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Making rounds one morning, a doctor points out
an X-ray to a group of UNC* medical students.

"As you can see," he says, "the patient limps because
his left fibula and tibia are radically arched.

Bernie, what would you do in a case like this?"

"Hmmnn...," ponders the student, "Yes... I suppose I'd limp too."

________
*UNC is the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Specializing in a wide range of degree programs including:
B.A. A.H.F.(Advanced Hamburger Flipping), A.P.E., B.R.C.
(Bar Room Conversations), etc. Institution was founded in 1898
for sons/daughters of local Chapel Still politicians that were
unable to qualify for the more prestigious institutions of higher
learning such as Duke, Wake Forest, and N.C. State.
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A Cultural Cold Front
Bashing Religion


November 29, 2006


Perhaps you've noticed a chill in the air this autumn. No, I'm not talking about the weather. Maybe you shared with a colleague your religious convictions, and in return, you received a look that would blow the leaves off a tree.

It doesn't take a meteorologist to read the forecast. A quick glance at the New York Times's bestseller list will do. High on the list is Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. One reader describes the book as "a wonderful source of ammunition for those who, like me, hold to no religious doctrine." Another reader jubilantly gushes, reading the book "was like sitting ring side, cheering the champion, yelling 'Yes!' at every jab." The barrel of the gun and the sting of the fist, however, are aimed directly at Christians.

Further down the list of pugilistic bestsellers is Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion, weighing in at 416 pages of hot air. Even Publishers Weekly rightly cautions readers, "For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe." Publishers Weekly continues: "While Dawkins can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of the rhetoric: [According to Dawkins] the biblical Yahweh is 'psychotic,' Aquinas's proofs of God's existence are 'fatuous' and religion generally is 'nonsense.'"

In a recent interview with Wired News, Dawkins said, "At some point there is going to be enough pressure that it is just going to be too embarrassing to believe in God." Certainly if books like The God Delusion succeed in heaping "fatuous," "delusional," and "nonsensical" epithets on believers, some Christians will choose to remain silent rather than face derision.

But it's not simply the streams of the book market that are swollen with icy scorn for Christians. Recently the New York Times ran a week-long series on church and state. With titles like, "Where Faith Abides Employees Have Few Rights," and "As Exemptions Grow Religion Outweighs Regulation," there's little doubt that Christians are in for a season of harsh criticism, if not outright scorn. So how ought we to prepare ourselves for what may be a long winter of cultural disdain?

First of all, the situation isn't new, and neither is the answer. The Apostle Paul, a former Christ-scoffer, responded to pressures of his day by reaffirming: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for all those who believe: first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile" (Romans 1:16). In 1 Peter 2:15, a favorite verse of mine, Peter instructed us to silence the ignorant talk of foolish men by doing good.

The truth of the matter is that the ones heaping derision on Christians are probably the ones who most need our prayers. So, in the end, maybe the best way to prepare for this cold front is by fanning the coal of our own devotion to Christ through good works. If our lives are aflame with care for the least, the last, and the lost, the kind of thing we do here at Prison Fellowship, perhaps even the coldest hearts will thaw.

And don't let this anti-Christian barrage intimidate you. Just keep making the case for a biblical worldview ever more winsomely. And if you need worldview materials, visit us here at our website.




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Communicating in Context
Ravi Zacharias

One of my Old Testament professors in seminary was blessed not only with
fine expository and oratorical skills, but also with a sharp wit. He was
renowned throughout the seminary community for his biting one-liners that
generally evoked much laughter, as long as the class was not on the
receiving end of the barb.

Among his witticisms that stand out in my memory is one he repeated a
dozen times each semester, as he waxed eloquent on the need to return to
genuine expository preaching: "Keep your finger on the verse." By this he
warned the would-be preacher not to stray from the passage under study.
While that reminder was well received in theory, the dark clouds of
despondency would descend upon the student preacher who finished his or
her sermon and sat down to await the professor's verdict. The moment of
truth would arrive as the professor would mount the platform, level his
gaze at his meekly seated victim and say, "Great sermon; poor text." The
indictment brought anguish, for it meant that the ideas which had been
expounded, though wonderful, had not emerged from the text.

All presenters of the gospel must heed this educator's caution. Often
audiences are subjected to a barrage of ideas that betray more the pet
peeve or preoccupation of the speaker than they do the intention of the
text. But any text wrenched from its context is in danger of becoming a
pretext. Which of us is not familiar with the discomforting ploy often
used in prayer meetings where the object of a prayer is to stab the
conscience of someone within earshot, rather than to touch the heart of
God? As certain as we are that the intention of such a prayer is woefully
wrong, so equally certain we may be of the fallacy of an exposition that
has nothing to do with the text.

It is good counsel to the communicator and sound wisdom to stay with the
theme. But as an apologist I dare say there is another equally important
side to this whole issue. It is also vitally important to know the
audience. "Keep your finger on the text--and your ear to the
audience." To ignore the latter could well elicit the indictment:
"Great sermon; wrong crowd."

This ever-present challenge of contextual pertinence was brought home to
me with extraordinary force during a visit to Greece. I remember the
emotions that swarmed within me as I stood on Mars Hill. In the
background was the imposing Acropolis--that rugged protrusion of rock upon
which Pericles built the structures that he hoped would bespeak the glory
of Greece. Still standing in its battered but timeless splendor are the
pillars of the Parthenon, the temple of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
The whole pursuit of philosophy has since, in theory, represented the love
of wisdom. To these parts came Greece's most prominent personalities,
including Alexander the Great who had studied under Aristotle. To Greek
culture, this was sacred terrain.

In the foreground was the Agora, the market place that in Paul's time
throbbed with the sounds of the footsteps and the noise of buyers and
sellers. The book of Acts tells us that Paul engaged the best of them in
debate. And at the base of Mars Hill is a huge bronze plaque with the
words of Paul's famed Mars Hill address, recorded for us in Acts 17.
It is a still stirring sermon that he once delivered to Stoics and
Epicureans, among others. He began by saying, "Men of Athens! I see that
in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked
carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this
inscription: To An Unknown God. Now what you worship as something unknown
I am going to proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23).

Parenthetically, I might add that there was not just one altar to an
unknown god, but scores of them. The history of how these altars came to
be is fascinating. Six hundred years earlier this city had been smitten
by a dreadful plague, and the people had sought desperately for ways to
arrest its spread. The poet Epimenedes devised a detailed plan to appease
the gods, and hundreds of sheep were set free from the Areopagus. Whenever
any sheep lay down, it was immediately consigned to the nearest altar and
sacrificed to the god for whom that altar stood. If perchance there was
no altar nearby, one was erected to "An Unknown God," and the sheep was
sacrificed there.

Such was the backdrop to these expressions of ignorance and fear. Yet,
there was possibly a philosophical underpinning to such confessed
agnosticism. One of Plato's oft repeated reminders to his students was
that the true mark of learning was to recognize where one was ignorant.
Thus, Paul deftly harnessed both the weakness of their religion and the
strength of their philosophy to point to the one who is omniscient--God as
revealed in Christ. He alone was the answer for both the weak and the
strong. Paul was keenly aware of his context, and with compelling
relevance he won their hearing. Some influential men and women made their
commitment to Christ that day, and the Church was established in Athens on
firm footing. What you worship as something unknown, I proclaim to you as
known: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of
heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands" (Acts
17:24).

From Athens to modern times, the challenge remains the same: Keep your
finger on the verse and give ear to the cries of the mind and heart, ever
being aware of the dislocation of the will. For this condition only the
Spirit is strong enough, and gentle enough, to effect change. The altars
to unknown gods are still with us today, but in God's power we can
proclaim the truth of Christ among us, and merit the exultant one-liner:
"Great sermon; right audience. What a God!"


Ravi Zacharias is founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International
Ministries.

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