Faith & Reason

Faith and reason interplay.

"God has put enough into this world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing, but has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason alone. There's an interplay - it is not faith in nothingness or subjectivity, it is the systematic reasoning that God gives to us, it says, 'You're the One whom I want to lean on for this.' So the dimensions are there, both. And the fact of the matter is, the scientist too lives an awful lot by faith."
--Ravi Zacharias

Mind and Heart Q&A (Part 1 0f 4)
An open forum with Dr. Ravi Zacharias and two top scientists - Louw Alberts and David Block. Continue reading →

Has Christianity Failed You?

"In the effort to become relevant, we have forgotten that some things are going to be irrelevant, and it is we who need to become relevant to the truth - not the other way around. Imagine the old, whole idea of a square peg in a round hole... trying to force it - what you do in the end is just damage the edges of the peg. And sometimes we force God into our mold, and then when He doesn't fit, we damage God. We say, 'This is what I expected of you, but it has not turned out.' What I think I have concluded is this: That the greatest of loves will often come at the greatest of cost. The greatest of loves will never come cheaply. It takes everything you've got to honor that love, and it takes everything you've got to honor that trust. And the greatest of love that you and I could have is that relationship with God."
--Ravi Zacharias

Has Christianity Failed You?:

Part 1
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Part 3 (Coming Soon)
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Spirituality

What you need to do is not be spiritual, but be spiritually right. You have a right to believe whatever you choose, but what you believe must be right.
--Ravi Zacharias

Click here to hear the entire answer to the question: Do we have to say it's only Christianity that will save the world or will Spirituality? Continue reading →

Postmodernism and Christianity

Is there any consistency between Postmodernism and Christianity?

Postmodernism brings us two things:

1. No truth, no meaning, no certainty.
   
2. The denegration of propositional truth. Language is not at the command of the author. The interpretation is at the command of the reader.

You take no truth, no meaning, no certainty and that the objective truth of the writer is gone, what's left of the Bible? What's left of Christianity? So, there is no common ground in their epistemology (The base from which they come to truth.) However, Postmodernism has done something positive for us...


Postmodernism reminds us of two very important things in life:

1. The Importance of the Story. There is a story that people love to hear. If we do preaching only at a cerebral level and just at a level of logic and reason, without the story, it will come unhinged and unmoored.


2. The Importance of Community. Here, the church has a lot to learn. The church sometimes has become ruggedly individualistic and forgotten the community. In fact, those who are hurting or those who have blown it or those who have made mistakes, we are the first one to pounce on them and pulverize them and pummel them to the ground when we should be the ones waiting for them to come so that we can help them in their need.

These points were taken from Ravi Zacharias. Click here to hear everything he had to say, concerning this particular question (Is there any consistency between Postmodernism and Christianity?)

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Dangerous Times

I say to you - we are living in dangerous times, not because of attacks from outside of this land, but because this land no longer knows what it believes. Until we know what we believe here, and what it is that is worth preserving, we will never know what it is that's really being attacked.
-- Ravi Zacharias

What is destroying the moral and spiritual foundation of today’s society?

Ravi Zacharias: I believe a convergence of many factors has taken place. Much of education in the 1960s came unhinged from any moral absolutes and ethical values, to wit the book Excellence Without a Soul by Harry R. Lewis. We have seen this happening the last 40 years. There have been many voices alerting us to this. But more than just a philosophy took over; a mood took over.

First, secularization generally held that religious ideas, institutions, and interpretations have lost their social significance. People liked the idea of a secular society and a secular government. But in terms of moral values and ethics, they never checked into the internal assumptions of secularization that made it wide open to almost any view on any subject. Beginning in the 1960s, the moods of secularization ultimately led to society’s loss of shame.

Next is pluralization, which sounds like a practical and worthy idea; and in many ways, it is. In pluralism you have a competing number of worldviews that are available, and no worldview is dominant. But smuggled in with pluralization was the absolutization of relativism. The only thing we could be sure of was that all moral choices were relative and there was no point of reference to right and wrong. This resulted in the death of reason.

Last is privatization, which is an accommodation to the religiously minded. If secularization and pluralization were going to hold sway, what does society do with the large number of people who are spiritually minded?

Being spiritually minded was okay as long as people kept their spiritual beliefs private and did not bring them into the public arena. The irony of this was the fact secularization — which had its assumptions on absolutes and anything of the metaphysical nature — was allowed into the public place. In fact, its very trust was to bring it into the public place. But anyone who believed in a spiritual Essence, an Ultimate Reality, and the fact there were transcendent absolutes that needed to be adhered to was told to keep those beliefs private. That ultimately paved the way for the loss of meaning.

These three moods — secularization, pluralization, and privatization — brought about loss of shame, loss of reason, and loss of meaning. How was this authoritatively pontificated in the social strain? This is when philosophy stepped in, the moralizers against morality came in, and political correctness came in. These gave society some parameters that allowed it to expel the moralizing from outside the secular realm.

As a result, everything became pragmatic. Philosophers and naturalists stepped in. In this new century, we have lost all definitions of what it means to be human, and what sexuality, life, and the home are all about. We are on the high seas, battling the storms of conflicting worldviews without a compass. Continue reading →

Worship

How do we regain or retain the integrity of worship? The risks we flirt with today in the Christian world, where worship has become an experience rather than a way of life, is a very very risky proposition. How do we keep worship holding it's theological integrity, and finding its existential relevance? If we do not understand how to retain its integrity and maintain relevance, we will lose one of the two in the process and the church either becomes irrelevant or loses truth in the process.
-- Ravi Zacharias

Secularization: Its Control and Power
by Ravi Zacharias

• Part 2 0f 2
• Part 1 of 2

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What is Truth?

There are a lot of articles, books, videos, etc. that make an attempt to answer the question, "What is truth?" Many of them are really good and many are really bad. There are many good ones that I could share, but I decided to settle on this one. I think it appropriately answers the question, "What is truth?"

This is the very question that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus. In the irony of the ages, he stood toe to toe with the personification of truth and yet missed its reality. Postmodern people are in much the same position. They stare at truth but fail to recognize its identity.

First, truth is an aspect of the nature of God Himself. Thus, to put on truth is to put on Christ. For Christ is "truth" (John 14:6), and Christians are to be the bearers of truth. As Os Guinness explains, Christianity is not true because it works (pragmatism); it is not true because it feels right (subjectivism); it is not true because it is "my truth" (relativism). It is true because it is anchored in the person of Christ.

Furthermore, truth is anything that corresponds to reality. As such, truth does not yield to the size and strength of the latest lobby group. Nor is truth merely a matter of preference or opinion. Rather truth is true even if everyone denies it, and a lie is a lie even if everyone affirms it.

Finally, truth is essential to a realistic worldview. When sophistry, sensationalism, and superstition sabotage truth, our view of reality is seriously skewed. The death of truth spells the death of civilization. However, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn discovered, "One word of truth outweighs the entire world."

-- Hank Hanegraaff, The Bible Answer Book

John 18:37-38
"You are king, then!' said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.' 'What is truth?' Pilate asked."

I would highly recommend The Truth Project. Here is a promo video for The Truth Project:

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Proceed with Caution

This is a reminder/warning to those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the infallible Word of God. It is our ultimate source of truth. It is good to read books and listen to audio by Christians, but BE CAUTIOUS. Remember, they are a sinner, just like you, therefore their understanding may not be correct.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (NKJV)
For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.

Also, there are men who appear to be righteous, and of God, but are in fact - not.

II Corinthians 11:12-15 (NIV)
12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Anything written or said outside of the Bible should be handled with caution. Some people even try to twist what is written in the Bible for their own purposes or ideas. When you listen and/or read, use discernment. Compare what is said to what is written in scripture. If everything they say seems to line-up with what the Bible says, that's great, but do not be followers of men... be followers of Christ. The reason I say this is because we are all capable of getting off the path, and if we follow someone too closely, and their teaching somehow becomes corrupt, we might just become corrupt right along with them. Always take a mental stance that the Bible is the constant, unchanging source of truth. I love Dr. Ravi Zacharias, and he has yet to say anything that I disagree with. However, I must remember that he is not the Christ. Yes, even if he somehow became corrupt (which I don't think for a moment that he will), the things he has spoken, that are true, remain true. But, where the warning comes in is if he were to start teaching things that weren't true, and I was sold on the idea that "Ravi Zacharias is truth", then I am putting myself at risk.

On the other hand, let us be careful not to completely discredit those God uses, just because we don't agree with EVERYTHING that they say. It is important to listen, and then separate what is right and what is wrong. You'll find that you will not agree with everything that every pastor or teacher says. We must first ask ourselves, "Does the good outweigh the bad?" If so, then we can mentally decide (if we choose) to keep learning from that teacher or preacher. But, there is one more thing we must do before we decide to keep learning from the individual. We must analyze the "bad".

How bad is it? Has the person stated that we must lift our hands in the air when we worship? If so, and you disagree, that is a matter of opinion and/or personal preference. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Bible does not give us a specific description of how to conduct a church worship service. It does not say, "Sing hymns, not contemporary Christian music." or vise versa. So, if you disagree with the person on that issue, that's fine, but be careful not to go around telling everyone that everything that person says is wrong because you disagree on the one topic.

Has the person stated that all we have to do is love our neighbor and do good things and we will be accepted by God, and go to heaven when we die? This is a doctrinal error and not a matter of opinion or personal preference. This is a matter of truth and should not be taken lightly. When something like this happens, we have to pray and consider if this person is truly being led by the Holy Spirit to preach or teach. Even if they said 99 other things and they were all correct, this one statement still holds much concern and we need to be wary of the one that said it.

Don't live a life of paranoia, always doubting everything that is said because "there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:12). Remember that God used sinful men all throughout scripture. Study God's Word, grow in your relationship with Him, and He will give you discernment and help reveal who is speaking in truth and who is not. Life may throw us curveballs sometimes, and righteous men may fall. This warning is written to help you prepare your heart and mind for those moments.

Final note - This is a quote from myself and something I remind myself of constantly:

When others around us fail, it's encouraging to know that Jesus never did. Continue reading →

Listening: A Valid Option for Learning

Do you like to read? If you don't, I can relate to you. I make myself read because I think it's beneficial, but I don't prefer to read. I'm in an accountability group with three other guys, and we commit to reading two chapters of the Bible, everyday. Through this commitment, I am in the process of reading the Bible, in its entirety, for the first time in my entire life. I just recently started reading more books outside of the Bible, for a men's leadership development group, called Joshua's Men. This has been quite a challenge for me, as I really don't enjoy reading, but I'm learning a lot, so I won't complain.

I would encourage you to make an effort to read, even if you don't enjoy reading. I would also encourage you to do something I DO enjoy - listen to podcasts. I LOVE podcasts! Listening is a great way to learn. I often listen to podcasts when I'm at work and when I workout. I found this video at marshillchurch.org, and I thought I'd share it. It's short and to the point, so please take a moment to watch:

My favorite podcasts can be found at www.rzim.org. I love listening to Christian Apologist - Dr. Ravi Zacharias. Whether it's a sermon, a debate, a speech, or a Q&A session, Ravi does a tremendous job of sharing the truth claims of God. I also listen to Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. Continue reading →

Christianity is for Dummies

If you are reading this and you are a Christian, please know that I'm not ACTUALLY suggesting that Christianity is for dummies. If you are not a Christian and you are reading this, please know that this is in NO WAY sarcastic in any sense and is not a slam against the "non-believer" (as we refer to you in the Christian worldview). This note is very serious and is mostly written to encourage you to think about life, God, the Bible, and the Christian Worldview vs. other worldviews.

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Many mistakenly believe that Christian belief, because it involves faith, is unsupported by reason and evidence and that becoming a Christian requires checking your intellect at the door and accepting Christian truth claims unquestioningly. But anyone who has truly studied Christian theology and apologetics understands that Christianity rests on a powerful body of evidence and that reason and intellect are its allies, not its enemies.

Before you cavalierly assume that there are unanswerable contradictions or unfathomable paradoxes, before you reject Christian theology out of hand because you witness Christian hypocrisy, before you dismiss the Bible as merely a wonderful piece of literature with some instructive moral stories, do yourself the favor of reading it for yourself. And read what other believing, conservative scholars and theologians have written on the subject.

You will come away enriched beyond your greatest expectations and no longer able to say that Christianity is for dummies -- or ducks the tough questions. Debunking the stereotype of the Christian as a nonthinker and that Christianity discourages intellectual examination, Ravi says, "We are fashioned by God to be thinking and emotional creatures. The emotions should follow reason, and not the other way around."

-- David Limbaugh, Townhall.com Columnist

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It's easy for us to become overwhelmed by the great number of "truths" in our world. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Darwinism, Catholicism, and more. The easy solution would be to look at all these and say, "They can't all be right, so they must all be wrong!" Why is that the easy solution? Because it requires a lot less effort and thinking.

Remember when you were in school and you had the multiple choice questions and occasionally you got the "D. None of the above." option? You probably feel like circling that in the test of life, don't you?

I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to REALLY think about them:

Do you REALLY think that life is a random accident?

Think about your own body, your own emotions, and the world around you... did this all REALLY come from nothing? Even scientists will support the notion that the earth, and life itself for that matter, is not eternal. Science says that the earth does indeed have an "age" though they're not certain how old it actually is. Nobody in the scientific world is saying "The earth has ALWAYS been, there is no beginning." If that were the case, maybe we would have less to be concerned about.

So, we (mankind) had a beginning... almost everyone can agree on that (except the extra stubborn). Do you care? Does that matter? Why should it matter? Does "not caring" make it any less important?

...

Ravi Zacharias argues that a coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer four questions: that of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. He claims that while every major religion makes exclusive claims about truth, the Christian faith is unique in its ability to answer all four of these questions. He routinely speaks on the coherency of the Christian worldview, claiming that Christianity is capable of withstanding the toughest philosophical attacks. Why do I bring him up? Simple, he's a thinker. Ravi Zacharias is no "sheeple". And he's not the only one... there are many Christians out there who have weighed Christianity against the other religions/philosophies of this world and walked away believing in the God of the Bible. That's powerful stuff and not something to be taken lightly.

So what's the point? What am I trying to say?

There is something very powerful about Christianity that has withstood history. I am challenging you ask yourself a very simple yet complex question - Why?

I would also challenge you by suggesting that your strongest resistance to the faith may be it's moral implications. With that said, I would like you to think about a few things that are related to this topic of morality and that happen to be two very popular and accepted things here in the United States:

The Bible says: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

You may have a problem with that because you “like” to get drunk, but let me ask you this: Why do you drink? When you drink, do you feel full of life, or do you feel empty inside? Does the alcohol make your problems go away, or are they just temporarily removed from your mind?
The Bible is against pre-marital sex, and all sex outside of the bond of marriage, between one man and one woman.

You may have a problem with that, but let me ask you this: Why is it that people who have sexual relations with multiple partners and/or same sex partners are much more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease? Why do they only have medications that treat the symptoms of these diseases, but there is no actual "cure" for most of them? Why does “free sex”, as the hippies called it, lead to so many health problems? Do you agree with the Trojan Condom company that we just need to “evolve” and use “protection” and ignore that this type of lifestyle is literally bad for our bodies otherwise? Do you REALLY agree with that? Does that REALLY seem "logical"?

...

Would it really be ALL THAT BAD to give up these things that are really quite harmful (or at least not helpful) anyways?

One last time (in this note) I will quote Ravi:

“A man rejects God neither because of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of a moral resistance that refuses to admit his need for God.”

Let me suggest that there just might be more to the Christian life than you currently understand and/or more than you'd care to try and comprehend. And I'd also suggest that it's something worth examining further.

Just something to think about......

Psalm 14:1 (NKJV)
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." Continue reading →