David Sitton visiting our church

I’m delighted that David Sitton is going to be our guest preacher this Sunday at Goshen Baptist Church.

The Lord has grabbed hold of this man's life in powerful ways. If you want to learn about God's work in and through David, read his book, Reckless Abandon. Or visit toeverytribe.org and listen to some messages and read a few articles—it’s exhilarating.

One wonderful place to spend time at toeverytribe.org is in the list of “Mission Quotes.” It’s full of Bible-inspired guidance, passion, joy, warning, encouragement, and FAITH. Chew on these words…

• I know enough about Satan to realize that he will have all his weapons ready for determined opposition. He would be a missionary simpleton who expected plain sailing in any work of God. ~James O. Fraser, 1886-1938, China.
• It is remarkable that God began this work among the Indians at a time when I had the least hope. ~David Brainerd, 1718-1747, Missionary to North American Indians.
• Every step in the progress of missions is directly traceable to prayer. ~A. T. Pierson, Pastor and Author.
• I don’t think we are in any danger, and if we are, we might as well die suddenly in God’s work as by some long drawn-out illness at home. ~Eleanor Chestnut, died in China in 1905.
• I will lay my bones by the Ganges (River) that India will know there is someone who cares. ~Alexander Duff, 1806-1878, India.
• If you are ever inclined to pray for a missionary, do it at once, wherever you are. Perhaps he may be in great peril at that moment. ~Amy Carmichael, 1867-1951, India.
• Don’t wonder whether you have a call to go. Have you had a distinct call from Christ to stay at home? ~George Wilson.
• There is no need for faith where there is no consciousness of an element of risk. ~Elisabeth Elliot.
• I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it in a land filled with dark­ness than in a land flooded with lights. ~Ion Keith-Falconer.
• Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell. I want to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell. ~C.T. Studd.
• If God has fit you to be a missionary, I would not have you shrivel down to be a king. ~Charles H. Spurgeon.
• He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. ~Jim Elliot.
• Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. ~William Carey.
• The church that does not evangelize will fossilize. ~Oswald J. Smith.

[ originally posted at www.forthejourney.blogspot.com ]

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Challenging Richard Dawkins

Leading figures in “The New Atheism” movement include Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and especially Richard Dawkins. What makes this atheism “new” is its aggressive approach lambasting religion, and its ramped-up, provocative and attention-getting rhetoric (e.g., saying things like “religion poisons everything”). The best-known book coming from this circle of authors is, no doubt, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (2006).

In 2006 David Robertson, pastor of St. Peter’s Free Church, Dundee, Scotland, began posting comments about The God Delusion at the Dawkins website, going chapter by chapter and issuing numerous trench­ant critiques. In the end, Robertson compiled his posts in book form: The Dawkins Letters (2007). I want to note a few of Robertson’s key ideas, especially ways he challenges Dawkins and the New Atheism.

• -Dawkins’s naïve vision of peace on earth through atheism does not account for Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Pol Pot: “The 20th century can truly be called the Failed Atheist Century” (p. 20).
• -“It takes a great deal of faith to be an atheist” (26).
• -Addressing Dawkins: “I am becoming more and more convinced that your position is primarily a philosophical and religious posi­tion, rather than one you are driven to by science” (33).
• -“It is your attack on a distorted and perverted ver­sion of Christian teaching about God which provides you with the most entertaining smokescreen for your lack of substantial argument on whether God exists in the first place or not” (48; see also 59).
• -A key objection of Dawkins against theism is: “Who designed the designer?” Robertson retorts, “‘Who made God?’ is a ques­tion I would expect from a six-year-old” (66). The Dawkins view is that, since all things evolve from more simple to more complex forms, and since any designer of the universe would have to be incredibly complex, God cannot exist (67). But this is to knock down a straw man: no Christian argues that the God of the uni­verse is somehow the product of evolutionary processes.
• -Robertson concedes, of course, that “some aspects of religion and some religious people have caused a great deal of harm in the world…” (79-80). But to lump all religions together with the sweeping verdict that they’re harmful and evil (like a “virus”) is to fail to look closely and make reasonable distinctions. “Take the question of Christianity and Islam. It suits you to lump them both together (including the extremists)” (85).
• -To Dawkins: “You define faith as believing something without evidence—a definition which is something you have just made up in your own head and has nothing to do with Christianity” (85).
• -Dawkins needs to learn basic principles of reading the Bible—like understanding a passage within its context, and distinguishing between what’s descriptive and prescriptive (103).
• -While Dawkins wants to portray Hitler as a Christian (after all, Hitler grew up Catholic, and Catholic and Lutheran churches were signifi­cant forces in German society), Hitler’s own writings and prac­tices locate him decidedly outside of the Christian faith (110-12).
• -Robertson takes Dawkins to task for the “extraordinary state­ment that ‘horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place’” (114—cf. p. 356 in The God Delusion). Such a view would justify the shocking conclusion that raising children in the Christian faith is inherently abusive, and that stance, in turn, would justify the state removing children from such homes (115). This is how reckless and chilling the Dawkins trajectory can be.
• -Robertson concludes with a lengthy bibliography and comments on all kinds of key players and writings in the atheism debate.

Let me also recommend Alister McGrath’s writings and lectures in response to Dawkins and other new atheists, including his book, The Dawkins Delusion (2010), and especially his June 27, 2011, lecture given at Regent College in Vancouver, “Why God Won’t Go Away: Reflections on the ‘New Atheism’” (download at regentaudio.com for free). Another thoughtful Christian who interacts with Dawkins and company is Oxford math professor John Lennox (his debates with various atheists are on YouTube—and see johnlennox.org).

[ originally posted at www.forthejourney.blogspot.com ]

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Alzheimer's and Divorce

How sad and disturbing to learn that Pat Robertson has spoken out justifying the divorcing one's spouse who is afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease (for video, click here)--after all, he contends, the person isn't "there" any more; Alzheimer's has brought a kind of death.

And what an encouraging and positively biblical example, to the contrary, we see in J. Robertson McQuilkin, who resigned his position as President of Columbia Bible College and Seminary in order to care for his wife, Muriel, who was afflicted with Alzheimer's, for the rest of her days (click here to listen). It is a testimony of devotion, and of fidelity to the vows of marriage before God "until death do us part."

Various Christian leaders have firmly critiqued Pat Robertson's remarks, e.g., Russell Moore (click here), and Justin Taylor (click here).

[ originally posted at www.forthejourney.blogspot.com ]

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Alister McGrath on the New Atheism

Regent College is offering Alister McGrath's recent lecture, "Why God Won't Go Away: Reflections on the 'New Atheism,'" as a free audio download at regentaudio.com (click here). This is a thoughtful, discerning and penetrating assessment and critique of the New Atheism movement--well worth the time to listen and consider! McGrath, a former atheist and a highly accomplished scholar with academic doctorates in both the natural sciences and theology (click here or here for info about him), helps one sift through the various claims and lines of argument that are advanced by authors such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

[ originally posted at www.forthejourney.blogspot.com ]

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