Challenging Believers to Think and Thinkers to Believe

The New Atheism: Part 3

Written by Jerry Robinson
Originally Posted on 5/7/2007

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Part 3: The Modern Christian Response to an Intellectual Assault

Today’s American hyper-sensitive church which values "experiences" and demands a message of “positivity” from its leaders looks nothing like the American church that existed just a few centuries ago. Instead of placing a large premium on emotion, the early American church placed a strong emphasis upon education and a cultivation of mind. The early American church relied upon a healthy amount of reason to understand and defend the Christian faith. Ignorance among Christian ministers was almost unheard of. In fact, history is replete with Christian ministers who were intellectual giants, as well as spiritual authorities. Anyone who doubts the validity of this claim would do well to know that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Purdue, and Dartmouth were all Christian creations originally established to educate the Christian mind in Biblical studies, among other things.

The Origins of the Modern American Church

In the mid-1800’s, a new evangelistic style of Christian preaching, led by the likes of Charles Finney and others, began emerging in America. This era, which has become known as the Second Great Awakening, gave birth to a new approach to evangelism which relied primarily upon highly expressive, and even emotional, preaching. This new approach aroused the masses of listeners and propelled them to take action in the form of repentance. And while a large amount of salvations were tabulated during this era, the follow-up with these new believers was sorely lacking. This colossal lack of discipleship left many new converts with no way to incorporate their faith into their lives and consequently they became the perfect breeding ground for many of the cults that arose in the 1800’s, namely the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, and Seventh-Day Adventism. Many of those who were not influenced by the flourishing cults remained spiritually shallow Christians with little spiritual substance.

This lack of discipleship, however, was merely a symptom of a much greater problem in Christianity. This problem was simply the demotion of the role of reason in the Christian life and, in its place, the promotion of “feeling.” Unfortunately, this adoption of emotionalism, and the subsequent rejection of reason, could not have come at a worse time in history.

The "Emotional" Church Intersects with the Age of Reason

The timing was seamless. The American church began retreating from “reason” just as the Age of Reason was getting into full swing. Vicious intellectual attacks from unbelievers were emerging on nearly every front of the Church.

In his book, Love Your God With All Your Mind, J.P. Moreland identifies three major assaults upon the Christian worldview that occurred during this era.
  • Intellectual Atheism Disguised as European Philosophy. The European philosophers Immanuel Kant and David Hume went unchecked as they promoted their systematic denial of the existence of God. Their destructive brand of atheism, which was carefully guised in the cloak of logic, went unchallenged and ravaged Europe and America.
  • Challenges to the Authenticity of the Bible. This attack came in the form of what is known as German Higher Criticism of the Bible. This caustic style of criticism called the Bible’s reliability into question, and led to the gradual erosion of the public’s trust in the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. The many new converts to Christianity had no way to defend the Bible, or themselves, in the ensuing onslaught because they had left “reason” behind and instead had adopted a gospel of “feeling.” The Biblical critics advanced their antichrist theories to millions virtually unchecked. In fact, it was only recently that astute Bible scholars have been able to systematically silence these vicious attacks upon the Bible. However, many of the teachings initiated by this irreverent movement continue to be taught as truth in Christian seminaries to this day.
  • Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory. The assault of Darwinian evolution arose in this same era of emotional Christianity. Darwinian evolution challenged what was considered untouchable: The Biblical account of the creation of the universe. Darwin’s theory gained its traction on the open and unobstructed road of logic and, consequently, made the world a very safe for atheists.

The damage sustained from these three simultaneous attacks by the secular world upon the Christian identity was astonishing and far-reaching. Many lost faith in the God of the Bible and turned instead to science which, ironically, was using reason to promulgate its ideas.

So the question naturally arises, “Where were the apologists (defenders of the faith) during this volatile time in the Church’s history?” History tells us that the majority of Christians, and their more importantly their leaders, had been rendered intellectually impotent due to their extreme emphasis upon emotionalism. Most had disengaged entirely from the intellectual challenges and assaults facing the Church even though the assaults were weakening its very foundations. Not only did this lack of engagement allow the deceptive assaults on Christianity to spread, it also meant a vast opportunity was missed for a harvest of souls.

The "Emotional" Church Intersects with the New Atheism

Fast forward to today and we find that little has changed. The secular world continues to advance in the name of logic and reason. Emotionalism and anti-intellectualism, however, remain the crowns of the popular American church. The church, the once formidable foe to secular foolishness through its fierce apologetic truths, has been dwarfed into a simple sub-cultural phenomenon in the minds of millions.

But it is only recently that science and moral relativism have gained a tremendous advantage over the pushers of religion. Today, one’s religious beliefs are considered private and have been discretely relegated to their own special compartment in American daily life. Instead of being viewed as the only exit door from a world full of sin and depravity, Christianity has now found a permanent home in irrelevancy in the minds of millions of Americans. Facts are stubborn things and they have a tendency to speak for themselves: Currently, only 5% of American adults have a biblical worldview, that is, only 5% of adults believe that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches. This massive rejection of Biblical authority is the fruit of a culture that has been subjected to the preaching of the atheistically “enlightened.” This culture has unashamedly promoted the scientific process as the liberator of mankind while simultaneously attacking absolute moral truth.

As we charge headlong into the 21st century, it should be plainly evident to any and all thinking Christians that our entire culture is in trouble. The secular-minded advances continue their brutal assault setting their sights upon our nation’s college students and young adults. Their new weapon of choice is being billed as the New Atheism. And as the New Atheism advances, their adherents must be utterly delighted at the lack of a cohesive and articulate defense. Like Hitler’s Nazi machine rolling into Poland, the invasion is just simply too easy to believe.

Are you one of the 5% of Christians that is truly convinced that the Word of God can handle any beating from the most arrogant, educated skeptic on the planet? If so, then we would do well to remember that Christians who don’t know why they believe what they believe will convince no one to believe.

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