Sometimes it seems like we are trying to convince ourselves that we believe the truth, and so we raise the volume and lash out. Nate Williams offers an alternative way of looking at things.
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Sometimes it seems like we are trying to convince ourselves that we believe the truth, and so we raise the volume and lash out. Nate Williams offers an alternative way of looking at things.
Website: www.dangerousfaith.net
YouTube: Dangerous Faith
Rumble: Dangerous Faith
Instagram: nwdangerousfaith
Twitter: @FaithDangerous
Facebook: @NWDangerousFaith
Nick Williams here, glad to be with you. This is the Dangerous Faith Podcast and I have some advice for my fellow Christians. We got to stop living in fear. We have to stop being afraid because one thing I've noticed in cultural conversation we talk about having the truth, we talk about worshiping God, of truth and the Bible's true and true this and true that and true all the rest. But the way we live, we live in fear. We have this mindset of almost trying to convince ourselves that what we believe is true. So we fight on social media, we fight other Christians, we debate and argue endlessly and we reach this fever pitch of and almost I get the sense that we're not really trying to convince other people, we're trying to convince ourselves that we're not wasting our life.
Speaker 1:The Bible's worth following. God does exist and we really have to be careful. So, for example, I think of God. You know God is true. We say that a lot. God is truth.
Speaker 1:So imagine truth being a city. So truth is a city. We believe we live there, we believe we know the city and all that. Okay, so in this analogy, truth is a city. Now let's say we go outside the city and we're trying to tell people about the city. Hey, come, live in the truth, come be in the truth and enjoy life there. But people say, no, oh, truth doesn't exist, I don't want to go there because I hate truth, all those things. So, in this analogy, people are rejecting our efforts to tell them about the truth. We can choose to get mad or we can simply say, okay, all I can do is tell the world about the truth, all I can do is talk to people about it. But what they do on their end, that's really none of my concern. As long as I'm gracious and kind, as long as I make the effort, as long as I present the evidence, well, I don't have to get mad at you if you don't believe in the city, if you don't want to go there. Or maybe you believe in the city, you just think it's a bad city and you don't want to spend your days there. Okay, well, after that I'm, I don't have to worry so much.
Speaker 1:And so sometimes, again, like I said, with our evangelism and sometimes with our social media behavior, we almost like we think that we have to do it all to persuade people and we have to argue and yell people into the kingdom and we don't have to do that. So I've decided to look at truth in this way. It's like a path leading to the city. I want to, you know, put my arm around you metaphorically, have to be careful in today's day and age. Metaphorically, put my arm around you and walk with you to the truth. I am not threatened if you say no. I am not threatened if you try to present evidence that the city of truth doesn't exist, I can say all right, I'd like to do this, but if you don't want to walk with me, that's okay. I'm not pressed, I'm not offended, I'm not insulted.
Speaker 1:I think that is a good point we need to make about evangelism is that people always talk about defending the truth, and I know this is interesting because I do consider myself, whether I'm an apologist or an apologetics enthusiast, whether it's a part of my job or it's my hobby, whatever, I love apologetics. But the truth does not need to be defended in that if I don't defend it, well, it doesn't exist. No, the city exists, whether or not I could do a terrible job of defending the truth, but it'll still be there. You know, shame on me, but also, it'll still be there. And it's almost like for Christians, particularly with politics, where the louder we shout, the louder we scream, it like, makes what we believe true. It's this herd mentality of our voice is stronger than your voice, and that's what will win the day. No, it won't. What will win the day is the fact that God is true and what we believe is true, regardless of whether we're persuasive or not. So I think that's an evangelistic mindset we need to have. Yeah, you can defend the truth, but don't press yourself.
Speaker 1:I think of you know a verse we live in fear with how we go about our lives. I'm looking at all the verses before me that say don't be afraid, you know. Isaiah 41, verse 10, fear not, for I'm with you. Deuteronomy 31, verse 6, be strong and courageous, do not fear or be in dread of them, meaning enemies. Joshua 1, verse 9, have I not commanded you Be strong and courageous, don't be frightened. Going down to Psalm 27, verse 1, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is nobody. John 14, verse 27,. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. And then this next part let not your hearts be troubled and then ding, ding, ding. Neither let them be afraid.
Speaker 1:If God exists, if the Bible's true, if this city exists in this analogy, wonderful, I'm going to tell people about it. I'd love to walk people through it in minor ways. I'll defend it and I'll put forward good evidence. But ultimately I'm not pressed if no one else believes. Christianity is not true based on numbers. That's not how truth works.
Speaker 1:You can go back through the history of science and how, in the beginning, depending on the science topic, the medical or technological invention or the theory, whatever, at first you only have a couple people and then, as time goes on, you'll have more and more people believe in whatever it is we're talking about, whether it's germs or the way the earth moves around the sun, whatever it is, eventually more and more people believe it. But in the beginning, when it's just one or two or five, ten, a hundred people, did it make the idea, the statement, the invention More or less true. Well, the number of people believing in it had nothing to do with the truth. It was either true or was he either false. So don't evangelize out of fear. We got to stop that. You offer to walk people to the city of truth, to God Himself. But if they don't go with you, that's okay. You can't make them.
Speaker 1:And this is where, again, being an apologetics enthusiast, this is where, if you brush up on your apologetics and you look at the evidence for what you believe, you look at all the aspects of miracles, whether resurrection, near-death experiences, whether it's again the transmission of the Bible, that for the most part the field of textual criticism shows us that what we have today is almost nearly identical to what we had thousands of years ago. When it comes to prophecies that are fulfilled in the life of Jesus, evidence for the existence of God, there are lots there. You can go from the moral argument to the cosmological argument, to different design arguments. There is so much pointing to the truth of our faith that if you don't believe me, I'm okay with, like, I'll pray for you and I'll appropriately try to follow up. But I'm not really pressed, I'm not afraid, I'm not like oh man, you see things differently than I do. And this is where, getting to the next part of what I'm saying, some people might get mad at me. Then I don't mind. But really I'm not gonna talk about Calvinism and free will here. So just know I'm not heading in that direction, but I really don't blame people for not being Christians, at least at first.
Speaker 1:Imagine you grow up in an atheistic household. You believe no such thing as miracles, bibles full of myths, all that. All religions are false. Well, if I tell you about a book that has a talking donkey, talking serpent people come back from the dead waters turned into wine on its face, based on the way you grew up, you're gonna think that's ridiculous. You're gonna think that's silly. Now I hope you take the time to hear me out and we can have a great conversation. But if initially you say, yeah, that's dumb, I don't really blame you If you don't grow up in Christian circles and all you hear about the church is the scandals, let's say you know from the Catholic Church to the Southern Baptist Convention.
Speaker 1:You hear about the ridiculous and I'm gonna be honest evil prosperity preachers and you see how they take people's money and it's awful. You look at Again, scandals, hill song, and we recently on this podcast talked about shiny, happy people on Amazon and its strengths and weaknesses. If that's all you know of the church, why would you want to become a Christian? So again, all of this is to say both part one and part two, using the analogies that I've used, or not. I don't blame people for not being Christians if all they know is some of the things that are popular in social media. So for our evangelists out there, missionaries, evangelists, everyday Christians at their jobs, if at first you share the gospel and there's this negative reaction, don't get offended Again.
Speaker 1:Don't think that what you believe is less true just because someone doesn't immediately fall on their knees and accept Christ. No, we have the truth, but it's different and sometimes it's weird if you didn't grow up in those circles. Let's take communion, for example. I saw something on Twitter where it was like the way it was put. It was caricatured. It wasn't portrayed accurately, but I understand it was kind of sarcastic and mocking. It was communion is cannibalism drinking someone's blood, eating their body, and it's this, you know, I guess, dead person. So you get into that. Gross Again, not accurate, but I grew up in the church so some of those things don't really bother me.
Speaker 1:But if you didn't grow up in the church, you might look at that and be like, oh gross, I don't want to be a Christian. Please to keep in mind your rejection if I think I messed up how I said that your rejection there we go of the faith has nothing to do with it being true or not, and we as Christians have to understand that at first blush we do believe some odd things and I'd imagine heaven and hell, particularly hell. It's not going to be a popular doctrine, so don't be discouraged when at first people don't listen to you. Keep at it. Pray for them, look for continued opportunities to evangelize and leave the results with God. And again, I know, bringing in Calvinism I used to be a Calvinist and Arminism or Molanism, yeah. Yeah, that could add nuances to what I'm saying, but again, I'm not going in that direction.
Speaker 1:Evangelize, don't do it to convince yourself, because it's either true or it's not true, and numbers don't decide whether or not Christianity is real and true. Do it because you have the truth and you want to share it with people. You want to guide people to the city, and if they don't want to go with you on that journey, that's okay. Don't do it out of fear. Don't do it out of any of those motivations that aren't anything other than love for your neighbor. Now, I would say, any evangelism is better than no evangelism at all that's true, but the best reason is out of love, because you love your neighbor, your coworker, your fellow student at your school. That's why you evangelize.
Speaker 1:Anyways, those were just some apologetics thoughts that we don't need to get so heated and argumentative. I love a good natured debate, but even then that can extend too far and become fruitless. Be discerning, be a good listener, tell your story, share the faith. After that, if people want to walk with you to the city of truth, walk with you to know our God, god Almighty, our Heavenly Father, who we love dearly, sent Jesus Christ down to earth to die for our sins. If they want to know, wonderful. But if they think it's ridiculous, they think it's dumb or silly, I get that if they're new to hearing these things. Stay with it, stay faithful and again lead the results to God, who knows all things, who loves us, and it'll be what it'll be. We trust Him.
Speaker 1:I like to know your thoughts on this. I'm open to being wrong. I often am. If you ask my wife and let me know. Through our website, dangerousfaithnet, you can reach out to us through email. We also have various social media accounts, dangerousfaith. You can find us there, follow, like, share, subscribe, all that jazz and we'll talk with you. Later Next week we'll have another episode for you.