It seems quite obvious, then, that God never intended that Christians should win the lost through purely philosophical and academic arguments, or even that they should by this means remove the mental obstacles within unbelievers so that the Word of God might penetrate their hearts. This series of articles is written by Dr John Whitcomb.
(https://metropolitantabernacle.org/articles/priorities-in-presenting-the-faith/).
There is not the slightest desire in the natural man to seek Him, find Him, and acknowledge Him for Who He is – ‘The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts’ (Psalm 10.4). On another occasion, the Holy Spirit informs us by the pen of David that – ‘The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God’ (Psalm 14.2). But what did He see? ‘They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one’ (quoted in Romans 3.10-12).
Not only does the unbeliever not seek and practise truth, he consistently suppresses whatever truth he does receive: ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold [suppress] the truth in unrighteousness . . . they are without excuse’ (Romans 1.18-20).
In fact, the Scriptures make it clear that fallen men, so far from being open to arguments about God’s claims upon them, are in a state of enmity against Him, because ‘the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be’ (Romans 8.7).
Christian apologetics have been traditionally concerned with giving rational answers to the challenges of unbelievers concerning God’s special revelation in Scripture. But what kind of minds are we appealing to? To what extent have sin and spiritual rebellion against God affected man’s rational capacities?
Ponder these statements: ‘And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world . . . fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others’ (Ephesians 2.1-3). ‘Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart’ (Ephesians 4.17-18).
But is the human ‘mind’ not capable of detaching itself from the so-called ‘heart’ and drawing its own conclusions about God independently of the downward direction of fallen nature? The answer is – no. Mark our Lord’s explanation of the unbreakable relationship between the mind and the heart – ‘Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts’ (Matthew 15.19; cf Mark 7.21). The Scriptures offer us no hope of bringing about a fundamental change in a man’s thinking about God apart from a profound change in his ‘heart’, the moral and spiritual centre of his personal being.
In addition to the obstacle of the human ‘heart-mind’ being in utter opposition to the truth of God, there is the obstacle of Satan, ‘the god of this world’, and his demonic forces. This leads me to realise that when I speak to an unbeliever about Christ, I am not really speaking to one person but to two or more persons, all but one of whom is invisible.
The apostle Paul spoke of this fact several times. He explained that – ‘we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places’ (Ephesians 6.12).
He knew that Christians formerly ‘walked . . . according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience’ (Ephesians 2.2). He recognised that – ‘if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them’ (2 Corinthians 4.3-4).
In the parable of the sower, our Lord also spoke of this obstacle to the reception of His Word when He identified the birds that devoured the seed – ‘When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side’ (Matthew 13.19).
A system of Christian apologetics that underestimates the power of Satan in the minds of unbelievers may not exactly be guilty of reviling angelic majesties, as Jude warns us, but by ignoring the extent of Satan’s power, it is unable to follow Michael’s example and to say effectively: ‘The Lord rebuke thee’ (Jude 9). What we desperately need today is an apologetic with power!
If the biblical picture of man’s enmity against God and control by Satan is correct, then how can Christians ever persuade men to turn from sin and Satan to the true and living God? The biblical answer, of course, is that they cannot.
The Scriptures do not say that it is difficult for the unbeliever to accept spiritual truth. They say that it is impossible. ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2.14).
When our Lord once made a similar pronouncement concerning an entire segment of society, ‘his disciples . . . were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?’ His answer provides for us the key to all truly effective Christian apologetics today: ‘With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible’ (Matthew 19.25-26).
It seems quite obvious, then, that God never intended that Christians should win the lost through purely philosophical and academic arguments, or even that they should by this means remove the mental obstacles within unbelievers so that the Word of God might penetrate their hearts.
If this had been God’s plan, the vast majority of Christians throughout history would have been automatically disqualified from effective witness, for they would have been unable to meet highly educated unbelievers on their own level in intellectual debate. ‘For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence’ (1 Corinthians 1.26-29).
The biblical method of winning men to Christ (including the intellectuals of our day) is to lovingly, patiently and prayerfully present the true Gospel ‘according to the scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15.3-4) from the context of a godly life (1 Thessalonians 1.5; 2.3-12). Only the ‘quick, and powerful’ Word of God can penetrate the unbeliever’s shield of defence and pierce into his heart (Hebrews 4.12), and thus only God may receive the glory for the genuine conversion of sinful men.
Once converted by God’s Holy Spirit, a man for the first time in his life enjoys the proper perspective and frame of reference for analysing his intellectual problems concerning Christian doctrines, even if he never finds the complete answers this side of Heaven.
Paul’s own conversion is an instructive illustration of this divine dynamic. Instead of presenting a list of questions to the Lord Jesus when he was overwhelmed by His presence on the Damascus road, Saul of Tarsus simply cried out, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ (Acts 22.10). With his spiritual blindness removed by God – ‘straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God’ (Acts 9.20).
He ‘was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision’ (Acts 26.19) even though it must have required years for him to rethink everything that he had previously learned about the Scriptures in the light of this transforming new revelation. The book of Acts contains numerous examples of such proclamations of God’s revealed message, resulting in conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit and genuine conversion (Acts 2.36-38; 8.34-36; 10.42-48; 16.31-34).
to be continued . . .