Red Letter Apologetics

I've been preparing this seminar on "Answering Tough Questions" for a UCCF South East training day, and I've been pondering something. A few people I know have bought new Bibles recently (I think there was a special offer at New Word Alive), and they have an interesting feature - the words of Jesus are in red. Nothing new there - people have been doing it for years.

The problem is, I believe that the whole of the Bible is God's word - whether it's the words of Jesus or a list of names and numbers. Apparently, there's a movement among Christians which seeks to get back to the 'important bits' - the words of Jesus, the bits in red. They call themselves 'Red-letter' Christians (which set me off on an amusing train of thought - what if they'd marked the words of Jesus in a different way - would we have had 'green letter' Christians, or 'italic Christians'? Anyway...). If the whole of the Bible is God's Word, this is a bit daft. I get the point, but it sends all kinds of wrong messages. Go and read what Dave has to say about it.

But in my seminar, one of the pieces of advice I intend to give is - if you can, use the actual words of Jesus. This sounds a bit dodge to start with, and I started to get a bit nervous about it. But the more I've thought about it, the more I agree (with myself). There are some good reasons for it...

When we answer people's questions, we aren't just trying to shut them up - we want them to meet Jesus. We can only do that if we talk about him. Using his words and actions is the best way to introduce people to the real Jesus.

When we use the words of Jesus, any issues are immediately between them and Jesus. Nick Pollard says he wants to spend as much time as possible talking about Jesus, so he tries to go straight to something Jesus said or did and works out from there.

In the 'climate' the students are living in, where a distrust of authority and propositional truth comes as standard, I think engaging with a real person is helpful. Also, the story-telling approach sits well with this sort of attitude.

There are some Christians who distrust 'traditional' ways of doing evangelism and dealing with people's questions. Like the red-letter chaps, they think there's a better way of doing things by getting back to what Jesus said. Surely it's helpful if we can show that they aren't exclusive.

I'm sure there are more reasons - they're the ones which come to mind. Obviously I'm NOT saying only use the specific words of Jesus (bad idea). But I am going to be telling the CU peeps to try hard to get their friends to engage with Jesus when they're answering tough questions.

Which is good, because I've already printed the handouts...

Resources Galore!

I've just spent ages writing a list of resources for a seminar I'm giving on Answering Tough Questions on Saturday. So I thought I'd post it here for anyone who's passing. I'll also put it in my website's Talks By Me section. Cheers to Peter for his help with this.

If you spot any glaring omissions or unwise inclusions, I'd be interested to know.

Websites

www.bethinking.org – UCCF's excellent apologetics website.
www.theologynetwork.org - UCCF's excellent theology website.
www.rzim.org – Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
www.uccf.org.uk/resources/workshops-lunch-bars.htm – seminar from Forum 07 on holding apologetics lunchbars.
www.gladyouasked.org – Glad You Asked is an evangelistic course which gives an opportunity for non-Christians to discuss tough questions. You staffworker may well have a copy.
www.ransomfellowship.org – living as a Christian in the 21st century. The articles on discernment are particularly helpful.
www.damaris.org – a Christian perspective on media and culture.

Books

Foundations
John Chapman, Know and Tell the Gospel, The Good Book Co.
Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, Andrew Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, IVP.
Wayne Grudem, Bible Doctrine, IVP. (Light-weight version of Systematic Theology).
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, IVP.
Mark Meynell, Cross Examined, IVP.
Vaughan Roberts, God's Big Picture, IVP.
John Stott, Basic Christianity, IVP.
John Stott, The Cross of Christ, IVP.

General
Michael Green, I'd Like to Believe But..., IVP.
Tim Keller, The Reason For God, Penguin (available from GBC).
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity,
Alister McGrath, Bridge Building, IVP.
Nick Pollard, Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult, IVP.
James W. Sire, Why Good Arguments Often Fail, IVP.
John Stott, The Contemporary Christian, IVP.
Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ, Zondervan (available from GBC).
Lee Strobel, The Case For Faith, Zondervan (available from GBC).
Paul Williams & Barry Cooper, If You Could Ask God One Questions, The Good Book Co.

Worldview, Culture, and Other Religions
Denis Alexander (ed.), Can we be sure about anything?, IVP
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God, IVP.
Colin Chapman, Cross and Crescent, IVP. (Islam)
Marcus Honeysett, Meltdown, IVP. (Postmodernism)
Martin Goldsmith & Rosemary Harley, Who is My Neighbour, OMF/Authentic Media
Martin Goldsmith, What about other faiths?, Hodder & Stoughton.
Nabeel T. Jabbour, Unshackled and Growing, NavPress.
James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalogue, IVP.
Patrick Sookhdeo, A Christian's Pocket Guide to Islam, CWR

Bible & History
Craig L. Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, IVP.
F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, IVP.
Daniel Clark, Dead or Alive?, IVP.
R.T. France, The Evidence for Jesus, Hodder & Stoughton.
Ida Glaser, The Bible and Other Faiths, IVP.
Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable & Relevant? IVP.
Amy Orr-Ewing, Why Trust the Bible, IVP.

Suffering and Evil
D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, Baker Academic.
Roger Carswell, Where is God in a Messed Up World?, IVP.
John Dickson, If I Were God I'd End All the Pain, The Good Book Co.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, HarperOne.
Nick & Solly Megoran, The War on Terror, IVP.
Miec Pearse, The Gods of War, IVP
John Piper, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Crossway.

Sex and Relationships
Linda Marshall, Pure, IVP.
Nigel Pollock, Relationships Revolution, IVP.
Thomas Schmidt, Straight & Narrow, IVP.
Alex Tylee, Walking with Gay Friends, IVP.

Science & “The New Atheism”
Neil Broom, How Blind is the Watchmaker?, IVP.
Alister McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion?, SPCK Publishing.
Alister McGrath, Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life, WileyBlackwell.
Del Ratzsch, Science and its Limits: The Natural Sciences in Christian Perspective, IVP.
David Robertson, The Dawkins Letters: Challenging Atheist Myths, Christian Focus (available from GBC).


Remember, students with a UCCF Student Card receive a 25% discount on books from IVP, The Good Book Co. and Authentic Media, and 10% off at Wesley Owen!