I just have to make a comment about this, even if time
doesn't permit. There is a cycle for
honest searchers. They start out from within Evangelicalism asking questions.
They are pointed to . . . what I will call cheap apologetics. These are tracts and books put out by
evangelicals to suggest that any reasonable person would have to come to the
conclusion that Christianity is the only possible answer. They assumed that all non-Christian thinkers are either stupid or immoral, but most likely both.
Then, if you are a real thinker, one day you realize that is
not a true apologetic, but propaganda. The arguments are the same you could make
for Mormonism, Islam or atheism for that matter. That’s when many give up and depart the faith.
I probably would not put C.S. Lewis in that category, but
somewhere between the cheap apologetics and the real. The real is where in the deepest places of
honestly, you are confronted with a problem that cannot be easily answered without
God. This is far removed from the
cheapest apologetic (which I hear most common within Evangelism) that I know
God is there, and Christianity is true because I can “feel it in my heart,” or “because
the Holy Spirit spoke to me,” or “there is a God-shaped void in my heart.”
I came across a real apologetic this week. No, Christianity is not mentioned by name and I don’t
even think that God is mentioned. But an honest thinker cannot come away from
this (it is a Nova episode) presentation without being closer to the position
that God is there. It is the same apologetic that comes for a wonderful piece
of classical music (complex) being played by a highly skilled orchestra.
If you are in need of a mature apologetic, as I am often in
need of, find this episode on TV or buy this Nova episode on DVD: ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/great-math-mystery.html
) If you watch it and don’t see the
connection, then maybe the cheaper versions are suffice for you.
