Article: Proclaiming Christ In Our Culture

A friend of mine sent me a link to this great article about evangelism in our culture.

http://www.billygraham.org/DMag_article.asp?ArticleID=839

"Fundamentalist Christians"

A friend of mine forwarded to me a chain letter that in effect "called out" fundamentalist Christians, and asked me what I thought about it. Well, I had quite a bit to say, so I figured some of you might be interested in reading my response also. I realize I probably gave this far more weight than I should've, but perhaps it will help address some of the issues that you or someone you know has with Christians or Christianity in general.

I noticed, above all, that most of these are based on misconceptions and prejudiced notions of Christians or, in some cases, on the actions of a particular group of Christians. Additionally, the term "fundamentalist" has taken on a nasty political connotation that has little to do with the actual idea of Christian fundamentalism. I disagree with the actions of many of those extremely vocal troublemakers that the media labels "fundamentalist Christians"—probably even moreso than most non-Christians—because they are misrepresenting the Gospel message or missing the centrally important tenets of that message. The list of boldfaced items below are the contents of the original message, and the text after each represents my response.


Fundamentalist Christians

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

I believe that the Bible holds up to historical scrutiny much better than any other ancient text, historical or otherwise. We have far more original manuscripts from the Bible than any other work, including those that are considered historical fact, such as the works of Plato, Josephus, Socrates and other historical figures. Additionally, the Bible is by far the most studied literary work in the history of mankind, yet still none have been able to irrefutably disprove the historical accuracy of the work.

It would be nice to believe that "all paths lead to Heaven," but unfortunately the Bible tells us that that is not the case. We as Christians should not be "outraged" when someone denies the existence of God or disagrees with our beliefs... rather we should seek to truly understand what they believe and where they are coming from. I myself was an atheist until about five years ago, and it's easy to forget that when I'm dealing with atheists, but it's essential that I remember what it was like to be in their place and why I doubted.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

Again, we shouldn't take insult when people hold different beliefs. The theories of Evolution (macroevolution) are widely taught as fact, although they are actually far from it. I think it's more reasonable to believe that people descended from apes than the larger issue: the very origin of life. The evolution of primate to man is far more believable to me than the idea that a living cell could have come into being through some electrochemical process working on inanimate elements, or that a unicellular organism could then somehow reproduce and then organize into multicellular creatures with irreducibly complex organs.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

I don't "laugh" at polytheists. This is another generality that is true only of some Christians. You can't judge Jesus Christ by some of His followers... or even all of them, for that matter.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

These instances are taken out of context, and are irrelevant. The wage of sin is death, and since we are all sinners, we all deserve to die. God is the only one who has the right to pronounce that judgment on us, and the only one who has the power to forgive our sins. Who are we to judge God's actions?

Referring to the atrocities committed by Islamic extremists equates to comparing apples to oranges, because we are talking about the actions of humans versus the actions of God. When you look contextually at Scripture as a whole, you see a plan of Law that unfolds. This guidebook for how we as human beings should act culminates in the two greatest commandments given by Jesus Christ himself, two commandments on which all of the other laws and revelation of the Old Testament hang. The first is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37), and the second to, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39). We complete the former commandment by carrying out the latter. The way that we love other human beings is the way the we love God.

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

Again, I don't "laugh" at any of those beliefs, but for many reasons I find that Christian truth claims are the most believable.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

A several-billion-year-old earth is hardly a "scientifically established" fact. There is plenty of evidence to the contrary, and every single day science makes revisions to previous theories. In fact, many of the underpinning conjectures that have been used to establish the age of the earth (carbon-dating, for example) have been disproved or at least seriously revised.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

This is one of the hardest things to understand and accept about the Christian faith. But, look at it this way. Heaven is a place where we live eternally in the immediate presence of God. The Bible tells us that God is love, light, warmth and joy, and basically everything else that is good. If Heaven is the presence of all of those things, than Hell must be the absence of all of those things. Sin is absolutely hateful to God; it sickens Him. God would, in actuality, be doing an injustice if He allowed sin to exist in this perfect place that is Heaven, because it would no longer be perfect. Only through the covering of our sins with the "once and for all" atoning sacrifice of Christ's blood are we made pure in the sight of God, and therefore able to share in the joy of being in His presence for eternity. Jesus died as a sacrifice for us, specifically for the purpose of cleansing us of our sin. If we choose not to accept Christ, we are still soiled with the sin, and therefore cannot be in His presence. Those who are not in God's presence feel no "love, light, warmth and joy" because all of those things are from God, and they have chosen to be apart from Him. God offers the choice because He gave us free will because He loves us... it's not His fault that we take advantage of it. If we were all automatons who blindly accepted Christ and had no choice in the matter, that wouldn't show genuine love but rather coercion. Although I would love to believe that just being a good person is enough to have eternal life, Scripture teaches us clearly that it is not: we are incapable of being "good," and the only way to be made good is through Jesus Christ.

I think it's a very interesting and important point that Christianity is the only religion that I know of that requires no work or sacrifice on our part in order for us to achieve salvation, redemption, enlightenment, eternal life, or some other form of "higher being." All that is required of us is that we accept the freely-given grace offered to us through Jesus Christ. This sets Christianity apart from all other religions of the world, and is one of the aspects that I find most believable, because logically it seems to me that there is no amount of "good" work or sacrifice that any human being could do to achieve some kind of higher being. The only way we could hope to achieve it is through grace.

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

The proof I have is manifold. It is not only rooted in history and the scientific disciplines mentioned above, but also proved experientially by what God has done in my life. I am a completely different—and better—person than I was before I gave my life to Christ. Christianity can never be "proven." If it could, there would no longer be a choice to be made, and everyone would be a Christian. Faith goes hand in hand with our ability to make the choice.

2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

This is based on a misunderstanding of prayer. God is not a cosmic vending machine, dispensing "blessings" and "fortune" as we please. The "prosperity Gospel" is garbage, and Scripture doesn't back it up at all. Prayers are not just about asking for what you want, and getting it. God has a plan and we are not in a position to understand it, being that He exists outside of time and space, and that we are limited by our mortality. I can't really count the number of times that I've asked for something or some outcome and been disappointed that things didn't go my way, only to discover later that I was better off not getting what I wanted. To paraphrase the priest from a friend's church, "God always answers our prayers, and sometimes the answer is 'No.'" But I suppose that, if you're very selfish and small-minded, you never want to hear, "No," and consider it a failure when you don't get exactly what you want every single time, regardless of anyone or anything else. Only an omniscient being always know what the best outcome of a situation could be. Since no human being is omniscient, it stands to reason that none of us has any basis for pronouncing judgments regarding God's success or failure.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

As Christians, we have a responsibility to learn as much as we can about the Bible. The Word and the Spirit are the only sources of divine knowledge that we have, and we should seek to learn everything that we can about the character of God since it is our calling to be Christ-like in all aspects of our life. As we study the Bible, our faith will grow because we learn more about God, we see the unity of Scripture, and we overcome doubt. Contrariwise, studying the Bible will never help someone who has already made the decision that it's a bunch of crap. Many non-believers who seek with an open mind and study Scripture will find that the Christian truth claims actually do make the most sense. I'm one of them.

The Creation Museum

Here is an interesting article on a new museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (near Cincinnati, Ohio) devoted to proving Creation through modern science: "Inside the Creation Museum" (Salon.com). I'm personally not sure that I affirm the brand of "young earth Creationism" espoused by this museum's founders, but I have read quite enough to to cause me to be very skeptical about the concept of Darwinian Evolution (macroevolution) as it is currently taught in our schools. This museum, at the very least, will hopefully facilitate the opening of a forum for debate, and obligate both sides to redouble their efforts to seek tenable evidence with which to bolster their respective positions regarding the origins of life.