Fla. Conference Equips Believers to Defend Biblical Worldview
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
February 2, 2005
(AgapePress) - At this week's "Defending the Faith" conference in Florida, the president of Answers in Genesis explained to attendees why a literal interpretation of the Bible's first 11 chapters is essential to sound Christian faith and doctrine.For the past few days Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale has hosted hundreds of Christians at a conference designed to equip Christians to fight the culture war with a sound basis in the scriptures underlying their faith. Coral Ridge's senior pastor, Dr. D. James Kennedy, says believers need to be able to provide solid answers to the objections of secular humanists in contemporary American society.
"I'm afraid that most Christians have never read a book or attended a class or a conference on how to defend their faith," Kennedy says, "and so they're really pretty helpless when they confront some atheist or skeptic or humanist of some sort." Often, he points out, these non-Christians have read a great deal of material that supports their beliefs and purports to describe "what's wrong with Christianity."
Of course, the Florida-based evangelist notes, the secular media is very good at presenting a constant barrage of false information attacking Christianity and undermining faith so that skeptics do not have to go out of their way to study how to attack the beliefs of Evangelical Christians. "We need to study to make a good defense," he says.
The Key to a Defensible Christian Faith
That is the very reason Coral Ridge hosted the 2005 "Defending the Faith" winter conference, which is sponsored by Answers in Genesis (AIG). In a presentation entitled "Genesis -- The Key to Reclaiming Culture," AIG's president, Dr. Ken Ham, asserts that many Christians are unable to defend their beliefs because they do not actually have a biblical worldview -- that is, an understanding of the world and life that is based on scripture.
According to Ham, Christian leaders believed in a young Earth until the 19th century, when many theologians began to reinterpret the six-day creation story. But while this reinterpretation has led many to minimize other biblical doctrines, the creation apologetics advocate contends that it is absolutely essential for Christians to take as literal truth God's account of creation as revealed in Genesis.
If Christians for whom the Bible is the absolute authority believe in six literal days and "take God at his word," Ham says, "we have a basis for right and wrong, a basis for marriage -- one man for one woman -- we have a worldview that comes out of that foundation." But if, on the other hand, people believe that man determines truth, Ham believes the moral foundations of human existence inevitable crumble.
If man determines truth in the fields of natural science such as geology, biology, astronomy, anthropology, physics and chemistry, Ham asks, "Why shouldn't we be consistent and let man determine truth in morality? Why not do whatever is right in your own eyes?"
Unfortunately, the AIG spokesman feels many churches are more interested in attracting and entertaining large crowds than in teaching the complete Word of God. "I go to churches where they have one-half hour of praise singing, or what they call praise singing ... and then they give me 10 minutes to speak," he says. "Now, I've got to dismantle a whole worldview that's wrong and rebuild another one in 10 or 15 minutes."
Ham suspects that what lies behind this trend is that many churches are realizing that they are failing to reach the world, and they are bringing the church down to look like the world in an effort to attract more people. However, he says churches that do not support the Bible's account of creation and other scriptural truths are not honoring the Word of God.
Beyond Apologetics
Another conference speaker, Dr. Joseph Pipa of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in South Carolina, agrees with Ham that a straightforward reading of Genesis is a prerequisite to a correct Christian worldview. However, he goes on to assert that even more important than being able to offer a solid defense of the creation account is having a biblical understanding of why God created humankind in the first place.
Yes, Pipa acknowledges, science must be conducted within the parameters of scripture. But life, he adds, must be conducted within the parameters of divine purpose. "We've been placed here to know God, to love God, to think God's thoughts after Him, and He has redeemed us unto that end," he says.
The seminary professor points out that while the rest of creation has faithfully glorified God by fulfilling its purpose, only "the rebel man" has resisted. But according to Pipa, the sole hope for human happiness and redemption is repentance, faith in Christ, and life lived according to the plan and purpose of God, which is revealed in His Word.
