What is a skeptic? 

There are four categories to consider: 

1. Spiritual skeptics 
2. Moral skeptics
3. Scientific skeptics
4. Biblical skeptics 

How/Where to meet them? 

See Acts 17.

• Where did Paul meet these skeptics?  How did he engage them?  
• Where is your “marketplace”?

Millennials and Pop Culture

Millennial worldview is shaped heavily by current pop culture, not deep Western culture.  

A rich, theological truth that Martin Luther re-discovered during the Reformation was the teaching about vocation: God uses our vocations (place in life) as a “mask” he can wear in order to accomplish his work in the world. 

Evaluate the place that art, music, film, etc. might have as one of those masks God can wear to accomplish his work.

Dexter, the TV show 

“I just know there is Something dark in me and I hide it.  I certainly don’t talk about it, but its always there, this Dark Passenger. And when he’s driving, I feel alive, half sick to death with the thrill of complete wrongness.”

• What is the truth about that quote?  (See Romans 7:14-25)
• What is the untruth about that quote?  (See John 3:16)

Use truth as a bridge or starting point to address untruth.

Bible Skeptics 

• The difference between errors and variants
• 5,000 New Testament manuscripts
• 10,000 variants total, not spelling errors
• Less than 40 variants contested (Ex. Mark 16 and John 8)
• None impact doctrine
• 99.5% of original New Testament text is known
  • Based on numerous amounts of copies 
  • Only one or two generations removed from original “autographs”

Goals to Engaging the Skeptic

1. Honor theology
2. Don’t outright condemn culture as a whole, but think critically 
3. Address sin without attacking, 
4. Provide a positive starting point to move into gospel discussion.