{"id":153,"date":"2010-09-14T15:30:36","date_gmt":"2010-09-14T19:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fbclafayette.org\/?p=153"},"modified":"2011-12-12T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T14:29:07","slug":"the-foolish-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cFoolish Gospel\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Worn\u201cFor indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d -Corinthians 1:22-23<\/p>\n

Ministry among the college students at Purdue University has given me a platform for interaction with many different worldviews.\u00a0 Over a year ago, I seized an opportunity that God placed into my lap regarding equipping our students on the worldview of atheism.\u00a0 At that time, I blogged for brief period due to the nature of the circumstances at hand.\u00a0 The entire discussion can be read at\u00a0www.primofide.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the fruits of this opportunity was my growing awareness of the \u201cNew Atheist<\/a>\u201d movement which tends to aggressively proclaim the dangers of belief in God.\u00a0 John Piper in his usual passionate and insightful proclamations comments<\/a> on the new atheists.<\/p>\n

Atheists and the Gospel<\/h2>\n

Probably the most well known new atheist is Richard Dawkins who wrote the book The God Delusion<\/em><\/a> and His most recent book The Greatest Show on Earth:\u00a0 The Evidence for Evolution<\/em><\/a>. While surfing the net for Richard Dawkins, I came across a fascinating debate<\/a> between he and Christian John Lennox.\u00a0 I found Dawkins to be a highly skilled orator, certainly passionate, and persuasive in regard to what he believes. I also concur with Dawkins\u2019 concerns about a lack of critical thinking among many religious folks (the same could be said of most people in general\u2014secular or religious). \u00a0However, Lennox, while an equally skilled, orator was logically superior. Lennox was able to articulate a more comprehensive, consistent, and coherent worldview while pointing out the deficiencies of Dawkins\u2019 worldview.\u00a0 But I am not an unbiased observer.<\/p>\n

Biased or not, all could observe exactly what the Bible predicted would be the response to the Gospel of Christ from those hardened in unbelief.\u00a0 At the end of the debate, Lennox gave his closing argument and ended with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Richard Dawkins was given the final word.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, well that concluding bit rather gives the game away doesn\u2019t it? If all that stuff about science and physics and the complications of physics and things…what it all really comes down to is the resurrection of Jesus<\/strong><\/em>. There is a fundamental incompatibility between the sort of sophisticated scientist which we hear part of the time from John Lennox \u2026. And then having produced some sort of a case for some sort of deistic god; perhaps some god like the great physicist who adjusted the laws of the constants of the universe\u2026that\u2019s all very grand and wonderful and then suddenly we come down to the resurrection of Jesus. It\u2019s so petty. It\u2019s so trivial. It\u2019s so local. It\u2019s so earthbound. It\u2019s so unworthy of the universe<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d \u2014Dawkins<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“New” Atheists, Old Response<\/h2>\n

Two thousand years ago, the debate was the same.<\/strong> Scriptures describe precisely this response from those who reject God\u2019s wisdom for their own. When Paul preached in Athens notice the response in Acts 17:32, “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer..” The relatively recent and “new” assertions of Charles Darwin, and subsequently Richard Dawkins, are actually old and expected from those who reject God.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chose, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God\u201d (1 Cor 1:27-29).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

May we be counted in the weak and foolish things of the world.\u00a0 And may God work in the New Atheists\u2019 hearts to drawn them to a saving faith in their Creator.\u00a0 One day every knee will bow and tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. \u00a0Are you and I living our lives this day with a bowed knee toward and a tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.\u201d -Corinthians 1:22-23 Ministry among the college students at Purdue University has given me a platform for interaction with many different worldviews.\u00a0 Over a year ago, I seized an opportunity that… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[94],"tags":[141,143,142,146,144,145,147],"yoast_head":"\nThe \u201cFoolish Gospel\u201d - Faith Church Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The \u201cFoolish Gospel\u201d - Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cFor indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.\u201d -Corinthians 1:22-23 Ministry among the college students at Purdue University has given me a platform for interaction with many different worldviews.\u00a0 Over a year ago, I seized an opportunity that... read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-14T19:30:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-12T14:29:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/files\/2010\/09\/Bible-worn.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brent Aucoin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brent Aucoin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/\",\"name\":\"The \u201cFoolish Gospel\u201d - Faith Church Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-14T19:30:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-12T14:29:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/the-foolish-gospel\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The \u201cFoolish Gospel\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\",\"name\":\"Faith Church Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf\",\"name\":\"Brent Aucoin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Brent Aucoin\"},\"description\":\"Pastor Brent Aucoin serves as the Pastor of Seminary and Counseling Ministries at Faith Church. 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