Help! My son is taking a secular religion and philosophy class at a university

I have a friend who's son is attending a secular university. He wants to equip his son to stay true to Jesus. My friend received an email from his son that went like this:

"My Philosophy and Religion class so far is my favorite, and luckily my professor refuses to tell us his religious stance, and plays devils advocate for both sides which I think helps with my learning. Another nice thing is that at the end of every class I ask him a question, and he always seems to have a very good answer."

My friend wanted to know how to get information to his son to help arm him.

Here are my suggestions:

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Hi bro,

I had profs like that at Vanderbilt. And I have to admit, they planted seeds of doubt. That can be good if kids move from an inherited faith to a faith of their own.

But often, the kids don’t have resources from which to draw to defend the faith.

Below are some great websites filled with information from some really smart people who defend the faith very well.

If your son is doing a research paper, I’m sure that these sites will point him in a lot of positive directions.

http://www.williamlanecraig.com/

http://www.leestrobel.com/

http://www.rzim.org/

http://www.carm.org/

http://www.reasons.org/

http://www.crossexamined.org/

http://www.4truth.net/

http://www.colsoncenter.org/wfp-home

In addition, I would recommend very highly that you get him a copy of Tim Keller’s book "The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism." He has many chapters that deal with the classic questions and objections to the faith. Lee Stroble’s "The Case for Christ," "The Case for Faith," and "The Case for a Creator" are also great resources.

Maybe you and he could pick out a book and read a chapter together and discuss it over the phone once a week.

Ravi Zacharias edited a book called “Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend” that has a great chapter in it by Alison Thomas called "Challenges from Youth" that talks about the dangers and opportunities of maintaining faith in a secular campus setting.

I also would recommend that he be plugged into some campus ministry. There’s probably a Campus Crusade for Christ, an Intervarsity or a Navigator group, or a Baptist Campus Ministry that he could connect with.

If I hadn’t been very active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes while at Vanderbilt, I don’t know how I would have survived.