My faith was Attacked 4 Times!

My faith was attacked 4 times in the first six months of me becoming a Christian. Two cults tried to suck me in. An atheist professor tried to convince me there is no God. And a liberal Bible teacher tried to shake my belief in Scripture.

Attack 1. Jehovah’s Witnesses

I started following the Lord when I was just 19 years old. Two weeks after I gave my life to the Lord, I got a knock on my front door.

I went downstairs and I opened the door. And there were these two really nice old ladies. They introduced themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses. They gave me this little book. And they told me that if I promised to read the book, they’d come back the next week, and they’d have a Bible study with me.

While I was a brand new Christian, so I said cool. I’d love to study the Bible with you.

So they left.

I started reading the book, and it talked about how Jesus returned invisibly in 1914. And it talked about how you needed to be part of the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society. And I thought that was kind of weird.

Attack 2. San Diego Church of Christ

Just one week later, I was walking on my college campus. And some random guy just starts walking next to me. He turns to me and he says, “Hey, my friends and I are Christians and we’re having a Bible study off campus tonight. You want to come?” I said, “Sure!” So that night, I go to their Bible study.

And I remember opening the door and I walking inside.

I see a bunch of college students like myself, and they’re happy. They’re smiling. They seem to know each other really well. They seem like they’re really good friends.

Now we have what I thought was an amazing time of worship where people were just singing out to the Lord. They have this incredibly passionate Bible study. And when it was over, I started to leave.

Well, two of them pulled me aside into the back room. And one of them actually had a clipboard, and he was taking notes. He didn’t talk at all. The other guy was clearly the leader because he did all the talking.

So the guy talking looks at me and he says, “Now Shawn, you’re not really a Christian.” I said, “I’m not?” He said, “No. Because the Bible says that a true disciple will go out and make disciples of all nations. Are you going out and making disciples of all nations?” I said, “No.” He said, “A true disciple will baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Are you baptizing people?” I said, “No, I’m just a brand new Christian.” He said, “Then you’re not a Christian.”

I remember I was actually very angry at first. Because they told me I wasn’t a Christian. And I knew enough of the Bible, especially the book of John at that time, to know that all I had to do was believe in Jesus and I would have eternal life. In fact, I actually walked him through all of the spots in the book of John that I just highlighted days before, where it said if you believe you will have eternal life.

So I was angry. I was frustrated. But honestly, I was actually a little bummed. I was sad because I thought I could make friends. I thought these could be some cool friends that I could get to know. But it just wasn’t working out. So I left. Come to find out they were another cult!

Attack 3. Atheist Astronomy Professor

When I was a kid, I was really into astronomy. So I was super excited to take an astronomy class in college.

Now I’m in the class and my professor walks in. And he starts to teach us about the Big Bang and stellar evolution.

Some kid raises their hand in class and says, “Excuse me, teacher, do you think that God could have caused the Big Bang?”

Well, my teacher was like this short, skinny old man with a beard. And I seem to remember that he had a white trench coat on–like you’d expect a scientist in a lab to be wearing.

Well, his face turns bright red, and he gets super upset. And he puts his finger up in the air. And he said, “Let me make one thing perfectly clear. There is no God! And if you don’t like what I just said, then you can get out of my class.”

This this really happened. It wasn’t just in a movie. This was real life for me.

Well, I looked around the room, and the kids just kind of sank back in their chairs like me. And nobody said anything. Nobody challenged him. And actually nobody got up and left.

But I knew as a young Christian that I eventually would need to reconcile God with science.

Attack 4. Bible Survey Teacher

That same semester, I enrolled in a Bible survey class. I thought it would be really good for me to get some formal training in the Bible. So I sign up for this class at my college. And I go in, sit down, and am really excited again, like I was for my astronomy class.

Well, the teacher walks in. And the very first thing he says is, you know, we really don’t know who wrote Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

In fact, we really don’t know much about Jesus life from the Gospels at all.

In fact, we really don’t know if Jesus even said anything that’s written in the gospels.

Well, I can tell you how I felt. This is the first time I’d ever come across a liberal Christian–someone who doesn’t really believe that the Bible is the Word of God–the very first time. And he was my teacher! He was supposed to be my Bible survey teacher.

And I was just blown away. I kept thinking, How could someone who’s a professor of the Bible–a Bible teacher–not believe in the Bible! It didn’t make sense to me, and I dropped that class.

That’s how I felt. I dropped it.

Why Christian Apologetics Is So Important

So my faith was attacked four times in the first six months of me becoming a Christian. Two cults tried to suck me in. An atheist professor tried to convince me there is no God. And a liberal Bible teacher tried to shake my belief in Scripture.

Now apologetics is defending the Christian faith. I didn’t know anything about apologetics when all this was happening. But I sure knew that after getting mixed up with all that I needed to study the Bible for myself to see what it really taught.

And I knew I needed to look into how accurate the Bible really was, or wasn’t.

And I needed to see how Christianity can answer a science teacher who said, there is no God.

This is why apologetics is so important to me. And I believe it’s also important for the church. Because I know I’m not alone. Christianity has been under attack from the beginning. And apologetics is needed for people like myself–people who are looking for answers to back up our faith.