Reaching Our Brave New Secular World
Part One
(How to Make a Case for Christianity)
John Stewart, B.A., M.A., J.D.
International Director, Ratio Christi
www.RatioChristi.org
Why Are You Here?
What’s the Big Deal?
Christianity, if false, is of no importance,
and if true, of infinite importance, the only
thing it cannot be is moderately important.
C.S. Lewis, Cambridge Professor,
former atheist
Challenge to Christians
 Love God with your heart, soul & mind (Mt 22:27)
 Love others (John 13:35)
 Learn from Jesus (Matthew 11:29)  Let other people know about Jesus (Mt. 28:19)
Challenge to Non‐Christians
 Open your mind
 Recognize your biases and misconceptions
 Consider the evidence
 Make a decision
Profound Questions
(Ultimate Issue #1)

“If someone dies, will they live again?”
Profound Questions
(Ultimate Issue #2)
Jesus asks:
“Who do you say that I am?”
Christianity provides answers to Job’s question and Jesus’ question
Part 1, Preliminaries
to Making a Case for Christianity  Our Appointment as Ambassadors Advocates, Attorneys and Apologists for Christianity
 Understand what “Apologetics” is
 Preparing to make a case for Christianity
 Missionaries and Apologists
Our Appointment as Ambassadors for Christ
 Commissioned to disciple all nations
 Appointed to represent Christ (Ambassadors)
 Appointed to defend the Gospel
Christians as Advocates, Attorneys and Apologists
Christians are called to be Advocates for Jesus
 Advocate—one who argues a case
 Attorney—one appointed to represent  Apologist—one who appointed to make a case
A Christian’s appointment is to “make a case” for Jesus, i.e., show that Christianity is true
Christian Apologetics
 Christians are appointed for the defense (apologia) of the Gospel (Philippians 1:16)
 Christian Apologetics—”To make a case for Christianity” (1 Peter 3:15, apologia) using evidence, reason and persuasion
Apologetics can help Christians, too
Matthew 11:2‐5
John the Baptist
Preparing to Make a Case—
the Client Interview
 Listen to the problem/issue
 Find out what the goal is
 Accept the appointment
 Determine how to make the case (reach the goal)
The Appointment—To Reach the Jury (world) with the Message of Jesus
“As your ambassador/attorney/advocate/apologist, what would you like me to do?”
 Believe in Me (John 6:29)
 Learn from Me (Matthew 11:29)
 Follow Me (Matthew 16:24)
 Make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19)
Prepare the Case for Christianity
 Research the facts
 Organize the evidence  Practice presenting the evidence
 Be ready to “think on your feet”
 Keep the goal in mind—win the jury (nations)
Think of “the nations” as a jury we are called to convince
Who is Your “Jury?”
How to make disciples of all nations
 Proclaim truth
“How shall they hear [the good news] without someone to make it known?” (Romans 10:14)
 Defend truth
“…be ready at all times to make a defense to anyone who asks you about the hope within you.” (1 Peter 3:15)
Defending the Faith‐‐Apologetics:
A Species of Evangelism
What does Apologetics involve?
 Evidence
 Reason
 Persuasion
(the human effort in evangelism)
What is the role of the apologist today?
MISSIONARY?
Missionary Stereotype
The Task of the Missionary
 learn the natives’ language
 learn the culture and values
 understand their world view
 refute false beliefs
 present a positive message of truth
But the world has changed
 Richard Dawkins
 Christopher Hitchens
Today people do more than deny God exists—they hate God
The “heathen” are more likely to be next door than in Africa
 Therefore, we need missionaries who can reach 21st century secular people
 What do these missionaries look like who are in a position to reach the 21st century secular mind?
You and Me
The Christian Apologist is the 21st
Century Missionary
 learns the language, culture, and worldviews of secularists to reach them with the Gospel
 needs only cross the street, not the ocean, to find people who embrace a different worldview.
It should be easy to reach Cedar Rapids, right? (it’s not Las Vegas)
Is Cedar Rapids/Waterloo a welcoming place for discussing the Bible and Christianity?
Cedar Rapids is near the bottom of the list of America’s “Bible friendly” cities*
 1. Birmingham, Alabama
 2. Chattanooga, Tennessee
 3‐‐94 ……..
 95. Las Vegas
 96. Cedar Rapids/Waterloo, Iowa
 97. San Francisco, California
 98. Boston, Massachusetts
 99. Albany, New York
 100.Providence, Rhode Island/New Bedford, MA
*Barna Research Group, America’s Most Bible‐Minded Cities, 2015
We all have room to grow
Part Two –Understanding the Jury
What do we need to know about the world we live in, in order to reach it with the Gospel?
The Challenge of Reaching 21st
Century People with the Gospel
The World Has Changed
We Live in a Brave New Secular World
Brave New World—
Shakespeare and Huxley
William Shakespeare (ca 1610)
O wonder! How many goodly creatures are
there here! How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world, That has such people in't.
The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206
Aldous Huxley, 1931 Novel Brave New World
A.D. 2540, dystopia; mind manipulation and
drugs replace Christianity
21st Century
A Brave New Secular World
Three words that describe 21st century:
Global
Pluralistic
Secular
Effects of Secularism
 family re‐defined
 marriage re‐defined
 gender re‐defined
 morality has no fixed meaning
 what is next? “...without God…everything is permitted.”
*The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
17th Century
Christian values dominate
Thomas Hobbes Leviathan
In 2015 Secularism has Replaced Christianity’s Influence
How did this happen?
18th Century
The Bible is Attacked
Ferdinand Christian Baur
Tubingen School in Germany
19th Century
God is Attacked
Friedrich Nietzsche
“God is Dead”
Charles Darwin
When the Bible and God are abandoned, the effect is inevitable
20th Century—Mankind Attacked
World War I
World War II
Atheism’s Contribution
20th Century Consequences
Abortion
Terrorism The legacy of abandoning the Bible and God—the Descent of Humanity
 World War I,“the war to end all wars”
 Humanist Manifesto I
 World War II, the rise of Nazism
 Abortion on demand
 Terrorism
 Morality and truth become relative
 Sexual confusion
 Redefinition of family, marriage, parent, gender
Comparison of How Humanity is seen in 2015
Christianity
Made in image of God
(imago dei)
Fearfully, wonderfully made to know God
Secularism
Upright mammalian weeds
Lucky survivors of evolution
Welcome to the 21st Century‐‐
A Brave New Secular World
same‐sex marriage
a pregnant transgendered “man”
It was not hard to see it coming
“It is not difficult to anticipate a time in the near future when cohabitation by persons of the same sex will be afforded the same legal status as traditional, heterosexual marriage.”
God in the Chaos, Harvest House, 1991, p. 36
It was not hard to see it coming
“It is not difficult to anticipate a time in the near future when cohabitation by persons of the same sex will be afforded the same legal status as traditional, heterosexual marriage.”
John Stewart, God in the Chaos, Harvest House, 1991, p. 36
21st Century
A Post‐Christian World
 Modernism and Post‐Modern assumptions
 Moral relativity
 Skepticism
 Hatred of God
 Secular assumptions and values dominate
This describes many in the jury that we hope to reach with the truth of Christianity
Preparing to Reach the Jury in a Brave New Secular World
 Consider the jury’s worldview
 Expose bias
 Challenge jury to be open‐minded
Worldview of the Jury
Rooting Out Biases
Not everyone will be unbiased
The Response of the Church
to Growing Secularism
 Liberals– “If you can’t beat them, join them”
(they have become adept at identifying with
secularists, so you can’t tell them apart)
Evangelicals/Conservatives
Confined to the Holy Huddle
Results of the Holy Huddle
 Evangelicals/Conservatives‐‐“If you can’t beat
them, separate from them”
 Christians abandoned the public square
 Prophecy conferences replace evangelism
 Exclusively reading the Bible devotionally
 Failure to obey 1 Peter 3:15, Jude 3, etc.
Multiple Levels of Fumbles
 Parents don’t know how to train kids
 Churches don’t know how to train parents
 Pastors weren’t taught apologetics
 Seminaries glossed over apologetics
 Campus ministries geared toward fellowship and devotions, not intellectual challenges
Good News—A Renaissance in Christian Thinking has Emerged  Graduate degrees in apologetics offered
Apologetics material available online
Books, CDs, DVDs, MP3s available
Apologetic conferences springing up
 Debates between apologists and skeptics New campus apologetics clubs (Ratio Christi) emerging worldwide
For the Church
 We can win the battle and the war: “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
 We must equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, and that includes apologetics
(Eph 4:11‐12)
For the Individual Christian
 Study the Scriptures
 Know what you believe, and why you believe it
 Develop your critical thinking skills
 Learn to use evidence, reason and persuasion in presenting the gospel
 Do your homework, and you won’t have to worry about engaging skeptics
And as Peter reminds us:
“we did not follow cleverly invented stories… but we were eyewitnesses...” 2 Peter 1:16
Coming Tomorrow
Reaching Our Brave New Secular World, Part Two
“How to Make a Case for Christianity”
Resources
 www.RatioChristi.org
 www.RollingStoneMinistries.org
 www.RZIM.org
 www.STR.org
 www.Reasons.org
 www.ReasonableFaith.org
 www.Apologetics315.com
 www.CrossExamined.org
 www.ColdCaseChristianity.com
Bibliography
 Craig, William Lane. On Guard. David C. Cook, 2010
 Evans, Craig A. Fabricating Jesus (How Modern Scholars
Distort the Gospels). InterVarsity, 2006
 Geisler, Norman & Frank Turek. I Don’tt Have Enough
Faith to Be an Atheist. Crossway, 2004
 Habermas, Gary R. & Michael R. Licona. The Case for
the Resurrection of Jesus. Kregel, 2004
Bibliography (continued)
 Kinnaman, David. You Lost Me (Why Young Christians
Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith). Baker, 2011
 Kinnaman, David. unChristian. BakerBooks, reprint 2012
 Lennox, John C. God’s Undertaker—Has Science Buried
God? Lion Hudson, 2nd ed, 2009
 McDowell, Sean, Gen Ed. Apologetics for a Newe
Generation. Harvest House, 2009.
Bibliography (continued)
 Ross, Hugh. Why the Universe is the Way It Is.
BakerBooks, 2008
 Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ. Zondervan, 1998
 Strobel, Lee. The Case for Faith. Zondervan, 2000
 Wells, Jonathan. Icons of Evolution—Science or Myth?
Regnery, 2000
Additional Reading
 Any books by C.S. Lewis, F.F. Bruce, or John Warwick Montgomery
www.RatioChristi.org
The Biblical Mandate for the Believer
I Peter 3:15
Jude 3
Philippians 1:16
Philippians 1:7
Colossians 2:4, 8
2 Corinthians 10:4‐5
be ready to defend
strive for the faith
appointed to defend
defend and confirm
understand arguments
refute arguments
I Peter 3:15
 Be ready (“prepared”)
 On every occasion
 To make a defense (apologia)
 To all who ask you
 To account for the hope in you
Jude 3
 I felt compelled to write to you
 To appeal to you
 To fight (struggle, strive)
 For the faith once for all delivered
Philippians 1:16
 I am appointed
 For the defense (apologia) of the gospel
Philippians 1:7
 In the defense (apologia)
 And confirmation of the gospel
 You are partakers of grace with me
Colossians 2:4, 8
 I say this so that no one may delude you
 With persuasive argument
 See that no one takes you captive
 Through philosophy and empty deceit
2 Corinthians 10:4‐5
 The weapons of our warfare
 (are) for destroying arguments
 We are destroying sophistries
 Raised up against the knowledge of God
The Statistics
 Ever drop out of attending church  Been frustrated about own faith
 Went through period doubting faith  Felt like rejecting parents’ faith *Barna Group, 2011 as cited in
You Lost Me, Kinnaman, p. 24
61%
51%
41%
35%