One of my heroes in the faith is a man named Ravi Zacharias. I recently purchased his new book entitled "Beyond Opinion - Living the Faith We Defend." For those not familiar with Zacharias, he is probably the most influential Christian Apologist since CS Lewis and is a true giant of the faith. Born in India, educated in the west, the scope of his ministry is truly experienced all over the world.
Over the past 5 years, I have listened to and read nearly everything he has published, and so much of his teaching has defined where I am today. In the opening preface of "Beyond Opinion", he writes these words:
There is no greater example in apologetics than the apostle Paul speaking at Mars Hill. The irony of the talk Paul gave is in the difference in reaction the Easterner has when reading Paul’s address to that of a Westerner. The Easterner is thrilled at how the apostle wove the message starting from where the listeners were to bring them to where he was in his thinking. The average Westerner is quick to point out that few of his hearers responded. Such an attitude says volumes about why the church in the West has been so intellectually weak. To those in the West, the bigger the number of respondents, the more replicated the technique. The bigger the statistic, the greater the success. Westerners are enamored by size, largesse, number of hands raised, and so on. When the sun has set on these reports, we seem rather dismayed when statistics show the quality of the life of the believer is no different from that of the unbeliever.
No doubt about it, the body of Christ in America needs a serious wake up call. We have been trained by "church" to feel our faith, but have we been trained to think? Sure, we all sit in front of pre-packaged messages every Sunday and hear our favorite pastor give us valuable insights on how we should think, act, love, give, etc... But how many times have you heard a pastor defend why Christianity is TRUE? How many times have you heard a preacher explain to you why he believes that the resurrection is a historical fact?
I like to think about it on three levels: Level 1 is the ground floor, the foundation. Its the level that defines a person's worldview. It's the thought behind the answer, "Why are you a Christian?" In my opinion, most Christians today would have a hard time answering that question at level 1. But in a scientifically minded, "prove it to me" culture, shouldn't we have a good explanation for why we believe what we believe? That's why I love the title of the book, "Beyond Opinion." Our faith in Jesus should go beyond that of opinion.
Level 2 would be considered the arts or entertainment, where the worldview of level 1 gets communicated. Take any popular TV show in which pre-marital sex and homosexuality are treated as the norm and you will see level 2 in action. In the same way, the American church has become a master at level 2 - stimulating the senses to achieve maximum emotional gratification. Now don't get me wrong; I love level 2. There is nothing that excites me more than raising my hands with fellow Christians as we sing at the top of our lungs. But here's the point; the emotional response of raising my hands should be born out of thought - out of level 1, and not from the lighting, multimedia, or intensity of the music. In my opinion, the western church has done a great disservice to our generation by over emphasizing the level 2 approach. In the process, we have abandoned the tool of critical thinking and left ourselves vulnerable to attacks from the enemy.
In the same way, the church has become a master of level 3, which I call the application side of life. Its the level that says, "Do this, think that, don't do this, watch out for that, etc." I would venture to say that 95% of Sunday sermons this week could fall under these categories. Again, don't get me wrong. There is nothing problematic about preaching on application. There are always new insights on how to walk closer with God which can be very helpful to all of us. My point is simply this:
We should not run away from levels 2 and 3. But we should also recognize that the world is also very good at levels 2 and 3. The world loves emotional outpouring during a concert. The world loves tips for a healthy life. What the world cannot stand is the uncompromising truth that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. And unless we have trained and equipped ourselves, and our children to understand this truth, we may be just moments away from being swept off our feet to something that feels a little better than following Jesus.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Evolution and Race
Recently, there has been a firestorm of criticism raining down on Dr. James Watson, one of the men who helped unravel the mystery of DNA back in the 1950's. Here are a couple of his quotes that have ruffled people's feathers:
"There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically."
"(I am) inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really."
Most of his critics are rightfully pointing out that the "intellegence testing" cannot be accurately assessed accross cultural lines. Fair enough. But something much bigger is slipping through the cracks. Let's look closer at the first quote.
Dr. Watson is clearly pre-supposing a naturalistic Darwinian worldview which holds that all life came from primordial soup and arose by random chance + time. This is also the same worldview which undergirds virtually all of Dr. Watson's scientific peers who are now criticising his statements. But here's the problem - if mankind is really just a random collection of materials, then his first statement is perfectly reasonable. Varying intellegence accross racial and ethnic lines should be expected if Darwinism is true. Why should we expect that a random collection of cells called "my brain" would function EXACTLY the same as a person raised in Africa, China or Canada? In fact, doesn't the whole Darwinian model enspouse and defend this very thinking: Survival of the fittest? Only the strong (and smart) survive?
This whole episode vividely points to one of the biggest problems with evolutionary thinking on the origin of life. On one hand, the atheist wants to remove God from the picture and live only inside a natural framework. On the other, the atheist wants equality across racial and ethnic lines. But on what basis?
Ideas have consequences. The idea of Darwinism has consequences, one of which is the loss of an objective basis for the value of equality. Too bad that only a theistic worldview can justify their outrage.
"There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically."
"(I am) inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really."
Most of his critics are rightfully pointing out that the "intellegence testing" cannot be accurately assessed accross cultural lines. Fair enough. But something much bigger is slipping through the cracks. Let's look closer at the first quote.
Dr. Watson is clearly pre-supposing a naturalistic Darwinian worldview which holds that all life came from primordial soup and arose by random chance + time. This is also the same worldview which undergirds virtually all of Dr. Watson's scientific peers who are now criticising his statements. But here's the problem - if mankind is really just a random collection of materials, then his first statement is perfectly reasonable. Varying intellegence accross racial and ethnic lines should be expected if Darwinism is true. Why should we expect that a random collection of cells called "my brain" would function EXACTLY the same as a person raised in Africa, China or Canada? In fact, doesn't the whole Darwinian model enspouse and defend this very thinking: Survival of the fittest? Only the strong (and smart) survive?
This whole episode vividely points to one of the biggest problems with evolutionary thinking on the origin of life. On one hand, the atheist wants to remove God from the picture and live only inside a natural framework. On the other, the atheist wants equality across racial and ethnic lines. But on what basis?
Ideas have consequences. The idea of Darwinism has consequences, one of which is the loss of an objective basis for the value of equality. Too bad that only a theistic worldview can justify their outrage.
Monday, January 28, 2008
A sovereign God at work
Two quick stories that have recently reminded me of God's complete sovereignty.
1. Thanks to Tony for sharing this video. The artist's name is Akiane (a-kee-ah-na). In a nutshell, her parents were atheists, but God had a different plan for her life.
2. We recently had the awesome opportunity to give away our old beat up Explorer. I really didn't feel good about selling it because it may be on its last leg (wheel). We asked around for about two weeks with no luck. Then one day, as I was driving home I really felt led to contact Travis. Travis was a new engineer to our office, but something he had said the week earlier had indicated that someone he knew may be looking for car. To make a long story short, we ended up giving the car away to a man named Watson - Travis's father-in-law to be (getting married this May). So here's the cool part:
Watson has given away several cars over the course of his life. The car was going to be put use immediately as a part of Watson's new project called the coaches channel. And the best part of all, when I received the title transfer, there is a part that asks "If the car was sold for less than the value, please state the reason why _________." On that line, Watson had written one word. "Friendship."
As I read that word, I just paused again to thank God for his Sovereignty. Not only were able to help another family in Christ, we gained some friends in the process.
1. Thanks to Tony for sharing this video. The artist's name is Akiane (a-kee-ah-na). In a nutshell, her parents were atheists, but God had a different plan for her life.
2. We recently had the awesome opportunity to give away our old beat up Explorer. I really didn't feel good about selling it because it may be on its last leg (wheel). We asked around for about two weeks with no luck. Then one day, as I was driving home I really felt led to contact Travis. Travis was a new engineer to our office, but something he had said the week earlier had indicated that someone he knew may be looking for car. To make a long story short, we ended up giving the car away to a man named Watson - Travis's father-in-law to be (getting married this May). So here's the cool part:
Watson has given away several cars over the course of his life. The car was going to be put use immediately as a part of Watson's new project called the coaches channel. And the best part of all, when I received the title transfer, there is a part that asks "If the car was sold for less than the value, please state the reason why _________." On that line, Watson had written one word. "Friendship."
As I read that word, I just paused again to thank God for his Sovereignty. Not only were able to help another family in Christ, we gained some friends in the process.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
What's in a name?
Profound: The life and words of Jesus Christ. I've heard it said that "Jesus Christ continually contradicts us in the way that we experience ourselves as alive, and he compels us to radically redefine what we mean by "life". He encounters us the way that he encountered the disciples on Easter morning. They, the living, were really dead; He, the dead, was really the living."
Simplicity: All that He asks is that we die to ourselves. It may take a different form for all of us, but at its core - that's it. "Die to yourselves and let me live inside of you. Be everything opposite of what the old man will desire - meek, humble, poor in spirit, loving your enemy." He says this is the way to true happiness.
Profound simplicity. It may sound like a paradox, but maybe its the best description I have for Jesus - a profound man with a simple message.
Simplicity: All that He asks is that we die to ourselves. It may take a different form for all of us, but at its core - that's it. "Die to yourselves and let me live inside of you. Be everything opposite of what the old man will desire - meek, humble, poor in spirit, loving your enemy." He says this is the way to true happiness.
Profound simplicity. It may sound like a paradox, but maybe its the best description I have for Jesus - a profound man with a simple message.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Tony Dungy
Below are some excerpts from a fantastic article on Tony Dungy. You can read the entire article here. What an awesome example of Christ to the world.
In the penultimate paragraph of his best-selling book, "Quiet Strength," a work whose subject matter certainly transcends the folly and fleeting stardom of sport, Tony Dungy wrote this: "I coach football. But the good I can do to glorify God along the way is my real purpose."
In the penultimate paragraph of his best-selling book, "Quiet Strength," a work whose subject matter certainly transcends the folly and fleeting stardom of sport, Tony Dungy wrote this: "I coach football. But the good I can do to glorify God along the way is my real purpose."
For one more year at least, perhaps even a little longer than that, Dungy will continue to moonlight in those pursuits, to address with great purpose the duality of his life, and to chase both his ultimate vocation and his higher-profile avocation.
And for at least one more season we're all the richer for it.
The former means serving his maker by bearing witness to his deep-rooted faith. The latter encompasses scratching the itch that on Monday precluded Dungy from simply walking away from the game that has been such an integral part of his life since he was persuaded by a respected educator and friend to rejoin the Parkside High School football team for his senior season, after he had quit in protest when his best friend was not elected a captain.
But make no mistake: The day is coming, and unfortunately all too soon, when those parallel paths surely will diverge.
Football is going to lose the personal tug-of-war for Tony Dungy's heart, essentially because he believes the battle for his soul is infinitely more important. And so while the much-awaited Monday resolution regarding his football future ended with a decision to remain with the Colts for at least the 2008 campaign, culminating a high-anxiety week in which his annual private inventory-taking was transformed into a public passion play he never intended it to be, Dungy is now officially a short-timer.
Then again, when it comes to football, that's precisely what Dungy always considered himself.
It would diminish the character of some of the fine people I have encountered in life, and in work, to proclaim that Dungy is the finest man, outside of my father, I have ever met. This claim, however, I will make: There have been none finer.
There are times in this business when you sit down to transcribe an interview or review your notes, and you quickly discover there isn't a usable quote to be had on the tape or among the scribbling. Spend even five minutes with Dungy, replay the tape, and you find yourself with the unenviable task of editing out material you'd kill to have on other occasions. In any story about Dungy, his words are far more eloquent than any of your own, but the bosses don't pay you to merely file a monologue. A lot of quality stuff, suffice it to say, gets left on the cutting room floor.
Without annexing the role of a Pigskin Pygmalion, he shapes lives and builds character. And his destiny is to somehow do the same outside the forum of sport. Which is why, with every day the NFL bought with Dungy's announcement on Monday that he will coach in 2008, and then again review his status, we are all the beneficiaries.
The clock is ticking, as it really always has been, on Dungy's public life. When he walks away from football, there won't be any return, no encore performance like a Bill Parcells or a Joe Gibbs. Nope, when Tony Dungy leaves, to commence the full-time work in the ministry for which he has been preparing, it will mark the end of his football career. And so we would all be wise to enjoy what remains of it.
Dungy's life in general has been a victory tour of sorts, but one that he believes will culminate in a reward much loftier than the Vince Lombardi Trophy. And so it's doubtful he will treat the 2008 season any differently than the dozen campaigns in which he has served as a head coach.
In planning his ministry, beginning his work with prison inmates, establishing family-centered initiatives, and by every day bearing witness with his own example, Dungy has embraced exactly what his "life's work" will entail in private. But with his Monday decision to stick around a little while longer, it's nice that he gave the rest of us at least one more public year in which to revel in the elegance and dignity of his simple, quiet strength.
Monday, January 21, 2008
My Worldview
So what's a worldview? In my opinion, a worldview should attempt to answer four basic questions about life. Origin, meaning, morality, & destiny. How did I get here, what gives life meaning, how do I define right and wrong, what happens when I die?
For folks who don't know me, I am convinced that the Christian worldview is true. Its not that the Christian faith makes me feel warm and fuzzy (although sometimes it does). Its that I believe the Christian faith provides the most comprehensive and collectively complete answers to these questions.
So why is that important? I guess I feel like too many times, I've seen non-Christians and Christians (myself included) get into a heated debate about something which is really a by-product of our particular worldviews. Take any of the heated political issues of the day. If someone believes that human life has happened by random chance and that each person can define their own moral code, we shouldn't be surprised at all to find out they are OK with abortion and stem cell research. What we need to do as Christians is understand that the problem lies a lot deeper than a person's view on homosexuality or the political candidate they happen to support. We need to find a way to meet them in their worldview and then show them the superiority of ours!
I think this is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said he wanted to be "all things to all people, so that by all possible means, I might save some." We live in culture that has a built-in discrimination against all things religious - particularly Christian. Not fair, but that's life. Our challenge should be to understand not only what we believe, but what's the worldview behind WHY we believe. Does Christianity make sense to us? If so, we should be able to explain why it does. Sometimes a simple question back to the person who is questioning us can open the door to the real foundational issue that needs to be looked at. (Just think about how often Jesus did this).
In any case, I don't think it takes an apologetics scholar or theology graduate to defend the Christian faith in everyday life. It simply takes each one of us being committed to always being "ready to give an answer for the hope that we have."
For folks who don't know me, I am convinced that the Christian worldview is true. Its not that the Christian faith makes me feel warm and fuzzy (although sometimes it does). Its that I believe the Christian faith provides the most comprehensive and collectively complete answers to these questions.
So why is that important? I guess I feel like too many times, I've seen non-Christians and Christians (myself included) get into a heated debate about something which is really a by-product of our particular worldviews. Take any of the heated political issues of the day. If someone believes that human life has happened by random chance and that each person can define their own moral code, we shouldn't be surprised at all to find out they are OK with abortion and stem cell research. What we need to do as Christians is understand that the problem lies a lot deeper than a person's view on homosexuality or the political candidate they happen to support. We need to find a way to meet them in their worldview and then show them the superiority of ours!
I think this is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said he wanted to be "all things to all people, so that by all possible means, I might save some." We live in culture that has a built-in discrimination against all things religious - particularly Christian. Not fair, but that's life. Our challenge should be to understand not only what we believe, but what's the worldview behind WHY we believe. Does Christianity make sense to us? If so, we should be able to explain why it does. Sometimes a simple question back to the person who is questioning us can open the door to the real foundational issue that needs to be looked at. (Just think about how often Jesus did this).
In any case, I don't think it takes an apologetics scholar or theology graduate to defend the Christian faith in everyday life. It simply takes each one of us being committed to always being "ready to give an answer for the hope that we have."
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Rule #1
I have always been reluctant to start a blog. Like all of us probably do, from time to time I believe that I may have stumbled accross something that needs to be shared with my fellow man. In my case, this is usually something that is either very funny to me, or something that I found incredibly insightful or relevant.
So here's the problem: within about six months time, I will typically look back at said nugget of humor or wisdom and decide that it really wasn't that humorous or wise at all.
Therefore, Rule #1 simply states that any blog, at any time can be retracted, deleted, un-posted and/or denied in full by the author (me). That said, it is now time to bask in the freedom of self-publishing.....
So here's the problem: within about six months time, I will typically look back at said nugget of humor or wisdom and decide that it really wasn't that humorous or wise at all.
Therefore, Rule #1 simply states that any blog, at any time can be retracted, deleted, un-posted and/or denied in full by the author (me). That said, it is now time to bask in the freedom of self-publishing.....
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