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/).
The Gospel message was graciously presented, and after several months of such teaching, I surrendered to the claims and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As far as I could tell there were no other Christians in the student hall where I stayed at that time, but I had made several good friends, one of whom was a sophisticated intellectual from a wealthy home. I was convinced that the conversion of such a man could bring great changes in the student hall, so one day I invited him to attend our Bible class.
My hopes were high, because I was prepared to convince him that no one else could match this Bible teacher who had led me to the Lord. The conversation, as I recall over the years, proceeded as follows: ‘Harry, here is a teacher who can really make the message of the Bible clear and convincing. Why not come with me on Sunday afternoon and see for yourself?’
‘The Bible?’ he replied. ‘Why should I take time to study a religious book that is already nearly two thousand years out of date? Youknow yourself that there isn’t a single science professor here at Princeton who takes the Bible seriously on the origin of the world. The idea of creation by divine fiat is no longer held by intelligent people. I really have no interest in the Bible.’
Stung by this flat rejection of God’s Word on the basis of a scientific consensus, I retreated to my Christian friends. Were there any publications of a scholarly nature, I asked, that could help my friend see the weaknesses of evolutionism and thus the possibility of supernatural creation?
Except for a few small booklets, nothing came to hand; but armed with these I approached Harry again. He was surprisingly gracious. ‘Thanks for going to all the trouble of collecting these booklets for me. I really didn’t know anyone who could write took Genesis literally any more. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Some day, if I ever have the time, I’ll look into it.’
That was it. A polite but final brush-off.
I was deeply dismayed at this and similar failures to convert my friends to Christianity, and discussed the problem with my Bible teacher. ‘What’s wrong with me? Is it my personality, or do I need more time to collect better arguments?’ Instead of lecturing his new disciple on the intricacies of biblical apologetics, he very wisely invited me to join him in a brief visitation programme in one of the other student halls where a new student had five months earlier somewhat rashly filled in a survey card indicating his interest in attending our Bible study class.
As the door swung open in response to our knock, pipe smoke poured out into the hallway. ‘I’m John Whitcomb and this is the Bible teacher of the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship. Is Tom Smith here?’ A trampling of feet and the crash of a table lamp were heard as various figures fled in terror, leaving our victim to fend for himself against these unwanted intruders.
‘The Princeton Evangelical Fellowship? Oh, yes, I guess I did sign a card last fall; but I’m not interested in the Bible any more. I used to think it was true, but five months of study here has been enough to convince me it is full of errors.’
‘I’m fascinated to hear you say that,’ my teacher quietly commented. ‘Tell me, what particular errors did you discover in the Bible that convinced you it is not true?’ This was unexpected. Was a firm rebuff not sufficient to end this uncomfortable conversation? Surely the general consensus of this great university was sufficient to silence anyone who still believed the Bible to be true?
Tom thought for a moment and answered, ‘Jonah and the whale! There’s your proof. No educated person today could believe for one moment that a whale could have swallowed a man and then spat him out on the shore alive three days later!’
Here was the crisis for me. How could we handle this direct challenge to the historicity of the book of Jonah? Perhaps we could find in the university library some books on whales that would demonstrate their ability to swallow men alive. Perhaps we could even find historical evidence of men who had actually survived such an ordeal. That would convince him that the book of Jonah is as infallible as the rest of the Bible!
Providentially, it was my teacher who answered him first. ‘Tom, I’m frankly very thankful that it is the book of Jonah you seem to be struggling with. There is no more fascinating book in the Old Testament than Jonah. Some day, if we have time, I would like to discuss with you the entire message of that book, which was alluded to by Christ Himself for a very important reason.’
‘In the meantime, however, would you mind if I explained to you why I have come to believe that the Bible is the Word of God and therefore true in all its parts?’
Impressed with the irresistible graciousness and confidence of this man who seemed to know from personal experience the God of Whom he spoke, Tom gave his cautious consent.
‘Tom, I felt the way you do about God’s Word when I was a student here thirty years ago. I thought I had all the answers I needed concerning life. But I was wrong. In His infinite love, God reached down to me in my deep personal need and showed me through the familiar words of His matchless Book that my root problem was sin, deliberate alienation from God Himself.’
What he heard was not a scientific, historical, or philosophical defence of Christianity, but a Gospel-saturated testimony directed prayerfully to his heart.
As I recall the conversation, Tom did raise some questions about Christianity and the Bible. The questions were not totally ignored, but the answers were always amplified by new per-spectives on the Gospel and appeals for surrender to Christ. It was this approach that ultimately led to a proud university student acknowledging the lordship of Christ in his life.
All of this forced me to take a new look at some basic factors of Christian apologetics that I had seriously neglected. I have come to believe that my initial ignorance concerning these biblical principles also characterises many frustrated and fruitless Christian workers today.
My problem was basically twofold. I had underestimated the depth of man’s rebellion against God, and I was unaware of the absolutely crucial part which the Word of God must have, through the convicting and illumina¬ting work of the Holy Spirit, in bringing sinful men to Christ.
It will be my purpose in this article to examine biblical revelation concerning man’s spiritual inability, God’s method of reaching lost men, major proof texts for rationalistic apologetics, and then in another article the part which Christian evidences may have in our ministry of witnessing today.
In our efforts to make the Bible and Christianity attractive and acceptable to men, we find ourselves immediately confronted with two stupendous obstacles: man’s fallen nature and the Satanic forces which surround him. Though these facts should come as no great surprise to one who is even superficially acquainted with Christianity, it is astonishing to me how few of the better known evangelical works on Christian apologetics today give them serious consideration.
One is almost led to believe when reading such books that what we really need to win intellectuals to Christ (in addition to the Gospel) is an arsenal of carefully developed argu-ments against various false religious and philosophical systems. We also seem to need an impressive array of evidences from, say, archaeology and history, that the Bible and Christianity are true.
But if we are to be truly honest with the biblical perspectives on this question, we must admit that we have too often been guilty of building our systems of apologetics upon other foundations than the one set forth in Scripture. Instead of giving us the impression that men are eagerly waiting for proof that Christianity is true, we find the Bible exposing men’s hearts as sealed shut against any and all human and purely intellectual pressures for conversion.
The basic problem of the non-Christian is not merely academic and intellectual, it is moral and spiritual. The Bible indicates that all unbelievers (including so-called honest doubters) are enemies of God, under divine judgement because of their deliberate distortion of all reality to fit into their own spiritual frame of reference.
to be continued . . .