Training day for students

Spirit lifted, community rooted

Join the StudentLife Lift-Off on Saturday the 28^th of October. A day full of inspiration, meeting each other and sharing testimonies. All meant to help you develop a lifestyle of sharing the gospel.

The theme of this day is Lifted by the Spirit, rooted in community. The book of Acts tells us how the church was born through Christians sharing the gospel of Jesus. This would be impossible if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit being poured out over them: the Christians let the Spirit lead them in everything they do.

The Spirit creates a loving community for the people to be able to keep sharing the gospel. It is this community, where people share everything with each other and live abundantly, that is so incredibly attractive to people.

The Lift-Off will take place in Delft and it starts at 9.30am and ends at 4.15pm

A rough outline of the day:

• Welcome and opening game
• Service
• Workshops (round 1)
• Lunch
• Workshops (round 2)
• Closing remarks + “borrel”
• (for those who want to: eating together at your own expense)

From Agnosticism to Atheism

Moving from “I don’t know if there is a God” to “There is no God”

Two students we met some weeks ago came both from Iran. The one was a Ph.D. student. He identified himself as an agnostic who became a convinced atheist.

We asked him, ‘How did you become an atheist? What convinced you to make the change?’

He said that there is no evidence for belief in God.

‘Someone who helped me was the atheist Richard Dawkins,’ he said.

I asked him, ‘So what kind of evidence helped you become an atheist?’

He stopped and thought for a while. Then he realized that there was no evidence for his position. He said, ‘It is the theist, the believer, who has to bring evidence for God’s existence.’

We actually have the same starting point

I tried to show that actually we have the same starting point. We try to argue that either there is or there is no God. So is there any evidence for either side?

I told him that evidence is important for my own faith. I mentioned that there is enough evidence that points to the reality of God’s existence. He was open to listening to some of these points. I used the Kalam cosmological argument, since both Islamic and Christian thinkers have used it as an argument for God’s existence.

There are many pointers for God’s existence

It goes as follows: Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the universe has a cause. The cause of the universe has to be immaterial, outside of space and time. I said that these premises and the conclusion made sense. Then I concluded that it gives more weight to the existence of a God rather than no God. It appears to be the best, most logical explanation.

He was intrigued by this argument. I also briefly mentioned the fine-tuning of the universe (how the conditions for life in the universe are so delicately balanced as to be, really, almost a scientific impossibility), and also talked a bit about the person of Jesus and the evidence for the resurrection.

Knowing God personally, is this possible?

To the last question, if it were possible to know God personally and why, he replied with a clear yes! So we gave him our email, a website, and a few names of prominent Christian apologists to investigate further. We hope that we sowed some doubt about his atheism and that this will help them search and find God.

Are you open to investigate the claims of Jesus? Why not start now by reading the story of Jesus and also look for answers for God’s existence and the relevance of it for your life?

What next?

Start with one of the gospels, this is the story of Jesus. You can find it here

Find good answers for different questions here

Tagsapologetics

Christian faith: It really makes sense

It really makes sense!

The author of “The Chronicles of Narnia,” C.S.Lewis, once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” His point is clear: the Christian faith illuminates the landscape of reality and helps us see it as it is. As the sun rises we can see the landscape; we can see things as they really are.

The Christian faith is a worldview that adequately explains reality as it is, both the universe “outside” of us and our experience “inside” of us. In other words, it is a coherent whole that makes sense of reality as we observe it and experience it as human beings. I would say that the Christian faith has the capacity to explain things as they really are much better than other worldviews. But how can we show that this is really the case? This brings us to the question of methodology.

A reliable method and a toolbox

Let us start with “hypotheses testing.” This is a good way to form and test a theory or a worldview. In our case, we want to test the Christian worldview and find out if it makes sense. More than this, if it makes better sense than other worldviews. Moreover, we want to use some reliable criteria that can test a worldview. Our toolbox contains the following tools: hypotheses testing, criteria to test a worldview, principles of logic, understanding of truth and knowledge, and the scientific method. For now, that’s enough.

Two ways that show that the Christian faith makes sense

We can show that the Christian faith makes sense in two different ways. One complements the other.

1. By showing there are good arguments and evidence for the Christian faith. (We will mention some of these.)
2. By showing that the Christian faith makes more sense than alternative views. We will use a case study and compare two worldviews, Atheism and Christianity. This is the Two Story Idea. Ultimate purpose and fulfilment.

Pointers and evidence for the Christian faith

These arguments are better understood as pointers for the existence of God. We don’t use them in a rigorous mathematical way. Rather, we use them as reasonable and good explanations of reality.

There are many such pointers for God’s existence. I’ll mention two of them that are also supported by recent scientific discoveries.

A universe fine-tuned for life

The fine-tuning of the universe is one of these pointers. The astonishing thing is that the universe is fine-tuned with an amazing amount of precision to make life possible on planet earth. There are three options to explain this discovery: chance, necessity, or design.

The following clip from “Reasonable Faith” presents the fine-tuning argument in just about 6 minutes and it is worthwhile to watch. You can watch here. This argument, as presented in this clip, is a strong pointer towards the existence of God. What it does not do is prove in a rigorous mathematical way that a theistic God exists. But it does give the best explanation possible, an explanation that resonates with what we read in the Bible. David, one of the authors of the Bible said three thousand years ago “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

A universe that had a beginning

The Kalam cosmological argument is another pointer to the existence of a theistic God. The simple form of this argument goes like this. Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the universe has a cause. The cause of the universe is God. The strength of this argument is that it is supported by both philosophical reasoning and the scientific discovery of the big-bang theory. This theory makes the point that there was a beginning of the universe. This short four-minute clip is a good presentation of this argument. You can watch it here.

Again, this is a strong pointer towards a theistic God. It is an explanation that makes sense, and that is the point here. It is reasonable and points to what another biblical author mentioned three and a half thousand years ago, that the universe had a beginning. The first line of the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Reliable historical documents

Furthermore, there is good historical evidence that the Christian faith is true. There are reliable historical sources, such as the writings of the New Testament. It is generally accepted that these writings are some of the most reliable ancient documents that exist. The gospels, the four books that speak about Jesus’ life and teaching, are indisputably accepted as authentic historical documents. It is supported by the science of textual criticism, a science that investigates the authenticity of ancient documents.

Christianity compared to other worldviews

Finally, let us open our toolbox again and compare two worldviews. Let us take the question of “is a fulfilling life possible without ultimate purpose?” Read here a short post I wrote about theism and atheism in relation to the question of purpose and fulfilment in life.

Conclusion

Christianity makes sense! That was our main point in the beginning. It better explains the universe and the human experience. In this blog, I present a way, a method, to investigate the belief of the Christian faith. I did not come up with this approach but have embraced it because it is helpful. It is an example that can be used to further search and hopefully come to a meaningful conclusion. What is your worldview? And, does it make sense? Is it helping you to live a “life worth living” in good and not so good times? Does it explain things as they really are? Leave your thoughts and I will be happy to reply.

Notes

• Mere Apologetics, Alister McGrath. The “two ways” I mentioned above are from McGrath’s book. His chapter on “Reasonableness of the Christian faith” is worthwhile to read the book.
• Reasonable faith, Win Corduan
• Christian Apologetics, Douglas Groothuis
• Reasonable Faith Animated Videos
• Psalm 19:1, Genesis 1:1.
• Proofreading, Dan Truitt

Tagsapologetics

The Myth of the Non-Christian

The Myth of the Non-Christian

With some student workers, we finished reading and discussing the book ‘the myth of a non-Christian’ by Luke Cawley.

I highly recommend this book to those who want to improve their communication skills. It will help you better understand those outside the Christian faith. You will become a better and more effective witness for Jesus. I enjoyed reading and discussing this book!

Here is a short book description from the author’s amazon profile:

“There’s no such thing as a non-Christian.
Somebody might self-identify as spiritual but not religious. Or they might be a practicing Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim. Or they might call themselves an atheist, freethinker or agnostic. But the one thing that people never describe themselves as is a “non-Christian.” So Christians who want to “reach non-Christians” need to realize that they’re not all the same. Evangelism is not one-size-fits-all.
Luke Cawley shows how Christians can contextualize the gospel in different ways to connect with different kinds of people. Here he unpacks the religious identities of three key demographics: the spiritual but not religious, committed atheists and nominal Christians. Each group has particular characteristics and requires specific approaches and practices to make the Christian faith plausible, desirable and tangible to them.
Filled with real-life stories of changed lives, this book is a practical and hopeful resource for helping people to encounter God.”

The book is available here

Luke Cawley joined our last book study meeting. We, therefore, had an opportunity to ask questions and get more insights from him. Was great!

Tagsapologetics, book study

What is the Christian faith all about?

Book Recommendation: Basic Christianity by the late John Stott

In this classic book John Stott explains the basic message of the Christian faith.

• who did Jesus claimed to be?
• what did he try to accomplish?
• what should be ‘our’ response?

You can see the vlog here

Tagsapologetics, StudentLife, Vlog