God Works In Interesting Ways

It's funny, because lately, I have joined an online discussion forum in which anything goes, topics wise. Several parts of the forum recently had threads along the lines of "Why I am No Longer a Christian". Little did I know that there were so many people who had an opinion of Christianity, and not a positive one. The fact that this site had predominantly Canadians and Americans of Asian descent as their user base, added extra complexity to how I was going to frame my contributions to the discussion, as the audience was going to be mostly buddhist or atheist. I wanted to read a lot of the postings and get a flavour of people's personalities and temperments before I start to delve into their points and open it to a back and forth discussion. My interest is in Biblical apologetics anyway, so I would humbly say that I am more comfortable debating the Bible and theology with non-Christians than the average church-going North American born-again believer. Still, because of the hostile tone of the posts and some of the absolutely denigrating comments made about Christianity (interestingly enough, much of this was directed at what most people think constitutes Christianity - the Roman Catholic church - from what they see in the media and movies. I had no desire, nor interest in defending Roman Catholicism, so someone else would have to do that job), I wanted to make sure that I approach my response in a constructive, logical and empathetic way (since I'm prone to do quite the opposite).

My interest was in some of the comments about the Bible and how science and theology cannot co-exist, and how the Bible is false, Christians are all hypocrites, and so forth. I have been thinking of how I would engage the discussion and I started recently by empathizing with the writers, in that I totally agree with the fact that many Christians are so awkward at arguing in these types of debates, because most of them are not familiar with what the Bible says. I will go to my grave arguing this point, and my experience has shown me that I am not wrong here. North American Christians (and I say that specifically because I know that Christians in emerging countries in Asia and South America and Africa have a deep hunger for Biblical knowledge) are generally not heavy studiers of the Bible - I can't say why, but I suspect it's probably because of too many distractions. On the flip side, every single African born-again brother or sister that I have met knows their Bible far better than most Canadian or American believers, and that is considering the fact that we in North America have abundant Bible study and resource materials. So born again believers in the Western world have some work to do. Don't argue with me on this point - I know this is true.

Anyway, I conceded that point to the posters there. I also conceded the point that they argued, which was a common one - that there is much hypocrisy in the church and amongst Christians. I couldn't argue there, but I added that the Bible, in its wisdom, already indicated that we are all sinful and there is more than enough evidence to show that followers of Christ are fall from perfect. I then challenged these posters to actually take their own advice and research the Bible for themselves rather than listening to hearsay and what not. I also agreed with their assertion that the Roman Catholic church has some absolutely ridiculous rules that were never in Scripture. Several of these posters are quite intelligent, so I was fully anticipating that the conversation would turn towards the scientific realm (let's face it, stereotype or not, many Asians have strengths and math and science). So in the last couple of days, I was meditating on this on the way home and wondering how I should respond, and asking God for direction.

Well, how's this for interesting...this morning (Wednesday, August 15), I was listening to the radio on the way to work. Now, I normally listen to CFRB (news talk radio) or The Fan 590 (sports talk radio). For whatever reason today, I decided to put the dial on AM 640 Talk Radio (which I do not listen to that often). The John Oakley show was on, and since I used to listen to John Oakley 15 years or so ago when he was on CFRB, I kept the station on, while I turned onto the highway. To my utter surprise, his special guest was non other than the head of the global human genome DNA project, the very distinguished Dr. Francis Collins. This guy has been featured in Time magazine, etc. I didn't really know much about him, but I thought, uh-oh, here's a guy who will start talking science and slam Christianity. To my utter shock, he got on the airwaves and started talking about how he once was an atheist, but when he was 20-years-of-age or so, he realized that atheism required more faith than he had, and he could not believe that the world just happened without a Creator. And on Toronto airwaves (very liberal Toronto airwaves), he came on saying, that's when he realized His need for a Saviour and gave his life over to Jesus Christ!

Holy crap! I almost swerved the car into another car as I heard this. He then went on to detail why he believes in creation and that God exists, and he even acknowledged that he had an opportunity to publicly debate (for Time magazine) the well known atheist Richard Dawkins. He only had about 20 minutes as a guest, but in those 20 minutes, he made the most of his time, arguing for Christianity, without being interrupted. I cannot tell you how blessed I was to hear this, especially given the fact that I'm going through an exchange on a forum with not only a group of non-Christians, but seemingly a group of anti-Christians. This was well timed nourishment, and it comes to show you, God knows exactly when to time this stuff to show you, there's no way this is coincidence. It also goes to show that God is with His people in their daily lives. I definitely felt a renewal of faith this morning, and to hear a top scientist, well regarded in his field, stating publicly that he is a follower of Christ, and then giving solid, logical reasons why science and faith can coexist, in an intelligent thoughtful manner, I just had to stop and thank God for these types of situations.

The Pivotal Question In Biblical Apologetics

I have a keen interest in Biblical Apologetics; that is, the practice of Biblical and Scriptural defence. I am hardly a Ravi Zacharias type, but I really find that aspect of my faith life to be one which is edifying and encouraging. That, coupled with my propensity to enjoy a good debate, has gotten me in my fair share of fruitful discussions. It has also, unfortunately, pulled me in arguments which were probably not the best venue for me to participate (only because I can be pretty opinionated, as you can probably tell by reading this here blog).

I would say that the area I will discuss all the time, without exception is Biblical study and viability. Lots of Christians over the years have said that the most important question for Christians to address with non-Christians is "did the resurrection really happen", or "did Jesus rise from the dead?" They say that the whole cornerstone of Christianity rests on that. I suppose that point can be made, but I feel (and this is just my opinion) that the most important question to address to non-believers is, "Is the Bible true?" or "Is the Bible reliable?" If the answer is yes, then that takes care of a lot of the questions with which we don't have answers or some parts of the Bible are tougher to understand. If I believe that the God of creation and the universe and the same God who created me and you, and sent Jesus to die on the cross, authored the Bible, I will be more than happy to yield to what He says in His Word, even if I don't fully understand it. I think that the fallacy of using the question of "did Jesus really rise from the dead?" as the central cornerstone question of Christianity, is that you are assuming that the non-believer accepts or assumes that the Biblical account of the life of Jesus and His subsequent death and resurrection, as told by the Bible. If they don't believe the Bible is accurate, true or authored by God Himself, guess what? It will matter little how you argue the resurrection point - which is why I believe that showing the Bible to be both a historically reliable document, but also showing that it is the Word of God (latter is harder) is the starting point in presenting the gospel message to the unbeliever. I got this sense more than a decade ago when I was doing some personal study of hermeneutics and one night in my bed, it dawned on me, "what is the point of using the Bible to argue points to a non-Christian when they don't believe in the Bible?" I agree - the Bible, as God's Word, can stand up to scrutiny and doesn't need our defending it - but from a logical perspective, I want to avoid the trap of referring to something that someone does not accept as a factual or reliable reference point.

Quick example, a few years back, a colleague of mine here at work, who also happens to be a strong Christian, is very knowledgeable on the Bible and would put me to shame often, in terms of what he can pull up. Well, we had an opportunity to discuss Christianity with a highly philosophical Jewish colleague (and a friend of mine). The Christian guy started to argue the finer points of the resurrection and about Christianity's distinctives. Guess what? The Jewish guy rejected all of the Christian's arguments, saying that they are all from the Bible and he does not accept the Bible as truth. I totally saw his point. The Christian man then totally shocked me by telling my Jewish friend "it doesn't matter whether you agree with it or not, it's still true." I thought that this was more of a defensive manoeuvre rather than an apologetic one - and it completely re-affirmed what I have thought the past decade or so. I took the conversation into a different realm, asking him what problems he has with the Bible, and that discussion went somewhere, where My Jewish friend told me he wasn't interested in talking with the Christian guy anymore. I'm not sure if I was able to convince him of anything, but at the very least, I was able to show that some of his arguments against the Bible's reliability had, at the very least, some flaws. I mean, i'm not Grant Jeffrey, so I can't argue that kind of stuff, but it does seem to indicate that being able to show the Bible as a reliable and trusted reference point is the first step. Which is why I am so gung-ho on Bible study. We can read listen to all the sermons on CD that we want, or read all the Christian books we want or listen to Christian music and attend Christian conferences and even go to Christian retreats - the problem is, if the Christian does not spend time in their Bibles, knowing God's Word - guess what? When they come across the intelligent and philosophical non-Christian who can easily deflect the standard circular arguments and worse, if they no longer can use the Bible as their point from which to make counterarguments, the Christian will be saddled with several problems in the debate.

There are a plethora of reasons to read one's Bible - to hear what God has to say to them personally, to better understand their relation to God, to know the history of their faith, and to capture guidelines and disciplines for living a life pleasing to God. But I think one of the more paramount reasons to read one's Bible is to be able to familiarize oneself with it, in the event the Christian has a witnessing opportunity. I think I can say most Christians would rather avoid having to debate the hard issues with non-Christians and I think this is sad, since that is neither the model nor the practice Jesus did Himself or expected from His followers.