Their Strategy Part 1

Quoting the Bible

When you observe the secular professor long enough, you begin to see a strategy emerge. I want to help you understand a few of their strategies. For today, it is the “appeal to the Bible” strategy.

It was not that long ago that secular universities had classes titled “The Bible as Literature.” In these classes, the Bible was treated as one of the great works of world literature. The professor would explain the system of thought contained in the Bible, its sublime literary quality, and the many different types of literature contained therein. This did not require that the professor or students believed the Bible to be true or to accept the Biblical worldview.

Today, you will not find the Bible approached with this kind of reverence. Instead, if it is mentioned at all, it is for one of two reasons. Knowing this helps us see their strategy.

The first is to claim that the Bible contains contradictions. These are either contradictions within the text or contradictions with modern intuitions held by secularists today. Neither one of these amounts to an actual contradiction. But what I want you to think about is the attitude involved. Think of a Greek literature professor who spends the entire semester reminding his students that the Illiad is full of contradictions and that, after all, Zeus is not real. No Greek literature professor would do that.

The second approach is to quote passages, especially from Jesus, about feeding the poor and then claim conservative Christians today don’t do this. The idea is that Jesus said things Conservative Christians claim are Marxist. So this same secular professor who does not observe what the Bible teaches about loving God then uses the Bible to try and score a point on conservatives.

It goes without saying that 1) Conservative Christians in America far outgive to charities compared to their secular counterparts, 2) Jesus did not teach that big government is the solution to poverty, 3) Jesus chastised the poor for following him only for bread rather than for the food that gives eternal life (John 6:26

And that really is the problem at the heart of it. The secular professor cannot offer eternal life. Jesus told us that eternal life is knowing God and Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). The secular professor does not believe this and teaches their students not to believe this. But what does the secular professor teach is the good life? Self-expression of one’s sexual desire or some such thing. In many cases, the personal life of the secular professor is in moral decay. They themselves do not know, and they keep others from entering.

So, the strategy of “appeal to the Bible to show Christians are hypocrites.” Parents and students, it is good for you to know what you will encounter ahead of time.