Scott Drew is one of the most appealing Christians in America these days. As the head coach of the Baylor University men’s basketball team, which won the NCAA championship in convincing fashion Monday night, he is understandably in the media spotlight. In stories about the team and their victory, Coach Drew’s faith almost always comes up.

For example, Sports Illustrated quotes ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, who said of him: “He has an optimism, a sense of faith and a sense of family and togetherness that is real. People said early on he’s a phony; he’s a charlatan. But the more you see it, you know it’s real stuff. He’s like that Sunday school preacher, but he believes what he’s preaching. Optimism, with him, is like breathing.”

Such an attractive witness is especially vital in a day when evangelical Christians are being assailed on all sides. From lawsuits alleging discrimination on Christian campuses to accusations of right-wing political agendas to escalating threats against religious liberty, believers need to defend what we believe with urgency and compassion.

Yesterday, we discussed the priority of biblical thinking and God’s call to stand for biblical truth. Today, let’s look at practical ways to answer his call.

One: Choose courage before courage is required 

We will frame today’s conversation in light of Acts 17 and Paul’s transformative encounters with the Greco-Roman culture of his day. From his experiences, we find a roadmap for effective engagement with our post-Christian culture.

The chapter opens with Paul’s experience in Thessalonica, where he and his followers faced a mob that falsely accused them of insurrection against Rome (vv. 1–9). Here we learn that standing for biblical truth often requires us to stand against untruth, commitments that often come at a significant cost.

Paul made the decision to stand courageously for his Lord long before he reached Thessalonica. Jesus warned him shortly after his conversion, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). In nearly every city he visited in the Book of Acts, Jesus’ prediction came true.

Paul knew that his strength came not from himself but from his Lord. That’s why he could testify, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). And he could state, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). He knew that he needed the Spirit to guide him, use him, and protect him. So do we.

Before we go any further, would you stop and ask Jesus for the strength and courage you will need to stand for his word today? 

Two: Invite people to consider biblical truth 

Back to Acts 17. After Paul was forced to leave Thessalonica, he and his team traveled to Berea, where they began ministry in the synagogue there (v. 10). Luke reports: “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (v. 11). As a result, “Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men” (v. 12). 

From the Bereans we learn a second principle: invite people to investigate biblical truth. 

You and I cannot convict people of sin or save souls; this is the work of God’s Spirit (John 16:8–11). Our job is to present the truth and invite people to consider its claims on their lives. When we do so in an open, winsome, conversational way, they are often more receptive than if they feel pressured by us. 

Charles Spurgeon noted: “The gospel is like a caged lion; you don’t have to defend it—just let it out of the cage.” If we will share God’s word in the power of God’s Spirit, answering questions as they arise in a spirit of genuine inquiry, God will use us to plant eternal seeds of truth in the souls we encounter.

Would you invite God’s Spirit to lead you as you share God’s word with those you meet today? 

Three: Show people their need for biblical truth

Now we follow Paul to Athens, where he was invited to address the Areopagus, the intellectual leaders of the leading intellectual capital of the day (vv. 19–21). He began his address by referring to an altar he had discovered in their city with the inscription, “To the unknown God” (v. 23a). He stated, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (v. 23b).

Paul proceeded to use reason in sharing the gospel with these rationalists. He showed them the illogic of believing that the God who made the universe would live in manmade temples such as they had constructed in their city (vv. 24–25). Next, he quoted their poets’ declarations that we are made by God as his offspring (v. 28) and exposed the contradiction of worshiping such a personal God as if he were “like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man” (v. 29).

The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers he addressed (v. 18) prided themselves on their logical consistency. By showing them the flaws in their reasoning, he opened the door to explain to them the logical and reasonable conclusion: the God who made them and everything else now calls them to repent and turn to him before facing judgment for their mistakes (vv. 30–31). 

Here Paul employed what is known as the “apagogic” task, which Merriam-Webster defines as “proceeding by the method of disproving the proposition that contradicts the one to be established.” He knew that people will seldom consider biblical truth unless they first believe they need biblical truth. If their beliefs are true and trustworthy, why would they change them?

Are you willing to help people face the (perhaps difficult) truth that they need to know the truth?

An hour on a train 

We’ll continue tomorrow with two more practical steps. For today, let’s close with a question that was asked of the famed apologist Francis Schaeffer: “What would you do if you met a really modern man on a train and you just had an hour to talk to him about the gospel?” Schaeffer replied, “I’ve said over and over, I would spend forty-five to fifty minutes on the negative, to really show him his dilemma—that he is morally dead—then I’d take ten to fifteen minutes to preach the gospel.” 

Schaeffer explained: “I believe that much of our evangelistic and personal work today is not clear simply because we are too anxious to get to the answer without having a man realize the real cause of his sickness, which is true moral guilt (and not just psychological guilt feelings) in the presence of God.” 

The Holy Spirit knows the heart of every lost person you know and wants to use us to lead them to salvation. However, we must choose to be courageous in sharing God’s word and helping them see their need for biblical truth.

Are you available to be used by God’s Spirit today?

Denison Forum

There was a day when Easter Sunday elicited cover stories and headlines on Easter themes in American media. I remember sympathetic biographies of biblical figures along with reflective essays on the abiding lessons of Jesus’ resurrection.

Things have changed.

The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed for Easter Sunday titled, “How Christians came to believe in heaven, hell and the immortal soul.” Written by Bart Ehrman, one of the most notorious anti-Christian critics in contemporary culture, it is an astonishingly false portrait of Judeo-Christian faith and history. The book on which the essay is based has already been soundly debunked, but many who read Ehrman’s Easter article may nonetheless be persuaded by the falsehoods it perpetrates.

Two days earlier, the Los Angeles Times published a different op-ed, this one for Good Friday. Titled “Why America’s record godlessness is good news for the nation,” the article responds to the recent Gallup report that church membership has fallen below 50 percent for the first time.

The author celebrates what he calls “organic secularization,” by which “members of a society become better educated, more prosperous, and live safer, more secure and more peaceful lives” and thus turn from religion. In his view, “highly secular democracies” do a “much better job” of meeting human needs than faith-based charities. As a result, he concludes that we should celebrate the growing secularism of our day.

The author ignores the remarkable growth among evangelical and conservative churches and ministries in our day. Nor does he take note of the seminal work by Robert D. Putnam and David Brooks, among others, which highlight the social connections that are especially strengthened in religious communities. And he dismisses the relevance of “a heavenly reward that fewer and fewer of us believe in,” as if our personal beliefs (or lack thereof) change eternal reality.

The two anti-Christian articles have this in common: both were published on two of the most significant holy days in the Christian year. And both are based on selective arguments that conflate personal opinion with objective truth.

Christians who were intellectual giants 

As intellectual attacks on Christian faith and practice continue to escalate, it is vital that Christians respond with intellectual passion and compassion. Such a commitment is nothing new for us. In fact, the rational and reasonable nature of our faith has been foundational to its transformative effect across Christian history.

Scholar Stanley Jaki demonstrated conclusively that modern science was “stillborn” in other cultures but came to life in the fertile soil of Christian reason. The list of great scientists who were also committed Christians is both large and inspiring.

Women were some of the greatest heroes in Scripture, as Shannon Bream shows in her powerful book, The Women of the Bible Speak. From the early church to today, women have excelled as theologians and leaders.

Hans Küng’s seminal book, Great Christian Thinkers, was enormously influential and encouraging. J. R. R. Tolkien’s role in leading C. S. Lewis to faith in Christ stands as just one example of an intellectual giant who influenced an intellectual giant.

Biblical thinking for biblical living 

How can we stand for biblical truth with clarity and compassion today? 

First, make a daily commitment to love God with all your mind (Matthew 22:37). 

God’s call still resounds today: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). This is a present-tense imperative, a daily checklist of God’s continuing commands to each of us each day. 

According to the Barna Group and the American Bible Society, only 9 percent of US adults read the Bible daily. Are you in their number?

Second, immerse your mind in God’s word (John 17:17). 

God’s word is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). This means that Scripture will instruct us in the right path, stop us when we choose the wrong path, set us in the right direction again, and keep us there. 

As a result, it is vital that we meet God every morning in his word and then consult biblical truth as we face decisions and challenges all through the day. Biblical thinking leads to biblical living. Was this your experience yesterday? Will it be today?

Third, respond to falsehood with biblical truth (1 Peter 3:15–16). 

Paul’s commitment should be ours: “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). To destroy means to refute. Arguments refers to truth claims; lofty opinion refers to arrogant thinking. Raised against the knowledge of God means to be opposed to what God has revealed.

After refuting all such falsehoods, we are called to take every thought captive, meaning literally to “capture” each and every thought. We do this to obey Christ and his word, heeding Paul’s testimony as God’s commission to us.

A dear friend of mine has taught his children how to watch television and movies biblically: they compete to “spot the lie” whenever they see something unbiblical. Imagine the difference if all of us did the same for ourselves and those we influence. 

“Did not our hearts burn within us?” 

Tomorrow, I plan to discuss practical ways you and I can respond biblically to unbiblical truth claims. For today, let’s renew our commitment to thinking biblically. 

On the first Easter, the risen Christ who met the disciples on the road to Emmaus “interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). In response, they later said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (v. 32). 

When last did your heart burn within you? Why not today?

Denison Forum

The United Nations has condemned a bombing at an Indonesian church on Palm Sunday, an attack that wounded twenty people. Turkey is expelling Christian pastors as its leaders continue their move from democracy to Islamic nationalism. 

Closer to home, a group of college students is suing the US Department of Education, seeking to eliminate the religious exemption that enables Christian colleges to align their practices with historic Christian doctrine. Baylor University is among more than two dozen faith-based schools named in the class-action lawsuit. 

However, the greatest threats to the church are not from without but from within.

“There is no statute of limitations on truth” 

Kanakuk Kamps is one of the largest Christian camps in the world. Since its founding in 1926, it claims to have served more than 450,000 campers. Each summer, approximately twenty thousand kids pass through its gates outside of Branson, Missouri, and in other locations. Numerous families in the churches I pastored have had wonderful experiences with Kanakuk. 

Now, tragically, Kanakuk is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. 

Former Kanakuk director Pete Newman went to prison in 2010 for abusing boys. Nineteen victims were identified in the initial investigation against him. However, Christian journalists David and Nancy French recently published an extensive article noting that the damage could be far worse. 

They describe Newman as enormously charismatic: “Girls wanted to date him, guys wanted to be him, and children wanted to follow him.” However, as they note in deeply disturbing detail, he abused boys in camp cabins, in the gym, in the pool, in the showers, on father-son retreats, and on a mission trip to China. They report that camp leaders were extremely slow to respond to rising allegations against him. 

A site called “Facts About Kanakuk” lists other former Kanakuk staff and associates who have been convicted of sexual abuse of minors. Christianity Today reports that one of Newman’s victims died by suicide in 2019. 

It also notes that Kananuk has since put on child protection training seminars for leaders from more than four hundred and fifty fellow Christian camps and ministry organizations. Kanakuk now lists detailed guidelines regarding contact, interaction, and conversations which staff members can have with campers. 

However, David and Nancy French note that the number of Kanakuk victims who have come forward remains unknown since many cases were settled with nondisclosure agreements. They explain the reason for their report: “There is no statute of limitations on truth.”

A catastrophic weakness in our theology 

Any biblical response should begin with the fact that God loves children and condemns anyone who victimizes them. Jesus stated bluntly that for such a predator, “it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). The abuse of a single child anywhere in the world grieves the heart of our Father and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. 

Why, then, would a camp run by evangelical Christians be susceptible to such horrific sin? It seems to me that evangelicals suffer from a catastrophic weakness in our theology.

We know that salvation is in three tenses: 

1. We have been saved from condemnation as sinners and granted salvation as the children of God. 
2. We are being saved through the process of daily sanctification. 
3. And we will be saved from physical death to eternal life in heaven. 

We know that we must depend on God for the first and third tenses of salvation. We cannot save ourselves from our sins (Ephesians 2:8–9). We obviously cannot save ourselves from physical death once we die and are dependent on God to raise us to eternal life with him (John 11:25–26). 

However, we all too easily ignore the fact that we are just as dependent on God for the second tense of salvation. We fall prey to the lies of our fallen culture that promote self-sufficiency and reward external success. This is true of charismatic figures like Pete Newman, brilliant communicators like Ravi Zacharias, and trendsetting innovators like Bill Hybels. Too many leaders forget that “we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1) and that “each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). 

The body of Christ is complicit here. The more famous a Christian leader becomes, the less we seem to hold them accountable for the sins to which all people are tempted. We want heroes to value and emulate and resist our biblical responsibility to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). 

So long as this cycle of accountability avoidance continues, more tragedies will make more headlines, dishonoring our Lord and grieving his heart.

“Encourage one another and build one another up” 

This is where Easter becomes especially relevant. 

On the day after billions of Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fact is that he is just as alive and active as he was when he first rose from the grave. He is just as committed to interceding for us (Romans 8:34), walking with us (Matthew 28:20), forgiving us (1 John 1:9), and empowering us (Acts 1:8) as when he first walked our broken world. 

But we, like his first followers, must choose to follow him. We must admit Jesus was right when he told us, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We must submit to his Spirit each day and all through the day (Ephesians 5:18). We must ask him to make us like himself (Romans 8:29) “through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). 

We must hold each other accountable to God’s best for us (Proverbs 27:17) as we “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). We must start every day by admitting how much we need Jesus to empower us by his omnipotent grace.

Christless Christianity is no Christianity at all. 

Alexander Maclaren was right: “The risen life of Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian.” 

Will you invite the risen Lord to be glorified in your life today? 

Denison Forum