Michael Shermer, the executive director of The Skeptics Society and the founding editor of Skeptic magazine, has long been recognized as being an opponent of those who embrace faith in God. However, Shermer has related on many occasions an interesting story about the time that he and his wife had a brush with something that seemed “otherworldly.”
When his now wife Jennifer moved to California from Germany, she brought with her a transistor radio that had been a gift from her late and beloved grandfather, Walter. Walter had been a surrogate father to her. Jennifer loved the radio, in large part because she had fond memories of listening to music with her grandfather from this radio. However, the radio eventually quit working. She and Michael tried everything they could to get it working again, but to no avail. They ended up putting the radio into a desk drawer in the bedroom.
Months later, during their wedding ceremony at their home, Jennifer was missing her family greatly, so the couple took a moment to get away from the crowd. At that precise moment music started playing from the area around the bedroom. They traced the source of the love song that was filling the air to the “broken” radio in the desk drawer in the bedroom. Shermer admitted that it was a “spine-tingling experience,” in part because the radio was working perfectly, but mostly because of the timing in which it began to play again.
The radio played a song that was perfect for someone getting married but also missing her family, a love song that spoke to her heart and comforted her immensely. It was exactly what the couple needed to hear at that moment. The radio continued to play emotionally comforting music all evening, then it went silent again. It has remained silent since, despite Shermer’s efforts to repair it.
Was that event enough to shake Shermer’s skepticism? Although some Christians will argue that this event seems more paranormal than God-inspired, the point is that something “beyond this world” seems to be at work here, and in Shermer’s naturalistic worldview there is not supposed to be anything “beyond this world.” Interestingly, the event did not shake his skepticism at all (at least that he admitted to)!
For some people who think that the life of faith is nothing more than a crutch for weak people, what might it take for them to believe? Sadly, sometimes nothing seems to work. This seems to be the case with Shermer.
The divide between belief and unbelief is not intellectual in nature, but rather spiritual. The Apostle Paul outlines this for us in his first letter to the Corinthian Church: We have received God’s own Spirit, not a spirit that belongs to this world. As a result, we can understand all the good things that God has given to us. Those are the things that we speak about. We do not use clever words to speak about human ideas. Instead, we speak the message that God’s Spirit has taught us. In that way, we explain a spiritual message to people who have God’s Spirit.
If someone does not believe in God, they cannot accept the message that comes from God’s Spirit. They think that God’s message is silly. They cannot even understand those things. Only God’s Spirit can explain them to people. But we have God’s Spirit with us. So, we can understand the true value of all things (1 Corinthians 2:12-15). Although I typically do not reference the Easy English Version of the Bible, this version works especially well here. Belief versus unbelief is truly a spiritual battle.
Almost certainly writing with the above verses in mind, Saint Augustine penned these words four centuries later: “I believe in order to understand.” Augustine was emphasizing the necessity of first having faith to truly understand God and spiritual matters, or at least to have a chance of understanding them. Some people claim the opposite is true: We must first try to understand God and spiritual matters before we can believe. But does that really work? Can any of us accept spiritual truths without first being spiritually regenerated?
In my experience, faith always precedes understanding. That is why Anselm of Canterbury, writing a good six centuries after Augustine, proclaimed that our faith is constantly seeking after understanding. For Augustine, Anselm, and countless others throughout history, one must begin with faith in God, and on that basis move on to further understanding of Christian truth claims.
What does all this mean for us when we try to share our beliefs with those who have not yet received the gift of faith? For starters, since the chasm between belief and unbelief is spiritual in nature, we need to do two things. First, bathe all our evangelistic encounters in prayer. Ask God to open the heart and mind of the person you are sharing your faith with, so that he or she will be open to truly hearing what you have to say. Ultimately, God saves – not us – but God uses us to share the Good News of his Kingdom. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them” (John 6:44). Pray that God will do that very thing.
Second, since the divide between belief and unbelief is spiritual, do not emphasize intellectual arguments for God’s existence, Christ’s deity, and the veracity of the biblical message unless they are called for. There is much evidence for the Christian faith, but sometimes we need to emphasize emotional, experiential, and existential concerns. As the great Blaise Pascal wrote in his posthumous work Pensees, “The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.” Simply begin with presenting the Gospel or Good News and see where the conversation goes from there.
Maybe it will gravitate toward matters of evidence, or maybe more heartfelt concerns, but always meet the person where they are, and without judgment. As Christ said near the end of the Great Commission, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
When sharing your faith, one thing is certain: You will not do it alone.
Randy Hroziencik
Pastor, First Baptist Church
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.
***This column is sponsored by the Kewanee Ministerial Association
