Last night I turned on WVCY-TV, our wonderful local Christian station, and saw a message to this effect: "Do you receive TV via antenna? Call this number for information about digital TV ..."
I have been wondering for months why we need digital TV transmission. Don't we have more pressing needs in this country? Never mind that this change could be financially crippling for non-profit, non-gov't-supported stations like WVCY-TV; most people don’t care about that. But aren't children in this country going to bed hungry? Aren’t people going without medical care because they have no health insurance? Aren't we all just one paycheck away from being homeless, as Bill Clinton famously warned?
Our federal government's DTV web site gives the following reasons for mandating this enormous expense and, for many Americans, not-so-minor inconvenience:
1. To give us a clearer picture (It's more important to have a clear picture of the latest greatest slasher and sex shows than it is to allow small independent stations to survive? Besides, we now have a digital TV picture in our home; it looks no different to me and the Packers are still losing, so what good is it?)
2. To give us more programming options (I thought the goal was to get Americans, kids especially, to watch less TV? Why do we need more programming options?)
3. To free up airwaves for use by emergency responders (Hmmm. I'd never heard we had a problem with this. Are we running out of frequencies?)
It certainly can’t be a question of reliability, as anyone with digital phone service will be happy to tell you.
I have toyed with the idea that this mandate was designed to crush Christian TV, but that doesn’t really make sense – our government’s going to do that much more easily and cheaply by restoring the Fairness (sic) Doctrine. Once that passes, it may be all over not only for Christian TV, but also profitable (i.e. conservative) talk radio. Welcome back, Carter!
What sense does this make?
But now, having seen this notice about "Do you receive TV through antenna?" it becomes a little clearer: Antennas use the airwaves ... and no one can really control the airwaves, as Radio Free Europe proved.
So now we will get all our televised information via a new kind of transmission infrastructure.
How tough would it be for a democratically-elected tyrant to get control of this new system, at the first whiff of national crisis? And is it true that whoever controls the news controls us?
Consider what Pravda did to the Soviet Union, with its “truth is whatever is good for the Party” approach to news reporting; could that happen to us?
It's not that I think this is a conspiracy of men -- I don't. I think that it’s all Satan, and that he is using, for his own purposes, gullible people who don’t have a clue what they’re really promoting.
Suddenly Revelation 11:9 becomes even clearer: For three-and-a-half days, the whole world will see the dead bodies of the two witnesses in Jerusalem – because there won’t be anything else on TV, and most of us just can’t bear to turn it off!
And as my niece just reminded me, this may give new illumination to Ephesians 2:2’s description of Satan as the prince of the power of the air.
Crazy idea? Or a germ of the truth? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Witnessing to the feminist baby boomer
Step # 4: Share the Gospel
"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord,
"Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
--Isaiah 1:18
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
--Romans 1:16
It has become fairly easy for me to bring up the things of God with just about any lost person, and to wonder aloud over the amazing truths of the Bible. I find it much more difficult to share the Gospel with him or her, because I’m in effect confronting him with the only choice that matters in this life: heaven or hell.
Yet tell him we must, if we want to obey our Lord. And we can’t put it off indefinitely; we don’t know that we’ll ever see him again (something that has become abundantly clear to me over eight nears of visiting residents of a nearby nursing home).
I’ve taken James Kennedy’s “Evangelism Explosion” class at church, and have studied the Way of the Master techniques taught by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (www.wayofthemaster.com) -- they’re each excellent for specific situations. In essence I try to convey these facts:
- We’re all sinners, having spent our lives rebelling against a perfectly holy and perfectly just God and deserving death – which means eternal punishment in hell.
- Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
- Eternal life is a free gift of God; we don’t deserve it and we can’t earn it.
- To receive this gift, we must repent (turn from our sins) and trust in His sacrifice to have covered our sins – in short, to rest assured that “Jesus paid it all.”
What if we fail to share the gospel with someone? Well, I suppose the Lord will send in someone else to do this all-important job … and then we can explain to Him later why we found it so difficult to talk about His supreme sacrifice, why we thought there was anything more important than bringing Him what one preacher so poignantly called “the reward of His suffering.”
Witnessing to the feminist baby boomer
Step 3: Draw the conclusions
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
--John 17:17
--John 17:17
During my personal journey to Jesus Christ, I found myself amassing an amazing amount of scientific, historical and prophetic evidence pointing to the Bible’s accuracy. But I was so busy looking at the details that it took me ages to sit back and survey the big picture.
Which is too bad, because once I did, I came to the most stunning conclusions of my life – to wit:
Which is too bad, because once I did, I came to the most stunning conclusions of my life – to wit:
- The Bible is true from first word to last.
- It is the word of the God who created the entire universe and everything in it, and He was perfectly capable of giving us a “life manual” that was, at least in its original manuscripts, entirely accurate. Infallible, in fact.
- I can trust what He said about Himself, about us, and about where we came from, what we’re doing here and where we’re going.
I might have come to these conclusions weeks or even months earlier had someone presented me these claims as something to challenge or prove. So I suggest sharing them with anyone we’re witnessing to – especially if it’s a feminist baby boomer who has been well-schooled to believe the opposite.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Witnessing to the feminist baby boomer
Step 2: Gather the evidence
For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse …
--Romans 1:20
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
casting down arguments and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God …
--2 Corinthians 10:4-5a
Salvation is of the Lord, of course. No one comes to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the Holy Spirit of God transforming his heart.
But I’m convinced that many of us have spent our lifetimes erecting intellectual and emotional obstacles to belief – obstacles that can delay our accepting the gift of faith, or maybe prevent it altogether (I’m sitting solidly on the fence on this particular issue).
That’s why Christian apologetics may be so important. It seems to me that they can be like bulldozers capable of destroying “every high thing that exalts itself again the knowledge of God,” as the apostle Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 10 – bulldozers capable of clearing the way for the faith that’s prerequisite to eternal life.
Here’s a high-level overview of the evidences that convinced this feminist atheist of the truth of biblical Christianity. Maybe one or more of these subjects will help you make the case to the lost feminist baby boomer in your life.
Bulldozer #1: Science
It was just after the turn of the millennium that I started my personal journey from atheism to faith. For me, a technical copywriter with an interest in science and a long-held conviction that science had proven God at best unnecessary, perhaps the most important leg of my journey was the scientific path.
It was here that I learned about the Darwinism-busting truth of the anthropic principle and irreducible complexity. Here, that I learned that additive genetic mutations are only a myth, incapable of providing evolution with that raw material it would need to transform one sort of creature into another.
Once I’d taken off the blinders and looked at the facts, I quickly came to the only logical conclusion: Even a fairly superficial study of the issue would show any objective observer that there’s no way this universe, or life itself, came into being through time plus chance. There has to have been an intelligent designer – AKA God.
The question then became: Which God?
I spent a year on this question, searching far and wide for evidence that might prove any of the non-Christian religions true. (I did not want to become one of those dreary Christians, you see; I did not want my good times permanently put to rest.) But I discovered no such evidence – just a bunch of statements like “Buddhism is true because there are so many of us” and “Hinduism is true because we have a sacred book.” These statements didn’t even approach truth.
At last, there was only one religion left standing: biblical Christianity. Once again, science came to my rescue, showing me the rock-solid proof I’d been looking for over the past 12 months.
The vehicle was my realization of the Bible’s stunning scientific accuracy. While it’s not a science book, its enemies have yet to point out a single biblical passage related to science (or anything else, for that matter) that’s inaccurate. What’s more, the Bible contains scores of scientific that could not possibly have been known by any of its 40-some writers -- many of them confirmed only in recent centuries or recent decades. Just to cite a couple: the fact that the earth hangs on nothing (Job 26:7, written about 4000 years ago) and that the sun has an orbit of its own (Psalm 19:6, written about 3000 years ago and confirmed in 1999).
These evidences took me very close to having absolute confidence in the existence of a Creator God, and the Bible as His infallible revelation of Himself to us. And I’m not the only one; I’ve heard testimonies from many other scientifically minded people who took this route to the Lord. Perhaps some of the lost people you know would find this line of reasoning persuasive; for an overview of the proofs I found most persuasive, see chapter 18 of Heaven Without Her. And for much much more, visit http://www.answersingenesis.org/ and http://www.icr.org/ .
Bulldozer #2: History
Like many of my contemporaries, I was quite the history buff when I was younger. Even though I’d always had a totally human-centered view of world history, this was what ultimately closed the case for me.
Here’s what happened.
When I finally started reading the Bible at the turn of the millennium, I was surprised to learn that it’s all based on history. I was amazed when I found out that not one spec of its history has ever been proven inaccurate, and that every year more and more of it is instead confirmed. And I was astonished when I eventually discovered that it purports to be the history of the universe from first day to last – and that Genesis and Revelation are as historically reliable as the accounts of Moses, King David and Jesus Himself.
That’s the big picture. What was really shocking to me was the close-up view of the Bible’s prophetic accuracy – especially when I learned several things that put these truths into perspective:
First, that only the Bible among sacred books even offers prophecies.
Second, that there’s nothing to Nostradamus’s predictions, which were mostly vague and have been artfully re-arranged and re-interpreted to mimic prophetic accuracy.
Third, that the “psychics” of our day have been largely abysmal at soothsaying, wrong more than half the time even about events in the near future.
Not so with the Bible, which contains thousands of detailed and specific prophecies. As the Lord said via the prophet Isaiah, recorded in Isaiah 42, “I will tell you the future before it happens.” And that is exactly what He did: About 80% of these prophecies have already been fulfilled with 100% accuracy; the rest refer to the end of time.
Take, for example, the Old Testament predictions about the Messiah – there are hundreds written over many centuries, and Jesus fulfilled every last one. Mathematicians have calculated the likelihood of one man fulfilling just 48 of those prophecies at a number beyond our imaginations. In a word: Impossible – unless those prophecies were written about Jesus, by Someone outside of time who knew exactly what would transpire.
Or consider the prophecies about the nation of Israel – how the children of Israel would be scattered all over the world, but would ultimately have their land restored to them along with their ancient language. Every last one has come to pass, down to the smallest detail.
Bulldozer #3: Logic
Logic has never been my strong suit. When I try to follow it personally, I tend to take the long way around logical deductions and then forget how I got there, which doesn’t make for very confident conclusions. Or, when I read someone else’s solid argument, I wind up doubting their conclusions, not being confident in my ability to detect logical fallacies.
Still, most people are clearer thinking than I am in this area, so don’t neglect logic as a witnessing tool.
Consider C. S. Lewis’s argument about Jesus’ claims to deity: He was either:
A liar, falsely proclaiming Himself to be the Son of God and God the Son.
A lunatic, believing Himself to be the Son of God and God the Son.
(If either of these explanations were true, then just about every other religion has joined in the charade, too, by calling Him a great teacher or a prophet.)
Or He really was the Son of God and God the Son.
Or think about what I consider the best argument for Jesus’ resurrection: His apostles spent a great deal of time with Him after He rose from the grave. They couldn’t have been fooled. Nor could they have been lying: All but John died martyrs, proclaiming to the end that Jesus had risen from the grave. People will die for a lie when they think it’s the truth; but they will not die for a lie if they know it’s a lie.
Prepare your defense
There are no doubt many other areas of investigation that might help a feminist baby boomer find her way to the truth. There’s manuscript evidence, for instance. Biblical responses to today’s psychobabble. And great analogies and explanations for the toughest questions, such as those beginning, “How could a good God …?”
I think it’s important for us all to have at least this top-level understanding of such logic … and then know where to look for the details that can help clear away the obstacles standing between a lost feminist baby boomer and God’s truth.
But I’m convinced that many of us have spent our lifetimes erecting intellectual and emotional obstacles to belief – obstacles that can delay our accepting the gift of faith, or maybe prevent it altogether (I’m sitting solidly on the fence on this particular issue).
That’s why Christian apologetics may be so important. It seems to me that they can be like bulldozers capable of destroying “every high thing that exalts itself again the knowledge of God,” as the apostle Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 10 – bulldozers capable of clearing the way for the faith that’s prerequisite to eternal life.
Here’s a high-level overview of the evidences that convinced this feminist atheist of the truth of biblical Christianity. Maybe one or more of these subjects will help you make the case to the lost feminist baby boomer in your life.
Bulldozer #1: Science
It was just after the turn of the millennium that I started my personal journey from atheism to faith. For me, a technical copywriter with an interest in science and a long-held conviction that science had proven God at best unnecessary, perhaps the most important leg of my journey was the scientific path.
It was here that I learned about the Darwinism-busting truth of the anthropic principle and irreducible complexity. Here, that I learned that additive genetic mutations are only a myth, incapable of providing evolution with that raw material it would need to transform one sort of creature into another.
Once I’d taken off the blinders and looked at the facts, I quickly came to the only logical conclusion: Even a fairly superficial study of the issue would show any objective observer that there’s no way this universe, or life itself, came into being through time plus chance. There has to have been an intelligent designer – AKA God.
The question then became: Which God?
I spent a year on this question, searching far and wide for evidence that might prove any of the non-Christian religions true. (I did not want to become one of those dreary Christians, you see; I did not want my good times permanently put to rest.) But I discovered no such evidence – just a bunch of statements like “Buddhism is true because there are so many of us” and “Hinduism is true because we have a sacred book.” These statements didn’t even approach truth.
At last, there was only one religion left standing: biblical Christianity. Once again, science came to my rescue, showing me the rock-solid proof I’d been looking for over the past 12 months.
The vehicle was my realization of the Bible’s stunning scientific accuracy. While it’s not a science book, its enemies have yet to point out a single biblical passage related to science (or anything else, for that matter) that’s inaccurate. What’s more, the Bible contains scores of scientific that could not possibly have been known by any of its 40-some writers -- many of them confirmed only in recent centuries or recent decades. Just to cite a couple: the fact that the earth hangs on nothing (Job 26:7, written about 4000 years ago) and that the sun has an orbit of its own (Psalm 19:6, written about 3000 years ago and confirmed in 1999).
These evidences took me very close to having absolute confidence in the existence of a Creator God, and the Bible as His infallible revelation of Himself to us. And I’m not the only one; I’ve heard testimonies from many other scientifically minded people who took this route to the Lord. Perhaps some of the lost people you know would find this line of reasoning persuasive; for an overview of the proofs I found most persuasive, see chapter 18 of Heaven Without Her. And for much much more, visit http://www.answersingenesis.org/ and http://www.icr.org/ .
Bulldozer #2: History
Like many of my contemporaries, I was quite the history buff when I was younger. Even though I’d always had a totally human-centered view of world history, this was what ultimately closed the case for me.
Here’s what happened.
When I finally started reading the Bible at the turn of the millennium, I was surprised to learn that it’s all based on history. I was amazed when I found out that not one spec of its history has ever been proven inaccurate, and that every year more and more of it is instead confirmed. And I was astonished when I eventually discovered that it purports to be the history of the universe from first day to last – and that Genesis and Revelation are as historically reliable as the accounts of Moses, King David and Jesus Himself.
That’s the big picture. What was really shocking to me was the close-up view of the Bible’s prophetic accuracy – especially when I learned several things that put these truths into perspective:
First, that only the Bible among sacred books even offers prophecies.
Second, that there’s nothing to Nostradamus’s predictions, which were mostly vague and have been artfully re-arranged and re-interpreted to mimic prophetic accuracy.
Third, that the “psychics” of our day have been largely abysmal at soothsaying, wrong more than half the time even about events in the near future.
Not so with the Bible, which contains thousands of detailed and specific prophecies. As the Lord said via the prophet Isaiah, recorded in Isaiah 42, “I will tell you the future before it happens.” And that is exactly what He did: About 80% of these prophecies have already been fulfilled with 100% accuracy; the rest refer to the end of time.
Take, for example, the Old Testament predictions about the Messiah – there are hundreds written over many centuries, and Jesus fulfilled every last one. Mathematicians have calculated the likelihood of one man fulfilling just 48 of those prophecies at a number beyond our imaginations. In a word: Impossible – unless those prophecies were written about Jesus, by Someone outside of time who knew exactly what would transpire.
Or consider the prophecies about the nation of Israel – how the children of Israel would be scattered all over the world, but would ultimately have their land restored to them along with their ancient language. Every last one has come to pass, down to the smallest detail.
Bulldozer #3: Logic
Logic has never been my strong suit. When I try to follow it personally, I tend to take the long way around logical deductions and then forget how I got there, which doesn’t make for very confident conclusions. Or, when I read someone else’s solid argument, I wind up doubting their conclusions, not being confident in my ability to detect logical fallacies.
Still, most people are clearer thinking than I am in this area, so don’t neglect logic as a witnessing tool.
Consider C. S. Lewis’s argument about Jesus’ claims to deity: He was either:
A liar, falsely proclaiming Himself to be the Son of God and God the Son.
A lunatic, believing Himself to be the Son of God and God the Son.
(If either of these explanations were true, then just about every other religion has joined in the charade, too, by calling Him a great teacher or a prophet.)
Or He really was the Son of God and God the Son.
Or think about what I consider the best argument for Jesus’ resurrection: His apostles spent a great deal of time with Him after He rose from the grave. They couldn’t have been fooled. Nor could they have been lying: All but John died martyrs, proclaiming to the end that Jesus had risen from the grave. People will die for a lie when they think it’s the truth; but they will not die for a lie if they know it’s a lie.
Prepare your defense
There are no doubt many other areas of investigation that might help a feminist baby boomer find her way to the truth. There’s manuscript evidence, for instance. Biblical responses to today’s psychobabble. And great analogies and explanations for the toughest questions, such as those beginning, “How could a good God …?”
I think it’s important for us all to have at least this top-level understanding of such logic … and then know where to look for the details that can help clear away the obstacles standing between a lost feminist baby boomer and God’s truth.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Witnessing to the feminist baby boomer
Step 1: Pray without ceasing
Salvation is of the Lord.
--Jonah 2:9b
--Jonah 2:9b
It should be obvious, right? But oh, how often I forget to turn to the Lord for help when I’m witnessing to a woman who is like I was: a feminist, agnostic-might-as-well-be-atheist who thinks Christians are, at best, wishful thinkers.
I’m always well-armed with reasons for the hope that is within me – the very same reasons that convinced me less than a decade ago that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God, His revelation of Himself to His creation and the truth about where we came from, what we’re doing here and where we’re headed.
But nothing good ever comes of it when I am relying on those reasons alone – or on my own stumbling presentation or hazy insights into exactly what might persuade this particular friend to crack open the door of her heart to the Lord. Only He knows precisely what should be said at what moment; only He can prompt conversation that will lead to delivery of just the right message; only He can soften the human heart to hear that message.
And so especially when I am preparing to share the Good News with someone who is not eager to hear it, I try to remember to take it up with Him before, during and after the meeting – to “pray without ceasing,” as the apostle Paul advised in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Are you ready to defend your faith?
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
--1 Peter 3:15-16
Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself, be sure of that.
-- Charles Spurgeon
--1 Peter 3:15-16
Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself, be sure of that.
-- Charles Spurgeon
Much to my regret and often to my sorrow, I did not become a Christian until I was in my late 40s. This was true even though I was raised in a Christian home and experienced only one serious, “how could a good God allow that?” heartache along the way – the sudden death of my wonderful father when I was just 17. (I managed my grief as many children of the ‘60s and early ‘70s managed their own: with several seasons of recreational substance abuse. Thoroughly numbed pain is roughly equivalent to no pain at all.)
My story has a happy ending: Today I’m a joyful and heaven-bound follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now that I’ve passed through that narrow gate, I do look back with wonder about a couple things.
Like, how I could have been so blind for so long?
I guess my story is the same as any other lost person’s: I loved my sin. Until the Lord broke me, making me see that something far more important than my pleasure and happiness was at stake, I simply did not want to stop idolizing the things of this world, or murdering others in my heart, or coveting the possessions and adventures of everyone I knew.
But there was one other factor that kept me clinging to the things of the world – and that was my ignorance. While I was fairly sure that absolute truth existed, I was even more sure that we couldn’t possibly know it in this life.
Which is, it turns out, among the vilest of lies, because it prevents us from doing what we must do if we ever hope to see heaven: to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where were all the Christians?
The Bible clearly tells followers of Jesus Christ that it’s the Christian’s obligation to make disciples of all the nations, to preach the gospel, to “be ready in season and out of season,” as the apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to Timothy. “Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching,” he explained.
And yet: As far as I can recall, no one except my mother, whose death ultimately drove me to seek God, ever approached me about these things. And I’m positive that no one ever attempted to persuade me that Christianity was anything more than a waste of Sunday mornings.
Which meant that I was left to my own devices when the Holy Spirit finally spurred me into action.
“Are you sure Christianity is true?” I would ask a professing Christian.
“Yes, pretty sure,” she would say.
“Why? What’s your proof?”
Whereupon the professing Christian would look at me like I was crazy.
“Proof? I don’t have any proof. I just believe.”
Lost in a fog
In retrospect, there was one person I could’ve asked, and I’m fairly certain she could have helped. But on the rare occasion that I saw her in those months, it didn’t occur to me to ask her these questions; when I did see her, I was too busy asking her things about Christian theology, as in “what’s the significance of baptism?” and “who exactly is going to heaven?” and “what is it exactly that a Christian is supposed to do?”
She probably never suspected that I was far from committed to Christ in those days. I don’t think I could have even articulated the depth of my confusion; if you’ve been stumbling around in the dark your entire life, stepping into a daytime fog can make you think you’re seeing everything clearly now.
Not so.
Unfortunately, I inadvertently limited my direct requests for proof to people who couldn’t tell me why they believed. They just did, they said.
Maybe they couldn’t see the fog I was in, either. Maybe some of them were even in it themselves.
What only strangers could tell me
In the end, I spent well over a year neglecting my business, my friends, and even my sleep in search of that elusive absolute truth. What I didn’t get from the Christians I knew personally, I got from strangers who loved the Lord enough to go to a lot of effort on His behalf.
And oh, what they gave me! An avalanche of scientific, historical and prophetic evidence for the truth of Christianity – and for the falsehood of every other worldview, from atheism to Zen Buddhism, existentialism to the New Age. I found enough evidence to destroy all the lies and delusions that had kept me, for my entire adult life, from doing what the Bible says we must do to see heaven, to repent and believe.
I found these evidences in various books, and through the lectures of Bible-loving teachers on VCY America’s TV and radio stations. And unfortunately without the guidance of a real live Christian, which meant that I wasted quite a bit of time and credulity on apostate and pagan books that were filled with red herrings, wild-goose chases and rabbit trails.
But by the grace of God, I was absolutely driven to pursue the truth. I had to know, for the reasons outlined in my book Heaven Without Her (Thomas Nelson, 2008), and I had to know now, and I wasn’t going to let anything that had once been important to me stand in my way.
What if I hadn’t been so obsessed?
What if I’d had a real job instead of my own business, and hadn’t had time to pursue the truth?
What if I’d just been your average, garden-variety seeker?
I’ll tell you what if.
I probably would have remained confused for 7.8 months and then given up. Or I might have taken up with some apostate mainline church and left as soon as its liberalism became apparent or I realized I was still starving to death spiritually. Or I might have fallen into some branch of New Age mysticism because it might have seemed, experientially, to be true.
I am quite sure that I would not have become a born-again Christian.
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit didn’t allow any of these things to happen. He lit a fire for the truth in me that has yet to be quenched.
But I wonder: Weren’t all those professing Christians supposed to be helping me see that their faith was not just nice, but true?
Can you give a reason for your hope?
It’s distressing to me – and should be to every Christian – that so few of us share our faith at all, according to survey after survey. And it’s equally distressing that so few of us have equipped ourselves to give a reason for the hope that is in us, the hope that means not wishful thinking but, biblically speaking, confident expectation that the Lord will fulfill every last promise He has made to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
The proof is still readily available to any American – and will be for at least a while longer.
Looking for proof?
Stay tuned! My goal is to post the evidences for Christianity that I found most persuasive, and suggested resources for further study.
If you can’t wait, then don’t: If science is your thing, go immediately to http://www.answersingenesis.com/ and have a look around. More interested in history and prophecy? Check out a site like www.100prophecies.org/. Then consult my Heaven Without Her bibliography and consider reading those books that best match your own particular interests; I put it together specifically to help seekers avoid the wheel-spinning I engaged in as I pursued all those red herrings, wild geese and rabbit trails.
May the Lord give wings to your efforts!
My story has a happy ending: Today I’m a joyful and heaven-bound follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now that I’ve passed through that narrow gate, I do look back with wonder about a couple things.
Like, how I could have been so blind for so long?
I guess my story is the same as any other lost person’s: I loved my sin. Until the Lord broke me, making me see that something far more important than my pleasure and happiness was at stake, I simply did not want to stop idolizing the things of this world, or murdering others in my heart, or coveting the possessions and adventures of everyone I knew.
But there was one other factor that kept me clinging to the things of the world – and that was my ignorance. While I was fairly sure that absolute truth existed, I was even more sure that we couldn’t possibly know it in this life.
Which is, it turns out, among the vilest of lies, because it prevents us from doing what we must do if we ever hope to see heaven: to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where were all the Christians?
The Bible clearly tells followers of Jesus Christ that it’s the Christian’s obligation to make disciples of all the nations, to preach the gospel, to “be ready in season and out of season,” as the apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to Timothy. “Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching,” he explained.
And yet: As far as I can recall, no one except my mother, whose death ultimately drove me to seek God, ever approached me about these things. And I’m positive that no one ever attempted to persuade me that Christianity was anything more than a waste of Sunday mornings.
Which meant that I was left to my own devices when the Holy Spirit finally spurred me into action.
“Are you sure Christianity is true?” I would ask a professing Christian.
“Yes, pretty sure,” she would say.
“Why? What’s your proof?”
Whereupon the professing Christian would look at me like I was crazy.
“Proof? I don’t have any proof. I just believe.”
Lost in a fog
In retrospect, there was one person I could’ve asked, and I’m fairly certain she could have helped. But on the rare occasion that I saw her in those months, it didn’t occur to me to ask her these questions; when I did see her, I was too busy asking her things about Christian theology, as in “what’s the significance of baptism?” and “who exactly is going to heaven?” and “what is it exactly that a Christian is supposed to do?”
She probably never suspected that I was far from committed to Christ in those days. I don’t think I could have even articulated the depth of my confusion; if you’ve been stumbling around in the dark your entire life, stepping into a daytime fog can make you think you’re seeing everything clearly now.
Not so.
Unfortunately, I inadvertently limited my direct requests for proof to people who couldn’t tell me why they believed. They just did, they said.
Maybe they couldn’t see the fog I was in, either. Maybe some of them were even in it themselves.
What only strangers could tell me
In the end, I spent well over a year neglecting my business, my friends, and even my sleep in search of that elusive absolute truth. What I didn’t get from the Christians I knew personally, I got from strangers who loved the Lord enough to go to a lot of effort on His behalf.
And oh, what they gave me! An avalanche of scientific, historical and prophetic evidence for the truth of Christianity – and for the falsehood of every other worldview, from atheism to Zen Buddhism, existentialism to the New Age. I found enough evidence to destroy all the lies and delusions that had kept me, for my entire adult life, from doing what the Bible says we must do to see heaven, to repent and believe.
I found these evidences in various books, and through the lectures of Bible-loving teachers on VCY America’s TV and radio stations. And unfortunately without the guidance of a real live Christian, which meant that I wasted quite a bit of time and credulity on apostate and pagan books that were filled with red herrings, wild-goose chases and rabbit trails.
But by the grace of God, I was absolutely driven to pursue the truth. I had to know, for the reasons outlined in my book Heaven Without Her (Thomas Nelson, 2008), and I had to know now, and I wasn’t going to let anything that had once been important to me stand in my way.
What if I hadn’t been so obsessed?
What if I’d had a real job instead of my own business, and hadn’t had time to pursue the truth?
What if I’d just been your average, garden-variety seeker?
I’ll tell you what if.
I probably would have remained confused for 7.8 months and then given up. Or I might have taken up with some apostate mainline church and left as soon as its liberalism became apparent or I realized I was still starving to death spiritually. Or I might have fallen into some branch of New Age mysticism because it might have seemed, experientially, to be true.
I am quite sure that I would not have become a born-again Christian.
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit didn’t allow any of these things to happen. He lit a fire for the truth in me that has yet to be quenched.
But I wonder: Weren’t all those professing Christians supposed to be helping me see that their faith was not just nice, but true?
Can you give a reason for your hope?
It’s distressing to me – and should be to every Christian – that so few of us share our faith at all, according to survey after survey. And it’s equally distressing that so few of us have equipped ourselves to give a reason for the hope that is in us, the hope that means not wishful thinking but, biblically speaking, confident expectation that the Lord will fulfill every last promise He has made to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
The proof is still readily available to any American – and will be for at least a while longer.
Looking for proof?
Stay tuned! My goal is to post the evidences for Christianity that I found most persuasive, and suggested resources for further study.
If you can’t wait, then don’t: If science is your thing, go immediately to http://www.answersingenesis.com/ and have a look around. More interested in history and prophecy? Check out a site like www.100prophecies.org/. Then consult my Heaven Without Her bibliography and consider reading those books that best match your own particular interests; I put it together specifically to help seekers avoid the wheel-spinning I engaged in as I pursued all those red herrings, wild geese and rabbit trails.
May the Lord give wings to your efforts!
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