{"id":4066,"date":"2022-08-31T18:49:19","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T18:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/truthreallymatters.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=4066"},"modified":"2022-08-31T18:49:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T18:49:19","slug":"confronting-truth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/truthreallymatters.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=4066","title":{"rendered":"Confronting Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The task in evangelism \u2013 or, more specifically, apologetics \u2013 is to show someone that what he says <\/em>he believes is in conflict with what he knows <\/em>is true, in fact, in contradiction to what his whole life is telling him, if he were but to listen.<\/p>\n

This is one of the themes of Nancy Pearcey\u2019s book, Total Truth:\u00a0 Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity<\/em>, 2008.\u00a0 Pearcey was a student of Francis Schaeffer and, in her works, extends his principles of apologetics into our generation, quite deftly, I believe.\u00a0 She often makes use of Schaeffer\u2019s two-story diagrams (see my essays on Schaeffer), a model which explains the disconnect from reality that afflicts unbelievers in our present age.\u00a0 Briefly, the materialist worldview relegates all of life to a lower story where evolution and physics supposedly explain where we come from and how life works.\u00a0 When people defy materialism by searching for meaning, for purpose, they \u2018leap up\u2019 to an upper story for mythical or religious explanations, an irrational leap because in materialism we are simply molecules in motion \u2013 there is no meaning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Upper Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nonrational, Noncognitive<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Lower Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rational, Verifiable<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pearcey insists that \u201cit\u2019s so important that we do not put Christianity in the upper story \u2013 because then we will have nothing to offer to people trapped in the two-story dichotomy<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Rather, we must present the Christian faith as a \u201ccomprehensive, unified worldview that addresses all of life and reality.\u00a0 It is not just religious truth but total truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge in this generation, in the West, may be more difficult than ever, because there are so many layers of obfuscation permeating our culture.\u00a0 Traditionally, for example, evangelism would focus on a sinner\u2019s moral \u2018lostness\u2019 and expect him to worry about his standing before a holy God.\u00a0 Yet today many reject a transcendent moral standard; guilt may be viewed as a psychological problem requiring therapy, instead of necessitating repentance and forgiveness.\u00a0 Indeed, I have been disturbed to hear sermons in evangelical churches with just this perspective, that the real problem with \u2018sin\u2019 is that it makes you feel bad and that <\/em>is the problem!<\/p>\n

I once asked a youth director at a megachurch how they communicated the Gospel to the young people.\u00a0 She sought to assure me that they were careful to avoid even the terms sin <\/em>and guilt <\/em>with the young because of the distressing connotations.<\/p>\n

And yet moral guilt is real.\u00a0 God wired us to know it and unpacks the details in Scripture so that we find the one and only solution \u2013 salvation in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Furthermore, all of physical creation, along with the nuances of human life are explained fully and satisfyingly in the Bible.<\/p>\n

Pearcey:\u00a0 \u201cOur claim as Christians is that only a biblically based worldview offers a complete and consistent explanation of why we are capable of knowing scientific, moral, and mathematical truths.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Christianity is the key that fits the lock of the universe.\u201d\u00a0 I have written much on this web site to expand on this principle.\u00a0 For a quick exposition of a variety of applications, go to ThinkTracts.com<\/em><\/a> for our tract designs; each feature a particular aspect of life or science or history that makes sense only in light of Scripture.<\/p>\n

Unbelieving worldviews do not <\/em>make sense of life.\u00a0 Pearcey reflects one of Schaeffer\u2019s major themes concerning unbelievers, that \u201cthey will not be able to live consistently on the basis of their own worldview.\u00a0 Since their metaphysical beliefs do not fit the world God created, their lives will be more or less inconsistent with those beliefs.\u00a0\u00a0 Living in the real world requires them to function in ways that are not supported by their worldview.\u201d\u00a0 The evangelist can work to create a cognitive dissonance in order to provoke a hearing of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

I have used this principle many times.\u00a0 I use the argument employed in my tract, \u201cWho are you?\u201d, with atheists to provoke them to listen to the Gospel.\u00a0 Without the cognitive dissonance that can be generated within just a couple of minutes, they would have no patience to listen further.<\/p>\n

Early in the book, Nancy laments how we \u2018train\u2019 our children.\u00a0 At a Christian high school a theology teacher drew a heart on one side of the blackboard and a brain on the other, saying, \u201cThe heart is what we use for religion, while the brain is what we use for science.\u201d\u00a0 Only one student objected.\u00a0 The rest apparently accepted this \u2018two-story\u2019 distortion of reality.<\/p>\n

Pearcey warns that if all we give young people is a \u201cheart\u201d religion, they won\u2019t be strong enough to analyze and reject false ideologies.\u00a0 Rather, equip them with worldview and apologetics training . . . \u201ca Christian mind is no longer an option; it is part of their necessary survival equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2004 when she published the book\u2019s 1st<\/sup> edition, Pearcey observed that most secularists in the public square were too politically savvy to attack religion directly, but rather consigned \u2018faith\u2019 to the value <\/em>sphere, out of the realm of facts.\u00a0 They could pretend to respect religion, \u201cwhile at the same time denying that it has any relevance to the public realm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, however, the gloves are off.\u00a0 Attacking biblical Christianity is great sport and conducted on a moral <\/em>basis.\u00a0 Woke ideologies are deemed righteous and of such worth that they must be shoved down the throats of anyone who hesitates to bow down.\u00a0 Yet the strategy will arise when needed, when the anti-Christians find it useful to show a kind face.\u00a0 The fact\/value split <\/em>relegates the Christian faith to private feelings, not to be taken as genuine knowledge.<\/p>\n

Christians should be aware of this background, making sure to explain to unbelievers that we are asserting objective moral truths wired into the very fabric of God\u2019s universe, whenever we discuss sexuality or abortion or the other hot cultural issues.\u00a0 We\u2019re not attempting a political power grab.\u00a0 We are warning that God will hold His adversaries accountable.<\/p>\n

Pearcey does a nice exposition of the idea of worldview<\/em> \u2013 \u201cliterally a view <\/em>of the world<\/em>, a biblically informed perspective on all reality.\u00a0 A worldview is like a mental map that tells us how to navigate the world effectively.\u00a0 It is the imprint of God\u2019s objective truth on our inner life.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, the classical Marxist sees human behavior ultimately shaped by economics.\u00a0 The Freudian interprets actions as deriving from repressed sexual drives.\u00a0 The behavioral psychologist sees humans as stimulus-response machines.\u00a0 The Bible, however, sees every individual as made in the image of God, with free will and moral responsibility.<\/p>\n

Most of the early modern scientists, who established every major field of modern science, were Bible-believing Christians.\u00a0 Historian R. G. Collingwood writes, \u201cThe possibility of an applied mathematics is an expression, in terms of natural science, of the Christian belief that nature is the creation of an omnipotent God.\u201d\u00a0 Christians believe in an orderly universe, ordered by God-given and God-sustained rules.<\/p>\n

Today, American schoolchildren are taught a postmodern view of math, that math is a social construction, that it\u2019s man-made, arbitrary, and solutions can be derived by consensus.\u00a0 There are no wrong answers.\u00a0 Those that think so are likely racists.\u00a0 Pearcey met a young man, recently graduated from high school, whose teacher called him a bigot for thinking it was important to get the <\/em>right answer.<\/p>\n

Pearcey mentions Harry Blamires\u2019 1963 book, The Christian Mind,<\/em> which opens with the startling sentence, \u201cThere is no longer a Christian mind.\u201d\u00a0 What he meant was that there is no shared Christian worldview in the West, no biblically-based set of principles upon which to analyze law, education, economics, politics, science, or the arts.\u00a0 Christians may profess to follow Christ and read their Bibles, but they think <\/em>like secularists.\u00a0 We behave in our professions as if we are not different from non-Christians, we entertain ourselves with worldly entertainment, and we send our children off to Marxist, wokist schools.\u00a0 The megachurch culture is perfectly happy to attract professing Christians with shallow tickle-the-ear music, \u2018your-best-life-now\u2019 teaching, and programs that help you feel good without any spiritual growth . . . like charitable initiatives I like to call \u2018cheeseburgers for the homeless\u2019 that invariably neglect any actual Gospel outreach.<\/p>\n

Just today my wife engaged in a conversation with a megachurch member who was quite proud of their charitable outreach, but clueless about the missed opportunities to preach <\/em>the Gospel to the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

The biblical Christian sees no fact\/value split.\u00a0 Every part of creation and every nuance of life is informed by Scriptural truth.\u00a0 (See my 3-part essay in the Apologetics section on Cornelius Van Til to explore this in some depth.)<\/p>\n

Pearcey has some insight that reflects my \u2018fundie\u2019 experience.\u00a0 (We spent many years attending Independent Fundamental Baptist churches.)\u00a0 The fact\/value split can also be described as a sacred\/secular dualism, in which ordinary work is denigrated, while full-time salaried church work is glorified.<\/p>\n

During the Bush administration, Pearcey talked to a congressional chief of staff who complained that it was hard to find people to work in D.C. who were both serious Christians and competent professionals.\u00a0 The Christians who did come to Washington had been taught by their churches that if they were really serious about their faith they would have been in \u201cfull-time ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missionary (to India for 40 years) Lesslie Newbigin wrote that Christians in business, industry, politics, etc., are \u201cthe Church\u2019s front-line troops in her engagement with the world . . . Are we taking seriously our duty to support them in their warfare?\u00a0 Have we ever done anything seriously to strengthen their Christian witness, to help them in facing the very difficult ethical problems which they have to meet every day, to give them the assurance that the whole fellowship is behind them in their daily spiritual warfare?\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bob Briner\u2019s book Roaring Lambs<\/em> he recounts his student days at a Christian college, whose culture presupposed that the only way to really <\/em>serve God was in full-time Christian work.\u00a0 Anticipating a career in sports management he felt very much a second-class campus citizen.\u00a0 In my fairly considerable experience in fundie churches, I saw the same dualism.\u00a0 There was essentially no teaching and no respect for the work done by everyone who pays the bills.\u00a0 The overriding emphasis was to exhort young people to \u2018surrender to full-time ministry.\u2019<\/p>\n

There is so much <\/em>wrong and disgusting with this cultural attitude, which I unpack in some of my \u2018church\u2019 essays in the Discipleship section of this site.\u00a0 One obvious problem is that those who pay the bills in church via their \u2018secular\u2019 jobs get the message that evangelism and discipleship \u2013 the mission of the church \u2013 is solely the responsibility of the paid clergy.\u00a0 The Lord Jesus refers to this approach as Nicolaitinism . . . which He curses.<\/p>\n

A Christian view on work is that it is far more than just putting food on the table.\u00a0 Work is part of our calling from God.\u00a0 We serve God with our gifts, with our creativity that extends the work that God did in the first week of creation.\u00a0 We use \u201cwood to build houses, cotton to make clothes, or silicon to make computer chips.\u201d\u00a0 Our work is not ex nihilo<\/em>, of course, but it is crucial to our stewardship responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Once we realize that the Bible is TRUE, we are obligated \u2013 in gratitude for our salvation \u2013 to use all the gifts and energies God has granted us in every area of life.\u00a0 There is no sacred\/secular split.\u00a0 \u201cGod\u2019s Word becomes a light to all <\/em>our paths.\u201d\u00a0 Biblical truth must infuse our relationships, our business, our politics, our relaxation, and ignite a passion to reach out to others with the Gospel.<\/p>\n

Pearcey was disappointed at the simplistic analysis of an English literature course at her Christian college, which critiqued classic works by tabulating the acts of immorality and profane language.\u00a0 But why <\/em>and how<\/em> does secular literature drive the culture?\u00a0 What worldviews are embedded in the plots?\u00a0 Cannot we, as Christians, go deeper in discernment than merely to count cuss words?<\/p>\n

She cites Francis Schaeffer\u2019s compassion for secular artists caught in the trap of false worldviews, recognizing the despair in the lives of so many of the most famous ones.\u00a0 Schaeffer wrote that such works of art \u201care the expression of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness.\u00a0 Dare we laugh at such things?\u00a0 Dare we feel superior when we view their tortured expressions in their art?\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in worldly art we can see the creativity that reflects God\u2019s gifts in the image-bearer.\u00a0 Sin-laden art is a challenge that the Christian can respond to with answers.<\/em>\u00a0 Answers are far better than mere, simplistic condemnation or boycotts.\u00a0 Pearcey and Schaeffer call for Christians to move beyond criticizing <\/em>culture to creating <\/em>culture. \u00a0When we reach out to the lost we are obligated to employ excellent arguments, thoughtful and attractive tracts, and exhibit patience and compassion.<\/p>\n

I know a fellow who, to his credit, has been diligent to share the Gospel with the lost, but to his discredit, is tempted to anger at some of the responses he gets.\u00a0 No!\u00a0 How do you expect lost people to act, to think, to speak?\u00a0 They\u2019re in the Devil\u2019s spiritual trap and need help.\u00a0 Don\u2019t ever lose your temper when trying to rescue someone!<\/p>\n

In addition to being true<\/em>,\u00a0 the Gospel works.\u00a0 In 1996 Guenter Lewy wrote the book Why America Needs Religion<\/em>, although he started out to establish the opposite theme, a defense of secular humanism and ethical relativism.\u00a0 The evidence turned him completely around.\u00a0 He found that where Christianity informs the culture, we find less crime, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and broken families.\u00a0 Also, that the culture reflects considerably higher responsibility, moral integrity, compassion, and altruism.<\/p>\n

Lewy:\u00a0 \u201cContrary to the expectations of the Enlightenment, freeing individuals from the shackles of traditional religion does not result in their moral uplift . . . no society has yet been successful in teaching morality without religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, God\u2019s word reveals the principles by which human life flourishes . . . or degenerates.<\/p>\n

Pearcey argues that the sacred\/secular split is a Western malady.\u00a0 Christians in Africa, India, and the Middle East can easily understand that the Gospel transforms the entire human experience. \u00a0Persecution makes that clear.\u00a0 American evangelical churches focus their message on personal meaning, family bonding, emotional nurturing . . . the \u2018authentic inner life.\u2019\u00a0 And so, with western culture, government agencies and corporations are free to ramp up the persecution on the churches (during COVID, for example), and on individuals who don\u2019t conform to government or corporate policies, policies often created just to identify those who won\u2019t bend the knee.<\/p>\n

Steven Pinker of MIT is a leader in cognitive science and author of a best-selling book,\u00a0How the Mind Works<\/em>.\u00a0 His views on ethics illustrate perfectly the apologetic argument I employ in my tract \u201cWho are you?\u201d\u00a0 Pinker:\u00a0 \u201cEthical theory\u00a0 requires idealizations like free, sentient, rational, equivalent agents whose behavior is uncaused,\u201d <\/em>and yet, \u201cthe world, as seen by science, does not really have uncaused events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearcey rephrases Pinker this way:\u00a0 \u201cThe postmodern dilemma can be summed up by saying that ethics depends on the reality <\/em>of something that materialistic science has declared to be unreal.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Namely, in atheism there is no soul, no person.\u00a0 Yet we act as if we are persons, and hold each other accountable as if others are persons, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pearcey draws a two-story diagram for Pinker:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE ETHICS GAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

Humans Have Moral Freedom and Dignity<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

THE SCIENCE GAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

Humans are Data-Processing Machines<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recall that we can also term this the fact\/value split or the secular\/sacred split.\u00a0 In his day job, Pinker lives in the lower story, but then he goes home at night and takes an irrational leap to the upper story in order to relate to his wife and children.<\/p>\n

Marvin Minsky, also at MIT, famously said that the human mind is nothing but \u201ca three-pound computer made of meat.\u201d\u00a0 But he wrote in his book The Society of Mind<\/em>, \u201cThe physical world provides no room for freedom of will.\u201d And yet, \u201cthat concept is essential to our models of the mental realm.\u00a0 Too much of our psychology is based on it for us to ever give it up.\u00a0 [And so] We\u2019re virtually forced to maintain that belief, even though we know it\u2019s false.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That last statement is not just a startling admission from an atheist, it\u2019s also ridiculous on another level . . . how can the clump of molecules between his ears, wholly driven by deterministic brain chemistry, know <\/em>anything?\u00a0 Knowing <\/em>requires personhood.<\/p>\n

Pearcey challenges Christians to stand up to their responsibilities, not just to share the Gospel, but also \u201cto learn how to give reasons supporting the credibility of the gospel message.\u201d\u00a0 We must learn to translate \u201cChristian theology into contemporary language . . . demonstrating that it offers a more consistent and comprehensive account of reality.\u201d\u00a0 This is, of course, exactly what I\u2019ve tried to do throughout this web site and, in particular, in the design of our tracts at ThinkTracts.com<\/em>.\u00a0 These tracts also serve as tutorials for Christians on a variety of topics that might well come up in a 1-2-1 evangelistic encounter.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve made the point before \u2013 in order to raise up your children to embrace and contend for the faith, they must <\/em>engage in 1-2-1 evangelism and study up in apologetics.\u00a0 Or else.\u00a0 The Devil is a roaring lion who will devour them through the culture, through the universities, through their lost worldly friends.\u00a0 Train your children to see their lost friends as lost . . . in need of a strong Gospel witness.<\/p>\n

Pearcey challenges churches to embrace a mission to give what Francis Schaeffer called \u201chonest answers to honest questions.\u201d\u00a0 Train the people in apologetics and worldview analysis.\u00a0 The culture continues to progress in only one direction:\u00a0 more secular, more anti-Christian.\u00a0 It\u2019s a spiritual war.\u00a0 Let\u2019s fight with spiritual weapons.<\/p>\n

For example, applying the Christian worldview to education . . . our children are created in the image of God, and so have a capacity for qualities that have no basis in a materialistic \/ atheistic worldview, namely love, morality, rationality, artistic creation, and a yearning for meaning in life.\u00a0 We recognize that the Fall produced and produces sin and corruption; therefore, the Englightenment idea of a utopia apart from God, employing unaided reason, is foolish.\u00a0 Furthermore, we define an absolute morality, distinctions between right <\/em>and wrong,<\/em> in the Bible, not arbitrarily.\u00a0 \u201cEach child should understand that God has given him or her special gifts to make a unique contribution to humanity\u2019s task of reversing the effects of the Fall and extending the Lordship of Christ in the world.\u201d\u00a0 Teach the interconnections of all subjects and how they, like all truth, are grounded in God\u2019s truth.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Pearcey warns, many (Marxist) educators do not define education as helping students to acquire knowledge and gain skills, but rather to motivate and equip them as activists in approved social causes.\u00a0 The one good thing that came out of COVID was the dramatic rise in homeschooling as some parents woke up to public school corruption and pulled their children out.\u00a0 As of this writing, parents have not sent their kids back to that snake pit.<\/p>\n

Pearcey notes that those who deny Biblical creation also deny the Fall, and believe that sin and its effects can be social-engineered out of existence.\u00a0 This inevitably results in totalitarianism, as state power is used to force <\/em>people to fit into utopian schemes.\u00a0 Along the way, the family is destroyed lest there be competing loyalties.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll touch just one more theme before concluding.\u00a0 Total Truth <\/em>covers a lot of ground and I\u2019ve engaged on only a few themes.\u00a0 She has a wonderful chapter entitled, \u201cDarwin meets the Berenstain Bears,\u201d quoting atheist Daniel Dennett who calls Darwinism a \u201cuniversal acid,\u201d referencing a children\u2019s riddle about an acid so corrosive that it eats through everything, including its container.<\/p>\n

Pearcey:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe point is that Darwinism is likewise too corrosive to be contained.\u00a0 It spreads through every field of study, corroding away all traces of transcendent purpose or morality.\u201d\u00a0 Darwinism, according to Dennett, \u201cleaves in its wake a revolutionized worldview.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearcey had bought a science book for her little boy Michael, The Bears\u2019 Nature Guide, <\/em>and was shocked to see a two-page spread with a dazzling sunrise with the bold words, \u201cNature is all that IS, or WAS, or EVER WILL BE!\u201d\u00a0 This was clearly taken from Carl Sagan\u2019s documentary wherein he proclaimed, \u201cThe Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the war is upon us.\u00a0 The Adversary is bold and relentless.\u00a0 We can choose to contend or let him run roughshod over us, our children, and our entire culture.\u00a0 Nancy blunders a bit in her analysis in this chapter, though.\u00a0 She opines, \u201cWe must learn how to bring God back into the sphere of rational discussion \u2013 to win a place at the table of public discourse.\u201d\u00a0 She\u2019s wrong because the enemy owns even the table <\/em>today, dominating every institution under the sun.\u00a0 What Christians can do is what they have always been charged to do under the Great Commission:\u00a0 Proclaim the Gospel 1-2-1, personally, boldly, compassionately, and relentlessly.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t whine about how the wokists control Facebook and Twitter and the public school system and . . . everything else.\u00a0 Open your mouth, share the Gospel, hand out tracts, go door-to-door . . . do what Jesus told you to do.\u00a0 Rinse.\u00a0 Repeat.<\/p>\n

I strongly encourage you to buy the book.\u00a0 The last two chapters are among the best pieces I\u2019ve ever read on apologetics:\u00a0 Chapter 12 \u2013 \u201cHow Women Started the Culture War,\u201d and Chapter 13 \u2013 \u201cTrue Spirituality and Christian Worldview.\u201d\u00a0 But I won\u2019t review those chapters here.\u00a0 I won\u2019t spoil it for you!<\/p>\n