It says in Titus 1.9, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he may be
able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
God wants us to be able to use sound doctrine to exhort and convince the gainsayers.
The opponents, the adversaries, the people who don't believe like us, we should be able
to engage them and convince them and straighten them out.
That's what God wants.
Now here's what some people would say to this point.
They'd say, well, you know, I argue online.
Folks, no.
Here's what you find online.
Interacting with people that don't believe like you online, you find a lot of strife
and debate is what you find.
And let me explain to you what the difference is.
And if you would, turn to 1 Peter chapter 3.
Here's the difference.
If I go online, let's just pick a few subjects.
Let's just pick the subject of, let's say, creation, evolution type debate.
If I go online and talk about creation, I'm probably going to be talking with two kinds
of people.
Number one, I'm going to be talking with my fellow Bible-believing Christians and creation
believers where we can all pat each other on the back and rah rah shish kumba and have
a little pep rally for what we already believe.
Or we're going to end up talking to rabid atheists who hate God and are just hell-bent
on disproving creationism because those are the type of people that are going to be hanging
out on a creation chat room or on a creation video.
There's Joe Blow out there.
He's not researching that stuff necessarily.
He's just living his life and doing whatever.
So typically if you're on some kind of a forum or Facebook group or YouTube or chat or whatever
about creationism, it's probably going to be with people that are hardcore for it or
hardcore against it and it's just this debate, strife, arguing.
That gets nowhere.
It's a waste of time.
Arguing with people online like that is a waste of time.
Whereas in real life, when I say come into contact with people with different views,
I'm not saying that you're running into Richard Dawkins at the grocery store and you're having
it out with them in the produce section or something.
That's not what I'm talking about because chances are you're not going to be at work
next to Bill Nye the Science Guy and going after these subjects with him.
See in real life, you're going to be out talking to people, most of whom are sincere people
that are actually interested in the truth and interested in learning, they just have
a different view than you.
Just like you're interested in the truth, you're interested in learning, you have a
different view.
Sometimes you're going to change your view, sometimes they're going to change their view.
When you're out talking to normal people in real life, not just seeking out this group
where we all get together and hash out this subject.
It's like these Christian versus Muslim debates.
It's not like after the service there's some big altar call where a bunch of Muslims come
forward and get saved.
Because typically the Muslims that are there are hardcore Muslims, the Christians that
are there are typically hardcore Christians.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
People who attend a political rally or something, they're into it.
People who attend a creation seminar are into it.
The point is that when we actually interact with people normally in this world, we end
up just talking to nice people who have different views than us that can challenge our views
and we can either prove to them why we're right and show them evidence and get them
on our side.
Or maybe when they challenge us we're going to realize, whoa, I don't have any evidence
for this.
Maybe I need to rethink this.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
That's a big difference from arguing online.
And look at 1 Peter 3 verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear.
And here's what I see in this verse.
Number one, I see meekness.
So it isn't just a bunch of just strife and bitter contention and debate and back and
forth and arguing.
It's giving an answer with meekness, giving an answer with gentleness, kindness, having
a civil conversation, having a friendly conversation is what I see with meekness there.
The other thing I see is every man that asketh you.
That shows that there's some interest on the part of who you're talking to.
If they're asking you, then they must have some interest.
You're not just beating your head against the wall talking to some reprobate, talking
to somebody who's so far off the deep end they're never going to get straight on these
things.
So arguing online does not take the place of having friendly conversations in real life.
Hey, I can't even count how many times I've sat down with people of other religions, other
beliefs, other political views and just sat down with Christians with different doctrine
and just had a friendly conversation.
People are always telling me, you've got to debate this guy, you've got to debate this
guy.
You know why I don't do debates?
It's because I'm not full of debate.
I want to have friendly conversations with people though.
I find that you learn a lot more in a friendly conversation than in a debate where you have
a friendly conversation and you find common ground and you can talk about differences
and challenge them and they challenge you and you can actually make progress and get
somewhere not just like the battle lines are drawn and I'm on this side and you're
on that side and I'm going to kick your butt.
That doesn't accomplish anything.
That's why the Bible says avoid strife and contentions and strivings about the law.
Don't get in arguments.
When I'm out soul winning and somebody wants to argue with me it's like alright, have a
good day, see you later.
You know I'm there to talk, I'm not there to fight, I'm not there to argue, I'm not
there to debate because it's unprofitable and vain.
People's heartbeat starts racing and guess what the blood leaves their brain.
I'm serious you know because they get into like a fight or flight and there's even a
physiological component to this where people get mad and they don't necessarily think straight
when they're mad.
We've all gotten mad where we're seeing red and we aren't thinking straight because we're
just enraged.
So that's not the best way to learn, that's not the best way to have a conversation, that's
not the way to engage with other people.
So you know we want to have a friendly conversation in real life, that's a lot better than a flame
war online.
And by the way people act differently online than they would in real life.
Not only that but you can't even say all the things that you want to say online because
it's censored.
So you know oh if I say this it's going to trigger this algorithm and I'm going to get
deleted and I'm going to go to jail and whatever, Facebook jail that is.
Behold the devil shall cast some of you into Facebook prison.
But anyway.