Students in the Real World, 4-QE
- Do you have the desire to reduce biblical apologetics to a simplistic form? Why? Do you desire this because of the convenience, for a sense of security, or for some other reason? What are the advantages of such a summary? What are the disadvantages and potential pitfalls? Is any summary sufficient? In what ways can oversimplification be misleading and self-defeating?
- Have you ever been stumped by a non-Christian argument or objection? What was the nature of the difficulty? Did you have trouble because of a lack of information? Could you have responded and defeated the non-Christian anyway, even without this information? How? If it was for some other reason, what was it?
- The simple formula presented in this chapter is able to refute every page of every non-Christian textbook in your entire curriculum. To put it another way, whereas biblical revelation can withstand the analysis, the formula can destroy all human claims to knowledge in all of history. There are several exercise you can perform to demonstrate and apply this.
Open one of your textbooks to a section where it presents a claim of some sort, preferably one that is widely endorsed and supported by arguments. Make sure you read as much about it as is necessary to understand the context. Using only the three words in the formula, refute it. If you are a beginner, you should be able to do this within 3 to 10 seconds. Any biblical apologist with a normal level of competence should be able to refute it by the time he finishes reading it, if not way before.
Now, open any textbook found anywhere on university campus to any page. Make sure you read the page or the section within the proper context so as not to misrepresent what it is claiming. Using only the three words in the formula, refute it. Repeat this as many times as you wish with as many textbooks, papers, and journals that you can find. Locate something at random, or attempt to find the best of the best. Refute them. Again, nothing should take longer than 10 seconds to refute.
- Assuming that you are successful, what does this say about human methods of investigation and non-Christian claims to knowledge? Are non-Christians intelligent? Do they know anything – anything – at all? Remember that you have been restricted to use only the three words in the formula. You have not been using the full resources of biblical apologetics.
- If non-Christians are so thoroughly ignorant and irrational, then why attend a secular university at all? One proper perspective might be to think that a secular university is not a place to learn rational truth, but to learn about what non-Christians believe, and by understanding what they believe, we are able to function in a non-Christian society. If we desire to learn truth, we must learn it from God himself, who has revealed it in the Bible. Are there other reasons to attend a secular institution?
- Teach the formula to a child, preferably one who is under ten-years-old. Ask him to refute, using only the three words, the non-Christian claims and arguments that you have just refuted in the above exercises. The child might have much more trouble understanding the non-Christian ideas than the formula. If so, explain them to him, and make sure he does not take the non-Christian claims and arguments out of context.
If possible, arrange for the child to speak with a professor in your university. There is no need to call it a debate, but have the child ask questions about the professor's field of expertise and to politely refute everything – everything – that the professor says using only the three words. Make sure that you train the child to persistently think in terms of the three words and what they represent, since it will be improper to coach him during his conversation with the professor. The point is to illustrate that even a child can refute any non-Christian professor of any field using this simple formula alone.
- Arrange to debate five to twenty non-Christians at the same time. Preferably they will take different positions on various issues so that there will be some variety. Do not invite only atheists, but also adherents of non-Christian religions. Using the three words of the formula, debate and refute all of them at the same time. The precise format is up to you and the unbelievers. They can take turns, or speak whenever there is something to say. You can debate each one individually, or encourage them to collaborate. Find ways to make things difficult for yourself. Be creative. Now, since this might be a rare opportunity, after a short while you might wish to stop limiting yourself to the three words and proceed to employ all your skills and resources as a biblical apologist. Keep track of the debate and make sure you achieve decisive and overwhelming victory against every person.
Note: I strongly oppose the idea of practicing or testing apologetics. "Practice makes perfect" is false. It is possible to practice all the time and not improve, but if you understand the biblical principles of apologetics, it is possible to do it very well even on the first attempt. When we are doing apologetics, we are dealing with people's souls, and we should not practice at their expense. So when I prescribe these exercises where other people are involved, I am not at all encouraging you to try apologetics or to play apologetics, but to do apologetics. These exercises are designed to display the power and flexibility of biblical rationalism, as well as to expose the foolishness and impotence of non-Christian thinking. As with ordinary situations, our goal is still to promote the gospel and God's honor.
- Obtain written presentations of non-biblical approaches to apologetics – classical, evidential, pseudo-presuppositional, cultural, literary, and so on. Using only the three words of our formula, refute all of them. Although the Christian contents attached to these presentations might generate some confusion for you, none of them should take you much longer to refute than any non-Christian belief system. Allow yourself 20 to 30 seconds at the most for each.
- Consider your own understanding of the Christian faith. Take time to think through your understanding of every major topic in theology and philosophy – this is your belief system. Now attempt to refute it with the three words in our formula. Be thorough – do not hurry through this. If you have never done it before, a complete theological and philosophical self-examination should take days, weeks, and months, not minutes or hours.
A consistently biblical theology should be immune to such an attack. Note the areas where you are vulnerable, then spend as much time and effort as necessary to fix them. In some cases, you will find that the problem is only a matter of proper articulation. But in other cases, you might find that your present position is unbiblical and irrational, and must be abandoned for a biblical and rational view.
November 09 2006 | Apologetics, Spirituality