Defending Our Faith

Both my wife and I noticed the picture on the Internet of a young mother buying a gun the day after the election. In the interview she said she was afraid that President-elect Obama was going to pass laws against guns. She wanted to be able to hunt for food and to defend her family. One-day gun sales records were broken on that same day as people rushed to buy guns while they still could for the purpose of sport and defense.

The word ‘defend’ is used in sports, military, self-protection, legal proceedings, and oral examinations. Webster’s Dictionary also gives us a definition in regards to personal beliefs: “To maintain in the face of argument or hostile criticism, to prove valid by answering oral questions.” We can defend our homes and our families but can we defend our faith?

Over the last few decades so much emphasis has been placed on Christians sharing their story, their conversion story that is. There is no doubt that our story of what Christ has done in our lives is a very useful tool. There are times, however, that I sense that this is the only tool we are teaching our people to use. It is helpful to read the works of people like C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, J.P Moreland, and Peter Kreeft to see that logic, philosophy, reason, and a good understanding of history and Scriptures are tremendous defensive weapons for our faith.

Justin Martyr was a pagan. What I mean by this is that he was not a Bishop like Ignatius or Polycarp. Justin was born in 100 AD in Palestine to Greek parents. He received the classic education of his day and was drawn to Greek philosophy. We know that he was successful after his education because he owned land and traveled a fair amount. But his study of philosophy caused him to be restless. He forever wanted to find the meaning of life, to find truth.

Justin’s own personal testimony is that he was walking along the seashore one day and an old man appeared to him. They began to talk and the stranger told Justin that he would never find what he was looking for in human endeavors but only by divine revelation. The old man met Justin on his terms, philosophy, and reason. He had Justin thoroughly engaged. Finally, this old man made the point that truth is from God and that God can be known. He went into his explanation and defense of Christianity, starting with the Prophets and prophecy and ending with Christ on the cross and the resurrection. Justin was converted that day and became known as one of the greatest defenders of the faith in the second century.

Justin noted in his writings that after that day on the seashore he never saw the old man again. There is a part of me that wants to believe it was an angel standing there reasoning with Justin, and maybe it was. However, there is also the thrill of knowing that God the Holy Spirit put another Christian on the seashore that day to talk with him. God knew how Justin’s mind worked and he placed someone there who could talk in philosophical terms.

Reading the works of Justin Martyr I am also amazed at how much this old man knew about the Old Testament and the current teaching of Christ. He was a student as well as a teacher. I have found in my life that the best teachers are by and large still students. They still have the desire to learn and to appreciate that learning makes one a better teacher. There is nothing worse than sitting in a class, a class of any kind (or church for that matter), where the material sounds like it has been neatly packaged for many years with nothing new added. It’s like the teacher who has been using the same lesson plans for years without bringing in new thoughts from history or from current affairs.

Are you still a student? Let me be more specific, are you still a student of the Trinity? Are you repeating clichés and phrases that you learned decades ago, or are you a student? I see people carry their Bibles to church with pages underlined from decades of church services and Bible studies and I wonder how much they have really learned. How much is being lived out in their lives?

Peter wrote about suffering even when doing nothing to ‘deserve’ it. He indicated that this kind of suffering would open a door for the Gospel. He says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

The old man shared Christ in this very way although he was not suffering at the time. He knew what he believed and he could defend it and he could do so with a kind heart. Yes, sharing our testimony is a great tool, but why don’t we develop other tools for God’s glory? Peter says that we should all be prepared to defend our faith, This means we should still be students--forever learning.

My son just took an oral exam for The California Highway Patrol. They asked him situational questions and he had to give reasons for the actions he would take. What if we were only allowed into heaven after an oral examination from the Lord? What if the question was not “Why should I let you into my heaven?” (which I don’t think the Lord will ever ask), but rather “Give me the reason for the hope that you have”. What if in order to enter heaven we had to defend our faith? What if we had to give the whole of salvation’s history from the Old Testament into the New? What if the correct answer was more than just “I have Jesus in my heart?”

Yes, Justin was martyred for his faith around 165 AD, but not before writing two famous works that you can easily find. “Apologies” was written to the emperors and “Dialogue” was written to his Jewish friend. Through Justin we can see how an early church layman defended and defined the faith. He is an example to us all.

God bless,

Dan

Copyright 2008 Eternity Minded Ministries