"Hey! It’s Rebekah with Mama Bear Apologetics, a partner of Ratio Christi International! Mama Bear Apologetics is a ministry geared at equipping moms of biological, adopted, foster, or spiritual children, to answer the tough questions of the faith. Christian apologetics is about defending the faith in the public square, but that defense begins in our homes as we raise our children to not only know what they believe about God, but why they believe it. Apologetics isn’t just for the elite. It’s for us. It’s for moms. You can follow us on Facebook, twitter, youtube, itunes, and subscribe to our blog and podcast via the website at www.mamabearapologetics.com.
Today we will be discussing “How apologetics saved my faith (and how it’s made me a better mom).”
A wise man once said these words: “In dealing with the arrogant asserter of doubt, it is not the right method to tell him to stop doubting. It is rather the right method to tell him to go on doubting , to doubt a little more, to doubt every day newer and wilder things in the universe, until at last, by some strange enlightenment, he may begin to doubt himself.”
Apologetics have been a part of my Christian walk for years. As someone who trained in the field of biochemistry – both as an undergraduate and then later as a research scientist – I was confronted pretty early on with the supposed conflict between faith and science. I say “supposed” because apologetics showed me that if anything, Western science owes a large part of its success to its Judeo-Christian foundations. Through apologetics, I learned that I could be a scientist and a Christian; that science could actually help me grow in my awe and wonder of God. He is the Great Designer of the world that science investigates, after all. Indeed, at times, I remember feeling closer to God in the science lab than I did at church! I’d laugh to myself saying “The heavens declare the glory of God … and so do these tiny little protein molecules I am studying!” In the end, I learned that science could never undermine my faith for it could never answer the why of existence.
Little did I know, though, the greatest challenge to my faith would not be in the hallowed halls of a scientific research institution, but at home. Indeed, the even more hallowed halls of hearth and home. After our first child was born, I quickly found myself plunged into the depths of spiritual doubt, the likes of which I had never experienced. As all mothers know, having a child creates a level of vulnerability that is very disconcerting. I suddenly realized that if anything were to ever happen to her, a part of me would die – and would forever die, it seemed. C.S. Lewis called the death of a loved one an amputation. I felt this and it even the possibility of losing my daughter shook my faith in God to the core. Suddenly, the problem of evil loomed large in my thoughts and I waivered from its oppressive weight. The standard answer of man’s sin as its cause seemed suddenly insufficient now that I had more skin in the game, you could say – now as a mother with a child that might experience – that would indeed experience – the evil and suffering this world had to offer. In life, suffering of some sort is inevitable, isn’t it? What had I done? How could I have brought a child into such a world? It made me wonder, “Can I trust God not to allow pain and suffering into her life? Given the sheer amount of suffering in the world, does He even care or …. Worse of all – I began to ask – Is He even there? Intellectual doubts quickly supplanted the emotional doubts.
Around the same time, we had a friend that who had left the faith for similar reasons. He began pounding me with questions: “How can we trust the Bible?” “What about all the evil that God seems to inflict in the Old Testament?” “How could a good and loving God allow evil and suffering?” He began sending me articles and excerpts from the writings of famous atheists such as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins.
In no time, my faith was in shambles. I struggled to find answers in the church that I was attending – a church of wonderful, wonderful people – but no answers that could satisfy the my intellectual doubts. I was given a lot of support and prayer – two very important components – but answers were not there.
That’s when I turned, once again, to apologetics. Thankfully, because of the popularity of atheists like the ones listed above, apologetics conferences were becoming more prevalent . The Christian community was waking up to the need to defend the faith against these new atheists and their claims, as well as train the laity in defending it. My husband and I began attending every apologetics conference we could. We even spent an anniversary weekend at one! I am so blessed to have him! I began devouring books by the likes of G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, William Lane Craig, Daniel Wallace, and Tim Keller. I began listening to apologetics podcasts every possible chance that I could, like when our (now two) daughters took their afternoon naps, or when I worked out, or when driving in the car.
Many moons later, I am here to tell you that if it weren’t for apologetics (and dear brothers and sisters in Christ who prayed for me and held onto me), my faith might not have survived. I am also here to tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel of doubt.
As far as the thorny problem of evil, pain, and suffering that sent my faith into the depths of doubt, I feel more confident in how that very problem, one that theologians and philosophers have wrestled with since the beginning of time, actually points to God rather than discredits Him or His goodness. Our Gospel is clothed in that very problem, you could say – the good news comes to us in a cloak of pain and crown of suffering – a dramatic confrontation with evil that seems to end in defeat. But only seems! There is an empty tomb at the end of that story, after all!
Our Lord endured that forsakenness that I felt in my doubt when He cried out in matthew 27:46, “ My Lord, My Lord, why have You forsaken Me?” We worship a God that is not only not removed from our suffering, but one that entered into it in order to end all suffering one day.
And now, as I minister to others who are doubting and as I defend the faith against scoffers, I can see this problem of evil at the heart of most of their objections to God. We doubt God when we suffer or see others suffering. It is only natural. The Book of Job shows us this, doesn’t it?
But if we then curse or reject God because of evil, we not only get rid of the problem of evil, but our intuitions that good and evil are real, too.
It turns out then that the atheism that I was contemplating is too simple. It explains away pain and suffering as artifacts of evolution rather than confronts them. Yet if one explains away the problem of evil, the problem of good follows along . It is all a useful fiction . The world does not need a belief system that depicts suffering as merely some sort of randomly generated survival mechanism for it makes a mockery not only of our pain but of our highest aspirations to knowledge, goodness, kindness, excellence, and love. The beauty of our Christian creed , with its dying and rising Saviour, is that it is large enough to contain all of these – the good as well as the evil. It reminds us that there is a world of objective “meaning, truth, beauty, and goodness” outside the groans of this world.
It is large enough to both encompass our sorrow without explaining it away, while guiding us through it with hope. One of my favorite Christian apologists, G.K. Chesterton wrote:
When once one believes in a creed, one is proud of its complexity, as scientists are proud of the complexity of science. It shows how rich it is in discoveries. If it is right at all, it is a compliment to say that it’s elaborately right. A stick might fit a hole or a stone a hollow by accident. But a key and a lock are both complex. And if a key fits a lock, you know it is the right key.
I believe Chesterton is right. Apologetics helps us discover the complexity of our creed and assures us that it is big enough to guide us through all of life – our joys as well as our sorrows. We have nothing to fear for we belong to Him who has the Key of life! And now, I get to pass this truth on to my children. What a gift for them! This is what apologetics can give to you and your family, too!
Maranatha.
Tune in next month as Hillary discusses the topic, “Is Apologetics just for men? Why apologetics needs women!” And don’t forget! To get more resources from the Mama Bears, please visit us at mamabearapologetics.com
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