I’ve got a handful of young men that I have the opportunity to disciple. They are on the frontlines in their school. Every day they are sandwiched between cultural Catholicism and the godless presuppositions of secularism. I’m grateful that the Lord is working in the hearts of these young men. Recently they came to my office and asked if I could help them defend their faith.
How I’m going about doing this might seem counterintuitive. My philosophy comes from Charles Spurgeon:
“Defend the Bible? Would you defend a lion? Loose him; and let him go!”…The way to meet infidelity is to spread the Bible. The answer to every objection against the Bible is the Bible.
Rather than focusing on a host of current issues and answers to tough questions my goal will be to teach these students the Scriptures. I want unleash the lion. If these young men are captivated by the God of the Bible then I don’t need to worry about sticky questions destroying their faith.
Furthermore, if the Scriptures really are the means that God uses to bring about conversion I can have confidence that these young men will be used by God to influence their fellow students. They don’t need to enter into endless arguments that are really no more than a smoke screen for the true issue of human rebellion. I want them to know that the chief problem for scoffers isn’t an intellectual problem but a moral one.
Sure we’ll address issues like evolution, human sexuality, and everything else. But these will not happen with the Bible on defense. This will happen with the Bible on offense—unleashed to shake up our lives and draw us to King Jesus. Then humble young men, captivated by Jesus, will be equipped to share the risen Christ in the face of aggressive secularism.
Friends, we don’t need to spend an inordinate amount of time defending the Bible. Let’s simply have the Scriptures do it’s work in our own hearts and keep digging until the Lord rips to shreds every last remnant of sin and unbelief. And while the Lord is doing this let us humbly engage a culture with the unleashed Lion of the Tribe of Judah that is powerful enough to draw any man or woman to Himself no matter how obstinate.
