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Apologists Every Christian Should Know PART 3
Must Reads by
James Sire:
H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 12
The Universe Next Door: The best introduction to worldview analysis. ————————— Naming the Elephant: A further exploration of worldview. ————————— Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All? Considers reasons for faith, focusing on Christianity. ————————— Chris Chrisman Goes to College: A Christian questions his faith at a secular school. ————————— A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics: Insights from Sire’s experiences and the Apostles’ examples. ————————— For a thorough look at what it means to think Christianly in a secular world, see Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. ————————— For a different yet effective approach to understanding unbelievers’ views, see Tactics by Greg Koukl.
The Satisfying Assessment of James Sire:
Why Worldviews It’s been
happening to you your whole life. It happens the second you open your school textbook. It happens when you watch something on Netflix. And it is happening right now as you read this magazine. Competing forces, opposing philosophies, worldviews at war—and you’re caught in the middle. From classroom lectures to advertisements, to fictional novels, to song lyrics, you are constantly bombarded with messages that tell you what to believe, how to act, and how to understand this world. What you think is true, what is right, what really matters, how you see yourself and others, and what lies beyond this life are all determined by an overarching worldview. It’s the lens through which you interpret all things and make sense of the world. It’s the air your mind breathes. But if that air is toxic— if that lens is cracked and dirtied—the consequences can be dire… both for this life, and the next. Take, for example, these different understandings of death.“You are going to die, and you will die alone, and then you won’t exist.”“Suffering, pain, and death are illusions. They are not bad or evil, and neither are they good. The universe knows no such distinctions.” “Death is whatever you interpret it to be. So is life. So is everything else, because truth is relative.” Such sentiments stem from different worldviews, and have been used to justify everything from abortion, to genocide, to pulling the plug on Grandma. And of course, they all deny the biblical belief that the wages of sin is death, that good and evil are real, and that Jesus both died for our sins and conquered the grave in objective history. So if you think thoughts are harmless, think again. You and your worldview are squarely set in the crosshairs of those who oppose Christ. Instead of retreating from the battlefield of ideas, Christians are called to stand and fight: “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). This includes defending one’s faith on intellectual grounds—using apologetics—by
removing the roadblocks set up by those who dismiss the Good News. To do this most effectively, Christians need to know their opponents’ positions and how to evaluate them. One of the most useful apologetic tools for accomplishing this task is worldview analysis, a tactic James Sire has been promoting for over 40 years. A World of Difference Sire has spent his career working with young adults who find themselves confronted with various conflicting ideas about the world. This has allowed him to consider at length what people believe and why they believe it. Most significantly, Sire has developed a succinct understanding of worldviews, sorting through the primary assumptions that direct people’s thoughts about almost everything. This approach is helpful because behind any given roadblock lies a hidden, unspoken worldview that may need to be considered first. For example, if someone objects to the Christian belief that Jesus is God because they have a pantheistic worldview (which holds that everything is God), it may be pointless to cite the numerous verses
