Eric Cristofher is 26 years old and lives in Curitiba, capital of Paran. Since April, he has been working for an rideshare transport company. As a Seventh-day Adventist, on Sabbaths, he sets aside this day for communion with God and rest with his family. However, it was not always like this. Several challenges and trials are part of his trajectory.

An atheist for eight years, Cristofher met Jesus at 20, and after studying the Bible, he decided to be baptized. At the time, I understood that only Jesus saves, and that's why we live here, he highlights. His clinging to the side of Christ would bring him challenges and a life of daily evangelism in his future work.

Even at the beginning of his adult life, Cristofher felt a strong desire to buy a car to evangelize. Always attentive to promotions, he awaited the dreamed-for day when he could have his own car. At that time, he understood God always meets the needs of human beings and therefore made a deal with the Lord: God, I want to have a car to serve You. If [You] give me a car, all the songs played in it will be from Rdio Novo Tempo, Cristofher recalls. He understood life as a rideshare driver would also be a ministry of evangelization, and in this context of faith and fidelity, he managed to acquire a car.

Proof of Fidelity

In addition to his activity as a rideshare driver, Cristofher was looking for a second job. He managed to schedule an interview for the position of driver in a transport company. It seemed everything was heading towards the much-desired hiring until the secretary informed him that candidates selected for the vacancy must work on Saturdays.

As Cristofher left that place with a broken heart, he prayed to God, saying he would honor the agreement made and not accept the proposal. The same day, the company secretary called to say he had been accepted for the position. He rejected it in order to honor the Sabbath commandment. In response to the young Cristofher's position, the secretary declared, "The company does not [concede] Saturday."

A week after that call, the same company returned the contact and informed Cristofher that management had talked about his situation, as they were interested in his profile, and would give the young man the opportunity to work with Saturdays off.

Excited, still not believing what had happened, Cristofher thanked Jesus for the gifts He gives to those who are faithful.

My Work, My Ministry

Currently driving through the streets of Curitiba, Cristofher is the only employee for whom the company made an exception regarding Saturdays. The young man makes the most of his two jobs to evangelize. In a ride, the passenger was going to buy drugs. My car always runs with Rdio Novo Tempo tuned in. At that moment, all I thought about was saving that boy. That's when I started talking about Jesus. Soon he started to get emotional and gave up going to that destination, he says.

Crisofher has a motto in his heart: "The car is mine and Jesus'. We are partners." He concludes, "I'm passionate about cars and all this mechanical area. My big goal in having a car has always been to evangelize and save souls for the kingdom of heaven."

This article was originally published on the South American Divisions news site

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Ex-atheist Uses Car to Show Jesus' Love on the Streets of Curitiba - Adventist News Network

Submitted in Decemeber 2020

I have a Christmas present for all you Christians out there. This atheists going to tell you whats wrong with your religion.

Mohandas Gandhi was a Hindu who read passages from the New Testament every day. When asked if he ever contemplated converting to Christianity, he said he had, and then I met one. Who the Mahatma probably ran into is one of the plethora of hypocrites who degrade a religion that, if its original precepts are strictly followed, would lead one to a pure and righteous life. The problem isnt Christianity. Its Christians.

In 1 Peter 4:8, the Apostle says, Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins, yet many of those who call themselves Christians hate their brothers because of their race, ethnicity, religion, politics, sexual preference, social standing, or any other feature thats different from theirs.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you, said the Prince of Peace in John 14:27, yet people who profess to be his followers kill their brothers in the name of Jesus Christ. Throughout history, religion has been a major cause of war and Christians have been at the forefront. Since the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants have gone at it repeatedly, both sides professing to represent the one true way.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 6:10 writes, For the love of money is the root of all evil, yet so-called Christians worship the false god of money as if it will buy their way into heaven. The only time Christ lost his cool was when he threw the money changers out of the temple.

The vast majority of Muslims just want to work, support their family, and praise Allah, but a few murderous fiends grab all the headlines with heinous and cowardly acts of violence. But theyre not being hypocrites. Theyre just following the teachings of their religion. The Quran has over 100 verses advocating killing the infidel.

Of the five major religions, Buddhism and Hinduism are primarily about love while Islam and Judaism preach a lot of hate. Christianity is divided. The New Testament is one of the most beautiful expressions of love there is. Theres much hate in the Old Testament.

Refer to Samuel I and II. When King Davids army conquered a Philistine village, they killed every man, woman, and child in it. That might be appropriate for Game of Thrones, but I expect something more loving in the holy scriptures.

I quit believing in God the same time I outed Santa Claus, and for the same reason. I figured they were both imaginary figures my parents told me about to try to get me to be good. If I was bad, Santa would put a lump of coal in my stocking. For the same sins, God would damn me to Hell. Of the two, the lump of coal seemed much worse. What does a six-year-old kid know about Hell? Anyway, it occurred to me religion was just another form of government. The objective was controlling people.

About this time, my best friend and neighbor and I started taking early Sunday morning walks to the black neighborhood a couple of blocks away to listen to the music coming from the Koinonia Baptist Church. Black folks hold their meetings early, 7:00 a.m., while the honkies cant roll out of bed and get to church until ten.

After a while, an elder noticed us and invited us inside. We realized the congregation not only sang to the Lord, but they danced for Him, too. I mean, these people knew how to worship. They did it with such passion, you could feel the spirit of the Lord filling their breasts.

Later in the morning, my friend and I would go to our boring-ass white churches where the minister was droning on about how the congregation ought to put more money in the collection plate, while the choir was offering a lifeless rendition of Bringing in the Sheaves, which was almost drowned out by the snoring coming from the pews. Looking back, I think if Id grown up in black Baptist church, I might be a devout Christian today.

I went all through Sunday school, appreciating the Bible stories for their narrative value, but convinced they were fiction. During my high school years, I attended regular services, partially because a pretty teenager depended on me for a ride to church, but also because I soaked up the quiet, contemplative atmosphere.

Im an atheist whos read the Bible cover to cover and am guided by it. Obviously, the Bible doesnt always convict. In college, I took a course called The Literature of the Bible. It approached the Bible, not as a holy book, but as a piece of literature. I learned its a magnificent text containing fascinating stories with object lessons and words to live by that can and should guide your life.

A student of history, nobody has any more admiration for the Roman Catholic Church than I do, not even any Catholics. The history of the Western Civilization in the Middle Ages is the history of the Catholic Church because thats all there was.

It established the great institutions of learning and brought order to the chaotic period of feudalism. However, if the Catholic Church is going to take credit for all that, it also must accept responsibility for the many horrors, like the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and, implicitly, the Holocaust.

My grandmother, who I lived with for four years in the 70s, was the finest Christian Ive ever known. She lived her life like Christ. Not the least bit judgmental or evangelical, when I told her of my atheism, she responded, Oh! Thats interesting.

We proceeded to have a dispassionate discussion of the foundations of her faith and the reasons for my lack thereof. My grandmother led by example. She put her character on display; her compassion, her courage, her capacity for love, her serenity, her wisdom. The unspoken message was, if you admire those qualities, follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. For me, it was a powerful temptation.

During this Christmas season, I implore all you pseudo-Christian hypocrites (you know who you are) to examine your faith and ask are you living up to the standards set by your Savior. Gandhi would approve.

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The church of the hypocrites The Sopris Sun - soprissun.com

A French teacher dressed in drag, strutted his stuff before students at a Wisconsin high school.

In Michigan, state attorney general Dana Nessel mocked conservatives during a civil rights summit, saying that drag queens are not a problem for kids seeking a good education.

"Drag queens make everything better. Drag queens are fun. Drag queens are entertainment. And ya know what else I'll say that was totally not poll tested? I say this: a drag queen for every school!" Nessell exclaimed.

On Today's Quick Start Podcast: Sharing Christ With Scientologists, Misleading Headlines Spread on OH Police Shooting

In school districts throughout America, parents are demanding that teachers stop instructing children about gender fluidity and Critical Race Theory. They also want pornographic materials removed from school libraries.

The authors of the new book, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation, say socialist beliefs like these weren't introduced overnight they started creeping into U.S. public school more than one hundred years ago.

"It happened gradually, and then it happened suddenly, as Hemingway would put it," Pete Hegseth explained.

Hegseth is a best selling author, and co-host of Fox and Friends Weekend.His co-author, David Goodwin is president of the Association of Classical Christian Schools. They write that educational reformer John Dewey advocated progressive teaching in the 1920's. And in 1935, after they fled Nazis Germany, Marxists from the Frankfurt School of Social Research introduced their views to students at New York's Columbia University.

"These were all atheists. These were all socialists, or almost all of them were and their goal was social change, and they knew the schoolroom was the place they could do it. And it started with the removal of God," Hegseth said.

David Goodwin believes the biggest change sidelining Christian education occurred when the U.S. Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, removed God from the classroom.

"They gradually took prayer out of school, they then took the Bible out of school, and they then forbid really any teaching of Christian instruction in school, " explained Goodwin. "But that was the kind of the capstone of a long effort. It wasn't the beginning, it was really the end."

Also, Goodwin and Hegseth contend that progressives intentionally replaced classical Christian education with American nationalism.

"We look at our Pledge of Allegiance at least we do as conservatives and patriots and say, 'Hey, that's a great thing under God.' Well, the original pledge was written in the late 19th century by a socialist who ultimately wrote it without under God, because the pledge was meant to shift kids away comfortably from God at the center of the class, from the cross, at the center to the flag at the center of the classroom, which was an easier sell to parents at the time," Hegseth explained. "And now, of course, fast forward to today, and they're happy to get rid of the flag."

So, do Hegseth and Goodwin believe that America's elites possess a well-devised spiritual strategy that transcends politics?

"You see, we fight in terms of politics now and may win incremental battles here or there. What the left understood is they had to go to the heart of what made us who we are. What do we value? What's our vision of the good life? What do we consider our virtues?" Hegseth explained. "And when they targeted that, they targeted at the foundation of who we really are, really the current underneath the top waters of the stream of cultures, the top waters, the current is paideia underneath, and they targeted that."

Goodwin explained further, "Yes, I think if we turn to Ephesians 6,really, it's a great chapter that kind of encapsulates the responsibilities and the upbringing of you know, pretty much all the classes of society at the time, but which says, 'Fathers raise your children in the' and there's a whole bunch of words that are used there education, instruction. The two that are most commonly used are fear and admonition. All of those are derived from the one word, 'paideia.' So, it's a command of our Lord to raise children in the 'paideia' of the Lord."

But many parents who want to raise their children up in the way of the Lord have discovered they cannot afford classical educational alternatives.

Many Americans are now being forced to choose between putting gas in the tank, or food on their table so, how can they afford it?

Hegseth said it's a fair question to ask during this challenging period of skyrocketing inflation.

"I'm going to start as a parent who has three of my kids and soon all seven of them in classical education, and I'll tell you, first and foremost, it's worth every dime and I have to sacrifice in any other place to make sure they can afford it. I will. I will say, first of all, look, look inside your life and the things you spend money on, the things you value and how much are the hearts, souls, and affections. How much are your kids affections work in your mind? Kids deserve to go to a school that reinforces what you believe and teaches them to be free thinkers. Education should be number one," Hegseth insisted.

"If you love God and you love this country, how we train up the next generation will determine whether we have a republic or not in future generations. Because right now, we're pumping out kids who don't know God and hate America, and their minds are captured by indoctrination that will not perpetuate a free society."

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'It Started with the Removal of God': How Atheist-Socialists Have Fought America from Within - CBN.com

Elon Musk resurfaced on Twitter in a big way ... this time with a pic of someone arguably more famous than him -- the Pope!!!

There's Elon at the Vatican, mugging with Pope Francis and 4 of his 7 kids, saying "Honored to meet @Pontifex yesterday," adding, "My suit is tragic."

Here's what's interesting ... Elon's talked in the past that he's an atheist -- nevertheless, the Pope is the Pope so no reason not to shake hands and have a chat.

One of the kids who did not attend -- Vivian Jenna Wilson, previously known as Xavier, who announced a few weeks back she's a transgender woman and wants no relationship whatsoever with her dad.

As for Elon's religious history ... he was not raised a Catholic, although he did attend Anglican Sunday School. He has said in the past he is not Christian.

He seems to embrace elements of Christianity, once saying "I agree with the principles that Jesus advocated. There's some great wisdom in the teachings of Jesus, and I agree with those teachings," adding, "Things like 'turn the other cheek' are very important, as opposed to 'an eye for an eye'. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind."

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Elon Musk and 4 of His Kids Meet Pope Francis at the Vatican - TMZ

What is truth? Truth is the revelation and acceptance of what is genuinely real.Time. What is Truth?

The public theologian needs an answer to the question, what is truth? Further, this answer needs to be intelligible. Why? Because of the relentless and merciless shelling against the theistic citadel by new atheist artillery. Believers in God, allegedly, cannot live in the truth because there is no deity. God does not exist. This makes all theistic claims not only false but unintelligible. It is time to ask this question: what is truth?

Despite the diversity of atheists, the American Atheists website makes clear that the common thread that ties all atheists together is a lack of belief in gods. Some of these atheists load their cannons with scientific ammunition. Is there a connection between science and atheism? Really?

Atheist Feldmarschall Richard Dawkins demands that the question of Gods existence be treated as a scientific hypothesis. If so treated, the evidence will show that no god exists, rendering the theistic hypothesis disconfirmed. Dawkins contends that religious belief is not true in the scientific sense. This makes religious belief one of the worlds greatest evils.

Not so, according to Cambridge University hybrid physicist and theologian, the late John Polkinghorne. Polkinghorne finds the natural world intelligible and celebrates this intelligibility. Polkinghorne also finds that the intelligibility of the natural world is enhanced when grasped as the creation of a loving and gracious God. God and the world are most intelligible when viewed together.

The universe is astonishingly open to us, relationally transparent to our enquiry.The most we can require is an interpretation that is coherent and persuasive. Theism provides just such a response to the meta question of intelligibility. If the world is the creation of the rational God, and if we are creatures made in the divine image, then it is entirely understandable that there is an order in the universe that is deeply accessible to our minds. Putting the same point in a different way, one could say that science discerns a world in which its rational beauty and rational transparency is shot through with signs of mind, and the theist can understand this because it is indeed the Mind of God that is partially disclosed in this way(Polkinghorne, 1998, pp. 72-73).[i]

In other words, the most coherent understanding of the many scientific propositions which disclose natures secrets requires a worldview inclusive of natures creator, God. A worldview that incorporates both God and what we learn about nature through science is more comprehensive and more intelligible than science without reference to God can provide.

So, when we ask, what is truth?, we are asking that genuine reality reveal itself to us.[ii] This happens in science, we trust. This happens in faith, we also trust. How might these cohere with one another in worldview construction?

Unless the claims of Holy Scripture and the Christian tradition are true, no one would want to believe them. The task of the public theologian is to make Christian claims intelligible, so that those within the church and outside the church can test them for their truth value.[iii]

What is truth? That was Pilates question to Jesus in John 18:38. Elsewhere, in John 14:6, we find Jesus saying, I am the way, and the truth, and the life What does truth mean here? And everywhere we use this word?

If truth is propositional, then the assertionJesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the lifecould be either true or false. How would we measure the truth or falsity of this proposition? On the basis of what appears. On the basis of what has been revealed to be real. On the basis of what is yet-to-be revealed to be real.

In the Johannine passages cited above, note the Greek word for truth, aletheia. Philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) analyzed this term (Heidegger, 1947). He noted how aletheia means unveiling or uncovering or revealing, Entdeckung. Truth is an event in which something concealed becomes unconcealed, Unverborgenheit.

Curiously, the unconcealing of one truth sometimes requires the concealing of another truth, leading to an ongoing dialectic of revealing and hiding. In sum, truth is the unconcealing or disclosing of being (Water, 1969).

What modern culture loves about science is that scientific facts and theories are transcultural. Scientific claims are universal, according to Polish philosopher Jsef Tischner. The fundamental property of scientific truth is its universalityscientific truth is the truth for everyonebasic truths are the same for all people(Tischner, 1982, p. 33).

Scientific truths come in the form of propositions or assertions. Truth and falsity areproperties of propositions (Inwagen, 2009, p. 33). Propositional truth presumes a correspondence between what is thought or asserted via language with objective or mind-independent reality. So far, so good.

Yet, phenomenologically speaking, the truth of propositions is dependent on a more fundamental and more comprehensive human experience, namely, the ostensive self-revelation of reality. Only what has been uncovered or disclosed about natures mysteries can rise to articulation in assertions or propositions.[iv] Then, when propositions or assertions correspond with what has been unconcealed, they are said to be true.[v]

Here is the takeaway. A propositional claim is like a single Blue Gill hooked by someone fishing, reeled in, and landed in the boat. Even though this single fish is real in every respect, it is abstracted from the fishermans total experience with the entire lake and the unknown number of fish that have not been seen, caught, or reeled in.

So, we must grant with Stuart A. Kauffman that Science is not the only pathway to truth (Kauffman, 2008, p. xii). Or, perhaps more precisely, scientific truth is an abstraction. It finds its meaning within a more comprehensive horizon of truth as experienced.

This applies to true living as well, living in behalf of the common good. The truth is deeper than facts, contends Patheos columnist, Victorious Living. More important. More real, even. We cannot pursue truth while avoiding facts. But we cannot make sense of our facts while avoiding the deeper truths.

Let me tell you about Charles Townes (1915-2015). Charlie was a Nobel Prize winning physicist. Among his achievements was the discovery of a black hole in the center of our galaxy, designing the scientific agenda of the first astronauts on the Moon, and inventing the laser and maser. The final decades of his career were spent at the University of California at Berkeley, where I had an opportunity to get to know him and his vibrant wife, Francis. Charlie served on the board of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences.

Charlie loved physics. Physics was his passion. Even as he neared the age of a hundred, he spent almost every day engaged in scientific research. I get to do physics all day. What could be better than that?, he once said to me with glee.

Now, heres whats startling. Charlie told me and then an audience that I assembled that the invention of the laser was due to a special revelation. The laser came to him as a vision. While sitting on park bench in Washington DC, a vision appeared before his eyes with the physics and engineering necessary to make the first laser. He copied on his brown lunch bag what appeared in the vision. And, thus, the laser was born.

Charlie did not describe the vision as supernatural. Yet, is was a revelation that came to him as a gift.

One evening, Charlie and Francis were visiting at my Berkeley condo. A number of students were seated around Charlie, eagerly asking questions. Ya know, Charlie began one of his rare pontifications, I believe all scientific discoveries are revelations. Oh, yes, discoveries come at the end of experiments. But, whats really happening is that nature is revealing itself to the human mind. Isnt it wonderful!

Before a scientist can enunciate a proposition, nature must reveal itself. Thats Heideggers phenomenological insight. Revelation as disclosure applies as much to science as it does to theology.

If you are motivated to harken to the call of truth, then you will want to understand truth. To understand truth, is to subject your mind and your will to the reality that is uncovered in a truth event. Understanding requires us to stand under the authority of truth.

Truth is self-defining. And truth compels us to respect it by submitting to it. Here is theologian Alan Padgett: I want to stand under the truth and receive (understand) what light it brings(Padgett, Alan 2006). Truth asks us for submission so that we can gain understanding.

Or, more completely: I will simply propose that we understand truth as the mediated disclosure of being (or reality). Sometimes that truth will be mediated through everyday experience, or common sense, sometimes through the specifics of propositions (Padgett, Alan 2006). In short, truth calls the human mind to humility. This applies to truth in all forms, especially theological truth.

Grace to Youproposes an understanding of theological truth.

Heres a simple definition drawn from what the Bible teaches: Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Even more to the point:Truth is the self-expression of God. That is the biblical meaning of truth. Because the definition of truth flows from God, truth istheological.

Truth is alsoontologicalwhich is a fancy way of saying it is the way things really are. Reality is what it is because God declared it so and made it so. Therefore God is the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth.

Now, we turn to hermeneutics. Truth is tied to interpretation.

Our human receptivity for revelation is conditioned by our personal past experience, our historically inherited culture, our linguistic capacity, and our willingness to learn new things. You and I come to every new experience with a pre-understanding, a Vorverstndnis, to use the terminology of Hans-Georg Gadamer(Gadamer, 1965). An open-minded person ready to learn avoids allowing this pre-understanding to become a prejudgment (Vorurteil) or prejudice. A prejudice prevents new learning. A pre-understanding is always necessary for receiving new truth. But, a prejudice is optional.

Because each one of us lives within a specific context with its own horizon of pre-understanding, our experience with a truth event will be inescapably perspectival. A purely objective or absolute truth with no pre-understanding is not an option. All of our seeing is seeing-as. We must grant a certain level of relativity to our truth experience. What passes for objective truth is, for all practical purposes, an inter-subjective interpretation.

Theologian Catherine Keller acknowledges the inescapability of relativity in perspective. Relativity, which we must strictly distinguish from relativism, just describes the reality of a relational universe. The human observer belongs to that universe. Therefore all human truth-claims are relative to context and perspective(Keller, 2008, p. 4).

The truth of Godthe truth that brings knowledge, forgiveness, comfort, and joyis always pro me, says Martin Luther. The objective truth of God is revealed within subjective trueness for you and for me. To understand God is to stand under Gods Word addressed to you or me.

The uncovering of what is genuinely real is the essence of all truth. This applies to Gods emergence from hiding as well. God defines God-self in events of self-revelation. And because God is the ultimate reality, all truth becomes dependent on what is revealed by God about God. At least according to Calvinist philosopher Alvin Plantinga. There is such a thing as truth, and it is intimately connected with God (Plantinga, 1998, p.36).[vi]

This is the theme that runs through Karl Barths Church Dogmatics. The freely acting God Himself and alone is the truth of revelation. (Barth, 1936-1962, p. I/1 15). According to Barth, the Bible mediates Gods Word through the human words on the pages.

T.F. Torrance, a scholar quite concerned with the interaction between theology and science, elaborates with regard to Scriptural truth.

When all is said and done in biblical interpretation and theological formulation, the ultimate criterion to which appeal is to be made is the Truth itself, that Truth independent of themselves too which the Holy Scriptures direct us and to which they themselves are subject. All faithful interpretation must allow the Truth to assert itself in its own intrinsic weight and majesty and to maintain its own ground over against us and our prejudices, for in the last resort we have to reckon with the fact that God alone can name himself and bear witness to himself and prove himself to us (Torrance, 1982, pp.118-119).

On the one hand, what we assert in propositional or second order form derives from what is uncovered in first order experience. Reality comes out of hiding and becomes unconcealed at the level of first order experience. Then, when we formulate an assertion about what has been revealed, we abstract from the embedded first order experience. In sum, propositions are second order discourse reporting on the first order experience of disclosure.

One task of the systematic theologianalong with the public theologianis to press for coherence between what has been revealed to us by God and what has been unconcealed for us by our scientists. But, constructing coherence requires distinguishing prejudice from pre-understanding.

Here is the late Wolfhart Pannenberg on overcoming prejudice in constructive theology.

The truth of Christian doctrine cannot be maintained where Christian proclamation gives priority to adaptation to the secular mentality. It has to challenge that mentality and its prejudices.Since secularism produces meaninglessness, the human person suffers from the lack of meaning. There is a need, then, for the Christian message, perhaps more urgently so than in other periods of human history. But the message can reach its addresse only if the prejudices of secularism against Christianity can be overcome (Pannenberg 2002, 1).

Pannenberg advocates a coherence theory of truth, not a correspondence theory of truth. Coherence provides the final criterion of truth, and it can serve as such a criterion because it also belongs to the nature of truth: so that truth is only one, but all -embracing, closely related to the concept of the one God (Pannenberg, An Introduction to Systematic Theology 1991, 6). How coherence works should become clear in what follows.

Belief in God requires belief in the truth. No rational person would place his or her or their life in the hands of a God who does not exist. It all depends on truth, says Pannenberg when asking why a non-Jew might believe in the God of Israel. If we suppose that the God of Israel and of Jesus is the one and only true God, then and only then is there sufficient reason for believing in that God, even if one is not a Jew (Pannenberg, An Introduction to Systematic Theology 1991, 4-5). Belief includes confidence and trust in truth. And, truth depends on revelation. Did divine revelation take place in Israels history?

Revelations from God about God always leave some residue, some dimensions that resist codification in assertions or propositions. This is because God remains mysterious even in unconcealment. The more that God reveals, the more we become aware of the divine mystery. Religious propositions, then, must convey the dialectic of concealment with unconcealment. Religious propositions must be symbolic at their most fundamental level.

A holistic self-disclosure of reality rises to articulation only in symbolic speech. Binoy (Jacob) Pichalakkat, mathematician and theologian in Pune, India, makes this observation. In symbols reality becomes aware of itself and mirrors itself (Pichalakkatt, 2006, p. 26). Note the direction of movement: reality discloses itself, and we mark the event of this disclosure with a symbol. Symbols both reflect and participate in the reality they disclose.

Please get this point. Propositional truths are literal assertions that intend a single meaning. Symbolic truths are multi-valent with two or more levels of meaning. We live in a worldview with both.

Austrian philosopher Eric Voegelin reminds us of the distinction between symbols and propositions. Truth is not a body of propositions about a world-immanent object; it is the world-transcendent summum bonum, experienced as an orienting force in the soul, about which we can speak only in analogical symbols (Voegelin, 1956-1987, p. 3:363). Symbols point to and even participate in the reality they uncover; but symbols cannot exhaust the meaning of what they reveal in propositional form. Symbols come first. Propositions come second.

As double-valent, symbols connote concealment and unconcealment simultaneously. Religious symbols are pre-propositional in character. Symbols participate in the truth, to be sure. Yet, first order symbols stop short of reducing truth to proposition. Second order propositions interpret first order symbolic experience. Scientific propositions interpret experience in the form of empirical evidence and experiment.

Do religious people believe in literal truth? No. Scientists do, though.

Well, wait a minute! Some evangelicals and fundamentalists pridefully exclaim that they stand on the literal truth of the Bible. Patheos columnist Vance Morgan was born into a fundamentalist family. He has since become a Progressive Christian. Morgan explains what it means to believe in literal truth.

I was born into the fundamentalist Protestant worldand I am thoroughly familiar with how literalists read the Bible. I was taught that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible word of God, dictated by divine inspiration to specially selected human beings, then assembled into the Word of God that we call the Bible. The Bible is Gods final word to us, I was taught; all the guidance a Christian needs to live a life pleasing to God can be found between its covers. Many of the vehicles in our church parking lot sported a bumper sticker expressing the appropriate attitude toward Scripture: God Said It. I Believe It. That Settles It.

Because the linguistic expressions of Holy Scripture include deliberately non-literal formspsalms, aphorisms, parables, metaphors, and suchit would be irrational to treat all biblical texts literally. Contrary to common belief, Protestant fundamentalists do not believe in the dictation theory of the Bible.

The predominant view of Scriptures inspiration within fundamentalism derives from the late 19th century Princeton Theology. According to that Princeton Theology, the Holy Spirit inspired the New Testament writers who then mediated Gods Word through their own language and experience along with the their own writers agenda. In the heat of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the 1920s, fundamentalist Clarence E. Macartney announced in his famous sermon, Shall Unbelief Win?, the following. Those who hold the New Testament idea of inspiration, that holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, have never thought of the Holy Ghost dictating to Moses, Isaiah or St. Paul. What could be more clear! There is no warrant to believe that the words of the text were dictated by God, even for a fundamentalist. So, what Morgan reports here seems a tad extreme.

Biblical speech is fundamentally symbolic and double-valent. Biblical speech connotes invisible realities while it denotes ordinary experiences. This is why Jesus strained to convey truths about God through parables. We today must always treat Holy Sculpture hermeneutically, soliciting the Holy Spirits inner witness when we apply scriptural truth to our own daily lives.

Not so with scientific propositions. The laboratory scientist swims in eddies of experiment, fact, data, hypotheses, theories, and revisions of theories. Then, with corroboration and caution, the scientist tenders a proposition. That proposition is intended to be a literal assertion. It is intended to denote a fact. And only a fact. Thats it. Nothing more. No meaning. No significance. No metaphysical implications. Just a fact.

Keep clear: it is science that communicates literally through propositions. Not religion.

Do theologians ever make propositions? Yes, indeed. The Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed are collections of propositions. To theological propositions we now turn.

Theological propositionscalled dogmasare hypothetical assertions about ultimate reality. They are hypothetical because their truth depends upon confirmation or disconfirmation by Gods future actions. Drawing from the multi-valent symbols found in Scripture, dogmas point prophetically to truths about divine promises yet awaiting fulfillment. Only future fulfillment can determine the truth or falsity of such Christian theological claims.

Such dogmatic propositions are also doxological. That is, the reality yet to be revealed will be far more glorious than these propositions can convey. Even if a theological proposition gets confirmed by God, its literal meaning will be engulfed with a penumbra of glory that will bring an unanticipated fullness. Here is Pannenberg on dogmatic statements requiring eschatological confirmation to determine their truth value.

Dogmatic statements have a proleptic tendency in that they have all of reality, history as a whole, in view, since in Christ, the consummation of history, the future of us all, has already begun.Thus, the doxological element in the dogmatic statement is founded upon the proleptic, and both are interrelated through the universal meaning that inheres in this particular event(Pannenberg, Basic Questions in Theology, 2 Volumes, 1970-1971, p. 1:205).

Right now, the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed are statements of faith awaiting divine confirmation or disconfirmation eschatologically. These collections of Christian propositions about God are abstractions from more robust multi-valent biblical symbols. Even in propositional form, dogmas still resonate with symbolic meaning that is suprapropositional. Historically, creedal collections of dogmas are frequently called, symbols.

Creedal symbols remain second order discourse, still subordinate to the first order discourse of Holy Scripture. The more basic biblical symbols articulate what our ancestors experienced in revelatory events where truths about God were disclosed. Today we look forward to the eschatological future anticipated by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12: For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

The scriptures themselves tell us that the universal recognition of Gods glory will not occur before the eschaton. Until then, the truth of his revelation continue to be in dispute. (Pannenberg, An Introduction to Systematic Theology 1991, 17)

Not everyone is dedicated to standing under the truth in coherent form. Wikipedia management, for example, holds that multiple truths exist without cohering with one another. We all have different truths. We all have different biases. We need to listen to voices other than Western white men. We should share power. Rather than talk about the truth, then, we should focus on what we believe and what we can agree on. What is important is that we all get along, according to Wikipedias Katherine Maher. Yet, despite this well-intentioned gesture toward social harmony, my question here is still this: what is truth?

In this Patheos post, we have been asking: what is truth? In addition, we have been asking whether a theological worldview could be intelligible when coherently incorporating scientific knowledge. Standing under the truth requires the theologian to strive not only for coherence but also intelligibility.

No theologian need answer atheist shelling with a counterattack. Rather, the theist may simply live truly within the symbols which participate in Gods self-revelation. Then, of course, the theologian should formulate intelligible propositions. Such constructed propositions will be hypothetical. They will turn out to be proleptic assertions, awaiting divine confirmation or disconfirmation in the eschaton.

Every searching soul welcomes truth whenever an event of unconcealment makes something invisible visible. Scientific truth along with personal truth and divine truth belong together in a single worldview. Pannenberg rightly reminds the public theologian: The question of the truth of Christianity cannot be enquired into without also enquiring into the question of the truth of all areas of human experience, including scientific knowledge about the natural world (Pannenberg, Theology and the Philosophy of Science, 1976, p. 255).

Ive been working with the following hypothesis: truth is the revelation and acceptance of what is genuinely real. If God is the ultimate reality, then all truth must come from the one God. All truth, no matter by whom it is uttered, comes from the Holy Spirit (Omnis veritas, a quoquo dicitur, e Spiritu Sancto est). Ascribed to St. Ambrose of Milan.

Thank God that our minds hunger and thirst for truth. Thank God that truth comes to us. Thank God that truth satisfies that hunger and slakes that thirst.

Ted Peters directs traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. He authored Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom? (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2002) as well as Science, Theology, and Ethics (Ashgate 2003). He is editor of AI and IA: Utopia or Extinction? (ATF 2019). Along with Arvin Gouw and Brian Patrick Green, he co-edited the new book, Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics hot off the press (Roman and Littlefield/Lexington, 2022). Soon he will publish The Voice of Christian Public Theology (ATF 2022). See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.The fictional spy thriller, Cyrus Twelve, follows the twists and turns of a transhumanist plot.

[i] Truth cannot contradict truth(Pope, 1998).

[ii] No religion is genuine unless it be joined with truth, according to John Calvin(Calvin, 1960, p. I/v.3.50.).

[iv] Fuller systematic theologian Veli-Matti Krkkinen promotes the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences, because the doctrine of creation itself requires the access to reality provided by science. Specifically, the scientific worldview differs from previous worldviews within which theology worked. This engagement happens under a radically different worldview from that of the past: ours is dynamic, interrelated, evolving, in-the-making(Krkkinen, 2015, pp. 10-11).

[v] Lets compare correspondence with coherence. Scientific propositions rely on the correspondence theory of truth, according to which propositions correspond to reality as revealed. The coherence theory of truth, alternatively, relies on the coherence of one proposition with others in a web of claims. Borrowing the metaphor of the web or net of beliefs formulated by logician W.V.O. Quine, Nancey Murphy at Fuller abandons the correspondence model of truth in favor of a coherence model. Truth is found in coherence, where beliefs require one another is a web or net. This new picture of knowledge is salutary for religion scholars, she writes. No longer is there a need to find an unquestionable starting point, a theological foundation, before we can begin the task of theology proper(Murphy, 2018, p. 71).

[vi] Truths from God belong together with truths from science. The task of the systematic theologian is to make them all coherent. A limited rational validation of the truth of the Gospel is possible.Negatively the Gospel must and can be validated by exploring the limits of historic forms of wisdom and virtue. Positively it is validated when the truth of faith is correlated with all truths which may be known by scientific and philosophical disciplines and proves itself a resource for coordinating them into a deeper and wider system of coherence(Niebuhr, 1949, p. 152).

Barth, K. (1936-1962). Church Dogmatics, 4 Volumes. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

Calvin, J. (1960). Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Volumes. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox.

Dawkins, R. (1997). Is Science a Religion? The Humanist, https://web.archive.org/web/20121030144700/http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/dawkins.html.

Gadamer, H.-G. (1965). Wahrheit und Methode. Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).

Heidegger, M. (1947). The Essence of Truth. Berlin: UNKNO.

Inwagen, P. V. (2009). An Essay on Free Will. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press.

Krkkinen, V.-M. (2015). Creation and Humanity. Grand Rapids MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.

Kauffman, S. A. (2008). Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion. New York: Basic Books.

Keller, C. (2008). On the Mystery: Discerning God in Process. Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press.

Murphy, N. (2018). A Philosophy of the Christian Religion for the Twenty-First Century. London: SPCK.

Niebuhr, R. (1949). Faith and History. New York: Scribners.

Padgett, Alan. (2006). I am the Truth. An Understanding of Truthe from Christology to Scripture. In e. Alan G. Padgett and Patrick r. Keifert, But Is It All True? The Bible and the Question of Truth (p. Chapter 6). Grand Rapids, MI, USA: Wm. B. Eerdmans.

Pannenberg, W. (1976). Theology and the Philosophy of Science. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox.

Pannenberg, W. (1991).An Introduction to Systematic Theology.Grand Rapids MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.

Pannenberg, W. (2002). The Task of Christian Eschatology. In e. Carl E. Braaten and Robert Jenson, The Last Things: Biblical and Theological Perspectives (pp. 1-13). Grand Rapids MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.

Pichalakkatt, Binoy (2006). Dialoging with Symbols Exploring Zero, Sunyata and Trinity for a Holistic Reality,Omega: Indian Journal of Science and Religion,5:2: 25-41.

Polkinghorne, J. (1998). Science and Theology: An Introduction (1 ed.). London and Minneapolis: SPCK and Fortress.

Pope, J. P. (1998). Evolution and the Living God. In e. Ted Peters, Science and Theology: The New Consonance (pp. 149-152). Boulder CO: Harper/Westview https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961022.HTM.

Schleiermacher, F. (1960). The Christian Faith. Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark.

Tischner, J. (1982). The Spirit of Solidarity. New York: Harper.

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What is Truth? | What is truth? - Patheos

The appeal to youth group is that its all so familiar. While the main church service could be formal and even sort of cold, youth group felt like school, with similar dynamics, social structures and, often as not, insane games and snacks. Thats part of the appeal. Youth group was often so close to the rest of your teen existence that it could get a little predictable. In fact, certain recurring characters pop up in every youth group. Here are a few of the most common ones.

The Kid Who Already Knew the Greek and Hebrew

Like, we get it. You want to be a pastor when you grow up. But where are you, a 14-year-old, getting this seminary-level training?

The Kid Who Clearly Is Just Trying to Find a Date

Dont get us wrong, weve all been there. When you run out of potential significant others at school and work, church is a fallback option. But could you at least try to look semi-interested in the message?

The Kid Who Sure Seems Like They Should Have Graduated Last Year

You do know theres a college/young adult ministry, right?

The Burgeoning Atheist Whos Just Trying to Prove the Youth Pastor Wrong

All are welcome here, Devin, but maybe we can address this after group prayer time?

The Pastors Kid

Who wants to call Pastor Steve and tell him Alexis hitchhiked away from Bible Camp?

The Future Americas Got Talent Contestant

I think 45 seconds of guitar solo on Oceans is plenty, Preston.

The Kid Who Brought a Djembe on Every Youth Group Trip

Just in case we need a little percussion. (Pro tip: We never do.)

The Kid Whose Mom Is Always Last to Pick Him Up From Church Events

Are you sure we cant give you a ride, Ashley?

The Worship Pastors Kid

Who wants to call Pastor Grace and tell her Carissa hitchhiked back toBible Camp?

The Kid Who Takes the Youth Group Games Way Too Seriously

Settle down, Tanner. The NFL isnt scouting Chubby Bunny champions.

The Kid Who Took Sword Drills Way Too Seriously

Marissa, how on earth did you open to exactly Psalm 96:4 in one try?

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11 Youth Group Kids Every Church Had to Deal With - RELEVANT - RELEVANT Magazine

So Friedrich Nietzsche was right, God is dead and we have killed him.

That's what the latest census tells us: the number of faithless is closing in on the number of faithful.

In my lifetime I have seen Australia change from being an almost completely Christian country to one where now just 44 per cent practise Christianity.

This is no surprise. It mirrors a widespread shift away from religion by citizens of the Western world, most of whomwere traditionally Christian, alongside increases in religions like Hinduism which has grown more than 55 per cent in Australia since 2016 as our communities diversify.

Yet the numbers reporting no religion is also increasing and the impactis rapidly gathering pace.

Philosopher Charles Taylor, in his book A Secular Age, warned: "Modern civilisation cannot but bring about a "death of God."

Taylor said we have seen the rise of an "exclusive humanism". We have swapped God, he wrote, for a "culture of authenticity, or expressive individualism, in which people are encouraged to find their own way, discover their own fulfilment, "do their own thing".

Scholar of religion and politics Jocelyn Cesarihas traced the evolution of secular modernity in her book, We God's People. We have now reached a point in Western Europe, she says, where"worldly" things are allthere is.

There is a division between the immanent and the transcendent between what is Caesar's and what is God's. The immanent is the realm of politics.

Believers, she says, "are expected to keep the transcendent to themselves".

Cesari says the nation is now "the superior collective identification" overtaking "religious allegiances."

This is where the West was bound to end up. The tension between secularism and faith emerged out of the Thirty Years War the wars of religion that laid waste to Europe between 1618 and 1648. It's estimated as many as 8million people were killed.

It led to the birth of the modern state and coincided with an explosion of new ideas that we call the Age of Reason or The Enlightenment.

Across Europe reason was elevated above faith. People were encouraged to break with tradition. Thinkers like Rene Descartes the father of modern philosophy told us "I think therefore I am."

The mysteries of the universe were no longer the province of God.

Immanuel Kant summed up the Enlightenment with three words: dare to know.

While historically the West was founded on Christianity, the modern West was shaped by the break with God. People were sovereign. Liberalism prized the individual above all.

SociologistPhillip Rieffsaid we swapped a sacred order for a social order. That accelerated in the 20th century with social revolutions up-ending society and demolishing old ethical and moral boundaries.

French writer Olivier Roy says "secularisation has given way to large scale de-Christianisation." There is now, he says, "a serious crisis surrounding European identity and the place of religion in the public sphere".

The Church has found itself out of step with changing societal values on issues like divorce, abortion or same sex marriage.

Roy says: "Little by little, the very definitions of sexual difference, family, reproduction and parenthood have been redrawn." The scandal of child sex abuse in the church has further stripped religion of its moral authority.

Personal freedom, Roy writes, "prevails over all transcendent standards." Society is now ordered on "new valuesfounded on individualism, freedom and the valorisation of desire."

The West is a place beyond history. The past is another country. Tradition is seen as stifling, old fashioned. No doubt some traditions are well rid of. Which woman or person of colour would want to return to the white, male, dominated 1950s? But what are we left with? Is there still a role for tradition?

HistorianTim Stanleythinks so. He says the "war on tradition"has "translated into a soulless consumerism, and, while some flourished, many felt alienated and unfulfilled."

In his new book Whatever Happened to Tradition, Stanley fears our "liberal order is out of ideas, that's partly because we have deprived ourselves of valuable experience".

For some, the response to this soulless voidhas been a retreat into fundamentalism. We see this in radical Islamic groups like Al Qaeda or Islamic State whichrepresent a rejection of Western modernity.

Similarly right-wing or white-supremacist groups reach back to "tradition" as an attempt to recover some lost glory.

Stanley warns against this fundamentalism, yet he wonders what the secular West offers in response. Across the West, he says, "there is a dearth of purpose and spirit: we can't agree on who we are or what we are about, or even of these big existential questions matter."

Yet if people have turned away from religion it does not mean they are without faith.

Atheism in its own way can become an article of faith.

The new radical atheists quote the likes of scientistRichard Dawkinswith the certainty of scripture. They proselytise with evangelical vigour. In the West, identity is the new faith.

We are free to re-imagine and reinvent ourselves, untethered from the past; from family or faith.

It is a peculiarly Western phenomenon. Elsewhere religion is booming. The heart of Christianity has shifted from Europe to Africa and Latin America.

Officially atheist, China has experienced what's been called a Christian revival. It is estimated that by 2030 China may have the world's largest Christian population.

And despite what the census tells us is happening here, Christianity is not dying. Pew Research shows that in the century between 1910 and 2010, the number of Christians grew from 600million to more than twobillion.

Pew says that by 2060 Christianity will remain the world's largest religion with more than three billion followers.

Islam is the world's fastest growing religion driven significantly by a higher fertility rate. By the end of this century it is thought there will be more Muslims than Christians in the world.

This is a reminder if one is needed that the West is not the world. Indeed in many parts of the world the turn to religion is connected with a rejection of colonialism and Western values.

Sudipta Kaviraj, Columbia University Professor of Indian History, asks: "Why should the history of Europe happen elsewhere?" In Bengal, he says, Hindus in the 19th century "rejected an unconditional embrace of the package of moral values of Western modernity". Modern individualism, he says, was seen as "impoverishing the character and content of collective life".

In modern India, he writes, even the secular "need and desire transcendence as intensely as the devout."

Kavirajcautions against seeing the world through eyes of the West, not to speak, he says, "the facts of one history through the language of another." Yes, the West is more secular, less religious, and hyper-individualistic but that is not how most people live.

Western ideas of progress are founded on burying the past, killing God, and making the human divine. It can be liberating and holds the promise of freedom. But it doesn't speak to all. It doesn't even speak to all in the West who replace old faiths with new faith, who feel alienated and alone and long for somewhere to belong.

As Charles Taylor sees it, the journey of the secular West is from an enchanted age, to an age of disenchantment.

If as Nietzsche said, "God is dead", we in the West might ask what comes next?

Stan Grant is the ABC's international affairs analyst and presents China Tonight on Monday at 9:35pm on ABC TV, and Tuesday at 8pm on the ABC News Channel, anda co-presenter of Q+A on Thursday at 8.30pm. He also hosts the Religion and Ethics Report on RN.

Posted2 Jul 20222 Jul 2022Sat 2 Jul 2022 at 7:00pm, updated3 Jul 20223 Jul 2022Sun 3 Jul 2022 at 9:53am

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The census shows Australians are becoming less religious but why have we chosen to live without God? - ABC News

To the Editor:

I get that there are rules, but rules should be for EVERYone, not just those that have received complaints.If you cant have signage, statues, crosses or whatever, then no one should be exempt. If you only make those remove that have complaints, you could just be playing into a neighbor war. what is fair for one should be fair for all.Personally, I feel if I want a cross or a bird or a fish, it should be my choice. I own the property and I pay for taxes, landscaping, yard work, etc.Now I understand that people could take their decorations a bit far, so there should be a limit, but i dont understand how a small white cross is hurting anyone or anything, unless now we are giving in to liberalism whose feelings might be hurt because maybe they are atheist and dont want to look at a cross. Look in Arlington and see what is there, and why they are there. Its called freedom my friends.

JoEtta HinrichsenVillage of Marsh Bend

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Everybody should have to follow the rules - Villages-News

When Thor (Chris Hemsworth), that big-hearted hunk of a god, accidentally runs into Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) his big-brained, astrophysicist, Earthling ex-girlfriend the encounter is wild even by superhero standards. In the midst of a battle against the latest force of evil, Thor spots Jane, now carrying his very own famously powerful hammer. She is wearing armour and a red cape and has flowing blonde hair. "That's my hammer you've got," he says, as they stare into each other's eyes. "And that's my look." Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder is a Tale of Two Thors, a romcom interspersed with Universe-saving battles. It might make you wonder: What if Bogart and Bacall had superpowers?

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The first thing to know is that this film is enormous fun. As he did in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Waititi brings his distinct voice to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's cookie-cutter franchise. His formula balances a tongue-in-cheek tone with adventure, prizing wit over action; a relief from Marvel's more sombre instalments. (Doctor Strange has his qualities but he's not a witty sort.) In Love and Thunder, Waititi injects more emotion than in Ragnarok and goes for weightier themes, about nihilism and belief, love and death. The themes may be half-baked, but they exist.

The next important thing to know is that this is not really Jane's story. Disney's marketing talks a good game about how Jane is wielding the God of Thunder's hammer, Mjolnir, and has become a superhero called Mighty Thor. True enough, but this is still original Thor's film. Fortunately, Hemsworth is better than ever at making the character the most human, lifelike and appealing of gods, a regular guy except when he's saving the world.

Early on, his sidekick, Korg a giant, sweet-tempered pile of rocks with Waititi's voice tells children the story of the Thor-Jane romance, filling in any background a new viewer might want. It's a goofy account that reveals details about their break-up which also manages to name-check Jane Fonda.

Voldemort with a nose

Soon the familiar characters are threatened by a new villain, Gorr (chillingly played by Christian Bale), who has become disillusioned with gods in general. Instead of becoming an atheist or agnostic like a normal person in his situation, he goes for revenge, and becomes known as the God Butcher. Grey-toned from head to toe, he is basically Voldemort with a nose.

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Thor: Love and Thunder review: A romcom with epic battles - BBC

BONNE TERRE Elaine Bales was a second-generation Jehovahs Witness (JW) who lost her family and friends when she walked away from the false religion. Now a follower of Jesus, she leads a worldwide ministry that replaces the lies of the Watchtower with the truth of Scripture.

Paul Blizard was a third-generation JW who met Jesus in 1982 and was disfellowshipped from the Watchtower for approving a blood transfusion for his daughter.

Christopher Marshall was a Bethelite, working in the Watchtowers headquarters in New York, before meeting Christian apologist Al Stewart and coming to faith in Christ.

All three of these once-devoted JWs are now serving Christ faithfully and are featured speakers at There Is Something Better, the 2022 Witnesses Now for Jesus Conference July 22-23 at Sonrise Baptist Church in Bonne Terre.

The event is free and runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Sunday.

Other speakers include Robert Bowman, widely regarded as the leading evangelical scholar addressing Mormon and Jehovahs Witness interpretations of the Bible; Roger Sherrer, a former atheist who now serves as youth pastor at First Baptist Church, Lebanon, Mo.; Charles Smith, a former Jehovahs Witness who serves as director of Witnesses Now for Jesus Midwest; and Rob Phillips, who directs the apologetics ministry of the Missouri Baptist Convention.

This conference is designed to show the power of the gospel to transform lives, says Smith. Each testimony illustrates the deceptive ways Satan keeps people in darkness through false religions. At the same time, conference attendees will hear about the redemptive work of Christ, who shows that when it comes to a search for truth among the worlds religions, there truly is something better.

Apologetics is simply the practice of defending the Christian faith. Apologetics comes from the Greek noun apologia, which means a defense. Every Christian is urged to be ready at all times to defend the faith with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15-16).

For more information about the event, contact Charles Smith at 314-277-3866.

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Apologetics conference to feature former Jehovah's Witnesses - The Pathway