Posted on 04/06/2011 11:56:50 AM PDT by hawkins
A teacher stands in front of her classroom of students. She begins to review some of the previous day’s homework that she assigned her students to study and complete. She asks: “Can someone give me the answer for question #1?” She then adds with a smile: “Remember to raise your hands if you have the answer.” The response is mixed. Some of her students almost literally jump out of their seats as their hands shoot skyward. With great enthusiasm they chime in: “I know it, I know it! Pick me, teacher! Pick me!” These students had obviously “done their homework” and were confident and happy to provide an answer. This is their time to shine!
Not all of the students, however, are part of this enthusiastic chorus of confident responders. Some do not raise their hands or they turn their faces away from the teacher. A few even try to scrunch down in their seats hoping they will not be noticed. Some are naturally shy but many in this group are made up of those who did not finish their assigned work. For all sorts of reasons (ballgames, T.V., “my dog ate my homework”), they are unprepared to take part in the day’s discussion. They do not want to face the embarrassment of giving an incorrect response to a question or no answer at all. They wish they were anyplace but here! This is their time to hide!
All of us have gone through an experience like this sometime in our lives. Do you remember what it felt like when you were confident and prepared to give an answer? How did you feel when you were in the opposite situation? How did it feel to be unprepared? We understand how important it is to be prepared to offer an answer to questions regarding our secular studies in the classroom. Yet, as we go through our everyday life, are we as well prepared to provide an explanation for our Christian faith and to give answers from the holy scriptures that are supposed to be our daily, ever-present guide?
In I Peter 3:15, the apostle Peter exhorts us to be ready whenever we are questioned concerning our faith and hope in Christ. He tells us:
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;…” [NKJV]
We are told in this scripture that we must be prepared to provide a “defense” (KJV: “answer”) for our Christian belief and conduct. This word “defense” is translated from the Greek term Apologia which means: “a plea (“apology”): – answer (for self), clearing of self, defence.”
As Christians, we are expected to have the ability to explain our faith and discuss why God is so important to our everyday lives. The question is: Are we ready, when the opportunity presents itself, to offer a good, clear, scripturally-based explanation? Let us make the most of the opportunities that are given to us whether it is at home with our family, at the work-place with our co-workers, employees, or superiors, at school, or even among our brethren at worship services. We need to study the Bible to know the answers (II Timothy 2:15). And if we don’t know the answer to a particular question, we can always study it together with the person asking the question or point them to someone else who can provide them with an accurate response.
James Strong, A Concise Dictionary Of The Words In The Greek Testament, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1990), 14. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The challenge is that in our culture the scriptural foundation alone has been eschewed, marginalized and even rejected entirely by the culture. In other words, it was somewhat “easier” in the past when those who were neutral were still gettable, because even they were at least exposed to Bible based Christianity in institutions where the Ten Commandments were given proper place in the schools, business was not immune to displaying Christian religious art, and Christmas on the town square was not a reason for protest. Now there is a generation removed from exposure to the Bible entirely and its historic importance in the American culture.
The challenge is that in our culture the scriptural foundation alone has been eschewed, marginalized and even rejected entirely by the culture. In other words, it was somewhat “easier” in the past when those who were neutral were still gettable, because even they were at least exposed to Bible based Christianity in institutions where the Ten Commandments were given proper place in the schools, business was not immune to displaying Christian religious art, and Christmas on the town square was not a reason for protest. Now there is a generation removed from exposure to the Bible entirely and its historic importance in the American culture.
So sorry for the double post. I don’t know what I did.
Bookmark, if it’s not an imposition, would you mind letting me know when part II is available. Thanks regardless.
And the results are evident.
As opposed to say, the culture in the Roman Empire in Peter's time, which was polytheistic, sexually deviant, violent, and held the Jewish scriptures in contempt. When Peter wrote that, the vast majority of people--Christian or otherwise--were illiterate, and the NT wasn't even formed.
The simple gospel in 1 Cor. 15:1-8 doesn't need the hearer of the Word to have an MDiv.
As opposed to say, the culture in the Roman Empire in Peter’s time, which was polytheistic, sexually deviant, violent, and held the Jewish scriptures in contempt. When Peter wrote that, the vast majority of people—Christian or otherwise—were illiterate, and the NT wasn’t even formed.”
Touche. Point well taken. You are absolutely right. Thanks.
Mystified why I am double posting. Honest.
Greetings Sergio et al. The second part of this article is now posted at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2700930/posts .
Have a groovy day!
I think Rita had a good point. The ancient world was ignorant. The descendants of the West today scoff and mock at the faith once held in high regard practiced outwardly even if there faith was not genuine. Consider the following:
From Acts 17
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God OVERLOOKED such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
The Athenians were still pagan polytheists. Yes, many people today hold the Scriptures in contempt, even then some people “sneered” (Acts 17:32) at the Gospel. Believing Christians were a much smaller minority in Peter and Paul’s day than they are today.
“The Athenians were still pagan polytheists.”
That’s the point. He was preaching to pagans. Now the Word of God is held in contempt by so called Christian countries. Nations where the gospel once took root and flourished. Big difference, IMO.
Quite possibly. I know C.S. Lewis once remarked that pagan has proved a more imminently convertible person than the modern secularist.
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