Inside The Mind Of a Skeptic
To purchase the entire Summit Lecture Series, Vol. 2 on DVD, visit summit.org.
I became a Christian when I was 21. I was going to UNC Greensboro and about two days into my faith, I went out with several of my buddies who also had recently become believers. I was part of a Monday night Bible study at college. That’s how I became a believer. But anyway, I was really shy. I was really, really, really an introvert, still kind of am. And so they said, look, “We’re supposed to be a witness.” And we went down to this campus where a lot of people sit around picnic tables and hang out. And I was kind of in the back. And my friend, Noel, who is really an extrovert, was sharing the gospel. And these guys were sitting drinking beer and they had made kind of a pyramid of cans on this picnic table. And my friend Noel was sharing the gospel.
We were just 20, 21. Didn’t have a lot of experience, believe in Jesus or you are going to burning hell. And my friend Noel goes, “And you know that beer there, that beer is going to send you to hell.”
So we’re sitting there and this one guy is smoking a cigarette and he kind of flicks it at us and it makes this arc and sort of bounces off of me, a cigarette butt, and I thought, “Hmm, this is not going well.” When the audience is flicking their cigarettes at you, you’re not really preaching with power.
But finally, one of the guys sitting at a picnic table, he looked at me and he said, “Hey, I’m a philosophy major. I don’t even believe God exists. How am I supposed to have a relationship with somebody who doesn’t even exist?”
Good question. Another guy, I will never forget, and really I’m glad God put us through this because it plotted out the trajectory of my life, really. This guy says, “I’m a cultural anthropology major,” or I’m in cultural anthropology, a class the prof says, “Jesus may never have even existed. How can I believe in a guy that probably never even existed? Why should I believe in Jesus?”
Well, suddenly my two friends were just dead quiet and nobody was saying anything. And it was awkward silence, awkward silence, awkward silence. So finally, even though I’m kind of at the back of the group, I had to say something. I said, “Hey, my name’s Alex, God existing. Jesus, I don’t know. But look, two days ago I prayed and I asked Christ to come into my life. And I all I can tell you guys, this is real. It’s really real,” and I’ll get back with you.
So I go back to my dorm and I felt like I had totally blown it. I got on my knees, “Lord. I know we’re supposed to be a witness. And they had questions and I didn’t know the answer. And Lord forgive me for not really doing a good job witnessing.” And I opened my Bible and I had never seen this verse. I was a Christian 48 hours had only been saved two days. Couldn’t have found this verse if I was supposed to. And my Bible fell open and it was 1 Peter 3:15. “Set apart Christ Lord in your heart. Be ready. Always to give an answer to everyone who asks a reason for the hope that you have. Do this with gentleness and respect.”
Now I have been a boy scout, the boy scout motto, “Be prepared,” and this looked a lot like that. Be ready always. Now, look at that. You see the word answer and the word reason, the word there in the original language is the word for apologetic, which means a reasoned defense. Apologetics is what we believe and the reasons why.
Now you’ve been at summit a few days. You’ve probably have heard things like this. Forgive me if I’m being repetitious. But repetition is a pretty good thing, because it ingrains things in our mind. So I’m in my room kind of smarting for the fact that we just got blown off with some objections and I’m looking at this verse, “Be ready, always,” look at it says, “Set apart Christ as Lord,” let me say this brothers and sisters, Summit friends of 2014.
If you walk with Jesus and live your faith and you drill down deeply and you put down spiritual roots and you’re able to dialogue with atheists and you’re able to share the gospel with Muslims and you’re able to lovingly, but factually, engage those that are non-believers or maybe even hostile to Christianity. Look, it’s not going to happen by accident. There has to come a time when you make a mental decision and a switch flips in your mind and your heart and your soul.
You say, “Lord, I want to know you so intimately that not only will it shape my own walk, but it will sharpen my witness for you.” And I pray you’ve made that decision. And if you haven’t maybe in the course of this little lecture and maybe over the time at Summit this summer, God will so implant within your heart a fire that you’ll say, “Look, I want to be ready at a moment’s notice to present, explain, defend.” Think about that.
In the witness we exude, or we set forth, you’re always, as a Christian, and by the way, you know the word witness means martyr. The original word translated as witness, we think somebody who shares the gospel, yes. The word witness is the word martyr. So some of you need to be martyred. Some of you need to die to your shyness as I had to do. You got to die to your idol of popularity.
I don’t want people to think I’m a Christian nut. I don’t want my friends to not like me. “Hey, that’s an idol.” Die, be a martyr and therefore become a witness. Set apart Christ as Lord. Be ready to present, to explain, and if need be defend. And we do it by clobbering people over the head with Bibles, right? Wrong. We do it with gentleness and respect.
Here’s another verse for you. I’m not going to put it on the screen, but 1 Peter 2:15 says, “This is the will of God that by doing well, you will put to silence foolish arguments.” Hey listen. See, 1 Peter 3:15 is about what we believe. 1 Peter 2:15 is about how we behave.
In the last hour I mentioned Galatians 5 that says, “Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” “Fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, against such there is no law,” the old King James says. You know what that literally means, “Against such there is no law?” It literally means you can’t argue with it. It was Silverfish, South Dakota, Black Hills State University. I was up there with my friend, David Silverman.
David Silverman is president of American Atheist. And if he ever hears this tape, “Hi Dave,” he is a good friend. I love the guy. He’s an atheist. I pray for the day that I am there when David Silverman is ordained to the gospel ministry, pray with me along those lines.
But we’re eating a Subway sub, we’re about to debate. We’ve debated three or four times. We’re probably going to do a few more debates and Silverman looks at me. He goes, “Alex, I got to admit when I met you at Fox News in New York several years ago, I just didn’t want to like you. But I got to admit, you’re a pretty good guy.”
Now he’s not a Christian yet. He’s not even a theist yet. He’s not even to God, much less Jesus, but here’s the deal. 1 Peter 3:15, “Be ready to give an answer.” 1 Peter 2:15, “By doing well you’ll put in silence the arguments of foolish men. Galatians 5, “Against such there’s no law.” We ought to live in such a way, the way we act, the way we react, the way we carry ourselves, that even if somebody’s not a Christian, that they would at least be able to say, “You know what? I’m not a believer, but John Stone Street, that dude is for real. You know, I might not be a Christian, but, Theresa, she’s authentic.”
Now here’s the deal. One of the most common objections is that Christians are hypocrites. They talk it, they don’t live it. They preach a good game and yet they steal the money and run off with the church secretary. Look, even if people quibble about our data they should not be able to fault our life and our authenticity.
Follow Christian Podcast Central on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see our ongoing discussion with Dr. Jeff Myers regarding worldviews.
(This podcast is by Summit Ministries. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central.)