Hasn’t science buried God?’ Isn’t faith just a psychological crutch?
Why do CU Lunchbars major on common objections to the Christian faith rather than offer a straight ‘who is Jesus’ type question? There are two main reasons; Biblical and practical.
1. The Bible engages objections. From Genesis challenging alternative views of creation through to Galatians challenging alternative views of justification, we see that God never speaks into a vacuum. Well, maybe once? Nah. Creatio ex nihilo wasn’t into a vacuum. Anyway…
More to the point we see the Apostle Paul go for the objections after it became apparent his usual Gospel presentation wasn’t getting through in Athens. In Acts 17:18 we read “a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him.
Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection”.
His response? Paul could have just gone through his Gospel outline again but with better jokes thrown in. Instead his Areopagus address starts with their misconceptions and objections. Instead of ‘advocating foreign Gods’ Paul is clear that God (not Gods) created everything (17:24) and, no foreigner, he is not far from us but in him we live and move and have our being (17:27-28).
2. Objections engage interest. Anyone who is invited to a lunchbar by a friend, sees a poster or is given a flyer, instantly makes a decision as to whether to go or not. ‘Is this something for me? Will this be interesting? What are the benefits?’
If the event’s title articulates an objection, then a sceptic is more likely to recognise ‘this is for me, and may well be interesting’. Better still, the prospect of seeing an earnest Christian attempt to dig themselves out of a hole (‘Where was God in Haiti?’), especially if the advertised Q&A suggests one may lend a helping hand in pushing them back in, is so much more appealing than a predictable talk on ‘who is Jesus’’?
3. So for Biblical and practical reasons, be delighted when you’ve been given a particularly tough objection to the Gospel!
I recommend the essential article on ‘defeater beliefs’.
