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For many years I was a militant atheist. I hated religious people, especially Christians, convinced that their philosophy of sin and redemption was a mind-control effort that was ruining the world. In my view, their faith was a convenient crutch on which they could place the weight of the world's problems.
I would go out of my way to verbally attack any Christian I encountered, and became quite good at finding the weak areas in their arguments. Convinced that I was right and that God was merely a theological idea invented by man, I lived for moments when I would see in a Christian's eyes the flicker of doubt.
Through an incredible experience which made me examine the Bible with a sincere heart, I learned that evidence for the Bible's authenticity is overwhelming. Only someone blind to the facts could honestly study the body of evidence and conclude that the Bible was just a book. When that conclusion became obvious, I turned control of my life to Jesus Christ. The results for more than 15 years have included a deep inner peace and joy which have dramatically changed my life. Today I can only recall with a shudder the inner turmoil and uncertainty which haunted me daily for all those atheistic years.
I see many Christians today who are not completely certain of the basis for their faith. When attacked and ridiculed, they wither and crumble, unable--or perhaps unwilling--to defend what they believe. I find this incredulous, because my own faith is based not on opinion, as was my atheism, but on an astonishing amount of legal-historic evidence. These beliefs are grounded on historical evidence and eyewitness accounts of thousands of people who faithfully documented the facts.
With the Christian faith under constant attack from those who do not want to be governed by boundaries, each Christian has a responsibility to learn how to defend what we know to be true. I was graciously invited to present this material to several adult Sunday School classes at my church. The series was so effective that word got around and I've subsequently had the opportunity to share this series with three other groups since. I decided to post a web-friendly version here to share with the world community as well.
Some of the material is taken from Ravi Zacharias' excellent video resource entitled Deliver Us From Evil. Segments from his book of the same title are briefly quoted within some of these lessons. They form the foundation of this entire program. The video series is exceptionally effective due to high production values and Ravi's clarity in communicating these difficult concepts. Each video segment is about 15-20 minutes in length. Combined with framing comments such as those shown here, and with a few minutes discussion time, the result is a powerful 60 to 90-minute Sunday School session.
Please consider purchasing this excellent resource from Word Publishing, 1501 LBJ Freeway, Dallas, Texas 75234-6800. You can also call toll free 1-800-933-9673.
Additional video sources were also utilized to emphasize some of the central areas of the course that highlight the reasons why the Christian faith is based on fact--a conviction rather than opinion.
Those of you reading this material on the Internet are not exposed to the video segments or multimedia elements used in the actual classroom lessons. I've attempted to provide the flavor of this material as closely as possible. If you wish to use any of my own material in teaching a Sunday School class of your own, please contact me for permission.
George Pytlik
January 1999
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