In Depth:  Steve Wilcox

The issue of abortion is seldom far from the headlines in the secular media.

Last year saw the (unsuccessful) amendment vote instigated by Nadine Dorries MP to ensure that women considering an abortion are offered counselling that is independent from abortion providers. Christians are regularly told that opinions and views formed by faith should not influence public policy in the area of abortion.

The Lord Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). But how are we do that in our nation, which seems so closed to the message of the Bible?

It is a question which every pastor and gospel-centred Christian is rightly asking. And many answers have been given. ‘Only God can do it — we need a movement of God’s Spirit.’ ‘We must keep preaching God’s Word in season and out of season.’ ‘Believers will be added in ones and twos.’ I would wholeheartedly agree with each of these suggestions. And people are coming to faith — witness the fruit from the A Passion for Life initiative recently. And yet, I can’t help feeling that many of us (myself included) are entering the spiritual battle short of confidence and expecting to lose.

Christians are often accused of using ‘faith’, as opposed to ‘reason’. In reality, all people use both faith and reason. This has major consequences for intellectual debate and public policy issues. For it means that there is no such thing as ‘objectivity’. Everyone brings their faith to the discussion table.

Lilian Ladele is dismissed from her role as a registrar because of Christian conscience. A council worker is sacked for suggesting that a terminally ill patient should look to God for help. We are all aware of examples of Christians being sidelined in public life.¹

Christians are often accused of using ‘faith’ as opposed to ‘reason’ — which (it is said) thinking people use. But in fact, it’s quite the opposite. We will see in this article that ‘all truth is God’s truth’.

Last month, we saw that Christians and non-Christians alike use faith, reason and evidence in forming their view of the world. Christians exercise ‘true’ faith, whereas others exercise ‘false faith’ — faith in something other than God’s true revelation. We began to explore the idea that Christians alone have true knowledge (cf. Proverbs 1.7). How then do we explain the apparent success of non-Christians in making great advances in many fields of knowledge — most obviously, the natural sciences?

‘Faith’ is considered a dirty word in our culture today — certainly where it relates to ‘religious faith’. Hostility to Christianity and other ‘faiths’ is growing. Meanwhile ‘reason’ and ‘evidence’ are held up as the tools of enlightened humanity.

Visit the classroom where a 14-year-old child is given a hard time by classmates and teacher alike for confessing belief in Christianity: ‘No one believes in that any more!’ Visit parliament, where the Christian might be informed that ‘those speaking from faith have no part to play in the making of government policy’. Witness the Christian sharing the gospel with a friend: ‘I wish I had your faith’. We are all familiar with situations like these.