The Heart Of The Matter By Dr. Greg Bahnsen

The Biblical Worldview (VII:1; Jan., 1991) © Covenant Media Foundation, 800/553-3938

Knowing and Believing

Christians are often called "believers," while non-Christians are termed "unbelievers." Scripture itself speaks this way: we read that "believers were the more added to the Lord" (Acts 5:14), and that they should not be "unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6:14). There is obviously two classes of people distinguished by whether they believe or not. It can rightly be said that what separates Christians from non-Christians is the matter of faith.

Christians believe certain things which non-Christians do not. Christians believe the claims of Christ and the teachings of the Bible to be true, but non-Christians disbelieve them. Christians have faith in Christ and trust His promises; non-Christians do not believe in Him and doubt His word. It is quite natural, then, that the gospel can be called "the word of faith" (Rom. 10:8). Becoming a Christian entails that you "believe in your heart that God raised Him [Christ] from the dead" (v. 9); likewise, "he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6). Examples could be multiplied. What sets Christians off from non-Christians is the matter of belief or faith.

However, the difference between them is more than that in an important sense, and we need to understand this if we are going to do a faithful job in defending the faith. The Christian claims to "believe" the teachings of Scripture or to have "faith" in the person of Christ[1] because the element of trust is so prominent in our relationship with the Savior. But the Christian actually claims more than simply to believe Christ's claims to be true. The Christian also affirms that he or she "knows" those claims to be true. What is involved in saving faith is more than hope (although that is present) and more than a commitment of will (although that too is present). Job confidently asserted, "I know my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25). John indicated that he wrote his first epistle so that those "who believe on the name of the Son of God" "may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). Paul declared that God "has furnished proof" that Jesus will judge the world (Acts 17:31). Jesus promised His disciples that they would "know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32).

In what way does knowledge go beyond belief? Knowledge includes having justification or good reason to support whatever it is you believe. Imagine that I believe there are thirty-seven square miles in a particular city, and imagine also that it just so happens that this claim is accurate - but imagine as well that I simply got this answer by guessing (rather than doing measurements, mathematics or checking an almanac, etc.). I believed something which happened to be true, but we would not say that I had "knowledge" in this case because I had no justification for what I believed. When we claim to know that something is true, we are thereby claiming to have adequate evidence, proof or good reason for it.

The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is not simply that one believes the Bible and the other does not. People's beliefs can be frivolous, random, or silly. The Christian also claims that there is justification for believing what the Bible says. The non-Christian says, to the contrary, that there is no justification (or adequate justification) for believing the Bible's claims - or, in stronger cases, says that there is justification for disbelieving the Bible's claims. Apologetics amounts to an inquiry into and debate over who is correct on this matter. It involves giving reasons, offering refutations, and answering objections.

Conflicting Worldviews

Whose perspective is intellectually justified, the Christian's or the non-Christian's? Many budding Christian apologists approach the answer to this question in a very simplistic and naive fashion, thinking that all we have to do is go look at the observable evidence and see whose hypothesis is verified. "After all," it is thought, "this is how we resolve disagreements in our ordinary affairs, as well as in science."[2] If a dispute arises over the price of eggs at the store, we can jump in the car, drive down to the market, and go look for ourselves at the price listed on the eggs. If scientists disagree over the claim that smoking causes cancer, they can run tests, do statistical comparisons, etc. In such cases, it seems that what we do, at base, is "look and see" if one hypothesis or its opposite is true. Of course, disagreements such as these can be readily resolved in this fashion only because the two people who disagree nevertheless agree with each other regarding more basic assumptions - such as the reliability of their senses, the uniformity of natural events, the accuracy of data reporting, the honesty of researchers, etc.

However, when the dispute is over more fundamental issues, as it is between believers and unbelievers, simple appeals to observational evidence need not be decisive at all. The reason is that a person's most fundamental beliefs (or presuppositions) determine what he or she will accept as evidence and determine how that evidence will be interpreted. Let me illustrate. Naturalism and supernaturalism are conflicting outlooks regarding the world in which we live and man's knowledge of it. The naturalist claims that what is studied by empirical science[3] is all that there is to reality, and that every event can (in principle) be explained without resorting to forces outside the scope of man's experience or outside the universe. Christian supernaturalism, on the other hand, believes that there is a transcendent and all-powerful God who can intervene in the universe and perform miracles which cannot be explained by the ordinary principles of man's natural experience. Now then, having well-accredited reports of a "miraculous" event is not in itself sufficient to change the mind of the naturalist - and for good reason. The naturalist's presuppositions will require him to dispute the claim that such an event really occurred, or alternatively, will lead him to say that the event is subject to a natural explanation once we learn more about it. Simple evidence need not dislodge his naturalistic approach to all things - any more than simple eye-ball evidence could ever in itself refute the Hindu conviction that everything about man's temporal experience is Maya (illusion). Our presuppositions about the nature of reality and knowledge will control what we accept as evidence and how we view it.[4]

Everybody has what can be called a "worldview," a perspective in terms of which they see everything and understand their perceptions and feelings. A worldview is a network of related presuppositions in terms of which every aspect of man's knowledge and awareness is interpreted. This worldview, as explained above, is not completely derived from human experience, nor can it be verified or refuted by the procedures of natural science. Not everybody reflects explicitly upon the content of his worldview or is consistent in maintaining it, but everybody has one nonetheless. A person's worldview clues him as to the nature, structure and origin of reality. It tells him what are the limits of possibility. It involves a view of the nature, sources and limits of human knowledge. It includes fundamental convictions about right and wrong. One's worldview says something about who man is, his place in the universe, and the meaning of life, etc. Worldviews determine our acceptance and understanding of events in human experience, and thus they play the crucial role in our interpreting of evidence or in disputes over conflicting fundamental beliefs.[5]

We saw above that apologetics, in the nature of the case, involves argumentation over the justification of belief or rejection of belief. And what we have just observed is that one's treatment of the issue of justification of belief will be governed by his underlying worldview or presuppositions. Effective apologetics necessarily leads us to challenge and debate the unbeliever at the level his most basic commitments or assumptions about reality, knowledge and ethics. Our approach to defending the faith is shallow and ineffective if we think that the unbeliever simply lacks information or needs to be given observational evidence.[6]

The Bible teaches us that the mental and spiritual perspectives of believers and unbelievers differ radically from each other. In principle, and according to what they profess, the basic worldviews - the fundamental presuppositions - of the Christian and non-Christian conflict with each other at every point.[7] The all-pervading sinful depravity of the unregenerate man touches his intellect as much as anything else. "The mind of the sinful nature is at enmity with God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be" (Romans 8:7). Paul's description of the unbelieving mind in Ephesians 4:17-19 is graphic. Unbelievers walk in vanity of mind, with darkened understanding, ignorance and a hardened heart. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Rom. 1:22). On the other hand, believers are said to be transformed by the renewing of their minds (Rom. 12:2; cf. Eph. 4:23-24). They now have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) and bring every thought captive to Him (2 Cor. 10:5). It is not surprising, therefore, that believers and unbelievers - with their conflicting worldviews and heart conditions - do not really share a common view of knowledge, logic, evidence, language, or truth. Pilate arrogantly asked, "what is truth?" (John 18:38). Agrippa differed with Paul over what is "believable" (Acts 26:8). What unbelievers call "knowledge," believers shun as "pseudo-knowledge" (1 Tim. 6:20). What believers call wisdom, unbelievers call foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18-2:5).

The Impossibility of the Contrary

If the way in which people reason and interpret evidence is determined by their presupposed worldviews, and if the worldviews of the believer and unbeliever are in principle completely at odds with each other, how can the disagreement between them over the justification of Biblical claims be resolved? It might seem that all rational argumentation is precluded since appeals to evidence and logic will be controlled by the respective, conflicting worldviews of the believer and unbeliever. However this is not the case.

Differing worldviews can be compared to each other in terms of the important philosophical question about the "preconditions of intelligibility" for such important assumptions as the universality of logical laws, the uniformity of nature, and the reality of moral absolutes. We can examine a worldview and ask whether its portrayal of nature, man, knowledge, etc. provide an outlook in terms of which logic, science and ethics can make sense. It does not comport with the practices of natural science to believe that all events are random and unpredictable, for instance. It does not comport with the demand for honesty in scientific research, if no moral principle expresses anything but a personal preference or feeling. Moreover, if there are internal contradictions in a person's worldview, it does not provide the preconditions for making sense out of man's experience. For instance, if one's political dogmas respect the dignity of men to make their own choices, while one's psychological theories reject the free will of men, then there is an internal defect in that person's worldview.

It is the Christian's contention that all non-Christian worldviews are beset with internal contradictions, as well as with beliefs which do not render logic, science or ethics intelligible. On the other hand, the Christian worldview (taken from God's self-revelation in Scripture) demands our intellectual commitment because it does provide the preconditions of intelligibility for man's reasoning, experience, and dignity.

In Biblical terms, what the Christian apologist does is demonstrate to unbelievers that because of their rejection of God's revealed truth, they have "become vain in their reasonings" (Rom. 1:21). By means of their foolish perspective they end up "opposing themselves" (2 Tim. 2:25). They follow a conception of knowledge which does not deserve the name (1 Tim. 6:20). Their philosophy and presuppositions rob one of knowledge (Col. 2:3, 8), leaving them in ignorance (Eph. 4:17-18; Acts 17:23). The aim of the apologist is to cast down their reasonings (2 Cor. 10:5) and to challenge them in the spirit of Paul: "Where is the wise? Where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Cor. 1:20).

In various forms, the fundamental argument advanced by the Christian apologist is that the Christian worldview is true because of the impossibility of the contrary. When the perspective of God's revelation is rejected, then the unbeliever is left in foolish ignorance because his philosophy does not provide the preconditions of knowledge and meaningful experience. To put it another way: the proof that Christianity is true is that if it were not, we would not be able to prove anything.

What the unbeliever needs is nothing less than a radical change of mind - repentance (Acts 17:30). He needs to change his fundamental worldview and submit to the revelation of God in order for any knowledge or experience to make sense. He at the same time needs to repent of his spiritual rebellion and sin against God. Because of the condition of his heart, he cannot see the truth or know God in a saving fashion.

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Tactics in Defending the Faith - Beware of “The Professor’s Ploy”

Greg Koukl                                                                                                                                                                     When executing the burden of proof tactic, beware of the “professor’s ploy.”

Some professors are fond of taking pot-shots at Christianity with remarks like, “The Bible is just a bunch of fables,” even if the topic matter has nothing to do with religious issues.

Well-meaning believers sometimes take the challenge and attempt a head-to-head duel with the professor, but this approach is rarely successful.

One rule of engagement governs exchanges like these: The person with the microphone wins. Never attempt a frontal assault on a superior force. The professor always has the strategic advantage, and he knows it.

Don’t get into a power play when you’re out-gunned. There’s a better way. Don’t disengage; instead, use your tactics. Raise your hand and ask, “Professor, what do you mean by that?” Next ask, “How did you reach that conclusion?” Make him – the teacher and the one making the claim – shoulder the burden of proof.

This approach enables you to stay engaged while deftly sidestepping the power struggle. The “professor’s ploy” comes into play when he attempts to make you shoulder the burden of proof. He may sense your maneuver and respond by saying, “You must be one of those Christians who thinks the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Okay, since I’m a fair man, why don’t you prove that to the rest of the class?”

In one quick move, he’s cleverly switched the burden of proof back on you, the student. Don’t fall for this unfair move! You aren’t the one making a claim; he is. He must defend his own claim. He’s the teacher, after all.

You can respond to the professor’s ploy with dignity and tact. When he shifts the burden of proof on you, calmly respond by saying, “Professor, first, I haven’t revealed anything about my views. Second, my views don’t really matter right now. You’re the teacher and you’ve made a strong claim about the Bible. I’m just trying to learn your reasons for it.”

If he gives an answer, thank him for it and either ask him another question or let it go. Recognize that the burden of proof tactic takes the pressure off you but still keeps you in the driver’s seat. You don’t have to be the expert on every subject.

If you keep the burden on the other side when they’re making the claim, you don’t have to have all the answers. In fact, you can be effective even when you know very little if you ask the right questions.

Greg Kouhl

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What the Middle East would be like without Christians

By Christa Case Bryant, CS Monitor, December 22, 2013

Bethlehem, West Bank—The pews at First Baptist Church of Bethlehem fill quickly as congregants stream in on a Sunday night, some with fancy purses, others with worn shoes and KFC takeout bags. Latecomers have to settle for plastic chairs in the back.

As the service gets under way, hands arc in the air as worshipers sing and thank God for a recent revival that drew more than 1,300 people to hear the message of the Bible—a testament to the theme of the sermon on this night: responding to the invitation of Christ.

In a city heralded as the place where Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary, the church is something of a modern miracle. Founded in a two-bedroom apartment three decades ago by the Rev. Naim Khoury, First Baptist was bombed 14 times during the first intifada, struggled with financial difficulties, and is now facing a legal battle with the Palestinian Authority, which doesn’t recognize it as a church.

Thousands of Christians in Bethlehem have faced similar political and economic strife over the past few decades, leading many of them to flee the city where Christianity’s central figure was born in a straw-filled manger. Christians, who once made up 80 percent of the population, now represent 20 to 25 percent. But First Baptist defies the trend. Its congregation is 300 members strong—and growing.

"We fought and fought to remain and not to hide what we believe," says Mr. Khoury, who himself survived a bullet to the shoulder from an unknown sniper while in the church parking lot five years ago. "It’s time for them to realize that we are here. There’s no way for us to close down and go somewhere else…. We proved ourselves here by the help of the Lord that we are here to stay until the Lord comes back."

Khoury’s unflinching faith is something that more Christians may have to summon—not only here in the Holy Land but across the entire Middle East. Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, Christianity is under assault more than at any time in the past century, prompting some to speculate that one of the world’s three great religions could vanish entirely from the region within a generation or two.

From Iraq, which has lost at least half of its Christians over the past decade, to Egypt, which saw the worst spate of anti-Christian violence in 700 years this summer, to Syria, where jihadists are killing Christians and burying them in mass graves, the followers of Jesus face violence and vitriol as well as declining churches and ecumenical divides. Christians now make up only 5 percent of the population of the Middle East, down from 20 percent a century ago. Many Arab Christians are upset that the West hasn’t done more to help.

Though many Muslims grew up with Christian friends and colleagues, powerful political and social forces have made such coexistence more difficult. As political Islam gains support, Christians can no longer find refuge in a shared Arab identity with their Muslim neighbors, but are instead increasingly marooned by an emphasis on religious identity. Calls for citizenship with equal rights are punctuated with stories of Islamist extremists demanding that Christians convert to Islam or pay an exorbitant tax. And many Muslims are facing persecution themselves as the Arab upheavals of 2011 continue to ripple across the region and nations try to find an equilibrium between freedom and stability.

"Whatever happens, it is going to be very difficult to put it back together again," says Fiona McCallum, a scholar of Middle Eastern Christians at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

To be sure, Christians have confronted difficult times before, from the killing of Jesus’ immediate followers to the Mamluk oppression of Christians beginning in the 13th century to the rise of Islamist militant activity in Egypt in the 1970s. Warriors who came in the name of Christ have been responsible for egregious interreligious violence as well, such as during the First Crusade in 1099, when Christians took over Jerusalem and massacred nearly all the city’s residents.

Whether today proves to be yet another ebb in the flow of Christian history or something more fundamental remains uncertain. But what is evident is that both Muslims and Christians, as well as the region’s other minorities, are likely to be significantly affected by a continued deterioration.

Christians have traditionally run some of the region’s top schools, been active members of the merchant class, and brought a moderating influence to society and politics. That has led not only Christians and human rights activists to lobby for the preservation of these communities, but some Muslim leaders as well.

"The protection of the rights of Christians is a duty rather than a favor," declared Jordan’s King Abdullah in September, speaking to delegates at a palace-sponsored conference on Arab Christian persecution. "Christians have always played a key role in building our societies and defending our nations."

As an evening breeze sweeps across the Jordanian capital of Amman, dozens of Iraqi refugees file out of the Jesuit Fathers church, touching or kissing the cross on their way out.

Among them is Mofed, an Arab Christian who recently fled the turmoil in his native country. A year ago, Mofed (who, like other refugees, would only give his first name out of fear of retribution) was running a photo shop in Baghdad. Then one day several men came into his store and gave him three options: become Muslim; pay a $70,000 per capita tax (jizya) levied on non-Muslims; or be killed, along with his family.

"You pay, or get killed," says his wife, Nuhad. "There is no in between. If you say, ‘OK, I’ll become Muslim,’ there is no problem. That is their aim, to get you to change your religion, to be Muslim."

Mofed and Nuhad decided to exercise a fourth option: flee their homeland, bringing their three children along with them. Their decision is emblematic of what an estimated half million Christians have done since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent brutal civil war there. During that time, Muslim extremists have attacked more than 60 Christian churches across the country. This includes the 2010 Al Qaeda-linked strike on a mass at Our Lady of Salvation Church that killed 58 worshipers.

The proliferation of jihadist groups after the fall of Saddam Hussein, coupled with the rise of political Islam, has made an already tense environment even more unbearable for the country’s Christian community, which has been part of Iraqi society for more than 1,900 years. While many Muslims have fled the turmoil in Iraq as well, Christians have been disproportionately represented, in part because of their above-average means: Four years into the war, Christians—who made up 5 percent of the population in prewar Iraq—accounted for 15 to 18 percent of registered Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, according to the International Red Cross. Today, fewer than 500,000 Christians remain in Iraq from a prewar population of 1 million to 1.4 million.

Christians in Syria worry that the same thing could happen in their country, where civil war has led to a rise in militant groups, some affiliated with Al Qaeda. Many worshipers who once prided themselves on being part of one of the safest Christian communities in the Middle East now face kidnapping or death. Muslim militants are targeting Christian businesses as well. In recent months, jihadists have carried out assaults on the town of Maaloula, where many residents still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

Before the uprising broke out in March 2011, experts estimated that Christians represented 5 to 8 percent of Syria’s 22 million people. The Syrian patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church recently suggested that as many as 450,000 of the 2 million Syrian refugees today are Christians, though such figures vary widely and are difficult to confirm.

While Iraq and Syria have seen perhaps the worst widespread violence against Christians, some of the most concentrated anti-Christian attacks this year have taken place in Egypt. That’s of particular concern to Christians elsewhere in the region because Egypt’s Christian population, at about 9 million, forms the largest Christian contingent anywhere in the Middle East. The church’s demise there would be especially demoralizing.

Egypt’s Christians, which make up about 10 percent of the population, face harsh restrictions on building or renovating churches, and say they often face discrimination in schools and the workplace. Violent attacks on Christians and their houses of worship rose in the final years of the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in the January 2011 uprising.

As Islamists expanded their power after his fall, many Christians said the threat and attacks multiplied, particularly in the wake of Mohamed Morsi’s election as president. But the violence didn’t diminish once Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were removed from power this summer by the military. Many Islamists blamed Christians for supporting the coup, and angry Morsi supporters attacked dozens of churches across Egypt in August.

Samuel Tadros, author of “Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity,” called it the worst spate of violence for Egypt’s Copts since the 14th century.

It’s not just Christians who are concerned. Sheikh Ali Gomaa, grand mufti emeritus of Egypt and one of four senior Muslim scholars to attend the Arab Christian conference in Amman this fall, condemned the attacks, church torchings, and humiliation of Christians in Egypt.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, the situation is calmer but still difficult for many Christians. In Jordan, Christians make up 3 to 4 percent of the country’s 6.3 million citizens but have a parliamentary quota of 6 percent and a government that promotes interfaith dialogue. In Lebanon, the Christian population remains the region’s largest bloc in terms of percentage, with about 36 percent, and Christians are guaranteed half the seats in parliament by law.

In Gaza, fewer than 2,000 Christians remain. Muslim militants have bombed churches, killed prominent Christians, and forced others to convert to Islam. In the West Bank, Arab Christians are better off than many in parts of the region, but only an estimated 50,000 live there—about 2 percent of the population, down from 10 percent in 1920. Much of that change, however, is due to faster Muslim growth rather than an actual decrease in Christian totals.

One exception to the decline is Israel, where the Christian population has grown nearly fivefold, to 158,000, since the country’s founding in 1948. Even so, their share of the population has dropped from about 3 percent to 2 percent, and critics note that Palestinian Christian families who fled or were forced out just prior to Israel’s founding gave the country an artificially low baseline. Much of the increase was due to the immigration of Christians from the former Soviet Union, under Israel’s expanded law of return, which welcomes those with a Jewish mother or maternal grandmother.

Still, despite all the problems, this is not the darkest moment in history for Christians in the Middle East. Barbara Roggema, a scholar of Christian-Muslim relations at King’s College London, notes that there have been many cycles of Christian persecution and prosperity over the centuries.

Dr. Roggema sees three major differences between the problems Christians face today and those of the past: jihadist groups have access to arms on a scale unknown in history; propaganda can be more easily spread than ever before; and because of Western involvement in the Middle East, local Christian communities are more easily accused of being loyal to the West rather than to their own society.

"It is a gross historical and logical error to claim that being Christian equals being pro-Western, but it makes it easy for jihadists to accuse Middle Eastern Christians of not belonging to their own lands," she says.

Nasief Awwad was only 7 years old when his mother died, so his father—a Muslim laborer—decided to enroll him at a Mennonite-run boarding school in the West Bank city of Hebron. Later he transferred to the Hope Secondary School near Bethlehem, thus receiving not only the majority of his education but also much of his parenting from Christians.

Today, Mr. Awwad is the head of a major highway construction firm and serves on many local boards. At one point, he offered as many as 20 university scholarships annually for outstanding students. He credits his Christian schooling as a foundation stone of his success and says he enjoys correcting misconceptions about Christianity among his fellow Muslims.

"I appreciate all my life … the help that I was given, the education that I got from the Mennonite school, from the Mennonite family—teachers and [the sponsors abroad] who paid for my education," says Awwad, who sent all four of his children to the Quaker-run Friends School in Ramallah. "I don’t forget it."

The dividends of Awwad’s Christian education underscore why many say it’s important to maintain Christian communities in the Middle East. They see the quality of their schools; their contributions as entrepreneurs, merchants, and as overwhelmingly middle- or upper-class consumers; and the religious plurality they inevitably bring as essential and enriching to Arab society. Now, as their communities shrink or become increasingly marginalized, a key question is whether such positive influences will also dwindle.

Some say the high quality of education offered by Christian schools unwittingly contributed to the Christian exodus—and with it the loss of an educated elite.

"The Christian schools that helped to educate Christians in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank indirectly, without intending to do it, have encouraged the diaspora of the Christians … and they did that through giving quality education to Christians," says Alex Awad of the Bethlehem Bible College, citing the broader horizons, European languages, and cultural familiarity that helped them to fit into Western societies. "It was a blessing to these individuals, but it hurt the community as a whole."

But those Christians who are left are active in society. According to the Lutheran-based Diyar Consortium in Bethlehem, nearly half of Palestinian civil institutions are Christian, and Christian institutions (including churches) are one of the largest employers after the Palestinian Authority, providing jobs for 22,000 Christians and Muslims.

"You will see that Christians have very important organizations, foundations, schools, hospitals. They lead very important and prosperous development in the city," says Mayor Vera Baboun, who says she and her fellow Christians also retain significant influence in the Palestinian Authority, with some serving as ambassadors and government ministers. "We are part and parcel of the decisionmaking process in Palestine."

Amid all the persecution and violence, many Christians in the Middle East are able to survive by holding to two things—their faith and their fellowship with other Christians.

In the Egyptian city of Minya, head priest Abanoub Gad opens a worn Bible, some passages highlighted in bright pink, to Matthew 5:44, where Jesus told his disciples, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Father Gad encourages his congregation to practice that teaching in their own lives and reminds them of the good relations they enjoyed with their Muslim neighbors and friends for decades, to emphasize that the extremists who attack churches do not represent the majority. While some clerics instructed Muslims not to offer greetings to Christians for Christian holidays, Gad says he told his congregation: “Go celebrate their feasts with them.”

Many Christians believe that the centrality of forgiveness in Jesus’ teachings could, in fact, play a vital role in helping to reduce sectarian violence across the Middle East.

"Christianity can bring a role model, a founder—Jesus, and his immediate disciples—who were not warriors, who were not trying to establish political power," says Paul Wright, an ordained Baptist minister, biblical scholar, and president of Jerusalem University College.

Khoury, from the First Baptist Church in Bethlehem, would certainly echo that sentiment. He encourages his flock to smile at the Israeli soldiers who staff the checkpoints around Bethlehem and speak kindly to them.

"I think the whole world is hungering and thirsting for someone to love them," especially in the Middle East, says Khoury. "Whatever it is, accept it, pray for them, forgive them, don’t hold anything in your heart against them."

Ultimately, many argue, that is the kind of faith lived that will keep Christianity vibrant in the Holy Land and beyond. It is an approach that hinges more on the quality and fidelity of their faith than on the number of adherents—not unlike the early Christians who started out as a tiny, persecuted minority 2,000 years ago.

"Unless [Christians] have … spiritual and moral incentives, then whether they stay here or not, it doesn’t make a difference," says Professor Awad of Bethlehem Bible College. "I think we have an understanding of God through Jesus Christ that can bless the rest of the population and help the Arab world with the struggles that they are having."

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Feliz Natal

David Brandt Berg

Nós não sabemos se Jesus realmente nasceu na noite de Natal. Mas sabemos que Ele nasceu em algum momento, e comemoramos nesta data. Na verdade, não importa a data. Qualquer uma serve.

O importante é que Jesus nasceu, viveu e morreu por nós. E ressuscitou para que possamos fazer o mesmo. Por isso, para miam não tem problema algum se o dia 25 de dezembro foi escolhido para comemorar o Seu aniversário.

Quando meus filhos eram pequenos eu proibia a minha família de comemorar o Natal porque fui criado ouvindo pregadores dizerem que a árvore de Natal é um resquício do culto de druidas, que era um ritual pagão, além de que a data nem era mesmo o aniversário de Jesus, etc. Por isso, durante uns três ou quatro anos os coitados dos meus filhos nunca tiveram uma árvore de Natal. Que fanatismo! Um dia, porém, eles arranjaram uma árvore baixinha sem eu saber e a enfeitaram toda e colocaram em casa.

Nós morávamos em um trailer na ocasião, com espaço mais ou menos do comprimento desta mesa e pouco mais largo do que isso. Mas era a nossa casinha. O outro dia eu disse a alguém que moramos em um trailer e a pessoa não conseguia acreditar que passamos 20 anos morando em trailer, barraca e motorhome. Eu sei o que é ser pobre.

Já lhes contei a história do ricaço americano que foi visitar o pobre missionário no México, no barraquinho onde ele morava.

Algumas pessoas que dão grandes donativos às missões querem ir visitar a obra e serem entretidos pelos missionários, dormir com eles e alimentá-los — sendo que eles mal têm condições para isso.

Enfim, o colaborador ricaço foi passar a noite na pequena missão para ver como as coisas funcionavam. Antes de se deitarem, o missionário lhe disse: “Se precisar de alguma coisa, por favor, nos informe para podermos lhe explicar como passar sem isso.”

Seja como for, vi aquela arvorezinha lá em casa com umas três bolinhas — éramos tão pobres que nem tínhamos condições de comprar os enfeites — e um fiozinho de festão. Acho que as crianças também colocaram um cordão com luzes, coitadinhas. Entrei em casa depois de um dia difícil dando aulas, e vi aquela árvore. No mesmo instante minha esposa entrou correndo explicando:

“É uma arvorezinha de nada! E nós ganhamos as bolas, eu só precisei comprar o pisca-pisca. É só para as crianças!” Eu disse: “Bem, não posso fazer mais nada, afinal, a árvore já está montada.” Mas puxa vida, como essa árvore cresceu depois disso!

Eu acho bom o fato do mundo praticamente ser forçado a comemorar o Natal. As luzes de Natal são um testemunho. Se você montar luzes na parte externa da sua casa onde todos podem ver, está lembrando às pessoas que é Natal, e talvez elas pensem em Jesus!

Eu acho bom o mundo todo ser praticamente obrigado a se lembrar do nascimento de Cristo. É uma ocasião quando até os ateus, incrédulos e céticos reconhecem algo relacionado à fé, religião, Cristo e Bíblia — mesmo que não comemorem nesse espírito.

Estou agradecido pelo fato de o mundo se lembrar do aniversário de Cristo. Quem dera realmente se lembrassem do que se trata. Mas pelo menos as pessoas reconhecem o dia e todos comemoram. É um dos dias mais felizes do ano.

Oh vinde fieis, alegres triunfantes,
Oh vinde celebrar em Belém.
Vinde adorar ao rei dos anjos.
Oh vinde, adoremos, vinde adoremos.
Oh vinde adoremos, Cristo o Senhor.

Você está agradecido no seu coração? Não é maravilhoso ter amor? Quem tem Deustem amor, porque Deus é amor. Não é maravilhoso conhecer Jesus? Não é maravilhoso ser salvo? Não é maravilhoso ter Deus no seu coração? Feliz Natal! Feliz Ano Novo!

Publicado originalmente em dezembro 1976. Atualizado e republicado em dezembro 2013. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.

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Things you didn't know about reindeer

By David Mac Dougall, AP, Dec 21, 2013

HELSINKI (AP)—Reindeer are featured on Christmas cards and in movies worldwide this time of year, galloping across the sky with Santa’s sleigh in tow.

But on Europe’s northern fringe, the migratory mammals are part of everyday life all year round as they roam the fells of Lapland—the Arctic homeland of the indigenous Sami people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia.

Here are some interesting things you may not have known about reindeer:

FAST AND WANDERING. Of course reindeer can’t fly but they can run quickly over long distances.

"Reindeer are fast, but not as fast as horses," says Jonas Vannar, a Sami reindeer herder from Jokkmokk in Swedish Lapland. "They can easily travel 40 to 50 kilometers (24 to 31 miles) a day if they have to."

The migratory animals can roam 125 miles (200 kilometers) or more in the spring from their winter grazing grounds in the forests to reach calving grounds high in the mountains.

"On hot summer days, they migrate vertically … until they reach snow patches where the temperature is lower, then back to the valleys, to graze during the midnight sun," says Vannar.

WARM AND WOOLY. Reindeer are also uniquely adapted to survive the harsh Lapland winters, explains Mari Heikkila, director of Ranua Wildlife Park in Finland.

"The hair of the reindeer is hollow, so there is air between the hairs and also inside the hair, and their winter coat is really thick," Heikkila says.

That makes them super-insulated, one reason why Samis have always made their winter clothes from reindeer hides.

Reindeer also have large hooves compared to moose or deer. When the snow is deep, they spread their hooves and make them even wider to stop themselves from sinking in.

EYES THAT CHANGE COLOR. Reindeer eyes change color between summer and winter to adapt to the widely varying levels of light in the high north.

"The reflection from reindeer eyes is yellow-green in summer … but deep blue in winter," says Karl-Arne Stokkan, a professor at the University of Tromsoe in Norway, part of a scientific team that discovered earlier this year why that is.

Due to the extremely limited light in the far northern winter, reindeer’s eyes need to be much more sensitive to light then than in summer. The blue color during the darkest months of the year helps scatter more incoming light and results in better vision, says Stokkan.

TASTY AND HEALTHY. Reindeer meat is a popular staple across Lapland. In Finland, demand for the gamey, low-fat meat outstrips the supply, so it has to import reindeer meat from Russia.

A reindeer cooking competition is held in the northern Finnish town of Inari each year, where Sami chefs pit their traditional recipes against modern culinary arts.

Traditionally, Finnish Sami have used all parts of the reindeer, making dishes such as reindeer sausage or stuffed reindeer stomach. A more common dish is sauteed reindeer with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.

At the Kaunispaan Huippu restaurant in the northern Finnish town of Saariselka, the menu features such delicacies as smoked reindeer mousse with blackcurrant sauce and reindeer with Lappish cheese.

"Our special way to cook reindeer meat is to hot-smoke the roast on an open fire," says chef Jorma Lehtinen, who then fries the meat in rosemary butter.

Reindeers are slaughtered in late autumn or early winter but their meat can be frozen and used throughout the year.

WHO REALLY SAW THEM FLY? In popular culture, eight flying reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh as he delivers presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve. That scenario was first described in the 1820s by American poet Clement Clarke Moore. More than 100 years later, American writer Robert L. May added Rudolph with his red nose leading the way.

Some of the story is rooted in reality, as migrating reindeer herds are usually led by a single animal.

But there’s debate on the origins of the flying reindeer, and some have traced it to reindeer eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. Ancient Sami shamans, the theory goes, would then drink filtered reindeer urine and get high themselves, then think they were seeing their reindeer “flying.”

"Mushrooms have been used to a certain extent in shamanic ceremonies," says Arja Jomppanen, a researcher at Sida, the National Museum of the Finnish Sami in Inari. "But drinking urine has not been mentioned in accounts of Sami traditions."

BUT THEY MUST PAUSE TO PEE. Reindeer can’t walk too far without answering the call of nature. In fact, they are unable to walk and pee at the same time, so they have to take a bathroom break roughly every 6 miles. In Finnish, this distance is known as “poronkusema” or “reindeer’s piss” and was an old-fashioned description of distances in the countryside.

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Countries to pray for this Christmas

Christian Today, December 20, 2013

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has issued a prayer list to help people stand in prayerful support of Christians around the world who are under pressure for their faith.

Iran. A wave of arrests of Christians usually occurs over the Christmas period. Church services are raided and Christians interrogated about their church activities.

Pray that Christmas services would be allowed to take place in peace, and that unjustly jailed Christians would be released.

Nigeria. Christians in northern and central Nigeria are frequently attacked by Islamist militia groups, including the terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Ansaru. Churches are particularly vulnerable during Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Pray that any terrorist groups planning violence would be discovered, and their plans would fail.

Vietnam. Christmas in Vietnam is often a time when Christians of all denominations invite non-Christians to sing hymns and celebrate with them. This can leave the Christians open to accusations of ‘illegal evangelism’.

Ask God to protect Christians accused of ‘illegal evangelism’ for inviting people of other faiths to Christmas celebrations.

Pakistan. Less than two per cent of Pakistan’s population is Christian so most people in the country don’t celebrate Christmas. Minority festivals can be a time of tension between communities.

Pray for peace, understanding and goodwill between Christians and their Muslim neighbours, demonstrating the spirit of the Christmas message.

Bangladesh. National elections take place on 5 January. Christians and other minorities are at risk of violent attacks before and after elections.

Ask God to pour out his peace on the nation during the Christmas and New Year period.

Egypt. The Christian community is being targeted increasingly by supporters of former president Morsi. There are legitimate concerns that Christians may once again face violence or intimidation over Christmas and New Year.

Ask God to protect Egyptian Christians as they celebrate the birth of Christ.

Syria. Almost half a million Christians have fled the war in Syria, and those who have chosen to remain are increasingly vulnerable to attacks by Sunni Islamist militias.

Pray for a just and lasting peace, and for Syria’s diverse religious and ethnic groups to be reconciled.

Indonesia. Hundreds of churches in Indonesia have been forced to close by the authorities, and others have not been allowed to hold Christmas services.

Pray that the congregations of forcibly closed churches would find a place to celebrate Christmas in peace and safety.

Sudan. Christians and other minorities have faced continuing repression since South Sudan became an independent nation. Christmas 2012 was marked by tension, after a Muslim woman became a Christian, the priests who baptised her were arrested and their church was closed.

Pray that Christmas celebrations would take place peacefully with no arrests, and for good relations between Christians and Muslims.

Central African Republic. Previously harmonious relations between Christian and Muslim communities are currently at an all time low. In the past few weeks over 1,000 people have been killed in sectarian violence that has included targeted attacks on Christians, particularly families with young men.

Pray for an end to the violence, for political stability, and for reconciliation between Muslim and Christian communities.

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Pope Francis Urges Vatican to Stop Gossiping, Exercise Professionalism

By Courtney Subramanian, TIME, Dec. 21, 2013

Pope Francis urged Vatican officials Saturday to remember to practice professionalism and competence to evade the trappings of mediocrity and bureaucracy that have long mired the Catholic Church.

Francis made the remarks at a Christmas address to the Vatican Curia, the administrative governing body of the Catholic Church, the Associated Press reports.

The Holy See also emphasized that Church officials should act as “conscientious objectors” to gossip, calling the practice harmful to their work, and pushed for a church focused on mercy over moralizing.

Named TIME’s Person of the Year, Pope Francis has spent his first year pushing reforms for the often antiquated Vatican system. He has already begun to shake up the Congregation for Bishops by removing a U.S. cardinal who was a flashpoint over the abortion and gay marriage wars, and other conservative figureheads. He will soon name his first set of cardinals and oversee recommendations for reforming the bureaucracy that riddles the church.

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