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 Biblically Ready - Are You ? |
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1 Peter 3:15 tells believers to always be ready to give a well reasoned answer and defense to those who ask a reason for the hope that lies in us, which is Christ.
Many churches neglect this duty in teaching their members how to do this.
Are you ready ? Read on.
It's
around 12 noonish. You're on campus, in between classes and about to head to
the student union and chill with a few of your peeps... probably get in a game
of pool, ping-pong or TEKKEN II before your 1pm. On the way in the union, you
see a guy with a few pseudo-African medallions around his neck. He's running
a mini-bookstand. Your curiosity is piqued, so you decide to stroll over (your
boyz won't be there for a few minutes anyway...) and see what he's selling.
A book catches your attention- '360 Questions To Ask A Christian' - so you pick
it up and give it a read.
Your jaw drops open at some of the questions asked.
The seller approaches you and asks do you attend church. Reluctantly, still
in perplexed from some of the questions posed, you hesitantly say yes. "Good.
This is a book you need to take a read through. It shows how false Christianity
is." Now you've been in church for a few years- you've accepted Christ
as Savior and know that your salvation is secure in Him. You've even had your
own doubts sometimes about the faith, but never have questions like these crossed
your mind. Your heart feels troubled, you know that Christ and His claims upon
your life are true, but you have no idea how to answer some of the questions
you read in the book. Sheepishly, you smile and tell the seller of books (who
has by this time, identified himself as a follower of the Right Knowledge Movement)
you'll take a raincheck on the book, in a hurry to get out of the situation
before HE starts asking you questions.
It's Saturday morning. You just flipped on the WB channel to settle in and watch
the New Batman/Superman adventures (don't front- you know ALL of you still watch
cartoons) or the Animaniacs (hey, that's what was on in 96-97
when I wrote this article -Kerry,2003). Chillin with your bowl of Captain
Crunch and a BIG glass of orange juice, your calm is interrupted by the doorbell.
You answer it. A well dress man and woman are at the door with bags under their
arm. "Good morning!! Would you be interested in a free Bible study?"
Jehovah's
Witnesses.
They
look harmless enough. You'd heard your pastor around church telling you they
were a cult, but never really paid too much attention to the details. Still,
you didn't feel like missing the newest episodes of your shows, so you tell
them you already attend church and wouldn't be interested. The man steps forward
and asks "Tell me- do you believe that Jesus is God?" Of course, you
say yes. "Where? Show it to me in the Bible", the man says as he pulls
out his New World Translation. Thinking this will be a walk in the park, you
quickly flip to John 1:1 and begin to read it...until you get to the JW's rendering
of John 1:1 which says that Jesus was 'a god'. "Hold up a second..." as you
flip to Colossians 1:15-17, only to find that the JW's mistranslation has added
the word 'other' to make it seem like Jesus was a created being. "Let me tell
you, the Bible teaches no such thing, which is why you can't find it. Now what
scripture does say is this....."
By the way, that was a good episode you missed. 
Situations like these and much worse happen in our neighborhoods, on our campuses,
and in our daily relations with both unbelievers and those of other faiths.
Dr. Norman Geisler, Dean of Southern
Evangelical Theological Seminary said it best:
"The
objections that unbelievers raise are usually not trivial. They often cut deep
into the heart of the Christian faith and challenge its very foundations. If
miracles are not possible, then why should we believe that Christ was God? If
God can't control evil, is He really worthy of worship? Face it: if these objects
can't be answered, then we may as well believe in fairy tales. These are reasonable
questions which deserve reasonable answers."
"Most skeptics have only heard the questions and believed that there were no
answers. But we have some great answers to their questions. Christianity is
true. That means that reality will always be on our side, and we just need to
find the appropriate evidence to answer whatever question is asked. fortunately,
Christian thinkers have been answering these questions ever since Paul's time,
and we can draw on their knowledge to help us find the answers we want."
God commands us to give them the answers. This is the most important reason
of all. God told us to do it. In 1 Peter 3:15 we read, "But in your hearts set
apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks
you to give the reason for the hope that you have"(NIV). " (When
Skeptics Ask, Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks, p.11).
Can
it be said any clearer? Our culture mandates that there is no absolute truth. Our culture
looks down upon almost any and all attempts for Christians to proclaim the truth
of Christ as the only way of salvation. Beliefs are ridiculed by everyone from
Darwinists to the Nation of Islam to pseudo-Christian movements. The abandonment
of absolute truth has further lead to a 'dumbing down' of the average Christian
who wishes to be at peace with all those around him/her.
A few years ago after I'd written an article in my school paper criticizing
the Unification Church (who were attempting to proselytize on my school's campus
-see the article Bad Moon Rising on this website) and they wrote a response back, one minister who was then associated with my
school's Campus Ministry Program told me 'Don't train others to be apologists.'
I think back and believe that his attitude was directed toward maintaining some
sort of 'peace' on campus. I believe, however, that in light of the command
of Jude 3, which clearly says that believers are to actively contend for the
faith once delivered to the saints because of false teachings like
those of the Unification Church, I was correct in my actions.
In my original article, I'd taken quotes from the Unification Church's publications
concerning what they taught and compared them to scripture and showed how, where
and why they fell short of being Biblical truth. Later on, many believers approached
me about some of these very issues and were glad that they were addressed in
my article. Others had approached some of them about these same issues and now
they had 'ammunition' with which to give an accurate and well reasoned answer.
In a nutshell, when the opportunity arises and our faith is questioned by pseudo-
Christian movements or non-Christian movements or just the average non-believer
who wants to know more about Christ, believers in Christ need to be prepared
to give them a well reasoned answer. We need to be Biblically Ready.
What
is Biblical Readiness?
When many folks think of
being biblically prepared for anything, they think of spiritual warfare and
"putting on the whole armor of God" as spoken of in the letter of Paul to the
Ephesians:
"Put
on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's
schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put
on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able
to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand
firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate
of righteousness in place,and with your feet fitted with the readiness that
comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield
of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil
one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God." (Ephesians 6:11-17, NIV)
From
a standpoint of Christian day to day living, these verses are heavily applicable.
But being biblically prepared goes further. We're going to concentrate on the
last component of the whole armor of God- the Sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God.
Remember
Who God Is! Set Him Apart As Such in Your Heart
Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts. This begins as the first portion
of 1 Peter 3:15- to set apart something as holy, hallowed and dedicated to God
(sanctify) means to put it on the side and give it special treatment, honor
or respect (and in the case of God, worship). Your offering money on Sunday
morning is set apart (sanctified) from your regular expenses and income because
it has been designated by you through prayer for use in the Lord's house to
feed His church. This action makes it special and holy both in your eyes and
in the eyes of the Lord. The ground where Moses stood before the burning bush
was called holy ground by God- it was set apart for His use where He chose to
dwell at the time (Exodus 3:5). Believers in Christ are sanctified by Christ
through the offering of His blood (Hebrews 10:10) and made holy before God and
in our daily lives, we as we are being conformed to His image, we are being
made holy on a daily basis (Hebrews 10:14).
Similarly, we are to prioritize our lives so that Christ is sanctified- set
apart as holy, honored, worshipped and our number one concern is to grow more
in Him daily- in our hearts. Remember- the number one goal of the Christian
life is " to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of sharing in his sufferings," (Philippians 3:10, NIV). That greek word used
for 'know' in this passage denotes an intimate, deep, experiential (from experience)
knowledge. Not only to know intimately, but to follow (Matthew 16:24) and imitate
(1 Cor. 11:1, Eph. 5:1) Christ as well. Below follows an example of when this
matters most.
Let's assume a close friend of yours is homosexual/lesbian/bisexual. Knowing
Christ intimately, what is your motivation for sharing the gospel? What is your
reason for telling them of the truth of Christ? Is it to bash them over the
head with the product of their sin or to let them know that Christ can free
them from the bondage of the lifestyle they've chosen? We can preach Romans
1:18-32, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, Jude 7, Lev. 18:22, etc... and win the argument, but
forever lose the soul. Now don't get me wrong - the gospel message comes with
a message of condemnation for those who reject it, but grace and forgiveness
for those who obey it (John 3:16-20). Every presentation of the gospel message
must include sin and the wrath of God as well as the
cross and Christ's shed blood and Christ as Lord and God. Anything less is another
gospel (T.D. are you listening ?).
When our concerns and the motivation of our hearts matches that of Christ, we
will be ready to answer those who ask. This is why we need to FIRST have our
hearts right with Christ and have Him at the head of our lives.
Always be ready to give an APOLOGIA
The next component of 1 Peter 3:15 is given equal treatment- Always be ready
to give an answer! The greek word for 'an answer' is apologia - it
goes well beyond a simple explanation- it's a legal term referring to a well
reasoned defense or argument in favor of a point of view. Paul spent 'morning
until evening' in Acts 28:23 with the Sanhedrin discussing the things of
Christ from the Old Testament. A modern day example is that of myself and my
pastor spending around 6-8 hours with a Jehovah's Witnesses on a few different
subjects including false prophecy, the Deity of Christ and eternal punishment.
Be
diligent to show yourselves approved
The KJV translation of 2 Tim. 2:15 reads"Study to show thyself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth." That's cool and all, but some of the newer translations capture the
meaning of the verse a lot better. For example, the NASB reads "Be diligent
to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed,
handling accurately the word of truth".
Being diligent goes far beyond 'study'. The illustration in the verse is of
the believer in Christ to a workman. A workman (for the sake of arguments, let's
say a Carpenter..heh heh heh) knows his tools, knows their limit of power, their
extent and proper use and he knows his trade. He also knows how to correct those
who incorrectly use those same tools. This knowledge isn't just something that
comes from one day of hanging in Hechinger's or Home Depot- this person has
been trained and has done everything possible including study to be able to
apply what he/she has learned as a carpenter to actual experience. The carpenter
is well rooted in the basics of carpentry and is able to add and build upon
that foundation with anything new that he/she learns. The carpenter is also
able to take a person whom they see using a chain saw in an unsafe manner and
show them the correct and safe usage.
Many Christian churches- black, white and 'other'- no longer instruct new members
in the basic foundations of the Christian faith. Back in the day (early 1800's
and before), there were no such things as altar calls. Instead, there
were calls to discipleship. This message was simple - Christ commanded
us to make disciples not, converts. Much of the church today
is obsessed with man-made techniques to make people 'walk the ailse' or 'say
the sinners' prayer' and many have been left with a false sense of
assurance as to what their salvation is based on. Following Christ and being
His disciple is not simply a matter of believing a set of facts about Him and
then attending church weekly, with your Christian growth being 'optional'. Christ
told us that every tree bears the kind of fruit that marks off what kind of
tree it is. Good trees bear good fruit (Luke 6:44), bad trees bear bad fruit
(Matt. 7:15-20). True believers bear the fruit of the Spirit without fail -
and one of those marks is growth in holiness, knowledge and doctrine. But many
churches have settled for simply filling the pews with folks and thinking they
are advancing the kingdom of God. As a result, these people have nothing to
build upon. Many get sucked into cults after hearing the same dry sermons and
shallow teaching over and over again with no significant Christian growth over
the years. A starving man will eat any meat that gets tossed his way- including
the stale meat of the cults and other religious movements.
Abide in sound doctrine
"Preach
the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with
great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will
not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will
gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears
want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside
to myths." (2 Timothy 4:2-4)
I'm
about to lose a few friends that I made earlier in this article.
Unfortunately, some people- even some of those who claim the name of Christ
(though they may not necessarily be Christians....) have a low tolerance for
the truth and want to hear a 'soap opera-ized' version of Christianity. They
want to be entertained. They want to hear what they want to hear and the truth,
if it is not entertaining or makes them feel good, is shunned.
To use a popular example, many members of the 'Word of Faith' theology camp
(Fred K.C. Price, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, etc...) and it's
sister, the 'Laughing Revival' (Rodney Howard-Browne and company....) often
promote stories of miraculous healings, resurrections and other embellishments
designed to stir up emotional reactions in their followers. These sensationalistic
stories are passed on, but no one has any do*****entation- medical (of their original
condition), physical or visible (no one except the author of these stories has
seen these people)- all you hear is "Well, I know someone who knows someone
who knows them..." A classic example is found in the ministry of Benny
Hinn. Aside from 'repenting' from his theology every 3-5 years and then returning
to it (I want to make a 2 Peter 2:22 joke, but I digress), many of his so-called
'healings' have been shown to be nothing more than psychological manipulation
and fraud.
Similarly, where myths are perpetuated, so will follow false doctrine.
Try Kenneth Copeland's teaching that faith is "a powerful force. It is a
tangible force. It is a conductive force" (The Force of Faith, p. 10) and
"Words are the spiritual containers, and the force of faith is released
by words" (Forces of the Recreated Human Spirit,p. 14-15). He goes on to
say that "God used words when He created the heaven and the earth...Each
time God spoke, He released His faith-the creative power to bring His
words to pass." (The Power of the Tongue, p. 4). He goes on to say
that believers in Christ can speak into existence whatever they desire.
Last time I checked, God didn't need 'faith' and 'faith' wasn't a 'force'- it
was a living channel of trust between man and God. Faith is trusting God unhesitatingly,
even when things don't look too bright or we don't understand what's going on.
Job and others stand as a prime examples (Job 42:10-17, Hebrews 11).
Try the United Pentecostal Church
International, which vehemently denies the teaching of the Trinity (teaching
that Jesus is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit), teaches you must speak in 'tongues'
to be saved and baptized in the name of 'Jesus Only'. Oxymoronically enough,
they get broadcasted over the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Of course,the Trinity is one of the foundations of the Christian faith- remove
it and you fundamentally change the concept of God as taught in scripture. Truth
and error don't mix.
The problem - many churches, regardless of denomination and regardless of ethnic/racial
makeup, don't teach their members the basics of scripture. They don't teach
sound doctrine, so their members are unfamiliar with it. If they are familiar,
they don't know it well enough to stay rooted. A tree with shallow roots will
be easy to topple. A tree with deep roots is almost unmovable.
Again, when churches don't teach sound doctrine, not only are it's member spiritually
stunted in their growth (1 Pet. 2:2), they're hungry!! And a hungry man will
eat anything that seems 'spiritual' - including false doctrine. Prime example-90%
of Jehovah's Witnesses come from Baptist churches that didn't educate their
members.
Don't Just Stand There - Defend the Faith!!!
Back in 97, I spent time dating a high profile member of my fraternity's sister
organization, Zeta Phi Beta. She had a few detractors here and there who said
and did things to try to irk her, and since at the time I was her boyfriend,
I caught a lot of criticism for being with her. I really didn't care. I cared
for her and loved her deeply. When people approached me in private with comments
about her, I valiantly jumped to her defense. In my love, deep care and concern
for her, I defended her against false accusations and unwarranted attacks from
others. I remember in one e-mail exchange with someone who had been uninformed
about a situation regarding her, I wrote an eloquent, cogent and LONG (smile!)
response explaining the situation and expounding upon the fact that she was
not the aggressor in the dispute, but the victim of an unwarranted attack. Even
though I decided to no longer be with her, she and I remain good friends today
and when people I talk to decide to dredge up past things about her, I still
find myself sometimes jumping to her defense because I am convinced of her innocence.
How dear is your faith to you ?? Do you love what and in Whom you have placed
your trust enough to be able to defend against attack ? Do you love Christ enough
to sit with a Jehovah's Witness and discuss the deity of Christ or are you content
to not answer the door when he/she comes knocking so that they can go on and
dupe another poor soul into a Christless eternity ? Do you love what you believe
and in Whom you have believed enough to tell someone who objects (in a loving
fashion) that they are incorrect in saying that the Bible is corrupted ? Do
you love what and in Whom you have placed your trust to take the time to be
that diligent workman, rightly dividing the Word of Truth ( 2 Tim. 2:15) ?
As a 'stickler' for sound doctrine and teaching, I get irked and disturbed in
my spirit when I hear my Father's word attacked or wrenched out of context to
support blasphemy (like Louis Farrakahn saying that he is the Messiah, for example).
Love truth. Love truth so much that error irritates you and spurs you to
correct it.
The Early Church and APOLOGIA
Judging from the diversity of writings of the early church after the close of
the New Testament, the church fathers never sat quietly and let false teaching
proliferate unchallenged. Every major church council meeting including Nicea
(325), Constantinople (381), Carthage (393), Hippo (397), Chalcedon (451) etc....
have all been to put forth 'official statements' to counter false teachings.
Arianism, which reduced Jesus Christ to a created creature (like the Jehovah's
Witnesses teach) was refuted at Nicea. An official list of already accepted
books of scripture were drawn up as a result of the councils of Carthage
and Hippo due to many false teachers who'd been going around with books which
they claimed as their own 'scripture'. We know these books were
already accepted prior to 393 and 397 because folks like Athanasius mention
(45+ years in Athanasius' case) were already mentioning all 27 accepted books
of the NT.
For another example, Oneness Pentecostals and other 'Jesus Only' groups imitate
the heresies of Noetus (190 A.D.), Praxeas (200 A.D.), and Sabellius (c.a. 263
A.D.) which teach that Jesus is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (denying the
Trinity) appearing in different 'modes' (one God, play-acting three roles as
opposed to one God simultaneously existing in three personalities/persons).
Hippolytus (A.D. 170-236) in his famous work The Refutation of all Heresies
, answered the claims of Noetus in chapter 9 of his work. Tertullian (c.a. 125-220
A.D.) wrote an entire book against Praxeas's teachings to refute them. Bishop
Dionysus excommunicated Sabellius from the church in 261 for his teaching the
subject and his future followers (Marcellus of Aneyra) were declared heretics
twice in the eastern regions of the Christian empire in 336 and again at Constantinople
in 381 for holding to this particular teaching.
Modern examples can be seen in the 1916 expulsion of Oneness Pentecostals from
the Assemblies of God denomination because of this same teaching (my how history
repeats itself!). Many of the Oneness groups that formed, merged to form the
United Pentecostal Church International in the late 1940's.
Above
all else
Be ready to answer in a gentle and respectful fashion. I've
heard people from the Nation of Islam (for example) readily blaspheme the name
of God, referring to the Holy Spirit as a 'SPOOK', the Bible as corrupted by
the white man and members of Christianity following 'the slave master's religion'.
We consider the Bible to be the Word of God - of course we're going to find
their comments offensive (although some have sought to be less offensive over
the past few years). Remember that you are dealing with a soul whom Christ bled
and died for. He loves this person more than you or I ever could and He is using
YOU as the vehicle for planting the seed, watering and breaking down the barriers
to faith in Christ.
It's easy to win an intellectual argument. We can spout off volumes upon volumes
of data to support the accurate transmission of the Bible from 42-50 A.D. (the
date Mark was written) down to our present Bible. We can give explanations for
every so-called alleged contradiction (most of which have been answered many
times over by generation after generation of believers). But to win the argument
and lose the soul is futile.
"And
the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone,
able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct,
in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge
of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the
trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." (2 Tim. 2:24-26,NIV).
Patience
while defending the faith actually helps us keep a clear head. With such a dear
issue being discussed, it's easy to get wrapped up in an argument and filled
with emotionalism. Scripture commands that we keep our head on 'scraight' (or
'skrate' depending on which ghetto you come from....ha ha ha). And don't take
it personal- they may be taking it out on you, but their real beef is with Christ.
As one last closing word on the subject, I'd like to state this
It is my prayer that the Lord will use you to bring others to Christ. Even to
plant a seed through the witness of your life or to answer a question an unbeliever
has gains you a reward in the next life. Let us build ourselves up to be prepared
for the task.
©1997-2003
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