Transcript for Live Chat
... one of the hardest challenges in sharing Christ... how do you tell people who don't care?
Fritzpw says, Hello everyone. We are so glad you could join us tonight with our special guest Dale Fincher. Dale works with the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries team and is a speaker and professional actor. He has the amazing ability to bring the arts and apologetics together. So sit back and enjoy our event and ask Dale your pressing questions.
You can use these links to jump to a specific question and Dale's answer:
hammygotcha asks, What is the biggest challenge for Christians today?
Dale Fincher says, I think the biggest challenge today is the same as it has been for the church through the centuries... to live holy lives. But in our culture it becomes a bit confusing. On the one hand you have those who talk a lot about being 'real' and on the other hand you have people who talk a lot about getting the doctrines straight. Sometimes it seems that neither ever talks to one another about doing both at once. So if we can actually love God will all of our minds and at the same time REALLY believe it and live it, we'll be doing well. I think many non-believers don't want to be a Christian because they see this split. If we can challenge ourselves to understand the truth and live it, we'll be meeting the challenge of today's culture well.
Hammygotcha asks, What is the biggest flaw in the thinking of atheists and agnostics?
Dale Fincher says, well, we all have flaws, don't we? We don't want to pretend that it's always the 'other guy.' Let me give a couple of definitions...
An atheist is one who is not a 'theist' or, in other words, one who does not believe in God.
An agnostic is one who does not 'know' that God exists one way or the other.
The agnostic is a bit against the boards in his debate because in arguing, he is usually claiming to KNOW something, namely, that he does not KNOW. That's a problem. Now an agnostic doesn't like this told to him. It's understandable why...who would? But that's the agnostic's problem.
As for atheists, they are making a POSITIVE claim that God does NOT exist. That's a mighty high claim...for he has to prove a ton of stuff. Usually the atheist or agnostic will say, "Well, I'm not convinced by the theist claim, therefore I'm not going to believe. That's just a cheap out which brings me to another point... for the agnostic, atheist, Christian, and any human... the important thing for all of us is honesty. Are we honest with the facts placed before us. Or as Dallas Willard would put it, "Do you even want Christianity to be true?" If yes, then let's talk facts....if not, then why bother talking at all.
Fritzpw announces, Want to learn more about Ravi Zacharias International Ministries? Click here
Fritzpw announces, The message, "Why I Am Not An Atheist", from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has been running in our top 10 most popular messages for almost a month now. Listen to it yourself and see why it holds so much interest with the rest of our visitors. Click Here
Fritzpw announces, Be sure to check out the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries website for more information about their ministry as well as book recommendations. http://www.rzim.org
Kagrol asks, Do you believe that the events in Genesis, such as a global flood, happened literally as described?
Dale Fincher says, Let's look at this a couple of ways... In interpreting any passage in Scripture, we must bear in mind the genre of the passage. Genesis is a book of history that is written as narrative. It is not a book of poetry. Poetry would bring in devices such as metaphor, allegory, etc. However, Genesis is not poetry... so my first answer is that by the very nature of the text, no matter how you interpret it, it can't be figurative.
My second way of looking at it: what are the LITERAL options? It seems the intent of God was to wipe out everybody that basically took up arms against Him. In order to do that he doesn't have to cover the globe with water but he could cover it with water and that would suit his purposes. I'm not a geologist, but I do know there has been evidence from fossil records to indicate strange assortments of animals all found in the same geological layers which indicate something catastrophic happened. Finally, if God created the whole world, creating a flood to cover it would be no big deal.
Kagrol asks, Doesn't the placement of the Tree of Knowledge in Eden amount to putting bricks under hats on the sidewalk? How could an almighty deity get upset over something he preordained?
Dale Fincher says, The nature of this question resides around the free will of human persons. Did God preordain that Adam and Eve would actually eat the fruit? It doesn't seem like in the Genesis account. God tells Adam, "If you eat of that fruit, you will die." Seems plain and simple. He doesn't take Adam by the hand, escort him over to the tree, (pick up the hat with bricks under it), and then cram the fruit in his mouth. The very nature of the way God made humans was with the ability to have free choices. The bad side of this is that we can choose to take up arms against God, which is what Adam did. The good side of this is that we can actually love God.
Love is a cheapened word in our culture... We sprinkle it in our loves songs, we talk about it in our movies, but we rarely have the true import of the meaning of that word... God takes the risk for us to have free will and decided to take the bad side of it if we chose to resist him. In giving us freedom, he took upon himself the Cross. The Cross is where love is best played out, a dramatic masterpiece of the high courtesy of heaven: giving His life for ours.
Dostoevsky said that there is a war between heaven and hell and the battleground is the hearts of men. It is a moral battle: choose for God or against Him. There is no middle ground. He never intended there to be.
Tabby2002 asks, how can you incorporate apologetics in a career where everyone else is a non-Christian and doesn't want to hear about our faith? What can one do to witness in this case?
Dale Fincher says, Great question! What better place to incorporate apologetics than in a career where you can use it to share your faith. It is a difficult culture we live in today. It used to be that a hundred years ago everyone behaved in a Christian manner and basically believed Christian ideas. The only difference was that some were going to heaven and some weren't. So they had tent-meeting revivals so that everyone understood clearly what was going on. Today you can't have those tent-meeting revivals because nobody even cares. I think this is one of the hardest challenges in sharing Christ... how do you tell people who don't care? What did Jesus say? "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." Jesus didn't seem to bother with people who didn't care but he welcomed all who did. I think if you want to be effective in a non-believing environment, you need to live what you believe. You need to be equipped in your mind and know why you believe. Then, when somebody finally cares about their life and life everlasting, you'll be ready for them. In my own experiences, it has been love, more than argument that has drawn me to God. If you love the people you work with, that will be the best apologetic.
People have different ideas on what it means to share their faith. Some think you need to get in peoples faces and force people to make decisions right away. Others think you need to just back off and let people come to you. I think there should be a mix of the direct and the indirect method. Sometimes it is good to just be assertive and ask people questions. Ask them about what they think about life, origins, morals, etc. Sometimes just asking questions opens doors of opportunities. So be direct and indirect, however the situation allows... but make sure they see you as a loving, caring person, like Christ is, else your words run the risk of being poorly received.
Fritzpw announces, Want to learn more about Ravi Zacharias International Ministries? Click here
Fritzpw announces, The message, "Why I Am Not An Atheist", from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has been running in our top 10 most popular messages for almost a month now. Listen to it yourself and see why it holds so much interest with the rest of our visitors. Click Here
Fritzpw announces, Be sure to check out the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries website for more information about their ministry as well as book recommendations. http://www.rzim.org
Godsmercyonme asks, I believe in my mind that Christianity is real. But sometimes I have a problem believing it in my heart. My mind says yes, but my heart says remember when. I can I reconcile the two?
Dale Fincher says, I think this is an excellent question because there are many who struggle in this way in that they see the facts and they read the Bible and believe it's true... but they just don't feel it. There are also those who believe in their heart but have a hard time making sense of it in their minds. I've also had this struggle and I think it is a problem near to many people. The relationship between God and man is interesting. Some people say that if you can't 'feel' God, he must not be close. Others will say that if you aren't having some sort of 'spiritual experience' with God (whatever that means) then you aren't really walking the way you're supposed to. But I don't find this to be the case.
Job knew God and he understood God's ways. God was silent to Job for 37 chapters and suddenly, God shows up in a mighty whirlwind. God was near, God was listening, Job knew that, but he couldn't really feel it.
David also had similar experiences. But he said, "When I am afraid (heart emotion), I will trust."
I do know that sometimes God feels far from us when we are actually struggling with sin. Listen to Suzanna Wesley instructing her sons:
"Sin is whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes away your relish for spiritual things."
I know that, for me personally, when I've struggled with sin, sometimes my perceptions of God changes, even though I believe it all in my head. So examine your heart, be terribly honest with yourself before God, and see what comes up.
One more thing... God wants us to choose him readily and so he sometimes removes his 'felt' presence from us so that our wills become stronger in following him. Like a father telling his child to jump into his arms, so God also, in all of his nearness, lets our hand go so that we will choose to walk. C. S. Lewis in the Screwtape Letters says that the Devil's job is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending to do the will of God, looks around upon a universe in which every trace of Him seems to have vanished and then asks, 'Why have I been forsaken?' and yet still obeys. What a wonderful God we have, that wants not just our minds, but our hearts to be built up to be completely His.
Kagrol asks, If one religion is objectively correct, should most people not tend to follow that religion when all outside influences are absent? Why does Christianity require physical witness if it is spiritually true?
Dale Fincher says, Let's say there was only one religion in the whole world, would people then follow it? I don't think so. I think that when it comes to the human drama with God, we don't have to follow him if we choose not to (and we must live with the consequences). Of course that may be the invention of a whole new religion, call it humanism or whatever. I think the human condition is such that no matter how much truth or wisdom a person has, his head alone doesn't make him follow it. It must include the heart and a willingness to follow: intent must be prior to content.
As for Christianity's physical witness... I believe Christianity is true, but in physical and spiritual sense. To make that separation, I believe, is to misunderstand what God is telling us in the Bible. Jesus physically rose from the dead. If it's not physical, then what's the point of all this talk about Jesus? Paul said, "Our faith would be in vain if Jesus did not rise." God goes the extra mile in showing us that spiritual realities have physical evidences.
Ibtrying2 asks, Can you tell us a bit about the objectives of the International Ministries you work for?
Dale Fincher says, I'm glad you asked. :o) You can find out all the info at our site http://www.rzim.org but I'll tell you in nutshell. We want to reach thinkers, skeptics, and other cultural influences with the claims of Jesus Christ. We want to challenge them to think about those claims in light of the truth. We want to speak specifically to those in universities, politics, business, and the arts because those seem to be the places where the culture is being shaped. If these institutions came to the light of the Jesus, imagine the different kind of place our world would become. I think, in the past, people think of evangelism or missions in terms of reaching the poor or the down-trodden. I think that we are right in reaching those people but all people who don't know Jesus are poor and downtrodden, no matter what's in their pocketbooks. So we want to help tear down the defenses that are keeping them from seeing Jesus for who he is and then make their decision accordingly.
Fritzpw announces, Want to learn more about Ravi Zacharias International Ministries? Click here
Fritzpw announces, The message, "Why I Am Not An Atheist", from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has been running in our top 10 most popular messages for almost a month now. Listen to it yourself and see why it holds so much interest with the rest of our visitors. Click Here
Fritzpw announces, Be sure to check out the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries website for more information about their ministry as well as book recommendations. http://www.rzim.org
Tabby2002 asks, I have been told that it's not fair to say "What would Jesus do" in situations we are faced with, because we can never measure up to Him. What is your take on this?
Dale Fincher says, Interesting point. I want to be careful here, because I know that the WWJD slogan has been very helpful to many people but when I look at it in particular details, it starts to go against what I find in Scripture. We don't want to be people who merely have 'good behavior.' (This is what the What would Jesus Do trend tends to focus on.) We know that good behavior is not all the Bible tells us about. Jesus talks a ton about Kingdom living in the Gospels and he seems to be saying not, 'behave rightly,' but rather 'be the right kind of person.'
What kinds of thoughts would Jesus have?
What kind of character?
What kind of view of the world?
As Christians we are to be about our Father's business and think His thoughts after him. This is more than mere behavior. It seems the slogan would be better served if it said, "Who would Jesus BE?" Or in our case, "What kind of person should I be?"
As for the second part of the question... while we can never measure up, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be growing in that direction. Just like, even though we won't know everything about the universe doesn't mean we shouldn't study science at all. We must build and grow our souls so that we become the kind of person Jesus was. Dallas Willard has a great new book on this called "Renovation of the Heart." I think this would help anyone who wants to look more seriously at this issue. I think we need to be really thinking about these issues for Jesus wants us to be a certain kind of person (behavior will be part of that), but he doesn't want us to focus on behavior alone.
Fritzpw says, Thanks so much for chatting with us tonight Dale. Are you interested in the book that Dale mentioned, "Renovation of the Heart"? Click Here
Fritzpw says, Thanks for coming everyone!
Fritzpw says, Don't miss our next scheduled chat with Carman on Friday, June 27 at 9 p.m. ET.
Fritzpw says, Sign up for our weekly newsletter Board & Nails to be kept informed of other upcoming chats. Click Here
© 2003 Christianity.com, Live Chat was hosted by Christianity.com, and is reprinted with permission. Visit their website, www.christianity.com.