Why you should know what you believe?

Importance of defense of faith with my life experience.

Every Christians as Christ had commanded ought to preach the gospel and fulfill the great commissions. Well, it was the final word of Jesus in the text of Matthew [28:18-20]. All those who were before us carried the gospel with the life and preached them to us. Here we are standing upon the tears of the leaders who risked their life for the sake of preaching gospel. Now, we live in modern society. The flow of knowledge has never been so strong in the entire history. Information are within the reach while wisdom has locked herself in the dark. So, how are we to preach the gospel of our Lord to these young generation who’s living in this modern era where the belief in God is considered as a delusion of the mind? That’s where Apologetics comes into play! In a word, it simply means “defense of faith.”

Okay, but isn’t depending on the spirit of God enough for us to preach? Clearly, reasoning rarely converted the people.  I completely agree to this, what apologetics does is not to “convert people” rather it plays the role in clearing the false assumption regarding the Christianity so that gospel can easily flow without any mental resistance. Stephen on his longest discourse accused the leader of “resisting Holy Spirit.” (Acts 7:51). Luke, who was indeed a medical doctor, he did not write gospel of Luke without doing any investigation [emphasize 1:1-4]. He did investigate and collect evidence of what had really happened before recording down. We have evidences of Paul reasoning with the Jews from the Jewish writing about the glorified Christ in the book of Acts. After resurrection, when Jesus came to visit his disciples, Thomas did not even believe unless he touched Jesus and verified himself. Jesus did not rebuke him for his doubt but allowed him for verification of his bodily resurrection. You see, if God want us to believe in him blindly, he’d not have given us the entire Bible. We are not just called to worship God but to become always ready to give answer to those who asks questions about our faith 1 Peter 3:15. We should know what we believe and why and do our best to give answer to the critics of our faith. Remember! Jesus never feared when his opponent fired the question at him.

Often time in our discussion with a Hindu or Muslim friend, we often say that we believe in the Bible and it is inspired Word of God and is true. We will believe it even if the evidence goes against it. But now when our Hindu and Muslim friend also says the same about their scripture then we may reject it. Here is a problem! If my friend says that Bhagavad Gita is most influencing spiritual book and is true, when I reject this notion then what basis do I have? Why am I saying that Bible is true but not the Gita? Doesn’t my friend also have right to believe in the Gita or the Quran as we do in the Bible? Think awhile! We then say, we are believing right but you are still in darkness. What basis we do have on this notion? If someone gives me response that even scientific investigations have proven the Biblical account and discredited claims of rest scripture, so we do believe the Bible! Now, that’s exactly what I am talking here! Defense of faith my friends. But another problem, when someone says that the Bible has been proven then he/she should also provide credible evidences of it. Please, don’t try building your castle on the air! Even a Hindu Brahmin says that modern science is influenced by their ancient scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, et al. We cannot refute them unless the evidence is being provided. The same formula goes to the Bible.  

During my high school days, some of my friends often used to claim that the Bhagavad Gita is very scientific and they had not found the Bible of such nature. I was puzzled with the issue of creation vs evolution, trinity, etc. I was almost in a situation of backsliding but what I did is not giving up. I involved in studies to know how far the Bible is credible to believe. I began my studies on comparative religions. I was a science student and it was even challenging to believe so many supernatural things of the Bible. The more I studied, the more I found reasons to say that Christianity is evidence based faith. Since then, I determined to give my life to gospel sharing and defending my faith. I found charity and happiness in sharing good news and defending the faith.

When I was converted to Christianity from Hinduism, I often had queries that how Jesus is different from other gods. I used to ask queries to church leaders and analyze myself too. There was a time, I was also a pantheist i.e. God is all, All is God. I had respect for pictures of gods and I used to depict animals as gods. Even when I used to go to church first time in my childhood age, I used to argue that animals are gods and church members used to laugh at me but with great politeness they used to say me that these animals are just animals for us brother. Their answer used to influence me a lot. I was a type of Vaishnava i.e. the tradition in Hinduism in which Vishnu is worshipped as Major God/Para Brahman. The Ramayana was my favorite movie. The most stunning fact is that I came to develop my interest in knowing Jesus not by reading tracts but from a man-made picture of Vishworoop of Krishna in which I saw head of Christ as well. The devotees of Sai Baba was praising Jesus as well! I should have gone to Bhagavad Gita since that time, but the picture made me to meditate on Jesus. That was my journey to knowing who he was...   

Since my conversion to Christ, I used to preach gospel wherever I used to go to my non-Christian relatives. I used to start by asking them a question: which god the one you worship had laid his life for your sins? Then I used to share gospel. Of course! The one who is strong in Hindu or Islam theology can object my question as I was a child that time with no studies at all. But today, as my study got increasing, my approach is also developing. First I study the worldview and then ask questions so that people can reflect on their faith. I then fill up the weakness in their faith by the completeness of gospel using different approaches. I first make a good platform and then I begin with comprehensible stories so that the people to whom we are sharing can easily grab the core idea of gospel. During my plus two level, I often used stories such as ‘The Gardener’, ‘The Selfish Giant’, superhero movie scenes, etc. to make an easy platform to understand gospel.

When a lion in a zoo has been tied, anyone can mock him and show his superiority to him but now when he is set free, his roaring is enough for the people to run away. Today Christian faith is under attack and mockery but when it is set free then its roaring is enough to sweep away its mockers and critiques. That’s apologetics. This field of defense is vast like ocean which touches different areas such as science, history, archaeology, psychology, philosophy, etc. When we know confidently that our faith is evidence based faith then who can dare to stand against us? This we should keep in our mind. Sharing gospel is not easy my friends, not easy. See how the Disciples of Christ laid their own life for his sake and how Paul did lay his whole life in defense of gospel.

Living a Christian life is not easy. We have to face challenges at every steps of our life. The road we are walking to get to our destination is not wider and pitched road rather narrow and filled up with hurdles where a single slip can ruin us, destroy us and snatch us away from God. We all face different life challenges, we all have times in our life when we lose hope, fall down in our knees, get backslide after having our faith attacked by our adversaries. Despite of all situation, we need to be strong, awake, alert, prayerful, holding to Jesus, always prepared to give defense of our faith and share gospel regardless of any persecution, uplifting one another, studying the Bible and having interaction, unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials but charity in all, motivating one another and finally stabilizing faith until our last breathe. Give some time for study and get to know what you believe and why. Explore why Christianity is evidence based faith and always prepare to defend your faith and hope you have in Jesus. Pray and encourage those who are enrolling in this ministry. We are called for different ministries by God to work together hand in hand.   

Note: In co-operation with Sabin Panta from Shankhamul, BCE at Pulchowk, Patan Koinonia Church