Monday, November 17, 2014

Defending the faith against attackers

When we are equipped to defend the faith, we are a tool for bringing the lost to Christ and a help for the saints around us. But there's another kind of person we may meet.

Some unbelievers honestly ask questions wanting to understand why we believe what we believe and perhaps join us in the family of God. Other unbelievers, though, are not just non-Christians, they’re anti-Christians. These people are convinced that Christianity is synonymous with brain-death. They find every aspect of our faith absurd and think it is their responsibility to make everyone else see the light.

When Christians encounter these people out in the world, a battle of sorts should occur – a loving, grace-filled battle, but a battle no less. We should show them and all bystanders that Christianity is based on solid truth and that the skeptic is the one who has built himself a house of cards. Typically, however, Christians run for the hills or, worse, get trounced. Everyone sees that the Christian – and therefore Christianity – is intellectually inferior. The world sees these encounters and comes away convinced that Christianity is for the weak and the stupid. Lots of these encounters occur at the water cooler at work, but many of them occur in full public view.

One of the most infamous was the so called “Scopes Monkey Trial” where the teaching of evolution in schools was debated. The prosecution was Williams Jennings Bryant, a good man by all accounts and a believer. In comparing Darwinian evolution to the biblical view of creation, Bryant could have called theologians, apologists, and scientists. Instead, he called himself. He made a fool of himself, lost the case, and cemented in the minds of the other side the notion that anyone who dares question their pet theory is an ignorant rube that only just developed opposable thumbs.

We are at a point where society as a whole is starting to look at Christians – especially the evangelical variety – as mindless dolts. This is bad because it is untrue, but worse than that, it keeps people from coming to Christ because they either don’t want that association or they reject the gospel out of hand – because we are, after all, mindless dolts.

Being able to skillfully defend the faith is necessary to be the salt and light we are supposed to be in this society. We cannot affect this world positively if this world rejects everything we say out of hand. It is also necessary because we lose the ability to reach some people with the gospel as long as we have the unfortunate reputation we have.

People need to know that we have a thoughtful faith. If they examine the faith and can’t believe, it’s sad but their choice. If they don’t believe because we’ve let them think faith is unreasonable, though, that’s a tragedy of our making.

You may be thinking, “We need a practical religion, not theology and philosophy.” I want you to realize that this is very practical stuff. When a young mother wants to know why her baby died, that’s terribly practical theology. When your cousin is flirting with joining the Mormons, theology suddenly becomes very practical. When your friend doesn’t want to hear the gospel because he “doesn’t believe in anything he can’t see,” apologetics just jumped from philosophical conversation to deadly serious pre-evangelism. When you’re questioning why God is allowing unpleasant things in your life, a little theology – that God is sovereign, that God is all-powerful, and that God is good – becomes very practical.

You may be thinking that you’ll bring those people to church with you or give them a good book. But the odds are that most of them will not want to come to church with you – and if they did, would they necessarily find the answers they need in that week’s sermon? And while some will, many will not read the book – they’ll be polite and take it from you, but what are the odds that they’ll read it? Pretty slim. They’re going to be dependent on you to be their resource. And you need to have it readily available – on the top of your head if at all possible – because you never know what kind of opportunities you’re going to get.

You may be thinking that you’re not smart enough or educated enough to study this stuff. If so, that is patently untrue. More than that, you have to realize that the average person you’re going to talk to will know less that you. You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in philosophy or theology or anything else to study or use this kind of information. The average unbeliever doesn’t have one. He has some basic ideas regarding moral relativism, has been told that evolution removes the need for God, and may have seen a Jesus Seminar TV special or magazine article. Average believers can, with a little effort, equip themselves to deal with these issues and lead the unbeliever toward, if not to, Christ. You might at some point in your life find someone who has made attacking Christianity a hobby or even a career – let someone else deal with that one. But the vast majority of the people in your life will not be like that, and you can help them.

In all of this, remember that you cannot argue someone into the Kingdom. Only God can work on a person’s heart and bring them to Him. But we can help overcome their objections, questions, and fears and clear the way for them to come to faith.

I’ve tried to convince you of the need to study theology and apologetics. Here’s my last attempt … today. The unbelievers out there are watching us to learn whether or not our faith is real. They are watching our lives first and foremost, but then they will have questions. How we handle those questions may well determine how they will decide the most important decision they can make – the fate of their souls. No pressure.

4 comments:

dobson said...

Hi Chris, once again forgive me for butting in with some contrarian views, but since your article talks about what unbelievers think and why we don't accept Christianity - that's a subject in which I have considerably greater expertise than you!

I'd like to tell you that if you understood the unbeliever's perspective more it would make you a more effective apologist - I'd certainly like to see how a greater understanding of the 'opposition' helped you frame a more persuasive argument.

"They find every aspect of our faith absurd and think it is their responsibility to make everyone else see the light."

Actually most unbelievers really don't care about your religion and are totally OK with you believing whatever you want to believe. Unlike Christianity, Mormonism, Scientology (etc), unbelievers are under no mandate to try to convert you - there's simply nothing in it for me to change your mind. If your religion brings you happiness then I'm happy for you (even if we disagree on a great many topics)...

The problem comes when Christians start legislating their morality or when Christian majorities start asserting special privileges over minorities. That gets people kind of upset and sometimes they tend to lash out - not always in the most productive way.

One of the most infamous was the so called “Scopes Monkey Trial” where the teaching of evolution in schools was debated.... [stuff deleted] anyone who dares question their pet theory is an ignorant rube that only just developed opposable thumbs.

Perfect example. It's great that you have your own cosmology. Many religions have their own beliefs concerning the origins of life and the universe - but the thing about these beliefs is that they are beliefs which formed in a pre-scientific era. Regardless of the beauty and truth you find in your creation narrative it's not actually based in any kind of evidence. It's not science, it's theology.

As I said before, you are totally free to have your personal belief system but when people use their majority to legislate that their beliefs are 'fact' then some people might get a bit upset and might even want to attack your religion.

This is bad because it is untrue, but worse than that, it keeps people from coming to Christ because they either don’t want that association or they reject the gospel out of hand

You make a good point here. People reject christianity because some of the more 'life-coaching' teaching is bound up in stuff that is obviously untrue. There are barely any scientists who accept Genesis 1 as historical fact but if you insist that it is, and it's also one of the foundational beliefs of your religion then people who have any grounding in science will just walk on.

I do accept that there are some major sects of christianity that seem to get along just fine with science - for example the Church of England and the Roman Catholics both accept the Theory of Evolution as the best explanation we have for the diversity of life on earth. Also most Jews interpret Genesis as more of a metaphor than a historical account.

I also want to be clear, that it's not only Christians who have this kind of problem: If you know anything about science then you are also immune to the claims of Homoeopaths, crystal-healers, acupuncturists and other woo-woo people who tend to be left-wingers.

dobson said...

The unbelievers out there are watching us to learn whether or not our faith is real.

Seriously, no we mostly are not.

Mostly we really don't care, but for the record I can say that most followers of every religion I've ever met seemed totally sincere about their beliefs.

It might seem that we doubt believer's beliefs - especially when we call out hypocrisy (e.g. the anti-gay pastor who turns out to be gay) but in that case the problem is that somebody said mean things about gay people and not that the person held a religious belief. Can you forgive us for enjoying the shardenfreude?

ChrisB said...

fake Dobson, I see what you're saying, but I think you miss my point -- this whole piece is about those combative, "evangelistic" non-believers. Sure, a lot of non-Christians just don't care. And some are curious, trying to find out what, if anything they're going to believe. And some have made it their life's mission to attack religion and the religious. That last is who this is about.

dobson said...

And some have made it their life's mission to attack religion and the religious. That last is who this is about.

I don't know any atheist who has made it their life's mission to attack religion. Possibly I've heard of some former evanglicals, mormons and muslims who harbour very strong anti-religious feelings.

Perhaps I might feel the same way if I felt that religion had done me any great harm!

Mostly I only argue with people who make public proclamations about their faith - I'd consider it indecent to argue with people's privately held beliefs. That's entirely their business.

We are at a point where society as a whole is starting to look at Christians – especially the evangelical variety – as mindless dolts.

I think evangelical Christianity has a self-created image problem.

The Evangelical's refusal to get on board with universally accepted scientific principles makes it much easier to argue people away from their point of view.

If you insist in a literal reading of Genesis, I can show plenty of lines of evidence that show it's not true.

If you insist that the story of Genesis is a foundation of your faith then I can show that these are rotten foundations.

I'd like to emphasize that I'm not tarring all Christians with this same brush:

Catholics seem to have made their peace with Darwin and Galileo. The Anglicans celebrate Darwin's discoveries and the Episcopalians don't seem to have much beef with either.

In time, I expect that most Christians will start interpreting these problematic parts of the bible as being allegorical in some way - that's usually how these difficulties get resolved.