Arguing! Let’s do it.

I am writing as a Christian, and it is easy to argue about religion. Most religions and belief systems like Atheism are in competition. They all want to defeat the competitors and be the last one standing.

If you haven’t heard any good religious arguments lately, here is a good example:

https://share.google/aPsTbAfo1A5Q61Rv1

Muslims and Christians certainly fit the model of competing systems, and probably both would like the other to go away. I’m not trying to start a war here, but ‘we are correct and you are wrong’ is a common ambition among believers in most ideas.

Have you noticed that our modern culture is highly polarized? We seem to like what we believe so much, that there is no room for the other side.

For example, imagine a room full of climate change activists meeting some of their critics. By the rules of modern western culture, the other side is wrong, and dangerous, and they can only be rejected and maybe silenced. Pick any modern issue, and you have a duel to the death.

So, how do we win an argument? How do Christians prove that they are right? The flip side of that is, how do Christians prove that the other side is wrong? How do we exist in our modern culture?

Have you tried?

Our great driver of modern arguing-to-win culture is the Internet. Somehow, if we can argue with power, we can win over the other beliefs, and then … 

Maybe we can achieve Internet salvation, and win the universal popularity contest.

Aren’t we supposed to win? So, how do we win in our modern Internet culture?

Imagine the benefits.

1. We can win the prize and become the only true belief system.
2. we can avoid the humiliation of losing and being put down, and watching the other side win. That just cannot happen to the greatest truth in the universe.

I was in a Bible study group, this week, and I re-learned a lesson that is easy to forget in our modern Internet times. Christians have an assignment, something that we are supposed to do, and it doesn’t fit with the Internet.

The assignment word that I heard in the Bible study group is “Testify.” Old words like that are important for us in our modern culture. When we testify, we say what we know, usually from our personal experience.

A testimony is not an argument, and we can never win an argument, with a testimony. We can only say what we know is true, and the other side can reject us. They might even laugh at us.

So, let’s testify. 

Jesus spoke to people two thousand years ago, and he said they would not accept his testimony. That sounds like a hopeless argument:

We speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. (John 3: 11)

Imagine, Jesus himself lost the popular arguments. His followers did not dispose of other religions, with clever logic. Apparently, most of them were executed as martyrs. Note that Jesus was given a fake trial, an argument, and then he was executed on a cross. That does not fit with modern arguments.

Also, it was unusual for a leader among the first Christians, to die of natural causes. The words of Jesus are “you people did not accept our testimony.” and that continued to happen, for many generations.

Imagine, we are called to testify, and probably lose the popular argument. That does not fit with any Internet site.

So, what is the purpose in speaking out, and losing the argument? At the end of the Bible, we have a description of a time when God will win the argument. The people who will celebrate that final event will talk about testifying, and losing the argument:

The one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down. But they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. (Revelation 12: 10 and 11)

Imagine speaking the truth, but not being afraid to die. That is no way to win an argument. Notice “they overcame him.”

I was reminded of this truth, in our Bible study. Losing a human argument could easily happen to a sincere Christian. I appreciated the reminder, but some Christian teachers have not missed the point, and they are reminding us about how we should speak in our modern culture.

I hope we can all learn this lesson: