This post is number 1 in a series examining the book, Surviving
Religion 101; Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College by Michael J.
Kruger.
Throughout this year, looking on faces
of the students at youth group has been bittersweet. We have a significant number of seniors, many
of which have been attending NJC Youth group for several years. I love each of these seniors dearly and will sorely
miss them come next year.
We began a new series this month with
these seniors in mind. I will be basing
my lessons on the book Surviving Religion 101; Letters to a Christian
Student on Keeping their Faith in College by Michael Kruger. For
the next several months, I will base my lessons on the various chapters of the
book with themes like, ““There are a lot of different views out
there—how can I say that Christianity is the only right religion?” or “My
Christian morals are viewed as hateful and intolerant—shouldn’t I be more
loving and accepting?”
You might think, “Well, that sounds
all well and good for those who are graduating this year, but what about the
students who have 4, 5 or 6 years until college or university?”
I trust that whether in 7th
grade or 12th, this book and its themes, through its Biblically
informed and theologically rich considerations, will be of value to all of us.
I intend to share those themes in a way that each student can grasp and apply. While today’s university environment can
sometimes be exceptionally hostile to the Christian worldview, the reality is,
we will all face objections to our faith.
No matter what our circumstance or how old we are, it is important that
we consider what we believe, why we believe it, and how to share our hope with
others.
1 Peter 3:15 says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the
Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks
you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness
and respect…”
We are called to defend our faith; to give a reason for our
hope. None of us will have all the
answers or defend our faith perfectly.
There will be questions that stump us.
There will be thoughts we’ve never considered.
Yet, as we make our faith our own, we seriously consider why
we believe what we believe, and that sometimes means seeking out those
answers…because they are there, even if we don’t yet know them.
Peter highlights of equal importance that not only do we give
a reason for our hope, but we do so with gentleness and respect. This is encouraging. While we may not know the right things to say
in response to objections to our faith every time, even in the face of
hostility, the way we respond becomes a testimony in itself. Our Character in our response is just as
much a testimony as the defense we present.
Michael Kruger, president of Reformed Theological Seminary,
is the author of the book I am drawing from.
When he was heading off for university, he felt that many had sought to
prepare him for the moral challenges he’d face as a Christian in
university—sex, partying, drinking and drug use—and many had sought to prepare
him for the practical issues—how to get along with a roommate and balance a
check book. In these ways, he felt
prepared (p. 17).
Yet there was one area he was
not.
Intellectually.
He was not ready to defend why he
believed what he believed (p. 18).
While there had been a great deal of
focus on personal conversion (was he saved?) and personal piety (a big fancy
word for how he lived), he hadn’t been prepared to consider what it is that
Christians believe and why they believe it nor how to respond to non-Christian
thoughts and arguments (p 18).
In his first year in university, he
took a class called Intro to the New Testament.
Sounds pretty safe, right? It
will be like Sunday School for College students! Not quite.
The class was taught by an atheist named Bart Ehrman who has gone on to
become one of Christianity’s most prominent critics. He watched as his fellow Christian classmates
crumbled under the pressure (p. 20).
The goal of many universities is to
get students to think in ways they haven’t before; to question beliefs and
arrive at new conclusions. They want to
give students the opportunity to be set free from the religious
“indoctrination” of their youth (p. 21).
While many universities might think they are setting students free from
the indoctrination of their youth, they are merely flipping the script,
indoctrinating from the other side (p. 23).
Michael gives this example. The top major universities in our country are
overwhelmingly Democrat in their political affiliation; the majority of the
professors being Democrat. In some of
the most liberal schools, if we were to compare the ratio of Democrat
professors to Republican professors, it is 120 to 1 (p. 22)! You can imagine that with those statistics, a
student probably isn’t going to hear conservative perspectives…
Putting politics aside, if many of
the professors are also atheist or antagonistic to Christianity, we can also
reasonably assume that they wouldn’t present Christian perspectives in their
classes. They will tell you every reason
to doubt God’s word…and will not tell you that the arguments they raise against
Christianity have been addressed by Christians for the last 2000 years (p. 32).
When it comes to matters of the
Bible and Christianity, many professors are not going to present both
sides—only the one they have come to believe.
This book will help us recognize the
firm foundation of our faith in such an environment.
Question:
Why do you believe the things you believe?
Can you defend your beliefs?
Considering 1 Peter 3:15, why do you think Peter addresses the tone we and manner with which we respond to opposition to our faith and not just the content of our response?
Kruger, Michael J. 2021. Surviving Religion 101; Letters to a
Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College. Wheaton, IL: Crossway
No comments:
Post a Comment