Josh McDowell's Blog, page 30

3 Failed Naturalistic Attempts at Explaining Consciousness

 

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

The existence and reality of consciousness present one of the most pressing challenges to metaphysical naturalism (the view that only physical things exist). In naturalism, everything that exists should be describable in physical terminology, including properties such as weight, size, and location.

But we all experience certain subjective aspects of the world that resist such explanation.

In his book Mind & Cosmos, Atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel explains why consciousness poses such an intractable problem for naturalism:

Consciousness is the most conspicuous obstacle to a comprehensive naturalism that relies only on the resources of physical science. The existence of consciousness seems to imply that the physical description of the universe, in spite of its richness and explanatory power, is only part of the truth, and that the natural order is far less austere than it would be if physics and chemistry accounted for everything. If we take this problem seriously, and follow out its implications, it threatens to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture. Yet it is very difficult to imagine a viable alternative (p. 35).

Naturalists have offered a variety of explanations for consciousness. In the introduction to the updated Evidence that Demands a Verdict, my father and I offer responses to three of the most common ones:

 

Naturalistic Attempt #1: Behaviorism:
Essentially, behaviorists reduce mental attributes to some observable behavior.

Nagel offers a cogent response:

It is certainly true that mental phenomena have behavioral manifestations, which supply our main evidence for them in other creatures. Yet all these theories seem insufficient as analyses of the mental because they leave out something essential that lies beyond the externally observable grounds for attributing mental states to others, namely, the aspect of mental phenomena that is evidence from first-person, inner point of view of the conscious subject: for example, the way sugar tastes to you or the way red looks or anger feels, each of which seems to be something more than the behavioral responses and discriminatory capacities that these experiences explain. Behaviorism leaves out the inner mental state itself. (p. 38)

 

Naturalistic Attempt #2: Evolution:
On this view, consciousness emerges from the process of natural selection, acting upon random mutation, and offers survival advantages to species.

In The Mysterious Flame, Philosopher Colin McGinn explains why evolution fails to explain consciousness:

But in the case of consciousness the Darwinian explanation does not tell us what we need to know, for the simple reason that it is unclear how matter can be so organized as to create a conscious being. The problem is in the raw materials. It looks as if with consciousness a new kind of reality has been injected into the universe, instead of just a recombination of the old realities. Even if minds showed no hint of design, the same old problem would exist: How can mere matter originate consciousness? How did evolution convert the water of biological tissue into the wine of consciousness?

 

Naturalistic Attempt #3: Identity:
This approach claims the mind and brain are simply two different terms that refer to the same physical reality.

But the problem with this attempt is that physical objects have different properties than mental objects. Mental objects do not have extension in space, weight, or location. And unlike mental states, physical objects cannot be of or about anything. They just are. Therefore, mental states are not identical to physical states.

 

Consciousness as Evidence for God

There are other naturalistic attempts to explain consciousness, but the reality is that naturalism has no plausible way to explain the emergence of mental properties.

And yet the existence of consciousness makes sense within the theistic worldview. If God is a supremely conscious being, and he has created us, then it makes perfect sense for human beings to be conscious agents who experience the world. God has both the power and incentive to create conscious beings.

The existence of consciousness does not prove God’s existence. But it is undeniable feature of reality that fits a lot more naturally into the theistic worldview.

 

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

 

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Why Does God Allow Natural Evil? Quick VIDEO

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

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I Thank God for My Doubts: A Personal Reflection

 

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

It might sound crazy, but I can honestly say that I thank God for my doubts.

It’s not that I always appreciate having doubts. Sometimes doubts can be a burden. But even so, I realize something deeper about the reason God has for my doubts. Let me explain.

I am a consistent doubter. I doubt almost everything including purchases, beliefs, and my daily choices. It is simply the way I am wired (and probably also the result of having a father who constantly challenged me to think). To be honest, sometimes the doubts can seem crushing. So, why would I thank God for them?

The answer is simple: It’s doubts that drive me to seek truth.

That’s right, doubts drive me to read, study, think, question, and constantly try to uncover what is true. It bothers me to not know something, and I tirelessly try to uncover truth about it.

Without my doubts, I doubt (yes, pun intended) that I would have written a 300+ page academic book on the Fate of the Apostles or helped my father update his classic book Evidence that Demands A Verdict, which is 800 pages. I certainly am motivated to create resources that genuinely help people, but so much of my own drive comes from my personal doubts and skepticism. I want to be confident about what I believe.

A few years ago, I was lamenting that God didn’t give me more faith. I have a pastor friend who clearly has the gift of faith. He’s always optimistic about his family, faith, and church. No matter how dim things get, he’ll constantly say, “Don’t worry. God is in control. He’s got this.”

Yet, as much as I believe him, I still find myself thinking, “But how do you really know? What if God has other plans? Are you sure?” I just can’t help it. I question things. But why? Ultimately, I think there are two reasons.

First, as I mentioned above, doubts motivate me to study, research, learn, and go deeper in my understanding.

If it were not such a skeptic, I would probably never spend so much time trying to learn and educate other believers. If you have a weakness, have you ever considered how God may have a deeper purpose for it?

Second, and perhaps most important, my doubts drive me to rest in God’s grace rather than my own understanding.

When doubts plague me, and I can’t resolve something in my mind, I am driven to God for his mercy. Jude 1:22 says to “have mercy on those who doubt.” And I often think of the powerful words spoken by the Apostle Paul, when he reflected on his own weakness: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

God uses our weaknesses to draw us into deeper relationship with Him and for greater personal sanctification.

In fact, God seems to enjoy using our weaknesses and shortcoming, so that He gets the glory. These are life-changing truths for which I rarely doubt.

 

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

 

 

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Should Christians Practice Apologetics?

At Josh McDowell Ministry, we focus a great deal on Christian Apologetics. In other words, we work hard to defend Christianity, providing reasons to help people confidently believe in Jesus and the Christian message.

In another one of my articles, I sought to defend the biblical case for apologetics. Peter, Apollos, Paul and Jesus all modeled or spoke about apologetics at some level in a positive light. This provides plenty of reason for Christians to be engaged in that kind of work. However, there are still some objections against the practice of Christian apologetics which are worth mentioning. Although I reject these objections, they often contain valid concerns which any Christian apologist should bear in mind. Because of this, I encourage all of my readers to work through these points no matter where you stand on this issue. I will address three different concerns. Here they are:

1. “You don’t need to defend God.”

Perhaps you have heard it said against apologetics: “God is a lion. You don’t need to defend a lion. Just open the cage!” The idea is that the God doesn’t need our help. He doesn’t need a lawyer or an attorney. This illustration originated from the great preacher Charles Spurgeon. In one of his sermons from 1986, he writes:

A great many learned men are defending the gospel; no doubt it is a very proper and right thing to do, yet I always notice that, when there are most books of that kind, it is because the gospel itself is not being preached. Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion, a full-grown king of beasts! There he is in the cage, and here come all the soldiers of the army to fight for him. Well, I should suggest to them, if they would not object, and feel that it was humbling to them, that they should kindly stand back, and open the door, and let the lion out! (1)

Unfortunately, this quote is sometimes presented without the first sentence. Spurgeon is not opposed to defending the gospel; he says that “it is a very proper and right thing to do.” His concern in when apologetics is used in replacement of the proclamation of the Gospel, which, by the way, is very very bad! Apologetics is meant to serve the Gospel; it does not exist for its own sake. If your apologetics does not move toward the proclamation of the Gospel, you better think long and hard about what you are trying to use it for!

Regardless of what Spurgeon thought of these matters, isn’t it still true that God doesn’t need our help defending Him? Certainly. In fact, it could be said that God doesn’t need us to open up His cage, either! It could even be said that God doesn’t need us at all! But it’s plain in Scripture that God has chosen to create us to and to use us to proclaim His Gospel (2 Tim. 4:2) and to demolish arguments against God (2 Cor. 10:5). So it’s not like apologetics, in itself, is some idea foreign to the Gospel, distracting us from what God is trying to do. Apologetics, through human agency, was in God’s program all along!

2. “You can’t argue a person into Christianity.”

I agree. Apologetics was never meant to argue a person into Christianity. If you think that apologetics can be used to argue people into Christianity, then you are misusing apologetics and it won’t work. Again, apologetics is meant to serve the Gospel. If you are familiar with Josh McDowell’s story coming to faith in Christ, you know how he tried to disprove Christianity but ended up being faced is an overwhelming supply of evidence in favor of the Christian faith. However, Josh will tell you that apologetics didn’t save him. It didn’t get him onto the other side of the cross. It simply cleared the way.

I am happy to submit that apologetics is not the only path by which God reveals Himself to the unsaved. Take a look at the different salvation stories of the New Testament. For some people, all it took was to simply look at Jesus and to marvel at His saving power (the second criminal on the cross, Luke 23:39-43). For others, they came to believe when scripture was explained to them (Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8:27-38). Others became followers after being persuaded through the work of apologetics (Paul in the synagogues, Acts 17:1-4). Others came to faith after witnessing divine miracles (Pentecost, Acts 2). Most of these stories include a presentation of the Gospel, which is so important. All of them include the work of God who showed up and opened their hearts, which is absolutely imperative! So, apologetics is not everything. But it is something. As evangelists, our tool belt should be equipped with every tool God has given us. Apologetics is one of those tools, and it must find its proper place within God’s action to seek and save the lost.

3. “Apologetics ruins faith.”

One of the concerns about apologetics, particularly when it is presented among fellow Christians, is that it is antithetical to faith. If you know why you believe something, what is the point of faith? Why is faith even needed if we are convinced in our minds that something is true?

This objection against apologetics seems to understand “faith” as a blind faith, a non-intellectual acceptance of Biblical data where we embrace the truth of God without any good reason for doing so. Proponents of this objection may cite Hebrews 11:1 which speaks of faith as a “conviction of things not seen.” The worry is that once we introduce reasons for embracing God’s truth, faith is lost and replaced by reason.

It is true that Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” but this is not blind faith at all. Just keep reading! Multiple examples of faith are presented to us. “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark” (v. 7). “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (v. 8). “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (v. 23-24). In these examples, faith is belief in action. It is a forward-looking trust in God and a posture of obedience. Faith looks like something! Since apologetics doesn’t do that for us, it does not disrupt faith. Further, if you look up the word “conviction” from the phrase “conviction of things not seen” in our best Biblical Greek dictionaries, you will find that it is understood as “the act of presenting evidence for the truth of something” (BDAG) or “the evidence, normally based on argument or discussion, as to the truth or reality of something” (Louw and Nida). So you cannot argue that faith is blind using Hebrews 11:1.

To be clear, I think apologetics can disrupt our walk with God if we are not careful. Sometimes we think ourselves pious if we can win an argument, but we don’t even have a prayer life and we read the Bible as a textbook to be mastered rather than as the word of God meant to cut us to the soul and discern the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts (Heb 4:12). We may hide ourselves in apologetics rather than in God, and we may wield apologetics as a way to attain a worldly form of power. None of these things are good, but this the misuse of apologetics. In fact, almost any form of Christian spirituality can used to “manage” God rather than to help us draw near to Him. Let us strive to avoid these temptations as we peruse our life with God!

(1) C. H. Spurgeon, “Christ and His Co-Workers,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 42 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896), 256.

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Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayers? Quick VIDEO

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

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Does Christian Hypocrisy Undermine the Reasonability of the Faith?

 

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

Christian hypocrisy has done massive damage to the Christian faith.

According to author and social critic Os Guinness, the challenge of hypocrisy is second only to the problem of suffering and evil, and is one of the main reasons people duck the challenge of the gospel.

Hypocrisy is such a massive challenge, says Guinness, because Christians are called to be God’s witnesses to the world (Isa. 43:10; John 3:28):

 

“In other words, before we are asked to preach, proclaim or try to persuade people of the claims of Jesus and his Father, we are asked simply to be witnesses for him—to provide an honest and factual account of what we have seen and heard objectively, and what we ourselves have experienced (‘Once I was blind, but now I can see’)—and to live lives that support what we say.”

 

It is tempting for Christians to respond by pointing out the hypocrisy in other people and worldviews.

For instance, the voices of tolerance and inclusiveness are often remarkably intolerant and non-inclusive of people with traditional values. Such hypocrisy should be rightly pointed out. But this doesn’t get Christians off the hook. After all, James said, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

Christians are called to a higher standard. Whether we like it or not, people will judge the truthfulness of Christianity by the lives of its adherents.

As with the charge that the church has caused injustice in the world, Christians should first look inside and see if there is any merit to this claim. Have we been hypocritical in any way? Have our lives betrayed our principles? Have we contributed to this narrative?

Rather than blame others, we need to take an honest look inside, identify our own hypocrisy, repent of it, and then admit our shortcomings.
As for the claim itself, it is an example of a “genetic fallacy,” which is a claim that is dismissed because of some perceived fault in its origin (its genesis).

Guinness explains,

 

There is an important difference between the source of a truth claim and the standard by which it should be assessed. It is therefore wrong to reject a claim just because of the character and condition of its source. . . . The issue is always truth, and truth is not a matter of where someone is “coming from” or how oddly or shabbily they have behaved in the past before making the claim. . . . If the Christian faith is true, it would still be true even if no one believed it, or if all who did were hypocrites; and if it is false, would still be false even if everyone believed it and there was no apparent hypocrisy in their behavior (196).

 

If you are upset about hypocrisy in the church, then you are in good company—Jesus felt the same way.

Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their religious hypocrisy, calling them blind guides, snakes, and even killers of the prophets (Matt. 23). He condemned them for not practicing what they preached. If hypocrisy troubles you, then you’re on the side of Jesus.

If you are not a believer, and have been dismissing Christianity because of the failure of Christians, I am sorry that Christians have let you down. But Jesus never will. Maybe it’s time to consider the message of Christ himself.

Have you considered the evidence that he is actually God in human flesh? If Jesus is not God, then Christianity is certainly false. But if he is God, then everything changes. That’s why Jesus said that the most important question is, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29).

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

 Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015), 188.

 

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Christianity: Putting It All Together

What’s the point of all this “Follow Jesus” stuff?

Wow! With this blog post, we complete a full year of blogging about the evidence for Christianity — from its historical roots (Jesus really lived!), to why Jesus calls us into relationship with Him.

The purpose of this year-long series has been simply this: to give you historically accurate information about Christianity, so that you might comfortably and knowledgeably share your love for Christ with others.

As we stated in our very first post, being a Christian is NOT about blindly following the teachings of our clergy. It’s about putting in the time and effort to become personally familiar with God and Jesus in order to build a relationship of depth with them. (Hint: to do so, we need to crack open our Bibles, people!) 

~ It Ain’t About “Blind” Faith ~

“Blind faith” is a criticism often tossed at Christians by non-believers — and they’re not wrong to raise it as a red flag for our lack of knowledge. Look at it from the non-believer’s perspective: If a Christian’s go-to answer is, “Just have faith,” it’s not particularly convincing that the Christian knows all that much about God, the Bible, or the history of Christianity. Why call yourself a “Christian,” if you’re not going to put any skin in the game? We need to dive into this “Follow Jesus” stuff with intent, friends. Only then can we really decide if Christianity makes sense to us — and if we’re willing to put in the commitment Christ desires of us.

I hope this blog series has shown you that Christianity is based on historical facts and evidence — not blind faith. And that’s a good thing, because if Christianity can’t be proven to have legitimacy, none of us should be following it! We’ve answered many of the challenging questions that skeptics tend to ask, such as, “But the Bible was written by lots of people over a hundred years. How can it be authentic?” and “Christianity appears to be a copy-cat religion. Can you prove otherwise?”

But there are many more. Let’s recap other questions typically asked by skeptics, to remind ourselves of what we may need to learn in order to have a productive conversation. The point is not to “win” a discussion, but to humbly step into each “God moment,” hoping that it may lead to another’s heart opening to the possibility of Christ.

Does God Have a Secret Will for My Life? Quick VIDEO

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

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What’s Keeping You From Loving God?

If we don’t love God, we have a reason: our skewed view of God’s nature, our deciding we don’t “need” Him, or even that He doesn’t exist. The struggle is real to clearly see God’s nature — and to steadily move toward Him.

In surfing the Internet recently, I ran across a personal blog in which the writer explained why she doesn’t believe in God. She shared that as a child, she heard the Genesis story of Adam and Eve’s sin, and its ramifications for all of mankind.

To this day she can still feel, from that decades-old encounter, the condemnation heaped upon her. With a “triumphant smile,” she writes, her church teacher declared to the assembled class of youngsters, “YOU, too, would have sinned because human nature is sinful. If it happened to be YOU in the Garden, each of YOU would have disobeyed.” (I added the caps for emphasis.)

“Thus two doctrines got established before the end of our first religion lesson,” she writes, “our innate wickedness, and God as a punitive parent.”

Aghast at the guilt heaped upon her, she shares that she grappled with these doctrines for years, finding the question of God’s existence to be a source of “ultimate terror and agony.” She decided, by her mid-teens, to reject a god that would send her to hell for not following Him. It certainly was unacceptable to her that God would send her dad, who happened to be a “very loving atheist,” to hell as well.

This writer’s current view of God? That God’s existence makes absolutely no difference to her. Even if she knew for a fact that He exists. “Happiness” has become her god of choice; her religion that “God is a happy state of mind.”

I hear this viewpoint echoed a lot today. But there are other reasons people choose to reject God. Let’s look at some of them.  

~ Is God Really Trustworthy? Does He Care? ~

It is a challenge to look at our hurting world and still see the hand of a caring, intimately vested Creator. Which can make it so easy to decide, from our limited, subjective perceptive, that He doesn’t exist. That He can’t exist, if God is supposed to be so loving and good.

In his article Not Even God Could Make Me Religious, for example, atheist John Shook admits, “I’m not that open-minded about God.” Not if we are talking about God, he adds, “of the sort worshipped by billions nowadays. You’ve heard of this God: entirely supernatural, infinitely powerful, perfectly intelligent, etc.”

Snook’s burning question: Why would a God, if one exists, expose itself to looking unworthy?

Adding that he’d “be an atheist in heaven” — yowza! — Snook declares God to be a rather lousy creator and benefactor. A “good” god, he suggests, wouldn’t sit idle in a world filled with hate, war, death, and ugliness. “What does this atheist say if brought before God?” asks Shook. “‘Not worthy enough, God, not worthy enough.’” Harsh words! But I’m not sure that God has a problem with Snook’s questions — only with the condition of his heart. As Snook himself says, he’s not open to giving God a chance. His judgment of God is firmly cemented. End of story. Move on.

Hmmmmm …. I’m not gonna lie; there have been times when I, too, have questioned whether God is really at the helm of our ball of spinning mass. “Prove yourself to me!” I’ve begged, while basically informing God that the least He could do — if he’s really entirely supernatural, infinitely powerful, and perfectly intelligent, as Snook puts it — is to give me some small sign that He not only exists, but that He sees me and cares. I can honestly tell you that He has stepped up to respond, but often in a quiet, soul-level whisper that I have to get really still to hear.

The Lesson in Painful Moments

Ed Hager, a retired pastor, shares how God showed up in his darkest hour. In one of his blog posts for Chase Oaks Church, Hager talks about the overwhelming depression he endured when his wife of 20+ years left him for another man. Hager’s faith faltered, and he gave up his pastoral position. “After having begged God to save my marriage and ministry,” he shares, “I was blinded to His presence by my focus on all I perceived I had lost.”

As his depression threatened to engulf him, Hager desperately cried out to God — and God faithfully met him. “It was in those desperate moments,” writes Hager, “that I heard, not audibly, but with crystal clarity, ‘You haven’t lost everything because you haven’t lost Me and I’m all you need!‘”

Though this long period of pain was difficult to endure, Hager is quick to admit that the years he spent in this season of his life taught him to “never doubt in the darkness what I know to be true in the light.” And that “there are insights and understandings that can be gleaned from pain that can be learned in no other way.” I so agree with that. It is often when God is all that we have, that we find Him to provide all that we need.

Could it be that the pain of this world, then, is an important part of our development? Even though we instinctively fight against the notion of another suffering for our benefit? #christ

~ Are We Worthy of Receiving His Love? ~

I can say with complete confidence that I believe there to be no deeper hurt than feeling unloved, unwanted, or unloveable. As the saying goes, “Been there, done that, got the gosh darn T-shirt.”

My own religious upbringing demanded that I view God with trembling fear. In faithfully reading my illustrated children’s Bible, I learned to view God as the wrathful deity of the Old Testament who seemed to enjoy making people suffer. Why? Because we’re horrible, rotten creatures who will always disappoint him — and He’s pissed off about it! At least that’s the message that buried itself in my heart and mind. Don’t even get me started on how much I came to hate Eve for listening to that stupid, lying snake. I hated Eve because she caused me to hate myself.

It has taken me decades to finally choose to accept the free gift of God’s grace; to change my perspective from seeing my every slip up as proof of my defectiveness, to just one more opportunity of growth to get it right. And that God is okay with the process. (The Dude has patience!!) As Christian speaker Beth Moore puts it, “You cannot be free to return the love of God unless you first accept it. You can’t love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength unless you believe God loves you.”

Bottom line: as long as we hate that part of ourselves that is so easily led to choosing self over God, we will have a desperate time accepting that God truly does see us as anything but unworthy and unloveable.

Our love for God, adds Moore, opens our eyes to see Him at work. Our love for God gives us the desire to truly want to please Him. Our love for God helps us to crawl, if necessary, through troubling times. “The number one motivation you’ll have for persevering through the most difficult trials of your life,” she says, “will be the unabashed love of God. It is not determination, dedication or will that is going to get you through the bad times. It’s that you know God loves you, and you love him.”

~ But Do We Really Need God? ~

Oh, boy, we’re going deep now! So many people park right here and never budge. “I’m doing just fine at this life thing,” we think. “I don’t need God to feel happy, be a good person, or to live a meaningful life!”

Natasha Crain wrote an article on this very topic. When we begin to ask ourselves whether we really NEED God for those three areas of our life, she writes, it’s soooooo tempting to admit that we can, for the most part, live a productive, happy life without God being at the center of it.

If He’s just the Cosmic Dude we sleepily say hello to in church on Sunday mornings, for example, He won’t have much of an impact on our daily choices. Our choosing to be good, then, doesn’t depend on God being in our life. The truth is that a non-Christian can demonstrate a higher standard of moral living than a Christian, if he or she so chooses. “Christians” don’t get to claim the market on goodness. Some, indeed, earn the “hypocrite” label tossed at them.

And the Church should be humble about putting out the message that only Christianity can give life meaning — though knowing God, suggests Crain, helps us to discover our eternal purpose. 

Ryan Bell, a pastor for 19 years in the Seventh-day Adventist church, now has a new gospel he teaches: that being a Christian actually makes life less meaningful for people. Not only did Bell walk away from the pulpit, but he now claims to be an atheist. And boy, is he HAPPY about it.

“Life does not need a divine source in order to be meaningful,” he writes in just one of his “no God needed” articles. “Anyone who has seen a breathtaking sunset or fallen in love with another human being knows that we make meaning from the experiences of our lives; we construct it the way we construct any social narrative.”

His appreciation for life and its potential, he adds, increased when he stepped away from his faith. But we need to understand Bell’s view of God to properly analyze his statement.

Making Sure We Have the Right View of God

Somewhat akin to my own upbringing, Bell embraced the idea that being heaven-focused is super important, but daily life merely a struggle to endure. “Ironically,” he writes, “my Christian upbringing taught me that ultimately this life doesn’t matter, which tends to make believers apathetic about suffering and think that things will only get worse before God suddenly solves everything on the last day.”

Yuck. This is so not the view God wants us to hold for life. We’re to give this life our all, for His glory, not squander it despising “sinners” and trying to not rub shoulders with them.

Christians who live out Bell’s skewed theology not only live royally ticked off about the daily pains and obstacles of life, they want to insulate themselves as much as possible. They hold the yucky world at arm’s length, lest it dirty their halo and/or muck up their chances of residing in a heavenly mansion. (I was actually raised to think like this.)

Dr. William Lane Craig, a research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, points out that Bell has merely swapped one subjective construct for another. To reject the constraints of his skewed theology, it’s clear that Bell believes he has to reject even its source: God. Craig explains why he doesn’t think Bell “gets” that atheism isn’t a better choice than Christianity, just different. To live “happily,” explains Craig, we each construct a personal value system to bring meaning to our life:

“You construct a set of values. You invent a purpose for your life. This is the only way in which you can live tolerably with atheism. So when he says that he has found that now, as an atheist, life is more meaningful to him and more precious and so forth, this only shows that he hasn’t understood that the claim is about objective meaning, value, and purpose. All he is saying is that as an atheist he finds more subjective meaning, value, and purpose to his life. That doesn’t in any way refute the argument that atheism implies the absurdity of life without God or nihilism. One isn’t talking about subjective attitudes. One is talking about the way the world really is independently of your attitudes.”

~ The Choice is Ours ~

Until we someday meet Him face-to-face, we will never understand why God has given us so much personal freedom to accept or reject Him. But that’s one of the things I love about Him. That He wants me, but won’t force the relationship. That, as the Bible says, He knows me so intimately, even the numbers of hairs on my head, but isn’t put off by my sins, fears, and selfishness. That He loves me and patiently waits for me to inch ever closer to Him.

For me NOW, loving God is a no-brainer. But as I mentioned earlier, for most of my early adult years I hoped to just skate by unnoticed, so He wouldn’t have an opportunity to merit out punishment. I feared God’s disappointment and wrath so much, that any desire I had to please Him came from a place of fear, not worship. But here’s the truth: neither height nor death, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! And with that assurance, I can freely love Him back. I continually fall more in love with Jesus, the closer I get in relationship with Him.

Where are you in your love for God? Are you hot or cold — and why is that?

 

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

 

The post What’s Keeping You From Loving God? appeared first on Josh.org.

Advice for Aspiring Authors

 

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

Over the past 12 years, I have had the opportunity to write a number of different books for students and adults in the area of apologetics and relationships. As a result, aspiring authors have often asked my advice for how to become an established author. Here’s a few tips I have learned along the way.

 

1. Don’t Be in A Rush to Publish. 

Because we live in such an “instant” culture, it is easy to feel the need to publish something immediately. But this is often a mistake, for at least two reasons. First, once something is published, it is there forever to be found whenever someone Googles your name. Second, people will often judge you by your first book, so make sure it’s good! There is much wisdom in taking longer to write a great book than rushing out an average one.

 

2. Write from Your Passion and Expertise.

My first book was Ethix: Being Bold in A Whatever World (2006). When I initially considered writing a book, I asked myself a few questions: “What am I an expert in? What unique contribution can I make? Where is there a hole that needs filling?”

My graduate training was in philosophy and I was teaching high school students in worldview and apologetics. I personally had a need for a student ethics book that offered careful philosophical and biblical thinking on “hot” issues of the day such as abortion, war, and homosexuality. And so I wrote it! You can do the same.

 

3. Develop your unique voice.

When I first started writing, I found myself mimicking the voice of other authors.

I tried to write with the authority of J.P. Moreland or the clarity and persuasiveness of Philip Yancey. But this question was lurking in the back of my mind: “How has God wired me to communicate? What experiences has God given me that shapes how I uniquely communicate?”

Personally, it felt like my writing “voice” started to emerge in my early 30s and is probably best seen in A New Kind of Apologist as well as the unique contributions I made to the updated Evidence that Demands a Verdict. If you are an aspiring author, prayerfully focus on developing the unique voice God has given you.

 

4. Develop a platform.

Unless you have an utterly fresh idea or experience, blogging regularly is critical (as well as using other kinds of social media).

First, it will help you become a better writer. There is no shortcut to becoming a good writer: write, write, write.

Second, blogging helps develop your platform. One of the first questions publishers ask when they see a proposal is: Does the person have a platform? If not, few will take the risk on a new author.

Third, you will be able to gauge if people value your writing. Do people read your blogs? Do they repost them? A successful blog is a good sign you will write a successful book.

 

5. Find Your Identity in Christ.

Although mentioned last, this is the most important tip. You will inevitably face criticism if you write a book. Some people may be harsh.

If your identity comes from the praise of others, or how many books you sell, you could be in for a difficult ride. But if your identity is grounded in Christ, then you will be free to do your best and leave the results to God. Grounding your identity in Christ begins long before you write a book.

Consider asking yourself a few questions: “Why do I really want to write a book? Can I bring glory to God through both the process and the end product?”

You don’t have to have perfect motives, but be sure you can truly love God and other people through the process.

If so, go for it.

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

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