Fall 2010 Volume 8, Issue 1
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r f u a o i y th p e e k
The purpose of apologetics
37 churches and Christian organizations Does the Bible condone coexisting?
contents 5 - Challenging society
Jesus’ message rewrote history and defied the culture in which He lived, and He calls His followers to take on the same role. By Hope Griffin
6 - Dating nonChristians
The question of whether we can date non-Christians seems easy to answer until our emotions become involved. When God’s will VW/JENNIE HOANG gets blurred by our feelings, we have to turn to His Word for the answers. By Brianne Sayers
8 - The Bible as a weapon
12 - Finding a place to worship at UNC-Chapel Hill
It can be overwhelming to leave home and not know where to continue growing in your faith. We’ve compiled a list of Christian organizations and churches for you to find the one that’s best for you. By Lauren Drawdy VW/JENNY BOONE
15 - The reason for sin
Sometimes it seems like Satan is taking over the world and God isn’t stopping him, but when we remember God’s almighty presence and power, we can be confident that He has a reason for sin. By Christina Geradts
Sin is always with us, even after we dedicate our lives to Christ. One weapon we can to use to fight this battle is the Bible; by putting God’s Word into our hearts, it overflows into our minds and out of our mouths. By Amy Whitaker
10 - God’s provision in Nicaragua
VW staff member Esther Lee talks about the testimonies she heard while on a mission trip in Nicaragua. During her trip, Lee saw many people fulfilling the need for missionaries on the field. By Esther Lee
VW/JENNY BOONE
16 - Having faith when it’s not easy VW/ESTHER LEE
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Sometimes it’s completely disheartening to be among the confusion of atheist professors and roommates with different beliefs. But even when our faith is challenged, we can stay strong by remembering God is more powerful than anything else we face. By Mary Somerville
20 - Finding purpose in eternal life
Remembering that we have eternal life helps us remember our purposes for our lives on Earth. By Chelsea Pardue
28 - How God works through sin
The story of Rahab, a prostitute who lived in Jericho, proves that God can use even the vilest sinner for His glory. By Kenisha Askew
29 - A woman who wouldn’t die
Facing the taunts of non-believers in the 21st century should be easy compared to way this early Christian martyr was tortured for her beliefs. By Heather Blanton
VW/REBECCA RIDDLE
21 - What the Bible says about coexisting
It can be hard to maintain a friendship with someone of a different faith or someone of no faith without compromising your own beliefs. Finding a balance between sharing faith and pushing someone away is integral to one of these friendships. By Annie Josey
24 - An explanation of apologetics
Many Christians think faith cannot be explained logically. But apologists seek to find evidence for compelling arguments for Christianity. By Victoria Jones
VW/JENNIE HOANG
30 - “Ordinary Time (Chapel Painting)”
Examine Tim Lowly’s artwork to see how he contrasts spiritual darkness with God’s love. By Mary Somerville
31 - “Gilead”
Find out whether this book by Marilynne Robinson is a beautiful breath of fresh air or a boring, slow-paced read. By Mary Somerville
32 - Poetry
“Breaking my GPS” and “Manna” explore the nature of both humans and God. By Hope Griffin and Mary Somerville
34 - Crossword puzzle
Use these clues to find the answers to questions about the Old Testament. By Christie Ray Harrison
fall ‘10
Virtuous Woman | 3
Letter editor FROM THE
Walking around in a world full of people who constantly call your faith into question can be troubling. It seems especially difficult at UNC-Chapel Hill, a place where spiritual beliefs are as diverse as the students. While we struggle with our faith, God is always faithful to us. “But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15). Because of God’s eternal love, we should strive to make our faith stronger and more resilient. But knowing how to strengthen your faith can be tough. We question God’s Word because of everything from classrooms led by strongly atheist professors to friends who haven’t decided what they think of God. As questions turn into fears and fears into doubt, it can feel like we’re drowning in a sea of unanswered questions. How do we know what to believe, and why do we believe these things? Sometimes answers aren’t just black-andwhite, and problems can only be resolved through thoughtful prayer and searching God’s Word. We have worked hard to find the answers to common questions, and we want to share them with you. In this issue, we explore ways to maintain your faith and how to act around those who may not share your beliefs. We give advice on how to pursue God with your entire heart, from reading His Word to becoming involved in a community of believers. We shed light on a Christian who lived hundreds of years before us and the selfless way she showed her faith. We share how Jesus was a revolutionary in his time, and we discuss ways in which we too can be revolutionaries. I pray that as you read through this magazine, you will gain the strength and courage it takes to defend your faith in a world that doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with God. God bless, Chelsea Pardue Editor-in-chief About 1,500 copies were printed at a cost of $1.75 each. Virtuous Woman is produced by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This publication is funded at least in part by student fees, which were appropriated and dispersed by the Student Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For advertising information, contact Heather Blanton at livingindefiance@yahoo.com.
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VW Staff Editor-in-chief Content Co-Head Layout Editor ASSISTANT LAYOUT EDITOR Photo Editor Online Editor Publicity Director Treasurer Advertising Manager Social Chair
Publicity staff
Layout Staff
Photographers
Chelsea Pardue Lauren Drawdy Rebecca Dudley Megan Finke Jenny Boone Rebecca Riddle Kenisha Askew Kara Jongkind Heather Blanton Lauren Drawdy
Heather Blanton Esther Lee
Heather Blanton Christie Ray Harrison Kara Jongkind Esther Lee Brianne Sayers Jennie Hoang Rebecca Riddle
Writers
Kenisha Askew Heather Blanton Lauren Drawdy Chrisitina Geradts Hope Griffin Annie Josey Chelsea Pardue Brianne Sayers Mary Somerville Amy Whitaker
Address
3503 Frank Porter Graham Student Union UNC-CH Campus Box 136 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-5210
Acknowledgments Thank you to our donors:
Emily Snow We appreciate your financial support! Cover photo: VW/REBECCA RIDDLE
Join the Hope Griffin pinksmycolor101@aol.com
Revolution
The life of Jesus interests all types of people, not just Christians. His life consisted of total giving of Himself, and in this giving of Himself he radically broke the social boundaries of his time and culture by reaching out to the oppressed and hated of his society – prostitutes, tax-collectors, lepers, the poor and many more. To understand why Jesus lived the way He did, we need to first understand His message. And what is Jesus’ message exactly? I think Brian D. McLaren describes it best and most concisely in his book “The Secret VW/JENNY BOONE Message of Jesus.” McLaren’s summary of Jesus says, “The radical revolutionary empire of God is here, advancing by reconciliation and peace, expanding by faith, hope, and love – beginning with the poorest, the weakest, the meekest, and the least. It’s time to change your thinking. Everything is about to change. It’s time for a new way of life. Believe me. Follow me. Believe this good news so you can learn to live by it and be part of the revolution.” In Jesus’ time, this message was surprising, but not for the reasons that you might think. The Jewish people were actually quite used to men proclaiming they were preaching a message from God. Prophets are a big part of Jewish history, as McLaren points out in his book. He describes how many prophets spoke on behalf of the poor, the forgotten and the rejected; emphasized the in-
His dying on a cross gave us the perfect example of how we can live: selflessly, sacrificially and with love for everyone.
ward sincerity of the heart and not mere outward conformity to the law; and spoke of coming judgment on injustice and hypocrisy, just as Jesus did. The Jewish prophets and Jesus also spoke of a new world order. However, while the prophets preached that there would come a time when the powerful would no longer oppress the weak and all wars would cease, Jesus tells us, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” The new world order that was prophesied is here. That new order consists of loving your neighbor as yourself. (Jesus meant the word “neighbor” to mean all men, women and children – even your enemies.) It consists of turning the other cheek when someone has persecuted you instead of striking back. It consists of sharing all you have with the poor. It consists of not putting yourself above anyone and not judging those around you when you yourself struggle right along with them in many ways. It consists of serving others. It consists of forgiveness. We know these things because of how Jesus lived and even more so because of how He died. Innocent, He was crucified and died so that we might have new life with Him in heaven. But His dying on a cross did more than ensure us eternal life in heaven. It gave us the perfect example of how we can live: selflessly, sacrificially and with love for everyone, even those who persecute us. How can we do this in today’s world? By following Christ’s example. By serving others every minute of every day. That means more than going out of your comfort zone to help those less fortunate than you – it means washing your roommate’s dishes even after you asked her to not leave them in the sink. It means not getting back at someone who hurt you through gossip or the silent treatment. It means saying, “I forgive you.” It means including someone who has no friends to hang out with you and your friends. Every time you stop living for VW/JENNY BOONE yourself and sacrifice your time, energy or reputation for someone else, both of you encounter the Kingdom of God. Virtuous Woman | 5
Dating 101: high. Even if we didn’t vocalize it, the requirement that he must be a Christian was slowly losing precedence. As little girls, most of us fantasized about having a perLooking back now, I encourage everyone to keep at least fect future life with a perfect husband. In our imaginations, that one standard. You can throw out the parts that require him we walked down that wedding aisle strewn with flower petals to not snore and to be a good chef as long as you keep the Chrisand into the arms of Prince Charming. This man was care- tian requirement. That is the most important characteristic you fully crafted in our minds; he was handsome, successful, caring, should look for when choosing a husband. The other stuff, bepatient, God-loving and ing financially successful simply flawless. He and good-looking, is a could, and would, erase refection of your desires, all the bad and scary and therefore dispensthings in our lives. I reable. However, having member that when I was a Christian husband is a kid, my friends and I God’s desire for you. Do made an extensive list you honestly think that of all the requirements you would be better off for our future husband. discounting God’s desires These requirements rather than your own? As ranged from pretty bahumans, we often want sic qualities (“must be things that we don’t renice”) to materialistic alize are bad for us, but desires (“must be rich”) God’s desires always fulto ridiculous standards fill His perfect plan for (“must not wear pink”). our lives. Romans 8:28 But the point is that we says, “And we know that knew what we wanted in all things God works in a man, and we didn’t for the good of those think we would ever who love him, who have have to compromise on been called according to any of those guidelines. VW/JENNIE HOANG His purpose.” This verse We were going to find a pershows that God has our fect man. Such are the naïve workings of a young girl’s mind. lives in His hands, and He knows what is ultimately good for us. As we moved into our preteen years, we quickly realized It would be foolish to compromise on His requirement for our that our lists were unrealistic. The boys who we knew were so future spouse. immature that they hardly met just two of our requirements. So why does God want us to date a Christian man? Simply This realization led us to idolize men we didn’t know, obsessing because He wants the best for us. A Christian man has the Holy over famous actors and musicians. We thought they would be Spirit in him and is constantly being guided and encouraged our perfect husbands. Such are the naïve workings of a teenage by God. He strives to better himself by obeying God’s comgirl’s mind. mands and applying the fruit of the Moving into our teenage years, to his life. That means he will A Christian man has the power Spirit we realized that our chances of be constantly questing to improve in through Christ to completely areas of patience, gentleness, selfmarrying a celebrity were slim, so we started to experiment with datcontrol, love, etc. This is not to say quell his sinful habits. ing. Consequently, this led to a mathat he won’t slip up in these areas, jor revision of our lists. We realized that we were not going to but he will at least recognize his mistakes, ask for forgiveness find a guy who fit our perfect description. So, we started crossing and try to not make the same mistake again. In the case of a things off and compromising on qualities we had once thought non-Christian, he may not realize these faults as easily because necessary. It just so happened that we ended up changing our he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit acting as his conscience. Also, lists to fit the guys we liked, a poor way to keep our standards he would not have the means to change himself and eradicate Brianne Sayers, besayers@email.unc.edu
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Dating a non-Christian these bad qualities. The only way to remove sin from our lives is non-Christian. In fact, it may not even strike them as problemto ask God for His help in changing our hearts and behaviors. atic. Some don’t take dating seriously and don’t realize that it is We cannot do it ourselves. Therefore, a non-Christian man can the process of finding a spouse. With this knowledge, we should temporarily abstain from these bad habits, but they will eventu- all seek to date Christian men who are strong in their faith. ally reappear in his life. The difference with a Christian man It does make a difference if you choose someone who is not is that he has the power through Christ to completely quell his committed to God. For example, he may not understand your sinful habits. decision to honor God with your body and wait to have sex unAnother reason why we should date a Christian man is be- til you’re married. You may feel pressure from him to do more cause we will have harmony with him. We will share the same than you are ready for. Also, how will you handle problems that fundamental beliefs, and most importantly, we will both be serv- arise in your relationship if your partner doesn’t turn to God ing the same God. This fact has major implications. Because we for the answers? These questions are only the beginning of a are both serving the same God, we will have the same mindset long list that shows ways in which believers and non-believers about certain issues, which is important when starting a fam- are not compatible. ily. For example, when we marry our spouses and start to raise So when you are going through your checklist (written or our children, we are going to encounter challenges. We will mental) of “husband requirements”, don’t forget how imporhave to make crucial decisions tant the Christian factor is. It is about what we are going to tell As humans, we often want things that not easy to be so limited in your our children about subjects like we don’t realize are bad for us, but choices (because let’s face it, a spirituality. We will also have good Christian guy is sometimes to decide how to budget our God’s desires always fulfill His perfect hard to find), but the benefits of money; a non-Christian may a Godly man far outweigh any plan for our lives. not be willing to accept the fact costs of waiting or searching for that their Christian partner wants to tithe to the church. As you him. Besides, you wouldn’t want to end up in a situation where can imagine, decisions like these are much easier if your spouse you become too attached to a non-Christian, only to find out is a Christian. If not, there will be conflict and tension. The years later that it is not going to work. Reduce the risk of heartBible warns about conflict and tension that will arise with non- break, and guard your heart by upholding this standard. That Christian spouses. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not way, when you walk down the wedding aisle towards your future be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness husband, you can be sure that he is the right one; perfect in the and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light way that matters most to you, and more importantly, to God. have with darkness?” Christians have Christ inside of them, and non-Christians do not. God and sin cannot be united because God cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, it is not compatible for someone who has Christ in their heart to be with someone who lives in sin. When a relationship consists of two Christians, they are able to strengthen each other. God created us as beings who long for another person to share our lives with, someone who will comfort us and strengthen us. God created Eve to be a companion for Adam. “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’” (Genesis 2:18). This chapter in Genesis also talks about the man and woman becoming one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The purpose of marriage is for two people to come together and edify the other. It is not possible for a non-Christian to fulfill this duty to a Christian. In order for the Christian woman to grow spiritually, she must have a Christian husband who is able to encourage her in her faith. God is pleased when a marriage is centered on Him and reflects His glory. Some people may not think it’s a big deal if they date a Virtuous Woman | 7
Combating sin with
God’s Word VW/JENNY BOONE
By Amy Whitaker, anwhitak@email.unc.edu Even if we don’t realize it, spiritual warfare is real and goes on every day in our hearts, souls and minds. It is a huge battlefield between Satan and God, and both sides are fighting for our souls. The evil side tempts us to sin in order to create distance between us and our Creator, while God’s side reveals Christ to us and shows us His love and protection of His children. This spiritual battle is a huge part of life that we must be aware of in order to be used for God’s glory. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 1 Peter 5:8 says, “…Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” With all of Satan’s demonic forces encouraging us to sin and get off track, how are we supposed to stay on the right path? Psalm 119 reveals the answer. David writes in verses 9-11, “How can a man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.” God knows that our human nature is sinful. He sent Jesus to die an excruciating death on the cross because He loved us and He knew that we wouldn’t be able to live with Him in eternity without payment for our sins. What is just as awesome as the love and grace He showed in saving us is that then He didn’t leave us stranded. God gave us His Word to teach us how to live
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for Him, to let us get to know Him and to arm us for the fight of our lives. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” All throughout the Bible we can see instances where sin is defeated by the memorization and quoting of Scripture. Even Jesus used Scripture to combat the devil’s schemes. In Matthew 4, the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan. Three times Satan tempted Jesus and encouraged Him to sin against God, and every time Jesus resisted by quoting the Word of the Lord. Satan recognized his defeat and left, and the Bible records that “angels came and attended him.” In a sermon based on Ephesians 6, Pastor J.D. Greear recognizes that encounters with demonic forces were different in biblical times but that they still happen today. He wrote in the sermon transcript, “A lot of you don’t believe you have ever actually encountered a demon … and many in our culture don’t even believe in them. But I would say you most certainly
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God gave us His Word to teach us how to live for Him, to let us get to know Him and to arm us for the fight of our lives.
have encountered demons. And frequently. They just appear today a little more subtly than they did back then. After all, what Satan is after is not your recognition but your destruction.” Paul, a man chosen by God to preach the gospel and one of the best Christian examples in the Bible, describes the human tendency to sin. In Romans 7:21 he writes, “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” As humans, we are so prone to sin that it’s absolutely essential we arm ourselves with the living and Holy Word of Christ. If we don’t know the truth of God’s Word, how can we defend against Satan’s lies? Tony Campolo, an Eastern College sociology professor and the founder and president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, describes Satan as the one who tells us that romance and sex will satisfy us, that money is the key to success and happiness and that the right government system can fix everything. “He’s also the one teaching from our pulpits that life is about you, that God wants to make you rich, that hell is not for real and that the standards of the Bible are for a different time and place,” Campolo says. Sydney Andrews, a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill, says that God has to be the one to open your eyes to the truth of His love. “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved,” she says, quoting from Ephesians 2. Andrews says that salvation is just the beginning of getting to know God. She reads and studies her Bible to get to know Him more and to remind herself that she gets her life from God. “Our sin is death, and that is what Christ desires to take us out of,” she says. If a person is not a Christian, she is still dead in her sins and can’t recognize the weight of sin until God opens her eyes. John Eskridge, a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill, says that once our eyes are opened we can realize how helpless we are before an Almighty God but can also find freedom in Christ’s love. Andrews says that although she was a Christian in high school, she didn’t read the Bible because she knew everyone already thought that she did since she attended church. When she came to college, she began to study the Bible because she wanted to know God better and knew it was what she needed. She said that being desperate for Him and needing to read the Bible to hear from God helped her to truly find life. She said that now her life is about knowing God better and not perform-
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ing for Him. “It’s God’s grace that has saved me,” she said. Now Andrews tries to memorize Scripture so she doesn’t forget what she reads. Andrews’ mom always told her to “wallpaper her mind with truth” so that her mind doesn’t wander to fleshly things and so she’ll always have the verses she needs on-hand. Andrews starts by praying that the Holy Spirit will guide her, then she looks up a word in the back of her Bible that she wants to know more about, reads the verses and studies their context and pulls out the specific truths and things she wants to learn about God. She sometimes writes the verses that help her most with daily struggles in her planner so that she can flip to them when she is struggling and have instant access to the truth. She said that God has changed her heart to think of studying her Bible as meeting with her daddy who loves her rather than as studying and pulling out principles. Eskridge describes his encounters with the Lord in a similar way, as a meeting with someone you love who loves you in return, just like any close relative or friend. “When you love someone, you know them and want to find rest in them,” he said. Eskridge also said he reads and studies the Bible to be prepared for the chaos of everyday life. “If we don’t maintain our foundation in Him through studying His Word, then we’ll get too caught up in the craziness of the world and won’t be able to rest in the peace God has for us,” he said. Eskridge says that by reading and studying the Bible daily, he finds rest and affirmation in God’s love and doesn’t have to strive or compete to be what the world tells him he has to be. Every morning he dedicates his day to God instead of planning out his own day and becoming overwhelmed by all the things he has to do. He trusts that God is sovereign over each day so that he doesn’t have to worry about the trivial aspects of life that frustrate and cause stress. “There is peace and rest in knowing God is in control and guiding you through your life — you are not on your own,” he says. Through reading God’s Word, you can know God, and He is the one who loves you more than you will ever know. The apostle Paul wrote this verse in a letter to the small city of Colosse, and it is my prayer for you: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).
As humans, we are so prone to sin that it’s absolutely essential we arm ourselves with the living and Holy Word of Christ. If we don’t know the truth of God’s Word, how can we defend against Satan’s lies?”
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God’S FaithfulnesS Testimonies from Nicaragua
Esther Lee, estaleii@gmail.com TESTIMONY. That’s the word that encapsulates my experience in Nicaragua. The trip began with God’s miraculous financial provision for me to go, but throughout the trip, I witnessed testimony after testimony of God’s long-term provision for real people, working on the front lines of the mission field. MISSIONARY MATTHEW Missionary Matthew, who moved his family to Nicaragua five years ago, shared the first testimony. The first year he was there, he ran a homeless ministry on the streets of Managua. Initially he didn’t have a building, so the ministry was just out on the streets; they would talk and pray with people, bring essential supplies, provide some medical care and provide one hot meal daily. By the second year, God provided a building, which is still thriving today. We served there briefly during this trip and helped the ministry as they cooked and served hot meals to the homeless (for over 100 adults and children), washed and shampooed people’s hair, provided means to use the bathroom and wash dirty clothes and held a daily sermon. Matthew’s heart for this ministry is to provide these people with a means to keep their basic human dignity — to show them they aren’t animals who have to use the bathroom in the middle of the street. He said that in Nicaragua, the homeless don’t have much control over their situation — they can’t help that they were born into poor families with no opportunity to move ahead in life. He also expounded on the point that salvation through Jesus isn’t just about getting to heaven, but it’s about 10 | Virtuous Woman
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knowing God’s love for us and how God’s heart is always for the broken and lowly. It’s in His nature to love, heal, redeem and make all things new. God also told Matthew to start a medical clinic. He bought a building in a dangerous part of town and raised $20,000 to invest into the clinic. Unfortunately, after two years of toiling struggle, barely one patient came in every day. Dejected, he closed the clinic down. But shortly after, he got a call from a successful clinic in another part of town. They were struggling (mostly because of financial reasons) and asked him if he wanted to partner with them. (They heard he had experience running a clinic.) He agreed, and they began doing construction to add rooms. Within the next three months, Matthew and the clinic were contacted by a spectrum of medical professionals who all wanted to move in and partner with the clinic — despite the sharp pay cut. This group included an established laboratory, a dentist, a women’s cancer screening center and an optometrist (in addition to the pediatrician and pharmacist who were already practicing). Matthew was amazed. His lesson learned: What we often see as failure is never failure on God’s eyes. It’s only the training grounds for when the full actualization of God’s promise is revealed. SUSANNA & BARRY The next missionaries we stayed with were Susanna and Barry. God gave them a vision to move to Nicaragua and start a Christian elementary school, so they moved full of vision but without any money. As they sought direction from God, a church elder from Los Angeles called them and said he would
support the finances for everything they needed, from buy- WHAT WE DID ing the land to completing the construction. But he had one The first few days we worked primarily in El Paraiso, a stipulation: The Christian school had to be named after him. poor village that recently got a water well system to supply its As they prayed about it, the stipulation didn’t feel right. This basic water needs (washing, cooking and bathing). We ran a Vawas God’s school, and naming it after that man wasn’t glorify- cation Bible School for the village children where we reenacted ing God. As they prayed, Barry got an e-mail from an anony- Bible stories, made arts and crafts, played games, served lunch mous donor for $40,000, which was the exact amount needed and poured our hearts out in loving them. They are so beautito purchase the land. It was a sign of God’s provision, and they ful — even with so little, they wanted to give us whatever they decided to turn down the elder’s offer. And at each step of build- had. On the last day, we gave an altar call ... and about 40 kids ing the school, God provided. They received another $30,000 responded to accept Christ! And we all began praying for each and then another $40,000 until the school was completed. other. It was awesome! At one point, Susanna and Barry didn’t have any money. Then we served at Matthew’s homeless ministry and toured Discouraged and angry at God, Susanna laid down on her bed the medical clinic. At the shelter, we helped cook and serve and moped. “God, why aren’t you providing what we need? We lunch, and then we helped shampoo hair at the cleaning staleft everything to come here for you.” tions. As I worked with the homeless, I realized When she went to church that week, a man “When God wills, it could’ve just as easily been me in this situation. approached her and said, “Susanna, here’s a didn’t do anything to deserve growing up eduHe makes the way. Icated check for $4,650 for you and Barry. Sorry, I in the United States, just like none of these He moves on be- people chose to be homeless in Nicaragua. It was had it last week but forgot to give it to you.” At that moment Susanna realized that God and I felt the burden of reaching out half of those who humbling, always provides and He is always on time! It’s to people in need. trust in Him.” humans who delay His plans. From then on, We spent the last portion of our trip in Susanna and Barry never doubted His proviCarazo, where we served at Susanna and Barry’s sion. Time and time again, they testified to God’s faithfulness. school. We ran a Vacation Bible School there too and did our best to serve and encourage the long-term missionary teachAPRIL & JOEL ers working there. In the late afternoons, we took prayer walks April, Joel and their three children were an established around the surrounding neighborhoods and spent a lot of time family in Mississippi. April was a nurse, and Joel was a youth in an area called Delosa (translated to “painful” in Spanish). We pastor. They were also $220,000 in debt from their house, cars also prayed at the local public school, which was a shanty strucand student loan remnants. ture with only two classrooms. Small donated desks crowded the They had long been good friends of Susanna and Barry, space, and the walls were stained with dirt. There was a wooden and as they prayed for their Christian school ministry, they felt bathroom structure outside with doors missing. It was heartmoved to join them on the mission field. breaking to see the barriers that these kids had to overcome to They wanted to go, but they were unsure so they followed receive an education and move toward a brighter future. Gideon’s example and laid out a “golden fleece.” They said, During the mission trip to Nicaragua, I got a glimpse of “Okay, God. If you can rid us of our debt, we will go. As for God’s heart for His people. As we served the Nicaraguan peoour house, I won’t tell a soul we are selling it — if you want us ple, I realized that truly the need is great, yet the laborers are to go, get it sold.” few. Pray that God would send more ambassadors to spread The next morning, April’s friend, who is a real estate agent, hope and the Good News! “For, everyone who calls on the name called. “Hey April, do you know of any houses kind of like of the Lord will be saved. How then, can they call on the one yours ... in a good school district, with 4 bedrooms?” Stunned, they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one April said, “Our house is for sale. Show them ours.” Shortly of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without after, their house was sold to a pastor’s family, whose church was someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless right across the street. they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those Something similar happened with their car. One morning who bring good news!” (Romans 10:13-15) Joel put a “for sale” sign in the window and drove it to work. That morning, his co-worker said, “Hey, you’re selling your car? My wife has been looking for that model! Let me buy it from you.” Soon after that, it was sold. Within three months, everything was completely sold; their debt was completely eradicated. Their family moved to Nicaragua at the beginning of 2010. When God wills, He makes the way. These testimonies are the highlights of God’s faithfulness. He moves on behalf of those who trust in Him and wait on Him.
VW/ESTHER LEE Praying for a child at a children’s cancer hospital.
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How to find a Christian community at
UNC-Chapel Hill Lauren Drawdy ldrawdy@email.unc.edu
Starting college is an incredibly exciting, yet somewhat daunting, experience. There are so many things to do and so many places to go that it’s easy to become overwhelmed, especially at a campus as diverse as UNC-Chapel Hill. There are a multitude of clubs and organizations here, all vying for your attention; it’s easy to feel weighed down and unsure of where to go to continue growing in your faith. This overview of some of the most well-known and welcoming churches and organizations will help you to decide where, and how, to get plugged in to Chapel Hill’s Christian community.
Campus Organizations
Below you will find a list of four large UNC-CH Christian student organizations along with some information from their websites: RUF: Reformed University Fellowship RUF is a fun, loving group that believes “you’re never so bad you’re beyond the reach of God’s grace, and you’re never so good you’re beyond the need of God’s grace.” One of RUF’s goals is to build a nondenominational community on UNCCH’s campus that reaches students of divergent beliefs and doubts with the message of the gospel. RUF seeks to equip and love UNC-CH’s students, and to serve Jesus and his church. RUF has a large group meeting which meets every Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in Murphy 116. RUF also has multiple small groups that meet throughout the week, and it hosts social events and service opportunities throughout the year. Check out the website at http://www.unc.ruf.org. IV: Intervarsity Christian Fellowship IV is an evangelical and interdenominational campus ministry that believes in a “transformational community.” IV students believe that God has “hard-wired” his children to be in authentic, holy relationships with one another. IV encourages students to grow together in God’s grace and love so that they may be transformed into a community based on faith, hope and love and that they may then transform the world. Go check it out Thursdays at 7 p.m. in Hanes Art Center for large group, or look on the website to find more information about small groups and other fun activities at http://unciv.weebly.com.
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Cornerstone; Campus Crusade for Christ Cornerstone is a body of students who believe that the “God of the Bible is real and He has significant things to tell us.” Cornerstone members don’t pretend to have all the answers, but they are on a journey to encounter the Creator of the universe on a deeper, more intimate level. Cornerstone students believe that humans are called to live with a personal relationship with God, and they invite others to explore their own relationships with God on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. in Hamilton 100. Cornerstone also has a branch titled “Greek Life” that seeks to provide support and resources for Greek students, a branch titled “Athletes in Action” for student athletes and small groups that meet throughout the week. Check out the website at http://www.unccornerstone.org. FCA: Fellowship of Christian Athletes FCA is a Biblically-based, Christ-centered, student-led organization with the goal of presenting athletes and coaches, and all whom they influence, with the challenge and adventure of receiving Jesus Christ as Lord, serving Him in their relationships and in the fellowship of the church. FCA meets every Monday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Kenan Field House for fellowship and speakers. FCA members are also involved in Bible studies, service projects and intramural sports. Check out FCA’s website at http://www.unc.edu/~jdurant/fca/heritage. htm.
Check out some other awesome organizations on their websites! Below you can find short descriptions along with contact information. Victory in Praise Dance Ministry is a dance team devoted to spreading the gospel through dance; check out their Facebook page at “Victory in Praise Dance Ministry,” or contact them at cnlassit@email.unc.edu. Campus Christian Fellowship is a Christ-centered community focused on reaching out to UNC-CH students; check it out at http://ccf-unc.org/main.
Carolina Baptist Campus Ministry is a student-loving ministry centered on Baptists doctrines; you can find it at http://www.carolinabcm.org/#/home. Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship is a Christian ministry that exists to reach students and help them grow in their faiths; check it out at http://www.xa-unc.com. Cooperative Student Fellowship (The Co-Op) is a gathering for students seeking Christ-centered fellowship through a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be a follower of Christ in a complex and divisive world; you can find it at http:// www.coopunc.org. Episcopal Campus Ministry is an Episcopalian community for students that delights in student involvement in their affiliate church, Chapel of the Cross; you can find it at http://www.unc. edu/ecm/. Every Nation Campus Ministries is a Christ community that seeks to spread God’s Word to every nation; you can contact them at unc@everynation.org. Lutheran Campus Ministry is a Lutheran ministry that seeks to be students’ home away from home on campus; check it out at http://www.holytrinitychapelhill.org/lcm/lcm.asp. Newman Catholic Student Center and Parish is a Catholic ministry that offers everything from spiritual guidance to home-cooked meals; you can find it at http://www.newmanchapelhill.org. Presbyterian Campus Ministry is a Presbyterian community of faith and witness that was created by, and for, UNC-CH students; check it out at http://uncpcm.wordpress.com/. Student Faculty Christian Fellowship is an organization that aims to facilitate intellectual dialogue and relationships between Christian students and faculty; check it out at their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group. php?gid=25948489209. Triangle Church Campus Ministry is a ministry of students who are striving to love God and others as they follow Jesus; you can find it at http://www.trianglechurch.org/campus. Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF) is a community that aims to follow Jesus through the guidance of God’s Spirit in all that they do; check it out at http://ccf-unc.org. Christian Apologetics of Carolina is a student organization dedicated to exploring questions of philosophy and theology and their relation to the Christian faith; you can find it at http://cacblog.wordpress.com. Carolina Baptist Campus Ministry (BCM) is a community of students devoted to becoming passionate followers of Christ while effectively engaging UNC-CH’s campus with the gospel; check it out at http://www.unc.edu/student/orgs/bsu.
Christian Medical & Dental Association (CMDA) is a vehicle for medical students to experience fellowship, Bible study and prayer and learn how to integrate their faith into their professions, at http://www.med.unc.edu/cmda. UNC Wesley Campus Ministry is a Spirit-led living and learning community that is rooted in Jesus Christ and grounded in the Wesleyan tradition; to learn more, contact David Horton at hortondt@email.unc.edu. God First Campus Ministry is a ministry that is centered on defending and promoting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior on UNC-CH’s campus; to learn more, contact Daisy Mittman at dmittman@email.unc.edu. Christians@Kenan-Flagler is a ministry that seeks to have the people of Kenan-Flagler Business School personally consider Christ; the members meet for lunch fellowships, prayer and Bible studies. You can contact them by e-mailing christians@ kenan-flagler.unc.edu. Agapé Harvest Church is a joint UNC-CH and Duke University student community that encourages members to live Christ-centered lives; you can check it out at http://agapeharvestchurch.org/index.html. Adventist Christian Fellowship is a Triangle-area-based church and community for everyone who lives in the Research Triangle; you can find it at http://www.duke.edu/web/adventist/index.html. Alpha Omega Christian Fellowship is a joint community of Christ-centered UNC-CH and North Carolina State University students; you can check it out at http://www.aofellowship.org/about.html. There is also a fantastic website titled Beacons on the Hill that enables the UNC-CH community to find out about Christian faculty, organizations and events on campus. Check it out at http://beaconsonthehill.org/.
Churches
Some of Chapel Hill’s local churches include: Campus Crossroads When: Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Where: Peabody 104 Including: Nondenominational Classes, Wallgroups, Events Contact: http://www.campuscrossroads.org/.
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University Baptist Church When: Sunday Morning at 11:00 a.m. Where: On the corner of Franklin Street and Columbia Street Including: College Sunday School, Weekly college dinners and Bible Study, an “adopted” family that will take care of homesick students Contact: http://www.ubc-ch.org/. University United Methodist Church When: Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 10:55 a.m. Where: 150 East Franklin St. Including: Sunday School, College Café, Career Mentors and Study Breaks Contact: Rev. Jim McConnell, 919-929-7191, ext. 10 Grace Church When: Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Where: 200 Sage Road Including: Rides from UNC-CH to church, free college lunches, student ministries, worship, short-term mission trips and small groups. Contact: 919-968-4120; 919-968-4120; office@gracelife.com; http://www.gracelife.com/ University Presbyterian Church When: Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Where: 209 East Franklin St. Including: Tuesday Evening Worship, Sunday School, Choir Contact: http://www.upcch.org/ and http://uncpcm.wordpress.com/about/.
Love Chapel Hill When: Sunday morning, 10:30 a.m. Where: Franklin Street, held in the Varsity Theatre. Including: Contemporary services and community involvement Contact: team@lovechapelhill.com; http://www.lovechapelhill.com/#/home. The Church of the Good Shepherd When: Sundays, 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Where: 3741 Garrett Road, Durham, N.C. Including: Small groups and a college ministry Contact: 919-490-1634; http://www.cgsonline.org/ Christ Community Church When: Sunday morning, 10:30 a.m. Where: Rashikis Elementary School Including: Community groups, Sunday School and college ministries Contact: http://www.cccpca.org The Summit When: Saturdays, 4:15 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.; Sundays 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Where: 2335-114 Presidential Drive, Durham, N.C. Including: Spanish Services, Sunday School, Small Groups, College Ministry Contact: http://www.summitrdu.com/
The Chapel of the Cross When: Sunday mornings at 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 5:15 p.m. Where: 304 East Franklin St. Including: Liturgical services, Sunday School and a campus ministry Contact: 919-929-2193; http://www.thechapelofthecross.org/. The Catholic Community of St. Thomas More When: Sundays at 7:30 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 1:30 p.m. (Español) Where: 940 Carmichael St. Including: Liturgical services and campus outreach Contact: 919-942-1040; http://church.st-thomasmore.org/. Hillsong Church When: Sunday Morning Bible Study: 9:45 a.m.; Sunday Morning Worship Celebration: 11:00 a.m. Where: 201 Culbreth Road Including: Contemporary worship services, small groups, Sunday School. Contact: 919-967-3056; http://www.hillsong.org/.
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Christina Geradts cgeradts@email.unc.edu
I
n a perfect world, we’d have a stress-free life, get perfect grades and have wonderful relationships with our friends and relatives. War wouldn’t exist, resources would be abundant and poverty would be unfamiliar to all. In a perfect world, sin wouldn’t exist. But our world is not perfect. Our lives are never stress-free, peace often seems idealistic and sometimes it’s hard to find good in the world. Sin does exist, and we are challenged to understand why we have sin and the significance it has in our lives. Our understanding of sin begins with Biblical origins. God created Adam and Eve as the first humans on Earth. They were given free reign of the Garden of Eden, except for one stipulation: They could not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, they submitted to Satan’s temptation, as well as their own selfish desires, and ate from the tree after seeing that it was “good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom” (Gen. 3:6). Upon learning of their disobedience, the Lord said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing what is good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand to take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22). Hence, both sin and death came into the world through the fault of one man. We all sin. It’s a universal part of our human nature. Man’s first sin was the abuse of freedom, which resulted in the loss of the trust of God. Consequentially, man fell from the grace of original holiness and into a state of sin, which has been inherited by all subsequent generations as original sin. As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). Because of original sin, our human nature is weakened and we are inclined to trespass against our Lord. However, being innately sinful does not mean we can dismiss our sins with the thought that it’s merely human nature and thus a normal part of “Being innately sinful life: “No big deal — God will does not mean we can forgive me.” It is a big deal, dismiss our sins with the specifically because sin detethought that it’s merely riorates our relationship with human nature and thus a God and distances us from normal part of life.” Him. Certainly God does forgive our sins, no matter how terrible, but we must be sincerely contrite and genuinely intend to avoid committing the sin again. When we sin, we give in to the temptations of the physical world, which James identifies as our own desires (James 1:14) instead of God’s wishes. Sin is an offense against God — a rejection of Him and an abuse of our freedom. As humans,
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God has given us the gift of free will, and it is our responsibility to hold ourselves accountable for our actions; we should not blame God for giving us the ability to sin. However, because we are all flawed and at times fall into sin, we must whole-heartedly keep our eyes on God and seek forgiveness through Him. In Isaiah, it is written, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (1:18). God will forgive those who are truly remorseful. As John writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). It may help to pray Psalm 51, which is a prayer of repentance and expression of a desire to reconcile with God: “Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:9-11). So why didn’t God prevent sin in the first place? In “Summa Theologica,” St. Thomas Aquinas writes, “God allows evils to happen in order to bring a greater good therefrom.” He then goes on to reference Romans 5:20, where Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Just as one man’s transgressions caused sin to enter the world, one man’s sacrifice and atonement brought salvation and grace to all. Christ came to make reparations for the sin of mankind, and He made salvation for us possible. It is through Him that our sins are forgiven. His death gave us hope for eternal life with Him. As Christians, one of our greatest purposes in life is to do all things for the greater glory of God, living our lives in complete dedication to Him and His holy will. In doing so, we should become a part of one community striving for the same goal of obeying His laws and living His message. Let us encourage each other to turn away from sin and set our sights on our ultimate goal of eternal life with Christ, where our world will finally be perfect.
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Maintaining your
faith UNC
By Mary Somerville, msomervi@email.unc.edu According to the Association of Religious Data Archives, the percentage of people in the United States in 2000 who regularly attended Christian services numbered 46 percent.1 The number of practicing Christians in Orange County, N.C., was only 30 percent.2 The exact numbers at UNC-Chapel Hill are inconclusive because so many students are unsure about their beliefs, but our college is certainly not Christian. So how are we supposed to maintain our faith at such a secular university? The people on this campus laugh at the seeming buffoonery of the Pit Preacher, worship the sophistication and intelligence of its non-believing professors, dedicate themselves to knowledge for knowledge’s sake and praise the diversity in UNC-CH’s religious organizations. How should we respond to the doubts that this campus inevitably creates?
Everyone believes in something First, we must examine the inaccurate view of Christianity that our university assumes. It seems to say that there are a few believers, and then there are the enlightened people, who have risen above religious foolishness and realize the truth of facts about what they call superstitions and lies. Atheist author Richard Dawkins, in an interview for “Wired” magazine, says that “The big war is ... between naturalism and supernaturalism.”3 Christian pastor and author Timothy Keller, however, reveals the flaw in Dawkins’ words. In one of his sermons, Keller points out that everything, including unbelief, is actually a belief system. He says, “Every doubt is a faith. It is not faith versus reason; it is not supernaturalism versus naturalism; it is faith versus faith, belief versus belief ... Everyone, whether you believe in Christianity or not, is a person of faith. You’ve made some leap, some assumption about the world.”4 A conviction similar to Dawkins’ shows up on our own campus. One of the student organizations here at UNC-CH is called the Secular Student Alliance, a nonreligious student 1 “U.S. Membership Report.” Association of Religion Data Archives 2000. <http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/US_2000.asp>. 2 “County Membership Report.” Association of Religion Data Archives 2000. <http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/counties/37135_2000.asp>. 3 Wolf, Gary. “Battle of the New Atheism.” Wired 22 Oct 2006. <http:// richarddawkins.net/articles/228-battle-of-the-new-atheism>. 4 Keller, Timothy. “Doubt: What should I do with my doubts?” Redeemer Presbyterian Church Worship Service. Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York. 29 October 2006. Sermon.
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group “whose purpose is to educate ... students ... about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and humanistic manifestations.”5 This group encourages atheists, agnostics and skeptics. It claims to be religion-less, but it does, in fact, have its own religion, a belief system based on a “scientific and rational examination of the universe.”6 The world is full of different belief systems, and we must realize the significance of where we put our faith. Christian, atheist, pagan, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, the Twilight-obsessed, the overly-devoted Tar Heel fan: the list could go on forever. Every single person in this world places her faith in something, and we must choose which of these is the Truth. In an interview about his book “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins says, “I cannot know for certain, but I think God is very improbable ... and I live my life on the assumption that He is not there.”7 Though Dawkins thinks that he understands truth, Timothy Keller points out that Dawkins believes in something, just like every other human being does: “He is a man of faith, as are we all.”8
“Everyone, whether you believe in Christianity or not, is a person of faith. You’ve made some leap, some assumption about the world.” Pastor Timothy Keller Richard Dawkins’ inspiration, Charles Darwin, admits in letters and in his journal that he came to dislike the fact that he had put his faith entirely in science: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste of pictures or music. I am glad you were at the “Messiah,”9 but I dare say I should find my soul too dried up to appreciate it; and then I should feel very flat, for it is a horrid bore to feel as I constantly do, that I am a withered leaf for every subject except Science. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. 5 “About the Secular Student Alliance.” Secular Student Alliance Web Page. <http://www.secularstudents.org/about>. 6 “Description.” Secular Student Alliance Facebook Page. <http://www. facebook.com/group.php?gid=155565056392>. 7 Keller, Timothy. “Doubt: What should I do with my doubts?” Redeemer Presbyterian Church Worship Service. Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York. 29 October 2006. Sermon. <http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/doubt-what-should-i-do-my-doubts>. 8 Ibid. 9 The musical work written by George Frideric Handel. 10 Page 19. Fleming, Donald. “Charles Darwin, the Anaesthetic Man.” Victorian Studies. 4.3 (1961): 219-236. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3825547>.
It sometimes makes me hate Science.10 Darwin recognizes that he has a soul, but he tries to nourish it with science instead of God, and he finds himself starving spiritually. You may claim that science is the only truth, or you may put your faith in something entirely different. In the end, what will matter is what we have chosen as the object of our faith. It seems like the question, “What is truth?” inevitably shows up as a rhetorical question in discussions all over college campuses. Few people realize that what is probably the first recorded evidence of this question appears in the Bible. Before his crucifixion, Jesus tells Pontius Pilate,11 “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37). Pilate responds with the question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).
What is truth? So then, what is truth? People give many different answers to this question, but the only man who has stood up to the test of time, who deserves absolutely no blame at all, is Jesus Christ. And He gives this answer: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Not everyone will believe this statement. It requires a leap of faith. But once that leap of faith has been taken, and the Christian life has begun, we must trust in God as He leads us through the doubts which will unavoidably beset us. It is difficult when professors or students laugh at Christian beliefs as if apologizing for such childish notions, as though they have achieved a higher platform than Christians and, in looking down on us, shake their heads patronizingly at our foolishness. We must trust in the power of God instead of the attractive seeming super-intelligence of atheist scholars, for as Jesus says, “whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26). 11 Pontius Pilate was the Roman leader of Judaea at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. When the mob brought Jesus to Pilate to have him tried, Pilate did not agree that Jesus had done anything wrong but could not convince the mob of their mistaken judgment (John 18:28-40, 19:1-22).
Richard Dawkins believes that “Highly intelligent people are mostly atheists.”12 But not all atheists believe that they are smarter than their Christian peers. Just a few examples of highly intelligent Christians include authors C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, former atheists Anthony Flew and Alister McGrath, musicians Handel and Bach and the disciples who lived during Biblical times. Some nonbelievers like to say that the Bible is just a book of legends populated with unreasonable characters. Christians, however, believe that the Bible is the true Word of God and that its characters were rational human beings. For example, the Hebrew man Moses chose “to be mistreated along with the people of God” instead of enjoying the privileges of his imperial upbringing (Hebrews 11:25). God likes to do the unexpected. He does not choose to give truth only to the highly educated. He chose uneduVW/JENNY BOONE cated fishermen as Jesus’ companions, and through them He left the reports of Jesus which appear in the New Testament. God has a plan for each one of us, and He is with us in every step of our lives, despite whether we acknowledge Him.
How to deal with doubts When we become followers of Christ, we also become subject to doubts. Imagine you are standing on a wooden floor, trusting that it will hold you up. When the floor slants suddenly, you may begin to doubt that it will support you. Someone may say, “Aha! That won’t hold you up!” But when you realize that the floor is actually the deck of a boat, it becomes clear that the floor must slant from time to time in order to ride out the waves and avoid being crushed by them. Our faith will encounter challenges on this non-Christian campus, but we must realize that doubts are a common part of the Christian life and they only serve to make our faith stronger. 12 Wolf, Gary. “Battle of the New Atheism.” Wired 22 Oct 2006. <http:// richarddawkins.net/articles/228-battle-of-the-new-atheism>.
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We see in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus is the one who controls “the winds and the sea” (Mark 4:41). We must trust that He will guide and protect us as we make our way through the sea of unbelief around us. Christians throughout the centuries have been plagued by doubt. In the Bible, we read that “the testing of [our] faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:3-4). In other words, when we encounter doubts and move past them, our faith is strengthened and we move closer to the perfection that God sees in us. Even the apostle Peter struggled with doubts, though he lived while Jesus was on Earth and was one of Jesus’ closest friends during His ministry. Christ said that Peter would be part of the foundation of the church (Matthew 16:18). Right after this statement, however Peter doubted Christ’s foreshadowing of the resurrection: “This shall never happen to you!’” (Matthew 16:22). In another example, the apostle started walking across the water toward Jesus but began to sink when he saw the strength of the wind. In the midst of his doubts, however, Peter cried out for help and Jesus rescued him (Matthew 14:30). In another example of Peter’s doubt, the apostle denied Jesus, just as Christ said he would (Matthew 26:35). Peter had doubts about who Jesus says He is, just like people on this campus do every single day. After Christ’s resurrection, however, Peter understood that Jesus is “the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:15). God uses lowly human beings, weak in faith, as the foundation of His church. When we act like we know better than Jesus does, when we doubt the significance of a carpenter’s son who lived and died 2000 years ago, we are doing exactly what God knew we would. He watches as He waits for us to cry out for help like Peter did as he was sinking into the waves. The saying goes that we should learn from our mistakes, and the same logic applies to faith: We can learn greater dependence on God as we doubt.
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may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3). As humans, we cannot imagine the suffering that Christ had to go through, but we can understand the fact that it was immense. Christ endured so much for our sake; can’t we suffer a relatively small amount of persecution on this campus for His sake?
How to deal with challengers Suffer for Christ Christ suffered an unbelievable amount in order to atone for the sins of humanity. Not only did He endure the physical and spiritual pain of the cross, but He also had to deal with the pains associated with human life, undoubtedly a rude shock after existing in the company of the divine Trinity. While He was on Earth, furthermore, He had to deal with the loneliness that came from His separation from the other two essences of God, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In His death, Jesus took all the sins of humanity, all the murders, lies, robberies, all of the rebellions against God, on Himself, a staggering effort which only God Himself could endure. The author of Hebrews encourages his readers to remember the fact that Jesus suffered for them. “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you 18 | Virtuous Woman
We must not dismiss people who do not share our beliefs, and we should not isolate ourselves from nonbelievers. We must listen to others and try to figure out how to best explain our beliefs to them. If they become antagonistic, we should pray that God will use our words somehow. God created all humans, not just Christians, in His own image. As John Calvin said, “Since [people] bear the image of God engraven on them ... although they have nothing of their own by which they obtain the favor of God, He looks upon His own gifts in them, and is thereby excited to love and care for them.”13 Therefore, since the beauty of God exists in all humans, though it is tarnished by sin, we should love those around us, believers and nonbelievers alike. 13 Calvin, John. Commentaries of the First Book of Moses Called Genesis. Trans. Rev. John King. <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom01.txt>.
We must beware of falling prey to the false beliefs of nonbelievers on this campus. John tells us how to recognize truth and falsehood: “[Nonbelievers] are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us” (1 John 4:5-6). We should be wary of those who do not teach the gospel, and we should point them toward the Truth through our words and actions. Christians from the time of Christ Himself have constantly been surrounded by nonbelievers. Many people around Jesus did not put their faith in Him regardless of the fact that he did “miraculous signs in their presence” (John 12:37). Both apostles Peter and Paul told their peers that they were living in a lost generation (Acts 2:40, Philippians 2:15). There are nonbelievers all around us, but they may not know what they are missing unless we tell them.
The importance of community To keep our faith in the midst of such an unbelieving university, we must be sure to have the support of a Christian community. We should follow Christ’s example of prayer and fellowship. During His ministry on Earth, Jesus spoke to His Father often. Jesus also chose to have a group of friends for support during His ministry even though, as the perfect and divine Son of God, He did not need them. Our lives first must include community with God through prayer and reading the Bible, which is His Word to us. Even though Jesus is God, while on Earth He communicated with His Father in heaven through constant prayer. In the Old Testament, Moses’ “face was radiant [after] he had spoken with the Lord” (Exodus 34:29). God calls us to “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). How can we be lights with faces as figuratively radiant as Moses’ unless we follow his example and speak with God? We must devote ourselves to studying and listening to Him. It is also important to be in community with other believers. How many times have you heard the metaphor that a bundle of sticks is harder to break than a single one? It is harder to doubt when you are a part of a community of believers. As Christian singer Brandon Heath says, “One of the things that bothers me about this world is that we’re all in this for ourselves. We’re look-
ing out for number one. I don’t want to be alone, I want to live life with other people. God even says it’s better to join together in service to Him”14. One benefit to living in an area this diverse is the fact that there are dozens of campus ministries and local churches where you can get involved. In fact, there are about 30 Christian ministries at UNC-CH. Check them out on page 12.
The presence of God Christian friends can help remind us of God’s presence when we are having doubts. The writers of the Psalms were filled with uncertainty about God’s presence, and their doubt is evident in verses like such as Psalm 88:14: “Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?” In Romans, however, we are presented with unshakable faith in God’s existence: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus the Lord” (Romans 8:39). Although the writers of the Psalms had times of doubt, they had many more moments of belief and VW/JENNY BOONE praise. God is everywhere. Look for Him in the smile on a stranger’s face, in the kindness of a door held open or in the relief of a breeze lifting the hair off your neck on a hot day. He cares about us deeply. He sent His Son into our broken world to save us from our sins, and He moves us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Evidence for God is all around us, but only some choose to see it. Unbelievers try to convince us that the path of belief systems like atheism or agnosticism are fulfilling, but their souls are dry and shriveled like Charles Darwin’s became, while the souls of believers are sustained by the overflowing depths of God’s love.
In the end, what will matter is what we have chosen as the object of our faith.
14 “Brandon Heath Biography.” Brandonheath.net. <http://www.brandonheath.net/about.php>.
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Forever to live forever?
What if we were
Should the answer change the way we’re living now? By Chelsea Pardue parduec@email.unc.edu At some point in our lives, most of us have been asked the question, “What if you were to die tomorrow?” That question is meant to provoke us to do things that we might want to try but never do because we’re too afraid, too busy or too tired. Sometimes it is meant to make us think about whom we would apologize to or forgive so that we don’t die with regret. Ultimately the question ends up falling flat. We may ponder it for a few minutes, but then we throw it aside, assuming that we will live for more than just another 24 hours. Instead of asking this hypothetical question, perhaps we should ask ourselves one that isn’t hypothetical. What if we were to live forever? At first this question seems to be even more pointless than the first — but in reality, it’s the right one to ask. Paul, the author of many New Testament books, explains that our lives do not end when we die. “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1). The problem is that on a day-to-day basis, most of us don’t think about our lives after death. But if we did, how would that affect the way we approach our lives today? Each of us was created for a purpose. “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4). We do not all have the same exact talents, but we were all put on Earth to worship, praise and serve God. If we don’t put Him in the center of our lives, we are aimless. Although most Christians know about our main reason for life, many of us push it out of our minds. We want to accomplish our own goals, even if they don’t coincide with what God has planned for us. “But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:11). nowing This psalmist tells us that that we God’s plans cannot be changed no matter what we do. We cannot fail should give us the should be comforted by that thought; yet we should also be confidence convicted. Whatever we do, God has already planned it as to risk part of the basis for our lives. everything. We cannot fail. Very few things in our lives are a certainty. So if something is, shouldn’t we pursue that thing with vigor? Knowing that we can never be unsuccessful, no matter how much we screw up, should give us
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the confidence to try harder and take more risks. In fact, knowing that we cannot fail should give us the confidence to risk everything. Despite this knowledge, however, we stand back in fear, afraid that we will ruin God’s plan. We ignore the message of divine purpose found throughout the Bible. “The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me” (Psalm 138:8a). Because we don’t listen, we only half-heartedly pursue God’s plans for us. And thus people around us miss the point of worshiping and serving God. Once we realize the significance of God’s unfailing and unchanging purpose for our lives, we should experience a change. If we are here to accomplish God’s plans, shouldn’t our entire lives revolve around those plans? “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2a). Following God’s plan may mean that we can no longer pursue worldly goals. Our plans to become the rich president of a huge corporation may turn into working as a nonprofit leader in a country halfway around the world. VW/JENNIE HOANG Or, it could mean our plans to work with a nonprofit organization may turn into us fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives in a small town, a big corporation, a hospital or an insurance firm. What we originally want for our lives may be totally turned upside down once we understand that our work on Earth is only the training ground for the life we will spend in eternity. The way we pursue our purposes will also impact those around us. No matter what talent God has given each of us, it was not meant for us to keep to ourselves. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10). We must show God’s grace to others, but each of us will do it differently. Our purposes are intertwined with the people around us. By remembering that our lives are not just the years we spend on Earth, but rather a prelude to an eternal life with God, we can easily keep the focus on God’s meaning for us. This life is about glorifying God — our Father and Creator, the Alpha and Omega and the Lord of all — because without Him, our existence would be completely meaningless.
Love them or leave them? Coexisting in today’s world Unbelievers are not untouchables. Living as a Christian at UNC-Chapel Hill, or at any college, or nearly anywhere in the U.S., you will inevitably encounter people of different beliefs. As Christians, sometimes it can be challenging for us to know how to be friends, or at the very least to coexist, with nonbelievers. More importantly, it can be challenging to know how God wants us to interact with these people. Some Christians like Pastor Terry Jones, author of “Islam is of the Devil” and leader of the “International Burn a Koran Day” movement, vehemently refuse to tolerate other religions. Other, more liberal “Christians” have begun to recognize all religions as acceptable ways to practice. Oprah Winfrey, one of the most influential women in the world today, who was raised Baptist, said on her show, “One of the biggest mistakes humans make is to believe that there is only one way. Actually there are many diverse paths leading to what you call God.” So how do we know what to do? Oftentimes as Christians we think that comingling with non-Christians or sinners is wrong. We think we might catch whatever disease they have that keeps them from God. At worst, some may even think being friends with non-believers will keep them from entering the Kingdom of God. This mindset is completely mistaken. The Bible says we are supposed to love everyone, no matter what their personal beliefs are. Jesus says in Luke 10:27 to “love your neighbor as yourself,” and then tells the story of the Good Samaritan, who helps a beaten man on the side of the road. These men were of different faiths, but when it came to showing love to a fellow human, nothing else mattered. The National Association of Evangelicals issued a statement after the radical practices of Terry Jones made headlines: “The NAE calls on its members to cultivate relationships of trust and
by Annie Josey ajosey@email.unc.edu
respect with our neighbors of other faiths. God created human beings in his image, and therefore all should be treated with dignity and respect.” Differences in faith don’t have to cause conflict and discrimination. We should value people who disagree with us. When they challenge our faith, they help us grow spiritually. Jesus, the ultimate Christian example, befriended countless sinners and non-believers like Matthew, a tax collector, and Mary Magdalene, a prostitute. Similarly, we as Christians should not isolate ourselves from the world because we are scared or prejudice. We should make a point to meet people of other faiths, or of no faith, so that they can see what it’s like to have a relationship with Jesus. Encountering people with different beliefs from our own is a natural part of existing in this world, so why not make your everyday life a place to make new friends and share your beliefs? 1 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us.” Here God specifically charges us with the duty to befriend the unbelievers. It’s our duty to share the gospel with them, because if we don’t, who will? When making friends with non-Christians, it is important not to get distracted by the goal of sharing the gospel. Being a good friend is never about converting someone into a person worthy of your friendship. It’s essential to respect beliefs different from our own. We should accept people for who they are and make friends based on shared interests and compatibility. Friendship comes naturally when people have things in common and when they can also appreciate each other’s differences. When making friends with a non-Christian, look for traits
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or beliefs you share, like a love of Jane Austen or a decision not to drink alcohol. After a while trust develops between friends, and it’s easier to talk about more serious things like faith. Then you can share the gospel out of love for your friend, and she will be more receptive to hear it from someone she knows and cares for. While respecting other people’s religious ideas is crucial for a real friendship, we must also be wary not to waver in our own beliefs. It’s good to know about other religions in order to understand friends of different faiths and to know how and when to share your faith in Christ with them. However, you don’t have to act contrary to your own beliefs to befriend or reach someone. It’s OK to ask questions about your Muslim friend’s faith or show interest in your Hindu friend’s traditions, but stay confident in your own beliefs. If you lose respect for your faith, so will others. People will think Christianity is not important or desirable enough to change their lives for. Often it can be difficult not to compromise your faith while still being friends with non-believers. Friends may try to pressure you into doing things against your faith, such as getting drunk, watching crass movies and TV shows or joking inappropriately. You may also be pressured into undermining your own beliefs to become more acceptable to your friends or to avoid offending them. Laughing off serious differences between religions to maintain social harmony might be a good way to keep yourself comfortable, but it will only end up making you look spineless.
Being a good friend is never about converting someone into a person worthy of your friendship. People are drawn to other people who have real identities and personalities that they aren’t ashamed of. By standing up for your beliefs, even against your closest friends, you will make them consider and respect you and your faith. When being a Christian has a more powerful influence on you than being someone’s friend, people will notice and wonder what it is about Christianity that wins your loyalty. This shows the world how desirable a relationship with God is, and after all, it’s our duty to share this good news with everyone. In 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, Paul writes, “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that they may be saved.” The best way to be friends with nonChristians is to show genuine interest in them while maintaining your own identity, values and beliefs. When you have a good open relationship with someone of a different faith, natural curiosity on both sides will inevitably lead to religious discussion. To coexist should be to tolerate other beliefs but not to prohibit disagreement or the ability to speak your opinion. Your aim in this doesn’t have to be to prove or disprove one religion against another, but to plant seeds of awareness in someone else’s life. An easy way to share about Christianity with friends of different faiths is to read the Bible together. God’s teachings and the all the essential points of Christianity are mapped out in the Bible, along with plenty of examples of how God loves His children, both Jews and Gentiles. Coexisting with people of different religions doesn’t mean that we 22 | Virtuous Woman
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can’t share the gospel with them. Penn Jillette, an actor, comedian, musician and prominent advocate of atheism asks Christians: “How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” If we humbly share these beliefs out of concern for our friends, they will be much more receptive than if we stand on the street or in the Pit, yelling at them about their sin. The Bible teaches that salvation through Jesus is more important than anything else, and that this salvation is a promise to all people: “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). By coexisting with all people of every religion, we will be able to share the love of Jesus with them. However, if we shun everyone of a different creed because we believe they are unfit company or just of the devil, we will be shirking one of our most important responsibilities as Christians. Even though we are purposed to live among non-believers in order to share the love of Christ with them, it can still be challenging to know how to do it. Living as a Christian example is good, but if your friends don’t know why you act the way you do, it’s futile. The first thing to do when sharing the gospel with people of another faith is to pray. Ask to be led by the Holy Spirit, and ask God for wisdom in how to approach them. Pray for God to open their hearts to what you have to say, because you alone can never change someone. You are only the messenger. It’s really simple to start small. Invite your friend to come to church or a Bible study with you. If she says no, keep asking. Learn about her faith, or lack of faith, and try to build bridges to share the gospel. Ask about her personal story, and tell her yours. Sometimes the testimony of a close friend can make people reexamine their own beliefs. If your friend asks about your faith, what you believe or how you act, try to answer her in a way that sparks some positive confusion. In the Bible, Jesus does this several times as a way of sharing the gospel. When speaking to Nicodemus in John 3:3, Jesus confuses him by saying “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” When Nicodemus expresses his confusion about how an old man cannot fit back into his mother’s womb, Jesus tells him of spiritual rebirth. When Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, He says, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water”(John 4:10). When she starts to wonder how He would get water from the well with no bucket, Jesus shares with her about the truth of the Messiah. Fear can also be a major hurdle in sharing your beliefs
The Bible says we are supposed to love everyone, no matter what their personal beliefs are. with a non-Christian friend. However, that is just a hindrance to your friends knowing the gospel. Proverbs 29:25 reassures us that “Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting in the Lord means safety.” God is in control of everything. Evangelism is a process that depends entirely on God, and it cannot be hindered by your personal fears and faults. Since God has ultimate power over people’s hearts and minds, there is nothing we should be
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afraid of. Social awkwardness can be a scary thing when it comes to religious disagreements, but loving someone enough to share life-saving information with them, rather than choosing not to make them uncomfortable, is the mark of a true friend. If your friend were about to be hit by a truck, you would naturally want to push her out of the way, even if you had to fall and knock her down with you. Acts 10:34 says that “God shows no favoritism,” and neither should we. Non-Christians are not our enemies; they simply don’t know the truth we know. “If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand the message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Nonbelievers are unequipped with the weapons to fight off our enemy, the spiritual darkness of Satan, and therefore they are trapped in sin. This sin is what can make Christians uncomfortable around non-Christians. However, it is our purpose as Christians to give nonbelievers the weapon to fight off these enemies — Jesus. Since the fall of man, God has given us freedom to practice whatever faith or lack of faith we want. Likewise in the United States, we are granted the God-given right to freedom of religion. Being a Christian is not about persecuting or threatening other religions to scare them into Christianity. It’s also not about accepting all religions as the right way to live. Showing God’s love to friends of every belief system is how individuals come to Christ through His grace alone. As Christians, we are just sign posts showing and telling everyone else what it is like to have a true, glorious, life-affirming relationship with Jesus Christ. *All Scripture references come from the New Living Translation
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The Apologetic Posture: Using evidence and reason to defend the Christian faith
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By Victoria E. Jones, former editor-in-chief, Virtuous Woman victoria.emily.jones@gmail.com AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article is merely an introduction to apologetics, and as such, I provide only a few very brief and incomplete defenses for Christianity. However, I hope that after reading the article you will be intrigued enough to search out your own defenses. For a one-stop read, I recommend “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist” by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. In today’s age, faith and reason are often pitted against one another as mutually exclusive. Many atheists — and even some Christians — (wrongfully) define faith as belief without evidence. Perhaps from the pulpit you’ve heard such things as “Don’t question; just have faith,” or “Faith is believing in something that common sense tells you not to,” or “God wants us all to take a giant leap of faith in the dark.” But contrary to popular conception, faith in the God of Christianity is entirely compatible with, and in a large part inseparable from, reason. The Bible repeatedly says that we are to exercise our minds, seek truth and understanding and test false teachings. Nowhere in the Scriptures does God tell us to make a foolish or unreasoned decision, especially when it deals with something as hefty 24 | Virtuous Woman
as eternal destiny. Faith in God and in His Word does not ignore contradictory evidence; rather, faith evaluates the available evidence and takes a step in the direction in which it points. It is sadly true that some Christians, maybe even many, have blind faith — they passively accept the idea of God because that’s what their parents taught them, what their friends follow or what gives them warm fuzzies inside. They’ve never actually stopped to consider why they believe what they do or whether what they believe even makes sense. But faith certainly doesn’t have to be blind, and God never meant it to be. Contrary to the empty taunts of atheists, faith in the God of Christianity is a soundly rational belief held by thoughtful, intelligent people all over the world. The existence of God, the trustworthiness of the Bible and the historicity of Jesus can be defended with rational argument, and it is the purpose of Christian apologetics to do just that. Defining apologetics The word “apologetics” comes from the Greek word “apologia,” or “defense,” and it carries with it the idea of a legal defense or formal justification. To apologize is to make a case for something, or to give an answer in reply. (Don’t be confused by the word’s modern definition — apologetics has nothing to do with saying you’re sorry.) Christian apologists use reason and evidence to present a
rational defense for the Christian faith. They form persuasive arguments that support the centrally held tenets of Christianity, including the existence of God; the absolute nature of truth and morality; and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They do so by refuting common objections, such as: • • • • •
Jesus never lived. There is no evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. All religions basically teach the same thing. If God is all-loving, how could He allow evil to exist? The four Gospels contain irreconcilable contradictions.
The purpose of apologetics is to persuasively answer those objections that prevent people from placing their trust in Jesus Christ. Apologetics not only provides evidence for the truth claims of Christianity but also demonstrates the weaknesses of other belief systems. Apologists are able to recognize the flaws in another’s line of reasoning, expose those flaws and provide a more adequate worldview. A biblical practice The discipline of apologetics has been around (in a loose sense) since the first century A.D., when Jesus Christ Himself practiced it. During His earthly ministry, Jesus continually exposed fallacies in His critics’ logic using standard Aristotelian forms of reasoning. His arguments often forced His challengers to face the truth about themselves and about God. Not only did Jesus engage in philosophical apologetics, He was also an evidential apologist. Through His use of miracles, He provided physical signs and evidences that confirmed His claims to deity. Furthermore, after His resurrection, He “gave many convincing proofs” that He had risen from the dead (Acts 1:3), having revealed Himself to more than 500 people. He even told Thomas to touch His nail-scarred hands and spear-stabbed side so that he might believe. Jesus wants to stop the mouths of those who doubt and bring all men into His covenant of grace. Perhaps one of the greatest apologists of the early church was the apostle Paul. In every circumstance in which he found himself, Paul utilized it “for the defense of the gospel” (Philippians 1:16). And he always made sure that he was knowledgeable of and sensitive to the culture to which he ministered. For example, when Paul went to Mars Hill to engage the Greek philosophers in thoughtful debate, he first established common ground in the fact that his audience believed in some form of religion (Acts 17:22-28). He traced some similarities between Jehovah and Zeus (their sustaining powers and their fathering roles) by quoting from Greek poets , but he then exposed the flaws in the pagan worldview and made a case for Christianity as a belief system in which the power that created and sustains the universe logically coheres with man’s pursuit of goodness and justice. One of the most obvious Scriptural endorsements of apologetics is 1 Peter 3:15, in which Peter writes to the Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor, “Always be prepared to give an answer [“apologia”] to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
The limitations of argument Many Christians belittle the practice of apologetics, saying that the truths of faith cannot and should not be justified rationally. God is self-evident, they claim, and requires no proof; He is far too lofty for human reason and therefore can be comprehended only by faith. This perspective is known as fideism (literally “faith-ism”), and it sees reason as hostile to faith or, at the very least, independent of it. Fideists claim that no one comes to faith in Christ through argument. But this assertion is only partly true. Yes, the Holy Spirit must first work on the individual’s heart to make it ready and willing to accept, so we can in no way rely on our own power of speech — but that’s true with evangelism in general. And yes, faith is an integral step in the process of becoming a Christian. Science and logic can take us only so far. When it comes to proving that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will, one must have faith — but we have reasons for our faith. Apologists seek to remove the substance of people’s excuses and force them to confront the volitional root of their objections to the Christian faith. In his book “Reasonable Faith,” William Lane Craig writes, “In most cases, it will not be arguments or evidence that bring a seeker to faith in Christ — that is the half-truth seen by detractors of apologetics — but nonetheless it will be apologetics which, by making the gospel a credible option for seeking people, gives them, as it were, the intellectual permission to believe.”
“Apologists seek to remove the substance of people’s excuses and force them to confront the volitional root of their objections to the Christian faith.” Faith is a reasoned response to evidence Atheists love to deride Christians for their exercise of faith, which they consider to be a sort of intellectual laziness and, more than that, utter foolishness, or even just plain evil. Renowned atheist Richard Dawkins says that religious faith is a delusion, a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, and he despises it because (according to him) it forbids rational inquiry. “Faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument,” Dawkins says. These perceptions of the Christian faith are false. The word translated as “faith” in the New Testament is “pistis.” “Pistis” encompasses a number of ideas, all of them revolving around an intentional, engaged trust. Faith is not hoping or
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wishing or self-deceiving. Faith is putting trust in the trustworthy God, a God who has proven Himself in the past and continues to do so today. Faith is not an exclusively Christian concept. In fact, all human knowledge is dependent on faith: faith in our senses, faith in our reason, faith in our memories and faith in the accounts of events we receive from others. As Christians, we have faith that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and such faith is reasonable. The Bible can be taken seriously because its factual claims agree with history, archaeology, anthropology, geography and the findings of other relevant disciplines. Research continues to uncover the existence of ancient places, people groups, cultural practices, individuals and events mentioned in the Bible, thus affirming the Bible’s historical reliability. For example, at one time critics thought the Bible was wrong about a people known as the Hittites because there was no evidence of their existence — until their entire library was uncovered in Turkey. Likewise, critics thought that writing didn’t exist in Moses’ time, so there was no way he could have written any of the Old Testament — until they found the Ebla tablets in Syria, which predate Moses by 1,000 years. Jacob’s well (John 4:5-6), the burned ruins of Jericho (Joshua 6:24) and the pools of Bethesda (John 5:2) and Siloam (John 9:7) have all been located, to name only a few of the hundreds of archaeological corroborations of Scripture. Also, the historicity of several kings of Israel and Judah, as well as the wars they waged, has been established by the discovery of royal seals, inscriptions and edicts. Several New Testament figures have also been confirmed as historical, including Herod the Great, John the Baptist, Pilate, Caiaphas, Felix, Gamaliel and James (and, of course, Jesus of Nazareth). Although discoveries such as these cannot confirm the Bible’s theological claims, they can confirm many of the historical events on which Christianity is built, even offering strong support for its central event: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, at this point, you may be thinking, “Are you telling me that everything in the Bible makes total sense, that all the workings and sayings and doctrines of God have rational grounds, and that we can rely on reason alone when it comes to apprehending the truths of Christianity?” No, I’m not. Christianity is indeed reasonable, but it cannot be known by reason alone. That’s because Christianity has a personal dimension that requires putting one’s trust in Christ, not merely accepting truth claims about Him. Faith is what bridges the gap between reasonable certainty and absolute certainty. VW/JENNIE HOANG
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Sure beyond a reasonable doubt People often say, “How do you know what you preach is true? There’s no way you can prove that God exists, or that He sent His Son Jesus to die for us.” We cannot know with 100 percent certainty, nor can we offer absolute proof — but that’s true of almost any conclusion arrived at through induction. Any time we draw general conclusions from specific observations (the scientific method), our conclusions contain the possibility of being wrong. For example, you cannot be absolutely, 100 percent certain that gravity makes all objects drop, because you haven’t observed all objects being dropped. That’s why the idea of gravity is called a theory — it’s a logical explanation based on all available empirical data; it’s not absolutely certain, but it’s highly probable. Although the theory of gravity can’t be proven to be true beyond all doubt, it can be said to be true beyond a reasonable doubt, based on the incomplete but consistent observations man has made. Not only are our observations of gravity limited; they are also indirect. We cannot observe gravity directly, but we can observe its effects, and from those effects we can make a rational inference to the existence of a cause. This same sort of inductive reasoning can be used to investigate the truth claims of Christianity. When determining truth, we must evaluate and respond to facts. Even though we don’t have complete or perfect information, we do have enough information to make a reasonably certain conclusion that the God of the Bible does indeed exist, that He created the universe, that His very nature provides an absolute standard of morality, that Jesus is God and moreover that the Christian Scriptures are historically reliable. God cannot be tested in a lab or observed directly under a microscope, but we can see certain effects today that beg to be traced back to a reasonable cause. For example, scientific evidence has revealed that the universe exploded into being out of nothing; that the cell is an irreducibly complex system that could not have developed in a gradual fashion; that all living matter contains a message or set of instructions (DNA) and thus requires an intelligent mind to have written it; and that animal groups in the fossil records appear separately, fully formed and at the same time — all evidence of an instantaneous creation at the hands of a self-existent, timeless, immaterial, intelligent, powerful, personal God. Even many Darwinists (Charles Darwin included) admit that the evidence on their side is weak, but they continue to exercise a steadfast faith in their worldview. While many people reasonably accept the existence of God, considerably fewer accept the divinity of Jesus. Even if we were to ignore the 400 Messianic prophecies He fulfilled and the dozens of miracles He performed, we still have reason to believe that Jesus is the Christ. His historicity has already been firmly established, as there are 10 non-Christian writers who mention Jesus within 150 years of His life, including Josephus, Tacitus, Lucian, Celsus and Pliny the Younger. From these writings, we can affirm that Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar, that He was virtuous, that He was a wonder-worker, that He had a brother named James, that He was acclaimed to be the Messiah and that He was crucified under Pontius Pilate
on the eve of the Jewish Passover. These writers also tell us that Jesus’ disciples believed He rose from the dead and were willing to die for this belief and that they denied the Roman gods and worshiped Jesus as God. These extrabiblical sources therefore reveal a storyline perfectly congruent with the New Testament. The New Testament consists of 27 different documents that were written on 27 different scrolls by nine different writers, six of whom were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus. All the New Testament books were most likely written within 70 years (most within 30) of Jesus’ death — far too little time for legend to have developed. The Gospels read much more like eyewitness accounts than they do legends, as their descriptions of events are matter-offact and void of embellishment, commentary and extravagant detail; the writers concentrate on just the facts, and they give critical readers many opportunities to test their accuracy by referencing real historical places and figures. Furthermore, what possible motive would the disciples have had to lie about the resurrection and then die for something they knew was a lie? And if for some reason they were fabricating parts of their stories, they wouldn’t have included embarrassing facts about themselves, such as their failing to understand what Jesus was saying on numerous occasions (Mark 9:32; Luke 18:34; John 12:16), their falling asleep when Jesus asked them to pray (Mark 14:32-41) or their deserting Him during His arrest (Matthew 26:56). The disciples appear to be dim-witted, uncaring, doubting cowards — clearly not a portrait you would paint of yourself or your fellow adherents if you wanted to invent a holy book for generations of people to read and study. Therefore, our reason — which is based on scientific and historical evidence and simple logic — seems to lead us to the conclusion that there’s a divine Creator whose unique Son is Jesus of Nazareth. Not just for the pros Apologetics is not just for doctors of theology; it is your responsibility, too. Jesus Christ commands us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37-38), which means that the Christian life requires not just emotional and spiritual commitment to Christ, but intellectual commitment.
Perhaps when you’re asked why you believe that Jesus Christ is the one true way to heaven, or how you know the Bible is true, you respond, “Because I have faith.” OK, but why do you have faith? Skeptics consider faith a vice, not a virtue, in addition to being a major cop-out. Any way you look at it, it’s not a compelling defense. So, even though it’s true that we believe by faith, we also believe (or should believe) by reason, and the cause of Christ would be much better served if we were to let skeptics know the reasons for our faith rather than the mere fact that we possess faith. Don’t close off the discussion just because you think that nonChristians can’t possibly understand the things of God. The Holy Spirit is in the business of softening hearts and illuminating minds to truth. VW/JENNIE HOANG His work combined with your preparation is bound to make an impact. Many Christians don’t share their faith with unbelievers simply because they’re afraid they won’t be able to adequately answer the questions or objections that might be raised. Maybe you feel hesitant to engage others in spiritual discussion because you have not yet been convinced yourself that you have good reasons for what you believe, or because you don’t know how to articulate the reasons you do have. Well, in the words of God, “Fear not.” As I’ve just said, the Holy Spirit is alive and active, testifying to the truth of Christ and converting hearts. But that doesn’t absolve you of personal responsibility in the matter, since you are, after all, God’s instrument to reach a skeptical world. It’s time to start living with well-informed, well-tested convictions. The unexamined faith is not worth believing, so start examining. Equip yourself with the facts and evidences of Christianity so that you will be ready to give an answer. Doug Powell, Holman QuickSource Guide to Christian Apologetics (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2006) 12. 2 “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) is a line from Epimenides’ Cretica. “We are his offspring” appears in Aratus’ Phaenomena as well as Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus. 3 William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008) 19. 4 Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006) 308. 5 Powell, 11. 1
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You, Me, and Women of the Bible: Rahab Being a woman of faith does not mean being a woman who knows every Scripture of the Bible, never misses a Sunday service or is focused on never making a mistake. While some may strive to do these things, being a woman of faith simply means what it says: being a woman who trusts in God’s will for her life and uses faith to walk His path. One of the greatest examples of such a woman can be found in the second chapter of Joshua. Rahab was a daring woman who, understanding the power and judgment of God, used her faith to help the Israelite army invade her own hometown of Jericho. While her actions were integral in advancing God’s plan for Israel and judgment of Jericho, it was her faith that served as a testament of how gracious God is in spite of our mistakes. Many people would not consider Rahab a woman worthy of mention. Not only was she a pagan Canaanite, but she was also a prostitute. Her home was built right into the city wall of Jericho. Such a location conveniently allowed her to lodge travelers while also providing them with favors. When Joshua sent two Israelite spies to Jericho in preparation for an invasion, they entered the home of Rahab. When the King of Jericho discovered there were spies staying there, Rahab acted quickly. She hid the spies on her roof and threw the pursuers off the men’s trail. She acted in this way, not because she aimed to be a traitor, but because she acknowledged the sovereignty of God. Rahab proclaims to the spies, “I know that the Lord has given this land to you … when we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below” (Joshua 2:9,11). After asking the spies that they show kindness to her family, she sent them to the hills to hide until they were safe. The message that the spies brought back to Joshua was, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.” During the invasion, the spies placed her entire family outside the camp of Israel, rescuing them from destruction (Joshua 6:23). Her reward was not limited to just the saving of her family, however. Rahab was also blessed to be an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:5) and to be one of only two women mentioned in the “Hall of Faith.” (The “Hall of Faith,” which can be found in Hebrews 11, is a reflection of the lives and feats of faith of some Old Testament matriarchs and patriarchs.) Rahab’s story shows that not only can God use us in spite of our mistakes, but also that He can use us through our mistakes. Rahab did not live in the city wall because she one day expected to house Israelite spies. She lived there because her lifestyle as a prostitute depended on it. Her home was a dwelling place for sin. However, God used this same home to help the Israelites invade Jericho. In the same way, we oftentimes find ourselves in unpleasant places due to our sin. Instead of 28 | Virtuous Woman
By Kenisha Askew klaskew@email.unc.edu
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denying the sin, or beating ourselves up, we should repent and realize that God can and will still use us. Moreover, Rahab’s story shows that God’s power can be felt in unlikely places and by unlikely people. God does not limit Himself to a certain type of person. Just as He can use the Christian, He can use the unbeliever. In the same way that He can use a prophet, He can use a prostitute, for “He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:28). Although Rahab was not an Israelite, she could testify to the glory of God. She had heard of how God had dried up the Red Sea and how He had destroyed the Amorite kings (Joshua 2:10). Rahab knew that God’s judgment of Jericho was near. More importantly, however, she knew that if she allowed her mistakes to limit her actions, destruction would be certain for her and her family. Like Rahab, when we have the opportunity to do what’s right, we must use faith, step out of our past and take on the new role God has placed before us for His glory.
Never give up, Never Back Down,
Never Lose Faith
A Portrait of Persecution…and Victory By Heather Blantan, livingindefiance@yahoo.com Suffering and persecution are all around us, yet Christians living in America enjoy more freedom to worship than our brothers and sisters in most parts of the world. But what if that changed? What if tomorrow it wasn’t only not all right to be a Christian, it was downright deadly? Would knowing that a simple prayer might end your life impact your relationship with God? Would it draw you closer to Him, or would you back away from the fire? In the summer of A.D.177, found diversion by watching blood sports in their amphitheatre. While Gladiatorial combat was still common, the latest craze was watching Christians die in unimaginable, but ever-soentertaining, ways. On this hot August evening, however, the sport of killing Christians had become particularly compelling. A resilient little house slave had the city all abuzz. Suffering repeated tortures and left in shockingly gruesome condition, the young girl Blandina simply wouldn’t die. Worse, she kept dredging up the strength to urge her fellow believers to stand for Jesus. Twenty-five years earlier, Christianity arrived in Lyon and steadily gained followers. As pagans became aware of the threat to their revenue and culture, officials in the city initiated an anti-Christian campaign aimed, at first, at merely stifling these troublesome Christ-followers. Eventually, however, the unyielding refusal of the rebels to deny their Lord and worship the Roman gods infuriated the community. The persecution started innocuously enough as Christians were ordered from public places and denied housing and businesses. Within a few years, however, the believers were stalked, mocked, beaten, stoned, arrested, and finally, tragically, relegated as entertainment for the blood-thirsty masses. August 1 in 177 was a national Roman holiday. To celebrate it, the governor opted for a grand spectacle in the city’s amphitheatre. Instead of gladiators, who were expensive to hire, he pulled his cast of performers from the local prison. The prisoners were led on to the field and given a chance to deny Jesus. If they agreed, they would then publicly utter a prayer to Rome’s gods -- the necessary requirement for proving their “conversion.” A few broke and begged for the chance to recant their faith. But Blandina, a delicate wisp of a girl now battered
and bleeding, encouraged her brothers and sisters in Christ to stand strong and hold on to God. At one point she cried out, “I am a Christian and we commit no wrong-doing.” Her stubborn resistance only incensed the crowd. The laughter turned to outrage and curses. Eusebius, eye-witness and famed historian reported, “Blandina was filled with such power as to be delivered and raised above those who were torturing her by turns from morning till evening in every manner, so that they acknowledged that they were conquered, and could do nothing more to her. And they were astonished at her endurance, as her entire body was mangled and broken; and they testified that one of these forms of torture was sufficient to destroy life …” The next day, Blandina was suspended on a stake, similar to a crucifix, and hung out as food for wild animals. Tradition says she prayed in a loud voice and, to the crowd’s disappointment, the animals did not atVW/ REBECCA RIDDLE tack. Vexed, officials couldn’t decide what to do with her. For several days then, she was forced to watch the sufferings and deaths of her fellow Christians. But the festival drew to a close and Blandina, persecuted but not forsaken, was to be the final act. With great anticipation the crowd watched as she was first scourged and then roasted alive on a red-hot grate. Still unyielding to death, she was wrapped in a net and thrown before a bull who tossed her about like a rag doll. But Blandina’s heart beat on and her lips moved in silent prayer. Finally, a guard unceremoniously ended her life by simply cutting her throat. Blandina’s love for Christ gave her no choice but to stand for Him. As a result, her sacrifice has glorified God for centuries. And God loved Blandina so much he not only enabled her to bear the torture, but made sure her death would not be in vain. Her story has inspired and encouraged believers for countless generations. But is it also possible that perhaps a few of the citizens of Lyon, while fellow residents cheered at Blandina’s final breath, wandered home in the summer twilight, silently pondering a deity who could inspire such devotion? In this life, we may never know the impact our faith will have on others, but it will have an impact. The next time you are pressed on all sides, feeling persecuted, abandoned or struck down, remember Blandina, who stood for love and conquered death. Virtuous Woman | 29
Behindthe Image
Mary Somerville, msomervi@email.unc.edu
Tim Lowly’s art exudes the spirituality that comes from his Christian faith. Lowly lives in Chicago, Ill., and that industrial setting often impacts his work. One example of Lowly’s work that combines both Christianity and city life is his painting “Chapel Painting (Ordinary Time).” In the Bible, and in the Old Testament especially, people often pray with their “hands spread out toward heaven,” and the woman in this painting seems to be praying in this way (Exodus 9:29). We cannot be sure what her prayer is, but the image suggests that she is both praying for the city and praising God. In John 12:46, Jesus says, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” This relationship between light as gaining new life in Christ and dark as being lost exists in Lowly’s painting. The lower part of the painting consists of a bleak city landscape with gray and brown buildings, dark windows and leafless trees, all of which suggest that the city’s inhabitants are spiritually lost. The monochromatic shades of the buildings imply that the residents live empty, meaningless lives. The dark windows make the buildings look blind, and that suggests that the inhabitants are blind spiritually. The leafless trees, furthermore, insinuate a spiritual barrenness: the townspeople do not seem to possess the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galations 5:22). The physically drab landscape of the city suggests that the woman is praying for God to renew the people spiritually. The top part of the painting is completely opposite from the lower part. Although a few twigs and chimneys reach into the upper portion of the painting, the top two-thirds of the painting are almost entirely sky. The sky is very open, unlike the town below, which is crowded with details. As the sky moves away from the city, it becomes more colorful. In the space above the woman’s head, light seeps through the clouds, making the sky white. This contrasts sharply with the darkness of the town and the roof on which the woman stands. The light and color in the sky over the dark city suggest that God exists everywhere, even where there is spiritual darkness. He is in control, even when sin and suffering seem overwhelming. The fact that the woman is facing the beautiful sky suggests that she is praising God. The woman herself combines these elements of dark and light seen in John 12:46. Her shoes and hair are black, and her clothing is white. This suggests the dual nature of humanity: We are sinful but are also made in God’s image. The Bible tells Christians to “Be imitators of God … and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us” (Ephesians 5:1-2). This woman’s prayer-
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ful posture suggests her love for the people of her city and her love for God. The woman’s relationship to the background of the picture has spiritual implications as well. Her hands and feet are below the horizon, which suggests that she is doing Christ’s work in the world. But her heart and head are above the horizon, in the sky, which implies her love for and belief in God. The placement of the woman suggests that she lives in the world, trying to spread the truth of God, but she is not attached to the world because she knows that her faith in Christ is more important (John 17:14-16). The title of this painting, “Ordinary Time,” refers to the periods of time between major Christian holidays such as Easter and Christmas. Since the painting is not set during a church celebration, we see that the woman does not need the excuse of a holiday to worship God. “Ordinary time” can also simply refer to any time which is not particularly important, but merely commonplace. It seems to be normal for the woman to pray to God. The cityscape is common too; we do not need to know in what town the painting is set because any industrial scene gives us enough information to interpret the picture. Lowly has made the paintCourtesy of Tim Lowly ing universal, since viewers can imagine looking out over the places where they live. Through his use of light and dark and the contrast between the woman and her background, Lowly illustrates Christianity’s place in the world. Although it holds the promise of eternal life, Christianity is not otherworldly; it is relevant to the world today, wherever we may be. Christ does not recoil from our spiritual darkness; in the Gospels, He befriends people like corrupt tax collectors, lonely prostitutes and uncouth fishermen. When the Jewish leaders question His friendships, saying “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2), Jesus responds, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Matthew 9:12). One could also say that it is not the clean who need a washing, but the filthy. In the same way, a light is not needed during the day, but only at night. The city in Lowly’s painting is full of grime and darkness, just like our world today. We must take time to pray for this sinful world, to serve those around us and to praise God for His creation and for our salvation through Jesus Christ. We should take hope in the peaceful, yet determined, praise the woman offers to God and rest in the knowledge that while we dwell in a sinful world and are a part of it, we are also children of God and thus set apart and meant to live an eternal life with our glorious Creator.
Book Review:
Gilead
Review by Mary Somerville msomervi@email.unc.edu Marilynne Robinson, a Christian, has written three books each of fiction and non-fiction, and her second novel, “Gilead,” won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. The book is told from the perspective of the dying, 76-year-old John Ames. An old man wheezing and napping most of the day might not sound like the most scintillating subject, but I encourage you to stick with the book because it is much more complex and beautiful than it might seem at first glance. John Ames is a pastor in the small town of Gilead, Iowa. His first wife died while giving birth to their first child, who died soon after. Ames grieved for years and was convinced that he would be permanently single. Then, when he was 67 years old, the overjoyed Ames met and married a younger woman, Lila, who had just come to town. The book is full of Ames’ thoughts and advice for the couple’s young son. Ames speaks in reverent tones about his amazement at the overwhelming grace of God, which has brought him not only Lila and his son, but also many other blessings which come out throughout the course of the book. In “Gilead,” Ames reads a newspaper article about falling church attendance in the U.S., and he writes that he dislikes it because “prophets love the people they chastise, a thing this [journalist] does not appear to me to do.” Unlike the journalist who wrote the article, Robinson loves the people for whom she is writing. Robinson sets her novel up so that the reader becomes like one of the townspeople, witnessing the lives of the characters and the relationships between them. The reader shares in their joys and grieves with them in their sufferings. These struggles compare to the hardships everyone deals with, so it is easy for the reader to relate to the characters. The joy which exists at the same time as suffering is harder to see in real life, but Robinson does an excellent job in her novel of making sure that the reader recognizes this beauty. Ames starts the novel by giving his son some history about Ames’ father and grandfather, who were also pastors. He goes on to say, “What else should I tell you?” At first, the novel may seem
to go slowly as it wanders around a few seemingly random stories, but as time goes on, we see more of Ames’ brilliance and wisdom as the stories coalesce. For example, in one short but profound statement, Ames reminds his son that “The image of the Lord in anyone is much more than reason enough to love him.” The tiny town of Gilead seems almost idyllic at first glance, but as the story progresses, we find several stories of brokenness which are hidden under this veneer. The main story of brokenness involves Jack Boughton, who is Ames’ namesake and best friend’s son. Jack struggles to fit in with the churchgoing population of the town, and he senses that his actions fall short of his father’s expectations. However, he does not know how to fix this feeling of disconnection. The bulk of the novel explores Ames’ frustration with and relationship to his namesake. The novel is about beauty, and Robinson’s simple yet elegant language and relaxed tone present that perfectly. Through her small-town, yet well-read, pastor, Robinson presents nuggets of Christian wisdom. As Ames says, he likes to think about “occasions when the sacred beauty of creation becomes dazzlingly apparent.” The beautiful wisdom which Robinson provides is easily accessible to her readers, including non-believers, as her Pulitzer Prize award clearly shows. “Gilead” is like a breath of fresh air in the literary world, since Robinson provides realistic characters and tells her simple yet profound story well without resorting to lurid ideas. It is quite an achievement that her work won the Pulitzer Prize, since she has such obvious Christian themes in the book. However, her presentation of the character Jack Boughton and honest recognition of the sin in all of her characters proves that she is not stuck in a Christian bubble. She has compassion for non-believers, and she seems to want them to understand Christianity. Through the voice of John Ames and his stories about family history and town characters like Jack Boughton, “Gilead” makes its readers recognize not only the pain of this world but also the beauty which we so often overlook in the grind of our daily lives. VW/JENNY BOONE
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Breaking my GPS
By Hope Griffin, pinksmycolor101@aol.com
Time warps my concept of the plan that has resided perfected in my memory. Because with the passage of time I see my petty desires and wishful thinking as nothing more than false hopes and misconceptions.
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Things might fall Apart. And yes, the center cannot hold when I revolve around myself.
Pry my hands off the steering wheel, I might crash into where I was meant Pry my hands off the to be. steering wheel, My reflex is to slam on the brake, I might crash into but I’m through with where I was meant being broken. to be. Batter my body first My reflex is to slam on the brake, if that’s what it takes but I’m through with to heal my heart. being broken. Batter my body first if that’s what it takes to heal my heart.
Manna By Mary Somerville, msomervi@email.unc.edu “In the morning, dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.’” – Exodus 16:13-15 We don’t even glance at the oak as we pass by. Look; ivy clings to it, and infinite tendrils of the vine’s fur connect the three-point stars, green crossed with milky veins, to the soft gray bark, which resembles layered dirt. Examining the grains unending, we can’t help but think that that is why the eyes were made. The breeze sponges the air, soaking up the bloated scents of juice oozing out of just-cut grass and flowers clogged with pollen. The wind hints at the coming rain which will harmonize the scents, enhancing the most delicate, so that we can distinguish even that of dirt. We can’t help but think that that is why the nose was made. Then a soft patter, like tiny hands tapping oak limbs and ivy leaves, fills our ears in a slow crescendo. The drops fall like wool from a just-shorn sheep, who shakes and scatters hairs like glass shards shimmering to the floor. Listen hard to the shadow of sound: we can’t help but think that that is why the ears were made. VW/JENNY BOONE
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Crossword Puzzle Fun How well do you know the Old Testament?
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
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Clues Across 3. The tribe that was not included in the census of the Israelite community that Moses conducted in the book of Numbers 5. He and Solomon both wanted to be king of Israel after David 6. This prophet’s book of the Bible is about the destruction of Nineveh 7. The type of wood the Ark of the Covenant was made out of in Deuteronomy 8. Moses’ first son 10. Second to last book of the Old Testament 12. First word of the longest Psalm 14. His mother dedicated him to the Lord in Shiloh when he was a newborn 16. Daniel’s other name 17. Replaced Queen Vashti 18. Jonah sailed here to flee from the Lord
VW/R
EBEC
CA R
IDDL
E
Down 1. Cupbearer 2. Methusaleh 4. Flute 6. Nebuchadnezzar 9. Sores 11. Steal 13. Elimilech 15. Plants S
MON
TRO
D
IME
WIK
E/ UNC
OM IA C
Answers Across 3. Levi 5. Adonijah 6. Nahum 7. Acacia 8. Gershom 10. Zechariah 12. Blessed 14. Samuel 16. Belteshazzar 17. Esther 18. Tarshish
Down 1. Nehemiah’s profession 2. Oldest man in the Bible 4. The musical instrument intended for Psalm 5 6. The king of Babylon when Daniel was brought to the royal court 9. Job’s second test 11. 8th commandment: You shall not ____ 13. Naomi’s husband in Moab 15. Created on the third day
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Mission
To inspire, encourage and challenge college women in their walks with Christ.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.â&#x20AC;? -Proverbs 31:10
Comments or questions? Would you like to join VW? Want to advertise? E-mail: virtuous_woman@unc.edu Visit us on the Web: http://studentorgs.unc.edu/vw/