Weekly Update

Here I am in the ancient city of Salisbury. The week has flown and I will be heading up the road to Liverpool tonight.

It has been quite an eventful week. Our radio show team (for the Living Hope Show) was put under a lot of pressure on Monday night. The Internet service on the University campus failed during our broadcast. This caused various problems in terms of getting songs and prerecorded items on the program at the right time. On top of this the recording software cancelled our recording of the show when the Internet failed. 'The best-laid schemes o'mice and men gang aft agley' (translation- often go awry) - to quote the Scottish Poet - Robert Burns. Learning to trust God in the every day circumstances of life is a big lesson. Understanding my need to trust him as the Saviour God is essential for my eternal well being.

I have been talking to children in various schools over the week. This was quite interesting in light of the debate on Google plus via the Daily Mail feed about Prof Dawkins claim that to teach children morals from the bible or to teach them religion at all is evil. The word of God says in
Pro 22:6 'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it'. The training should be about good things for the good and benefit of the child i.e. preparation for life and indeed preparation for eternity.

Salisbury is quaint English city. Walking around it you get a strong feeling of history and the awareness  that rural England is just somewhere round the corner. Very pleasant.

I hope your week went well.

Stephen





All posts have the aim of pointing people to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour or to aid Christian growth and development.

Location:Hilltop Way,Salisbury,United Kingdom

How to win a debate?

There have been a number of interesting debates in the UK in recent years between theists and atheists. The following summary of the debates is not mine but it makes for interesting reading.

Walter Boyd writes "At the Cambridge Union Society in October 2011, William Lane Craig and Peter Williams took on a couple of atheists (Ahmed and Copson) on the motion "This House Believes that God is not a Delusion". The Christian side "won" the debate as far as votes cast. The debate is somewhat cerebral and philosophical but makes for interesting viewing all the same (if you have a lot of time on your hands!) http://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/craig-williams-vs-ahmed-copson-cambridge#ixzz2KVzVpf8M

In November 2012 a debate took place in the Oxford Union between three Christians and three atheists. John Lennox started with a 15 minute speech in which he set forth Jesus and the resurrection. Richard Dawkins can be seen in the audience but did not take part. I believe the most interesting contribution to the debate was a short speech from Peter Hitchens (former atheist, and brother of deceased atheist Christopher Hitchens). He takes into the 3 atheists before him and gives them what he calls a "Christian kicking"! His argument is that they don't want there to be a God on moral grounds, not intellectual ones. I believe this 8 minute speech is well worth a quick listen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnIH4gomOqc.

Last month, on Jan 31st 2013, the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams joined up with a Muslim scholar and an atheist, to oppose the motion of Richard Dawkins and two other atheists that "Religion has no place in the 21st Century" (the motion was defeated). http://www.richarddawkins.net/news_articles/2013/2/1/three-articles-about-richard-s-31-jan-debate-with-rowan-williams It is not a particularly interesting debate, except for the fact that Richard Dawkins, rather than properly addressing the motion, went off into a rant against Christianity. Here are two Dawkins's quotes from the debate that expose his bitter opposition to both the doctrine of sin and the inspiration of scripture.

Said Dawkins, the God of the Christians is " ...obsessed with sin. Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. The obsession of the Christian God. Interested in nothing but the sins, including private acts which do nobody else any harm; of the members of one in particular species of old world primate on one small planet, orbiting one rather small star, amid a hundred billion stars, somewhere in the outer suburbs of one ordinary galaxy among a hundred billion galaxies...the God of the Christians is supposed to have cared so much about the sins of this one species of old world African ape that He sent His own Son...down to earth as a blood sacrifice; a divine scapegoat in order to be tortured and killed for the sins of the world - or even the sins of one particular man, Adam who, as we now know, never existed - a somewhat empty gesture to die for the sins of somebody who never existed...[Theologians say] we are suffused with sin, we are born in sin, we are sinful unless we plead forgiveness. That is not a very humane, not a very pleasant, not a very moral doctrine, and I think that the idea of a blood sacrifice is perhaps even worse." 

Later in the debate Dawkins said, "The very idea that because there are mysterious things that we don't understand in science, somehow means that we're going to find wisdom in a collection of bronze age books, is palpably absurd."

Winning the debate is not going to convince the majority to take Christianity seriously but the truth is that the truth of scripture stacks up and often those who oppose Christianity resort to silly arguments out of frustration and anger. What do you believe? Do you know? You'd better find out as time is running out. 

To be blunt the ultimate advice you will ever hear is this "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (Acts 16.31).

For more info visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk.

Bible Exhibition

I am in Wallingford this week working with a Gospel Hall. The Christians who meet in the Gospel Hall have erected a Bible Exhibition so that people will be made aware of the history and message of the Bible. From tomorrow we will have schools in visiting every day. This evening we had an invite only event for adults. It was great to share with people the history and truth of this wonderful book that God has given to us and preserved for us.

If you are not familiar with the Bible it is worthy of your attention. Even extreme atheists such as Professor Richard Dawkins agree that the Bible should be read by everyone, of course I know he means from a literary point of view as he does not enjoy the blessing of faith in Christ for salvation but nevertheless you should read it.

Maybe you have an unread Bible at home. Go and get it. Read the word of God, it is able to make you wise unto salvation. Believing and resting on what God has done through Christ for your eternal blessing is what it is all about. Having said that you will not appreciate your need of God's salvation until you admit that like the rest of us you are a sinner. When you do get to that point remember 'Christ receives sinners' and that He came 'into the world to save sinners'. Repentance toward God (or turning away from sin and turning to God) and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ are the key ingredients in recipe that God has provided for our forgiveness and salvation. May God bless you.

Stephen

(listen to www.seekthetruth.org.uk or visit me on http://www.facebook.com/StephenBakerGoodNews4U)