How Do You Account For the Hope That Is In You?

How Do You Account For the Hope That Is In You?

"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect," -1 Peter 3:15

In addition to having the good fortune of authoring a blog, I also have a YouTube channel listing various videos; sermons, videos that are apologetic in nature, videos that warn of false teaching as well as videos that address the account of creation.  In response to videos, I often have an opportunity to deliver the Gospel to atheists that freely offer their criticisms of God, Jesus, the Bible, Christians, our account of creation, as well as our position as it holds to abortion.  Over the course of time, I hear a whole assortment of questions and arguments that the "well intentioned" atheist keeps in his/her toolbox of rhetoric.

One of the questions I'll occasionally get, addresses the hope that I have in Christ.  I'm asked a variant of the question that asks, how do I know that I am worshiping the true religion and not a false one?  The question of this nature will typically have a post-modern spin on it that presupposes that there is not a way I can be assured of the hope that I have in me because; 1.) there's no way for me to know the truth, or 2.) religion is relevant, the truth of one religion is as valid as the truth in another religion.  Arguments that claim that I can't know the truth will usually take a spin in the direction that claims my information cannot be validated the same as scientific data and therefore is null and void.  


Another argument that I get pertaining to truth is that I can't trust my senses.  Arguments that take on the spin of relevancy will insist that the teachings of Mohammad and Buddha are as relevant as the ones we received from Christ.  Some of this heretical rhetoric will deviate from true historical figures and instead argue in mythical terms; saying that Jesus is a mythical figure that is no different from the Greek gods of Cronos and Zeus.  The truth of Christ, in other words, is no more valid than that of the Greek gods of antiquity (that didn't exist).  


At least with this view of mythical proportion, however, there's not a bias that criticizes the truth of antiquity.  I actually encounter critics that imply Christianity lacks legitimacy, saying that it is a religion that comes from desert tribesmen that lived thousands of years ago.   It's amazing that it does not occur to these critics that their argument is a logical fallacy.  Being a tribesman, for example, has no bearing on a truth that is revealed. Occupation, in other words, has no bearing on the validity of a truth that has been "revealed" by God.  Also, The amount of time that elapses has absolutely no bearing on the validity of truth.  Truth does not have an expiration date the same as you will find on a carton of milk. 

The host of arguments used to question the Christian about the hope that we have in Christ varies in flavor but not in spirit.  At the heart of questions that have been discussed thus far is not one of true academic inquiry but one of judgment.  Atheists are full of condemnation that they wish to bestow upon God and it is in their heart's content to do this through various avenues; one of which is through their inquiry that is performed in the fashion of a trial lawyer.  If you do not believe me, review my encounters that I have had with them and see how they insist to put God on trial with their blind accusations made out of hate. 


The truth found in scripture can save lost men.  Somehow the truth of scripture, however, eludes the atheist.  It is highly improbable that truth is going to be found in attempts to quote mine.  As a result, the atheist remains ignorant and blind of the good news of the Gospel.  In spite of my consistent reiteration of the work that Christ has done on the cross, they insist on putting God on trial for crimes of inhumanity.  In their eyes, they see all of the people that God killed in the Old Testament and are completely oblivious to all of the ones saved in the Book of Acts.  They fail to see that the wages of sin is death and that hell is a just consequence delivered by a holy and righteous God.  They fail to see there's good news in the atonement work of Christ that He fulfilled on the cross so that we may live.  Unfortunately, they also fail to see that the same work of Christ that saved a wretch like me can also save them.


It is my hope that in spite of blindness, that lost men may come to be saved by God's grace.  The most prominent way of fulfilling the Great Commission is to deliver the Gospel.  When delivering the Gospel, however, we are often asked about the hope that we have in us and in this, we should embrace 1 Peter 3:15 and be ready to give our account in any given time.  


I have been recently asked how I know that I can trust my senses and that I'm not worshipping a false religion.


I gave the following response;


1.) I have Moses and the Prophets that announced the coming of my Savior. When my Savior did come, He fulfilled what was prophesied about Him. So, in other words, There was a revelation given in history. The likelihood of one person fulfilling all of the prophesies as accounted by numerous men over considerable periods of time is more than an incidental quark that some desert tribal men got lucky with when they "made it all up".


2.) Unlike all of the false religions in the world, my Savior has an empty grave and a resurrection that has been verified by numerous eye witnesses. This testimony is discounted by scoffers, however, they fail to recognize that the account that we have today would be held admissible in a court of law today. Check out my RC Sproul video - "Why believe Christianity".  Sproul in this video is quite right in his assessment, Muhammad and Buddha are dead. Jesus, however, lives and has left behind an empty tomb.


3.) Jesus' enemies never denied His miracles; one of the things he did, so you would "believe". If anyone had a reason to discount miracles, it would be the Pharisees and Sadducees, in which, they never did deny his verified accounts of his many miracles.


4.) I have the Gospel, the power of God for salvation to anyone who will believe, first to the Jew and also to the Greek. Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of Christ in which I have heard and believed. When I believed, God renewed my heart. He ripped out my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh. He gave me a new nature - that only God can do. I have been changed! Praise God who saves lost men like me.


I by no account profess that this explanation is as comprehensive as it could be, etc.  At the same time, however, this apologetic could be abbreviated or expanded upon in contingency of context.  I also suspect that my explanation will mature as I grow in cognitive and spiritual maturity.  


I would love to hear from you.  Please by all means, give your account of the hope that you have in you if you had to present this to a skeptic with an agenda.

May it all be for His glory,

W. 

Quote - There's nobody in that Grave!

Quote - There's nobody in that Grave! 

'There's a recent article in the New York Times which says, "God is dead, we need to be dancing on His grave."  He doesn't know that there's nobody in that grave.' - Dr. Ravi Zacharias 

(From College Q&A session on February 16, 2005).

Your Worldview Dictates Your Evidential Interpretation

What does the following say?

"Godisnowhere"


The atheist comes along and says; "It clearly says 'God is nowhere'."

The Christian comes along and says; "It clearly says 'God is now here'."

Worldviews

The previous demonstration is to illustrate the influence of a worldview. Dr. Jason Lisle in his book, "Ultimate Proof of Creation - Resolving the Origins Debate", defines a worldview as "a network of our most basic beliefs about reality in light of which all observations are interpreted." Dr. Lisle points out that most people believe that in order to have validity, knowledge has to be acquired through evidence that is obtained through unbiased observation. He goes on, however, to point out that this "belief" is in of itself a worldview called "empiricism". We all have beliefs and it's our individual experiences that we collect in life that helps us form the worldview that we hold today. Worldviews, however, are responsible for the reason why both a Creationist and Evolutionist can both look at the same piece of evidence and come to vastly different conclusions. Our worldview is like a pair of glasses, it "filters" the way we view our surroundings and observations accordingly. Dr. Lisle points out that it is common for people to deny that they are interpreting evidence "in light of prior belief - a faith commitment of some kind" but also points out that in order for these same people to "observe" the evidence in an unbiased fashion that they first have to hold to the presupposition or prior belief that our senses are reliable.

We All Have Worldviews

In spite to how distasteful it may be to some to know we all have a worldview, never forget that we can't be divorced from our worldview. If someone, for example, is asking for you to suspend or give up your worldview, remember that they themselves are also holding on to a worldview of their own. A common worldview that I personally have witnessed is the belief that a truth must be believed in order to be "truth". A very common objection that people have concerning hell, for example, is that it doesn't exist because they don't believe in it as if the orient would no longer exist if I didn't believe in it's existence. For all I know, it doesn't exist. I've never been there and all of those old Kung-Fu movies I watched when I was a kid could have been staged the same as those fake Moon landing films. I am, however, puzzled as to how Chinese restaurants came about - for right now I'm chalking it up to a conspiracy theory.

Rescuing Devices

The method I just used as a means to deny the existence of the orient per my worldview is called a "rescuing device". Dr. Lisle roughly defines a rescuing device as a conjecture designed to protect a worldview from what appears to be contrary evidence. The reason that rescuing devices work is because someone can always use the unknown as a means to refute our arguments. If you, for example, try to assure me that there is not an organized conspiracy to convince the world that the orient exists when it really doesn't, the burden of proof falls on you to produce evidence to show that an organized effort doesn't exist. It is extremely difficult to "prove" that something doesn't exist the same as it is difficult to prove that the Spaghetti Monster doesn't live on the outskirts of our detectable universe.

Keep In Mind

Always keep in mind, however, that everyone has a worldview and that we can't be divorced from our worldview. Keep this in mind when you run into skeptics, debaters and atheists that want you to abandon scripture when you proclaim the glory of God to them when you minister the gospel or when you defend the faith with men that trade the truth for a lie when you offer up your apologia for the hope you have in Christ. While they may think that they are truly the only open minded one in your exchange, they too have a worldview that influences their interpretation of the evidence and they too are coming to the table with presuppositions for the arguments that they present. Scripture is not invalidated just because someone doesn't "believe" in the inerrancy of the Bible. When someone does, for example, want you to abandon scripture - remember in essence what they are doing is asking you to abandon your faith so that you can accept theirs. The Evolutionist or zealot for science, for example, has faith; it's just not the right kind of faith; it's faith in the "force" of nature or faith in the scientific method and or faith in scientific discoveries. The zealot of science is engaged in a religion also, instead of priests however, he looks to the scientist for guidance; instead of looking to the Bible for truth, he looks to the latest scientific discovery headlines in the news, etc.

Below is a YouTube play list for the "Ultimate Proof of Creation". The videos are broken down into six - 10 minute video segments.



Keep up the good fight!

Keep up the good fight and always have a reason for the hope you have in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 3:15). Stay grounded in the truth and keep the sword of the word, the sword of truth in your hand at all times.

Praise the Lord God Almighty always!

Grace & Peace,
WCD