- Introductions: Name, Do you think killing can sometimes be right?
- Restatement of theme:
- “If this issue was the reason a non-believer gave as their obstacle to Christianity, what would we say to them?”
- Theme verse: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19)
- Today’s Topic
- We’re going to take a break from the philosophy stuff (we’ll finish our last week next week) and discuss an article I found this past week.
- I’ll hand it out, and we’ll take some time to read it. It was originally a fair bit longer—I tried to condense it the best I could without completely obliterating it. Feel free to look up the original if you like.
- I don’t necessarily endorse anything in particular that this guy wrote. I have no proof to offer to back up any of his assertions—though I suspect one could easily do the work and find out.
- I do, however, think that this essay is an excellent example of what a huge percentage of our culture actually believes—or, at the very least, I’d guess that you’ll run into a lot of people who agree with a majority of sentiments expressed in this essay.
- Read it!
- Question for discussion:
- First, I want to try (mostly) avoid simply “taking down” his points one-by-one. I think we’ll kind of do that naturally in our discussion, anyway. But, rather than be argumentative, I want to ask:
- If you encountered this person, or someone like him, what do you think would make him listen to your point of view? If you were him, what would convince you to think otherwise?
- Backup questions (getting a little more argumentative, I guess):
- Does he have a true characterization of Jesus? Does this idea of Jesus truly encompass everything we read in the New Testament?
- Do you think his idea of love is correct?
- Given your political views, how would you respond to his opinion about Christians in politics?
- Does his belief system have the same “depth” as Christianity—does it really give answers to a sin-sick world?
- What do you think he wrote that is a (mostly) true characterization of Christianity?
- Conclusion
- There are a lot of people who, I would argue, are precisely in his boat. Aren’t they just as in need of hearing Truth as those who have never heard the Gospel? Is it just because of Christians that they don’t accept Christ? Can we put the Gospel in their words—not transforming it, just translating it—and bring them to truth? Are we, as Christians, far too stuck in our agendas and Christian-bubbles to really see the world around us with the eyes of Christ?
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