The Confident Christianity conference went to Carrubbers Christian Centre in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town for a packed day looking at conversational evangelism, equality, values, suffering, the environment and more. Play the video for a report from the event.
From a cross-cultural guest, today’s episode picks up two different strands to sharing faith. First, how do we respond to those who reject their experience of church, even those who have suffered spiritual abuse? As well, what can the contrast between “Christian” and “secular” cultures teach us about conversations centred on Jesus? In both areas, it can be tricky to unpack the individual’s experience from the true gospel.
Inonge Siluka grew up in Zambia and moved to Scotland with her family when she was 14. She studied law at university after which she did some student ministry with UCCF and training with Cornhill Scotland. She works full time for a Cancer charity, and is also the founder of Restored Hope Zambia, a Charity that supports Church abuse survivors in Zambia. She is passionate about evangelism and theology and runs Overflow Chat, a blog and YouTube channel aimed at encouraging women and girls in their evangelism and faith. Inonge is a member of Greenview Church in Glasgow where is part of a community group and serves in the youth ministry.
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
With the exception of Bible reading, few things seem to make Christians feel more guilty than prayer and evangelism. And so, you can imagine how I felt when asked to write an article about both! Yet the more I reflected the more I wanted to share. As we consider three big questions, my hope, to borrow from the disciples, is that God would teach us to pray as we try to say something about him to those we love.
In any conversation, the most important thing we need to realise is who we’re talking to. If a policeman has just asked us to roll down our car window for “a little conversation”, we are going to be more nervous than if we’ve bumped into a friend. Who we find ourselves talking to impacts the words we say. The same is true with prayer and perhaps especially when we are praying for the lost. When we pray we need to remember that we are talking to our Father in heaven. And what do we know about him? We know that he is a God who seeks out prodigals. Not only that, he is strong enough to save them. After all, this is what he did with us. He is the primary evangelist. He is building his church. As one reluctant missionary eventually learned, “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). When we realise we are simply called to participate in what God is already doing, it changes our perspective.
As well as recognising who we’re praying to, it can be such a help to remember who we get to pray with. In western culture, self-expression and individualism are the air we breathe. You and I are constantly being told that what we think and what we want is ultimate. This can affect our view of discipleship. We may not say it aloud, but we can so easily start to think that the Christian life is simply a set of actions we perform on our own. But one of the great joys of being a believer in Christ is to know we belong to his body. And what concerns one part of the body should concern all of it. This has an important implication for our evangelism. If you have a friend who is not yet a Christian and you share their name and a bit of their background with your brothers and sisters, it not only takes some of the pressure off you, it is a privilege for them to pray for that individual. They may never meet them, but so many Christians came to faith as a result of such people and such prayers. When we think corporately it helps us remember that evangelism is not a competition.
As we pray for those who don’t yet know Jesus there are lots of things we can ask God to do. We can pray that he would speak to their consciences and reveal their need for forgiveness. Only the Holy Spirit can do that work. If they care deeply about injustice, as so many do today, we can ask God to help them see that a sense things should be fair, points to the fact we live in a moral universe. But I want to highlight two other things we can pray for our friends to feel: a sense of the goodness of God and the brevity of life.
We can ask God to give those we witness to a sense of his goodness. In his common grace God showers blessings on those inside and outside his family. The liberal, generous God we know, gives people who are not yet Christians homes, health, happy marriages and more. Yes, there is a crack in this world because of sin, there is darkness, and yet there is also so much that is wonderful. As she approached death, a character in a story C.S. Lewis wrote, said her great longing was “to find the place where all the beauty came from.” For Lewis this was autobiographical. The beauty he saw in creation became a signpost that led him from atheism to faith. We can pray for others to go on the same journey.
We can also pray for the brevity of life to hit home. A few years ago Neil Postman wrote an important book called Amusing Ourselves to Death. Today we could easily replace the first word in his title with another word—distracting[1] So much of modern life seems designed to prevent us thinking seriously about anything. But life is short and death is real and when we come to the end our iPhones will not be much comfort. If Covid-19 taught us anything it was that under our bravado we’re all afraid of death. But when the brute fact of mortality is faced, it can be the first step towards the risen Christ.
There are lots of ways we could put this into practice. In our church we recently started a prayer meeting before our evening service. It lasts half an hour and at the beginning we share the names of people we would love to see come to believe. They range from new colleagues to adult children who once professed faith. Their names are written on a white-board and at the end of the meeting we take a picture to prompt us to pray during the week. It’s not flashy, it feels simple, but there have been encouragements. Above all, it has reminded us of our need for God’s help, something so easy for us to forget.
[1] ‘I’m sure I once read an article online that proposed this change, but I can’t remember where, which kind of proves the point!’
The beautiful Morayshire town of Forres was the destination for Solas and another great evening spent with wonderful Christian folks who were enthusiastic about learning to get better at sharing their faith.
Rev Dr Jon Mackenzie, Pastor or Forres Baptist Church summarised it like this:“Forres Baptist Church ran a ‘Confident Christianity Conference’ hosted by Solas and led by Andy Bannister that proved to be a time of real blessing and encouragement. We had over one hundred people turn up to an event that was designed for people to become better equipped at sharing their faith in Jesus, which has to be a major encouragement! What a blessing to run out of parking spaces, not something many church events usually have to face, and to have people from so many local fellowships coming together to partnership in the gospel.”
Getting tired of the same old Christmas coming round each year? Is there more to Christmas than gifts, turkey, tinsel and even getting together with friends or family? In this yuletide Short Answers video, Andy Bannister suggests four important questions to think about at this time of year. Perhaps the answers to all of them lie in the deeper meaning of the Christmas story.
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Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.
When I worked in a high street record shop, by the time Christmas finally arrived I was weary and really needed a break because December was frenetic. By Christmas Eve my body was more than ready for a rest from serving customers, stacking shelves and lugging stock around the store for long hours. Christmas Day was a welcome respite, and a brief lull in the relentless busyness before the Boxing Day Sales – which in those days actually started early on Boxing Day. The great thing about going in on Boxing Day though was that the staff were allowed to choose the music ourselves. The management’s compulsory “Christmas Music Only” edict expired at closing time on the 24th, much to the relief of everyone who had endured hundreds of plays of “Simply Havin’ a Wonderful Christmas Time”, and the like for almost four straight weeks. So, on Boxing Day my more indie inclined colleagues regaled everyone with something utterly miserable by The Smiths, the heavy rock fans chose someone or other Live and Heavy at Knebworth, and I found a CD of delightfully morose early Delta blues. It was marvellous.
Dumped at the back of the store room was the “Christmas Album”, not to be heard again until the following December. Elton wouldn’t be “Stepping into Christmas” any more, Jona Lewie’s Cavalry would be stopped (or at least paused), Stevens was politely asked to stop Shakin’, and we all hoped that Mariah Carey got “you” for Christmas and would put a sock in it. Andy Williams singing “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” is something that really began to grate with people. Not everyone wanted to sing with Freddie, “Thank God It’s Christmas” and when it comes to “I wish it could be Christmas Every day” – Roy Wood, you’re on your own there, mate!
The truth is, we want it to be “the most wonderful time of the year”, we make a huge effort with presents, parties and gifts – and some of it is great, but not everyone is having a blast. This year will be my pal’s first Christmas since he lost his wife; and he’ll be on my mind even when I’m enjoying the office party. Christmas – as we tend to celebrate it in the West today – is supposed to be the great tonic in the middle of the bleakest season; glitter, lights and parties to offset the gloomy skies, relentless rain and rising fuel bills. I’m certainly looking forward to a break, my whole family being together – and a wee dram with our sons back from university, along with some cheesy Christmas movies.
And while all those things are good, I increasingly think that they not enough. Parties come, parties go. Our sons will come back, the house will be full of noise again – but they will soon head back to Glasgow with a huge rucksack and a wave from the Megabus window. Within a blink, the rest period will be over and the dark January commute will begin again. The party-season will have been fun; but it does not contain enough emotional fuel to keep us warm all year or provide a reason to start again in January, entering the New Year with hope, let alone joy. At best, the very best parties might help us to forget that such things need to be faced at all. They help us to kick the can down the road, and try to forget that the empties will need to be picked up and recycled at some point soon.
If you face such thoughts at Christmas (and let me assure you that hearing The Christmas Album 500 times on repeat is enough to test the most resilient of characters), it is at least good to know that you are not alone. I don’t just mean that there are many people today who find the compulsory jollity grating, or at odds with their situation. I mean also that the search for a genuinely good reason to get up in the morning has occupied the finest minds of our species since time immemorial. The Greek philosophers debated the matter relentlessly. Famously the Epicureans (who were fond of a party or two), thought that life had no meaning so partying as hard as you can was an entirely sensible way to approach it. Certainly if we are careering through a pointless void for no discernible reason then there seems to be no obvious reason to party merely moderately, especially at Christmas. After all, if oblivion awaits, then you might as well enjoy the ride.
So much for Epicureans – I’ve known a few of them in my time, worked with some and partied with a few of them too.
The Stoics disagreed, they thought life did have a purpose but that it was always rather illusive. They were ones who looked ahead towards the challenges of the New Year, with new sales targets, new appraisals, new management structures and new business or family challenges with a grim determination to keep going; to fulfil duty and not surrender.
So much for the Stoics – and I’ve worked with a few of them in my time as well.
Intriguingly the “purpose” the philosophers of old debated they called the search for a ‘Logos’, or a “word”. That is, they looked for a point of coherence in the universe with which to make sense of everything else. So, “Keep going into a New Year, you may find the Logos”, competes with; “there is no Logos, enjoy the Christmas party”. (But a word to any would-be epicureans, if the party is actually in the office, it’s still wise not to do that on the photocopier).
One ancient writer, as he discussed the meaning of Christmas, came up with a radical alternative in the Logos debate. He shocked the ancient world with his new claim. When he wrote “the word (literally the Logos) became flesh and dwelt among us” he wasn’t just saying that a Logos existed; he was claiming two radical things; firstly that it had been revealed and was knowable and secondly that it was a person not a thing; a “he” and not an “it”. This remarkable claim is found in John’s Prologue – his theological introduction to his biography of Jesus; and his explanation of the first Christmas. His claim is that to know Jesus is to find the very purpose for which you were created, and that through reading his biography and encountering the presence of his Spirit – it is possible to know him today too. That is a something which is not only mind-blowing, but also utterly joyous.
If John is right, it means that there is more to Christmas than the fleeting joys of parties and pleasure. It also means that there is more to facing the New Year than merely a grim determination to push forward into whatever storms and challenges time + space + chance throw your way. John claims that this Christ, this Logos from God, as we get know and follow him, provides us with complete fullness of life here and with eternal life too.
The key question then, is who is right? Are the Epicureans right? If so, the office Christmas party is perhaps the height of your purpose, so perhaps even the photocopier isn’t completely off limits… If the Stoics are right, then welcome to another year of toil and slog.
But what if John is right, and that the purpose of it all isn’t just a person to find, but that this person – Jesus of Nazareth – is also seeking you? Nothing could be more important to find out. One good place to start is by reading John for yourself and standing face to face with the man Jesus and seeing who he is, what he claimed and if it all stacks up. His short book, written very soon after the events they describe, tells the story of Jesus and explains how to respond to him. It’s online here:
It’s important to read carefully, read thoughtfully and critically too. One thing that many people have never tried though is reading it prayerfully. That is approaching John’s gospel asking God to help them see if it true or not – and helping them to respond to it. You could even begin by saying, “Dear God, I’m not sure if you are there or not, or if you even hear me, but if you are, and if you do, please speak into my soul as I read about Jesus. Amen.” And give John a good hearing.
Because when that happens – and Jesus the Logos is found, it is the greatest miracle to happen at Christmas. I do hope you have a very Happy one indeed.
It was an early start for the Solas team as we headed North to see our great friends at Kiltarlity Free Church. Kiltarlity is a small village of less than a thousand people in the Scottish Highlands, a few miles west of Inverness. The Free Church near the centre of the village is deeply committed to mission in their area, indeed their website has the strapline “Sharing the good news of Jesus in the rural Highlands”. As part of that, their minister Stephen Allison invited Solas to lead a half-day Confident Christianity conference on everyday evangelism.
Andy Bannister was joined in the speaking team by Clare Williams, who had travelled up from the south of England to speak in the Highlands for the first time, and I had the privilege of addressing a Confident Christianity conference also for the first time. What was on offer was a blend of apologetics, theological reflection and practical training all designed to equip God’s people spiritually, intellectually and practically for the exciting task of evangelism today.
Andy Bannister spoke first on the increasingly relevant topic of engaging the apathetic in spiritual conversations. There are huge numbers of people who say they “don’t do God”, and wouldn’t come to an overtly Christian event – but who are passionate about many important things. Andy explained that many Christians are drawing these people towards considering the gospel – not by confronting them directly – but by exploring what matters to them most, and then helping them connect that to the gospel. Human Rights, environmentalism, and love are just three important examples of these passions which make little or no sense in atheism, but are explained most clearly in a Christian worldview. The bridge Andy uses to help these folks start to join the dots between these convictions and the gospel is “Have You Ever Wondered” questions. You can find out more about this here, and there are more Have You Ever Wondered questions to consider here too.
Clare Williams spoke next and she took us into some very helpful apologetics. The truth is that when we engage people in spiritual conversations, or even get as far as inviting them to consider trusting in Jesus themselves; many people have all kinds of objections. Learning to respond helpfully to people’s questions and push-backs is an important part of evangelism today and something that Solas is really passionate about. Obviously we need to distinguish between different kinds of objections; objections to what the gospel is are rather different to those based on misunderstandings or misinformation. Equally people can raise objections for different reasons, from painful life experience to playing philosophical games to heartfelt searching for truth.
A very significant, and genuine objection that many people raise today is that the Christian faith is unjust, and is a tool of oppression. This, Clare argued is a subject which has been overlooked by classical apologetics, but is a pressing concern in the Black majority churches of which she is a part. “Does Jesus matter in an age of moral outrage?” was her title, and Clare achieved several important things in her short talk. She affirmed that a sense of justice and moral outrage was a vital response to oppression, showed that the oppression of Black people in the (sometimes in the name of Christianity) was itself an outrage, and a violation of Christianity; and then showed that justice points us to the God of the Bible. She landed her talk with a quote from the brilliant Lisa Fields who pointed out that we need deliverance from both “the sin of slavery” and the greater “slavery of sin”. True liberation from both those things is found in Jesus.
After the break I had the privilege of doing a bit of theological reflection on the way in which we share the gospel today. Apologetics has had a bad press in some quarters, as it has been regarded as trying to argue people into the kingdom of God, and reliant too much on human reasoning and pride and not enough on the Holy Spirit. I sought to outline a biblical approach in which we use apologetics in the way the Apostles did in the New Testament, to lead people into truth – as a work dependent on the Holy Spirit. All true conversions, I suggested, need to convince the mind that Jesus died for us and rose again, and are also completely miraculous works of the Spirit in giving New Birth. As such, our task as Christians is to learn to be as good as we can at evangelism and apologetics; but to pray unceasingly for the lost and our witness too. Our Solas colleague Gareth Black summarized it neatly when he wrote:
In the Q&A, we had all sorts of interesting questions about everything from prayer, to how to prepare an evangelistic message, to several pointed questions about parenting teenagers. It was good to meet people from all over the Inverness region, catch up with several old friends and renew fellowship in the gospel. It was a smaller crowd than last time we were up in Kiltarlity, but a really worthwhile occasion which it was a privilege to contribute to. That evening Clare and the team returned to the church to do a youth event which was packed with young people from youth groups across the area. After Clare had picked up some themes around God and justice, she was bombarded with questions sent in via text and social media platforms. It sounds like a great night, which I was personally sorry to miss. I was driving back down the A9 preparing for a Solas event in Perth the following day!
Many thanks to our great hosts at Kiltarlity and to Clare Williams for travelling all the way up from the south of England for these events. It’s our prayer and desire that beyond just keeping evangelism on the church’s agenda, that these events will embolden and encourage the church in her mission – and that we might be able to bring an event like this to many more towns and villages all over the country.
Have you ever wondered why even in our secular age we still treat sex as something sacred? Consider the way that those who sexually assault others are considered to be the worst moral monsters. Why do we see sex as about far more than the raw evolutionary need to reproduce our DNA? Why do we long for intimacy? And could it be possible that sex is a pointer to a much greater story?
Thanks to our friend Elizabeth Humble for letting us film at her jewellery studio.
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Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.
I spent my childhood years in a naturally beautiful place: the Pacific Northwest of the United States. My parents loved the outdoors and frequently took our family on trips to see the mighty Pacific Ocean or the majestic volcanic peaks of the Cascade Range. At times, even as a child, I would sit quietly contemplating and reveling in the overwhelming beauty I encountered. It was difficult to put into words as a child, but I felt as though beauty meant something and that it was something good.
Over time, I began to wonder what all this beauty in the world was for and contemplated its undeniable draw on human beings. I watched a lot of nature shows in which spectacular beauty in the animal kingdom was said to be an instinctual preference to preserve a species. However, beauty, in total, seemed to be ridiculously beyond what was instinctually necessary to attract a mate, such as a Mozart symphony, a Van Gogh painting, or a sunset on the ocean. I sensed that beauty pointed me towards something more transcendent and everlasting, not just something physical and immediate.
God is beautiful
I was given a Bible my senior year of high school by a music teacher I greatly respected who caught me at just the right moment when I was searching for some answers, such as the meaning behind, and draw to, beauty. As I encountered those Scriptures, I read:
“One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.”
Psalm 27:4 ESV
Though I had never thought about it before, I began to realize that God is beautiful. As the Scriptural authors convey, his beauty is desirous, and it is further reflected in all of his creation:
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Romans 1:20 ESV
I reasoned that if this God is the Creator of everything, if he is beautiful, and if he made his creation in reflection of his own qualities (Gen. 1:26), then it makes sense that his creation draws me towards Himself. The draw that I feel towards his ultimate beauty is, in some ways, like how a great piece of art draws me to know the artist. However, it’s not just the splendor of the natural world around me that has such sway, but it’s the beauty of humans, as well.
Humans reflect God’s beauty
I sometimes wonder if we have difficulty encountering the pull of God’s transcendent beauty, because we’ve forgotten how truly beautiful humans really are. I’m not simply referencing physical beauty, but also the design of the human body, the emotional depth, cognitive complexity, moral quality, plus the unity in diversity. If nature’s beauty strikes a chord with us, then humanity is a symphony of experiences. And that symphony tugs at our desire to understand who and what we are as human beings, as something more than a cosmic accident.
The timeless quality and irreplaceable value that we see in each other are attributes not best explained as arising from the chaos and pitiless indifference of blind physical forces that have no aim or end. Such origins would leave these qualities without proper meaningfulness, and with no apt reason for why we should comprehend their existence at such depth. For analogy, chaotic origins would seem to reflect the indifference of John Cage’s musical composition “4:33,” in which music is defined as anything and nothing,[1] rather than the meaning-packed complexity of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” in which there is masterful musical form and purposed emotional intent. Our human attributes entail intentionality, purpose, and worth; qualities that arise from an artist, a personal creator, rather than from unconscious forces. As the Psalmist expresses:
“For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.”
Psalm 139: 13-14
There exists an aesthetic of meaning and value to our existence, and we’re attracted to it just like we are attracted to beauty and design in nature. Humans are an irreplaceable work of art that compels us to discover the fashioning artist.
Beauty and the sciences
The natural beauty of our environment and the complex beauty of human beings serve as signposts towards the Creator through the many different ways in which they signal intentionality, purpose and design. Yet, further, the ever-increasing discoveries of science aid our understanding of how beauty literally impacts our mental health and wellness.[2] Combinations of colour and light, as well as their outworking in art, can improve human psychology, resulting in astounding effects such as quicker recovery from illness.[3]
Further, studies have found that humans respond positively to scenes of nature and as well as spending time surrounded by natural beauty:
“Over 100 studies have shown that being in nature, living near nature, or even viewing nature in paintings and videos can have positive impacts on our brains, bodies, feelings, thought processes, and social interactions. In particular, viewing nature seems to be inherently rewarding, producing a cascade of positive[sic] emotions and calming our nervous systems.”[4]
The call of beauty in our lives is not just for theological or philosophical reflection, but comes down to even the basic psychological and physiological impact.[5]
So why are humans drawn to beauty?
It seems to be so because beauty impacts us and calls to us in every aspect of life. From our mental and physical health to our greater understanding of what it means to be human, we are constantly faced with the aesthetic of meaning and intentionality, the beauty of design. We have been made in the image of a perfectly beautiful God, and our desire for beauty finds its fulfillment in Him.
While there is so much more to be said on this matter, a good starting point for conversation is the creation of humans who reflect God’s likeness, not just in physical aspects, but also in emotional, intellectual, and moral beauty as well. As we desire to understand our unmistakable draw to beauty, perhaps one of the most powerful places to begin is by looking into the eyes of our fellow humankind.
Mary Jo Sharp is Assistant Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University
[1] One could argue that Cage’s piece is an interpretation of the beauty of the everyday incidental sounds of humans. But, in my music education background, I noticed how many trained musicians have an abject dislike of this piece of ‘music,’ which seems to deconstruct the meaning of the term, “music,” beyond any reconciliation. In other words, it really annoys us.
[2] MacDonald, Fiona. “Here’s How Colours Really Affect Our Brain And Body, According to Science.” ScienceAlert, September 28, 2017. https://www.sciencealert.com/does-colour-really-affect-our-brain-and-body-a-professor-of-colour-science-explains.
[3] “Visual Art in Hospitals: Case Studies and Review of the Evidence – Louise Lankston, Pearce Cusack, Chris Fremantle, Chris Isles, 2010.” Accessed November 21, 2022. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1258/jrsm.2010.100256.
[4] Greater Good. “What Happens When We Reconnect With Nature.” Accessed November 21, 2022. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_happens_when_we_reconnect_with_nature.
[5] Further investigation: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-brain-responds-to-beauty/ and https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_happens_when_we_reconnect_with_nature. Though these studies are interpreted strictly through a sociobiological evolutionary perspective, they aptly communicate that something psychological and physiological is happening.
“We were thrilled to host Solas for a Confident Christianity evening at Ellon Baptist. We had a good turn out not only from our own members but from a variety of other surrounding churches. Andy Bannister spoke on the evening looking at how to share our faith and also how to understand suffering in relation to our faith. It was a really positive and very helpful evening with those attending finding what was shared both easy to understand and useful. I feel we have gained a lot from this event and now explore the question of how we build on this and put things into practice. In an age where our culture is secularised and there are very loud ideologies around us the ministry of Solas is so important for equipping Christians to both understand their faith and to share it.”
– William Butchart, Pastor – Ellon Baptist Church
Ellon was another stop for Andy Bannister on Solas’s recent “Confident Christianity” tour of the North of Scotland. At Solas we often stress that we want to go to smaller towns, as well as do the big events in larger cities. We would miss out on so much if we didn’t go to places like Ellon – where we meet great people who are really keen to learn all they can about sharing their faith today.
As William Butchart, the pastor at Ellon Baptist mentioned, Andy spoke about “How to talk about Jesus without getting fired or cancelled” – all about how to use questions to develop spiritual conversations with seekers, sceptics and colleagues in a gentle and winsome manner. The second topic he was asked to address was the timeless question of the problem of suffering. People in every age have wrestled with this question, sometimes as an academic exercise – often as a real wrestling with personal pain and dissapointment. Andy looked at the way that the Christian faith offers real hope in the context of a broken world – a hope that we can share with others.
It was a delight for Andy and Solas to partner with Ellon Baptist in this traning event and we pray that they will know great encouragement and fruit as they seek to reach out to their community with the saving love, and hope that Jesus Christ offers today.
As we criss-cross the UK working with all kinds of churches and in all sorts of places – we’d love to come and help stimulate and encourage evangelism in your church with an event like this. Please do get in touch as we’d love to hear from you about the opportunities and challenges of gospel work where you are, as well as explore whether Solas could be hepful for you and your church fellowship. Contact us here.
Today’s guest reflects on a traumatic childhood event and how it shaped his pursuit of God. These kind of experiences can cause many to wrestle with the love or the hiddenness of God. How can we journey with others to find a God of purpose and hope?
Dan Paterson is the founder of Questioning Christianity, an Australian ministry helping you connect the Christian story to life’s deepest questions. He has experience as a pastor, lecturer, and public speaker, having studied Theology and Apologetics in Australia and at Oxford. Dan currently lives in Brisbane with his wife, Erin, and their favourite job is raising three wonderful boys.
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
We hear a lot of discussion these days about the proliferation of social media platforms and questions being raised about the impact they are having on society and our mental health. For example, if anything like me, you’ll have posted a status update or picture – and checked 10 minutes later to see if people have liked or commented on it. If no one has, then you can start to wonder: “Does any one care about me?”
Many of us are concerned about what other people think about us, but have you ever wondered what God thinks of you?
There is nothing that bestows more dignity upon our humanity, than the fact that Almighty God has become one of us, in the person of Jesus. So let me tell you the true story about a man called Nicodemus, who came to meet Jesus “by night” (v.2) – which is ironic since Nicodemus is in the dark – unable to see who Jesus is fully, nor see himself truly.
Notice what we’re told about Nicodemus’ identity. Firstly, he’s “a Pharisee” (v.1) – which means that he is a member of a strict religious order which emphasised rigorous moral behaviour. Secondly, he’s a “ruler of the Jews” (v.1) –he sat on the high council of Israel, which means he was successful and enjoyed high status. Thirdly, Jesus calls him “the teacher of Israel” (v.9) – because he was highly qualified and learned in the Holy Scriptures.
Based on what he knows, what he does, and how other people look up to him, Nicodemus is a man who might feel very self-satisfied with himself. Perhaps he could be forgiven for imagining: if anyone is in God’s good books, if anyone qualifies for entrance into God’s heavenly kingdom – then it’s him! But just to make sure, he comes to see Jesus for a private interview. You see Jesus performs miracles and speaks as though He were God Himself – if that were true, then Nicodemus wonders, what will Jesus make of him? Will Jesus agree with his self-assessment and give him God’s validation?
Jesus immediately and abruptly, challenges Nicodemus’ self-satisfaction. “Truly, truly I say to you: unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v.3). That’s not something you hear every day so Nicodemus asks the next question that we all are thinking: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (v.4) To which Jesus cryptically answers: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v.5-6). Jesus is drawing on an OT prophecy that one day God was going to do a new thing: to transform the sinful and self-righteous hearts of His people. What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is that it’s going to take a divine miracle for him to be admitted into God’s kingdom! Nicodemus is not acceptable to God in his current state.
Now this raises a dilemma for us: If very good, knowledgeable and respectable Nicodemus doesn’t qualify for acceptance into God’s kingdom, then what hope do any of us have? The answer is it will take a miracle for us too!
Before you start to think that God is being harsh or unreasonable, someone has explained the problem facing us in this way: “God cannot let me into his kingdom because – as I am – I would spoil it. It is going to be a place of no tears – but I make people cry. It is a place of harmony – but I fall out with people. It’s a place of truth – but I lie. And I suspect you do too… Jesus did not come to help us turn over a new leaf. He came to give us new life – a miracle so radical it would be like a new birth” (Mike Cain).
So Jesus confronts everyone one of us with the bad news that without a miracle – we will be excluded from God’s new world and perish forever outside of His good kingdom. That’s the bad news.
But this same passage in John’s gospel goes on to record some of the best known words of good news: “For God so loved the world [the world that rejects and ignores Him] that He gave us His one-and-only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (v.16-17. Later in another of John’s letters he tells us: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Our sin offends and separates us from God – not only is there a gap between our IDEAL self and ACTUAL self, but there’s a huge gulf between our ACTUAL self and God – filled with guilt, shame, regret, sin. But the good news is that Jesus, God the Son, has come to remove our sins and restore us into relationship with God His Father.
Jesus wants Nicodemus and us to realise: acceptance with God and entrance into His new world is not something that we have to strive achieve, rather it is a gift that we can receive. Just as we did not contribute anything to bringing ourselves into this world – instead life was a gift from our parents who did all the work – so also the new birth and new life comes entirely from God and is not based on our own efforts or contributions – rather it is based entirely on the work Jesus has done for us in His life, death and resurrection.
So Jesus demonstrates that God sees us as we are – both the good and the bad – and yet still chooses to love us as we are. Also he loves us far too much to leave us in the state in which He finds us. He has grand plans and dreams for our lives, now and forever!
One of the ways I love to do ‘apologetics’ is by teaching the Bible. That works because the Bible itself takes the questions that we all ask, very seriously indeed and engages with them.
You can watch the whole talk here:
So on the Sunday morning I spent with Greenisland Baptist Church we looked at the way that Luke wrote to give people certainty. Luke particularly seems to appreciate the doubts, questions or problems believing that people with no background in the Christian faith bring with them as they read the gospel story for the first time. So Luke begins his account with the story of Zecharaiah, a man who doesn’t have certainty about the gospel or the promises of God.
I explored the ways in which The Lord deliberately and strategically confronted and dealt with Zechariah’s doubts, Specifically his doubts about miracles and the supernatural needed to be addressed, so I talked a little bit about the fact that such questions didn’t come about as a result of the scientific enlightenment but that The Bible took these questions seriously millennia ago!
We also looked at Mary’s pregnancy and her arrival at Zechariah and Elizabeth’s house, as an essential part of the restoration of Zechariah’s faith. Luke’s story comes to a great conclusion with the naming ceremony of John the Baptist – and the restoration of Zechariah. So we looked at the source of Zachariah’s doubts, and how God dealt with them –and then looked at his prophetic song in Luke 1. There Zechariah doesn’t merely accept the miracles he’s confronted with in his own household, but in his proclamation of Jesus becomes one of the first announcers of the gospel in the New Testament – before Jesus was even born!
I was very encouraged by the enthusiastic response from many of the people in Greenisland. Some sad they had never heard the story of Zechariah explained as part of the Christmas story. One lady was quite overcome with emotion as she explained that God had been speaking to her deeply about many of the issue in the text. She contacted me again later to say that she had never seen the ‘heart of God, the concern of God or the wisdom of God in this passage before – and what a great saviour we have!’
It was just a wonderful privilege to be able to open the Bible and help someone in that way. The point is that she saw all of that not through technical apologetics, or my philosophical expertise – but because the Bible itself addresses these questions so profoundly. It really is wonderful, the way in which God helps to navigate us through from uncertainty through to a confident Christian faith.
Have you ever wondered why we bother to preserve the past? Why do we spend money on museums, or get angry when people damage ancient historical sites? Surely if atheism is true, all that matters is the future — that our DNA is passed on to future generations. Yet instinctively we know that’s shallow, that the past matters, that culture matters, and that human life (past, present, and future) matters. Could that be a clue to a bigger story?
Thanks to our friend Elizabeth Humble for letting us film at her jewellery studio.
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In his recent book Uninvented, (Two Penny Publishing 2022) Mike D’Virgilio presents a highly readable popular level exposition of an often overlooked aspect of the internal evidence for the historical nature of the biblical narratives, the fact that those narratives are just so embarrassing in their cultural context. For example, D’Virgilio points out that: “the biblical characters are displayed as terribly human, warts and all prominently displayed.”[1] The overarching message here is that:
Critics and skeptics insist the Bible and its stories are more or less fiction. Many would further insist that making up the biblical stories would have been a piece of cake. I contend they are wrong on both counts, especially the latter.[2]
There really are people who think that large parts of the Bible which present as ancient historical narrative are far less ancient works of fiction. For example, according to prominent atheist Richard Dawkins:
The only difference between The Da Vinci Code and the gospels is that the gospels are ancient fiction while The Da Vinci Code is modern fiction.[3]
Dawkins reckons that what goes for the New Testament also goes for the Old Testament prior to the Babylonian Exile. Consequently, he mistakenly asserts that:
King David . . . made no impact either on archaeology or on written history outside the Bible. This suggests that, if he existed at all, he was probably a minor local chieftain rather than the great king of legend and song.[4]
It has obviously slipped Dawkins’s notice that:
The publication of fragments of an Old Aramaic stela from Tel Dan in 1993/1995 bought to light the first recognized nonbiblical mention of the tenth-century king David, in a text that reflected events of the year 841 and would have been set up at no great interval after that date.[5]
This Stela famously mentions “the house of David”. Eric Cline, Professor of classics, anthropology and history at George Washington University, explains that: “the finding of this inscription brought an end to the debate and settled the question of whether David was an actual historical person . . .”[6]
Dawkins’ misinformed and misleading assertions on this and other Old Testament subjects[7] are a popularization of the so-called “minimalist” school of biblical scepticism, whose members “believe that only the barest minimum of the Bible is true, and then only if it can be incontrovertibly corroborated by extrabiblical evidence.”[8] As theologian Michael S. Heiser elaborates:
For those unfamiliar with the “minimalist” vs. “maximalist” debate over biblical archaeology, the former basically believed the OT has little or no historical value, as it was entirely written during or after the exile. Maximalists, on the other hand, disagree, but on what I’d call a continuum of optimism about the biblical text as a historical source.[9]
One scholar “commonly labeled a minimalist, although he denies that label,”[10] is Jewish archaeologist Israel Finklestein, who (writing with Neil Asher Silberman) famously proclaimed that:
The historical saga contained in the Bible-from Abraham’s encounter with God and his journey to Canaan, to Moses’ deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, to the rise and fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah-was not a miraculous revelation, but a brilliant product of the human imagination.[11]
Thus, Dawkins hitches his wagon to the purely hypothetical view that: “It was during or around the time of the Babylonian exile that most of the Old Testament books were written . . .”[12]
A comparison of the biblical narrative with “extrabiblical evidence” (e.g. from archaeology) can only go so far, but the comparison shows that “minimalism” is probably false and is therefore an unsound objection to viewing the Bible as “a miraculous revelation”.[13] Of course, as D’Virgilio points out, the extent to which one trusts the content of the biblical narratives depends in part upon the worldview one brings to the interpretation of those narratives (and hence upon what one makes of the comparative case for and against different worldviews). Nevertheless, just as the external evidence of archaeology makes a contribution to this debate that cannot be ignored, so too does the complementary internal evidence highlighted by D’Virgilio.
The core of Uninvented is a (very readable) tour through the Old and New Testament in the company of the critical criterion of embarrassment developed within the school of New Testament “tradition criticism”.[14] In that context, the criterion of embarrassment “refers to sayings or deeds that are not easily explained as inauthentic creations of the early church, simply because there are aspects about them that would have been potentially embarrassing.”[15] As theologian Graham Stanton observes: “traditions which would have been an embarrassment to followers of Jesus in the post-Easter period are unlikely to have been invented.”[16] Of course, the general principle here can be applied to any text, and D’Virgilio’s Uninvented brilliantly applies the criterion of embarrassment to the historical narratives of both the Old and New Testaments. This tour establishes a list of major Old Testament stories with contents so embarrassing that the hypothesis that they were invented during or after the Babylonian exile as “a brilliant product of the human imagination”[17] puts a hefty strain on our credulity. Likewise, D’Virgilio’s careful consideration of the gospel narratives in cultural context is sufficient in and of itself to demonstrate the preposterous nature of Dawkins’s assertion that “the gospels are ancient fiction”[18]:
If you want people to believe your story in the first century, you don’t make women the first witnesses [to the resurrected Jesus]. Not only this, but the men don’t exactly come off looking like pillars of the early church; they look more like cowards. After they ran away from Jesus in his hour of need, and Peter denied three times even knowing him, they ended up cowering in a locked room because they didn’t want to be next. Then, when the women told them they saw the risen Jesus, how did they respond? Pretty much like any men of their time would, but certainly not like disciples of Jesus should (Luke 24) . . . So not only do the gospel authors make the women look good, but they also make the men look bad. Is this how men in a male dominated culture would invent a story if they wanted other men to believe it? Doubtful.[19]
Recommended Resources
Peter S. Williams Podcast, “Outgrowing God? An Introduction (2022)” http://podcast.peterswilliams.com/e/outgrowing-god-an-introduction-2022/
Peter S. Williams Podcast, “ELF 2021: Old Testament Historicity: From Abraham’s Ur to Daniel’s Babylon” http://podcast.peterswilliams.com/e/elf-2021-old-testament-historicity-from-abrahams-ur-to-daniels-babylon/
Dewayne Bryant, “The Death of Biblical Minimalism” https://biblearchaeology.org/research/contemporary-issues/3805-the-death-of-biblical-minimalism
Mike D’Virgilio, Uninvented: Why the Bible Could Not be Made Up, and the Evidence that Proves It (Two Penny Publishing, 2022)
K.A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2006)
Peter S. Williams, Outgrowing God? A Beginner’s Guide to Richard Dawkins and the God Debate (Wipf and Stock, 2020)
Peter S. Williams, Getting at Jesus: A Comprehensive Critique of Neo-Atheist Nonsense about the Jesus of History (Wipf and Stock, 2019)
[1] Mike D’Virgilio, Uninvented: Why the Bible Could Not be Made Up, and the Evidence that Proves It (Two Penny Publishing, 2022), 55.
[2] Mike D’Virgilio, Uninvented: Why the Bible Could Not be Made Up, and the Evidence that Proves It (Two Penny Publishing, 2022), 64.
[3] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Black Swan, 2007), 97.
[4] Richard Dawkins, Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide (Bantam Press, 2019), 48.
[5] K.A. Kitchen, On The Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2006), 92.
[6] Eric Cline, Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2009), Kindle Location 814.
[7] See: Peter S. Williams, Outgrowing God? A Beginner’s Guide to Richard Dawkins and the God Debate (Wipf and Stock, 2020).
[8] Dewayne Bryant, “The Death of Biblical Minimalism” https://biblearchaeology.org/research/contemporary-issues/3805-the-death-of-biblical-minimalism.
[9] Michael S. Heiser, http://drmsh.com/archaeology-and-the-old-testament-minimalism-and-maximalism/
[10] Dewayne Bryant, “The Death of Biblical Minimalism” https://biblearchaeology.org/research/contemporary-issues/3805-the-death-of-biblical-minimalism.
[11] Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (Touchstone, 2001), 1.
[12] Richard Dawkins, Outgrowing God (Black Swan, 2007), 53.
[13] See: “ELF 2021: Old Testament Historicity: From Abraham’s Ur to Daniel’s Babylon” http://podcast.peterswilliams.com/e/elf-2021-old-testament-historicity-from-abrahams-ur-to-daniels-babylon/.
[14] See: Robert H. Stein, “Criteria for the Gospel’s Authenticity” in Paul Copan and William Lane Craig, ed.’s. Contending with Christianity’s Critics (B&H Academic, 2009).
[15] Craig A. Evans, Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort The Gospels (IVP, 2007), 140.
[16] Graham Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus (OUP, 2002), 175.
[17] Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (Touchstone, 2001), 1.
[18] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Black Swan, 2007), 97.
[19] Mike D’Virgilio, Uninvented: Why the Bible Could Not be Made Up, and the Evidence that Proves It (Two Penny Publishing, 2022), 151-152.
