Apologist Alan Shlemon and Canadian pastor Tim Barnett share steps and principles for verifying a given claim regarding the Bible and Christianity with theology students at the apologetics conference reTHINK in Allen, Texas, USA.
Shlemon outlines three steps for verification.
First, we need to turn to the Holy Scripture, which inevitably includes reading the Bible. When we encounter a Christian idea or some kind of claim, we must verify their truth based on the text of the Bible.
The second step is "to seek wise counsel," with Alan Shlemon advising students to turn to their parents, group leaders, or clergy, as well as any other wise advisors they may seek out.
“There is a good chance you don't fully know the text of the Bible, have an incorrect theological understanding, or don't fully understand the Christian worldview, and you know what? That's okay. I do not know everything either. There is no person who knows everything. However, this means you could and should seek wise counsel from people who may be more mature in biblical matters than you, or those who have had a longer journey as believers in Jesus Christ,” Shlemon encourages the students.
He provides an example of his supervisor, who is also his spiritual counselor.
The third and final step in determining the truthfulness of a theological idea is to seek principled consensus in church history.
“What has the church taught over the last two thousand years? If an idea or claim is entirely new or contradicts two thousand years of Christian history, that would make me skeptical,” Shlemon adds.
He gives an example with the LGBT movement and how some churches support the claim that the Bible does not actually condemn homosexuality and same-sex marriages.
Shlemon also acknowledges that Christians have long disagreed on the nature of the Eucharist or Baptism, for instance.
“We have been divided on so many issues over the last hundreds, even thousands of years. But when it comes to marriage and gender, all churches, whether Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox, have been in full agreement for two millennia,” he further shares.
Shlemon's remarks are part of the first evening session of the conference, titled “ReTHINK Your Misconceptions About God.”
Pastor Tim Barnett also participates in the session.
He emphasizes the story of original sin in the Book of Genesis, where we see how the serpent convinces Adam and Eve to taste the forbidden fruit in three steps.
The three steps of deception, according to Barnett, are:
- the devil questions what God says
- the devil denies what God says
- the devil attacks the very nature of God
- the devil denies what God says
“The fall into sin did not begin with the first bite of the forbidden fruit. That is, it did not begin with the act of disobedience. It begins with a false or erroneous idea, specifically, with Satan sowing false ideas into the minds of the first humans,” Barnett says.
Pastor Barnett continues by arguing that the same strategy is used today in modern American culture to tempt Christians not to follow the Bible.
“We neglect God's word and go so far as to separate ourselves from the truth about God. If we ignore what God says, we separate ourselves from the truth. What happens subsequently is that we begin to follow the current cultural model in our understanding of God... We cannot define what God is based on today's culture,” he further shares.
Source: Christian Post
Translation: Yoanna Ruseva
Photo: Markus Winkler/Unsplash.com