JTTurner.Net

It strikes me as odd that people are afraid of the truth…even Christians! I was sitting in my New Testament World class this past week listening to Dr. Percer discuss how Christians borrowed terminology from the pagan cultures in order to better communicate the gospel to those same pagans. This makes perfect sense to me…it’s the very sort of thing that Paul does in Acts 17 using the “unknown god” as a springboard into a gospel message. Yet, in our American (and perhaps other parts of the world) Christian culture loads of Christians have the knee-jerk reaction of “this cannot be!” when someone says that Christians truthfully borrowed pagan themes to communicate the gospel. So, why is this so fearful? Is it not possible that there are pieces of the world religions that do actually point to God? I mean, after-all…all truth is God’s truth. So, if it’s true…then it’s true. What’s wrong with that?

I actually really enjoy that quality of God…that even in logical thought God’s character can be seen. The similarities in our moral law from society to society, values, standards, dieties etc…even though, for all but orthodox Christianity, they end up being wrong…there is still truth to be found. And like Paul did, instead of running away from that truth, we should be using it as a platform to begin evangelizing. That’s exciting stuff!

Remember the slogan at the top of my blog…”faith in Christ is not a blind leap into a chasm of credulity.” So, if we can be confident in our hearts and minds that our faith is valid why do we need to fear truth even when it is presented by something untruthful? If you truly believe that your faith is rational…then be glad! You now have more tools at your disposal for evangelism that an unbeliever has just handed to you!

Anyway, back to what sparked this evangelism idea…is the notion that Christians fear when skeptics point out that certain parts of the Christian story were borrowed from other religions and thoughts. I see it as just the opposite…it really gives an added apologetic to the Christian faith when combined with all the other kinds of evidences we have (evidence for the resurrection, archaeological evidence, teleological evidence (fine-tuning anyone?), cosmological evidence, ontological evidence, etc.).  So, let us all move past our ignorance and instead involve ourselves with the study of Gods truth, His Word, His history, and everything else we can so that we may know Him better.  Not only will this improve your walk with Christ, but it will help you evangelize in the same way Paul did…to informed skeptics!

Acts 17

Romans 1

1 Peter 3:15

-JT