Freedom to Disbelieve?

with Ravi Zacharias…

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Interview with Ravi Zacharias

Incredibly inspirational and thought-provoking interview with Ravi Zacharias and Nicky Gumbel.

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Our Post-Christian Culture

My bookshelves are loaded with countless titles that take a look at post-Christian this and post-Christian that. For years I had a sneaking suspicion that these books were a little over the top. A bit of hyperbole goes a long way. However, over the last decade or so, it’s finally dawned on me how apt the phrase, “post-Christian” is to define our own culture here in the good ol’ USA.

All the books from George Barna and his various associates that warned the church repeatedly that you can’t continue to lose generation after generation of professing Christian youth have proven most observant and/or prophetic. Of course, the church abdicating her various other responsibilities to the wider culture, not to mention the loss of any sort of distinctive Christian home, have certainly helped us achieve our present situation.

(I can remember countless comments I’ve heard over the years from folks of older generations who would often tell me something along the lines of, “In my day, we didn’t go around talking about our faith like  folks do today.” Two thoughts: First, if that premise is true, then it explains, in part, much of the loss of our culture to the secular world. My other thought is that I only wish that there were more folks today taking a stand for their faith… in every sphere of their lives.)

At any rate, I’ve read several great articles recently that focus on what “post-Christian”really means. Two fantastic articles that are well worth reading are both by James Emery White. (You can find the links below)

The Old Testament tells us that the Tribe of Issachar  consisted of men who knew the times in which they lived and were able to advise Israel regarding what it should do. The Church today is in need of  godly men and women who have not checked out but who, like foreign missionaries, know the culture in which they live, and can help steer the church as it seeks to faithfully represent our Lord and to share his Gospel with a dark and decaying world.

By the way, one of the ways to be a faithful member of the Tribe of Issachar is to subscribe and read (cover to cover) WORLD Magazine.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

The 2012 Tipping Point by James Emery White

Here’s an excerpt…

America as a nation is now, without doubt, decisively post-Christian. This does not mean is it non-Christian, or anti-Christian, simply post-Christian. To be post-Christian means that the very memory of the gospel is fading. This declaration has nothing to do with who won the election. It’s not even about the overall statement the nation made through the election on social issues. It’s about reminding those who may be in shock over the various votes and decisions that this was simply a reflection of who we have become.   Religious “nones” now make up one of every five in our nation.  To use a biblical metaphor, we have gone from an Acts 2 culture to an Acts 17 culture; we no longer live among the God-fearing Jews of Jerusalem, but reside firmly among the populace of Mars Hill.

Click here to read the whole article.

You will also want to read, Future Shock, also by James Emery White.

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How Should We Then Live? (1-1)

with Francis Schaeffer

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The Resurrection: Fact Not Fiction

with William Lane Craig

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This We Believe (by Timothy Tennent)

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Truth and the Christian Worldview: Conclusion

F.) The Person and Work of Jesus Christ

Who is Jesus Christ? Was he just a good moral teacher? Was he merely a failed political revolutionary? Perhaps he was a lunatic who just didn’t know what he was doing. Or perhaps, he was a con-artist looking to trick people into believing he was more than just a human being. Christians proclaim to the world that Jesus Christ was fully human and fully God. Furthermore, Christians claim that Jesus Christ was the Lord and Savior of the entire universe. What one believes about the person and work of Jesus Christ, orthodox Christians believe, sets the pace for where one will spend eternity. Even pluralists such as John Hick feel the weight of the question about Jesus Christ’s identity. Hick says:

“There is a direct line of logical entailment from the premise that Jesus Christ was God, in the sense that he was God the Son, the Second Person of the divine Trinity, living in a human life, to the conclusion that Christianity, and Christianity alone, was founded by God in person; and from this to the further conclusion that God must want all his human children to be related to him through his religion which he has himself founded for us.”

Indeed this is precisely what Christians have believed for 2,000 years. Norman Geisler reiterates this point. He says, “Orthodox Christianity claims that Jesus of Nazareth was God in human flesh. This doctrine is absolutely essential to true Christianity. If it is true, then Christianity is unique and authoritative. If not, then Christianity does not differ in kind from other religions.” Though a thorough investigation of this point is outside the scope of this paper, Geisler provides a good outline for what the Christian apologetic is on this point. He writes:

“The basic logic of this apologetic for Christianity is: (1) The New Testament is a historically reliable record of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ… (2) Jesus taught that he was God Incarnate… (3) Jesus proved to be God Incarnate by fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, by a miraculous life, and by rising from the grave… Therefore, Jesus of Nazareth is Deity.”

Therefore, what one believes about who Jesus Christ was and what he accomplished through his life, death and resurrection has profound implications for one’s worldview. One may believe he was not God Incarnate, not the Savior of the world, did not rise from the dead on the third day. However, in believing that, one holds contradictory beliefs from what orthodox Christians embrace. Both beliefs may be false, but only one can be true.

VII. Conclusion

It has been the goal of this paper to show the necessary relationship between truth and the Christian worldview. Because Christianity claims to be a revealed religion, it is actually a sign of humility and obedience that believers embrace, proclaim, and defend their Christian faith. To avoid or reject this responsibility is a real sign of arrogance because one presumes to know better than God. John Hick properly understood the implications of confessing that Christianity alone was founded by God. What other response could possibly be more appropriate than to confess with one’s mouth and believe in one’s heart that Christianity is true, and not merely preferable? Christians believe that if Christianity is not true, then it is merely one religious preference among many. However, Christians have historically proclaimed from the beginning, that they are the humble stewards of the one, true, and living God’s self-disclosure.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Dale

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