Below are five thought provoking quotes that I ask you to spend some time meditating on and asking the Lord how you can use them to share the good news of the Gospel with those whom the Lord puts on your heart. My brief comments follow each quote. All five of these quotes are from the website below.1
“We’re not asking people to believe what the Bible says about God, just ‘because it says so.’ No. We want people to believe the Bible because of the wealth of good evidence that has demonstrated the Bible to be trustworthy…hundreds of fulfilled prophecies…thousands of archaeological discoveries…numerous details in the Bible that have been corroborated by extrabiblical historical sources, and so on.” – Charlie H. Campbell
In the final analysis we know that no one can come to faith in Jesus unless the Holy Spirit convicts them of sin and they repent. However, apologetics can cause them to perhaps reconsider reading and examining the claims of Scripture. And if they get into the Bible the Holy Spirit can begin the work of convicting of sin. As a former atheist I knew nothing about the Bible and thought it was just a bunch of nice stories. If I had known about the fulfilled prophecies, archaeological discoveries, and extrabiblical historical sources that corroborated many of the accounts in the Bible I just may have checked the Bible out.
“Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Materialists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos. Choose your miracle.” – Glen Scrivener
I love this quote because it is so true. The idea that our universe had a beginning is now accepted by almost all scientists. And the many scientists that believe in the evolutionary mantra of nothing times nobody equals everything clearly are casting their lot on the miraculous. And in fact, this would be a bigger miracle in my book because how can nothing create something; let alone something as fabulously complex as our universe. The Christian view that an eternal God of infinite intellect and power can perform miracles is far more plausible than the atheistic alternative.
“Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.” – E. Paul Hovey
As one studies the Bible we can see that many of the things we may have thought as a new believer were contradictory have in reality reasonable solutions that don’t contradict the written word. And the more we study the Scriptures the more we find rational solutions to some of its difficult passages. The real issue, as Paul Hovey rightly states, is not searching for errors in the Scriptures but acknowledging the flaws in ourselves. Mankind doesn’t like it when the Bible calls him a sinner and in danger of eternal hell if he doesn’t get right with God. So, what does he do – he condemns the Bible rather than acknowledge his sinfulness.
“The men who penned the Scriptures revealed several amazing facts about the earth and the universe thousands of years before scientists discovered these declarations to be true. This is astounding!…These men lived two, three, four thousand years before the invention of the telescope, microscopes, satellites, deep-diving submarines, and other technologies were around…So how did they know these things? They had ‘inside information’ from the One who created the universe.” – Charlie H. Campbell
Charlie Campbell is spot-on here. One of the greatest proofs of the veracity of the Bible is when it shares discoveries about our earth and universe, sometimes thousands of years before our scientists discover them. I have done several devotions on this very issue and I am blown away how the Bible is often at the vanguard of scientific knowledge. Charlie Campbell says it so well when he shares that the men who penned the Scriptures had ‘inside information’ from the One who created the universe. I believe that scientists, sometimes unknowingly, give glory to God by affirming what the Bible stated all along in the realm of science.
“The believer in God must explain one thing, the existence of sufferings; the nonbeliever, however, must explain the existence of everything else.” – Dennis Prager
Perhaps the greatest stumbling block to coming to Christ is in the area of the existence of suffering. I have shared many thoughts on this topic in previous devotions and believe we as Christians have good answers here. However, admittedly this is a difficult subject to tackle. But as Dennis Prager shares, the non-believer is put into the difficult position of trying to explain a myriad of things that we can only know if God chooses to reveal them to us from the Scriptures. Fortunately, we as Christians, have solid answers to life’s most difficult questions, not because we are so smart, but because God’s word gives us the answers.
My friends use these quotations as conversation starters with non-believers and ask the Holy Spirit to take control of the ensuing discussion. At the very least it will give the non-believer something to think about. Couple this with prayer, and watch God begin to work.
1 Apologetics Quotes | Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, etc. | Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, etc. (alwazysbeready.com)
“We want people to believe the Bible because of the wealth of good evidence that has demonstrated the Bible to be trustworthy”
I have addressed this subject before and will do so one more time. My comments are not meant to be contentious or critical just to be obstinate but my response is in the spirit of providing an additional perspective on this apologetic methodology.
We know that the term apologetics does not mean being sorry or apologizing for a wrong. By definition, it means to offer a defense. When speaking with an unbeliever, our apologetic purpose is to expose the weakness of his unbelieving thought and demonstrate the long-term consequences of being consistent with his position’s operating assumptions. We must show that the Christian faith is the only reasonable outlook available to men. We don’t let unbelievers get away with autonomous reasoning and denial of the God of the Bible by showing them how futile their belief system is.
In our exchange with the unbeliever, facts or evidences are not what’s really at stake. What separates us is their underlying worldview. It’s the philosophy not the facts. Facts do not determine what people will believe. Facts don’t speak for themselves. The way we see facts is determined by our underlying assumptions. People are not swayed by the facts. Even miracles do not change people’s minds. A prime example of this is the Exodus. The Israelites saw miracle after miracle and still did not believe God would defend them against Pharaoh’s chariots.
We sometimes have the idea that what we should really do is lay aside all of our presuppositions and fight the battle over the facts and at the end of the process the unbeliever will say, “Yes, there is a God.” “The Bible is true.” “I must become a Christian.” But the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord.” “And fools despise wisdom and instruction.” If you do not start with Christian presuppositions, you cannot make sense out of this world or anything.
We could continue this line of reasoning but the central idea I’m highlighting is a faulty dependence on evidences to persuade unbelievers into a profession of faith. Unless the facts are seen through Christian presuppositions, the best the unbeliever can do is suppress the truth. If “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,” then and only then will the facts and evidences make sense.