I recently read an exchange on Facebook between a follower of Christ who is quite brilliant, and an atheist who is also quite smart. The atheist, in essence, was arguing that all faith in any God was irrational. The atheist wasn't saying anything new. In fact, as I read the exchange, I recognized many of the same arguments I have seen over and over on the internet. I do not know if the atheist had honest intellectual objections or was merely regurgitating what he had read others write. 

The Christian was winsome and gracious in his response. A few other Christians (and a few non-Christians) soon joined in this exchange. A few things stood out-and again, this is often the case with such back and forth exchanges between many people:

1) Some people were honestly hoping to gain something from the dialogue. We might call these people intellectually honest in the sense they stated their view, but also were humble enough to state that they could be wrong, and were open to evidence that would help them better process the claims of Christianity.

2) Some people simply wanted to fight. Sadly, this included a few Christians who jumped in. It seemed the extremes on both sides were focused more on mocking and talking down to the other side as opposed to listening and engaging the ideas and arguments presented. 

Before I resume, a word of advice to Christians: Don't be 'that guy' (or 'that woman'). No one has ever been decimated and humiliated into the kingdom of God by a professing believer publicly ridiculing them. Stop. Just stop. Take a break. Share the basic gospel with someone. Walk humbly. Remember to love your neighbor. Remember we are to speak the Truth in love. If you can't speak the Truth in love, it's just a clanging gong or cymbal....anyway, let's carry on.

MaryJo Sharp, a wonderful Christian apologist once gave great advice at a conference I attended. She mentioned how she dealt with argumentative people (who are not Christians). She simply asked, 'what do you hope to gain from this conversation?' If they just wanted to fight, then she didn't need to spend time fighting for the sake of fighting. If they were genuinely wrestling with the claims of Christianity, well, that was worth a converation.

Some of you reading this blog post may be in this latter category: you may be angry with Christians, or your understanding of Christians and or Christianity, but you are open to looking at the evidences. You would like to know if Christianity is true. 

You may have questions about the reliability of the Scriptures, about the resurrection, or the historicity of Jesus, or perhaps you are wondering how a Good and Loving God could allow suffering in the world, or, maybe you're wondering how anyone could know which religion (if any) is true, or perhaps you have other questions. 

Clearly I cannot answer all of those in a blog post, and clearly no one would want to read a blog post that long. But, if you are in that 'intellectually honest' category and are seeking answers, I can share some wonderful resources and sites with you to examine. If you are in this category, I pray you'll check these out:

1) Stand to Reason is a great site. Greg Koukl has wonderful introductory and more advanced writings dealing with a number of topics. You'll find that here: https://www.str.org/

2) Cold Case Christianity. What happens when a former LAPD officer, a devoted atheist, the man in charge of the Cold Case Division for years, decides to disprove Christianity by using all of his expertise? Well, he looks at all of the evidence and comes to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is Lord.  J. Warner Wallace is that man's name. His site has many good resources: https://coldcasechristianity.com/

3) The preeminent scholar in the west on the historicity of the resurrection is Dr. Michael Licona. He has wonderful resources on this topic. His site is: https://www.risenjesus.com/

4) Speaking of MaryJo Sharp, this former atheist turned professor and apologist has a fantastic site with resources and helps: https://maryjosharp.com/

5) Ravi Zacharias has spoken all over the world. He is a brilliant thinker. His site has many resources and articles: https://www.rzim.org/

6) Lastly (and there are many more, but for the sake of space, I'll stop here), if you want to plumb profound intellectual depths (the scholarly writings are at times quite challenging to read) or if you want to simply read the popular articles and posts, Dr. William Lane Craig has devoted his life to research and study and has traveled the globe debating the 'best' that atheism and other belief systems has to offer. His site is filled with resources.  You'll find his site here: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/william-lane-craig/

If you are honestly seeking truth, or wrestling with claims of Christianity, this is a good start. You don't have to turn your brain off to come to Christ. Faith and reason are not incompatable. 

If you are a follower of Christ, you (and I) are expected to have a basic working knowledge of how to answer objections to our faith and how to give reason for the Hope that is within us (1 Peter 3:15,16)-and we are to do that with all 'gentleness and respect' (meaning-lovingly). We see Paul model this in Acts 17 on Mars Hill. You may want to check out some of these sites as well. 

He is Risen! 

And that fact, changes everything....

Grace to You,

Pastor