At Wayne State University last Thursday night, Pastor Chris Brooks reiterated the open invitation to have any and all members of the audience bring their toughest questions to us. His unequivocal invitation was intended to confront head-on the common myth that Christianity cannot stand up against the toughest scrutiny. I would contend, in actuality, that the impression that Christianity is only a worldview for the weak-minded and naive is often because many practicing Christians do not take the time necessary to properly understand exactly why they believe what they believe. It has less to do with the robustness of Christianity worldview itself. Instead, it has more to do with the approach of many people toward the Christian faith.
As I've referred to in the past, the famous British journalist and commentator G.K. Chesterton writes in What's Wrong With the World, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried" (Ch. 5). Thus, the number of perceived "experts" concerning apologetics and the Christian worldview is significantly limited to those who are willing to sit on a panel at a public university and take all comers. I don't write this to elevate myself in any way. Nor do I intend to denigrate the professing Christians out there reading this. But I simply want to challenge and encourage each of us to engage more diligently in this effort. Our ability to share the Good News of Jesus Christ often hinges on our willingness to better understand the implications of our faith. The fact is, as I've shared in many of the classes I've taught over the years, anyone is capable of doing the same thing, if they are willing to study, learn, and apply the truth of the Christian faith to their conversational interactions with others. The apostle Peter's challenge in 1 Peter 3:15 to "always be ready to give an answer" for one's faith was not issued only to the religious or intellectual elite; it was put to all believers, and it still applies today.
The final thought I left the audience with at Wayne State came from C.S. Lewis' book, God in the Dock. Lewis acknowledges the unavoidable truth about Christianity when he writes,
One of the great difficulties is to keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true but because it is good....You have to keep forcing them back, and again back, to the real point...You must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important (p. 101).
And indeed the exclusive claims inherent to Christianity do not actually allow for the tepid approach that many of us take toward our Christian faith. This is the same message that Lewis was articulating concerning the exclusive nature of Jesus Christ when he wrote in Mere Christianity,
I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher...let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to (p. 52).
As Lewis points outs, we each have a choice to make. Either we accept that the exclusive claims of Christianity are true or we don't. What we cannot do is pretend that our lukewarm approach to God and the Christian Gospel message is sufficient. Christianity, by its very nature, carries with it life-altering implications that are inescapable. It cannot be any other way. God does not allow for that (as the church in Laodicea discovered after it was too late--Revelation 3:15-16).