In celebration of Stand to Reason’s 20th anniversary, the apologetics department hosted a conference Friday and Saturday, May 10 and 11, in Sutherland Auditorium. Stand to Reason is an organization focused on training Christians to think reasonably about their faith, and Biola honored their 20 years of ministry with this conference.

Friday night featured short lectures from Sean McDowell, Mary Jo Sharp and Craig Hazen, and a panel discussion with Stand to Reason’s team of speakers. J.P Moreland was expected to be a part of Friday night’s lecture, but was unable to make it due to unforeseen circumstances. The night was capped off with cake and a book signing for each of the speakers’ books. Saturday morning’s sessions were by Brett Kunkle, Alan Shlemon, J. Warner Wallace and Greg Koukl.

Each session was personalized to each of the speaker’s areas of expertise. Friday’s events were free, but the following day required a small registration fee. The entire conference was also live-streamed online.

Celebratory but serious

Craig Hazen, director of Biola’s apologetics program, kicked off the conference with a light-hearted, yet serious introduction to the weekend’s events. Although the conference had a celebratory theme, the seminars still had a serious undertone, remaining true to Stand to Reason’s mission as an organization.

“We didn’t want it to be content-light. We wanted to provide tools, thinking tools. In the end, we want people to have confidence. We want people to have enough confidence to stop treating their faith like it’s a subjective opinion. If we can help them see it is not a personal opinion, it’s objectively true, then we change the way we engage the world,” said J. Warner Wallace, one of the speakers and author of “Cold-Case Christianity.”

Stand to Reason’s mission is to “train Christians to think more clearly about their faith and to make an even-handed, incisive, yet gracious defense for classical Christianity and classical Christian values in the public square,” according to their website. This conference celebrated 20 years of fulfilling that mission and restated that same mission as a continued goal.

“We need to keep moving forward in terms of making the case for Christ. We’ve shied away from actually using evidence and good reason for too long. It is an apostolic command to give an answer,” Hazen responded when asked what listeners should take away from the lectures.

Friday night’s opening speakers not only addressed being able to approach faith intelligently, but also practical issues, like the problem of making jokes at the expense of other belief systems. During his lecture, Sean McDowell discussed being desensitized to atheist jokes and the negative image that gives to Christians. 

Student feedback

Sutherland Auditorium was filled with Biola graduates, Talbot School of Theology students and other Stand to Reason fans. Not many undergraduate Biola students were in attendance; however, the ones who were shared in the overall celebratory mood of the conference.

“I’ve been looking forward to this conference ever since they announced it. Anything new to help sharpen the apologetics would be great,” said Ignacio Reyes, a junior philosophy major.