WHO IS THIS UNCIRCUMCISED PHILISTINE? (Part 1)

Jerry D. McDonald

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n recent weeks we have seen our way of life slipping away from us by people who don’t want us to be free anymore.  They want us to be slaves; slaves to humanism; to atheism.  They want “evolution” taught in school as science, but “creation” (the alternative of evolution) dismissed as religious myth.  Every time we retreat they take a step forward.  We as Christians must not take any more steps backwards.  Each individual Christian has the obligation to take sword in hand and “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12) and “endure hardship as s good soldier for Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:2).  Each individual Christian has the obligation, not only morally, but scripturally as well, to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saint” (Jude 3) and to be “set for the defense of the gospel” (Phil. 1:17).

We have backed up as far as we dare.  We have been backing up for years and now look what has happened, homosexual rights, abortion on demand (even partial birth abortion) and now “Stem Cell Research.”  We have backed up as far as we dare.

The children of Israel were at war with the Philistines and David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons went to bring his brothers food as he was instructed by Jesse (cf. 1 Sam. 17:17).  When he arrived where his brethren were camped a giant who stood around nine and a half feet tall.  His name was Goliath of Gath.  He taunted the soldiers of Israel calling them cowards and just asked for one man to come to him and fight him.  The soldiers of Israel were scared because of his height.  They just didn’t see how they could ever defeat him.

David heard this giant of a man insult the army of God and said: “to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Sam. 17:26).  David, a mere boy, just could not see why the army of Saul was just sitting by and allowing an uncircumcised person insult God by insulting his army.  David took on this giant and with a stone took the giant’s life.

We look at the liberal elements in our country today.  The atheist/humanist movements are tearing down the moral fabric of our society.  Homosexuals are gaining ground every day with our politicians and pro-death groups are gaining more ground every day.

We sit back like the army of Saul and wonder what we can do to these giants.  David didn’t allow Goliath’s size to get in the way of what he knew needed to be done.  He went out and proved that one person can make a difference.  We, like Saul’s army, are afraid, but we aren’t afraid for our physical lives like they were.  No, we are afraid of something far less serious.  We are afraid that if we stand up against these people that they will laugh at us, call us narrow minded.  We are afraid that they will intimidate us, tell us that we are uneducated fools.  We are so afraid of criticism that we literally bend over backwards to avoid it.  All the while the atheists are training each other in techniques on how to fight Christians.  In this series of article we are going to look at techniques that are being taught to atheists on how to defeat Christianity.

In his book “The Art of Deception” Nicholas Capaldi, an atheist writer (a book published by Prometheus Books, and atheistic publishing company) instructs the atheist just how to defeat Christians in any kind of discussion.  Let us now look at some of those tactics.

1. One tactic that is used by nearly all atheists in debate is called the “Red Herring.”  He says: “So far we have discussing refutation of specific charges against your presentation.  If you have successfully rebutted them, all well and good.  But what happens if you feel that your defense has not be strong enough or that there are lingering doubts in the minds of the audience?  At this point you should avoid sticking to the point (emphasis mine, jdm).  Remember that the only thing that always sticks to the point is a dead insect on display.  What you must do is draw attention to a side issue (emphasis mine, jdm) where you feel particularly strong.  This will give the impression that you are still in charge of the course of the discussion (p.140, emphasis mine, jdm).

 

In other words, when you feel that you have not done a very good job, then you change the subject and go on to something else.  You pick on some other point where you think you did a good job.  And yes, this tactic is successfully tried on Christians by atheists who debate them.  In formal logic this fallacy is called Ignoratio Elenchi (irrelevant conclusion).  Erving Copi wrote:

“The fallacy of ignoration elenchi is committed when an argument purporting to  establish a particular conclusion is directed to proving a different conclusion” (Introduction to Logic, p.100).

The word “fallacy” is defined as:

“deception...aptness to mislead...a false or mistaken idea, opinion, error...an error in reasoning...an argument based on incorrect demonstration” (Webster’s New World Dictionary, p.504).

Who is this spiritually uncircumcised Philistine?  He and others like him are nothing but servants of Satan, who may not even realize that they work for him.   We will continue in next week’s bulletin.