I am a Christian Theologian and a Pastor. I consider myself an apologist of the Gospel and an advocate of a God who is always accused of a lot of things in various ways. You see, the most difficult thing about being God is that you are naturally LOVE. And the problem with love is that, when you create beings in your image and likeness out of love, these beings have the freedom of choice whose extent is that they can even choose against you. And this is exactly what happened between man and God.
Because God is love, he lets man act independently – in both thought and action. Man is free to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. The only thing that God does is to supply information about all choices available to man. The irony, however, is that after man has made all his choices, both good and bad, and he suffers the consequences of these choices, he turns back and accuses God of pain and suffering. That is if a man even believes that God exists.
Some men in their freedom of thought and exercise have gone as far as denying God’s existence and have declared him a myth. The Bible says: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1 NIV).
Recently, a friend of mine invited me to join a social media group on WhatsApp that had the title: Atheists in Uganda. I accepted and joined but I could not follow the discussions since the dominant topics were pornographic, the rest were insults, baseless and inconclusive statements. I wrote to the Administrator of the group about my dilemma but he did not reply. I decided to leave the group.
Before I conclude that the Bible calls whoever denies God’s existence a fool in Psalms 14:1 and Psalms 53:1, I have to put in focus two truths. First, the verse describes, characteristically, who these people who say there is no God are. It says: they are corrupt, their deeds are vile and none of them does good. This does not mean to say that those who believe there is a God are practically any better. However, the difference lies in the idea that some sinners sin with the assurance that they are not held accountable to any superior power above and these are Atheists.
On the other hand are sinners like us who sin with the truth that we have sinned against a superior power and we always have a premonition of that superior’s judgment upon our acts. This is what the text says. It does not say that Atheists are stupid or idiots or fools. Those who deny the existence of God, knowingly and sometimes unknowingly intend to excuse themselves from responsibility. Belief in a divine Being is accompanied by a sense of accountability to that Being.
So, to escape the condemnation of conscience, which itself was created by God, some simply deny the existence of God. They tell themselves, “There is no overseer of the world. There is no Judgment Day. I can live as I please.” The moral pull of the conscience is thus more easily ignored.
Otherwise many atheists are very intelligent. Interestingly, many of the people that deny God are increasingly found in academic circles, where atheists are warmly welcomed. Some hold a variety of advanced degrees and are published in noted academic journals, others are political leaders and heads of states. In fact, as for intelligence and IQ quantification and qualification, we have many intelligent non-believers in God. We all know pests always attack good fruits first.
We must be educated enough to know that: It is not intelligence or a lack thereof, that leads a person to reject belief in God. It is a lack of righteousness that leads a person to reject belief in God. Many people do not object to the idea of a Creator, as long as that Creator minds His own business and leaves them alone. What people reject is the idea of a Creator who demands morality from His creation. As mankind refuses to acknowledge the supremacy of God, the Bible says that “professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).
What may be highly esteemed among men can be pure foolishness to God Almighty. “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1Corinthians 1:20).
Recently, something terrible happened in our country Uganda. One of the top leaders in the Army died and, during requiem mass, another army General by the names of General Kahinda Otafiire went up on the pulpit and said the following words. (transcribed):
“And for resurrection, am sorry…ah, am not …aah. Am not very sure. When I was, when I grew up they said Jesus was coming. I have been waiting for him and am about to die. Maybe he will come, I…I…I don’t know,,,but am sure he will not come during my time. If I was Jesus I wouldn’t come back. I mean the man was here and we beat him with sticks, they beat him with sticks and whips, now they have nuclear weapons. Hahaha,,, if I were him, what would I be coming to do here?”
These words were said by a very educated man. He is a lawyer and he is also the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister of the Republic of Uganda. No one in his sober mind would dare call General Otafiire a fool, No. He is, in fact, one the most brilliant leaders in this country. At least those who live in Uganda will agree with me (emotions aside). After he had said that, it was time for the priest to come to the podium.
The priest, by the names Canon Michael Oboth Owino, stepped up and he had a task to respond to the challenge that the General had posed on the pulpit and here is what he said: “Please General Otafire don’t confuse church matters with politics. Leave those things for us to explain.” Now, no offense but I think the priest did not address the issues of the General but rather attacked the General himself. This was an Ad hominem attack.
According to me, the priest failed miserably and God was left defenseless. You see friends, it is easy to call someone a “fool” for not accepting your beliefs, but it’s much harder to demonstrate that their rejection is mistaken and/or ill-founded. That may be why some Christians focus so much on the former and not at all on the latter. The Gospel today suffers misrepresentation.
We have Theologians whose certificates certify everything they don’t know about the discipline. You find Theologians who cannot sustain a logical debate about God in a public arena of ideas. We have pastors who are not trained biblically but who, in a dream or in a certain moment of isolation, were shown and that was their call to come represent God. That quality of ministers of God cannot dare engage in a discussion with the educated of this world. Most of the prominent and most famous pastors here that attract masses are illiterate.
Many people have concluded that matters of God do not necessitate academics, but this is something that can only be said in regions dominated by the illiterates, not in our post-modern and information world. We live in a technological world, where almost everything is technical and has a technician. Every gadget has a manual and for one to operate it, he must at least be able to understand the language of that manual. Illiterate pastors who attract masses do it due to two reasons:
First, they exercise magic through all sorts of sorceries, both psychological and metaphysical. People run after these illiterate pastors because they are bewitched and wooed by their desires for materialism.
The second reason they run after these pastors is because the majority who follow these men are equally ignorant and illiterate.
Am I saying that God only uses the educated? Absolutely not. God uses everyone whether educated or not. However, he does not use everyone in everything. God assigns duties based on your capacity and capabilities. God has never and does not intend to use anyone who is not educated in important technical matters. The technical matters are not so many but they are: The Bible and The Gospel. Again, am not saying that the Bible and the Gospel are for the educated. The Bible is for everyone and the Gospel too, is for everyone.
However, because the Bible is the book in which is the word of God (his communication) is and the Gospel is the plan and the way of salvation, God takes this business seriously and technically so it necessitates technocrats to interpret, draw meaning and construct belief systems. This business is not for everyone.
I might be sounding arrogant here, but the truth of the matter is the book we know as the Bible has two Testaments which are: The Old Testament and the New Testament. We have the Old Testament, not because of any ordinary individual, but only because of the technocrat known as Moses. It was Moses, born by Jewish slaves, however not raised by slaves but raised in the palace for forty years. Moses went to the best Egyptian schools, was close to the corridors of power and influence, and thereafter he took off into the Midian wilderness, where he was a shepherd of the flock for over forty years. From there, God assigned him the task of leading people out of Egypt.
It is due to the story of the Exodus and its events that function as the context of the entire Old Testament. Without this event of the Exodus in which Moses was instrumental, the rest of the Old Testament does not make sense. So, we have the Old Testament because of an educated and nurtured man known as Moses.
In the New Testament, God the incarnate who we call Jesus Christ in a Rabbinical manner appointed 12 men to be his disciples. Some of these had attended school but this does not necessarily mean they were educated. These followed him for three and a half years. They heard him teach, gazed at his demonstrative actions, and touched him daily. After this time, he assigned them the Great Commission and sent them to the world but they never went out. They instead stayed in the upper chamber for 15yrs.
They could not go out and represent Jesus, neither could they frequent the Synagogues and argue for Christ as he did when he was around. The only thing they successful did was to declare that Jesus was lifted to heavens and was coming back for them. They could not explain beyond that. The leaders of Judaism stopped them but the brothers were so bold and they did what they could.
God wanted the history of salvation to be explained. He wanted all the people in the world to make sense of the history of this God and the Jews as it was recorded on the scrolls of the Prophets. He wanted the world to know that Yahweh was not just a tribal God and a God of the Jews only but a universal God who initiated his revelation through a specific nation. God wanted the world to know that he was in the man Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself. God wanted the world to know that he is not a war-monger, never a blood thirsty God, does not take life and a furious God as the primitive Jews exhibited him in the Old Testament.
He wanted someone to explain the meaning of the cross, to connect the dots of all that he said, what he did and all that happened to while in flesh. He wanted us to know how we are saved, what we are saved from, our real problem and enemy and finally, he wanted us to know our future. The 12 disciples did not have the capability and capacity to do this, and that is why God wrestled the man Paul down to bring him to use for this purpose.
Paul whose Jewish name was Saul was born a Jew, “circumcised on the eight day, of the race of Israel, or the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage, in observance of the law a Pharisee” (Phil 3:5). He was a student of the best Rabbi in Judea by the names of Gamaliel. He was a graduate from the best university in ancient Greece known as Tarsus. In fact, the gentile world distinguished him as Saul of Tarsus. Because Tarsus was like these modern best universities like Harvard, Cambridge and Yale.
This is the man that God chose to represent him and because of him, we have the New Testament. Before Paul, there was no organized Theology and no written thing. It was Paul who wrote first and then the disciples also narrated their story. What we know as Christianity movement was ignited by Paul.
Now why have I bothered you with all this? The reason is simple. God still wants men to use in important specific situations. God wants people trained in the defense of the Gospel. It is very unfortunate to see a pastor whose reasoning capacity is below that of his flock. A Pastor must have the ability to correct misconceptions, to address all sorts of doubts and to give a logical reason for his conclusions.
One of my professors by the names: William Lane Craig once wrote:
“The Christian faith does not call for us to put our minds on the shelf, to fly in the face of common sense and history, or to make a leap of faith into the dark. The rational person, fully apprised of the evidence, can confidently believe…”
We live in our world where it is difficult to make the Gospel appeal to educated and honorable minds. People in government and those running the state find it difficult to give their lives to Jesus Christ not because of anything but because of pastors who have failed to make a case for Christ. As Ministers of the gospel, we must always be prepared to logically not just emotionally defend the arguments and conclusions we make. We should not be too quick to quote scriptures out of context and tell people: ‘blessed are they that believe without seeing’. Jesus has never called us to blind faith, he calls to a reasoning table. We are in an information age where everything you say must be substantiated by facts and if need be, figures too.
We must understand that ‘Reason’ and ‘Faith’ are not enemies but relatives. The relationship between Faith and Reason is this: Reason assesses, and after it has assessed, faith trusts the assessment. Reason assesses whether or not something or someone is trustworthy, and then faith believes that certain things are true in light of the reasons. Not blind faith, but a reasonable step of trust is what God has invited us to. He says: come let us reason together (Isaiah 1:18).
So, pastors and preachers must be equipped enough to engage every resistance including the rational minds that are opposed to the word of God. It is very unfortunate to have unbelievers who have reasonable unbelief in the company of believers with unreasonable faith.
Dear Pastor, we must strive and make sense in our reasoning and argument for the Gospel. If unbelievers start climbing our pulpits (like General Kahinda Otafiire did) to challenge us logically, we must be prepared to give a sound and sensible response.
The Bible says in 1Peter 3:15-16 that: but in your hearts respect Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who insult your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
As ministers of the word in this world, we must always be prepared to make a defense for the Gospel. The Greek word is ‘Apologia’ from which we get the English word ‘Apologetics’ which basically means a reasonable defense or response.
The second thing we are required of is that we must do that with gentleness and respect. We must not just curse or insult people. Let us not be animated and panic like we have something to hide. We must be confident, calm, and gentle and we must respect our audience.
Finally, the text asks all of us who are representatives of Christ to always have a clear conscience. This means two things: first we must be sober, we must be knowledgeable in all that we say. Secondly, a clear conscience means that we are not guilty of anything between us and the Atheists we debate with. Many government officials have too much information about pastors that makes it difficult for these officials to believe in what these so-called men of God say.
God bless you. I invoke Truth, Reason and Faith
Am Pr. I.T.WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 