Here’s part three of Mary Jo’s chapter in “A New Kind of Apologist,” a new book featuring various essays by renown apologists and edited by Sean McDowell. If you missed the first two parts, catch up here and here.

The book is now available to order. Stay tuned for the last part of her chapter later this week!

Build Confidence

While we looked previously at what causes doubts, it is worth mentioning a few more influences that tear down confidence in God. Women are constantly barraged with imagery and sound bites from our culture that attack the Christian worldview. Some of the most infective sound bites emanate from the new atheist movement.

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”

“Faith is a lack of critical thinking.”

“Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakeable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.”  

“Surely there must come a time when we will acknowledge the obvious: theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings.”

In addition to these, some of our beloved television shows and movies portray Christianity as intellectually bankrupt and Christians as ignorant, racist, or bigoted. Doctor Who from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the United Kingdom and The Big Bang Theory from the CBS Corporation in the US disparage the Christian faith in multiple episodes as anti-intellectual. Christian philosopher J.P. Moreland, in arguing why we needed to teach a defense of the faith, noted, “television, movies, and the media present a secularized version of society,” including a view that the cultural and educational elite are largely secular and the uneducated are largely evangelical.  10 Our media reflects cultural idioms of our day, such as statements inferring that smart people are skeptical or that science is the only way to know truth.

Further, we have the problem of Christians who do not take personal responsibility to grow in the knowledge of God, especially with regard to answering the cultural attacks of our day. Whether knowingly or not, Christians can hurt others through their lack of discernment and lack of thoughtfulness. More specifically, I’ve experienced a tendency within evangelical Christianity to be reactive to culture rather than proactive through the intentional cultivation of spiritual growth in God. So Christian women are left to react to an antagonistic culture rather than being taught how to be godly leaders, empowered by the Spirit, to change culture. Because of exposure to cultural influences, women can slip into thinking that their beliefs are unfounded or irrational. It is especially so if the church is not providing any thoughtful means by which to combat ideas contrary to belief in God or if we are not purposefully analyzing what we see and hear.

Christian women can lose confidence in their belief in God not because of good arguments but because of a lack of attention to the life of the mind. As J. Gresham Machen stated, “One cannot reasonably trust a God whom one holds with the mind to be either non-existent or untrustworthy.”  However, apologetics can serve as a confidence-builder for belief in God through focus on developing a rigorous Christian thought life. As Christian women begin to see a positive case for belief in God, as well as begin to answer the cultural idioms and objections against belief in God, they can see Christianity as an intellectually defensible worldview. We must remember, “It is very difficult to believe something one takes to be absurd or with no intellectual support whatever.”

As women grow confident in their belief in God, they will also trust and rely on God more. As they put more trust in God, that’s when we begin to see changed lives.

Taken from A New Kind of Apologist

Copyright © 2016 Sean McDowell

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Used by Permission