April 21, 2009 (not 2929 :) ) -- Tuesday -- The Debate Is On

Be Picky with Who You Marry: Joshua 22:21-23:16

The God of Abraham is the God of the Living: Luke 20:27-47

Blessed Are Those Who Have Learned to Acclaim the Lord: Psalm 89:14-37

Ignoring Discipline Leads to Poverty and Shame: Proverbs 13:17-19


I’ve got to confess that I learned something from the Bible today. Most of the times the daily reading reminds me of what I already know. But I don’t remember noticing this until today, so I’m counting it as learning something new.

Did you catch Jesus’ debate with the Sadducees in today’s reading from Luke? I love to debate. I often easily get snared into one.

The Sadducees tried to debate Jesus over something that’s really a non-issue. Does it really matter if their hypothetical woman, who was widowed seven times, will be a wife to one of her earthly husbands when she goes to Heaven? You can debate that one all day long with no clear resolution. The world likes to try to trip us in little games like this, in an attempt to undermine our thinking in our core beliefs.

But how did Jesus handle it? Did he take the bait & debate with them over their pointless topic? No. He undermined their core belief (their belief that there is no resurrection) by proving that there is a resurrection.

The world will sometimes try to debate minutia of Christian beliefs in an attempt to undermine core Christian beliefs – like that God exists and that faith in Jesus is the only way to salvation. They’ll do things like:
1) Try to get you to defend the belief that the Earth was created in a week (which I don’t believe anyway).
2) Try to get you to defend the belief that Jesus never married. (Who cares?)
3) Try to get you to defend the belief that all species of animals in existence today had to have at least two fit onto Noah’s ark. (Who’s to say that some macroevolution hasn’t occurred since then, giving us more species today?)

I believe Jesus would redirect their meaningless points back to main points, like He did with the Sadducees. Often, when atheists try to undermine your faith in Christ it’s because they feel that their faith in random chance / natural selection is in a flawed philosophy. So try to steer the debate into things like:

1) That we were created by a Creator, not by natural selection. (Don’t believe me? Check out http://certainlyscience.blogspot.com or www.reasons.org .)

2) That the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. The atheists may wish the Origin of Species had no flaws, but, in truth, Darwin wrote how his theory could be tested. We’ve tested it & know it to now be highly flawed. Yet the Bible has gone though much more scrutiny and has come through with flying colors.

3) That Jesus is the foretold Messiah. Nobody else satisfies the Christ prophesies like Jesus.

And remember, we Christians need to stand up for our faith. I promise you – the world will continue to deluge you with their beliefs every change they get.