Developing Apologetics

Readiness
Asking the Right Question

Will our children have faith ?

or

Which faith will our children embrace ?

Outline
1) The problem “Brainwashing”
2) What’s gone wrong with religion?
3) Religion truths that we desperately need
The Problem
According to Einstein: A Life, a biography published in 1996,

“he was devoutly religious as a child. But at the

age of 13, he abandoned his uncritical religious
fervour, feeling he had been deceived into believing
lies”.
The Problem
“Brainwashed” by our parents ! “shaped”

Brainwashed by our culture ????

Can Experts be brainwashed as well?

The Problem
How do we move from “Brainwashed”

to “This is my faith by personal choice.”?

The Problem
In practise too often it seems to be ...

That clincher Apologetics argument !

Creating that clincher feeling !

The Problem
“My Truth” is rooted in “what I love”

not “what I know” not in “what I feel”

Faith dynamics

Heart processes

Religion awareness
The Problem
The Traditional Christian answer

*** Heart transformation “our calloused hearts”

- Matt 13 :10 - 17

Prevent us from seeing / hearing / turning to God / being

healed
 The Problem

Religion is to the heart

- what Apologetics is to the mind

The Problem
What is the heart?

The core of who we are

The root source of why we respond, choose, feel think the way we do.

Subconscious / our deepest essence

Two people - see / read the same thing - respond very differently

Hearts have been shaped differently

 Children Youth Adult

1 - Shaping the Heart Transition Personal Faith

2 - Adult Relationships
3 - Community Connections
4 - Heart / Religion Awareness
The culture / community create the Rhythms that Shape

Proverbs 4:23
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do
flows from it.

Cultural shaping continues throughout life

Most effective if subliminal
What’s wrong with Religion !

The roots of cultural rejection

Negative attitudes in our churches as well

What’s wrong with Religion !
Religion - A Big idea Word like

Entertainment Politics Education

etc

Good and Bad extremes in all

Need to be understood / carefully managed

What’s wrong with Religion !

Anything that we are not aware of

Has far greater influence in our lives

Today Religion works subliminally.

What’s wrong with Religion ! #1
Religion marginalized by evolutionary thinking

The evolution of everything

(How Now Shall We Live - Charles Colson)

 Evolution of Religion ... and its demise ??
From Prehistoric to Primitive to Middle Ages … no religion

From Poly-theism to Mono-Theism … to no god

** Just an interpretation **
 Evolution of Religion ... and its demise ??
From God defining who we are

To humans defining who God is

April, 1966
What’s wrong with Religion ! #2
Religion marginalized by reinterpretation of history
Secular Atheism’s Reinterpretation of History 18th century
“We are Progressing” affirmed by our “interpretation” of History

Modernism / Postmodernism

Enlightenment

Renaissance Progress Theme

Modern / Postmodern Story
Dark Ages / Church Age

Age of Reason

Paganism
Reinterpretation of History
“We are going in circles” another “interpretation” of History

Paganism

“We never learn”

Theme
Modern / Postmodern Story
What’s wrong with Religion ! #3
Religion marginalized by too shallow definition of religion
What’s wrong with Religion !
Religion as God-talk

Religion as Cosmic Story

Embraced worldview

Conscious / subconscious
What’s wrong with Religion !
Universal cosmic story questions

Beginning?

Our humanity?

The problem?

Is there a solution?

The End ? - personally / cosmically

Everyone’s answers are faith based

 A Primer on
Religion !

Pre Apologetics
Critical Pre-Apologetics Heart Truths
1) “My Truth” a matter of the heart
2) Everyone has ...
3) Modernism ...
4) My Ethics ...
5) Everyone ...
6) Everyone’s Assumptions ...
7) My ...
8) C ...
1) “My Truth” a matter of the heart
The great “discovery” of Post Modernism

Everyone has a bias, a perspective,

No one is perfectly logical

No one is neutral
 “My Truth” a matter of the heart
Lessons from History

- Every Ideology has been used to oppress people

Post-modernism’s conclusion

“Everyone has the right to their own “truth”

- Sin ????
 “My Truth” a matter of the heart
The mind serves the heart rather than the reverse
 “My Truth” a matter of the heart
The mind serves the heart rather than the reverse

“I think therefore I am” Descarte - the father of

modernism 1600”s

“I love therefore I am” James Smith Desiring the

Kingom
2) Everyone has an “embraced worldview”
Worldview - academic

Religion - one particular worldview embraced and lived

Heart-shaped perspective of reality / life

Everyone has an “embraced worldview”

Our “subconscious” answers surface during times of stress / decision making

Secular Atheism Meta Story Future State
Page 145

Human Evolution

Big Bang

Rise of the first Humanoid Species

Biblical Meta Story Revelation

Human Redemption

Genesis

Fall of Mankind
Religion Meta Story Human Flourishing

The Solution

Begdinning

The Problem
3) Modernism to Postmodernism shift

Modernism / Postmodernism have the same Cosmic story

Progress theme

● Modernism collapsing ?
● Modernism evolving ?
● The Logical development “from God to Man to ME”
● What comes next ???
■ “Someone with a bigger ME than mine or yours”
3) Modernism to Postmodernism shift

From Collective Ideologies to “Individual Ideologies”

From partnering with evolution to move story forward

To Allowing Evolution do its thing in the background

I live for me - Create my own meaning

Parade of the 20th century
Parade of the 21st century

Parade of the 21st

century
Modernism to Postmodernism shift
From Collective Ideologies to “Individual Ideologies”

In theory ...
Modernism to Postmodernism shift
From Collective Ideologies to “Individual Ideologies”

But

The new Collective Ideology of the left

“If you do not embrace INDIVIDUAL IDEOLOGIES then you are

racist, xenophobic, fundamentalist, bigot, abusive, intolerant, …. Evil ….
etc
Modernism to Postmodernism shift
Expressed Positively !

The new Collective Ideology of the left

“You must embrace INDIVIDUAL IDEOLOGIES to avoid the label

racist, xenophobic, fundamentalist, bigot, abusive, intolerant, …. Evil ….
etc
Modernism to Postmodernism shift
Postmodernism - focus on ME and on NOW!
Neglected topics

Study of history

Study of the history of ideas

Cultural genocide

Missing the context for today’s issues

Modernism to Postmodernism shift

Classical Education (The best of Western Culture)

Grammar School - memorization of facts

Logic - beginning to see relationships between facs / abstract thinking

Rhetoric - learning to think, write and speak

4) My Ethics / Values rooted in “My Embraced Story”
Postmodernism’s Cosmic Story elements

We are evolutionary accidents

Life essentially meaningless - create your own

Death is the end

No God, no judgement day, no accountability

No spiritual dimension - body culture to the extreme

Secular Atheism Meta Story Future State
Page 145

Human Evolution

Big Bang

Rise of the first Humanoid Species

My Ethics rooted in “My Embraced Story”
Postmodernism’s values

Shallow - no need to ask life’s tough questions

Entertainment to the extreme - - - “to drown out the Big Questions?”

Or living vicariously ?

Drowning in the materiality of life - the physical body / stuff dimension

My Ethics rooted in “My Embraced Story”
Postmodernism’s values

Truth - what I feel

Create your own truth “Post truth” 2016 word of the year

Image culture / Identity crisis

Reinvent myself --- over and over again !

My Ethics rooted in “My Embraced Story”
“Progressive” values … (or Neo-paganism ?)

Marriage redefinition

Radical Individualism / anti authority

Abortions / Euthanasia

Recreational sex / non-committal relationships

Life in the moment - Adventure / Fun / Entertainment

Gender fluidity

Deconstruction of the past / cultural genocide

5) Everyone must make foundational assumptions
Our cosmic story questions

Where did we come from?

What is the meaning / purpose of life?

What is wrong with the world / with me?

Is there a solution?

What happens to me after death?

No one has scientifically provable answers !

Everyone must make foundational assumptions
Atheistic Secularism’s assumptions

All by Chance (by implication - no God)

Truth is through Science / reason (no spiritual dimension)

Christianity’s assumptions

God created,

He has revealed truth in the Bible

Everyone must make foundational assumptions
An obvious conclusion - We are limited creatures (page 167)

Limited physically - only 5 limited senses

Limited in all critical choices

Limited by fate

Limited emotional freedom

Driven by my wants / my fears / baggage

Vulnerable to intellectual manipulation

Everyone must make foundational assumptions
We are limited creatures

Limited intellectually - know only 5% of what there is to know

Our science is overrated

Allan Rex Sandage (Astronomer, became a believer at age 60) “Science

can address questions of what, when, and how, it cannot address questions of why.”

Life. energy, time, gravity, love, - the What ? John Lennox - Oxford
Everyone must make foundational assumptions
*** Everyone’s answers are Faith based

Evidence based thinking / decision making (The Big Questions of life)

A naive illusion

Atheism - naive arrogance - “scientifically proven realities claim”

6) Everyone’s Assumptions become “Concrete”
Hold to assumptions religiously

Willing to base my life on them

Use them to interpret all of life

Use them to create my community

Willing to denounce / destroy / kill others based on these

convictions

Believe them to be the KEY to human flourishing

Radicals are willing to risk all to achieve this

Everyone’s Assumptions become “Concrete”
What has become concrete in the Secular Humanism story

Evolution

No spiritual dimension

Religion is archaic / evil

God a product of human definition “God evolved in our Psyche”

“Progressive Values” the key to human flourishing

Everyone’s Assumptions become “Concrete”
What has become concrete in the Biblical story

Resurrection of Jesus ???

The Bible’s record & interpretation of that event

Bible - infallible revealed truth

There is a God / He created

Genesis - 6 literal days

What are the non negotiables ?

Everyone’s Assumptions become “Concrete”
The 10% become radicals - the 90% eventually drawn in.

Eg Nazism

Communism

The Inquisition

Islam

Progressive Values (Liberal Humanism / Atheistic Secularism)

Everyone’s Assumptions become “Concrete”

Roots of this “concretization” of our faith assumptions ?

Our memories of paradise lost / our hope for a better future

So close - if only we would all unite around this one KEY.

*** This one KEY - the key to human flourishing !!

 7) My Embraced Cosmic Story is my Religion
Religion has always shaped culture / hearts / lives

Eg Islam / Hinduism / Buddhism / Animism etc

Does so today as well - Secular Atheism - the state religion

The generations are being shaped (brainwashed) by this “unrecognized”

religion

Our young people / our churches / our “evangelical” culture to a degree as well
 7) My Embraced Cosmic Story is my Religion
The shallow person

Living just for me, just for now

Creating my own meaning

What is the embraced worldview / religion?

“No Leaving of religion”

8) Critiquing my “Concrete” Faith Assumptions
Our youth need religion awareness before assumptions become concrete

● Validating circular reasoning - honesty, integrity, humility

● “Appreciating” our critics
● Pascal’s wager
● Recognizing my broken limited creatureliness
● Internal verification

Giving “the God of my Understanding” a chance to speak into my life

Critical Pre-Apologetics Heart Truths
1. “My Truth” a matter of the heart
2. Everyone has an embraced worldview
3. Modernism to Postmodernism shift
4. My Ethics rooted in “My Embraced Story”
5. Everyone must make foundational assumptions
6. Everyone’s Assumptions become “Concrete”
7. My Embraced Cosmic Story is my Religion
8. Critiquing my “Concrete” Faith Assumptions
 Children Youth Adult

1 - Shaping the Heart Transition Personal Faith

2 - Adult Relationships
3 - Community Connections
4 - Heart / Religion Awareness
The Potential and the Problem
A Life, a biography published in 1996,

“devoutly religious as a child. But at the age of 13, he “abandoned

his uncritical religious fervour, feeling he had been deceived into
believing lies”.

Would pre-apologetics have helped young Einstein? - our young people ?

Anyone experiencing faith trauma ?

Religion / Culture / Heart Relationship

Mind

Our Hearts
Culture - the Rhythms of life

Religion - The Embraced Cosmic Story