Present Truth in the Real World: The Adventist Struggle to Keep and Share Faith in a Secular Society

by Jon Paulien

Publisher:

Pacific Press

, 1993

Overview

Who is winning the struggle between Christianity and secularism? Is the world becoming like the church or is it the other way around? How can Adventism—a church founded in the 1860s—meet the needs of today’s secular person? In this book, Jon Paulien challenges fellow Adventists to reach out to secular people with the everlasting gospel. Learn strategies for identifying people you can reach, meeting their needs while retaining your own faith.

Contents

Top Highlights

“But secular people are rarely reached in groups. They are usually reached best in one-to-one settings.” (Page 37)

“The secular person is not an atheist. He or she is simply a person for whom religion has become irrelevant at the practical level of everyday experience.” (Page 47)

“The hopelessness and malaise that I sense in so many Anglo churches in North America is to a large degree the result of a process that is called ‘secularization.’ Secularization means that a society is becoming more and more inclined to view life without reference to God or religion. There is a gradual erosion of belief in the supernatural, a perception that whatever happens is limited to this world and to sense experience. Religious values and practices are increasingly discarded. And the church, as an institution, declines in its influence on the larger society. A secular person or society may not consciously reject religion or God, but God plays a diminishing role in people’s day-to-day lives.” (Page 8)

“How can we communicate with secular people in an effective way? How do we get past the many barriers that secular people erect in order to protect themselves against the unwanted influence of religion? A good way to start is to deal with secular people the same way Jesus dealt with people. He met them at the point of felt need—that place in their life where they were searching for something better.” (Page 127)

“In my experience, secular people don’t normally come to faith as a result of intellectual argument but because of an encounter with the living God. And when God has become real to them, their objections usually fall away in light of their new perspective on life.” (Page 10)

Product Details

• Title: Present Truth in the Real World: The Adventist Struggle to Keep and Share Faith in a Secular Society
• Author: Jon Paulien
• Publisher: Pacific Press
• Print Publication Date: 1993
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Witness bearing (Christianity) › Seventh-day Adventists; Evangelistic work › Seventh-day Adventists; Seventh-day Adventists › Membership
• ISBNs: 0816311277, 9780816311279
• Resource ID: LLS:PRSNTTRTHRLWRLD
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:26:10Z

About Jon Paulien

Dr. Jon Paulien is Professor of New Testament and Dean of the School of Religion at Loma Linda University. He specializes in the study of the Johannine literature in the New Testament (Gospel of John and book of Revelation) and the intersection of faith with contemporary culture. He is the author of over 25 books, including Everlasting Gospel. Dr. Paulien has also written over 100 articles, scholarly papers, and other publications.