How Now Shall We Live? By Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey

This is a MUST read for all Christians.  It is an incredibly powerful book that I highly recommend.  There is also a study guide for this book that I recommend as well.  This book examines the great spiritual battle today that is a cosmic struggle between competing worldviews.  The authors utilize true stories and compelling teaching to demonstrate the following:

– Expose false views and values of modern culture

– Live a more fulfilling life the way God created us to live

– Contend for the faith by understanding how nonbelievers think

– Build a society that reflects biblical principles

I ran across a review on amazon.com that I thought really did a great job of capturing the core of the book.  It is below.   

5 out of 5 Stars – The Way We See The World Can Change The World, June 21, 2006

“Centuries ago, when the Jews were in exile and despair, they cried out to God, “How should we then live?” The same question rings down through the ages. How shall we live today? Pearcey and Colson’s primary observation is that “the way we see the world can change the world.” (pg. 13) This is because our choices are shaped by what we believe is real and true, right and wrong, or good and beautiful. In short, our choices are shaped by what Pearcey and Colson call our “worldview.”Every worldview attempts to answer three basic questions: (1) Where did we come from and who are we? (2) What has gone wrong with the world? And (3) What can we do to fix it? According to Colson and Pearcey, the culture wars are not about extraneous issues like abortion or public education. Fundamentally, they are about worldviews–between competing secular and spiritual answers to those three basic questions.

The demise of objective truth, profoundly expressed in the halls of academia, also extends into the popular press and culture. The result has been a postmodern worldview which embraces relativism and reduces all ideas to social constructions shaped by class, gender, and ethnicity. Under this view, the world is just a power struggle for meaningless prizes. Their one absolute is that morality is not absolute. Other existing worldviews include “traditionalism,” found in many small towns filled with churches; and modernism, found among pragmatic social and business leaders interested in personal material gain, but less interested in philosophical questions and social issues. Against this backdrop, Christians are challenged to provide answers to those three basic questions in a compelling manner.

C. S. Lewis observed, “The Christian and the materialist hold different beliefs about the universe. They both can’t be right. The one who is wrong will act in a way which simply doesn’t fit the real universe.” Thus Colson and Pearcy observe that choices are not without consequences. The Christian worldview says we were created by God. Compelling evidence that life does not have a random origin can be found in the current arguments for intelligent design. Christianity claims that God created the universe with a material order and a moral order. If we live contrary to that order, we sin against God. Thus, what has gone wrong with the universe is human sin.

The way to redeem our culture is to help people realize which universe they’re living in. If it’s a materialist’s universe, then the answers don’t revolve around taking moral principles seriously. But if the real universe was made with a moral law (as Colson and Pearcey argue), then it stands to reason that the solutions to our problems begin with recognizing that fact, and taking steps to educate people in ways that will help them live lives that are not inimical to the way we were designed to live. This, Colson and Pearcey argue, is how we should live.”

For more information on Charles Colson visit his website at www.breakpoint.org and for more information on Nancy Pearcey visit her website at www.pearceyreport.com.

No Doubt About It: The Case for Christianity By Dr. Winfried Corduan

This book is an excellent introduction to apologetics.  A wide range of issues related to the Christian faith are covered in a simple, clear and effective manner.   

Some of the topics included are the following: 

– Faith, Reason and Doubt

– Truth, Knowledge and Relativism

– Testing Worldviews

– Worldviews in Trouble

– The Existence of God

– God and Evil

– Miracles: Liability and Asset

– The New Testament and History

– Who Is Jesus?

– From Christ to Christianity

– Truth and Our Culture 

I highly recommend this book to Christians interested in defending their faith as well as to any skeptics struggling with the above topics.  For more information on Dr. Corduan visit his website at http://members.tripod.com/~Win_Corduan/cv.html.

Why I Gave Up On Pantheism

What exactly is pantheism, and what do its followers believe? Robert Velarde, a former pantheist, walks us through the belief system and practical applications of a pantheistic worldview.

From Robert Velarde and true.org.

Proselytizing the Pantheists

“As I approached the Colorado Springs city auditorium to attend the “Metaphysical Celebration,” I glanced at signs posted near the entrance: “Proselytizing is not allowed. Distribution of literature is not allowed. This is a private event. Anyone found forcing their beliefs upon someone not interested in hearing them will be asked to leave.”

So much for handing out copies of the booklet Are All Religions One? by Douglas Groothuis, as I’d planned. I guess the event coordinators have had their share of dealings with Christians who offered less than “gentleness” and “respect” (1 Peter 3:15) in their approach to the proclamation and defense of Christianity.

A quick tour of the exhibition floor revealed what I was up against: pantheism and various forms of occult practices. Being a former atheist¹ as well as a former pantheist, I had a good idea of what to expect, but that didn’t make my task any easier.

In this article I will define pantheism, provide a brief overview of its various forms, explain what drew me to it, and what tends to draw others to it, outline why I abandoned it, and offer a helpful biblically-based suggestion for dialoguing with pantheists.

The Pantheist’s Creed: “All is God, God is All”

Pantheism is derived from two Greek words, pan, meaning “all,” and theos, meaning “God.” Even though there are several flavors of pantheism, as outlined below, all pantheists believe all is god and god is all. Sometimes instead of referring to “god,” pantheists prefer words such as the Absolute, the Universal Mind, the One, the Universe, the Life Force, and so forth.

In pantheism, God is not distinct from the universe, as in Christian theism, but is the universe. Christianity teaches that God created the universe and is separate from it. In other words, within Christianity God is said to be transcendent, but also immanent — active in the universe without being the universe. In addition, pantheism results in an impersonal god, while Christian theism believes God is a personal being.”

To read more click here.