Why is there so little emphasis placed upon encouraging Christians to learn about other religions?

Question:

Hi Sumair,

I attend and heard you speak a couple of times now. Firstly, I think your sermons and Rev. Tony Costa’s sermons are critical for believers to hear, because in a world (especially in the marketplace) driven by historical facts and knowledge…Christians need to not only analyze what they believe, but also hear the arguments posed against our faith by other scholars.

I have been attending church for almost 20 years now (19 of which was at a very large one) and I have heard almost next to nothing regarding apologetics. I have also rarely heard pastors contrast Christianity to other world religions.

My question to you is why do you believe so little emphasis is placed on encouraging Christians to gain knowledge on other religions? Generally I also find interest on the topic of apologetics higher among my atheist friends than Christian friends.  Would this not suggest that many Christians blindly follow their faith while willingly being ignorant of other religions and views?

Thank you! I also really like the new Events Calendar you added on the main page. Very very useful as I’m always looking to attend debates and info sessions.

Answer:

Hi ,

Thank you for visiting and sharing your kind words of encouragement and insight. I am blessed to be used by God and grateful to have had the chance to speak at your church.

Now getting on to your question - I am a strong proponent of promoting critical thinking amongst Christians. I find it disheartening that the majority of people in this day and age rarely know what they believe and most assuredly it is even rarer that they know why they believe it. To that end, it is imperative that we as Christians understand our faith rooted in the knowledge of the Scriptures or any other field that aids in articulating and contending for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3). It is our responsibility to give an account for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15) and it is our commission to preach the Good News and grow believers in Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).

With regards to your statement about how “Christians need to not only analyze what they believe, but also hear the arguments posed against our faith by other scholars”, I would agree 100%. We need to be able to understand the arguments to be able to effectively interface with people in this world. Not everyone needs to have every area of reasoning flushed out in order to realize Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life but it is needed at some point in the individual’s walk. We need to be ready for the objections and counter-Christian views that will come our way to be able to remove these intellectual obstacles from the path of non-believers and equip believers alike.

Once again, thank you for the honest sharing about your personal experiences within your past church(es). Unfortunately, this is an all too common statement that I hear. It is sad because we are letting our youth grow up without a solid foundation and knowledge of why they have sufficient evidence for an intelligent informed faith (as I like to call it). As a result, many end up walking away from the faith. And if they do not, they aren’t understanding the totality of God’s revelation in the Scriptures and sharing all that the Christian worldview entails with people they encounter. Additionally, the topic of apologetics really does raise tough questions and sadly sometimes it may be easier to leave the stones unturned. Apologetics is either a subconsciously avoided field or sadder still intentionally avoided by many “seeker-friendly” and sometimes large churches. I do not say all large churches are this way but I do know several that are much more comfortable delivering a candy-coated Gospel that removes sin and focuses solely on grace - sometimes they even present prosperity (health and wealth) as a natural expectation for a Christian. Accompanying, these faulty doctrinal motions is a disregard for the core questions, the foundational questions, the real questions - as these aren’t simple or easy topics to address. It is easier to simply teach about typical Sunday School topics and accept typical Sunday School answers. On a side note, I have often found that more youth pastors are able to relate to this challenge as the youth ask the tough questions and the youth pastors often want to ensure they answer them accurately so they are put in a position to answer these apologetics-type questions.

As for “why do [I] believe so little emphasis is placed on encouraging Christians to gain knowledge on other religions?”, I would have to respond similarly to the above with an additional note of relevance being missed. I do think many churches are out there teaching solidly on Scriptures in the context of our world which would mean understanding philosophies and other worldviews but perhaps the connection isn’t made between understanding today’s religions (click for post) and effective gospel sharing. It isn’t about intellectualizing faith but is about realizing the more we understand about other world views the more we can understand how to share Christ with them. With a solid understanding of world views, we can explain the differences between them in order to dispel the post-modern myth resulting in apathy masquerading as tolerance. This post-modern world view presents all religions as the same and equally valid - that we should simply follow the golden rule (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”). We can also understand the similarities between world views to be able to connect someone’s existing worldview and lead them to the exclusive Truth that is Christ Jesus and the Holy Scriptures. And we can most assuredly begin the defence of our faith with an understanding we aren’t just standing still saying “what we know to be true we can prove to be true” but we are equipped to connect that saving faith with others. It takes time and effort and it isn’t exactly as nice as hearing about health and wealth and all the “good stuff”, so perhaps the answer to why we don’t often learn about other world views or apologetics related topics is because we listen to what we want to hear (sometimes that results in large churches growing on faulty grounds) (2 Timothy 4:3).

You also mentioned that, “Generally I also find interests on the topic of apologetics higher among my atheist friends than Christian friends. Would this not suggest that many Christians blindly follow their faith while willingly being ignorant of other religions and views?”

With regards to this statement, I would probably need to probe more to understand what you mean by your atheist friends are more interested than your Christians friends are in relation to apologetics . If you mean that they are ready to dialogue on matters of the rationale for faith, I would say that is unfortunate. Of course, there are variations within any group of people and I wouldn’t want to generalize about Christians nor atheists but I would have to say I tend to see that a sense of comfort has befallen atheist and Christian alike with regards to matters of digging deep into what is beyond this world and the rationale for it. It is quite an odd statement since Christians should understand there is something beyond the material and perhaps we do but often at times we may not want to spend the effort nor put ourselves in positions to be challenged. If a Christian is comfortable and sitting in their church and doing “church things” and not sharing the Gospel with friends, family, co-workers and/or fellow students - well it is pretty easy to stagnate and not feel a need to go deeper. I find that apologetics is best understood as meeting at the junction when theology and evangelism hits the pavement. Apologetics is the natural vehicle once you begin to honestly dialogue with others about why they can have assurance that Christianity is the only way to salvation. If one just states John 3:16 and walks away they will not be required to provide the deeper reasoning. Sadly, Christians often don’t realize that apologetics (from the Greek word apologia - to give a defence) is not a new phenomenon and is clearly a practice observed by all who preached the Gospel. Jesus gave reasoning (John 10), the Apostle Paul carefully interpreted Scripture with focus on textual understanding (Galatians 3:16) and even debated with philosophers of his day (Acts 17:18-34).

Closing Remarks

As always, I try to refrain from making general statements about any group or church (or in this case size of church) but I hope that my thoughts above may give you some food for thought. On a closing note, as with all apologetics or theology we should not leave it as mere understanding and I would suggest you reach out to challenge your Christian friends. Provoke thoughts and lead lessons and make it a bit uneasy but in a loving way. Share articles, web sites, conversations, thoughts, and discussions with them and perhaps you can encourage them to truly understand their faith and why they believe it and inspire them to equip themselves to defend it - after all it is a job for everyone (1 Peter 3:15).

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