In Chapter 10 Ayers lays out the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. He also spells out what the resurrection tells us about Jesus - namely that he is the champion over death, but not only that – he is the ruler over the world and ultimate judge. These are stunning realizations.
When I was in high school, struggling with my doubts again and again as a Christian, it was the evidence for the resurrection of Christ that I kept coming back to. Sometimes on a daily basis, as I lay in bed, in my mind I would run through the evidence for, and implications of, the resurrection. The fact is I simply found no other way around them than to believe and trust in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Let's pray that God uses this book to give a similar realization to others.
In case you missed it, from what I’ve read so far…I recommend reading this book! As I flick ahead I see that Ayers addresses the cross and in part III looks at our position before God and the impact of the gospel. Although I still have a third of this book to go, it’s looking like a winner on the ‘good books to lend’ list. Thank you Mr Ayers! And thank you to you for reading my rambling thoughts and ponderings. I hope they have been some form of help.
Showing posts with label Naked God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Naked God. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Naked God - Pt4
Have you ever wished you were articulate? Have you ever had one of those conversations about Christianity where it doesn’t quite come out right and then, lying in bed that night, you work out what you ‘should have said’? In chapters 7-9 Ayers is saying all the things I wish I’d said to all my friends. And he’s saying them a lot more articulately.
He addresses historicity queries (is Jesus made up? Is the Bible reliable?) and he dissects the common belief that Jesus is ‘just a good moral teacher’ by walking us through the famous ‘trilemma’ that Jesus can only be lunatic, evil or LORD (I simply love the C.S Lewis quote on p80, you may have heard it before but it’s gold). But what I really appreciate about these chapters is that Ayers fills in the outline. Let me explain what I mean…
The risk of apologetics (that is, defending Christianity against arguments such as ‘Jesus didn’t exist’, ‘science has disproved God’) is that we spend a lot of time outside the bible talking about what Christianity is not. This can leave us with just an outline of Jesus without filling in with what he was like and what he came to do. Ayers doesn’t make this mistake. After helpfully handling some common apologetic queries he starts ‘filling in Jesus’. He pulls out examples from history, from the bible, to show what kind of person Jesus was on earth – his character, teaching, fulfillment of prophecy and miracles.
The picture we are left with is no cartoon. It’s not the airbrushed or incomplete figure painted by today’s popular culture. It is thoughtful, poignant, winsome and accurate. And it is this – Jesus is nothing short of God incarnate, he is ‘naked God’.
He addresses historicity queries (is Jesus made up? Is the Bible reliable?) and he dissects the common belief that Jesus is ‘just a good moral teacher’ by walking us through the famous ‘trilemma’ that Jesus can only be lunatic, evil or LORD (I simply love the C.S Lewis quote on p80, you may have heard it before but it’s gold). But what I really appreciate about these chapters is that Ayers fills in the outline. Let me explain what I mean…
The risk of apologetics (that is, defending Christianity against arguments such as ‘Jesus didn’t exist’, ‘science has disproved God’) is that we spend a lot of time outside the bible talking about what Christianity is not. This can leave us with just an outline of Jesus without filling in with what he was like and what he came to do. Ayers doesn’t make this mistake. After helpfully handling some common apologetic queries he starts ‘filling in Jesus’. He pulls out examples from history, from the bible, to show what kind of person Jesus was on earth – his character, teaching, fulfillment of prophecy and miracles.
The picture we are left with is no cartoon. It’s not the airbrushed or incomplete figure painted by today’s popular culture. It is thoughtful, poignant, winsome and accurate. And it is this – Jesus is nothing short of God incarnate, he is ‘naked God’.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Naked God - Pt3
Perhaps the most helpful piece of evangelism advice I’ve ever been given was “keep bringing the conversation back to Jesus”.
It can be tempting to stay in the world of ideas, concepts and words that end in ‘ism’ but I often end up feeling out of my depth, sinking in a maze of philosophical hypotheticals and round-a-bouts. Much better to talk about a real person, who lived and died (and rose), a person who I know and follow. Having unpacked the unsightly implications of atheism, Ayers suggests that rather than live in denial or despair we investigate other options. His suggestion is Jesus, the man who claimed not just to know God but to be God.
Before investigating Jesus, Ayers clears away a couple of common objections – the first being that ‘all beliefs about God are equally valid’ (p60) i.e. that “what you believe is true for you (…but maybe not for me)”. Have you ever heard that? I’m sure most of us have. The philosophical name for it is 'relativism'.
Ayers helpfully distinguishes issues of opinion (such as what’s your favourite football team) from issues of fact (such as whether that team has ever won a premiership). Whether God exists is an issue of fact. Relativism would have us believe it is an issue of opinion.
I was having coffee with a non-believing friend of mine the other week. We were talking about her search for faith. There was something about the way she was describing her search, something not-quite-right about how she was going about it, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Reading chapter 7, I realized what is was - she’s a relativist. She’s searching for a belief system that will ‘work for her’, rather than searching for a belief system which is the truth. Perhaps you have a friend like that.
We’re good friends so next time we meet up I'll hopefully be able to raise this (I might even lend her this book). Please pray that I will.
It can be tempting to stay in the world of ideas, concepts and words that end in ‘ism’ but I often end up feeling out of my depth, sinking in a maze of philosophical hypotheticals and round-a-bouts. Much better to talk about a real person, who lived and died (and rose), a person who I know and follow. Having unpacked the unsightly implications of atheism, Ayers suggests that rather than live in denial or despair we investigate other options. His suggestion is Jesus, the man who claimed not just to know God but to be God.
Before investigating Jesus, Ayers clears away a couple of common objections – the first being that ‘all beliefs about God are equally valid’ (p60) i.e. that “what you believe is true for you (…but maybe not for me)”. Have you ever heard that? I’m sure most of us have. The philosophical name for it is 'relativism'.
Ayers helpfully distinguishes issues of opinion (such as what’s your favourite football team) from issues of fact (such as whether that team has ever won a premiership). Whether God exists is an issue of fact. Relativism would have us believe it is an issue of opinion.
I was having coffee with a non-believing friend of mine the other week. We were talking about her search for faith. There was something about the way she was describing her search, something not-quite-right about how she was going about it, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Reading chapter 7, I realized what is was - she’s a relativist. She’s searching for a belief system that will ‘work for her’, rather than searching for a belief system which is the truth. Perhaps you have a friend like that.
We’re good friends so next time we meet up I'll hopefully be able to raise this (I might even lend her this book). Please pray that I will.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Naked God - Pt2
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine got baptized. Our minister asked him “What do you think is the best thing about being Christian?”. He replied “The fact that it’s the truth”. My friend was onto something. At the end of the day the issue is whether Christianity is true or not. Jesus is either risen king of the world, or he is not. He either took the punishment for my sins that day he died or he didn’t. Even if being a Christian makes me feel warm and fuzzy every day until I die, if it’s not true, I’m not interested (I think this is what Paul’s getting at in 1 Corinthians 15:19).
Ayers shows in chapters 1-4 that atheism (or as he describes it, naturalism) leads to some unattractive implications (e.g. free will is an illusion, objective right and wrong do not exist, life has no true meaning etc). But what if it is unattractive but true?
At this point, I really appreciated his comments at the end of chapter 4. He points out that one of the criteria for determining if a belief system is right is: does it make good sense of the world and how we experience it? When it comes to naturalism, the shoe doesn’t fit. Naturalism doesn’t make sense of my experience of the world. For example, it doesn’t explain the anger I feel when I see injustice on the news, in my life or the lives of my friends because naturalism says there is no objective right or wrong. Nor does it explain love or purpose. Naturalism “simply fails at a profound level to explain the world as we experience it… The best solution is to look for the truth somewhere else” (p39). Mr Ayers, I’m looking forward to following the search!
Ayers shows in chapters 1-4 that atheism (or as he describes it, naturalism) leads to some unattractive implications (e.g. free will is an illusion, objective right and wrong do not exist, life has no true meaning etc). But what if it is unattractive but true?
At this point, I really appreciated his comments at the end of chapter 4. He points out that one of the criteria for determining if a belief system is right is: does it make good sense of the world and how we experience it? When it comes to naturalism, the shoe doesn’t fit. Naturalism doesn’t make sense of my experience of the world. For example, it doesn’t explain the anger I feel when I see injustice on the news, in my life or the lives of my friends because naturalism says there is no objective right or wrong. Nor does it explain love or purpose. Naturalism “simply fails at a profound level to explain the world as we experience it… The best solution is to look for the truth somewhere else” (p39). Mr Ayers, I’m looking forward to following the search!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Naked God - Pt1
As I understand it, this book is aimed not at the Christian, nor at the searching non-Christian but at the not-even-searching non-Christian, at the person who may believe in ‘god’ or may not, but most of all does not think that it makes much of a difference either way. In Part 1 of "Naked God" Ayers sets about to convince them otherwise. He starts by stripping back atheism so that its implications are left standing for all to see. They are not pretty.
Ayers’ first implication of atheism is ‘if God does not exist, there is no real meaning or purpose for our lives’ (p24). I’ve heard this before, but the way that Ayers walks us there – step by step - means it struck me quite hard. His second implication is “if God doesn’t exist, freedom is an illusion” (p27) and free will is a delusion. To be honest, I had never really realised this before. I really like how Ayers quotes the key atheists themselves. I don’t think you could read these chapters and walk away thinking it doesn’t matter whether God exists or not.
I sometimes catch myself viewing atheism as the ‘neutral ground’ or a default position. Reading these chapters reminded me that that’s simply not the case. ‘Atheism is a position of faith or belief just like any religion’ (p19). What’s more, its implications are so stark I was reminded of the importance of the question of God’s existence not just for myself, but also for my friends.
From what I’ve read so far, this is the kind of book you want to write your name in. It’s the kind of book that you write your name in (in pen) and then under it you write the names of the friends to whom you may lend it (in pencil, to be rubbed out upon lending of course). At least that’s my plan, so that each time I open it to read a bit more I pray for those friends and reflect on what they might think if they read it and in the end – lend it to them!
Ayers’ first implication of atheism is ‘if God does not exist, there is no real meaning or purpose for our lives’ (p24). I’ve heard this before, but the way that Ayers walks us there – step by step - means it struck me quite hard. His second implication is “if God doesn’t exist, freedom is an illusion” (p27) and free will is a delusion. To be honest, I had never really realised this before. I really like how Ayers quotes the key atheists themselves. I don’t think you could read these chapters and walk away thinking it doesn’t matter whether God exists or not.
I sometimes catch myself viewing atheism as the ‘neutral ground’ or a default position. Reading these chapters reminded me that that’s simply not the case. ‘Atheism is a position of faith or belief just like any religion’ (p19). What’s more, its implications are so stark I was reminded of the importance of the question of God’s existence not just for myself, but also for my friends.
From what I’ve read so far, this is the kind of book you want to write your name in. It’s the kind of book that you write your name in (in pen) and then under it you write the names of the friends to whom you may lend it (in pencil, to be rubbed out upon lending of course). At least that’s my plan, so that each time I open it to read a bit more I pray for those friends and reflect on what they might think if they read it and in the end – lend it to them!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Meeting Annabel Catto
Annabel Catto is our July contributor on EQUIP book club.
Annabel will be reviewing Naked God, a new book by Martin Ayers.
"I was born and raised in Sydney. I started following Jesus by late high school (although it may have been earlier), and I'm so thankful to God for how he used my parents, local church and the uni Christian group to mature my faith.
I loved studying history and law at uni, and I loved practicing as a solicitor in the city. Nevertheless in 2006 I resigned and uprooted to begin a 2 year ministry apprenticeship at St Paul's Carlingford Group of Churches (which I also love!)
My parents and sisters are scattered between Sydney, Queensland and Kathmandu. But I like being able to keep in touch, as well as blue-sky crisp sunny days, market-shopping and spending time with friends."
Annabel will be reviewing Naked God, a new book by Martin Ayers.
I loved studying history and law at uni, and I loved practicing as a solicitor in the city. Nevertheless in 2006 I resigned and uprooted to begin a 2 year ministry apprenticeship at St Paul's Carlingford Group of Churches (which I also love!)
My parents and sisters are scattered between Sydney, Queensland and Kathmandu. But I like being able to keep in touch, as well as blue-sky crisp sunny days, market-shopping and spending time with friends."
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