Twelve weeks of fun and challenges

This Thursday Sharon and I will be starting our sixth year of apologetics classes at our church, Emmanuel Faith in Escondido. I'm really looking forward to it.

First, some background on apologetics. Many people don't know what it is--a defense of the Christian faith. We can look at science, history, and philosophy for reasons to believe the Christian message. Anyone who's interested can devote a lifetime to all the research being done in these fields.

We're looking forward to the class for several reasons. First, it's a chance to catch up with many friends. We have met some great people who share our interests in understanding Jesus, his times, manuscripts, evidence for the existence of God, and grappling with difficult issues like the problem of evil.

Secondly, we're going to try something different. Instead of reading a book or hearing someone lecture, we are  going to watch DVDs and comment on them every few minutes. We have lined up some heavy hitters in the field of apologetics--William Lane Craig, Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, J. P. Moreland, Greg Koukl, Gary Habermas, and others. Should be good.

Finally, I love the class because of feedback we get. People who had been shy about their beliefs or not sure how to answer challenges are strengthened. They get into interesting discussions with others, not in an argumentative way but as an attempt to get a conversation started.

So, this Thursday will be a lot of fun for us. there will be an interesting mix of new people as well as old familiar faces. In addition, we are happy that young people come out too. I'm afraid apologetics has a reputation of appealing only to older guys. Not true in our group.

I wish pastors and youth workers were aware of the importance of apologetics in today's world, where the Christian message is being challenged by some loud voices. It's good to know there are answers to these voices.

Final words from Chuck Colson

This will be the last blog dealing with Charles Colson's book entitled Who Speaks for God. Even though it represents some of his earlier writings, its truths still apply to our world today.

1. We Christians have fallen into a trap. We take refuge from society's decadence in our pious enclaves, and rant and rave about the culture as if it were some distant evil empire. But we forget so easily that the culture is nothing more than a collection of individuals of which we are a part – and for whom our Lord has given us a special responsibility. He has commanded us to be salt and light in the midst of the world. In Jesus's day, salt was used not only as flavoring, but more importantly, as a preservative. Meat could be saved from spoilage only when salt was rubbed in, permeating it. It is the same with the culture. Made up of sinful people, it will inevitably rot unless Christians permeate its very fiber.

2. We in the U. S . persist in believing that humanity (at least the American species) is really innately good, and can eventually be perfected through evolution and education. This belief that we can make ourselves better, and are in the process of doing so, is the very essence of humanism. It is also the most subtle and dangerous delusion of our times… This blindness to our sin can be equally pernicious. It's one reason our criminal justice system, for example, is in such a shambles. Some liberals believe that since man is really good, when he breaks the law it must be society's fault. Man is not depraved, they say, just deprived – which sounds compassionate but is deadly, destroying all sense of individual accountability.

3. Too much today, we evangelicals attempt to gauge the success of our work in terms of church membership, new construction, new programs, national publicity or prestige… Rather, we believe it as a matter of faith, and because of His promises, and we must continually use the measure of our obedience to the guidelines of His word as the real – and only – standard of our success, not some more supposedly tangible or glamorous scale. For in the last and best analysis, the real test of any ministry's success is not the number of its converts, or the size of its budget, or its reputation, or even the fruit's of its labors… God calls us, not to success, but to faith – obedience and trust and service – and He bids us to be unconcerned with measuring the merits of our work the way the world does. We are to sow; He will reap as he pleases.

Additional comments from Chuck Colson

Here's one more collection of Chuck Colson's comments from Who Speaks For God? Again, even though it's an old book, it has challenging things to say to us today.

1. The issue is not whether society is to punish, but how it is to punish. The hard truth is that prisons aren't working. In most cases they are not redemptive for the individual, nor are they effective for society.

2. TV is the single most powerful medium of communication; current studies showed that the TV set is turned on in US homes an average of seven hours per day. Though some of it is quality programming, much of it simply promotes moral decay. By the end of high school, young people have seen an average of 350,000 commercials. That is the equivalent of 1 1/2 years of eight-hour workdays – an immense amount of sales hype that saturates young minds in materialistic values.

3. So what does the Lordship of Christ mean in the TV age? First, we need to examine ourselves; values inevitably change as God works in one's life. If we aren't being offended by much of TV (not just the sex and violence, but the intelligence-insulting banality), we need to question whether we are really being "transformed by the renewing of our minds." Our discernment as Christians should cause us to turn off offensive programming. It should also make us question whether we are being good stewards of our time. After all, there are some good alternatives to TV. We can read the Bible, explore good Christian writing, spend time with our children, parents, friends.

4. A recent story appeared about a Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, who was principal architect of the Holocaust. In the show a concentration camp survivor was interviewed. This man testified against Eichmann at the Nuremberg trials. He realized Eichmann was not the godlike army officer who had sent so many to their deaths. The survivor said, "I was afraid about myself… I saw that I am capable to do this. I am exactly like he." This captures the central truth about man's nature. For as a result of the Fall, sin is in each of us – not just the susceptibility to sin, but sin itself. The 3500 years of recorded history confirm this truth. Science, evolution, and education – which Socrates argued would eliminate sin – have done nothing to alter man's moral nature. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can change our hearts. But we can't see that truth unless we first see our hearts as they really are. That being so, why is sin so seldom written or preached about? To truly confront evil – the sin within us – is a devastating experience… The result is that the message is often watered down to a palatable gospel of positive thinking to hold the audience. But it's the very heart of a Christian conversion to confront one's own sin and thus to desperately desire deliverance from it. And once we've seen our sin, we can only live in gratitude for God's amazing grace.

More from Chuck Colson

Here's more from Chuck Colson in his book Who Speaks for God? As usual, I like what he has to say--challenging. Hope you find it so as well.

1. A survey a few years back revealed that only 26% of the general public (and only 43% of evangelicals) believe Jesus Christ to be fully God and fully man. Other polls reveal that between 1963 and 1982 the percentage of Americans who believed the Bible infallible dropped from 65% to 37%. Why are Christian values in retreat across the landscape of American life? First, it is obvious that we Christians are biblically illiterate, failing miserably to educate ourselves and defend our beliefs to others… Second, equally obvious, is that the Christian worldview has been undermined by a fierce frontal assault for the past 25 years.

2. We must discern the false values of our culture. Tragically, the church has become so comfortable with the culture it can no longer see the bankruptcy of its egocentric, materialistic ways… We must study and know the holy, infallible word of God and the great theological truths of our faith… Third, we must crown him "Lord of all" as the great  hymn proclaims… Fourth, we must take the church to the people. Too often we sit in churches as spectators, waiting for the needy multitudes to come watch the show with us.… And finally, we must invade the secular marketplace. Our best writers should infiltrate the newsrooms of the New York Times and CBS. Christian scholars should debate their secular counterparts and shatter the myth that Christian faith is intellectually inferior.

3. It's not hard to see why the communists viewed the demonstration of Christian compassion as a formidable threat. After all, individual involvement – people helping people – undermines the all-powerful pretences of the central government. So totalitarian leaders have always repressed individuality. It is in the sinful nature of man – all men, by the way, not just the Stalins and Hitlers – to hunger for power. Since that appetite is insatiable, it is axiomatic that government without restraint inevitably leads to totalitarianism. Our country's founding fathers understood that truth and wisely constructed a system of checks and balances to prevent excessive concentration of power. They also saw the corollary need for volunteer involvement to meet public need… If we lose our freedom in this country, it will be because an apathetic church has grown sluggish and uncaring, it's very indifference fueling the steady growth of government – to the eventual loss of liberty.