Training in worldview, logic, and apologetics is sadly lacking from most Christian education in the church and the home. I know of very few young people, much less adults, who have invested themselves in knowing how to make a sound defense of the faith. Christians have no need to bury their head in the sand on issues of life and culture, but too often we do because we don't know how strong our arguments really are. The truth is on our side. I found this quote by William Lane Craig to hit home, particularly the couple of sentences I highlighted.
"Other students I
met with at Princeton were enrolled in a class
taught by the New Testament critic Elaine Pagels which they nicknamed the
“Faithbusters Class” because of its destructive effect on the faith of many
Christian students. They had no way of knowing how far out of mainstream
scholarship Prof. Pagels’ views on the Gnostic gospels are. It was a privilege
to share with them grounds for the credibility of the New Testament witness to
Jesus.
"Their experience
is not unusual. In high school and college Christian teenagers are
intellectually assaulted with every manner of non-Christian worldview coupled
with an overwhelming relativism. If parents are not intellectually engaged with
their faith and do not have sound arguments for Christian theism and good
answers to their children’s questions, then we are in real danger of losing our
youth. It’s no longer enough to teach our children simply Bible stories; they
need doctrine and apologetics. It’s hard to understand how people today can
risk parenthood without having studied apologetics.
"Unfortunately, our
churches have also largely dropped the ball in this area. It’s insufficient for
youth groups and Sunday school classes to focus on entertainment and simpering
devotional thoughts. We’ve got to train our kids for war. We dare not send them
out to public high school and university armed with rubber swords and plastic
armor. The time for playing games is past." – William Lane Craig
HT: Doug Groothuis
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