Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Speaking To The Unchurched
Apparently, Al Mohler thinks intellectual uncertainty should be overcome with confident proclamation. That is the only conclusions I can draw when he analyzes a recent interview of the Archbishop of Canterbury and concludes:
Essentially, Mohler is arguing here to overcome intellectual inquiry with bluster. And people wonder why Christians are belittled by the secularists. There are two really important points to draw from this
1) Our faith is not completely intellectually rigorous.
Oh, I know, we work very hard to think very clearly about what we believe and why we believe it, but if you think that out faith is somehow intellectually airtight, you are mistaken. Best class I ever took in college was from a pagan prof that was writing a book tearing holes in all of C.S. Lewis' apologetics works. I argued my heart out in that class, and I altered the guys manuscript tremendously, but in the end, he won.
There is a difference between convincing and proof. We can convince a lot of people, but we can prove nothing.
2) Therefore, No One is argued fully into the Kingdom of God
People come to Jesus for a lot of reason, but growing roots, getting serious and becoming committed transformed people will never and can never be the result of argument - it is a result of the witness of the LIVES of God's people and the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the individual.
What is fascinating is that I am willing to bet the Holy Spirit used the Archbishop's apparent lack of confidence to move as many people towards Him as Mohler's bluster has moved.
We are not out to win arguments here, we are out to win people, their whole lives, parts of their lives, they do not even know they have. If there is a cautionary note in all this - that's it. Mohler's bluster offends as many as Williams mush-mouth.
Think about it.
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At the same time, his choice of language and means of expression lacks a certain confidence and candor that such a discussion requires. I point to this example in order to remind us all -- all who speak of these transforming truths in public -- of the necessity of speaking with honest and straightforward confidence about what the Bible teaches.Why not just shout down your opponents Al? And by the way, isn't part of showing candor in all this being honest about our own doubts?
Essentially, Mohler is arguing here to overcome intellectual inquiry with bluster. And people wonder why Christians are belittled by the secularists. There are two really important points to draw from this
1) Our faith is not completely intellectually rigorous.
Oh, I know, we work very hard to think very clearly about what we believe and why we believe it, but if you think that out faith is somehow intellectually airtight, you are mistaken. Best class I ever took in college was from a pagan prof that was writing a book tearing holes in all of C.S. Lewis' apologetics works. I argued my heart out in that class, and I altered the guys manuscript tremendously, but in the end, he won.
There is a difference between convincing and proof. We can convince a lot of people, but we can prove nothing.
2) Therefore, No One is argued fully into the Kingdom of God
People come to Jesus for a lot of reason, but growing roots, getting serious and becoming committed transformed people will never and can never be the result of argument - it is a result of the witness of the LIVES of God's people and the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the individual.
What is fascinating is that I am willing to bet the Holy Spirit used the Archbishop's apparent lack of confidence to move as many people towards Him as Mohler's bluster has moved.
We are not out to win arguments here, we are out to win people, their whole lives, parts of their lives, they do not even know they have. If there is a cautionary note in all this - that's it. Mohler's bluster offends as many as Williams mush-mouth.
Think about it.
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