THE CHURCH NEEDS APOLOGETICS

Apologist J. Warner Wallace argues that if we really want to understand why the young adults are leaving the Church, we need to look at the 2016 Pew Research Center survey, which allowed the respondents to answer in their own words. Wallace argues that they left the Church largely because of a crisis of faith. They often explained their departure in terms of:

·       “Learning about evolution when I went away to college”

·       “Religion is the opiate of the people”

·       “Rational thought makes religion go out the window”

·       “Lack of any sort of scientific or specific evidence of a creator”

·       “I just realized somewhere along the line that I didn’t really believe it”

·       “I’m doing a lot more learning, studying and kind of making decisions myself rather than listening to someone else.”

Wallace reasons that, “When Christians walk away from the faith, more often than not, it’s due to some form of intellectual skepticism… Ex-Christians often leave the Church because they don’t think anyone in the Church can answer their questions or make a case.” http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/09/09/young-christians-are-leaving-church-here-s-why.html

They mistakenly believe that the biblical faith is a blind faith, as they are often told. However, there is not a verse in the Bible that instructs us to “just believe” or to “turn off our minds.” Instead, God has always been willing to nourish us with reasons-to-believe.

God had encountered Moses in the burning bush with a commission to return to Egypt to free His people. Moses balked and claimed that they would never believe him without evidence that he had truly encountered God. God didn’t tell Moses to instruct them to just believe. Instead, He graciously provided an abundance of evidence:

·       The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”  And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—“that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” (Exodus 4:2-9)

Jesus even instructed His followers to not believe Him if He was merely speaking without any evidential confirmation:

·       “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.” (John 5:31-32)

Jesus then appealed to the evidence – the testimony of the Father, John the Baptist, Scripture, and His miracles.

The Christian Faith is not supposed to be a blind leap into the darkness but a confident step into the light of solid reasons-to-believe. However, the Church must be exercised in these many reasons or else the unsettled will continue to depart.