OYC 2012: Ready Always

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Oregon Youth for Christ

OYC 2012 Seminars

Justin Kim

In a Godless World: The Worldview of Atheism

Gracious Father, this morning we thank you for the beautiful sunshine that you have given to us.

We take it as a token of the grace of your warmth and your kindness that you send from heaven to earth.

Father, we ask also that you send forth your Holy Spirit into this humble abode.

Be with the ears and the minds of my fellow listeners.

Be with the lips and my heart as I speak.

Father, we seek not to just be eloquent and to intellectualize, but Father, we seek to understand what you would have us to understand.

Deeper truths, the character of Jesus, and more elements of this great controversy that we live in.

The seminar for today, We have a four-part seminar.

You're not locked to 1 track or not, so you don't feel you have no free will in the matter.

The 1 is called In a Godless World, the worldview of atheism.

The second 1 will be on deism and pantheism.

The fourth 1 will be on theism, and the last 1 will be on some practical elements.

How many of you have heard of some of these isms before?

There's a chart in front of you that I printed that the leaders happened to print out.

And I'm asking you, please don't get discouraged when you look at this.

This looks like, ooh, do I have to memorize this?

If you have to memorize this, you have nothing better to do in your life than to memorize this.

But it helps at least to see systematically what each of these world views are.

There's deism, atheism, pantheism, panentheism, limited godism, polytheism, and theism.

Even those who have no world view have a what?

The reality is no 1 has a pure worldview, we're all mixtures of 1 or 2.

And what happens is this, When you look at atheists or agnostics, or, and I work in campus ministries, we meet a lot of atheists on campus.

Atheists are not stupid, or if you're agnostic, it's because they're dumb, or they're just, they're horrible sinners, and they resulted in this.

It's usually they have a particular thought that gets in your mind.

And this 1 thought causes this to be a logical conclusion.

And it's a logical progression from 1 to another.

This bouncing back and forth is called a worldview.

And it all starts from the first initial idea that you had.

So we're going to look at each of these things.

And the reality is, a lot of us, A theism is the belief in a personal God.

That's probably where we all want to be in.

But a lot of times we may think we're theists because we're good some theabonists, but sometimes we're living a political life like a pantheist, a spiritual life like an atheist.

You're like, well, I like this and this and this.

And you have this plate of just Italian food, Chinese food, and Thai food.

Because you like it, it's just your special confirmation of these things.

And we're gonna see that a lot of this is illogical and it's irrational to have this mish-posh.

Christians need to understand that each of these worldviews are consistent and continually need to be developed.

Adventists have much to learn, gain confidence for ourselves, and have much to contribute.

And what happens is this, and I hope that when you understand some of this, not the exact elements, but the ch-ch-ch-ch-ch component, I don't know what else to call it except the ch-ch-ch-ch.

You'll be a little bit more confident on what you believe.

And when you meet someone, like, hey, you're an atheist, you won't freak out.

How many of you, without raising your hands, when you meet someone, you're like, you don't believe in, and you kind of get that weird feeling or hey, I'm a Zen Buddhist, you're like, whoa.

Okay, these are not evangelistic methods or techniques, but this is just a way to understand and to be more comfortable in your own skin and a comfortable talk with someone who is in their skin as well.

And what happens is this, as a Christian, sometimes if someone says they're an atheist, you can ask questions.

Jesus asked questions, not because he wanted to know.

Jesus asked questions to help the other person know what they know.

And they're like, you know, I don't know.

And you start a conversation at that point.

So these are more techniques on how to start a conversation.

And this is where our personal experiences and testimonies will play a factor later on.

We had a survey on the University of Michigan campus.

And I come from the ministry called Campus for Adventist Ministry to Public University Students at Michigan Conference.

We have about 3 to 12 missionaries who come to our program every year.

And students take 1 year off and they do campus ministries and we teach them.

And 1 day we asked them to go out on campus and they did a survey.

And their survey was what do you think of Christians?

And they say the Christians are people who love Jesus are what?

They receive info from the media, they're brainwashed, they doubt the Bible.

Everything is relative, just keep going down all the way through, that they come first, if Jesus comes up, later on in the conversation, then I'll ask about it and find out about it then, but until now I won't do that.

To Be Convenient: Other Worldviews

Gracious Lord, we thank you for granting us more information.

Lord, we just pray that this information not just become static material, but Lord, transform it, that it may be efficacious, may it produce fruit, and may we become more like Jesus as a result.

Grant us the heart and compassion of Jesus.

And Lord, as we learn about deism and pantheism today, enlighten our minds, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

If you are, quote, perfectionistic and OCD, You're probably wondering, Pastor, why don't you go through all of the things?

Just really quick, the last 3 there are very, very rare in our day to day.

In campus ministries, this is a valid world view.

But I met someone and they came out to Bible study and the guy was saying, man, I love this Bible study.

I've never heard that denomination before.

And I was kind of freaking out on the inside.

I'm looking around, like, does anyone help me out?

And he basically was saying that he was God, that he had omnipotent power, omniscience, And he was just stuck in this human body because he wanted to be.

But there's a systematic view there and it's really weird.

This was very prevalent back in the day, not so prevalent today.

There is a documentary by Little Light Studios that goes into superheroes and comic book heroes.

And you see in the entertainment the resurrection of polytheism coming back.

You have the Justice League, who does mimic the Olympic gods.

But not just the gods and the characters themselves, but we live in a culture that has so many values.

And each of those things is a form of polytheism.

And then the third 1 from the right is something called finite godism.

This is another word for open view theism or limited godism.

I don't know if you know open view theism.

This is pretty big in Southern California, even in Adventist circles.

This is the view that God is exactly like us.

So then when we suffer, he suffers along with us because he didn't know about it.

He is still a powerful God and can do all these God-like things.

And that's just the weird version of that kind of God.

He changes along with us and he's learning with us.

And it's very weird, instead of us being changed into his image, we've changed God to be in our image.

And it's so complicated that, honestly, I'm telling you today, I don't understand it.

It's so much gymnastics you got to go through and da, da, da, da, da, da, that it's a mixture of 2 of these.

And I think you have to be Germanly intelligent to understand that, because I don't.

You look at the middle there, The destiny is we continue to live in God's memory.

Okay, America is the grand place of deism.

And then I'm gonna submit to you today is a lot of Adventists today are actually deists.

Okay, many, many, many Christians today are deists.

It is the halfway point between theism and atheism.

Deism believes that God exists, but he's not personal.

Remember we talked about theism being a personal God?

Even though he's around, it's as if that he's not around.

He exists so that God, we have all this, no problems with the atheists in part, but because he's not personal, he doesn't interfere in my life.

And it came about because of globalization.

If you live in a globalized world, you interact with all these religions, kind of like what I was talking to my sister's, her brother here today, her brother.

Like it's, in New York City, you're walking and you meet a Jewish deli vendor.

Then you go to the taxi driver is Muslim.

Then you go over here, and your teacher is atheist.

Then you go over here, and your babysitter is a Methodist.

And when you interact with all these religions, it's very hard to impose your religion on everyone else.

We used to live in an unglobalized world, where all the Methodists lived in 1 part, all the Baptists live here, and today if you're living in Berrien Springs, all the Adventists are together in 1 space, or whatnot, and it's easy.

As a Christian: The Worldview of Theism

Gracious Lord, we thank you on this and this midday for a great lunch, beautiful weather outside, great Christian fellowship.

The Father now bless us with a blessing that we can take away going back home and to implement in our lives.

Father, may it prepare us for the second coming of Jesus.

May it make us more like Jesus as a result.

Oh Lord, make us more effective soul winners for your cause.

We ask for this very special blessing in Jesus' name, Amen.

Let's see, as a Christian, where did my thing go?

Let's do this, just to get stuff warmed up.

And I like to interact with the crowd, with the congregation is what are some things you remember from this morning?

What are some things you remember from this morning?

It takes some reflection and remembering and if there's an awkward silence that's okay But what are some things you remember from this morning?

What verses to use when talking to the atheist?

I realize we all learn this together, but it's just helpful just to get brains restarted.

Sometimes they're praying to the energies that be, sometimes the Spirit, sometimes it's just themselves.

It doesn't really matter, it's just they're in tune with themselves, I guess is the thing.

When you go back home and Uncle Joe says, hey, what did you learn from OIC?

Too often we come to these youth conferences or whatever and we learn so much.

And we go home and like, hey, what did you learn?

There's 1 story, and I just thought of it.

I went to Indiana University, and we had an evangelistic series on campus.

What had happened is the Secular Alliance showed up.

And the Secular Alliance is an umbrella organization of which there are sub-sub clubs in the secular alliance.

You have the atheist club, the agnostic club, the evolution society, the society of demon worshippers, and and it wasn't demon worshippers, the society of satanic, some kind of whatever whatever, and they're like all these small little groups and they combine together and they're called the secular alliance.

And they all came out with t-shirts, black t-shirts, saying God does not exist.

And we're having this evangelistic series, and all people who are interested are coming in and they all take up the entire back row And here I'm doing a presentation and they're staring me down with the evil eye Very very very uncomfortable, you know What had happened is 1 of the student leaders had the boldness and courage saying, hey, everybody, we're going to have some fellowship, a meal afterwards.

And I'm thinking, no, not everyone's not welcome to come.

Because they're there to heckle the speaker.

I don't want to have a nice, peaceful meal.

I don't want to like, you know, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

You know, I don't want a war session going on.

And we're doing everything possible to have a friendship, a relationship.

And we're avoiding any substantive conversation about philosophy or religion or whatever.

Oh, yeah, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, just very whatever.

And eventually, 1 of them just couldn't handle it.

He's like, all right, why do you believe in this?

And he was expecting, because he came on so abruptly and strongly, he was expecting a reaction that was equal.

And I was like, you know, that's a great perspective.

That threw him off, just that attitude of willing to dialogue.

And we talked back and forth, and we're like, well, you know this, and we use some other principles here.

And I'm like, you know, when you say everything is meaningless, like, that includes everything.

But like, I don't know, from what I'm, from the way I'm thinking, wouldn't that include what you just said?

And like, And then they go through the tailspin.

And it's like, hey, I'm not saying that what you're saying is invalid, but it's not internally coherent with yourself.

And Where I'm from, I think stuff does have meaning.

There's also a lot of stuff that does not have meaning.

But I don't want to say that everything doesn't have meaning.

Sometimes you've got to carry them along with you.

Standing Up: Winsome and Rational Apologetics

Gracious Father, Lord, we ask that you grant us the perseverance and endurance to get through this day.

Lord, we thank you that you've been with us through this track.

And as we look at practical stuff today, we ask for your special blessing to speak to our minds as well as our hearts.

The seminar is Standing Up, Winsome and Rational Apologetics.

The word apologetics comes from the word apologia, which means a defense.

And a lot of people misinterpret this to be a game about argument.

Now it is possible to always win the argument, but through winning the argument, you may lose the soul.

There is a story about a Christian doctor who is ministering, had a patient who was a Muslim, and the Muslim lady said, you know what, I just, I don't think my faith is, can help me meet some of the troubles that I'm going through, especially with my sickness and whatnot.

And the Christian doctor had overheard a nurse who said, oh, that's because you're Muslim.

That's because the Muslim religion is incompetent.

You guys believe in a god that's this, and da, da, da, da, da.

And Christianity is far superior to help you with some of these things.

I mean, she doesn't have a very good taste in her mouth as a result.

But apologetics helps stop wrong ideologies from being spread to other individuals.

And a lot of people say, you know, apologetics, it's all mind stuff.

Some people have an emotional barrier to Jesus.

So some people, you have to sit down with them and actually have to organize and talk through the emotions and remove the emotional barrier and help them see Jesus as a result.

There's others who have a physical barrier to Jesus.

Either they have an ailment or a sickness or whatnot.

Then we need physicians or doctors or healthcare professionals to come, and they need to remove the physical barrier and introduce Jesus to them.

But there's others who have ideological barriers to Jesus.

They just don't like, what, Jesus was resurrected?

They just have sometimes a barrier up here.

Then you need people to kind of organize.

And like, well, it's because of this, and da, da, da, da.

And you can see there's evidence of this, and da, da, da, da.

And it also is a wonderful defensive mechanism.

It helps Christians understand the faith, developing confidence, courage, security, and initiative.

And Christianity is an intellectual religion.

We have an intellectual basis for what we believe.

I get ‑‑ I get ‑‑ I cringe when people say, it's all about faith.

That doesn't mean a lot to people who are struggling.

Okay, well, I just gotta have more faith.

It means a little bit more practical stuff that they need.

This lecture will look at 15 practical suggestions on how to develop a Christian witness and stand up in an ungodly world.

Atheists are finding strategic ways to implement, enforce, and promulgate their ideas throughout society without being completely obvious.

Theists, especially biblical theists and Adventists, must do the same by impacting society and culture and every field and discipline out there.

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Series

OYC 2012 Seminars

In a Godless World: The Worldview of Atheism

Transcript

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Recorded

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