Thought you might be interested in a letter I just sent off to the Northern Star. It addresses one of the many issues we need to think though as we engage in Connect09. Bit of a warm-up for ‘Got Questions’ in term 2!
I have noticed a steady stream of letters to the editor pitting rationality against faith. Rationality is one type of thinking, so this argument goes, and faith quite another. And this is expressed with the patronising aside, “but as long as your faith doesn’t hurt anyone, carry on with your delusion”.
Pitting rationality against faith, however, is a nonsense. It is possible to have irrational faith. And it is possible to have rational faith. I do not accept that I need to “shut my eyes to the facts” to believe that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose from the dead. Rather I encourage all readers to check out the facts supporting such belief. Many people, historians and scientists included, who have bothered to investigate the evidence, have come to rational faith in Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 is a good place to start.
Excellent stuff – I’ll be looking forward to seeing what sort of replies that prompts! Assuming, of course, that the letter ever sees the light of day (if you can include ‘light of day’ and ‘the northern star newspaper’ in the same sentence that is…)
That letter looks great Steve. Not a lot of people would know that more than 500 people at a time saw the risen Jesus! It would be great if people had a listen to your talk mentioning some of the witnesses of the risen Jesus after his crucifixion at http://www.scpc.org.au/2008/11/23/scpc-podcast-one-body-talk-6-one-body-one-gospel/ .
Hopefully Peter the Northern Star will publish Steve’s letter and show they are willing to print rational letters. Let’s pray the Northern Star does publish it and people’s hearts are open to receive the gospel which is factual.
Thanks guys. It’s interesting, in writing a dozen or so letters to the Northern Star across the last 6 months, they’ve all been published. Eventually. Sometimes it appears the next day, usually 2 or 3 days later, one time around Christmas it was a month later. I think they just land in a queue and get printed when they reach the top. But the queue most times must be short. Point is, I don’t think it’s about quality that gets you printed – but their lack of quantity … SO, there’s definitely an opportunity for us to grasp – to proclaim the gospel of Christ through this sort of forum. I’m surprised how many comments I get, not just from people at church that they see the letters.
Sounds like what we need to be doing – great work.