Reformed Reflections

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All? by James W. Sire.
Inter Varsity Press, Downers Grove, 111.11994. Softcover, 239pp

Apologetics is a most useful study for Christians. It clears away objections to faith, and it provides a defense for it.

All people do believe, whether atheist or agnostic or Christian. Belief is fundamental to all human action. In our attempt to win others for the Christian faith, our argument ought to be based on the best evidence; it must be valid; it must refute the strongest objections than can be made against it.

The Christian faith must not be relegated to the status of private opinion. It is public truth. This statement kicks against the pricks of postmodern thinking. Our culture is pluralistic and culturally relativistic; almost any thought or action is allowable; every belief system is considered equal. But a culture which doesn't accept moral absolutes has no basis to distinguish between right and wrong. God's law is necessary for a moral foundation.

Behind the basis of Sire's book is the assumption that God is present with us. Through Christ He is the creative source of our ability to understand and believe the truth. As the Spirit of truth, He enables us to see the truth of good arguments.

Students at secular colleges and universities are confronted with the notion that the cosmos exists solely on its own without having been created or sustained in existence by God; a naturalist-secularist mindset. Sire, as campus lecturer for Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, is well acquainted with the intellectual, moral, and spiritual challenges modern students face. His book is a well-reasoned, powerful, apologetic for the Gospel. A fine present for a senior high school, college or university student.

Johan D.Tangelder