Class Lesson September 12, 2010

 
Hey Gang,

Last week I wanted to open the class with this video, you can click on the link to watch:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44M6nCDFEg4

My reason in showing the video was to introduce a man by the name of Charles Templeton, I'll bet most of you never heard of him, I hadn't either. Anyway, Templeton was Billy Graham's "Best Friend." He also co-founded "Youth for Christ" and Billy was the first evangelist that they hired. Charles and Billy would travel worldwide and conduct many crusades together and Billy Graham would say that Charles Templeton was, "one of the few men I have ever loved in my life." But their directions in life would soon hit a crossroad and Billy would go one way and Charles would go another. We all know what happened to Billy Graham, but Charles Templeton in 1957, at the age of 42 would leave the ministry and become an Agnostic! 

His last book was "Farewell to God: my reasons for rejecting the Christian faith." Why? Because of Apologetics. Templeton had a lot of doubts about God that he couldn't explain, much less defend. He would tell Lee Strobel in an interview that it all began with a photograph. A picture in Life magazine of a black woman in northern Africa, where they were experiencing a devastating drought, holding her dead baby and looking up into heaven with the tortured look of Why? Templeton would say, "Why would a caring and loving God allow the death of an innocent child and torture this helpless mother when all they needed was Rain." 

Templeton had a lot of questions, some I've already shared, but he would also question why a loving and caring God would allow a devastating illness like Alzheimer's to destroy a person's mind and family. Interestingly Charles Templeton would die in 2001, at the age of 86 from the very disease he questioned. 

Our entire series over the next 12 weeks will be on Apologetics: Being able to explain and defend your faith to the skeptics of the world that don't believe. 1 Peter 3:15-17 says that we are all expected to be apologist and that we should expect and "be prepared" to give an answer for what we believe.

Our lesson this week is on the very existence of God, Charles Templeton's main doubt. There is an interesting close to Lee Strobel's writing on Charles Templeton that I will share this Sunday.