Tag Archives: Apologetics

Here’s the problem he ran into at church last week:

The message today was a message that contradicts the biblical witness, yet it is a message I hear frequently in the 21st century. I cannot see Jesus proclaiming the message that was proclaimed today.

[…]Our pastor’s main intention was to press home that our actions need to match our beliefs.

[…]Things started going off the rails, though, when a very obvious second message was proclaimed: the whole “actions-proclamation” dichotomy.

[…]Here’s why I say that: I thought I was just reading into the message, but that was put to rest when I heard the worship leader’s application: “go out and proclaim the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” He got it loud and clear. When we got to my car, my wife, who is not an apologetics freak like myself (she’s normal, thank God!), turned to me and said, “I know what his intentions were, but do you get the notion that he was saying that you don’t need to talk to others about Jesus?”

Go here to read Rich’s answer to the problem.

I will surprise no one by stating that it is impossible to preach the gospel without using words, which is why Jesus used them, and why we have people writing letters, preaching sermons and disputing in public throughout the New Testament. In fact, it is literally impossible for someone to be saved without hearing about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The propositional content about these events is required, not optional.

Basically, the message of Christianity is that we are all sinful, and in need of a Lord and Savior so that we can be rightly related to God again. Works are just epiphenomena that occur after you have already been saved, showing that you really are saved. The message of the feminized church, on the other hand, is “do nice things because it makes you feel good, and it makes other people feel good – and that’s what Christianity is about”. So, saying things that make non-Christians feel bad, or that imply that they should be studying to change their beliefs is intolerant or harassment or a hate-crime.

Well, I haven’t been snarky, since, oh… yesterday. So let me tell you exactly why people in the feminized church emphasize actions instead of words, by referring to some of my favorite posts from way back when the blog started. That way, all you new readers can read stuff from back when I actually wrote really good posts on Christian apologetics, instead of really bad posts on politics.

Here are some of my thoughts on why people in church want to do nice things instead of telling others the good news and defending it against attacks. (If you only have time to read one of them read this one)

People in church today think that the Bible teaches that faith is not grounded on rational arguments and evidence.
People in church think all religions are the same – they all have the same goal and none is really exclusively true.
People in church think that any religion is valid if it makes people do nice things and feel happy feelings.
People in church think that religions are just personal preferences and cannot be tested to see if they are true.
People in church don’t really believe that it is a sin not to know God’s existence and character, so they don’t even try.
People in church don’t really believe in Hell, so there is no reason to be urgent about telling others about Christ.
People in church believe that the purpose of Christianity is to make them act nicely and have happy feelings.
People in church don’t believe that God feels bad when his reputation is maligned in public by non-Christians.
People in church struggle to work Christianity into conversations in the places they live and work.

Mentoring

MUST-SEE: A magnificent video on the challenge of youth ministry

10/08/2009 Wintery Knight Leave a comment

Made by Brett Kunkle of Stand to Reason, and posted by the Pugnacious Irishman, Rich Bordner.

And Rich writes:

I know what you might be thinking: “this guy is a bit over the top. C’mon! ‘Who’s waiting for our kids.’ This is just scare tactics.”

Don’t write Brett off. He works with youth and has a circumspect angle that gives him a lot of insight into the state of youth in the church. Also, I can vouch for the atmosphere of the college campus. Lastly and most importantly, take a look at the stats (some of which he references). If that doesn’t convince you he’s not hyping things up, nothing can; he has sociology research backing him up.

The first link takes to you to another post by Rich which details Brett Kunkle’s activities, and features a letter from a 17-year-old student that Brett trained, before taking him to the University of California at Berkeley to test out his skills.

Here’s the letter:

It’s a beautiful thing when two high school clubs of opposing viewpoints can come together and debate issues in a public setting and in a friendly manner. It is also quite rare. However, this is exactly what happened just three and a half weeks ago at Capistrano Valley Christian Schools. It all started with a trip to U.C Berkeley.

In the fall of 2008, twenty-four students from Capistrano Valley Christian Schools began training with CVCS’s Sean McDowell and STR’s Brett Kunkle. These training sessions were vigorous and challenging but worth more in each of our lives than any words could express. On March 10, 2009, we embarked on an intellectual and spiritual journey that totally “rocked our worlds.” After debating atheists and interviewing Berkeley students on topics all over the board, we returned as different people. This spiritual and intellectual roller coaster was the best time of my life, as it was for many other students. I saw my friends gain confidence and stability in their faith but most importantly, I saw high school kids gain a passion for what they believed.

After Berkeley many kids wanted to keep making a difference in the world. I began a club that was simply known as the “Berkeley Group,” for anyone who had attended the trip and wanted to keep being involved in apologetics. One night I was on the phone with another club member, Suzie, attempting to plan things for our group to do. We wanted to put on an event to get high school kids excited about apologetics. We decided that a student debate would be an amazing draw for a young audience. We partnered with the Free-thinking Atheist and Agnostic Kinship (FAAK) student club from Capistrano Valley High School and decided to charge admission for the event, which we would donate to charity. We began to plan.

After many meetings with Mr. McDowell and much communication with FAAK, we decided to discuss three topics related to God’s existence: intelligent design, morality, and the resurrection of Jesus. With the stage set for an intense spectacle, publicizing began in earnest.

From our Berkeley club, Steve took Intelligent Design, I took morality and Christie took the resurrection of Jesus. After a few weeks of additional preparation for each category, we were ready for the debate! The format of the debate was a five-minute opening statement for each side, a five-minute cross examination and 20 minutes of question and answer time with the audience. Lastly, there was a final three-minute closing statement from each side. The auditorium was packed as more than 300 students and adults attended the event. The feedback from the debate was overwhelmingly good and our Apologetics Club is looking forward to similar events next year! I guess the final point I can make on this subject is that Berkeley prepared us and began a movement in our school’s students that will last for years to come. As Brett told us on the trip: “The Berkeley Mission is normal Christianity.”

Berkeley is one of the most left wing campuses in the world, in probably the most left wing city in the the world. It’s Hell on Earth. But these kids had trained and they were prepared to face the worst. That’s Christianity in action. So often today I see older Christians acting like there are no intellectual problems that need to be addressed, or focusing on minor theological issues or ineffective insular legalism. Instead, we should be preparing to engage the culture like this 17-year-old student. And we should be hiring youth pastors like Brett Kunkle – not like Brian MacLaren!

Anyway, Rich is himself is a public school teacher who is very familiar with these issues! I’m so glad that he knows about the need for apologetics to prepare children before they go off to university. If you like stories like this, you should definitely bookmark Rich’s blog.

Commentary

Can atheists make sense of good and evil?

10/01/2009 Wintery Knight 4 Comments

Here is a post by Michael Egnor at Evolution News. He is responding to complaints by an atheistic evolutionary biologist named Jerry Coyne about the problems of evil and suffering.

Excerpt:

There are, of course, countless attempts to understand how an infinitely good God can allow evil. I believe that it is because he gives us freedom, and freedom entails the possibility of evil. My dilemma is with natural evil. Why did God not stop the Indian Ocean tsunami? Why does he allow innocent kids to die from accidents or disease? There are theories to account for natural evil. I still don’t know.

But there’s an issue with Coyne’s question. This is it: I believe in God, and as such the question, “Why is there evil?” is a natural question for me.

But what warrant has Coyne to ask that question? Coyne is an atheist, and therefore he believes that there is no transcendent purpose in the world. And Coyne is a Darwinist, so he believes that there is no purpose in the origin of man. And Coyne is a materialist, so he believes that the human mind is, in some way, merely the brain — evolved meat.

Does it make sense for an atheist to ask, “why is there evil?”

This might might be a fun question to ask your co-workers, family and friends who are atheists. What do they mean by good and evil? Is there a way humans ought to be that is independent of personal preferences and arbitrary cultural conventions? Is there a way that the universe ought to be? If there is no way the universe ought to be, then what are we to make about atheist complaints about evil and suffering?

Leave a comment with your story, but try not to get fired. Just ask questions, don’t fight. Unless you know what you are doing!

I’ll leave some hints in the tags for the post about what I would say to answer the problem of natural evil. Here is my full response to the problem of evil. Here is my full response to the problem of divine hiddenness. And my full response to the problem of those who have never heard of Jesus. And my full response to the problem of religious pluralism. These are all from the index of Christian arguments and rebuttals.

WINTERY KNIGHT

Tag Archives: Apologetics

Is it necessary to use words to preach the gospel?

MUST-SEE: A magnificent video on the challenge of youth ministry

Can atheists make sense of good and evil?

…integrating Christian faith and knowledge in the public square

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…integrating Christian faith and knowledge in the public square