The Thinking and Faithful Christian

  “A student came up to me once after one of my lectures and said, “How come everything you say confirms what my Pastor always taught?” Somewhat amazed, I laughed and said, “Why shouldn’t it?” He replied, “Well, all of the other men in the department challenge my faith.” 

My response was, “Look, I don’t want to challenge your faith; I want to challenge your thinking. But I want to build up your faith.”

Dr. William Lane Craig

This article is made up mainly of a passage from a book by a Christian Philosopher , Dr William Lane Craig. He is very well respected amongst his peers  - both believers and non.

My reason for posting this is borne out of a concern for two things:

1)      The trend of some young Christians losing their faith at various levels of higher education – including Christian Universities.

2)      The lack of some Christians to be able to “provide a reason for the hope that lies in you.” , and to find reasonable answers to their questions and those of others - as if thinking were a bad thing. Thinking and logic is needed. I often think of this example – If I were born into a cult, how would I ever get out of it without using some reason and good questions?

A good example of a godly manner of doing this is recounted by Dr. Craig:

 “A student came up to me once after one of my lectures and said, “How come everything you say confirms what my Pastor always taught?” Somewhat amazed, I laughed and said, “Why shouldn’t it?” He replied, “Well, all of the other men in the department challenge my faith.” My response was, “Look, I don’t want to challenge your faith; I want to challenge your thinking. But I want to build up your faith.”

The passage….

Sometimes people would justify their lack of intellectual engagement by asserting that they prefer having a “simple faith”. But here I think we must distinguish between a childlike faith and a childish faith. A childlike faith is a whole-souled trust in God as one’s loving Heavenly Father, and Jesus commends such a faith to us. But a childish faith is an immature, unreflective faith, and such a faith is not commended to us. On the contrary, Paul says, “Do not be children in your thinking; be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature.” (1 Corinthians 15:20) …….

Thinking about your faith is, indeed, a virtue, for it helps you to better understand and defend your faith. But thinking about your faith is not equivalent to doubting your faith.

We need to keep the distinct clear. A student came up to me once after one of my lectures and said, “ How come everything you say confirms what my Pastor always taught?” Somewhat amazed, I laughed and said, “ Why shouldn’t it?” He replied, “Well, all of the other men in the department challenge my faith.” My response was, “Look, I don’t want to challenge your faith; I want to challenge your thinking. But I want to build up your faith.”

My experience as a young Christian of seeing some of my college classmates lose their faith left a deep impression on me, and when I began teaching I resolved to do all I could to help my students stay in the faith while still exploring the intellectual issues about the faith. In particular, I resolved never to present objections to Christianity without also presenting and defending various solutions to those objections. One of my colleagues who did not follow this method was causing some concern among Christian students in his classes. :I was only trying to get them to think,” he explained to me. “I was just playing the devil’s advocate.”

Those words hit me like a dash of cold water. For him they were merely a manner of speaking, but it was their literal sense that struck me. Playing the devil’s advocate. Think of it: to be Satan’s advocate in the classroom! That is something we must never allow ourselves to become. As Christian teachers, students, and laymen, we must never lose sight of the wider spiritual battle in which we are all involved and so must be extremely wary of what we say or write, lest we become the instruments of Satan in destroying someone else’s faith. We can challenge people to think more deeply and rigorously about their Christian faith without encouraging them to doubt their faith.

From “Hard Questions, Real Answers” by Dr. William Lane Craig

William Lane Craig is research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He earned degrees from Wheaton College (B.A.), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.A. 1974; M.A. 1975), The University of Birmingham, England (Ph.D.), and the University of Munich (D. Theol.). Dr. Craig is an international lecturer and has written numerous articles and books.

For more on the topic  of Faith, intellect, apologetics and mission please check out this re-post:   Apologetics Is Not Apologizing - Re-post From Justin Holcomb