“Just some ordinary conversation over dinner.”  At least, that’s how my host described this event.  In January, I was invited to have dinner with a couple of dads and their sons to facilitate a discussion on the problem of evil.  It was a spur-of-the-moment request and details were a bit fuzzy, so I met my host Jon 30 minutes prior to talk specifics.  He informed me that not only would Christian dads and sons participate, but his 60-year old parents, both skeptics of Christianity, would join us as well.  That night’s conversation turned out to be exceptional.  Why?  Because of apologetics.  

For too long, apologetics has been given a bad rap.  Too many Christian voices point to a few poor apologetic examples, extrapolate them to every apologist and apologetic encounter, and then dismiss the entire enterprise.  But in doing so, Christians abandon one of our greatest tools to engage the world for Christ.  My recent conversation demonstrates why.

Is the Bible intolerant?  That was the question Nathan Hansen asked me to answer for hundreds of students and adults recently.  Three years ago, Nathan, Snohomish Community Church’s innovative youth pastor, created Jesus University, a five-day youth conference in the Seattle area.  During the day, students serve their community.  At night, the community is invited to come hear top Christian bands.  

But before the bands play, Nathan has a Christian apologist address a tough question for an hour, followed by 30 minutes of Q & A.  The big-name bands draw thousands of people throughout the week, but Nathan ensures they’re given more than music.  They get an intelligent yet gracious defense of Christianity.  And our culture desperately needs some clear thinking when it comes to the topic of tolerance.

Recently, pollsters have confirmed what many of us already know:  a large number of Christian students leave the church once they graduate from high school.  Barna has the number at 61%.  Lifeway has it at 70%.  Even if we take Barna's lower number and then subtract another 10% just to be conservative, we're still left with a situation where we are losing half our kids.  

But let's NOT be conservative because it looks like the situation could be worse. According to political scientists Robert Putman (Harvard) and David Campbell (Notre Dame) in their book, American Grace, young Americans are dropping out of religion at a rate 5-6 times the historic rate (30-40% have no religion today versus 5-10% a generation ago).  The Church definitely has a challenge on its hands.  

The Japan tsunami inevitably raises profound questions about God and evil.  But in this discussion, it is important to realize every worldview, not just Christianity, must explain evil.  Christians are often on the defense with regards to this objection, yet the tables can be turned on the atheist, with his naturalistic worldview in tow.  Given naturalism, what is evil and how does the atheist make sense of it?



Famous British philosopher and atheist Bertrand Russell once commented, "No one can believe in a good God if they've sat at the bedside of a dying child."  Now, I agree that sitting at the bedside of a dying child is a heart-wrenching situation not to be treated simplistically or in a cavalier manner.  Providing pat answers and quoting Romans 8:28 over and over will not suffice.  But what of Russell'sresponse?  What can the atheist say to the dying child?  Or to the Japanese parents whose child disappeared in the flood waters?

•  "In the grand scheme of the universe your suffering is utterly meaningless--life and all that comes with it has no transcendent meaning or value."
•  "Your suffering is completely pointless since there is no purpose to any of this anyway."
•  "Fortunately, you will soon die and return to dust."
• "Take heart, you will soon pop out of existence forever and your suffering will be over."
• "Stuff like tsunamis just happen."
• "Bummer."

Over at the STR Place blog, we've been posting skeptical challenges to Christianity every Tuesday. This week, we posted the following challenge: 

Why does God say something is good? There are only two possibilities. First, it could be that a thing (or an action) is good just because God says it is. In other words, He declares something to be good, and therefore it’s good, and we should do it. He could have just as easily declared it to be bad, and then it wouldn’t be “right” for us to do it. But if it’s arbitrary, it’s not really good, is it?

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 “Jesus is the only way to God” may be the most controversial claim of Christianity, so we had better have good reason for it.  And I think we do.

What does Jesus say?  Let’s start with Jesus.  We certainly don’t want to claim something for him that he wouldn’t claim for himself.  If the Gospels are historically reliable (and we have overwhelming evidence they are), then we have Jesus’ own words and we discover he claims to be the only way to God.  In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Jesus doesn’t leave much room for debate.  Indeed, Jesus says whoever rejects him “rejects the One who sent [him]” (Luke 10:16).  So according to Jesus, there’s no other path to God.  If you think highly of Jesus, eventually you have to grapple with his claims about himself.  

I Peter 3:15 says to “always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”  Simply put, that’s apologetics.  But in this short description, we discover three important details.  

First, doing apologetics means playing defense.  The Greek word for “defense” is apologia, from which we get the word “apologetics.”  Think about a football game.  At any time during the game, one team is trying to score (the offense) while the other is trying to stop them (the defense).  If your team has a really bad defense, you’ll get blown away.  Similarly, maybe you’ve been roughed up by some really tough objections to Christianity.  You’ve heard the challenges before.  “How can a good God allow suffering?” “The Bible is full of errors.”  “Jesus can’t be the only way to God.”  Apologetics helps us defend Christianity against tough questions.   

“I like to go hear my dad speak.  It makes me feel safe.”  



“What do you mean?” my wife Erin replied to this surprising comment from our nine-year-old son, Micah.  Erin had been discussing with a friend the connection between our knowledge of God and our experience of Him, when Micah cut in.  



Micah continued, “At night when I’m afraid, I think about the things Dad says about God and who He is.  It makes me feel safe.”  With that, Micah simply affirmed what the adults were discussing.  Micah has heard a lot of apologetics in his short nine years of life.  My kids attend a number of my events each year, and apologetics, theology, and philosophy are woven into our everyday conversations.  Micah is growing in his knowledge of the truth.  



“An atheist from Berkeley is here.”  The youth pastor’s statement caught me off guard.  I was sitting in a church lobby, reviewing notes for a talk I was about to give.  My first thought was, “What atheist in their right mind would drive from Berkeley to attend a youth apologetics conference in the Inland Empire?”  

Seeing my puzzled look the youth pastor offered more.  “His name is Tim.  He’s right over there.”  I glanced in the direction he pointed and recognized Tim immediately.  I had met Tim, a recent graduate from U.C. Berkeley, two years ago on one of our mission trips.  He had participated in a couple of our joint events with Berkeley’s atheist student club, S.A.N.E. (Students for A Non-religious Ethos), over the last few years.  I hadn’t seen Tim for more than a year and now here he was, attending an apologetics conference where I was speaking.  

At the break, Tim made his way to my resource table.  “Tim!” I exclaimed.  Tim smiled and appeared genuinely happy to see me.  Indeed, as he approached I grabbed his hand for a firm shake but additionally, he leaned in for a hug.  I was glad to embrace him, realizing this hug was no small gesture.  Often, when we imagine interactions between atheists and Christians we envision warfare, not friendship.  But despite our opposing views about Christianity, Tim is made in God’s image.  Tim is an intrinsically valuable human being deserving dignity and respect, not an enemy to be vanquished.

One of Christianity’s most important claims is also one of its most controversial:  Jesus is the only way to God (Acts 4:11-12, John 8:24).  A common objection follows:  “It does not matter if you believe in Jesus, Buddha, or Mohammed, as long as your belief is sincere.  What more could God want than a sincere heart?”  Indeed, the annoyed objector may even point to the fact that adherents of other religions are oftentimes more sincere than the very Christians who criticize their sincerity. 

Of course, Christians ought not needlessly offend people, but we do need to ask if sincerity should be our most important concern when it comes to religious belief, as this objection assumes.  Two responses will help bring clarity to the issue. 

First, notice that no one accepts sincerity alone in any other area of life besides religion.  Why?  Because sincerity may be important but it is not enough.  For example, if you decide to go skydiving, are you more concerned about having sincere beliefs or true beliefs?  When you are coasting in a plane at 10,000 feet in the air, preparing to jump into the wild blue yonder and then plummet towards the earth at mind-numbing speeds, do you merely want a sincere belief there is actually a working parachute in your backpack?  Of course not.  You want a true belief that your parachute is in full working order.  If you sincerely believe that your parachute works but you are sincerely wrong, you’ll look quite different once you land.