Let’s be honest: No one likes to answer tough questions, specifically when they make us feel at a loss for an answer. Our pride tells us that it is an exploitation of our credibility or our witness if we are unable to answer objections towards what we believe. We have imaginations of being mocked as fools. It is considered one of the main reasons why some Christians are afraid to share their faith and would hesitate to do so because they think they are “not ready” or “unworthy”. In other cases, some people would provide any answer to convince others (and might I dare say, themselves) that they are not baffled. They supply answers that are either unsound in human reason or a tactic of avoidance instead of answering the question directly. In my opinion, one of the worst arguments that one can use is to simply hide behind the word “faith,” thinking that it is a sufficient answer lacking no additional thought. In reality, it creates the impression that Christians don’t examine the validity of their beliefs, and act stubbornly rather than believe in truth for the sake of being true.
I think Christians who have these types of approaches are confused about apologetics. If you approach apologetics as a means of showing off how much you know or to win personal arguments, you have completely missed the point. Mindsets like these make us think that failure to answer is a failure as a witness. Apologetics is not about defending yourself; it’s about defending, seeking, and communicating truth. Part of defending truth is to be willing to admit our own ignorance. Our lack of all knowledge does not harm our reputation as believers. There are certain things we can’t understand until we see God face-to-face someday. However, lack of knowledge is not an excuse for ignoring and evading the question. We are all told to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…” (1 Peter 3:15, emphasis added). When we don’t know how to answer someone’s question, the lack of knowledge should motivate us to seek the answer ourselves, whether in our studies or in the Word. Thus, the continuing growth in truth aids the effectiveness of how we communicate truth…..(continue reading at TrueDeclination.com)
This article, “Why Won’t God Heal Amputees”, that I wrote was published on March 1st, 2013 on the Semper Reformanda Journal, which is an online publication created by True Declination Ministries that focuses on addressing issues in a biblical worldview to renew, defend, and advance the Global Church. I also had a followup discussion on the Thinking Clearly Podcast on this topic and it was aired June 12th, 2013. Click here to listen.
Tagged: amputees, apologetics, article, defense, doubt, God, healing, question, Semper Reformanda Journal, True Declination Ministries
One statement is enough for a mature and evolved spirit to understand the immortal importance of a sentence, of a written line, due to its indestructible invaluable content that teaches how the spirit should act to develop the inner God, or to turn into Spirit and Truth, or to realise in it the teachings of the Bible – YOU ARE GODS.
There are people who devour books, searching for religions, sects and banners, listening to the incarnate and the discarnate, but they do not change inwardly and do not really blossom… They are like mediocrity that goes around the PERFECTION, without ever reaching it…
The Exemplary Word warned these people, by saying: “The Kingdom of God is inside each one, it does not come with external signs.”
Therefore, those who do not know how to LOOK FOR THEMSELVES, and have not FOUND THEMSELVES yet, will have to search high and low, hovering unhappily, in the kingdom of emptiness and painful doubts.
An old initiatic saying teaches: “The good disciple awaits doing good.”
The Exemplary Word also taught: “Upon your patience you shall build your souls.”
These abstracts say to the immature, to those empty spirits: “Learn how to run to your inner self, because it is there that God has placed His Divine Virtues, which, when blossomed, will make you a TOTAL ONE, GOD IN GOD, BECAUSE NO ONE WILL BE CHILD OF GOD ETERNALLY.”
However, let us remember these wise words: “One word to those who understand it is worth a whole speech to those who do not understand it.”
All the best. With love, Neil.