Ju. Jones

I got a chance to hear Tim Keller speak at Georgetown University last night.  Tim Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, NY.  The lecture was based on his new (and first) book Reasons for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.  The book and lecture targets those who don’t believe in God.  Here are some take aways from the talk:1.  The only way to claim that no one can know all truth is to claim that you yourself know all truth.2.  For you to say, “You shouldn’t go around trying to convert people” is really you trying to convert me and stating that your view is superior to mine.  Your really imposing your view and evangelizing me!3.  If God is Creator, what makes us think that He is part of creation and therefore needs to be proven?  When an author writes a story, does he have to prove himself as the author in the story to prove that he is actually the author of the story?4.  If I can’t prove that there is a God, that doesn’t mean that I’m no longer accountable to Him.5.  No one can prove that God doesn’t exist.6.  Existence of God based on the things that are created allows you to make more sense out of life than saying that He does not exist, despite of created things.7.  It doesn’t make sense to say that Jesus’ resurrection was a made up story.  a) The Jews didn’t believe in an individual resurrection.  For a Jew to embrace the resurrection of Christ required an overnight change of worldview. b) The Greeks believed that the soul was good, but the body was bad.  To embrace resurrection as a Greek would actually be going backwards.  c) Hundreds of people saw Jesus over a period of 40 days after His resurrection.  d) Women were the first to witness Jesus’ resurrection.  During the days of Jesus, women were seen as second class citizens to say the least.  If you were making up a story about resurrection, you won’t want to say that women were the first witnesses.  You would be laughed to scorn.  The fact that women were the first witnesses goes against the grain of the day and gives the testimony much more validity.8.  Whenever you invite a great speaker on a college campus, serve cookies at the post-reception.