=) I really respect and appreciate every family that teams together in an entrepreneurial endeavor. I pray God will bless us with industrious families who are not only involved in filmmaking but also food provision, medicine, industry, journalism, and virtually every other trade and dominion activity. Thank you for serving with your family and setting an example for all.

In Christ,

Nathaniel Darnell

I had to laugh though, because I told my family yesterday that “labor day is when all the salary workers party and the self-employed people like us work.”

CollegePlus! is a great alternative…allowing students the ability to receive the benefits of higher education, without the indoctrination, without most of the cost, and even without a lot of the time required. I can personally speak to how great the program is, having recently completed my fully-accredited BSBA as an 18 year old. This was made possible by the flexibility and acceleration that the CollegePlus! program provides. I’m really thankful to CollegePlus! for helping me to earn my college degree at the same time most of my peers are graduating high school, and for the great headstart on life that this gives me.

It’s always a pleasure corresponding with you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. If you haven’t heard the audio recording of “The Great Debate” between Dr. Greg Bahnsen and Dr. Gordon Stine (available at http://www.visionforum.com/search/productdetail.aspx?search=the+great+debate&productid=34508), I would heartily recommend it. His book “Always Ready” is also an essential book on apologetics that Mr. Phillips had me read when I first started working for Vision Forum as an intern (available at http://www.visionforum.com/booksandmedia/productdetail.aspx?productid=20678&categoryid=321). I also really appreciated the video lectures that American Vision produced called “Defending the Christian Worldview Against All Opposition” (available at http://www.visionforum.com/search/productdetail.aspx?search=Bahnsen&productid=44622).

ND

Once again, an excellent post.

To be brutally honest, I have wrestled with similar doubts that your friend has fallen prey to in the recent past. Not to the point where I am ready to abandon Christianity, but to the point where my faith is not strong enough to make the impact it should in the world. (See Matthew 11:2-3, 28:17, Mark 9:24). Since faith requires the evidence of things not seen, and we fallen humans are naturally prone to want to see things, your faith will at some point waver, especially when you are exposed to more and more things of and pressures from the world. Questions like “How can I be sure the Bible is the Word of God?” or “How can I be confident the Gospel is absolute truth in a postmodern world?” inevitably surface.

Even though all my questions have not been fully answered to the extent that I would like them to be, in the words of RC Sproul: “I am not prepared to jettison Christianity. There is too much evidence for a good God…” And as you have competently illustrated, a wholesale defection to atheism / skepticism doesn’t do much good in solving the “problem” of giving one a rock-solid, unshakable worldview either.

Keep up the good work, brother. I eagerly anticipate reading your posts. You are doing great work for the Kingdom that will be rewarded someday.

~Abigail~

As the Word of God says: “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” I Corinthians 1:20.

Nathaniel

Your exhortation is well received. Thank you!

We do not want to cast our pearls before swine, as you said, or answer a fool according to his folly by becoming like unto him. (See Proverbs 26:4). We do want to exhort and convince the gainsayer, to stop the mouths of the unruly and deceiver (Titus 1:10-11), and answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit (Proverbs 26:5). In the end, it is the Lord who turns the hearts of men toward Him. (See Philippians 2:13.)

Nathaniel

Thanks for your answer. I didn’t really mean that logic is totally in conflict with God’s Word. I was mainly coming from the point of how a lot of people use human reason in their lives versus using Biblical logic found in the principles of God’s Word.

And yes, we’ve been learning a lot about epistemological self-consciousness. I really like that word.

Melinda

I appreciate your comment. Glad to hear that your family is thinking through epistemological self-consciousness. =) As I Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Just to clarify, however, I do believe that logic (properly understood) is not at in conflict with the Word of God. In fact, as I was explaining to my friend in this post, concepts such as logic can only exist in a world where the Christian God lives and reigns. Humanism cannot account for things such as universal morality or logic. But we must discipline our minds by always evaluating it by the infallible standard of God’s revealed Word.

Blessings!

Nathaniel