Posted on 12/28/2011 2:05:21 PM PST by NYer
Why is the sun setting on the West? Vishal Mangalwadi argues that is is due to one factor: the brand Christianity.
In November 2011, I visited two classes at a Christian university in North America. I asked both: “How many of you would still believe Christianity if you found out tomorrow that Christianity was not true. That is: God never became a man; Jesus did not die for our sin; or, that he did not rise from the dead?”
Twelve hands went up in each class of about 25 and 45 students. These sincere and devout students had grown up in Christian homes, gone to church all their lives and studied in Christian schools. Some had been in that Christian university for three years! They respected their elders who taught them that Christianity was all about faith with little concern for truth.
Christianity lost America because 20th-century evangelicalism branded itself as the party of faith. Secularism (science, university, media) became the party of truth. This is one reason why 70% Christian youth give up meaningful involvement with the church when they grow up.
In the second class, only one in four students perceived Christianity as disconnected with truth. This was because my host professor had taught them to believe because Christianity is true. Some professors and pastors do teach that, yet the “truth-less” brand is common perception because it is reinforced by most pastors, Bible teachers, and some Christian professors.
I asked both classes if they thought secular universities knew truth. Overwhelmingly the answer was positive. When I asked them to name one secular professor who claims to know the truth, both classes named Stephen Hawking. (No student, however, had read Hawking’s latest book which demolishes the God of Western logic but not the God who has revealed Himself.) Secularism acquired the “Truth” brand by default because evangelicalism began defining Church’s mission as cultivating Faith, not promoting knowledge of Truth (compare 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25; Titus 1:1, etc.).
Please take a moment to read the entire article at the link posted above, before posting to this thread. Thank you!
Please take a moment to read the entire article at the link posted above, before posting to this thread. Thank you!
Hmmmm, Freemasons?
“The university exists because the Church was committed to knowing and believing truth.”
BIG Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Unfortunately, those who are taught today’s revised history have NO knowledge of this.)
“When I accept Theology I may find difficulties, at this point or that, in harmonising it with some particular truths which are imbedded in the mythical cosmology derived from science. But I can get in, or allow for, science as a whole… If, on the other hand, I swallow the scientific cosmology as a whole, then not only can I not fit in Christianity, but I cannot even fit in science. …And this is to me the final test. This is how I distinguish dreaming and waking. When I am awake I can, in some degree, account for and study my dream. . . But while in the nightmare I could not have fitted in my waking experience. The waking world is judged more real because it can thus contain the dreaming world: the dreaming world is judged less real because it cannot contain the waking one. For the same reason I am certain that in passing from the scientific point of view to the theological, I have passed from dream to waking. Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.”
Note to thread: Don’t bother reading, don’t bother commenting.
Also self-sufficiency is at the root of unbelief.
If you’re self-sufficient, you don’t need God.
Sorry, bro. But I do have one comment. There is “truth” here in that the church has abandoned emphasizing truth. The truth that Jesus is Lord, that He IS truth, etc.
I highly advise everyone here to find “The Truth Project” and watch all 12 incredibly professional videos on how the church and Christians have lost their influence because we have failed to present THE TRUTH, and then we have failed to live it (i.e., really believe it so that it so effects our lives that unbelievers see us as wholly different and desire what we have....)
What else was anyone expecting when we kicked God out of the schools and put everything else ahead of Him in our list of personal priorities?
“How many of you would still believe Christianity if you found out tomorrow that Christianity was not true. That is: God never became a man; Jesus did not die for our sin; or, that he did not rise from the dead?”
I assume that by "if you found out ..." means "if it were proved beyond reasonable doubt ...". However, anyone with the slightest knowledge of history, or even a bit of common sense, would realize that's not possible, and therefore would put the questioner to the test, rather than dignifying the absurd premise.
Try to prove that "God never became a man" in any scientific or legal sense of proof. Fail. Historical evidence is pretty strong that the man Christianity identifies as Jesus lived and died, but try to "prove" that He either died for our sins, or did not. Epic fail.
The article makes some good points, but he might have mentioned that one of the problems of American Christianity and of American Christians is their propensity to be polite and tolerant toward those perpetrating blithering nonsense. If only Anoreth or Tom had been in one of the classes the author addressed ...
“self-sufficiency”, Yep that one thought roots back to original sin, be like God’s yourself, thus you do need God. Man (in general) has yet to learn.
“The Truth Project”, Yes very Good!
A thing is to remember is that science deals only with what is measurable and repeatable. Living things, such as us or the meanest microbe, must get it right the first time, or no prize.
Casting the apple of discord amongst the thread...
What about AGW? It's not science. It's not repeatable. And yet its practitioners have many well-funded and prestigious posts.
Or, for that matter, much of medicine must deal with statistical results, since there are too many variables to control, even if we knew them all, and and efficacious means to maintain control.
Or (heh heh heh) "computer" science or "political" science.
All that is gold does not glitter,
not all those who wander are lost
But if your work gives the "wrong" answer
at grant time they'll tell you "GET LOST!"
Cheers!
There are many liberals who would have you believe that Christianity prevents them from being happy on their sin.
THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
by Immanuel Kant - 1781
Reading Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
indelibly imprinted the knowledge
that Science is an edifice of Reason,
but Science cannot explain Reason,
and Reason must be accepted A Priori,
as present within the Human Mind
before one can accept Reason as True
and hence accept Science as Valid
Reason must be accepted as valid BEFORE
Science can be accepted as valid
This is an A Priori condition
and, if you will, must be accepted in Faith,
or no other valid inferences can be made derivative to it
Secular Humanists get the cart before the Horse
Accepting Science as True without
realizing on what it is derivative
That Truth is knowable in the first place
C.S. Lewis had a very different path
to accepting Christianity as true,
but his path to this requires reading
Surprised By Joy to understand
I can prove that Jesus died for my sins.
Jesus = 1 (1 God 1 Faith 1 Baptism 1 Lord etc)
Me = Sinner (I have a sinful nature within - trust me)
I am a living soul because I can worship God. I can worship God because I love him.
Me + Jesus = Forgiven because he gave his blood for my sins
The life is in the blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
I apologize to you if this proof is making you angry.
I can prove that there is simply no hope without Jesus Christ. Life is worthless without a savior.
I’m going to live for God come what may.
And thanks to every soldier out there who has sacrificed for freedom.
Because freedom isn’t free and I can prove that too.
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs
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