Friday, June 26, 2015

The Information Age & the Christian Worldview: Is God just a delusion? Or is God real?

What does it mean to believe? What does it mean to follow Christ? How is this applied? What is the process involved? How does faith stack up against the modern views on life? Is God just a delusion? Or is He real?

The late Charles Colson put it well:

“It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn't want our success; He wants us. He doesn't demand our achievements; He demands our obedience. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of paradox, where through the ugly defeat of a cross, a holy God is utterly glorified. Victory comes through defeat; healing through brokenness; finding self through losing self.”
― Charles W. Colson

Yet many do not believe in any God. They don't think God exists. Or they don't like the idea of God. Or they think all truth is relative.

I personally have come to believe that God really is. I really believe that God is actually real, and actually exists and that Jesus Christ was a real person that was born. I believe, in audacity I suppose, that Jesus Christ was who he claimed to be: the son of God. I also believe that Jesus Christ, this man, the carpenter, while on Earth did not make a single sin in his life. He lived perfection, 100%, the only person to ever do so. How could he? Because he was God, yet also a man.

And after living the perfect life, he died the perfect death. How does one die a perfect death? Well, for one he must be guilty of nothing. He was completely innocent. Secondly, the immortal words that Jesus uttered on the cross seal the deal. Do you remember what he said?

As they beat him, mocked him, spit on him, Jesus spoke his last prayer to his Lord: "Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing."

That very simply is how one goes about dying perfectly. I believe these events were recorded by eye witnesses in written form. Much like how we get most of our history: through written reports. I believe those reports survived accurately in the gospel accounts. Why? It's very reasonable to believe the gospel accounts are accurate, given the manuscript evidence (over 25,000 fragments) which tend to be highly cohesive when compared to each other (about 99.5%).

Finally, I believe that after Jesus Christ died, that three days later he reclaimed his life. I believe that Jesus Christ bodily resurrected, through the power of God. Aren't miracles impossible? I don't believe so. Miracles are reasonable, given an omnipotent God. If God could create the universe, raising Jesus from the dead isn't really that difficult.

All of these things I believe tend to go hard against the grain. That's alright. I've always been one to go against the stream. Dead things tend to ride down stream, afterall. Modern people don't tend to believe the things I believe. They tend to believe many different things. Not all, but some.

They believe in ideas like evolution, relativism, and naturalism. These are what we might call idealogies, or presuppositions. They are sets of beliefs, surrounded by facts, not 100% proveable, yet adhered to.

Christianity is similar, it's adherence to a certain worldview. It's not 100% proveable, yet I adhere to it. Now I tend to think that the evidence supports Christianity to the point that it can be reasonably believed and adhered to. I tend to think that Christianity can be investigated to the point of being true beyond a reasonably doubt.

Many agree with my analysis, including some of the greatest minds in the history of man kind. Just to name a few:

Chuck Colson, lawyer, politician, famed for prison reform
Sir Isaac Newton, famous scientist
Jackie Robinson, famed baseball player
Martin Luther King Jr, civil rights activist, Christian preacher
Mother Theresa, altruistic servant of the poor
C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings series
Helen Keller, philanthropist, author
George Washington, first U.S. President
Francis Collins, scientist, founder of the Human Genome Project
William Wilberforce, famed for leading fight to abolish slavery in England
Eric Liddell, Olympic gold medal winning runner
Sir Francis Bacon, known for establishing the scientific method
Galileo Galilei, famous astronomer
Robert Boyle, famous for his work in chemistry
Max Planck, well known for his work on quantum theory

That's just off the top of my head in a few minutes. This is the part that just doesn't fit into the modern narrative. It doesn't fit the narrative of the new atheists. It doesn't fit the narrative told in public schools. It just doesn't fit at all. But I never knew this stuff. I had to research it myself.

Christianity has very effectively been stereotyped and mocked into oblivion in western civilization. Why is that? There must be something to that. Well, if I were coming at it from the Christian worldview, it would be very natural to say that there is a battle being waged for the hearts and minds of all people on Earth. And it's a spiritual battle, not necessarily a physical one.

Or as Jesus accurately phrased it: "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil."

It's a battle of mind. And there are two primary competing worldviews duking it out in the west. The Christian worldview, within the realm of Protestant, Lutheran, Catholic, and other orthodox faiths all surrounding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The apposing worldview over the past 50-100 has gone under many different names: modernity, materialism, naturalism, scientism, and most recently post-modernism. None of those views tends to be the prevailing mindset today. The modern mind tends to be highly varied among those views. For sake of time we'll just call this mindset the info-age man.

The infoman tends to believe these suppositions:

You only live once.
Life is what you make it.
Science is our best test for what is true.
Believing in God is ridiculous.
I need a good job, a family, and to save for retirement.
Truth can't necessarily be known.
Ethics are relative.
Tolerance is the most important value.
Who am I to say what's true?
Jesus didn't exist, or he was a good moral teacher.

We've all heard those one-liners haven't we? That is the modern mindset. It's very prevalent today. In stark contrast is the Christian worldview:

We are eternal beings.
Life is ordained by God.
The Bible is our best test for what is true.
Believing in God is reasonable.
I need to pray hard, work hard, and live in service to others.
Truth can be known.
Ethics are fixed and universal.
Love is the most important value.
Who am I to say I know better than God?
Jesus is the son of God, he existed, and he lives today.

Is the modern mind correct? Is God just a ridiculous delusion? I tend to think the modern man hasn't thought through his suppositions.

The modern thinks humanity has surpassed any need for God, and charges into the future as a basically good creature ready to claim his destiny as all powerful. Yet the modern man tends to forget that World War II was only a short 75 years ago. The modern man tends to think the west must be above that now. Yet the modern man forgets that racism and racial violence in our country was only 50 years ago. The modern thinks he has surpassed all of that though. I guess just recently? Very recently. For it was only 20 years ago that somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million were exterminated in the Rwandan Genocide. Well perhaps man has ascended very, very recently then? Yet today the sex trade industry flourishes worldwide, including within the vaunted borders of the United States.

Doesn't quite fit the enlightenment narrative does it? The facts are plain and simple: humanity struggles just as much today as it did during other dark periods of human history. The malady of the human soul has not been overcome by modernity, materialism, or scientific and technological advances. In fact it may be indicated that man has simply found more efficient ways of destroying one another.

Has science really removed the need for God? If that's so, then can science explain how the universe could pop into existence from nothing? Can science explain how time + chance equals humanity, in all it's complexity? If a bomb goes off in a junk yard will the result be a fully assembled car? Perhaps we haven't thought through the science under-girding that assumption.

Are ethics really relative? Well, 2+2 = 4. In math 2+2=4. 2+2=5 is an incorrect answer. 2+2=3 is also incorrect. Math is not relative. Neither is history. The United States declared independence in 1776. To say we declared independence in 1775 would be incorrect. The same with saying 1777. There is a simple correct answer, historically. If I go to my bank account and ask how much is in it, and the clerk says $5.25, do you think she will let me take out $250,000.00? Maybe $5.25 is true for her but not for me? In monetary systems, truth is not relative, but objective. In history, archaeology, math, scientific law, politics, and religion truth is not relative, but objective and absolute. Why should ethics be different? Hitler's concentration camps were evil, always, for everyone, at all times, in all places. Whether Hitler exterminated Jews in Poland or France or Russia, it was always evil all the time.

The apologetics are quite sound to me. The science for God. The history for God. We've gone over it a hundred times in this blog. Click here to view some of those discussions, if you'd like to learn more about the reasonable evidences for the Christian faith.

Let's jump forward. Given that the modern man's suppositions don't seem to hold up, there is only one direction to turn. We must turn toward the roots of western civilization: Christianity. The west was built by Christianity, by it's stabilizing moral function, in Europe as well as the United States.

How does God come to us? How do we come to him? The experiences are extremely diverse. Paul saw Jesus on the damascus road. Today much the same is reported in areas of the world like India and China. Christ appears to them directly. Yet for many over history, it's been quite different.

For William Wilberforce, it was a ride in a carriage with a believer who shared his faith along the journey. For Charles Colson it was on a drive home after being told about Jesus, and sobbing uncontrollably until he had to pull his car over because he couldn't see well enough to drive. For Ravi Zacharias it was coming to faith in Christ after a suicide attempt at age seventeen. For C.S. Lewis, it was reading G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man. For G.K. Chesterton it was investigating the arguments for atheism and finding them severely lacking. For the NFL football player Deion Sanders it was winning a Superbowl, ordering a Lamborghini and feeling desperately empty at the moment of his greatest achievement. For Bill Wilson founder of the twelve steps, it was a bright flash of light in his hospital room after he called out: "If there's a God out there show yourself!" For author Eric Metaxas it was a dream of pulling a golden fish from a frozen lake of consciousness. For rock musician Brian Welch (leader singer of Korn) it was being addicted to Meth and reading the scripture which read: "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." For Annie Lobert it was calling out to Jesus for help in depths of prostitution and drug addiction. For journalist Lee Strobel it was investigating the historical Jesus. For Mark Driscoll it was walking into a fraternity party and feeling himself stopped at the door by a voice telling him that such a life wasn't meant for him. For Nabeel Qureshi it was fighting to defend his Muslim beliefs and being convinced by the love presented by a friend who was a Christian.

And then there's me. God presents himself in a million different ways. Naturally an omniscient God would do just that. There isn't really a set pattern. It's very often quite different for everyone. There are many roads to the cross of Jesus Christ. Much of my work on this blog is to draw roads to the cross. And to let people know that they don't have to be a khaki button up shirt evangelical to know Jesus. You can be an intellectual, a scientist, nerd, goth, hipster, indie rocker, college professor, architectural engineer, occupier, libertarian, liberal, conservative, skidrow bum, rich banker, poor garbage truck driver, American, eastern mystic, western new ager, southern baptist, northern materialist, and anything else you could imagine. God doesn't require joining a stiff church congregation, taking up frisbee golf, or agreeing to be boring or listen to cheesy Christian rock, or convert to being a thin lipped judgmental bore who lifts their nose and says "I don't believe I'd wish to do that, that looks like it might be fun."

God simply says, come to me and give me your heart, believe in my son Jesus Christ, and follow him.

He bid me to do the same, in a special way. He saw me in trouble. He saw me believing a lot of lies. He saw me addicted and troubled. He saw me self sufficient maybe, but entirely empty. God put a Bible in my hands. He gave me dreams that made me want to search for the truth. He taught me how to be a seeker. He guided me along the path. And he stepped into my writings, and showed me a way out of the wilderness. God put the gospel of John in front of me, which I watched, read, listened to, and observed hundreds of times. Finally it broke through my skull: Call out to Jesus for help. And I did just that. I called out to Jesus, and abandoned myself to his care in a very real way.

Then everything in my life changed. I know it sounds cliche. But it's true.

There was of course a long progression to that point, over years. Up until age 20 I had absolutely no interest in any amount of higher learning what so ever. You might say I was a materialist, but I wasn't really anything. I just did whatever felt good. And screw the rest! Eventually I started attending college, and learned to love reading and writing. After daily journaling regarding philosophy and life and reality, and morals and principles and the human condition it wasn't until 2007 that I began to accept that perhaps there was something to spirituality. I started off as a sort of esoteric new ager, dabbling in whatever felt right. Tarot cards, zodiac signs, all of that stuff. It wasn't until 2011, on a quiet morning watching humming birds buzz about the front yard flowers that I came to the revelation that "God is everywhere." From there I began exploring the various faiths, and then in 2012 I called out to Jesus Christ for help. It wasn't a short road to get there. God meets us at many points in our lives. He is the grand weaver. And as it has been said: His brush is time.

The Christian worldview. It's reasonable. It's right. The evidence is everywhere. The witnesses are many. I've been touched. So can you. And you should. We should all know the meaning of life: Coming to know the creator of life. Coming to know the one who made the world and you and me. That is the meaning of life itself, coming to know the God who made humanity, through Jesus Christ the savior who sets us right, because let's just be real: We all need a savior. The world is a rough place. We all need a savior. That one should be easy to tell.

Redemption is the meaning of life. Jesus Christ is the way. Is it really such a stretch? Is it really so hard to believe? We're all hurtling through space on a rock, yet we can't believe in miracles? We've all heard of the genocides and world wars, yet we can't believe we need a savior? We've all felt the emptiness without him, yet we can't seem to see that we should know God?

Pray to God. Talk to him. He is available now. Not later, now. Talk to him! Say something! Begin that journey! It's worth it. The answer to the riddle of the meaning of life was not what I necessarily wanted to hear. But it was what I needed to hear. Trust me, it's real. Ask God to reveal himself. Be a seeker. Pursue the truth. He will reveal himself. Thank you for reading.

Heavenly Father, I pray you would reveal yourself to the one reading these words, who seeks to know what the truth is about you. In Christ, Amen.

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Sunday, June 7, 2015

Christianity in the Public Square: The Apologetics & Philosophy Renaissance

Christianity in the public square? For the public good? The people of the United State are divided in many ways, but in this area the consensus seems to be: Sure you can practice your religion, as long as you do it behind closed doors on Sunday. Of course a religion that only functions an hour a week on Sunday and is silent the rest of the week is useless, pointless, and might as well be discarded. Freedom of religion must, and indeed does, by definition, mean freedom to practice that faith at all times, in the public square, at work, at home, and everywhere in between. We the people of the United States do not have freedom of speech to talk about the weather, we have freedom of speech so we may freely proclaim controversial views.
We seem to be at a watershed moment in our history as a nation. All of the shared values of the past are being called into question. Many things that were once considered sacred are no longer considered such, like marriage and sexual intimacy. What might be considered "traditional moral views"are often disregarded by a growing movement that insists on "our way or the highway" with an added hashtag "#tolerance." Tolerance indeed. Perhaps better stated "tolerance if you agree, but intolerance if you disagree with our opinion." Or "endorse or we will punish you."
Issues unrelated to civil rights have been portrayed as civil rights movements. If I were to say, "I'm an alcoholic, stop oppressing me, and just let me drink. Oh and by the way, you need to endorse that position or my buddies are going to get you fired from your job" you would think I was crazy. Yet issues of mental health and unhealthy behavior are being portrayed just like that, despite the scientific, medical, and sociological evidence to the contrary.
The very crux of the situation is this: We have been sold on the lie that the United States, in the public square and in the realm of government must be divorced entirely from Judeo-Christian values for the sake of fairness. The idea of cutting off the United States from Judeo-Christian influence is painted as the only way to allow for a freedom of thought. But one might as well core an apple and see how long the peel stands without it. The United States was founded on freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The founders of our great nation knew full well, that the Constitution governing the people of the country was only an effective document if implemented for the governance of a religious people.
The view was simple, the founders knew they did not want a theocracy (a government ruled by religious authorities). But they also knew that the USA could only function if the people were moral, and spiritual. So they used the term "God" often, on the print currency, on government buildings, in various legal documents, in the pledge of allegiance, and in the declaration of independence. The idea was that faith was reasonable, logical, and indeed many hold to religious convictions. That needed to be encouraged. They would leave the specific "God" open, so that people would have the freedom of religion (not from, but of) to fill that in with whatever God they worshiped. And if the individual did not worship any God, well, then they would not be compelled to. But they may have to be occasionally "offended" by the word "God" on money, government buildings, and other areas of society. And that was acceptable. Sometimes, well, people can just be offended.
Is it any surprise then, as the people of the USA have discarded moral behavior and spiritual thought, the United States has had to become increasingly authoritarian with endless pages of laws and statutes to prevent every manner of behavior destructive to society. Or as the philosopher G.K. Chesterton said, "If man will not be ruled by the ten commandments they will be ruled by the ten thousand commandments." It seems he was right. A deeply moral and religious nation doesn't need authoritarian governance, and for a depraved population, even an authoritarian government won't be enough to keep it standing.
It seems the voices that want to endorse any and all behavior the culture of the moment deems "good" fails to learn from history. The ancient Roman empire was in just the state we are in now when it fell to internal corruption and external powers noticing her weakness. For anyone who has studied in depth the fall of ancient Rome, the similarities are absolutely striking. Click here to read an article I wrote on just that topic.
Faith is at the very core of our being as a nation. In fact people all across the planet are deeply influenced by religious thought. It is at the core of the human nature, the desire to know a transcendent power. This is the case for not just the United States people, but of all thinking humans on Earth. In fact, 84% of the population of the planet hold to a religious view (32% of them being those confessing to follow Jesus Christ)(Statistics from a 2012 survey).
Unfortunately the process of secularization continues in the United States. Yet this was not ever what was intended for our nation. In fact over our nation's we've always had the Bible taught in public schools. The Ten Commandments and other spiritual statements were placed on buildings and in the official documents of the nation, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This was not just from the founding of the nation, but also throughout the history of the nation, up until the 1940s and 1950s.
It was then that the US Supreme court began handing down some very troubling decisions regarding the future of our nation. Those decisions have indeed been truly terrible in their scope. Since Roe v. Wade over 56 million children have been exterminated at abortion clinics. Not to mention today those abortion clinics are state funded. Since the shifts in scientific thought surrounding the scopes trial, the Bible was banned from public schools by the Supreme court in 1963. Prayer was banned from public schools in 1962 (Engel v. Vitale). Since then the teen suicide rate has tripled.
Unfortunately in our country something is taking place called secularization. Secularization is the process by which religious institutions have lost their social significance. Secularization could also be defined as the process by which Christian thought is evicted from the public square and government body.
Many have celebrated this as a good thing. They say "why should one religion be forced on anyone?" Christians back-peddle in the face of this argument. Yet is this a good argument? The United States, our form of government, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence were all directly and indirectly informed by Christian principles. There is no way to entirely disconnect the government of the United States from Judeo-Christian values. One might as well try to rewrite the entire form of government. Though I imagine many would like to. President Obama himself has called the Constitution a deeply flawed document.
There is no need to disconnect Christian principles from the US government. If Christian ethics inform the United States government, her leaders, politicians, and laws, so be it. And if that "offends" people, then it's high past time that we let them be offended. Maybe they need to be offended for a while. Maybe it's time that we stop worrying about offending people. If a law were passed to outlaw everything that offends this person or that person, then everything would be illegal.
There are in fact a few things that offend me. Do you know what offends me? I'm offended by the depravity on the television screen. I'm offended by LGBT activists shutting down mom and pop pizzerias. I'm offended by the naturalist religion taught in public schools. I'm offended by the decline and death of morality in the public square. I'm offended by the war on religious freedom. But it doesn't matter what offends me. It doesn't matter at all. The most important thing to consider is this: What will allow for the best possible future for the United States?
There is an incredible drive in my home country, the USA, to cut out the Protestant ethos, the Christian ethic, and toss it aside. History is rewritten in many ways, in the hearts and minds of young people. No mention is made of the many, many good deeds of great Christian men and women across the ages. But the bad is emphasized, underlined, boldened, and even worse, exaggerated, and many times simply made up on the spot. Eventually the general mindset is that religion is always bad, and on inspection has led to nothing but suffering and darkness for the body of man. Yet upon my own inquiry, actually studying events... I found that it wasn't true.
I had never been told that the first hospitals and orphanages were devised by Christians. I had never been told universities in the United States were largely founded by Christians. I had never been told many of the founders held seminary degrees. I had never been told of Bonhoeffer, Wilberforce, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, the Salvation Army, or any of the other giants of history. I had been told of the crusades, yet no one had mentions they were in response to the Muslim invasion of Europe. I had even been led to believe that the dark ages were the fault of Christians. But I discovered that too was false. I had never been told, history had been preserved in the monasteries of Christians during those times. I had been told about the religious wars that ever rage, yet upon inquiry I had discovered that the most brutal genocides had been committed by dedicated Marxists and atheists (Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, and the Cambodian Genocide). I believe they call that revisionist history?
So what is at stake? What is the problem with evicting the Judeo-Christian ethic? Myself, and many others believe it will lead to nothing less than the collapse of western civilization. Many will respond that such a thing could never happen. Really, is that so? Consider what has happened already. The family has really totally collapsed. 50% of marriages now end in divorce. Culture has declined and sexual depravity, and media depravity are on an incredible rise. The atheist, agnostic, liberal is generally unphased by that argument. But here is where their ears perk up: Look at the growing corruption in business, economics, and government. That is one thing both liberal and conservative can clearly see. It is a very serious problem. The recent great recession underlines the issue. What happens when our business leaders live out the new values of the culture: moral relativism, post modernism, and naturalism? Corruption grows by leaps and bounds. I think we all take note when the moral problems of the nation begin to adversely affect our bank accounts.
Thankfully, it's not all bad news. I'm seeing a turning of the tide in our country. I'm seeing a new great awakening. It's a sort of apologetics and philosophy renaissance in this country. A Christian awakening. Some have called it an emerging evangelical intelligentsia, with a power to influence culture. I'm deeply encouraged by this new movement. Many are standing up for religious liberty, including people like Frank Turek, Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, William Lane Craig, and Eric Metaxas. It's a beautiful thing to witness, Godly Christian men standing for their principles. There is much hope left. We have reason for hope, faith, and to be pleased and encouraged. I walked in with the bedrock laid, and now I stand on much of what will help turn the tide in our great nation. And we will. I promise you, we will. But you, the reader, must stand with us. Please do, in the name of Jesus Christ, the savior of all people, of all nations.
The best moments in the history of the United States have been the enlightenments, the temperance movements, and the great awakenings. Our best moments as a people tend to be when it's all on the line. Consider the valiant charge of good men to the front lines of World War II. Consider how Americans noticed a rising evil, and didn't think, they didn't stutter step, they simply brandished their weapons like giants, walking to the front lines, voices silent, eyes shining like the glass of a church window, indwelt by the Spirit of God to change history, and change the world forever. And change the world they did. They swept across Europe driving the enemy back on all fronts, and ended the war. They won the day.
So how can it done? We must ask ourselves, how can we prevent the destruction of our way of life? Don't be mistaken, it is on the line.
It would take a uniting of the various strands of the Christian movements in the United States. Protestant groups, Catholics, Lutherans, Christian apologetics ministries, Christian charities, Young Earth, Old Earth, small churches, mega-churches, influential leaders, bloggers, writers, Christian newspapers, Christian websites, and most important, ordinary everyday Christians all aiming to stand for religious liberty, Christian ethics, the end of abortion, and dedication to change culture. Evangelism is vital. Getting loud about our faith is so important. Standing our ground is a must. Most important we must petition the Lord daily in prayer, and just as importantly, live for him in public, with love, humility, and dignity.
We face some very powerful, entrenched strongholds. Those strongholds must be taken. They are the strongholds of the public schools, the mainstream television media outlets, the major universities of this country, Congress, and the Supreme court. If we keep avoiding those strongholds and calling it "impossible" then we'll have to keep fighting a losing battle. These are the institutions that keep us on the defensive, continuously falling back. Why? The reason should be obvious. Those institutions shape the minds of young people. The naturalists and atheists were smart, they knew which institutions to move in on. And now they're entrenched. They've evicted the Bible, and their ideologies are taught in public schools, universities, and largely in all the media outlets. That is an untenable situation for the future of Christianity in the USA. If those institutions are not retaken, there isn't much hope.
I called it an apologetics and philosophy renaissance. But those are actually the words of William Lane Craig. Why apologetics and philosophy? The answer is: Because people are hungry for answers. Young people are hungry for answers. Young people are tired of all the scams and schemes, they're tired of people trying to take their money and use them. They want to know the truth. They want to know what it all means. Within the realm of apologetics and philosophy we translate the words of the Bible for people of today to connect to in a real way.
In a lot of ways, in our society, we have to watch out for scams. We have to watch our for people trying to con us. Many assume Christianity, at least stateside, is about taking your money. Just dressed up differently. In fact a lot of things in our country are dressed up ways for somebody take your money. Some might even argue college has become something like that even. I remember my sister telling me she had graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin, but upon graduation they wanted to charge her an extra $100.00 for the honors cord, so she elected to skip honors. Ridiculous, don't you think? So when I tell someone that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life the first thought is inevitably going to be: "Why? Why should I believe that? What evidence can you show me that this is true?"
That's where Christian apologetics come in. Christian apologetics is the practice of Christians going about apologizing for being so religious. Just kidding. Apologetic comes from the ancient Greek word "apologia" which means to give an answer, to give a defense of the reason for faith in God. Christian apologetics is analogous to what the apostle Paul did when he spoke to the Greeks at Mars Hill.
Acts 17:22-31 (NIV)

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Did the apostle Paul quote the Bible to the people of Athens? No he didn't. Paul most certainly did quote the Old Testament when he taught Jews about Jesus, because Jews believed in the authority of the scriptures. But the ancient Greeks did not. If a Christian tells you that we're going to win over atheists and agnostics by quoting them scriptures, they've missed the incident at Mars Hill. Did you notice what Paul did in his apologia?

He did several very important things:

1. Notice how he was polite. He went out of his way to compliment the Greeks. He calls them a deeply religious people (v. 22). Paul is polite and nowhere does he rebuke the Greeks. He doesn't throw it in their face that they're decadent pagans, or insult their false gods. In fact he works hard to find common ground.

2. Notice how Paul built a bridge by describing the altar to the unknown god (v. 23). He continues to build the bridge by correcting the Greeks in several areas, and indicating what God is truly like. He completes the bridge by relating the truth about God to what the Athenian poets are already saying about men being the offspring of god (v. 28). Paul then invites the Greeks over the bridge through a request to have a change of mind and move to God through Christ (v. 30, 31).

3. The third thing Paul did was he encouraged the Greeks to pursue a relationship with God. Paul suggests the idea of seeking God, and finding him (v. 27).

The Christian of today seeks to do the same with the current western culture through apologetics. We look into the natural world and see God's footprints. In astronomy we see design. In history we see evidence. In archaeology we see confirmation. In biology we see information. In mathematics we see probability. In logic we see reason. In philosophy we see truth. In Christ we see love. In the manuscripts we see inerrancy. In the scriptures we see God.
Western man has often been sold the lie that Christian thought is basically a fool believing something that is contrary to reality. That is what men like Richard Dawkins indicate. However that is most certainly false. Christian faith is reasonable faith, in a reasonable God who does in fact existence. There are many evidences for that God, many of which we have discussed on this website. Perhaps the most powerful evidence for the existence of God is the argument from design (the fine tuning argument). Of course there are many other ways to approach the topic, from historical verification, archaeology, textual criticism, and other areas. But I would say the best arguments come from science ironically, the discipline often used by naturalists to explain away creationism. Yet the universe had a beginning, and everything that has a beginning has a cause. Given the scope of the universe, it's cause must be timeless, omnipotent, and outside the system much like... God. Can you see how this can be put to powerful use toward the minds of skeptics, liberals, agnostics, and uninterested parties? Yet how many times have I been told "love is the answer" and then been rebuked? Quite a few.
Of course once the apologetics are presented, Christian philosophy helps to put the faith into practice. Christian philosophy helps us to coordinate the facts of the Bible into a strategic framework, into a coherent worldview that answers the pertinent questions of the day like: Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? What morals should govern a society? And what is my ultimate destiny?
Do you see what I'm getting at? The only way to win the culture is 1) Retake corrupted social, government, and media institutions and 2) Bring the lost to a loving relationship with Jesus Christ.
Can it be done? I believe it can. And it must. The time it late. The board is set. The pieces are moving. It has begun. God is with us. Godspeed. 1 O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!

2 Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." "Selah"

3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. "Selah"

5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.

6 I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.

7 Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

8 From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. "Selah"

Expert Testimony: Intelligent Design, Archaeology, and the Historical Jesus

The Great American Culture War: Religious Liberty, Gay Rights, Naturalism & the Christian faith

Five Powerful Speeches on the USA that Touched my Heart

How to trigger a Great Awakening

Mighty Men, Men of Valor, Men of Honor, Men of Renown

What is the Gospel?

Does man need God in Western Civilization: Young People are Hungry for the Truth

Real Christianity: Clothing, Buildings, Money, & Extravagance

Christians in Politics: A Brief Analysis of Issues

Monday, May 4, 2015

The Existence of God

The Existence of God

1. The Design of the Universe

"We have only to see a few letters of the alphabet spelling our name in the sand to recognize at once the work of an intelligent agent. How much more likely, then is the existence of an intelligent Creator behind human DNA, the colossal biological database that contains no fewer than 3.5 billion "letters" - the longest "word" yet discovered?" –John Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?, p. 75.

“Discoveries of the last half of the 20th century have brought the scientific community to the realization that our universe and our planet in the universe are so remarkably unique that it is almost impossible to imagine how this could have happened accidentally, causing many agnostic scientists to concede that indeed some intelligent creative force may be required to account for it.” –Dr. Walter Bradley, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Texas A & M

“When you analyze all of the most current affirmative evidence from cosmology, physics, astronomy, biology, and so forth...the positive case for an intelligent designer becomes absolutely compelling.” –Jonathan Wells

2. The Hiddenness of God

"Either God exists, or he does not...Let us weigh the gain and the loss in betting that God exists...If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing. Do not hesitate then, to gamble on His existence." –Blaise Pascal, French scientist and theologian, quoted in Harold Sala, Why You Can Have Confidence in the Bible, p. 159

"The chief reason people do not know God is not because He hides from them but because they hide from Him." –John Stott

“God maintains a delicate balance between keeping his existence sufficiently evident so people will know he's there and yet hiding his presence enough so that people who want to choose to ignore him can do it. This way, their choice of destiny is really free.” –J.P. Moreland

Thursday, April 23, 2015

The Great American Culture War: Religious Liberty, Gay Rights, Naturalism & the Christian Faith

The United States once again finds herself at a crossroads.   The lines have been drawn. The shots have been fired. The culture war seems to rage on endlessly. Left vs. right. Liberal vs. Conservative. Secular vs. Christian. These are some of the most difficult and muddy issues to delve into. But an answer must be found. A solution must be possible, right?

What's really happening here in our country? What's the reason? Is there any way out of this predicament?

I find myself on the conservative Christian side of this present culture war. Yet only ten years ago I was very much a dedicated liberal non-religious individual. I've seen the battle from both sides.

The culture war is very troubling to me. It keeps me up at night. I read about it on social media, and get aggravated. I feel the weight of it. The burden of it is heavy. And I fear for the future of the great nation I call home.

The United States has always been a diverse bunch of misfits and heroes. Many of the founders were Christians with seminary degrees. Still others were agnostic or atheist, deeply interested in philosophy, science, and invention. The diversity has grown as millions have migrated to the USA. The United States has prospered a great deal from diversity.

In the history of the United States there have been philosophical enlightenments as well as great awakenings and temperance movements. It seems to me that the current liberal side of the culture war is a development from the American enlightenment and scientific breakthroughs of the United States. And it seems to me that the current conservative side of the culture war is a product of the great awakenings and temperance movements within the United States. The interesting thing is that from a perspective of being on both sides of the culture war, one notices that each side tends to function in keeping the other side honest.

Women were oppressed in the United States in the past. Slavery and prejudice were tolerated by the public for many years throughout the history of the USA. The family has at times been oppressive to children. And yes, those holding to LGBT sexual preferences were treated shamefully by many who held to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Yet those same teachings said "Love thy neighbor, and pray for those who persecute you" (Mark 12:31, Matthew 5:44). Even more shamefully still, Priests were found to have sexually abused children. Yet Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them" (Luke 18:16). Thank God that liberals, progressives, and some conservatives have had the courage to decry loudly these tragic injustices.

Yet in the past 10 years in this country we've seen the coin flipped the other way. Christianity is openly mocked in the academic institutions of the United States. Religion is considered to be, well, always bad and always oppressive. Those holding to conservative Christian views are often decried as bigots, homophobes, and racists in the public square. Opposition is silenced. Secular humanism is the new ethic. LGBT is pure and good, traditional views are considered corrupt and always suspect. Those supporting traditional marriage are bullied and forced to resign from their jobs, or forced to close their businesses. Sex is fine before, during, and after marriage, because well, we say so. Modernity has replaced all the backwards views of religious fanatics, and we have converted many of the Christians to our sexual views, and the hold outs won't last much longer under the onslaught of science, modernity, and sanity! Many such statements were made in a recent New York Times article.

The latest manifestation of the culture war is the Indiana controversy over a religious liberty bill passed by the state legislature. The LGBT community lead by George Takei assaulted the state of Indiana over the religious liberties bill which they said could be used to turn away homosexuals from local businesses. George Takei called for a boycott of no less than the entire state of Indiana over the religious liberty bill. Later Charles Barkley chimed in calling for the NCAA to move out of Indiana permanently. Arkansas passed a bill shortly after, and once again the call went out to boycott another state. Yet 20 other states have bills passed quite similar to the bills in Indiana and Arkansas. No cries have gone out to boycott businesses in those states though.

Conservative newspapers, online and otherwise came out explaining how other states have similar laws on the books. Then liberal newspapers came out and explained why Indiana's bill is different. Still other conservative newspapers explained why those liberal newspapers are wrong, and that the difference is marginal.

I read an article written by Hans Fiene a Lutheran minister explaining that the current mass support for gay marriage is the millennial generation embracing a revolutionary cause that requires no effort or sacrifice to embrace. He called it Selma envy. Click here to read that article.

The situation developed further when a small family owned pizzeria was forced to close it's doors. The owners went into hiding, all from the onslaught of LGBT activists threatening them and blasting them for a rather mild interview with a local media outlet in which they said they would probably not cater for a gay wedding. Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic, a supporter of gay marriage wrote an article titled "Should Mom-and-Pops that forgo Gay weddings be Destroyed?" in which he indicated that LGBT activists shutting down business owners is not an ethical approach to achieve their ends.

The liberal solution to these issues, like gay marriage, women's rights, racism, and so on is for the bullied to become the bully. But that cannot be the solution. It only leads to culture war. Both sides of this debate don't seem to understand that we need each other. We check and balance one another. We keep each other honest.

Yet I'm a conservative Christian. I won't stand by and allow the United States to crumble under the weight of a new bullying majority. But let's table that for a minute. The real question is very basic: Is homosexuality wrong? Or is it dangerous and/or harmful to society?

The Bible says homosexuality is wrong (Romans 1:24-27). But let's table that too for the moment. What does the science say? What do the studies say? According to Mayo clinic, those engaging in homosexuality activity are at greater risk for diseases like AIDS. Sexual intercourse through the rectum can be damaging over time, because simply, it wasn't designed for sexual use. Long term irritation of the bowels can lead to cancer and chronic irritation. (further statistics on medical concerns regarding homosexuality).

Of course people are outraged when you bring up those facts. Then come the ad hominem attacks. They call you a bigot, homophobe, racist, sexist, and so on. People will attack personally when they don't have a counter argument for your arguments. Don't insult me, give me a good counter argument.

Is homosexuality socially destructive? The raw facts say that it is. But once again, the gay activists will raise the noise, and try to bully people into silence. Why don't they deal with the arguments? Why does the US government need to endorse an activity that is medically dangerous and socially destructive? I just don't understand it. Yet the current Supreme Court seems to ignore the Constitution time and again, and rubber stamp such destructive behavior as legal and acceptable. Should the government encourage destructive behavior? Of course not. Yet that's what is happening. Click here to watch a video where author Frank Turek breaks down the issue of gay marriage and it's ramifications for society.

Religious liberty is an extremely important issue. Christians and non-Christians a like need to stand up for freedom of religion. Freedom of religion is inexorably linked to personal liberty, and Libertarians ought to remember that as well.

Those in the LGBT community should be treated with dignity and respect. All people should be treated with dignity, love, and respect. The Bible commands all Christians to love their neighbors. Love and respect is vital. But we as Christians have the freedom to disagree with gay marriage, while still loving and respecting those on the other side. Love does not mean "I agree with your views on everything." Love means we can disagree respectfully, and still love and tolerate one another. But don't let anyone sell you on the idea that you must hate or fear them if you don't agree with their views on sexuality. Yet that is the lie being perpetrated. That somehow my support for traditional marriage makes me a bigot or a monster. Most certainly, that is a total fabrication. People are very afraid to stand up on this issue of marriage, because the LGBT community has gotten very hostile. As much as they call for tolerance, they seem to be a very intolerant bunch. This group seems to try to claim the moral high ground, yet their actions make it clear that they do not have the moral high ground. Yet many Christians seem to concede to that, because the call of being a "bigot" is such a severe claim. Of course it's total nonsense. Ad hominem once again, the science and psychology indicates that homosexuality is detrimental to society and the individual. Yet I'm the bigot. If a bigot is someone intolerant of another's beliefs, then many in the LGBT community are guilty of being bigoted toward religious faith and traditional marriage views.

“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.” -Rick Warren

Why should Christians care? This is an issue by which all people of faith are being attacked. Religious liberty is under attack. It's a divisive issue by which all Christianity is dismissed as backwards and false. And some Christians are caving to pressure, and endorsing gay marriage. Recently a liberal branch of the Presbyterian church embraced gay marriage. That makes it a very important issue for the people of the United States.

Yet I would say that the gay marriage issue is a symptom of a greater problem. The problem is that we have religion being taught in our public schools today. What you say? How can that be you say? Yes, I'm afraid it's true. Unproven beliefs are taught in all public schools. A total worldview based on presuppositions and unproven beliefs is being taught in public schools, a religion: the religion of naturalism.

The underpinning is simple: Everything in reality must be described within the natural world, natural terms. If something doesn't fit that construct, it's disregarded.

"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door." -Professor Richard Lewontin, a geneticist (and self-proclaimed Marxist)

No spiritual views may be taught, no possibility of intelligent design may be mentioned. Creationist scientific interpretations are rejected in favor of naturalistic interpretations of the data.

The underlying philosophy in the United States seems to be that religious views must be excluded from all areas of society. That is insanity, given a historical perspective of the United States. The nation was founded for the governance of a religious society. The religion was not forced, yet the hints were placed everywhere. The society was considered functioning "under God." The ten commandments were placed on buildings. And there was nothing wrong with that. No one was being forced. Maybe a few were "offended" but then fine, let them be offended! The government may make reference to those ideas because they are universal. The government of the USA was designed for the governance of a religious people, and the Constitution was considered useless to govern anyone but a religious people. By making reference to biblical beliefs the government was not endorsing those beliefs, but they were vital to the framework of the nation. It showed that religious views were universal, reasonable, and logical. In fact many of our laws are based on those moral beliefs, the belief that the universe is a moral place. When a homosexual decries religious people for their "bigoted" attitude, that individual is assuming that he or she lives in a universe governed by objective morality. Where did that belief come from? The Judeo-Christian worldview. There will never be a theocracy in the United States. We don't want or need one. But detaching all society from any mention of the Bible or the Christian worldview will lead to the destruction of society itself. By forcing naturalism on the US population through the public school system, well, we have seen the results. Each generation of young people becomes progressively more and more depraved. As a result less and less people are willing to be a law unto themselves, so more and more laws must be put on the books to protect people from each other. Or as the philosopher G.K. Chesterton put it,“If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.” So more and more, the United States becomes a police state governed by innumerable laws. There are so many vague and oddly stated laws on the books in the United States that it's estimated that the average American commits three felonies a day without even realizing it. Click here to learn more about the problem of authoritarian governance.

Is it any wonder that Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court have become so corrupt? When the Judeo-Christian ethic is jettisoned, where does the ethic come from? Personal opinion? The corruption in business and banking is destroying the United States. Those same businesses and banks then get their hands into the political process, and we have our present state: a Congress with billions of dollars flowing into it from special interest groups. There are 11,500 lobbyists at work in Washington D.C. Very simply, the mass bribery is destroying the economy, and eroding trust in the government process. Much of the corruption being seen can be attributed to the secularization of American society.

The logical outworking of naturalism, or darwinism, is a society of dog eat dog. There is no reason for moral behavior, one must find a way to scam or conquer the others and spread their DNA as far and wide as possible, correct? Most certainly that is the case. Secular humanism really has no reason behind it, it is simply borrowing the Christian ethic and redressing it with secular language. (Michael Ramsden's a noted apologist expounds on the grounding of naturalism in an excellent presentation on living the faith. Click here to view/read that.)

It's best stated by atheist Professor John Gray in his book Straw Dogs: "Modern humanism is the faith that through science humankind can know the truth — and so be set free. But if Darwin’s theory of natural selection is true this is impossible. The human mind serves evolutionary success, not truth. To think otherwise is to resurrect the pre-Darwinian error that humans are different from all other animals. The idea of humanity taking charge of its destiny makes sense only if we ascribe consciousness and purpose to the species; but Darwin’s discovery was that species are only currents in the drift of genes. The idea that humanity can shape its future assumes that it is exempt from this truth." (Ibid., 4)

I've often said, and not exclusively in jest: If one studies religion at a major university (Harvard, Princeton, Yale) aren't they in fact studying pre-suppositional secular humanism? The arrogance and presumption of these religion departments is astounding in their approach to the scriptures of the Bible. They approach it with intense skepticism, ruling out any possibility of the supernatural, approaching scriptures with the eyes of naturalism, excluding any possibility that the scriptures might mean what they say, and instead declare their own superiority over the scriptures, altering them to be interpreted through the lense of ascribing all meaning and worldview within those scriptures to local culture and mythos. Their approach is such an absurd act of unmitigated gall the casual observer might as well call it egotistical blasphemy. Oh the irony, that schools like Harvard now turn out "Secular Humanist Chaplains." What, I wonder, are they standing on? According to the atheist Prof. John Gray, they stand on nothing less than the Judeo-Christian ethic, stripped of Christian terms and redressed with humanist philosophy.

When the public schools indoctrinate children into naturalism, is it any wonder that the United States is becoming a post-Christian culture? All the power of the Christian churches across the USA cannot fight that kind of indoctrination. Is it any wonder then, given the public schools, that universities (many started by Christians) now unquestioningly adhere to the Darwinist, Marxist, Freudian view of reality? The final piece of this worst case scenario is the mainstream media, radically secular, dedicated to mocking the church and the Christian faith: the television, internet, and print news media. Included is Hollywood, and day time television, filled to the brim with every manner of depravity, temptation, violence, and sexual sin. These three keys: public schools, universities, and the media, matched with the corrupt US Congress and Supreme Court leave the Christian majority disarmed and facing a radically shifting paradigm.

These three strongholds must, must, must be retaken by US Christians: the public school, the university system, and the mainstream media. Otherwise in 100 years Christianity will be a myth in the United States. Why? Because all of those institutions manufacture the minds of young people. And young people are the key to the future. Hitler himself said give me their minds before their 7, and they'll be Nazi's until they die. Well the naturalists have claimed the minds of young people. The result has been horrendous. There are many statistics. One telling statistic is that since Bible's were banned from public schools the suicide rate among teenagers has tripled. Let that sink in for a few minutes.

When you think about it.. everything in our society is false. People stare at screens in their living rooms, screens at work, screens in their pockets. Society exterminates unwanted children by the millions in clinics. Child sacrifice is legal, sacrificed to selfishness and "sexual freedom." Banks and corporations run Congress. Bombs drop in the middle east. Minimum wage keeps the poor getting poorer and corporate subsidies keep the rich always getting richer. Christianity is mocked, self worshiping "spirituality" is encouraged. Lies are everywhere. Temptation for food, alcohol, prestige, and sex are constantly blasted from the media outlets. Children are trained in naturalism indoctrination centers they call "public schools." No Bibles, and no praying allowed in public schools (though they were allowed there for hundreds of years prior.) The Supreme court says gay marriage is fine, despite the clear science indicating that the practice is medically dangerous and socially harmful. Hospitals (originally started by Christians) have become secular money making machines for the medical industrial complex. Universities (originally started by Christians) are now largely training grounds for Darwinist, Marxist, Freudian ideologies that mock and denigrate people of faith and appose liberty, democracy, and free thought. Hollywood, Disney, and the mainstream media feed the population depravity, and make sin seem cool while good is portrayed as boring. The number one cause of death in the USA is heart disease, and obesity, cancer, and diabetes are skyrocketing due to the processed, genetically modified, chemical filled food that Americans eat. Yet liberal sociologists, philosophers, and critics indicate that everything is fine, and anyone who follows Jesus Christ is a fool for believing in all that nonsense about love, hope, truth, forgiveness, grace, and God-forbid, hope after the grave.

“So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western Man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over--a weary, battered old brontosaurus--and became extinct.” - Malcolm Muggeridge, Vintage Muggeridge: Religion and Society

Yet the way back is simple. If Jesus Christ is real, then we must follow him out loud in truth and we will prevail against the greatest enemy. If Jesus Christ is not real, then we will fail. Since Jesus Christ is in fact really God, and alive today, the only way we can fail is if we fail to stand for what we believe in at this critical time in history. So what can you do? Speak up to your friends. Speak up on social media. Get educated on the issues. Join a political action group. Support groups like Liberty Institute, Campaign for Liberty, and Alliance defending Freedom. Write your local newspapers. Spread the word. Get active on these issues. And we can save the United States. Not by destroying those of naturalist conclusions, but by living love and standing by our convictions.

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