Called to Demonstrate Truth

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Hank Unplugged podcast, exhorts followers of Christ to be able to demonstrate that Christianity is not an illusion. Karl Marx said, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” We should pay attention to that word “oppressed” because for Marx everything was a battle between the oppressed and the oppressor. In the evolution of civilization, religion must be destroyed. Why? According to Marx, “The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.” What’s the antidote to that? To demonstrate that true religion is not an illusion but is faith grounded in irrefutable fact. Marx was a devotee of Charles Darwin, and Darwin has won the day in our culture. Thus, Christians must demonstrate truth. There is an experience that we can have that transcends all philosophical speculation. The truth of Christianity is not about only this life, but it is about life as a continuum that goes on for all eternity. And as Vladimir Lossky so eloquently wrote, “After the Fall, human history is a long shipwreck awaiting rescue: but the port of salvation is not the goal; it is the possibility for the shipwrecked to resume his journey whose sole goal is union with God.”