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
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