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The first comments about my posts have come from an atheist who lambasted me for expressing my Christian beliefs. I was pleased that someone had actually read my blog, although I hope as time goes by, I get some positive comments and support for my work as well.

Truthfully, if I can’t stand the heat I should get out of the fire. Comments that challenge my point of view force me to think, and that is always a good thing. As I ponder this recent assault I am compelled to look at what makes anyone believe in whatever it is in which they believe. It seems that we choose to put our faith in a particular belief system and then go about looking for evidence that we made the right choice.

Although the primary point of this blog is to encourage people to think about their spirituality, I have to admit that I was propelled into considering Christianity by the admonitions of my son and my wife. It was only after I opened my mind to the idea of God and then Christianity that I began studying it earnestly.

As I dialog with my atheist counterpart in my responses to comments I wonder what has propelled him or her into atheism. I know that through our public-school systems and the scientific community in general, the theory of a primordial soup, evolution, and survival of the fittest have been presented as fact rather than theory. Theories that include a creator like intelligent design have been absent or suppressed in most teaching through the high school level. In this atmosphere it is easy to imagine that it could be difficult for people who do not have an equal exposure to the evidence for God, to accept the possibility that God exists.

Additionally, our culture in general has moved away from a belief in God. The Judeo / Christian standard of right and wrong upon which our country was founded and by which the justice systems of the Western World have been based, seems to be eroding into a system whereby the personal preferences of the individual take precedent over laws that originate from a Source much greater than man. We have reached a point in our collective thinking where the most obvious and unquestionable laws of nature are being disregarded. Removing God abdicates us from any responsibility to account for our actions.

As Christians we need to be a beacon of light. And while this is a nice metaphor, what does it really mean? To me it means that we have a responsibility to speak the truth of God into the clamor of confusion that we are currently experiencing in the world. But if we are to communicate succinctly and clearly we must speak the same language as our intended audience.

The idea of speaking the same language has deeper implications than not speaking English to someone who only understands Japanese. It means understanding what things have relevance to our society and how to relate to the average individual who may only have a vague (or totally misguided) idea of Christianity.

We live in a culture where people think that an endorsement from Taylor Swift could change the outcome of a presidential election.  And while I want to give a heartfelt and loud thank you to the celebrities who have spoken of their faith and used their popularity as a platform to point to God, I want to point out that the values of our culture and society are different from those of the Christian community. Taylor Swift could be an expert on political affairs, I don’t know whether she is or not. But I doubt that her understanding of politics is the reason thousands of people would follow her lead in selecting the president. If we as Christians are to be effective in delivering our message we have to accept that the folks to whom we are speaking may not know or care about what we are saying if we can’t put things in terms that somehow relate to their world.

When someone like Chris Pratt, or Alice Cooper, or Carrie Underwood or Gwen Stephanie/Shelton, or Denzel Washington, or Patrick Mahome speak about or exhibit their faith it is great, and people may be influenced. When you and I speak on our faith we may lack the credibility to get anybody to even pay attention.

I don’t advocate for watering down the Christian message or distorting any teaching in the Bible to fit the standards of the current culture. But I do believe that we have to be relatable. To me that means that we have to try to be ourselves and be real. I don’t think it is productive to put on your Sunday go to meetin’ personality when sharing the gospel. I also think we need to be cautious about speaking Christianese to non-Christians. In church especially, we develop a whole range of words that are perfectly understandable to people who have been exposed to those terms and understand them. To others they may sound weird and can be counterproductive to establishing rapport.

A re-occurring theme in my dialogs with the atheist has been that of proof.  The atheist seems to be aware of the scientific proof in favor of God’s existence but derides the sources. Although he/she has not provided any reason for their disdain for the findings of these noteworthy scientists, I suspect I would have the same attitude toward proof that I might be given on his/her position. We believers are like that. We all have our own scientific evidence.

Nevertheless, the important point is that we live in an age governed by empirical scientific proof as the primary form of evidence and truth. We should be aware of the evidence in favor of our belief system. There is a lot more than you may think. Please take a look at the scientists and organizations listed on my resources page.  As we are attempting to shine our beacon into the dark crevasses of the world not all in our audiences will be unwilling to consider our position, but may need more evidence of our claims than “God said so” or “it’s in the Bible”.  

This brings me to the point of apologetics. Contrary to the way it may sound, Christian apologetics is not saying you’re sorry for Christianity. It is actually defense of our faith. Most of the people listed on my resources page are Christian apologists. They argue for and defend the Christian faith. The way I see it, if we are supposed to “spread the word” there are going to be times when we need to defend the word as well, if we are to have credibility.

This is my appeal to any church that expects its congregation to evangelize. Please equip your congregation through a program of apologetics training. While there still may be a need for the street corner preacher calling down fire and brimstone, most of us do not fit that profile. We exist in a time when every believer needs to be willing to speak about what they believe in. People not only want to know what we believe in but why we believe in it.

An appeal to the emotional and spiritual turmoil people experience is certainly valid. But not everyone is broken to the point of feeling the need to drastically change their life. Being able to defend the veracity of Christianity to someone who is curious and may not even perceive a need within themselves is important as well.

When I was involved in martial arts we had a saying in one of the dojos I attended. “We practice the impossible to make doing the difficult easier.” As you spread the gospel you will undoubtably come up against people who are in staunch opposition to your point of view. Some of them will stubbornly cling to their perspective with no real evidence of why, while others will present compelling arguments and what may seem to be irrefutable facts in favor of their position. Rather than being daunted and discouraged by these encounters, use them to find your weak points and cherish the opportunity, though it will certainly be uncomfortable, to learn where you need to bolster your argument. Most of the people on my resource page have had numerous public debates with some of the leading and most articulate atheists of our time. I encourage you to listen to some of the debates and learn from them.