Worldview Legacy | The Think Institute

Ready to go to the next level in your evangelism (and apologetics and biblical worldview? Sign up for the Think Update, a brief, weekly email with tools and tips to help you explain, share and defend your Christian faith, delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up right here. When you think about sharing your faith, what comes to your mind? Do you think about the look on the other person’s face? What is that expression? Is it happy? Angry? Maybe a little confused? Do you think about the scary proposition of offending someone? Or maybe you envision yourself getting off to a great start, and then dwindling into awkwardness as you run out of things to say, or answers to your friend’s objections? Maybe you’ve experienced a similar situation… or maybe the fear of it has kept you from sharing your faith. Today I want to share some thoughts that come directly from a course called Cojourners. This is a curriculum developed by the Church Movements team, which I’ve been trained in, and which I’ve adapted for the Think Institute. Actually I’m currently teaching a Cojourners class at Midwest Bible Church here in Chicago. Specifically, I want to talk about the subject of evangelism in some broad strokes… and I want to then zero in on one important concept: Why it's so hard to share your faith. Then I'll share with you three simple steps you can take to become more evangelistic. Get the full show notes at http://thethink.institute. 

The Sons of Thunder are back to grapple with the Bible's teaching that human beings are made in the image of God.  Joel and Parker bring a ton of biblical truth to bear in this episode, and if you have ever wondered what it means to be the image of God, you do NOT want to miss it.  Get a brief, weekly email to help you articulate, share and defend biblical truth delivered to your inbox. Sign up for the Think Update at http://thethink.institute/articles/update.

Belief in the laws of logic requires presupposing the existence of the God of the Bible. There are literally no other conceivable options, because no other worldview even suggests a god with the necessary attributes to ground abstract objects like logic (and morality and mathematics). We’ll examine this, and then show how this knowledge actually leads us to greater worship of God. Belief in God is a necessary precondition for logic. Laws of logic are unchanging mental abstractions which cannot float out in space or be proprietary of (changing) matter/energy, and which necessarily transcend all human minds (they would be true even if all ppl died). Belief in logic is belief in unchanging, universal and immaterial mental rules which must necessarily exist within a mind possessing the same attributes. One must believe in an unchanging, universal, immaterial Mind. There is only one worldview which accounts for such an entity. This is the biblical worldview. From “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), straight through to the “Amen” in Revelation 22:21, the Bible presents the sole worldview which accounts for logic and other abstractions we all take for granted. In short, the God who reveals himself in the Bible is the only entity which even proposes to account for abstract objects. Even other “Abrahamic” theistic religions fall short; atheism doesn’t come close. No one has been able to come up with a suitable substitute. Imagine if you were to try and design a worldview that could account for logic, moral absolutes, math, etc. You would need to come up with a God who was: Unchanging (because logic doesn’t change—and neither do other abstract objects (the name philosophers give to invisible “things” like laws of logic, mathematical principles, absolute moral obligations, etc.). Universal (because these things apply everywhere and at all times) Immaterial (because matter is always changing, so these unchanging abstract objects, if they were grounded in changeable matter and energy, would themselves change) Knowable (because, well, we know them) and self-revelatory. Such a God would need to be relatable and relational in his very being, revealing himself because of who he is and what he is like). By the time you finished your imaginative process, you’d have imagined up a universal, ultimate personality with probably a few differences from the biblical God, such as a lack of triune-ness. But then you’d read the Bible and see the doctrine of the Trinity, along with the other attributes of God (holiness, self-sacrificiality, etc.) revealed therein, which you never could have imagined, and you’d be floored by how obvious and necessary these doctrines all are. Thank God he has revealed himself to us. The more I learn about God, the more I realize how necessary all his attributes are, and how glorious and praiseworthy he is. It’s like, “Oh, yes, of course God must be like that.” But the truth is my feeble mind wouldn’t and couldn’t have invented him. In the person of Jesus Christ, God has revealed himself fully and perfectly. In Jesus we see the attributes of God on display, and as we behold him we not only understand God better, but we actually become more like him. The truth of God is antithetical to the mind bent on seeking its own autonomy (“set on the flesh” as Paul puts it). True knowledge about God (necessary for true knowledge of the world) starts w/ repentance and faith in Jesus. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” This post was adapted from here. For tools to help you define and defend your faith, go to http://thethink.institute

Receive a brief, weekly email with tools and tips to help you define, share and defend your faith. Sign up to the Think Update! Have you ever sat down next to someone in an airplane and wanted to share your faith with him, but you had no idea where to begin? Or have you ever seen a street preacher shouting about hell and judgment to passers-by and asked yourself, “Is that really what God wants us to do?” Or, have you ever found yourself in a crowd and realized, probably many of these people are currently on their way to Hell, and I have the answer but no idea how to give it to them? These are questions of evangelism, and if you’re like many Christians today, you have, at one point or another, felt like evangelism was a foreign concept--something that others may be gifted in, but sadly is out of your reach. In this episode, we’re going to help you get a grip on just what evangelism looks like in today’s world, why it’s so important, and how you--yes, you--can get started in  pursuing this vital Christian discipline, and even enjoy doing it. My guest is Tom Schmidt, planting pastor of Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville, Illinois, as well as a blogger. Tom is a gifted conversationalist who knows how to convey the Good News about Jesus in easily-understandable ways, and to mobilize others to do so as well. In our discussion today, we’re going to look at evangelism from three viewpoints: evangelism in the Bible, types of evangelism today, and what it means to be an evangelist or do personal evangelism. We’ll also look at some problems people have with evangelism and then talk about practical ways you can get started. Get the full show notes at thethink.institute.

When you think of God's wrath, what comes to your mind? Thunderbolts and lightning? Earthquakes and hellfire?  There is an aspect of God's wrath that Christians often get wrong, and this makes it harder to explain the concept to our non-Christian friends. It's a problem we have to rectify, because when we're talking about the Gospel and salvation, God's wrath is what we're being saved from.  In this episode I explain what Paul is talking about in Romans 1:18-24, and how there are two forms of God's wrath. I'll also show you how to deliver this concept in a way that is immediately relevant to non-believers.  Hey, if you like the kind of content we’re creating, you’ll like the Think Update. This is a brief, weekly email delievered straight to your inbox with tools and tips to help you define and defend it.  Subscribe to the Think Update right now at TheThink.Institute/articles/update. If you haven't done so yet, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. 

When you think of education, what images come to mind? You may think of rows of beige-and-chrome desks, all arranged facing the front of a classroom, the walls of which are decorated with maps, inspirational quotes, and the ABCs. At the front of the classroom stands a teacher (probably a woman, if we’re picturing an elementary classroom), and she is leading her pupils in some lesson. Now, what is she saying to her class? The possible answers to that question will be very different, depending on what kind of school you are imagining. This is because there are vast differences between what sorts of things are taught at public (government-run) schools vs. private schools. And there are even more differences between different kinds of private schools. Is it a Christian or secular school? Is the education being offered modern or classical? Furthermore, the answer will depend on exactly when you’re imagining this scene. What is being taught in public schools today is not necessarily the same as what we were taught in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Certainly much is the same (the ABCs haven’t changed), but differences in the content will reflect the ways our society has changed since we were kids. Does anyone really think that what sixth graders today are being taught about, say, gender, is the same as what their counterparts were being taught in 1996? The question we must face, then, is what kind of changes should we expect schools to make along with society, and which things should remain unchanged? And how do we decide between the two? To answer this question, it can be super helpful to look back into our history and see how schooling was done in the past. What worked, what have we lost since then, and what should we consider bringing back? In this episode, my guest is pastor and author Douglas Wilson. Pastor Wilson is the lead pastor of Christ Church in Moscow Idaho; you may know him as the author of many influential books, or as a podcaster--his podcast, the Plodcast is educational and a lot of fun to listen to; or as the man who, with his wife Nancy, helped to kick start the movement of classical christian education in America in recent decades. I’ve read eight of his books this year and they’ve been incredibly helpful and thought-provoking. Pastor Wilson is going to help us navigate the question of education, how we should think about it as Christians, and why so many today are returning to what is known as Classical Education. For the full show notes including highlights and resources, go to http://thethink.institute.

Part 2 of Christian Universalism. For the full show notes, go to thethink.institute.

Have you ever thought about Hell? I remember staying awake in bed when I was seven years old, thinking to myself how awful it was that people were, at that very moment, suffering in Hell, and there would be no escape for them. If you're like me, you have wrestled with the idea of hell and even questioned whether or not its fair for God to send people there.  This is certainly not a new question, and we are most definitely not the first people to wrestle with it. In fact, going back to the early centuries of Christianity, there were those who put forward the idea that Hell was not actually everlasting, and that one day all persons (even evil spirits and Satan himself) would one day be finally reconciled to God.  This school of thought is called Universalism. It received broad acceptance early on, but then was condemned as a heresy (false teaching) after about two hundred years (which, in the span of church history is really a drop in the bucket). So what should Christians today think about Universalism? Is there an acceptable form of Christian Universalism?  In this episode of the Think Podcast, we're going to help equip you to find the answer. Our goal is going to be to compare and contrast Christian Universalism with orthodox Christianity. We'll look at what the Bible teaches about sin, salvation and the afterlife, and then present some of the best arguments in favor of Christian Universalism, to help you answer them.  Get the full show notes at TheThink.Institute.

Is the Universe a Simulation? Have you ever wondered if the world around you was actually an illusion? It might seem silly to even entertain the idea, but believe it or not this is a very hot topic in some philosophical (and pop-philosophical) circles right now. Everyone from Elon Musk, to Joe Rogan, to Neil deGrasse Tyson have publicly wondered aloud about whether we are living in some kind of computer simulation. It makes for some very interesting podcast listening, but the question, Are we living in a simulation, actually turns out to be harder to answer than it might appear at first. So, are we living in a simulation? PEOPLE, RESOURCES AND ARTICLES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST EPISODE Renee Descartes’ “cogito, ergo sum” The Mandela Effect James Anderson’s article, “Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?” Nick Bostrom The Principle of Parsimony (Occam’s Razor) Alvin Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism For the complete show notes, go to TheThink.Institute.

Have you ever been concerned that science seems to conflict with Christian faith? Science is often talked about as though it is an alternative to religion. That is, a popular conception is that science has replaced Christianity as the best explanation for why the world is the way it is. Is that really true? Whether you're fascinated by science like me (Joel), or not, you probably know that the world of science has yielded some absolutely incredible discoveries over the last century. One of the coolest of those discoveries is the discovery of the double-helix DNA, the building blocks of life. DNA can be difficult to understand and explain but it is essentially the instructions within our cells that tell our cells what to do and determine what kind of organism we will be. All this begs the question: has the new information science has brought forth served to support Christian truth claims, or does it undermine Christianity? Should Christians be concerned that what we believe is unscientific? Our guest today is Scott Youngren, and he is going to help us find the answer. Scott is a pilot by day, apologetics blogger by night. Scott has been writing on apologetics for 10 years, and he brings his experience to bear in answering the question of where DNA comes from. Scott explains why DNA is an actual language, and how language must come from a mind, and why the language of DNA is inexplicable apart from God. Don't miss this exciting, educational and equipping discussion on God and DNA. You can check out the show notes for this episode on thethink.institute/ For more great resources on the Christian perspective, Gospel engagement and the defense of the Christian message, visit http://thethink.institute.