Connecting with Unbelievers

Mark Dunagan
10/09/05 - Sunday Evening

 

Connecting

With Unbelievers

 

Peter noted that Christians need to be “ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).  Yet we equally need to be prepared to go on the offensive and talk to individuals who might not make the first move (Mark 16:15).  Paul also noted that we need wisdom as we interact with outsiders, not only to “make the most of the opportunity” (Colossians 4:5), but equally to speak in a way that reaches them where they are at, “so that you will know how you should respond to each person” (Colossians 4:6).  Thus we need to have some training concerning the mindset of the typical unbeliever in our own times.

 

Skeptical about History

 

C.S. Lewis noted that the people he encountered the England some 50 years ago rejected the Gospels not because they contained supernatural elements such as miracles, but rather because the Gospels were written 2000 years ago.  There is a distrust of anything “old” or “ancient” in our modern world, yet this skepticism is equally felt in other areas as well.  Being Christians we are apt to complain that “No one is listening to us”, but the truth of the matter is very few people are listening to atheists as well.  Yes, people are skeptical about the Bible being accurately translated (as if God can create the universe but cannot keep a book in print) but people are also skeptical of the politicians, big corporations, insurance companies, the healthcare community, the “experts” and the media.  A recent poll indicated that the country is divided 50/50 on the issue of whether or not the mainstream news media can be trusted.  In spite of the fact that Evolutionists have had a monopoly for the last 60 years in the media, public school system and all major publications, a recent Gallop Poll last fall showed 45 percent of Americans say God created people pretty much in their present form in the past 10,000 years (The Oregonian, 9-27-2005, p. A-6).  Yet there is a opening here, if people are not very trusting of any one voice, then the issue needs to be pressed, “So who are you going to trust?”  Jesus noted, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away”.  I like how Lewis translated this verse, “Heaven and Earth shall move with the times, but My words shall not move with the times”. 

 

Our ignorant forefathers

 

Lewis noted that he would hear the argument, “People believed in miracles in the Old Days because they didn’t then know that they were contrary to the Laws of Nature” (God in the Dock p. 100).  That is, if our ancestors had understood science, the Bible would never have been written or accepted.  Yet, ancient man did believe in science just as much as any modern man.  InMatthew 1:18-19 that Joseph was prepared to put Mary away prior to the birth of Jesus?  Why was Joseph contemplating such a course of action?  Because Joseph believed in science!  Joseph knew that babies just don’t pop into existence and that it would be contrary to the laws of nature for Mary to be pregnant without being involved with another man.  Joseph perfectly understood biology.  The same is true in Acts 17:32.  The reason that these philosophers scoffed when Paul preached the resurrection is because a resurrection is contrary to the laws of nature.  The standard astronomical handbook used all through the Middle Ages was Ptolemy’s Almagest.  In Book I, chapter 5, the text reads, “the earth, in relation to the distance of the fixed stars, has no appreciable size and must be treated as a mathematical point!”  Therefore when man says, “Our problem these days is how to reconcile what we now know with the Bible”, that never has been the problem.  Man has known about “science” and the vastness of the universe for centuries and believers in past ages never thought that there was any disagreement between God’s creation and His word (Psalm 19).   At the same time Lewis cautions Christians to be careful about resting their claims on “Science has now proved”.  “If we try to base our apologetic on some recent development in science, we shall usually find that just as we have put the finishing touches to our argument science has changed its mind and quietly withdrawn the theory we have been using as our foundation stone” (p. 92).  This only reinforces what Jesus said, that all earthly things come and go, but His word is permanent (1 Peter 1:23-25).

 

“How could God be interested in us?”

 

“Now that we know now huge the universe is and how insignificant the Earth, it is ridiculous to believe that the universal God should be specially interested in our concerns” (p. 99).  First, it is a mistake to equate the size of something with its importance, and secondly, it is false to claim that “we know now” as if men in the past did not know this.  Men have always known that the earth is a very small speck in a vast universe, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought for him?  And the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4). In addition, Jesus definitely answers this type of question in the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:7), and the claim that a man could gain the whole world but still be a failure if he lost his soul in the process (Matthew 16:26). 

 

True, not merely beneficial

 

“The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think if good for society or something of that sort” (pp. 90-91).  At times people think that we are Christians because we are trying to make up for something in the past, or because we have this strong desire to help people and make this world a better place.  Now, Christianity applied will make this world a better place and it will help people, but that it not the main reason why we are Christians.  We are Christians because the Bible is true (John 8:32; 17:17; Colossians 1:5; Acts 17:11).  Thus it is not about feelings, preferences or emotions, rather it is about whether one is going to accept the truth or believe a lie.  Lewis said, “Our business is to present that which is timeless (the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow)” (p. 93).  Concerning this topic of truth he also noted that we need to keep pressing unbelievers back and back again to the real point.  For example, unbelievers will often say something like, “A certain amount of religion is desirable but one must not carry it too far”.  “One must keep pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance (1 Corinthians 15:14,32, and, if true, of infinite importance (Matthew 7:13-14, 21ff). The one thing it cannot be is moderately important” (p. 101).  In addition, we need to remind unbelievers that if we are wrong, then we loss nothing, actually we will simply cease to exist as the atheist says and we will never even know that we were wrong or even existed, but if the Bible is true, then the unbeliever loses everything—even the comfort of nonexistence.

 

Infinite variety of religions to consider?

 

Many opt out of seeking God by arguing that the religious world is just too confusing.  Yet there are not as many religions as one might think.  I know that many denominations exist, but most denominations can be put into a couple of simple categories.  There are Calvinistic groups, groups that believe that God is still revealing truth to men and working miracles, and groups that no longer believe that the Bible is the final authority.  In fact, many denominations are based on the same common creed.  Among world religions there are the Eastern varieties like Hinduism and Buddhism, Judaism (which is perfectly fulfilled in Christianity), and Islam.  Jesus and Paul did not consider finding God and His truth that difficult, they believed that all men could find the truth if they were interested in it (John 7:17; 18:37 “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice”; Acts 17:27 “though He is not far from each one of us”).  Claiming that finding the truth is impossible is really a smokescreen, finding the truth is not the difficult part—accepting the truth, now that is when the real work begins.  Lewis noted that people somehow assume that certain men cannot find job, such as the blue collar worker, the uneducated or the person off in some far off land.  Yet “the primary thing about any man is that he is a human being, sharing all the ordinary human temptations and assets” (p. 49).

 

God is now on trial

 

“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge.  For the modern man the roles are reversed.  He is the judge:  God is in the dock.  He is (or claims to be) quite a kindly judge:  if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it” (p. 244).  I find that this is true, often the sinner wants to accuse and attack the God described in the Bible and lay charges against Him.  Yet the idea of God being somehow accountable to finite man is silly.  Here the unbeliever needs to be confronted with only two choices, either admit that God exists and equally admit your own ignorance, or reject God’s existence and equally admit that everything one is gripping out (war, poverty, disease, suffering, etc) do not matter, because without God there is no right and wrong.   

Really understanding the issue

 

It is important that we interact with people outside our educational and social background (Acts 17:17; 1 Corinthians 9:19).  If we only spend time with people who think just like us then we will be completely unprepared to talk to those who “don’t speak out language”.  Lewis observed that often some off-the-wall question or comment from someone who knows none of the first principles would simply transfix and paralyze us.  “The crude question turns out to be fatal.  You have never, it now appears, really understood what you have so long maintained.  You haven’t really thought it out; not to the end; not to the absolute ruddy end” (p. 256).

 

The future man’s savior

 

“And only the other day a lady told me that girl to whom she had mentioned death replied, ‘Oh, but by the time I’m that age Science will have done something about it.  And then I remembered how often, in disputing before simple audiences I had found the assured belief that whatever was wrong with man would in the long run (and not so very long run either) be put right by ‘Education’” (p. 252). 

 

Stepping out of your own century

 

Lewis noted that there are many dangers in reading an exclusive contemporary diet of literature.  First, all new books are still on trial and all the hidden implications (often unsuspected by both the author and the reader) have yet been brought to light.  In addition, every age has its own outlook, all contemporary writers essentially share the same contemporary outlook, and when we look at what people did or believed in the past, and exclaim, “How could they have thought that?”  We tend to forget that future generations will say the same thing about the 21^st century.  Added to this, people today are not cleverer than men in the past. This is why Bible study is so essential.  Bible study enables contemporary man to step out of the society and culture that surrounds him, and see clearly what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong.  It is the only true way to avoid being sucked into a cultural blindness (Romans 12:1-2; Psalm 119:105). 

 

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017

www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com