To grasp issues like the Big Bang, abiogenesis, evolution, and the age of the Earth, a Christian should be familiar with several scientific fields.
Here's a list of the key disciplines:
We can be “familiar” with all of these fields, and yet have no degrees in any of them.
Those in Jesus’ day had similar requirements for those who were teachers of the Law....which is why they stumbled over Jesus and the 12.
John 7:14-16...
”About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (ESV)
And the 12 were purposely chosen because they were
not educated at the schools....a place for learning what the Pharisees taught, rather than from the source that Jesus taught. (Matt 15:7-9) From what source do those with University degrees present their arguments? From a higher source than Christians?
Jesus and his disciples had a very different target audience...”the lost sheep of the house of Israel”....these responded to common men like themselves, not only because of their words, but because God was working miracles through them.
Acts 4:13-14...
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.”
The Pharisees were hard pressed to refute what people saw with their own eyes.
Yet we then have Paul who was highly educated and given a different assignment. He was on the same level as his fellow Pharisees, and equal to addressing the educated Greek philosophers.
So God selects those suitable for the task...and educates them for the job.
In this day and age is there any excuse for ignorance?
These fields equip Christians to critically evaluate scientific theories, find common ground with biblical worldviews, and counter or affirm skeptics' arguments.
Yes, because they bothered to check these things out for themselves. When you do your homework, and can explain these things to yourself, logically and with conviction, they are then easy to explain to others.
A modern Christian aiming to address all contemporary challenges must be a versatile explorer: a scientist, theologian, historian, philosopher, and pastor all in one. However, it's crucial to remember that no one can know everything. It's impossible to be an expert in all areas at once. But critics of Christianity don't need to be experts in everything—just in one.
I think the audience to whom Jesus aimed his preaching, all heard the same things, but not all were convinced, as the majority in the end rejected him outright, preferring to believe the comfortable lies told to them, rather than to open their hearts to the possibility that their teachers were hypocritical frauds as Jesus had exposed them. (Matt 23)
What made the difference between a “believer” and an “unbeliever”? It was how the heart of the individual processed the information. The truth was supposed to divide people, as Jesus said. (Matt 10:34-38)
Heb 4:12-13..
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (ESV)
When people hear the word of God, they have one of two responses....they accept or deny the word. God knows whose hearts are responding, and whose hearts are dead. (John 6:44; 65) God then responds by “drawing” them to himself by means of his son. No one can come to the son without God’s approval.
The accounting is coming and this will also have one of two outcomes....life or death. Not heaven or hell. Jews were never taught such a concept....that idea came from the pagan Greeks.
Critics, especially those opposing Christianity (atheists, skeptics, adherents of other worldviews), often zero in on one or two areas where they see vulnerabilities.
Are critics our greatest threat? Are we to fear their empty arguments dressed up to pull the proverbial rug out from under us by dazzling us with science? If we have strong faith, their “mountains” of useless “evidence” and arguments will be reduced to a pile of rubble. By their own reasonings they stumble themselves.....God will let them.
Their strategy is straightforward: Dive deep into one field, find a weak spot, and use it to undermine the entire belief system. They don't need to know it all—just more than their opponent in that niche.
If our faith can be undone by one argument, then we had no real faith or conviction in the first place. Blind faith serves no one....it is easily dismantled by a convincing argument.....if we have no counter argument, we might look foolish, but then Jesus said were were going to appear that way to the learned ones anyway.
As Paul wrote in 1 Cor 1:19-25....
“For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? . . . .For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. . . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (ESV)
Has Christianity Become "Too Complicated"?
Sadly, yes.....What Jesus taught was not rocket science...his audience were mostly uneducated people who were spiritually “lost”....you will find many of such people in the multitude of churches in Christendom.....not sure of anything, lacking real conviction but not really doing anything to bolster their own faith. We all have the same 24 hours in a day...it’s how we use them that matters. How do we prioritise our time....?
How much Bible education are we taking in?
A Christian is expected to know everything. Christians are supposed to be walking Wikipedias
Well, it pays to have a good grasp on what is true and what is not....Jesus foretold that a counterfeit church would be ‘sown by the devil in the world’. This counterfeit would be full of “weeds” designed to choke out the “wheat”....but Jesus said the “wheat” would still be there, plugging away and being ignored and hated for daring to speak against the teachings of this “church”......(Matt 13:24-30; 36-42; John 15:18-21).....in Jesus’ day the real heretics were the ones pointing the fingers at Jesus and his disciples....crying “heretic” even in our day, means the same thing. Who are pointing the fingers? Who are those who cannot tolerate any departure from ‘the party line’....where did ‘the party line’ come from...or should we say whom?
Do we know the difference between truth and fabrication? God does, and will gather his genuine children to himself in one united brotherhood. (1 Cor 1:10) God’s spirit unites his people....it does not divide them.
Is the only threat to our faith coming from outside of it? Satan knows how to divide us...he’s been doing that from the beginning...
