Like most camps, we also offer scholarships. But a quick Google search shows that most camps are actually giving out financial aid. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, we also offer financial aid, but even our financial aid requires campers to do at least one academic scholarship project. You see, we believe, the type of campers for which our programs are best-suited, are "smart" kids. At Ci we believe a smart kid is one that 1) loves to learn 2) is persistent at figuring things out. As such, we give ALL of our campers, those financially needy and those who are not, an opportunity to do academic scholarship reports, both written and video, to reduce their tuition.
Here's how it works. Any camper can reduce their camp tuition (by up to $150) by submitting scholarship reports or videos. Details are on the website.
We have been blessed to read and watch what our campers have submitted the past 4 years. We thought it might be encouraging to share a few with our Ci family.
These alleged contradictions, whether made by skeptics or Christians, are a problem. If actually true, God’s Word would be contradicting itself. That would mean we shouldn’t believe it because it contains errors and therefore must be inaccurate. This includes both small details and the larger, more miraculous events. For example, one supposed contradiction is that since modern Christians don’t follow Old Testament laws (i.e., kosher, animal sacrifices, etc.), they don’t truly follow God. This would mean we aren’t really Christians, because we’re not obeying all of God’s Word. However, we don’t have to keep these sacrificial rules because they were symbols that pointed to Jesus, and were meant to be kept by ancient Israel.
The first application of this book is that Christians need to both defend the Bible and attack the false philosophies of this world. When a Christian debates a skeptic, the skeptic attacks the Bible by asking multiple questions, and the Christian only defends the Bible. We need to point out the inconsistencies in the skeptic’s worldview. For example, some believe we’ve evolved from slime over millions of years, and that emotions are just meaningless chemical reactions inside our brain. However, these same people wear clothes and are sometimes married. To truly live out what they profess to believe, they shouldn’t marry or wear clothes, because performing these actions is contrary to a true evolutionary worldview. By pointing out their false religion’s inconsistencies, we’d be destroying the false worldview holding them captive and showing them the truth of God’s Word. If we only defend our faith, then we’re just letting them attack the Bible.
The second application of this book is that Christians need to be careful when refuting people’s arguments against the Bible (i.e., these supposed contradictions). Sometimes, we cause more trouble than we solve by giving a possible solution to the supposed contradiction. We need to refute people’s arguments with respect and gentleness, not attacking them and their character, but the false worldview entangling them. After all, these false worldviews are the enemy, not the people caught up in them, who are, like us, made in God’s image. We must remember that we, unlike God, are fallible, not automatically assume that if we don’t fully understand it, then it must be a contradiction. We also need to have faith that since this is the infallible Word of God, who created the laws of logic, there isn’t any contradiction in the passage.
After reading this book, I realized that we need to not interpret Scripture (intentionally or unintentionally) with our own misunderstandings. By asking God for guidance and poring over a passage, we’ll usually find the answer. We also need to show skeptics the inconsistencies of their false worldview, pointing them to the true Word instead.