Refuting Christian Excuses (RCE): Introduction

We hear them so often when others are confronted and we tend to make them ourselves when we feel threatened. When we want neither the responsibility nor the consequences of a word, thought, action, or attitude; or we hesitate to pursue a new horizon in a particular area, we dismiss ourselves with numerous excuses. Since the beginning of time, about 6,000 years ago, excuses have been made to shift blame from ourselves to another. Adam blamed Eve for giving him the forbidden fruit, Eve made the excuse that she was deceived by the serpent to eat of the fruit (Genesis 3:8–18). When God spoke to Moses through the burning bush, commanding him to bring His people, Israel, out of Egypt, Moses wove a string of excuses attempting to make God pick someone else for the great task (Exodus 3–4). We all make excuses. But the excuses that do, I believe, a great disservice Christianity’s standing and one’s own commitment to God are the excuses that can, in fact, sound so “godly