Oct
21
Recommended Resources for a Christian Having a Crisis of Faith
“I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” — I John 5:13 (HCSB)
If you are like me, you sometimes find yourself going through long-neglected directories on your computer, ostensibly in search of ancient or otherwise unneeded files to purge. I’m not always successful in achieving that end, but instead I sometimes come across an old file or files I’d forgotten I had and think “Cool!” or “I forgot all about that!” or “What in the world…?”. Case in point, the other day I was doing just that and came across a text file with some advice I had written to an online acquaintance 10 years ago this month! (Or, at least, that was the last-modified date.)
I don’t remember on which forum we had crossed paths (though it may have been apologetics-oriented), nor did I preserve his original comments. But, as you can probably gather, he was having some serious doubts about his Christian faith. I’m not sure if he explicitly asked for some recommended resources to help him work through whatever specific issues he had, or if he was just venting. Regardless, here is the response I gave him:
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For science/Bible issues, I highly recommend Dr. Hugh Ross and associates at Reasons To Believe (www.reasons.org). They have plenty of articles and archives of their weekly “Creation Update” show, so you can learn a lot for free. I also recommend their books. If you are coming from a young-earth creationist background, you should probably start with A Matter of Days. Then, probably Creator and the Cosmos and The Genesis Question would be the next ones to tackle. Another highly recommended book on these issues is C. John Collins’ Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?.*
RTB also addresses issues of a more theological/philosophical sort in some of their articles and broadcast segments. Their V.P. of Theol. & Philos. Apologetics, Kenneth Samples, recently put out a book called Without a Doubt that addresses some of the difficult topics.
I recently read a book by Dr. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek called I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. Using most of the major apologetical arguments, the authors basically build a case, first for theism in general, then for orthodox Christianity. It’s the only book I know of that ties all of these arguments together, and I found it an enjoyable read. Of course, there are other books that address just one or two of these arguments by themselves in more detail (e.g., the teleological argument (aka argument from design), evidence for the physical resurrection of Christ, etc.).
It sounds like some of your concerns are for the historical reliability and integrity of the Bible. While Geisler and Turek have a chapter on this, I also recommend books by F.F. Bruce, Craig Blomberg, Gary Habermas, Bruce Metzger, and Ben Witherington. Of course, Geisler has many books on various areas of apologetics, and he is highly respected among Christian scholars.
The Jesus Under Fire book (edited by Moreland & Wilkins) is a great, intermediate-level book on the latest “search for the historical Jesus” and is basically a response to the garbage spouted by the Jesus Seminar and other liberals/skeptics. Two of the contributors to this book that I highly recommend on the subject of Jesus’s life, ministry, & resurrection are (again) Gary Habermas and William Lane Craig.
When it comes to careful/critical thinking about matters of ethics, values, philosophy & religion, the man I go to for good teaching is Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason (www.str.org). They also have many articles and archives of Koukl’s weekly broadcast, so you can learn a lot without spending a penny. Koukl co-wrote a book on moral relativism, one of his specialties, which is very good. He also writes/speaks about things like religious pluralism, pro-life issues, various hot topics and current-events types of issues, and careful examination of various doctrines and problem passages in the Bible. Like Dr. Ross, Koukl has helped me immensely in thinking through many issues over the past 3 years or so. (Of course, I have a loooooooong way to go to be anywhere near as knowledgeable, articulate, or consistent in character as these men.)
As far as careful/critical thinking in general, it helps to be aware of what constitutes a valid and sound argument (e.g., modus pollens, hypothetical syllogism, etc.), as well as types of bad or misleading arguments (e.g., ad hominem, begging the question, red herring, etc.). I have heard/read good instruction on this by both Greg Koukl and Kenneth Samples. I am aware of 3 or 4 good books on informal logic, but by far the cheapest (and the only one I own) is a little book titled A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston. ($5.95 at www.STR.org)**
I could recommend many other people and their books/articles, but that should get you started. To be balanced one needs to get both sides, but it sounds like you have already been doing that. Of course, you can read all you want and still be just as confused (or more so) as you were before. Plus, head-knowledge can only take you so far. I recommend praying before and after reading. Ask the Lord to help you to focus on what you read, to think carefully & critically, to recognize good arguments from bad, and to not be easily swayed.
Many people, Christian and non-Christian, talk about religious faith as being “blind” or of taking a “leap of faith”. The implication is, of course, that such faith is the opposite of reason. Well, it may be in some religions. But, that isn’t the kind of faith that is shown or taught in the Bible. You don’t have to “check your brain at the door” of the church, as some have put it. On the contrary, one definition that I heard or read (I think by Greg Koukl) was: Faith is trust in someone/thing that you have reason to believe can do something for you and then relying on them to do just that. Over and over again in Scripture, we read of God demonstrating His power and faithfulness and of His people (i.e., O.T. Hebrews or N.T. Christians) then responding in faith (i.e., following His commands). Various biblical authors said that they “write these things that you may know”, because they were either eyewitnesses themselves or close associates of those who were. Now, this gets into the issues of the historical veracity of the Bible. But, once one is satisfied on this issue, then they have a reliable record of the righteous character and teachings of the Almighty Creator God and of His loving, redemptive actions in human history. THAT is someone you can have real faith in.
I just read an article at www.breakpoint.org (also recommended) that may be of help to you. It is called “With a Little Help from Your Friends: How to Stay Christian in College” by J. Budziszewski, a professor of Government and Philosophy.*** In it, he talks about reasons why some Christian students experience a crisis of faith (or lose their faith or “backslide” or…) in college. One paragraph that stood out to me echoes a problem that I have been reading/hearing a lot about lately. He says,
“[T]he pre-college preparation of most young Christians is almost useless in preparing them for the intellectual assault of the university. We rarely provide them even with the sub-Christian tools of clear and logical reasoning, depending on high schools to teach them, though the high schools have different agendas. At church, we nearly abandon their intellects during the teen years and concentrate on contentless ‘youth fellowship,’ as though they had already learned everything about faith when they were children.”
I never went through quite the crisis of faith that you seem to be going through, but I can relate to some of the childhood experiences. I got some pretty solid grounding in the Scriptures from early on, though admittedly I’ve gotten pretty lax in recent years.
Too much teaching today is me-centered and experience-oriented. What can God/Jesus do for me? He will make you happy and answer your prayers and fix everything, yada-yada-yada. Now, God does indeed want us to be happy and to give us what we ask for and repair broken relationships, etc., but that isn’t what Christianity is supposed to be about. It’s about obedience to Him and service to others. What typically happens is that kids and adults alike get a rather shallow version of the Gospel. They aren’t prepared to answer the intellectual challenges that the world throws at them. We hear sentiments like “I don’t need to study theology or apologetics. I have the Spirit to show me and He’ll give me the words when I need them.” Well, God never said He would give us all the answers. The Bible exhorts us to study, to use our minds, and to be prepared to give an answer. The words that He will bring to mind are the ones we have heard & read & studied before.
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* The “Creation Update” podcasts have been replaced with other podcasts, some available for free and some for a small monthly fee. However, I believe some of the old CU podcasts are archived on the RTB site. Also, The Genesis Question book has been replaced with Navigating Genesis. For more book recommendations, go here.
** Another good little book in this vein — but with a focus on discussing one’s Christian faith — is Arguing with Friends: Keeping Your Friends and Your Convictions.
*** Budziszewski later put out a complete book titled, How to Stay Christian in College.
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I recognized the handle this person used, and we may have exchanged more comments back in the day. But, I’ve long since lost track of him and have no idea if he followed any of my suggestions or where he’s at now, spiritually or otherwise. But, the advice holds up (with slight modifications in the asterisked notes), so I decided to share it here. If it’s helpful to any of you and/or you have related questions, just let me know!
