11 – The end of Christian apologetics

Because Christians have been convinced that religion and morals are merely matters of personal opinion, a whole apologetics industry has grown up to help Christians marshal enough evidence to persuade skeptics to consider Christianity.

Thousands of Christians attend seminars in which they listen to detailed lectures about the evidence that the Christian religion might be true. They buy books and tapes that rehearse the evidence. Many try to memorize the arguments and evidence for Christianity – in the hope that they’ll be able to remember it the next time a skeptic challenges their faith in God and Jesus.

Most Christians are intimidated by apologetics because of the complex ideas and the sheer amount of information that must be remembered. They shrink away from discussions with skeptics because they have no confidence they can remember all the arguments or can present them persuasively.

All that aside, studying apologetics is a waste of time if, down in their hearts, Christians believe it’s all really just a matter of opinion and no one actually can prove what is true. We have been convinced that Christianity has to be “taken on faith.” If a Christian believes religion and morals are matters of faith based on personal experience, he is wise to avoid witnessing to skeptics.

Such a Christian has no real truth to offer. He witnesses from a position of weakness because he has agreed with the skeptic that religion and morals are merely matters of personal opinion. Because the Christian cannot and does not challenge that premise, the skeptic continues in his disbelief, supremely confident that he can live any way he wants and never needs to give serious consideration to the Christian message.

The truth is, Christians are the ones who should be supremely confident. The scientific evidence for intelligent design and the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus establish the truth of the Christian worldview beyond reasonable doubt.

The end of Christian apologetics is at hand. Christians don’t need to pile up mountains of evidence in support of the only worldview that can be proven to be true. To the contrary, skeptics are the ones who need to justify their baseless “leap of faith” beliefs – things like:

— You can’t know what’s right and wrong.

— The world is here by chance.

— Man is just an animal.

— You can’t prove God is real.

— Jesus was just another great teacher.

All these beliefs are merely opinions. None of them is supported by even one fact that proves it is true beyond a reasonable doubt. If these beliefs were true, then religion and morals really would be merely matters of personal opinion and there would be no foundation on which to build a just, civilized society. The fact that the Western world has accepted these beliefs is the reason for the chaos we see spreading all around us.

People no longer have any reason to believe in right and wrong. If their worldview was true, God-deniers would have no right to talk about justice and injustice.

If there is to be any hope of avoiding tyranny and establishing justice, Christians must stop thinking about our faith as needing to be defended. We must trade places psychologically with the skeptics and take possession of the certainty that comes from knowing our worldview can be proven to be true. Skeptics and Christians alike have been deluded into thinking the skeptical worldview is proven by science and history, when in fact the opposite is true!

Christians must realize that we witness from a position of strength, not weakness, because our beliefs alone can be proven to be true beyond a reasonable doubt. Other belief systems truly are nothing more than irrelevant personal opinion.

Christians also must realize that our worldview provides the only basis for knowing what is right and just. Christians alone can offer the world hope for creating just, civilized society.

Think about it!
How has this chapter changed the way you think about your faith? Do you have reservations about what it says?

Get involved!
Visit http://www.apologetics.com and look for information that would help you “give a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3.15).

Next installment
12 – Relationships with skeptics

—–
Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.