The Book of
Psalms in the Bible is a collection or anthology of 150 individual hymns,
laments, warnings and benedictions. In
Psalm 14, there is definition and characterization of the fool that says,
”There Is No God”
Here are the first
four verses of Psalm 14:
The fool says in
his heart, “There is no God.”
They
are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there
is none who does good.
The LORD looks
down from heaven on the children of man,
to
see if there are any who understand,
who
seek after God.
They have all
turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there
is none who does good,
not
even one.
Have they no
knowledge, all the evildoers
who
eat up my people as they eat bread
and
do not call upon the LORD?
It has been
documented that there are more and more fools today. Likely more than ever before. It’s unfortunate but one of the prophesied signs of the end-times.
The Apostle Paul
in writing to the Thessalonians about the coming of the Lord states, “Don't let
anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion
occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
(2 Thes 2:3)
This word
‘rebellion’ is often translated ‘turning or falling away’. This is the Greek
word “Apostasea' and means a departure from the truth.
While many local churches are growing, there is also a documented wholesale departure here in the United States and throughout the developed world. One way of looking at it is that many are
departing from the churches affiliated with mainline denominations that long
ago have departed from the truth. I saw this first hand in Europe. I had the opportunity to travel and work in
places like England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Switzerland, and my interest in the history of Christianity brought me to tour many
of the great cathedrals in the capitals and major cities of these countries. Sadly,
most of these once great cathedrals are not much more than museums today.
What was once the center of Christianity and the birthplace of the
Reformation nearly 500 years ago has today become cosmopolitan centers not of devoted Christians but of those that say, "there is no God."
America is also
changing. While it remains likely one of the most Christian and devoted
groupings of people, there are more and more that identify themselves as having
no belief. These are the ‘nones’ that
have been identified and characterized by Christian prognosticators. Many of the ‘nones’ are young, many have a Christian
heritage and all have dismissed Christianity as being irrelevant based on their
desire for meaning, success and happiness.
God calls these people fools.
By definition,
those that declare there is no God are either atheists or agnostic. The agnostics are the larger group as they haven’t
developed an informed view or philosophy about God and prefer to remain
relatively neutral. God calls them fools.
The other type
that is becoming more and more common are the theoretical atheists who affirm
their non-belief in God often vocally and militantly. These are those that follow the musings and
blogs of people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. They like to challenge pastors, Christian
theologians and teachers by asking them ‘gotcha questions’ just like the
Pharisees would try on Jesus.
“Jesus, at the resurrection,
whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to
her?"
“Jesus, is it lawful to pay
taxes to Caesar?”
"Jesus, and who is my neighbor?"
Jesus was able to
easily answer these ‘gotcha’ questions.
After all, these people were fools.
As believers, our
mission is not only to develop a personal and relevant faith. I believe that our mission is also to reach
those that have legitimate questions and to have the wisdom to be able to
answer those with the ‘gotcha’ questions.
The Bible gives
us our marching orders:
The Apostle Peter
commanded Christians: ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to
everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you
have.’ (1 Peter 3:15)
Jude’s inspired
epistle said: ‘I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you
to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered
to the saints.’ (Jude v. 3)
The Apostle Paul
said: ‘We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up
against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to
make it obedient to Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
This branch of
theology or the science of answering questions about the faith is called Christian
Apologetics.
The term
‘Christian apologetics’ doesn’t refer to apologizing (or saying ‘sorry’) for
being a Christian. It comes from the Greek word “apologia”
meaning defense.
For those of us
that know we should be ‘always prepared’ and for those that are willing to ‘demolish
arguments’ there are a few well known and capable Chrisian apologists that have
made their teachings widely available on the web including many videos on
Youtube. Here are three to get started
ALWAYSBEREADY.COM
(Charlie Campbell)
CROSSEXAMINED.ORG
(Frank Turek)
RZIM.ORG (Ravi
Zacharis)
You'll find by watching these learned Christian Apologists that most of the challenges to a belief in God in general and Christianity specifically fall into just a few categories. Knowing how to answer and being prepared can quickly turn the conversation around, provide an opportunity to articulate a witness to the truth and sow the seeds of the Gospel.
Be prepared. Be willing to share, and always be kind.
