Passionate about life, the Lord, and Christian Apologetics
You might need a very fast car to see America in five minutes. Or…you could create a video of a 12,000 mile journey across our great country and then edit it in such a way that it lasts only five minutes. The latter is what one creative citizen did. I know I am extremely blessed to be a US citizen, and videos like this renew my awe of our great country. Enjoy!
Steve Jobs passed away yesterday at the age of 56. He apparently succumbed to a long battle with cancer. Shortly after this battle began, he gave the commencement address to the 2005 graduates of Stanford University. Faced with the prospects of his earthly life ending, he had some remarkable comments about what it means to live. Even though he did not profess to be a Christian, his perspective should be considered by those who call themselves followers of Christ. If more Christian believers had his attitude about failure and success, death and eternity, I would guess that the Kingdom of Christ would be advancing at a far greater rate. I invite your comments on his inspirational speech, which now becomes part of a timeless legacy.
I recently had a coworker ask me a question. While this is fairly commonplace, I was struck by the reply of my coworker. This man, a professing Christian, has experienced the death of several family members, two of whom have passed away recently. He asked me, knowing that I take my study of the Bible seriously, if I had ever heard that the ghost of a person may remain in the house in which the person died for seven days after death. I gave my typical response – which is to share what God’s Word has to say about the issue in question.
What the Bible has to say about ghosts, spirits, or paranormal activity will be the subject of a future blog post. The focus of this post is the response of my coworker when I explained to him what God’s Word has revealed, if anything, about his question. His startling reply was, “I know what the Bible says, but….” The Christian man then spent considerable time telling me about several personal experiences that he and others in his family have had with “spirits.” No matter how much I tried to redirect him to “what the Bible says,” my coworker wanted to tell me about the validity of the experiences.
One small, three-letter word can say a lot about one’s worldview. In this case, “but” is such a word. The word “but” clearly infers that in this case my coworker’s personal experiences trump Biblical revelation. This is a tenuous position in which to put oneself. I have come to understand that a Christian who is grounded in God’s Word should be expected to interpret personal experiences through the lens of God’s Word, not the other way around. Personal experiences are subjective, while God’s Word is objective. The main revelation of God’s truth – the Bible – is the objective lens through which each person (subject) should interpret the world around us. Many misunderstandings, superstitions, and even harmful teachings have a foundation in emphasizing personal experience over Biblical revelation.
I’m interested to hear what you think about this. Does personal experience, as real as it is or seems to be, trump Biblical revelation?
Courtesy of garethfw's Flickr photostream
This is what a friend of mine told me recently. Being a Christian herself, my friend was concerned about what “being a Wiccan” could mean for her niece. Her other concern is that she doesn’t know that much about Wicca. Is witchcraft involved? Could this person put a spell on me? Does she and her coven gather in the woods during a full moon and chant? This led me to write an article to help my friend, and others, understand more about Wicca and how to talk with Wiccans about their beliefs.
What is Wicca? According to religioustolerance.org, Wiccan involves:
Wicca can be categorized as neopaganism or pantheism. The recent movie Avatar is one example from popular culture on how this worldview is expressed. Ross Douthat, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote:
” ‘Avatar’ is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world. … The Na’Vi [race] are saved by the movie’s hero, a turncoat Marine, but they’re also saved by their faith in Eywa, the ‘All Mother,’ described variously as a network of energy and the sum total of every living thing. …”
“If this narrative arc sounds familiar, that’s because pantheism has been Hollywood’s religion of choice for a generation now. It’s the truth that Kevin Costner discovered when he went dancing with wolves. It’s the metaphysic woven through Disney cartoons like ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Pocahontas.’ And it’s the dogma of George Lucas’s Jedi, whose mystical Force ‘surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together’.”
“Hollywood keeps returning to these themes because millions of Americans respond favorably to them. From Deepak Chopra to Eckhart Tolle, the ‘religion and inspiration’ section in your local bookstore is crowded with titles pushing a pantheistic message. …”
“At the same time, pantheism opens a path to numinous experience for people uncomfortable with the literal-mindedness of the monotheistic religions — with their miracle-working deities and holy books, their virgin births and resurrected bodies. As the Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski noted, attributing divinity to the natural world helps ‘bring God closer to human experience [while] depriving him of recognizable personal traits’.”
So how should a Christian talk with a Wiccan or any other person who has a pantheistic worldview? Dare 2 Share Ministries has a great tool for engaging people of different worldviews in significant conversations. Their guide on talking with Wiccans explains the following:
While this article just scratches the surface of Wiccan belief and how to talk with a person who practices Wicca, all Christians should become familiar with the beliefs of those people God puts in our lives. You may not know a Wiccan, but you may know an atheist, a Muslim, or a Hindu. Or you may know a person who is just areligious or agnostic. Either way, do your research and stay engaged with your friends about spiritual things. Learn how to turn a conversation toward the eternal Truths of the Bible and Jesus Christ. And do so with “gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15)
Photo courtesy of Aidan O'Sullivan's flickr photostream
I recently updated the tag line under the Truth-In-Sight blog title. The reason was to make sure the purpose of this blog is plain and clear to its current and future readers. In using the phrase “think Christianly,” I thought I should take a moment to explain that further.
Yourdictionary.com gives this definition of the word “Christian:”
For all you grammar freaks out there, “think” is the verb in the phrase and “Christianly” is the adverb. The definition above relates to using the word “Christian” as an adjective, which describes a noun. In our case, the definitions are the same but describe a verb, which is to “think.”
Since all people (who are not in a brain-dead state) think, those who profess to follow Jesus Christ as born-again believers have an extra responsibility. That is to train their minds to think Christianly, “having the qualities demonstrated and taught by Jesus Christ, as love, kindness, humility, etc.” This does not come naturally; we must work at it.
1 Cor. 14:20 states, “Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” (NIV) Just as our minds grow with knowledge as we age in years, so does our spiritual minds grow in faith and maturity the longer we walk with the Lord. We take in His truths, meditate on them, and practice them in our lives. In an ideal world, all Christians would be actively pursuing such a process. However, we all at times tend to get weighed down with the cares of the world and with how busy life seems to get. This is when the world begins to influence Christians much more than Christians are influencing the world.
I hope to use this blog as a positive and informative resource for Christians and truth-seekers. Please engage myself and each other with your helpful comments. I welcome you to join the discussion.
The following is a guest post by Rev. Patrick Lengel:
The other day I had the opportunity to sit down with a couple Jehovah’s Witnesses. I love blasting their ideas out of the water and winning the argument. I often times approach these discussions with the proverbial Clint Eastwood stare and an attitude saying, “Go ahead, make my day.”
After the discussions the other day I was thinking about the conversation and how I could have done things differently…what I could have said to weaken their perspective and strengthen the Christian perspective. Then it struck me…why do I love these debates and discussions?
I knew that even though I love sharing the Gospel, when I have the opportunity to talk with someone with an opposing religious worldview, I really enjoy winning that argument. I take vindication knowing that my worldview is correct and that theirs is wrong.
But, am I right in doing that?
We are to be about proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Apologetics is a tool for that but should not be the end all. Good apologetics should help prepare the soil to receive the Gospel.
So what can we do as we utilize apologetics in sharing the Gospel to ensure that we don’t make the Gospel a game to be won?
1) Remember, God is the one that changes people and, biblically speaking, He does not do it through our intelligence but in our weakness.
2) We need to love the ones we talk to and desire them to receive eternal life.
3) We need to be humble…even when we can win the argument, the Gospel is our main calling. Instead of going for the jugular, go for the heart.
Remember, sometimes Winning is Loosing, especially when we make the Gospel a Game.
Now, go out and serve your King.
Patrick Lengel is a church planter in Bluffton, South Carolina and the tired dad of four young kids. You can contact Patrick at BikerChurchUSA@gmail.com or at 803-917-5404.
