[upbeat music] >> It gives me great pleasure to introduce our plenary speaker tonight, Dr. Dallas Willard, a philosophy professor for just years and years at the USC campus in Southern California. Just a brilliant philosopher. And really a person we look
to for philosophical wisdom on a regular basis from our
parched Biola University. But more than that, it turns
out he's an amazing disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who passes a long his wisdom in following
the Lord to the rest of us. I don't know how many of us
at Biolo consider him our guru if it's kosher to have a guru. It would probably be Dallas Willard. Like the Apostle Paul
said, ya know, follow me as I followed Christ. I say, I want to follow Dallas Willard as he follows Christ too. And I wanna follow any
of you who follow Christ. But, this guy has a special twist on this and some wisdom to bring to us tonight that I can't wait to
hear, Dr. Dallas Willard. [clapping and cheering] >> Well, it's wonderful to here and I'm so glad to have a chance to be apart of this meeting. I must say I am astonished at
the number, and enthusiasm, and at the quality of the people who are going to be speaking
to you, myself excepted. [laughing] I don't find myself very amazing. But, I'm thankful to
have this opportunity. Now, you have some notes and
I hope you can pull those out. I will go a long pretty
closely to what they say. I think I'm going to
be presenting something a little different from what you may find, in your mind fits in with apologetics. I think it's important
and I may say some things that put a different slant on apologetics. If you hear me doing that,
well you have real experts here in apologetics. So, you should believe what they say. Okay, but I wanna talk to you this evening about knowledge in the context
of spiritual formation. And let me just explain briefly, by spiritual formation I'm referring to Christian spiritual formation. Because there are many, many
kinds of spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is like education. Everyone gets one. It's just a question of which one you get. Hitler had a spiritual formation
and so did Mother Teresa. Every person you meet has
had one, and you've had one. And actually what we
are really talking about in the Christian context when we talk about spiritual formation is spiritual transformation. We're talking about
the process of becoming like Jesus Christ, in all
dimensions of your personality. The spiritual life is
the life that you live interactively with God. Sometimes we talk about it
just as if it were inward and secret, and part of it is, but if you think it's only inward, you really haven't got the idea yet. Because the transformation
is absolutely obvious, absolutely outward, you can't keep it in. What I really want to talk
to you about this evening is the role of knowledge
in the spiritual life. Now you know not all that many years ago the phrase, evangelical
philosophical society, would have been treated as an oxymoron. That they are words
that don't go together. And actually there're many
people that still think that. Some of them are in the church, and some of them are outside the church. But, it's a wonderful thing to see you putting these words together. But, Christian spiritual life
is not commonly thought of as one involving or providing knowledge. In any essential way or
to any significant degree. It is often thought of as involving faith, but that is thought of
as apposed to knowledge, or grace, or gift, or divine upholding, possibly some enthusiasm. But, it is not regarded
as a life conducted in terms of knowledge,
of realities involved, and of how they work. Nor is it thought of as
providing such knowledge that could be shared with others, aspiring to live a spiritual life. Nor indeed, with those who are skeptical of the spiritual life. Or who perhaps even flatly deny there is anything to this
so called spiritual life, beyond the psychological
and sociological realities and states of those caught
up in what goes by that name. So, there's a problem with bringing this into the domain of knowledge. And I want to make sure to present this as a part of apologetical work. Now, you can think of
some outstanding cases of people who had a spiritual life. You might think of Billy
Graham or Mother Teresa of Calcutta. You might think of
Bonhoeffer, who's recently, thank God, been back in the public eye. The Catholic churches talk of saints, and to be a saint you have
to have a certain number of demonstrable miracles. See, that's interaction with
the supernatural being of God. And that idea of interacting with God, as you yourself go through
the process of change and growth toward Christ likeness is vital to understanding
the spiritual life and spiritual formation. Now, many people have turned
away from the Christian church into other spiritualties. And it's really educational, and I get my students to do this. You go to Barnes&Noble,
can't say Borders anymore. Or some of the other big book stores and go to the section labeled spirituality and look at what is there. Another thing you can do
is Google up spirituality and you add almost any
words you want to add. And you will get hundreds
of thousands of hits on things like spirituality and sports. Or spirituality and business,
or spirituality and dating. So, the hunger for another
world, another source of life is something that
is ever present around us and a lot of it comes from the sense that some how Christians really
aren't into spirituality. And you have a common
saying among many people in our population. Well, I'm not religious,
but I'm very spiritual, see. And that points to a
huge hunger and vacuum in the lives of people. What I'm hopeful this evening
is to help us move away from a kind of non cognitive
attitude towards spirituality. Toward the spiritual life
in the Christian tradition. And I need to say that this is not new. It's only new in the
context of the recent past. But, knowledge of the spiritual life is standard for the history
of the Christian church. It is because in the recent past there has been a progressive negotiation of Christian teaching and Christian life out of the category of
knowledge and reality, into the category of
something called faith, faith. And faith is a way of
dismissing the teachings of the Christian church and it's history. You go back and you look
at people like Augustine and Aquinas, and Luther and
Calvin, and Edwards and Wesley, and indeed the great 19th
century and early 20th century American theologians. You see them presenting not just Christian doctrine generally, but the understanding of spiritual life as a place that operates by knowledge and provides knowledge to
those who wish to know. So, I'm going to be shifting that around if I can at all. And we have to acknowledge that much of that has been claimed by Christians to be knowledge, while it's not actually knowledge and the discovery and
admission of this fact was a major factor in the
massive social and historical displacement that I have just mentioned. Such mistaken claims were
of course especially common for the denominational distinctives. The things that tend to
separate Christians into groups tend not to qualify as knowledge, but as tradition. And the discovery of
this in the American past has been one of the things
that has pushed Christianity out of the intellectual context that we have to recover, if we're going to think about
apologetics in any sense. I'm going to narrow the sense
down a little bit for me. But, it concerns knowledge. If you don't have knowledge on the basis of which you do apologetics, I ask you, what are you doing? And that is something worth exploring. And watching how people conduct themselves in the context of Christian
leadership and teaching. You see knowledge is important in any area of human endeavor. It matters because the roll
of knowledge in human life is vital and irreplaceable. And when we come to talk about faith as Christians, we don't want to understand that as something that
is apposed to knowledge. It has a different role
and it's very important, but certainly if you look
at the biblical employment of faith, you'll see that
it is a kind of confidence that is environed in knowledge. The prophet said, my people
parish for lack of knowledge. Knowledge is essential. And it is important because in
all of the activities of life we need to be able to
confidently access truth. Truth is what enables us
to interact successfully with reality. Truth is like the aim of a gun, if you use it rightly you'll
hit what you're aiming at. If you don't have truth,
who knows what you'll hit. But, knowledge is important
because it involves truth and it involves open method. And that is not the case
with mere belief, commitment, tradition, power, or
anything else but knowledge. Truth, knowledge, open method allows us to find common ground. And I ask you again, if when
you do your apologetic work you cannot work on common
ground with people, what are you doing? Now, I understand some people believe that only divine lightning changes people. So, that when you are preaching or working in apologetics you're
just making an occasion, which God might strike. And there's a lot of deep
philosophy and theology there. I just want to acknowledge it. I want to say that for
my part in apologetics, we are bringing knowledge
to bear on genuine questions from people who really want to know. So, knowledge is vital. And knowledge of the spiritual life is a sub category of that. And evidence drawn from
the life of Christians who are growing in their
relationship to God and becoming more and
more equipped to live in God's kingdom with him. That kind of knowledge is among the most precious knowledge on earth. And so, we want to talk about the knowledge of the spiritual life. We want of course, to
stand on solid ground. We don't fake knowledge. We don't pretend we have it when we don't. If we can keep from it. We want the real thing. And that is why a key to all of our work as in apologetics, is openness. And we come to meet people with the idea that I am here to learn if there's something for me to learn. I'm not here just to tell you how it is. I may do a little of that too, but then I'm open to an exchange with you as we operate on the basis of
knowledge and common ground. And one of the things
that makes the unbeliever really nervous is the idea
that there is a common ground where they can meet with
those who disagree with them, and have beliefs about Christ. And it begins to show itself in their life and then the question arises,
how can people be like that. And that is the initial
impulse of apologetics in the New Testament. We'll come to that in a moment. Well, let me say a little bit about how all of this knowledge of the spiritual life comes into the area of Christian apologetics. Now, that's on my understanding. And if I say something
different from what Paul said or what Bill Craig, or any of
the other distinguished people here, just write me off. Because, actually, you
know, I'm not I guess, much of an expert in this field. I feel deeply about it and I practice it, in the way that I shall
try to describe it. So, how does this work,
this idea of knowledge of the spiritual life, okay? And remember, when I say that, I mean knowledge in terms of which I live the spiritual life. And then knowledge of what
happens in the spiritual life that is available to others. I'll try to make that
clearer as we go along. So, how does this knowledge
of the spiritual life that expresses itself in
formations, spiritual formations, how does it fit in with the
task of the Christian apologist? What exactly is it that
we do in apologetics? Now, answering that question
is not a simple matter if we are to take as our
guide what is actually done by outstanding people in the field. One of my favorite authors
of the not too distant past is a man named AB Bruce. And he wrote a wonderful much used book that is entitled, Apologetics or Christianity
Defensively Stated. But, now is apologetics an
essentially defensive project? Or is it a helping ministry? Christian evidences are,
that's a crucial field to work in. And we need good people who do that. Who lay the evidence
out and make it public. But, I'm thinking apologetics
is more answering questions. Now, there is a time for defense and we are of course
admonished by the new testament to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all
handed down to the saints. But, that is perhaps a good
deal more than just defending. I wonder if we should not keep
this work of the apologete out of the category of defending. We want to allow there is a
job to be done on defending. But, it may well be that
the work of the apologete is most effectively done,
not in response to someone who is attacking, but someone
who is asking, inquiring. Why are you hopeful, when
you're suffering unjustly? What makes you tick? That's a question, not an attack. So, I'm just suggesting
we think about that some. I would like to think of apologetics as providing insight and
knowledge to answers, to questions posed by serious inquirers who genuinely wish to
understand what followers of Christ believe and
practice, and why they do that. Now, I have put on your
sheet on number four the classic passage in the New Testament. If indeed you suffer
because of righteousness, you are blessed. This is 1st Peter 3:14 and 15. Do not fear their intimidation. And don't be upset. Just hold Christ as
Lord in a special place in your hearts. Being always prepared to
explain to everyone who asks you why and how you have
the hope that is in you. Now, imagine for a moment, what would it be like if the primary task or a large part of the task of the apology was to explain why
Christians are so happy, and so full of righteous deeds and love. That people say, what's going on there. And then the task would
be to come and explain what is going on in the life of the person who is joyful under unjust persecution. Don't you think that's
an interesting question? Now there's a place in that question for Christian evidences. It would be in response
to a person who genuinely wants to know. And there is a place
for dealing with people who don't want to know. And I must say, in this
room there is a man who is absolutely powerful in doing that. Perhaps, there's more than one man. I'm thinking of Bill Craig. See, that is, he speaks to
people who don't want to know. And he makes them wish they did. [laughing] And that has happened
all over the country. Not just in the wonderful little DVD here. But, I get these reports. I get reports from campuses
where people tell me they can't even get
someone to talk to him. Because they know what
has happened to people who talk to him. [laughing] That's wonderful. And there is a place for that. And actually I think
one could build a case for saying that often people
who act like they don't want to know, really do want to know. When you look at this passage, let's think of it in terms of someone who is looking at a person
who has a spiritual life of such presence and power
that they really want to know. That's where knowledge of how
the spiritual life is vital. How would you explain to someone
who really wanted to know why a person who is suffering unjustly, perhaps for their faith
or for righteousness sake, why are they so happy? No of course, Jesus said, blessed are you when people persecute you
for righteousness sake. But, you know, for most people that blessed is not the first
thing that come to their mind in connection with a situation like that. How do you get to the place? How do you get to the
place to where doing things that are wrong aren't even attractive? You can get to that place. And we need to get to that place. And knowledge of the spiritual life concerns that process
of spiritual formation, by which Christians
stand out, as Paul says in Philippians II, like
lights in a darkened world. Now, where you have people
who are standing out like that it changes everything. It changes Evangelism. Changes Christian teaching. Changes apologetics. So, that's what we want to think about. How do you get to that place, what is the process, is there knowledge of how that works? The knowledge in the
spiritual life concerns two different things. It concerns knowledge of the
process of spiritual living. And if you go back a hundred years, you will find book after book that was published and widely read that presented knowledge
of Christian living. It's a wonderful old book called, The Christian Secret of the Happy Life. Read it. It presents knowledge. It's not a book of exhortation. See, if you don't present knowledge you're left in the position of trying to get people to do things. And I really think that's
not a good position to be in. If you get people to do
things to become Christians they'll go to church, maybe, where there will have
to be a man or a woman who keeps getting them to do
things they don't want to do. If you bring knowledge of a
reality that they are able to enter into, and make
it apart of their lives then they'll be coming to you saying, what shall I do. A Christian walk based on
knowledge of the spiritual life is an entirely different kind of thing, than one that is based upon
being persuaded to do things. To provide knowledge is to lay an entirely different foundation. So, the first thing that the
spiritual life of knowledge and the spiritual life concerns, is knowledge of the process. But, then there is knowledge of the God, who is active in and around the experience of the one leading this life,
in interaction with God. The lives of the saints, to speak simply, present themselves as
something worthy of inquiry. A subject matter to be understood
by themselves and others. It is at least an interesting hypothesis that such lives are lived on
the basis of knowledge gained by engaging with the
spiritual realm of God, including God, his activities,
his kingdom, his word. Another great question for those of us who are evangelicals is, what does the bible actually do to you, and how do you make it work. Because we have a multitudes of people in our churches that take the bible like they take pills. Just a little nibble and hopefully it will do them some good. It doesn't do them much
good at all, if any. Because they're not entering
it as a domain of knowledge about their lives that they're living. That can be checked and verified by anyone who wishes to do it. Now, this knowledge of course
can be communicated to others. Because knowledge is that
sort of thing, it is open. It is available to
people who wish to know. The other thing about knowledge is if you don't want to
know, you don't have to. Knowledge will not chase
you down the street and jump down your throat. If you want to have knowledge of Algebra, you have to seek it. Seeking is the nature
of gaining knowledge, you have to seek it. And if you have a person
who's not seeking it, they won't get it. In classes, they'll just learn
what you want them to say and they'll say that. Then, they'll forget that,
as soon as they're out. But, knowledge comes into
possession of the life. It gives direction, if a person wants it. So, knowledge of God and his kingdom comes with knowledge
of the spiritual life. Patrick Sherry some years
ago published a book, titled, Spirit, Saints, and Immortality. In it he argued in the words of John Hick on the blurb on the back of the book, he argued that the
fruit of religious faith in human life, and I would not go so easy on that, I would say Christian faith in human life, and particularly the
production of the spiritual and moral giants who we
call saints must constitute important religious evidence. And I would want to
argue that in the absence of that kind of evidence
everything else that is offered will be weak in it's effect. You have to see the reality
in the lives of people. What we now call spiritual formation, is an area of spiritual activity that must either be a field of actual and potential knowledge or not. To regard it as not subject to knowledge and as not yielding knowledge, is to deprive it of all
or almost all significance for human endeavor and Christian practice. Well, let's see how am
I doing here on my time. Now when I speak of knowledge
of the spiritual life, and non physical or spiritual world, not such a spiritual life interacts with, I mean that the ability
to represent, speak of, deal with, deal with that life, and the world as it is
on an appropriate basis of thought and experience. Not understood in such a
way as to exclude authority. Knowledge on the basis of good authority is the most common kind of knowledge. Probably, most of us in this room, believe the multiplication
tables on authority. I doubt that there are many here who have actually worked them through, and know on the basis of their
experience that they're true. Now, there's nothing wrong with
knowing things by authority. If it's good authority. And good authority among other things is authority that is open to question and further examination. And that pushes it back
into this area of knowledge as I'm describing. Let me just say that again. By knowledge, I mean the
ability to represent, speak of, and deal with
whatever the subject matter is as it is on an appropriate
basis of thought and experience. And so, the spiritual life is actually a process of coming to know. One person describe prayer
as theological research. And that's what it is. In prayer, you come to know God. You come to know how God
acts and how he works. And you learn that you can
introduce others into that. That prayer does not mean that
you already have great faith. Sometimes the most effective
prayers are a cry of despair. And it is amazing how
many people have come to know Jesus Christ by
praying the atheist prayer. Oh my God, if there is a God,
save my soul if I have a soul. [laughing] And it is amazing how many
people have been converted when they prayed that prayer. But, they were in a position where they really wanted to know. And actually, you can sort of
think that's God's address, is the end of your rope. And when you get there and
you really want to know you will come to know. So, we need to understand
that knowledge itself is not esoteric and it's not rare. It's one of the most
common things in life. And a large part of the
intellectual establishment as it now exists, a large
part of what it does is undermine people's
confidence that they can know. And that's a long story which I shouldn't try to go into. There are domains in the spiritual life that cannot be known. There is a place for faith. Faith means you're ready to act as if what you believed is true. That's what faith is. Now, you don't have to
know in order to do that. Thank God you don't have to know. And belief is picked up
like lent and viruses by little children and by big children. And sometimes they're good
and sometimes they're not. And actually, one of the
main tasks of the apologete is to help people get
over a lot of beliefs they picked up like lent and viruses, and are controlling their lives. And they can't get free of them. Most people live at the
mercy of their ideas. And that's where the apologete comes. Perhaps they start out just by listening. And they find out what genuine
questions the person has. And it would be wonderful
if some of those questions were, you know, my
roommate is a person full of hope and joy, and is totally honest. How do you get that way? Now, there's a place to start in. You see? So, now if we can acknowledge
the role of knowledge and leave the room for
faith and put them together in such a way that faith is operating in a context of knowledge, and knowledge in a context of faith, see you can know what you believe and you can believe all you know. Some people don't believe what they know. A gambler is typical of
people who don't believe what they know, as also cheer leaders. [laughing] You're 85 points behind and
there's three minutes left. We're gonna win! [laughing] Well, actually there
are a lot of situations where that shows up. But, we need to put our
knowledge and our faith together. And we do that when we
approach the Christian life, experimentally. Watching how our faith develops, how our knowledge develops. Learning things like, for example, that Christian disciplines
actually do change your life. For example, fasting,
just to mention a case. Now, fasting is really
an important discipline because it trains you
to be strong and sweet, when you don't get what you want. Try it. You see, it trains you out
the habit of having to have what you want. That is a crucial element
in the spiritual life and there are disciplines
that help you get there. Now, actually if you
get to where you don't have to have what you want, that's gonna solve a
lot of other problems. For example, depression
and disappointment. You don't have to live in disappointment and depression, but if
you're not able to surrender your desires to God, you will. And probably, you'll
wind up being mad at God. See, that's the sort of thing you learn. Now, as Christian thinkers,
apologetes, philosophers this means that we have to rework the idea of knowledge and
help people rework it. I can't say a lot about that tonight, but I do want to mention it
because it's so important. I've already given a
description I think is adequate to knowledge as it really works in life. But, then there are the
philosophical issues and we have to go back to those. And thank goodness we have a lot of people that can help us with that, in coming to an appropriate understanding of what it is know, and getting
us over this kind of bland and pervasive skepticism, that infects nearly all of our atmosphere in our world today. And cuts the sinew of knowledge to the satisfaction of many people who would like to manipulate us. But, we have wonderful
people who have done, and are doing such great work. Someone mentioned our
planning already I think. But, Bill Alston, for example
has done wonderful work in the area, in a book that
he calls Perceiving God. Which deals with this
issue of perception of God in the spiritual life. So, there is that level and
we need to go to that level for people who have the questions. Because many people will look at you and if you turn out to be
happy and honest, and all that they'll say, well you
know, people are odd. That's where we need to
be able to dig deeper we need to come to an
understanding of knowledge of the spiritual life. Then we need to be able to present that as something that is accessible
to others who want to know. And again, I emphasize that. Because you got, these are totally different
cases where you got someone who doesn't want to know, and someone who does want to know. And we need to have a ministry
to both of those groups. The experience of the
realities of the spiritual life are things that we can have knowledge of and we can open the door to knowledge on the part of others. Now, this is well brought out I think by a famous passage in
Pascal Pensees number 233. This is the passage of the famous Wager. The Wager, you remember,
is Pascal's challenge to the Sharpies around Paris who thought they were so smart. So, he presents them with a proposition about what they should bet on. They loved to bet. In terms of the existent
or non existence of God. And there's a ton of
philosophical literature on this as you would suspect. But, basically the idea
is that if you consider what you can win and lose
by betting or not betting on the existence of God, it will be clear that you're smart to bet on God's existence. Well, he's talking in Pensee 233 to a person who has heard
him and has become convinced that thus is true, but he
can't just can't believe and Pascal directs him
into the way of experience, opened by simple steps that can be taken. Pascal says, endeavor
then to convince yourself not by increase of proofs of God, but by the abatement of your passions. Learn of those who have
been bound like you, and who now stake all
their provisions on God. These are people who know the
way, which you would follow and who are cured of an ill,
of which you would be cured. Follow the way, by which they began. By acting as if they believed. Taking the holy water, having masses said, of course referring to his
background, and so forth. Even just this, will
naturally make you believe and deaden your scruples. Now, I would want to say that
you need to broaden that out. But, can we as apologetes for Christ, give people information
about how they can begin to experience the spiritual life? Or perhaps, we're so
bound up on various points of doctrine that we think
if they don't past that they can't go in. And we under estimate the readiness of God to meet people where they are. The way of experience is open to everyone. It is a way of grace. Probably without grace you'd never do it. But, you don't have to worry about that. The grace is available. If we step into it, then we
begin to experience grace because grace, is God acting in our lives to accomplish what we can't
accomplish on our own. We begin to experience it
and we can encourage people to believe that they will experience it. I wish I had time to give a lot of biblical illustrations of
that and so on, but I don't. Pascal says to his enter rocketeer at each step you take on
this road you will see so great certainty of
gain, so much nothingness in what you risk that you
will at last recognize that you have wagered
for something certain and infinite, for which
you have given nothing. Now what he's saying is, that will come to the progress of your experience when you put what little
faith you may have managed to gather with the grace
of God to move forward in the spiritual life. Now of course, many people
will never accept it. And we have to accept that. But, I believe we can be
a great service to people if we begin to encourage them
on the basis of our knowledge of how the spiritual life works. To step into the spiritual
life as best they can, and make a start. But, we have to have knowledge of that or we can't do it. And we have to be
confident of that knowledge or we can't do it. Now that, the spiritual
life of the Christian is a way of knowledge, And now I'm going to
pull a scripture on you. It's made plane by a well
known statement of Jesus. Here's what he said, if
you dwell in my teachings, then you really are my apprentices. And you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. That as you know, is John 8:31 through 32. Now, this does not say the
truth will make you free. Never say that Jesus said
that, he did not say that. The truth will more likely make you flee. [laughing] You don't come to the truth head on, you come to Jesus. And you take his teaching
and his life as best you can, and you step into it as his student. Now, we have the truth will make you free all over the place. Our elevator in our
humanity's building at SC says, the truth will make you free. Well, who ever donated the elevator thought it was nice to say that. But, Jesus never said that. Jesus said, if you dwell in my words. Now, that's not a non stop bible study. That's taking what he said,
and living in it in life. If you dwell in my word, meno
the word that is used there is used repeatedly in Psalm. For example, how the branch
dwells in the vine and so on. Then, you will go through
a course of experience and you will come to know the truth. And the truth known will set you free. Because you will be able to
deal with reality as it is. And that means what's good
you'll be able to appropriate and what's bad you can avoid. That passage is actually
about being free from sin. And if you smarten up a bit,
sin will really look different. And your habits can change
in the course of experience and you will be made free. That's the course of the spiritual life. That's knowledge about how
the spiritual life works. And it is available to
everyone who wants to know. Well, of course all of this
is tremendously important now for the blossoming
of spiritual formation as something that our churches talk about. Talbot is not only world
famous for apologetics, but also for being a leader in this field of spiritual formation. It's now an area of great
and growing emphasis among Christians and
Christian institutions. Both churches and institutions
of higher education recognize or have the recognition of the deplorable condition of Christian character or maturity. And that is the theme, of
course consistently harped upon by our people who take
surveys and publish polls. Mr. Barner and others. Constantly hammering on that what accounts for this condition. I would say that in a large part it is to be accounted for
in terms of the failure to approach the spiritual life as an area of reliable knowledge,
which we can own and act on. And which we can offer to
others who wish to know. Now, there are other factors involved. Satan is always on the job. There're all kinds of opposing forces. But, until we have provided
what Christ is talking about as dwelling in his word,
and made sense of it in the spiritual life,
then we have another way of explaining it then just,
the devil made me do it. Okay, I must close. So, let me just close with this thought. Now, suppose that there
were abundant evidence in the lives of Christians
of the reality of God and of the spiritual life
that they're living with him. Do you think that would make the task of the apologete
easier, more effective? In the absence of that aren't we fighting an uphill and often a losing battle as we try to minister to
people at the whole range of activities from Evangelism,
and Christian evidences, and apologetics, and Christian teaching? You see what is the ultimate
evidence of the reality of God and the kingdom of God in our lives is a person who is living the life. That doesn't mean there
aren't other things to do. It means that no matter what else you do you're going to be
fighting a very difficult, if not impossible battle
without the evidence of life, the life of God,
and the soul of human beings. Thank you very much. [clapping] >> Female 1: Biola
University offers a variety of biblically centered degree programs. Ranging from business to ministry, to the arts and sciences. Visit biola.edu to find
out how Biola could make a difference in your life.
