Got Doctrine? BLOG

Apologetics, The Church and the World
Kevin Hoffman
9/28/2007 8:19 am

I feel compelled to talk a little about the importance of apologetics today. Some of you are probably saying, "Oh no, not again!" But this is a serious issue in out modern American culture and I have seen it illustrated so well in the past week that I think that I need to share its importance with you once again.

My son Justin has been on a forum for teens and young adults where there is a significant Christian population. There is one non-Christian in particular and a few who like to chime in when he posts, who likes to post antagonistic things about the age of the earth and science vs. faith, etc.

These Christians let it go unchallenged and when my son feels compelled to answer this skeptic he is barraged by the Christians and told that he is intolerant. The general attutude is live and let live, don't answer them back because you might scare them away.

I have had a messge from the book of Jonah brewing in me for a few weeks and I am beginning to see the message that I would take from the first few verses;

Jonah 1:1 And the Word of Jehovah came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their evil has come up before Me. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah. And he went down to Joppa. And he found a ship going to Tarshish. And he gave its fare, and went down into it, in order to go with them to Tarshish, away from the sight of Jehovah.

God has given us a similar commission. Jesus said when He ascended that the mission of the Chruch was to make disciples of all nations. Peter told the suffering disciples in Asia Minor that they should always be ready to give and answer for their faith, that living among the heathen should give them plenty of opportunities to do so. (See 1 Peter 3)

Like Jonah who decided that the task was too great and went the opposite direction, the Chruch in our time has in a large part "gone the other way." Rather than engage the culture we are content to "live and let live" even though this life is temporary and we let others live their way into eternal damnation because we refuse to own the mandate that the Lord has given to go into the world and challenge their belief systems.

If we are to just live in peace and not make waves, what was Paul doing going from the Arabian desert through Asia Minor, Greece and all the way to Italy and Spain preaching in every place this new and different God to the heathen and challenging the Jews that the Messaih had come. Why did he suffer scourgings and imprisonment, stonings and shipwrecks in order to spread this message when he could have much more easily "lived and let live?"

The Church in America is a namby pamby bunch of spiritual babies and apostates who are more concerned about their own comfort than about reaching the millions who are headed to hell. As Ray Comfort says they, "praise the Captain and never do what He says!"

Don't be a Jonah! Remember how God got him to submit. Or maybe God is not challenging you in this area, then you are probably just a false prophet, not even a real believer. As Charles Spurgeon said, "If you do not desire to see others saved, I doubt whether you are saved yourself."

If your church is all about living comfortably, helping you live a better life and does not challenge you to move out of your comfort zone and make a sacrifice to get the message of the Gospel out, then they are a Jonah church. I suggest that you jump overboard and find a good fish!

See the Forum for more on this subject and also check out the Apologetics and Evangelism curricula on the Discipleship page of this website!

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