Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2017 15:01:46 GMT
‘WE NEED TO HELP WORLD GET READY TO MEET JESUS,’ OVERCOME INTELLECTUAL BARRIERS
Alex McFarland has spent the past 25 years sitting down with people who don’t believe in God and asking them, “Why?”
“Some are unchurched. Others are de-churched — they have grown up in church and have an evangelical background but have intellectual barriers to knowing Jesus,” he said.
But McFarland, director of the Center for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina, said there’s often a common thread.
“Emotional pain is usually the catalyst for intellectual doubt,” he said.
It can be: “My dad was a deacon and he abused us, how can that be?”
Or it could be: “We were a good church-going family and my mom got cancer; we fasted, we prayed and she still died.”
The questions begin emotionally, but as life progresses they lead into intellectual questions, McFarland said. “This is true for even the most well-known atheists.”
That’s why apologetics, the discipline of defending the faith through reason, is so important — Christians need to be ready to answer those intellectual questions, McFarland said.
And that’s the message he brought to those participating in the Feb. 27 opening session of the two-day Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference held at First Baptist Church, Pelham.
‘Will be held accountable’
“We need to help the world get ready to meet Jesus,” McFarland said as he developed his message from 1 John 2. “Let tonight be a regrounding of your priorities.
www.thealabamabaptist.org/we-need-to-help-world-get-ready-to-meet-jesus-overcome-intellectual-barriers/
In short, because the religious insist on pushing their crap on the a-religous
Alex McFarland has spent the past 25 years sitting down with people who don’t believe in God and asking them, “Why?”
“Some are unchurched. Others are de-churched — they have grown up in church and have an evangelical background but have intellectual barriers to knowing Jesus,” he said.
But McFarland, director of the Center for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina, said there’s often a common thread.
“Emotional pain is usually the catalyst for intellectual doubt,” he said.
It can be: “My dad was a deacon and he abused us, how can that be?”
Or it could be: “We were a good church-going family and my mom got cancer; we fasted, we prayed and she still died.”
The questions begin emotionally, but as life progresses they lead into intellectual questions, McFarland said. “This is true for even the most well-known atheists.”
That’s why apologetics, the discipline of defending the faith through reason, is so important — Christians need to be ready to answer those intellectual questions, McFarland said.
And that’s the message he brought to those participating in the Feb. 27 opening session of the two-day Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference held at First Baptist Church, Pelham.
‘Will be held accountable’
“We need to help the world get ready to meet Jesus,” McFarland said as he developed his message from 1 John 2. “Let tonight be a regrounding of your priorities.
www.thealabamabaptist.org/we-need-to-help-world-get-ready-to-meet-jesus-overcome-intellectual-barriers/
In short, because the religious insist on pushing their crap on the a-religous
).
My parents were atheists, so I was brought up atheist. Thank you for making my point for me. 