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Synopsis
Training in Christian apologetics is an absolutely necessary and vital part of Christian discipleship. Contend is a compelling volume designed to strengthen the faith of believers while challenging skeptics to reconsider the evidence for the truth of the Christian worldview. Written on a high school level, Contend is perfect for classrooms, small groups, or individual study.
Recommendations
Today’s student faces entirely different challenges to his or her faith than students of a few decades ago. The university provides an environment where, according to a 2007 survey, 53% of professors have unfavorable views of evangelical Christians. Christian high school students who wish to begin preparing themselves for this environment would do well to start with Contend.
Dr. Michael R. Licona, Apologetics Coordinator, North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention
This book provides Christians with a valuable tool in the ongoing attacks against the Christian faith by opposing worldviews. Best of all, it provides clear-minded teaching that can be understood and articulated by youth and adults alike.
Laird Crump, Headmaster, Shades Mountain Christian School,
Hoover, Alabama
Dollar and Pinkerton’s book is solidly biblical and written in a way that makes apologetics interesting and accessible to high school students. Christian educators, including home school parents, should consider making this a primary text to help ground their students in the faith.
Glenn Waddell, President, Birmingham Theological Seminary
With urgency in their writing and a heart for the Truth, Jason Dollar and Bradley Pinkerton loudly communicate the need for sound doctrine by equipping the reader to defend the truth. While some authors are merely noting a falling away from truth, Jason and Bradley take action by offering an answer to the doubtful and a hope to the curious. What a great book for any generation who is remotely interested in fulfilling Scripture by preparing a defense, a reason for this hope that lies within us.
Chris Altman, Minister of Youth, Roopville Road Baptist Church,
Carrolton, Georgia
Foreword by Dr. Steven B. Cowan
Almost three decades as a student, a teacher, and a pastor have taught me one inescapable lesson: Most Christian young people are ill-prepared to meet the attacks on their faith that they will encounter as adults in the world, and especially in college. The reasons for this are varied and com-plex, but among them is the fact that in the last century Christians have built for themselves a cultural ghetto in which they have largely insulated themselves and their children from the tough questions that unbelievers ask about the Christian faith.
Couple this with a view of spirituality that focuses almost entirely on experience and neglects the importance of the intellect, and you have a younger generation of Christians who are not only unprepared to answer the tough questions but are often unsettled, perplexed, and even shattered when their secular college professors raise them. Their faith is ridiculed as foolish and inconsistent with what we all really “know” to be true as revealed to us by science and history. Christianity, they are told, is an outmoded superstition held on a faith that is blind and contrary to the evidence.
My years of experience have taught me another lesson, too. When young Christians discover that there are actually good answers to these challenges, that faith need not be blind, that Christianity is not outmoded, superstitious, or foolish, but can in fact be rationally believed and even known to be true—most young Christians find this discovery to be emo-tionally refreshing, spiritually invigorating, and intellectually rewarding. I have seen weak and timid faith become vibrant and courageous when bolstered by good evidence that demolishes “arguments and every pre-tension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Jason Dollar and Bradley Pinkerton have made this discovery them-selves and they desire to help others make it as well. Their book Contend is the product of this desire. In these pages, the authors present the evi-dence for the Christian worldview in a way that is clear and winsome to high school students. They address all of the major challenges to the faith that young Christians are likely to encounter when they transition to col-lege and the workplace. And they point out the weaknesses of the non-Christian worldviews that vie for our allegiance in this fallen world. Here both parents and students will find a much-needed resource for defending and advancing the Christian faith in our time. It is my hope that this book helps to equip a new generation of Christians to “be prepared make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).
Steven B. Cowan
Southeastern Bible College
Apologetics Resource Center