyed going through this video, and I hope you guys have as well. I hope to do more of this kind of content in the future. I hope you've enjoyed it. If you have enjoyed this series, or enjoyed my YouTube channel, or anything of my ministry at all, I would, it would be a huge blessing if you would head on over to patreon.com slash daily, underscore disciple, link in description, and support me monthly. This is my passion, and it would be a great blessing if you could help support me so I can do this more. Thank you so much for watching, guys. If you like this video, give it a like down below. Subscribe to the channel because there's new videos coming out all the time. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.