That's True For You But Not For Me

I've read a book by Paul Copan titled True for You, But Not for Me.  It looks at some of the common objections to Christianity and how to answer them.  I thought I'd start blogging on some of these objections raised in the book.  These objections are covered in many other great books, blogs, podcasts, and articles too so much of what I'll write will be based on this book as well as other great resources I've come across.

What is Truth?
The idea that we each define our own truth is prevalent in our society.  We all have our own opinions but opinions are not necessarily the same as the truth.  Truth is an idea or description that matches with how things really are.  Truth exists whether our opinion matches it or not.  Truth is something that we discover not something we create for ourselves.   For instance at one time it was thought that the sun revolved around the earth and it was later discovered that wasn’t true.  No matter what was thought about the sun and earth’s orbit it was never true that that sun revolved around the earth.

Truth is Not Ice Cream
My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla (yeah, I know pretty plain, but I love it).  Is it true that vanilla is the best flavor of ice cream over all other flavors?  You may agree with me but we all know people who have a different favorite flavor or even, gasp, don’t like ice cream at all!  So is it true or false that vanilla is the best flavor of ice cream?  It’s an odd question because this is truly subjective (relative) to the person answering the question.  In fact you might say it’s my opinion that vanilla is the best ice cream flavor but it’s not yours.  It’s a subjective claim because it’s dependent on the subject (me in this case).  Subjective claims are not true or false.

Taking another look at ice cream though what if I were to say, “Vanilla ice cream cures cancer.”  You probably wouldn’t agree with my statement and even if you did that wouldn’t make it true. Imagine if someone responded to me by saying, “Well, it might be true for you that vanilla ice cream cures cancer but it’s not true for me.”  You'd think both participants in the conversation were probably just a little off center.  Why?  Because we know objectively that vanilla ice cream does not cure cancer no matter what I might think.  Objective claims are either true or false.

Contradicting Statements
Suppose someone from New York said, “New Yorkers are all liars and you can’t trust them.”  The person claiming to tell the truth about New Yorkers is contradicting themselves.  They are saying what I say is true, I’m a liar.  Kind of like saying “Don’t believe a word I say.”  In the same way the relativist’s statement “That’s true for you but not for me” contradicts itself.  They are making an absolute truth statement that applies to everyone that no truth applies to everyone.   This statement self destructs under its own weight, which makes it a useless statement.  If claims are only true for each person then why should I accept the relativists view and not my own?  The question to ask then is, “Is that true?” or “Are you asking me to accept that statement as true for everyone or is that just your own view?”

Truth is important and truth can be objectively known.  Believing something that is not true can have small consequences like believing the sun revolves around the earth.  You might get embarrassed and be seen as a dope if you say that but you probably won’t die from believing this.  But believing that fire won’t burn you could have very real and devastating consequences including death.  So when someone says, “Christianity is true for you but not for me” it’s not a subjective (relative) claim that Christianity makes, it’s an objective (absolute) claim.  Objective claims can and should be backed up by evidence and reason.  Either Christianity is true or false but it’s not both because Biblical Christianity is not ice cream.

Other Resources
The "truth is not ice cream" is something developed by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason.  He gives a good talk on it titled “Truth is Not Cream, Faith is not Wishing” available on STRs website on CD, MP3, or PDF.

Relativism

People say That's true for you but not for me or some form of it all the time and it's called relativism.  Most people believe truth is based on the situation or circumstances.  A Barna survey showed that 64% of American adults said truth is "relative to the person and their situation" where 83% of teenagers said "moral truth depends on the circumstances".  6% of those surveyed said moral truth is absolute.  This survey is from 2002 but it probably hasn't changed all that much, if anything the percent believing in relativism has probably increased.

Some examples of statements that reflect relativism are:

"Christianity and the Bible may be true for you but it's not for me." "That's just your interpretation." "Who are you to judge?" "There are lots of paths to God." "Belief in Jesus as the only way to God is intolerant."

Most everyone has heard at least a couple of these.  Is relativism true?  Does relativism even stand up to it's own claim that truth is in the eye of the beholder?  One question can start to point out the problem with relativism and the rejection of absolute truth.

Bob: "Everyone's beliefs are true or false only relative to himself." John: "Is that absolutely true?"

Do you see the problem here? The statement Bob is making is an absolute statement about truth.  If truth is relative to the person why should I even care about Bob's statement because it's not true for me?  Bob is saying that truth is not absolute but yet he's making an absolute statement about it.  It's because in practice relativism doesn't match with reality.  Truth is a belief that matches the way things really are.

Regardless of our own view something can be true even if...

• ...we don't agree with it
• ...we don't practice it
• ...we don't follow it

Moral relativism says that right and wrong are dependent on individual or culture.  The question to ask the moral relativist is: Were Hitler and the Nazis wrong?  There is no basis within relativism to say that it is wrong.  If according to relativism each culture gets to decide their own right and wrong how could Hitler have been wrong?  The culture of Nazism said it was right to murder, rape, torture, and scientifically experiment on Jews.  If the relativist answer is that the rest of world said it was wrong and they stopped it, it's then just a case of might makes right.  The biggest and strongest get to decide what's right and wrong.  So if the Nazis would have prevailed in WWII it would have been ok because they were stronger?  Or would murdering innocent Jews be ok because the Nazis won?  When taken to it's logical conclusion it's clear to see that moral relativism is really just a justification for not following an objective moral standard.

Truth can be known and truth is real.  We don't get to make up our truth because truth is objective and is true no matter if we agree with it or not.  Truth claims should be examined and tested.  Test people's truth claims with gentleness and respect.  Our culture is ripe with relativism and they didn't come to their ideas overnight and won't change their minds with just one conversation.

Resources

True for You, But Not for Me: Overcoming Objections to Christian Faith by Paul Copan

Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Gregory Koukl
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision by William Lane Craig

These are just some of the really great books that discuss the problems with relativism.  All the above selections are also available on Kindle.

Free will

Below is an article on a recent book by Vincent Bugliosi titled The Divinity of Doubt. Bugliosi prosecuted Charles Manson and is an atheist.

PleaseConvinceMe Blog: Should God Have Given Us Free Will?

What is the gospel message?

If someone asked you what the gospel message is how would you answer?  Gospel means good news, but what good news is it and why would anyone need to know about it?  How would you explain the gospel message to someone else?  To explain it helps to work through why people to need hear the good news.

What happens when we die?
Almost everyone has thought about the answer to this question.  Some of the more common things people say:

• I'm going to heaven because I've been a good person.
• I don't know.
• I'm going to hell.
• We all go to heaven.
• I'm going to heaven because I believe Jesus died for my sins and was resurrected.
• Nothing.  I don't think anything happens.

If the response is nothing then the question is what happened to Hitler/Stalin/Mao/Saddam?  Did God just let them go unpunished for murdering millions of people?  If the response is that nothing happened to them then there is evidence that can be presented for the existence of God and there are resources listed at the end of the post.  For the other responses that leads to another question.

What determines where we go when we die?
If you were to die today and meet God and He asked you, "Why should I let you into heaven?"  What would you say?  Some people might say they've done more good than bad.  Others might say they've never done anything real bad like murder or rape and they are basically a good person.  But is that really how God measures our entrance into heaven?  God determines our destination based on guilt or innocence not on how good or bad we are.  But guilty or innocent of what?

God gave Moses His laws and the easiest way to show how we are judged is to look at just a few of these laws:

• Do not commit adultery - Jesus said that you've committed adultery if you've even thought about it.  God knows your heart and mind and if you've thought lustfully about someone who isn't your spouse you've committed adultery.
• Do not lie
• Do not steal
• Have no gods before me - This is putting anything on your priority list above God.  Money, sex, work, yourself are all things that people put above God.
• Honor your mother and father
• Do not use God's name in vain - Using God's name as a curse word.

If we're honest with ourselves we've all broken at least one of these and chances are (I know it's the case for me) we've broken every one of them multiple times, probably more times than we can count.  That's God's standard and if we've broken one of these laws even once we're guilty.  God is just and because He is just He can't overlook someone breaking His laws.  It would be unfair of God to forgive us for free.

To illustrate this point suppose someone murdered a member of your family.  You are watching the trial and the murder stands up and says "Yes, I did commit the murder.  However, driving on the way here to the trial a school bus ran off the road into a lake and I jumped in and saved 10 kids from drowning.  Here are signed statements from witnesses.  I've saved more lives than I've taken therefore I've done more good than bad and should be let go."  The judge pounds his gavel and says, "You're free to go."  We'd be irate if this happened and say that justice hadn't been served and the judge was terrible.  Because it doesn't matter how many lives the murder saves there is still a price to pay for the one life that he took.  However, that's exactly what we expect God to do is look the other way when we've broken His laws.

What happens next?
 So if we've broken God's laws what happens when we meet God?  The answer to that should be obvious at this point.  We're judged based on our guilt or innocence (our sin record).  How is any of this 'good news' if we're guilty?

Well, the good news is that God has provided a way for us to be innocent.  He sent is only son, Jesus, to earth who lived a perfect life.  He was tempted just like we are but he never sinned.  He was the only person who ever lived who could stand before God and be judged as innocent.  However, Jesus willing was beaten, spit on, kicked, mocked, and nailed naked to a cross to die a slow agonizing death.  All of the sins of all us were heaped on him and he took our punishment so we wouldn't have to.  Why was this necessary?  Because remember God is just and can't let law breaking go unpunished and Jesus stepped in and took our punishment for us so we wouldn't have to take it.

For us to have what Jesus did on the cross be substituted for our own guilty record and not go to hell we do 2 things: Ask for forgiveness and believe.

• Ask for forgiveness (repent) - You realize you've sinned and broken God's laws, you feel sorrowful, and you confess it to God.
• Believe - You put your trust in Jesus that his dying on the cross was payment for your sin.  His resurrection was proof that He was the Son of God and His death was sufficient to cover your sin.

That is the truly good news of the Christian gospel message.  If people don't understand how they've sinned against God they can't understand or respond to the gospel message.  Understanding why we need the gospel message is as important as understanding the message itself.

Hopefully this will help you communicate the gospel message to others.  Much of this post was based on the book, "Unsilenced: How to Voice the Gospel" by James Boccardo.  It's a quick easy read and is an excellent book on the subject.

If you're reading this and haven't accepted the sacrifice Jesus made would be interested to hear why or what your objections are.

Resources
Unsilenced: How to Voice the Gospel, by James Boccardo
On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Percision, by William Craig Lane
The Unshakeable Truth, by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell

Forgiveness

The act of forgiving or being forgiven is central to the Christian message.  Jesus and Peter had the following exchange on forgiveness:

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!"

Matthew 18:21-22 (NLT)

It was Jewish law and custom to forgive a person 3 times for an offense and after that you were allowed to write them off.  So when Peter asks if he should forgive someone 7 times he was going beyond the Jewish custom.  Jesus answer is that he should forgive them an unlimited number of times.  There is no scoreboard when it comes to forgiveness.

So from the Christian worldview what is forgiveness?  You've probably heard the saying 'forgive and forget' but is the realistic?  If someone deeply hurts you, especially someone close to you, it comes across as extremely insensitive and unreasonable for someone to say 'You need to forgive and forget'.  Forgiveness doesn't mean you automatically start to trust someone again right away either.

Forgiveness is an act of releasing anger and resentment towards someone else.  It gives us the opportunity to move forward and heal.  It allows you to let go and display the same grace you've been given through Jesus.

Links
7 Things Forgiveness IS
7 Things Forgiveness is NOT
8 Reminders for Granting True Forgiveness

The End of the World That Wasn't Reaction

Lots of mileage was given to Harold Camping and his false teaching about the end of the world this past weekend.  His teaching is not Biblical and here are various articles and comments from the Christian community.

The Real Reason Harold Camping Predicted ‘The Rapture’

Harold Camping: Unrepentant False Prophet Refuses to Stop Dragging Christ's Name Through the Mud

When False Prophets Hurt Families

Why We Weren't Worried About May 21

Narrow mindedness

Good article at Stand To Reason on narrow mindedness