Defending the Faith- an Introduction

When it comes to the subject of defending the Christian faith, there are some Christians that think it is unspiritual to give reasons and evidence for believing in God,Christ or the Bible. They say that would be violating their faith to give reasons for the hope that is in them. Faith for them is a blind trust that it is all true based on what the Scripture and Gospel message says without evidence. To give reasons is to impugn faith. This view is not only wrong and irrational but totally unscriptural. The subject of apologetics is commanded in Scripture (Titus1:8,1Peter 3:15,Jude 3). Christian apologetics which means defending the Christian faith comes from the greek word apologian used in 1Peter 3:15. It means to give reasons as in a courtroom where a lawyer is defending his client. But we as Christians are commanded to do it with gentleness and reverence. So these verses totally refute the blind faith position that some Christians believe is spiritual. The Lord Jesus said the great commandment of the Law was to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND (Matt 22:37). Our faith, meaning the body of truth which the Christian is to believe is to be embraced with trust but also with the entirety of our being which includes our mind. Since God made us in his image (Gen 1:26,27), and has given all men the light of rationality in our minds(John 1:1-9), He has made us to be able to know the Truth and that the Truth will set us free, and this Truth is the Lord Jesus Christ (John 8:32,36;14:6). The divine Logos has shined into the human logos/mind/spirit rationality, which encompasses logic,language,and morality. To jettison reason in the Christian faith is to reduce Christianity to a subjective mystical experience that cannot be defended as Truth.
Epistemology which is the study of knowledge and how one can justify it is something every Christian should be aware of. Scripture gives us an epistemology to embrace. It is actually assumed by the statements made in Scripture. Without knowing truth man is unaccountable for his sins. This is what happens when a person embraces a Postmodern worldview that says there is no such thing as absolute truth. They would say there are many "truths" but no Truth. This is intended to justify any immoral behavior because you see to them there is no immorality because to them there is no absolute moral standard by which we are to live by. Since there is no Truth there is no God because God is the ultimate absolute. In a postmodern worldview there are no absolutes.
A Christian on the other hand, has a basis for Truth which is the Holy Bible. In the Holy Bible there is an epistemology that is assumed as we read it. We are able to read it and understand it because as the Bible says, we are made in His image. So we know, morality, we are verbalizing, thinking, moral people which have volition. Not only does the bible assume that but it is verified by our personal experience. I am able to type these words and think rational thoughts and draw moral conclusions and verbalize my thoughts, because the Triune God has made me in His image and granted me these gifts as common grace . His electing merciful and sovereign grace is given to His elect people chosen from before the foundation of the world(Ephesians 1:4,5,Romans 9:16-22,2Timothy 1:9). The four incontrovertible foundational principles of knowledge are assumed in Scripture. They are Logic, the law of causality( which is an extension of the law of logic),the analogical use of language, and the basic reliability of sense perception. All of these can be assumed in 2Peter 1:16-21. Logic assumes rationality and we are able to know what is being said without contradiction. Peter is telling us that we have not following cunningly devised myths. So the law of Non-contradiction which says A cannot be A and non A at the same time and in the same relationship,myths doesn't mean objective facts or George Bush or the United States. It also implies the use of language written that can be understood as I am typing this on my computer with rational thought and words that can be communicated to someone who may come across my web blog and read it. Peter talks about the fact that he was an eyewitness of His Majesty as he relates the incident in verses 16 and 17 of when he saw Christ transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration and heard God the Father speak concerning His Son,the Lord Jesus Christ. This implies the reliability of sense perception and the law of cause and effect. He ends the passage and chapter saying an even more sure word of prophecy is the Holy Scriptures which Holy Men of God wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit(2Peter 1:19-21) These verses also assume men can read this and understand it and draw moral conclusions about it. These are incontrovertible principles for any rationality or knowledge to take place. These can be called our presuppositions that cannot be refuted without self contradiction. Atheists have tried to undermine these principles in some way over the centuries and each time whether they know it or not they are skewered on their own pitard. They would use each of these 4 presuppositions without having any basis for using them so they are living off the borrowed capital of a Christian biblical Worldview. This passage in 2Peter 1:16-21 is a great example of Peter the great apostle, defending the Faith. He is giving reasons for why he believes and why his readers are to believe the Truth about God,Christ and the Holy Scriptures.
In summary, Faith in Christ is given supernaturally by the sovereign grace of God but it is a Faith with rational content that can be defended. The presuppositons for rationality are all contained in the Holy Bible. That is Logic,the Law of Causality, analogical use of language, and the basic reliability of sense perception. All four are necessary for knowledge and rationality to exist. We possess these because we are made in the image of God. They provide the preconditions of rational thought and expression as well as intelligibility. Christ says we are to include our mind in our worship of God. This makes Christianity rational and defensible because it is based on objective truth of the existence of God, and His work in the history of the World which He has created and sustains and He will one day return bodily in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. More on Defending the Faith in 2006.

Back Home

I just got back home after driving to my mom's beach house and checking it over to see everything was ok. The drive down was treacherous in the dark on I-4 running into several thick fog banks that made visibility almost nil. By the grace of God, I had some trucks in front of me and I was able to follow them by their red tail lights until I came out of the fog banks. It wasn't until the outskirts of Tampa that tall lightpoles lit the way for me. The Lord sure looked after me in His grace and mercy.
As I was driving down, I was able to recite the epistle of Titus from memory twice. That is always a thrill and a blessing to me. God's Word is my spiritual food and I believe it also delights the Lord to recite His Word back to Him with joy. I also reflected on the trouble some christians have with "proof" of God's existence in the created order. In light of my apologetics class I will be teaching in a few weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to develop some thoughts on this tomorrow to explain how our Faith is a rational,credible faith that is anchored in logic,science and history.

Heading Out

I am about to head out south to my mother's beach house in Redington Shores,Fl. to check on it that everything is ok and that the outside is swept and clean and the car starts and runs ok. I pray for traveling mercies as I drive in the dark on I-4 which is always a challenge with all the construction that is along the way. I look forward also to reciting the book of Titus which I have rememorized for my March bible study class that I am teaching and I hope to plan out class one of my apologetics class starting on January 11th 2006. I plan to be back by noon and give some more reflections of a Christian Man.

Walk the Line- some reflections

Last night, I again went to Pleasure Island in Downtown Disney to see the movie " Walk the Line". It was the story of Johnny Cash from his early childhood growing up on a cotton farm in Arkansas, his early failed marriage,his success in getting into the music business and touring with June Carter and other famous stars like Elvis Presley,his addiction to presciption drugs and alcohol and finally to his marriage of June Carter. It was a roller coaster life of a Saint and Sinner. Each of us to some degree can relate to the flawed hero role of Johnny Cash and to some degree June Carter.
I was interested how James Mangold, the director would portray Christianity in this movie and I was not surprised to see the subtle references to Christians as backward,legalistic and judgmental. This was the movie's only flaw for me as a Christian man. The scene in the store where June Carter is recognized by a woman who slammed Carter for her divorce calling it an abomination to God. Now as someone who is divorced, I can totally agree with that woman but the movie portrayed her as unloving and judgmental and rude rather than loving,and brokenhearted over June's failed marriage. Hollywood directors may never get it right because their worldview does not include the Lordship of Jesus Christ or the Holy Scriptures as Truth. This was a wonderful movie with great acting of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon putting in Oscar nominated performances. The character development was tremendous as Cash grew closer and closer to June Carter committing adultery along with his boozing and drugs that finally destroyed his first marriage. I was sad the movie did not get into some of Johnny's later life where true redemption would be seen in his life lived for Christ. This and the portrayal of Christians is the only flaws of the movie and one that I unfortunately and sadly expected. Rating A-

Munich- some reflections

I went to Pleasure Island yesterday and saw the movie "Munich". It is a story dealing with the murder of the 1972 Israeli Olympic weightlifting team by the Palestinian terrorist group called the Black September,and how Israel dispatched a secret undercover assassin team to find and kill each of the terrorists. It was well acted and directed, and technically brilliant. I was a junior at Jacksonville University in 1972 when the Olympic massacre took place and seeing the actual newsreels of Jim Mckay announcing the death of all the rest of the Israeli weightlifting team at the airport brought flashbacks when I saw him on television deliver that announcement surrounded by several of my jewish friends at school.
As always,Steven Spielberg, who directed and produced this movie produced a first rate movie experience. I was overall however, disappointed by a few major things. It was overly bloody and gory. Now I expected a violent picture but the scenes of blood and gore were overdone and unnecessay. I also was disappointed and surprised that Spielberg would include a frontal nude scene of the woman operative who the mausad assassinated and left frontally naked in her blood. The movie would have received an R rating just for the violence, but the gore and the nudity were unnecessay to the movie.
My final disappointment was in Spielberg's message that he was conveying in the film of moral equivalence between the Israeli assassins and the Palestinian Black September Group. Though Jewish, Spielberg does have great sympathy for the Palestinian cause for a homeland. Ignoring the history of the region, he attempts to nuance the conflict to communicate to the audience that there is moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinians. Even though Israel is fighting for survival in a country surrounded by millions of Arabs, they are wrong to retaliate for the murder of innocent victims. This seems to be the message he is conveying in the movie. While the audience is repulsed by the Palestinian terrorism, we are to be sympathetic to their passion for a homeland. All this despite the fact that the Palestinians were never a nation in the middle east while Israel has a 3000 year history in that region. The 1948 UN partition plan gave Palestine a homeland which they refused and declared war on Israel the next day with several other middle east Arab nations. Israel occupies less than 1% of the land in the middle east but the PLO charter is to destroy Israel and murder all the Jews. As a Christian, I have supported the Israel cause politically,economically,culturally and scripturally. I don't endorse everything Israel does. They are not spiritually redeemed and they will cause moral atrocities that I abhor as well. Even a Christian nation can do this. They should be called to account for this as well. But to say the Palestinians are morally equal and even superior in their cause and methods is to ignore moral distinctions which is why Spielberg is a postmodern man. That is, he believes there are no moral absolutes except the absolute that all morals are relative. RATING B+

What will it take?

I have this week off from work and as I am preparing to teach my bible classes starting in January,I wondered what it would take to revive the evangelical churches in the United States. We have so many ministries,and types of study bibles,and 40 days of purpose, and marriage seminars and political action committees for Christian groups. We have no reformation or revival. We have as Hugh Hewitt has written, many EB's, that is embarrassed believers. What will it take to bring true biblical holy ghost reformation and revival to our churches? I believe it will take persecution. I don't like persecution. Who does? But if that is what it will take to get the attention of the evangelical churches, then bring it on. Oh Lord come and visit your people with the Holy Ghost fire of reformation and revival. Let the chaff be blown away and let the true elect of God stand for your truth without compromise. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity! If persecution is what will accomplish this, Lord, bring it on! Amen.