Archive for Apologetics
Great Parenting Resources (Part 1 of 5)
Posted by: | CommentsA stroll through any bookstore’s parenting section may seem overwhelming. In the abundance of parenting books and resources, each have their own promise for raising great kids, and each are based upon their own philosophy of life and family. As Christians, we believe that the Bible is sufficient for “all life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), which surely must include raising children! Yet even with this understanding, it may seem too challenging to know how to accurately apply the Scriptures to the uniquenesses and challenges of every day life in your family. I’ve discovered five great resources to assist in this endeavor that would like to recommend to you. Each of these help form a Biblical view of children and families and discuss how to utilize the richness and Truth of God’s Word to “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6).
Family Driven Faith: Doing What it Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk With God by Voddie Baucham Jr.
Pastor Voddie Baucham examines the alarming statistics of the number of students who are raised in the church, yet abandon the faith by the end of their first year of University. What can the church and the family do to reverse this trend? In his challenging book, Pastor Baucham points readers to the timeless child-raising passage of Deuteronomy 6. However, unique to this book and others which discuss this Biblical text on parenting, Pastor Baucham begins where the passage begins: love–answering the question of “what is Biblical love?” This correct understanding of love serves as the foundation for the Scriptural principles of child-raising that Pastor Baucham expounds upon in the remaining of the book.
Here’s what others say about this book:
“Voddie Baucham has written an insightful and convicting book challenging parents to prioritize the spiritual development of children. Only read this book if the salvation and sanctification of your children is of the utmost importance to you.” -Tony Evans, pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas
“I’ve never encountered a book on family life that compressed so much Biblical teaching, proactive thinking, sound theology, and practical help in one volume.” -Don Whitney, Proffessor of Spiritual Fomation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Click here to buy your own copy of Family Driven Faith. Bridge Family, I also own a copy that I’m currently lending out, and down the road I would be happy to pass it along to any of you who would like to borrow it as well!
Part 2: Shepherding a Child’s Heart
Faith, Truth, Trustworthiness
Posted by: | CommentsFaith in God must be built on truth. If you genuinely desire to see people come to faith in God, you don’t necessarily have to prove God -beyond a shadow of a doubt- and you don’t have to refute all the millions of competing theories or worldviews that attempt to do away with God. Nor should you be afraid of the seemingly boundless evidence that points to a multi-trillion year old earth with evolution and apes walking out of the jungle as fully sensible evolved human beings. In my opinion -that sort of thing is illogical, and I 100% absolutely believe in ridiculing it, criticising it, and rebuking it for the silliness that it is. One thing you must and should be willing to do is to provide a sensible, logical, truthful explanation of the reality of God in this world (1 Peter 3:15).
If truth is real (and I know that it is) then that means that there is a singular valid understanding of reality, i.e. truth is absolute and exclusive. All other understandings of reality which do not correspond to the truthful understanding of reality cannot be valid. They are false. God doesn’t have to prove to us that He is trustworthy. He could just as easily wipe the universe out of existence and be done with it all. God doesn’t have to argue with us that He really does exist. God isn’t bound or constrained by anything to make His case to us for His existence. And yet- God is love. This means that while God doesn’t have to prove anything to us, He chooses to offer concrete undeniable evidences of His existence because He is a loving God and He knows that we are better off knowing Him then not knowing Him. God wants us to trust in Him, to believe in Him, and to consider that He is truthful. So He chooses to show us that He is truthful. Though God is not required to show us that He is truthful, for the sake of love, He decides He will demonstrate that He is true to us. Now, God claims that He created the universe miraculously from nothing. And God wants us to know that we can trust Him when He makes this claim. God intends for us to observe the creation and from the creation, He intends that we should come to a realization of Him. This is for our benefit because of His love for us. How do I know this is the case? God says so in Psalm 19:1-4, and this is the same argument that Paul makes in Romans 1:20.
This means that God desires us to observe His handiwork in nature because He loves us and wants us to find Him truthful and trustworthy in the created order. This means that whatever God says about nature or the world or creation must be true. God says that He supernaturally created the world. And there is a mountain of data that demonstrates the validity of this claim showing us that God is true. If man is trustworthy then man’s claim that we came from apes and evolved from monkeys should correspond with scientific data. Yet there is very little evidence to support this claim (virtually none, in fact).
A man’s faith doesn’t have to be illogical. For faith to be truly faith it will require that you embrace the unseen and those things which are hoped for (Hebrews 11:1), but this doesn’t mean that faith is illogical. Are there things in this world that are true and are not explainable? Absolutely: the parting of the Red Sea, the Incarnation of God, talking Donkeys and Serpents, and raising people back to life after they have been dead awhile. The miraculous is mysterious. God refuses to be placed into a neat tidy little box. He always demonstrates His authority over creation and is never bound to the rules of physics or whatever else may govern our physical universe. There is a great deal of mystery when you embrace the infinite Father and come to realize that His manners and methods are way higher and way smarter and way better than our own (Isaiah 55:9). He is in many regards incomprehensible, yet He is a person that chooses to make Himself known, and He chooses to demonstrate that He is true and that what He says is true. And one area that He chooses to make this argument about Himself is in the area of creation verses evolution.
So when a person indicates a desire to believe and trust in God, yet expresses reservations because they’ve been deceived with a bunch of so-called “evidence” that proves the so-called truth of “evolution” or that the earth is trillions of years old, I wholeheartedly engage in the debate. If I am able I will destroy every lofty opinion that is raised against God. I will tear down and annihilate, if I am able, every argument for evolution (2 Corinthians 10:5). I will not hesitate in the slightest regard. Some say that you “…just have to have faith.” I agree. There are things about God that are mysterious that you must accept and embrace by faith, and I will never dispute that. But I will not lay down in front of the bull-dozer of academia and stand idly by while scientists suggest a multi-trillion year old evolved planet is the mother of us all when there is good data that supports the Biblical account of creation and defies the evolutionary hypothesis. I will not put good logical arguments on the shelf in the face of academic ridicule, and say to my struggling friend “You just gotta have faith.” This misunderstands the nature of a relationship with God that is based on trust, and it makes all of the extreme efforts that God goes through in the scriptures to show us that He is trustworthy somewhat confusing. The nature of the struggle is that my friend wants to trustin God, but is wondering if God is trustworthy. And in this arena I know that God has given full license to Christians to pursue that argument to the very end, to defend His honor, to stand for His truthfulness, and to call others to trust in Him. He gives us license to do this in that He did it himself all throughout the history of Israel and most specifically in the person of Jesus Christ.
Against God? Against Man.
Posted by: | CommentsWednesday, September 30, 2009 was Blasphemy Day. I was unaware at the time that it occurred so my thoughts are coming a little late. I apologize. I stumbled across it today in my stack of stuff to read that I never have time to read.
Here’s the recap: a bunch of atheists who have philosophically examined the truth claims of religion [read Christianity] have come to the logical conclusion that God does not exist. As a result of this clearly logical and perfectly reasoned conclusion- they’ve decided that they should organize themselves and conduct a national atheistic holiday of blaspheming God. There’s a contest to see who can come up with the wittiest blasphemy, and the winner gets a T-Shirt. No, I’m not making this up! Check it out for yourself here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/09/30/first.blasphemy.day/
The event has all kinds of different things, including blasphemous art and paintings, that may “inadvertently,” make evangelicals uncomfortable. I wonder if these philosopher atheists are on the verge of arguing against their own existence? If they are half as smart and logical as the philosopher atheists who have preceded them in the 15th, 16th, and 17thcenturies –it is only a matter of time until they start to argue against their own existence. The atheistic philosophers have already done this once before and when left to their own devices –they ended up arguing against their own existence. This must surely seem absurd, but believe it or not- there are actually people who havebeen so self-absorbed with their own cleverness that they came to question the legitimacy of our existence. Just browse through the writings of the major philosophers of the 15-17 centuries. If you’re reading this… they might argue that you do not exist, and they might argue further that you can’t prove your existence to me or anyone else. A bunch of individuals have, in the past, sat around and argued for the simple fact that none of them actually exists in reality. This would be laughable if it was merely hypothetical, but sadly and tragically –it is true. And, if history is any guide, it’s likely to happen again. Once philosophers argue God out of existence [i.e. atheists], there are no restraints and the seat belt that holds them to the chair of sanity magically disappears. As a result, their argument shifts away from God to their own selves, and they proceed to arguing themselves out of existence! If man rightly derives the significance of his existence from the significance of his Creator then any refutation of the Creator must logically descend into a pit of self denial, and a refutation of man’s own significance. Is it any wonder that Communist Russia had the highest suicide rate in the world during the 70’s and 80’s? What was the end of these philosophers’ theories about their own non-existence? One simple statement: Cogito ergo sum.
Rene Descartes, the famous French philosopher, theorized “I think, therefore I am.” He originally wrote this statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum.” Descartes summarized that because of his ability to have cognitive function, intellectual capacity, logical analysis and reasoning, and imaginative processes he must surely exist. Descartes attempted to prove the reality of our own existence by offering thought processes as an undeniable proof. He did this in response to some of his atheistic philosopher contemporaries. Descartes faced an interesting and absurd challenge to rationality, to which he responded simply – “Cogito ergo sum,” I think, therefore I am.
How do you suppose God responds to atheists and philosophers who deny Him? There’s an interesting little verse that you find at the end of Exodus chapter 2. Exodus 2:25 says, “God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.” I again came across this verse, and again, it gave me chills.
Is there any aspect in your life that you’re ashamed of? Are there some shortcomings that you are glad no one knows about? Guess what. God knows. Have you had a rough day? God knows. Are you secretly plotting the take-over of the entire world? God knows. Are you tired of people picking on you with their sarcastic witticisms at work? God knows. Are you tired of the neighbor because their front yard looks like a used car lot? God knows. Are you attempting to suggest that God does not exist? God knows. Are you taking a national holiday to blaspheme God? God knows.
Is there anything? God knows.
He makes two statements very early in the book of Exodus: “I AM” and “I know.” [Whew, both of those statements continue to give me chills.] For all the atheists who have attempted to argue God out of existence, who continue to swing their sledge hammers at the indestructible ultimate truth that we refer to simply as GOD, who have moved on to less complicated philosophical and atheistic gymnastics such as arguing themselves out of existence (LOL), you should know- He IS and He KNOWS.
The atheists are NOT arguing against a silent invisible infinite ultimate God. They are in a room arguing with a God who is and who SPEAKS BACK! But the atheists are choosing to ignore Him. They are like little children who refuse to listen. They’ve stuck their fingers in their ears, and they walk around screaming, “La, La, La, La, La, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!” As soon as God stops arguing with them (because He knows how silly, foolish, and immature they are) they can then safely proceed to their allegedly logical arguments. They are really no different than the philosophers of the 17th Century against whom Rene Descartes refuted simply and easily.
Once they become satisfied with their own arguments against God they will move on to arguing themselves out of existence. Sadly, the end result of this train of ‘logic’ is suicide. I pray for all those who took part in National Blasphemy Day. I pray that God has mercy on them and reveals to them His goodness and His love.
Book Review: Concetric Circles of Concern
Posted by: | CommentsThompson, W. Oscar and Carolyn Thompson Ritzmann. Concentric Circles of Concern. Rev. by Claude V. King. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999.
I recently finished a good read, and I thought I would share it with you. The name of the book is Concentric Circles of Concern, by W. Oscar Thompson. The primary theme of the book is evangelism, or sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and what He did for us. We also may refer to this as sharing the gospel. It’s an older book, originally published in 1980, but it’s a good one!
Concentric Circles of Concern makes the point, and it is well-taken, that the truth of Jesus Christ was proclaimed by the apostles in the first century, but it was also told from house to house, friend to friend, one believer taking the simple truth of Christ to another friend and sharing his testimony of what had happened. The book gives a superb evaluation of the reality of the gospel’s progress through the ranks of the Roman Empire via the channel of personal relationships.
More than that, Thompson states that believers will be hindered in their spiritual growth and their relationship with God unless they first share the truth of what has happened in their life with their family and friends first, and then move outward to share the truth with their aquaintances and co-workers. Thompson argues that the world lives in one gigantic broken relationship, and that Christians should try to reconcile their relationships with family, friends, and co-workers in Christ.
This is clearly the teaching of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19:
“God, through Christ, reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
God’s design for us is to be in a mode of reconciliation. This means that everyone who has a broken relationship with God should now heal that relationship through Christ. This is the plea of God. Thompson does a superb job of teaching this principle and driving home the reality that God’s desire is for everyone to be reconciled to Him, and in the process of being reconciled to Him they should automatically be in the process of being reconciled to each other. However, Thompson points out, this is not always the case with Christians. Too often, the individual Christian is happy to engage in what he or she believes is a harmonious relationship with God while clinging to bitterness and sinful grudges with those around them, and this is a complete violation of God’s program of reconciliation. Thompson argues that it is not possible to be in a truly harmonious relationship with God when Christians continue to cling to bitter and broken relationship with those in their family and circles of friends.
The real essence of Thompson’s argument is that Christians should not be double-minded, or hypocritical. Two-faced liars make an effort to reach others with a gospel of reconciliation when they themselves refuse to be reconciled. This is the apparent crime of the Pharisees in the gospel accounts, and Christ’s refusal to accept them should ring loud and clear in the ears of Christians today: “Your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees if you want to see the kingdom of Heaven.”
The other amazing point that Thompson makes is the need to produce disciples as the result of evangelism. Too many evangelistic programs attempt to produce converts who demonstrate little commitment to Christ beyond a basic recognition of the essential elements of the Gospel. Churches preach the good news as though all that were necessary were for those present to hear the good news, and suddenly all would be right in the world. Sadly this misses the issue of the Great Commission in its entirety. Christ’s command in Matthew 28:19-20 was not “GO!” The true commanding verb of that passage was “make disciples.” What followed after the instruction of going was making disciples. What followed the command of making disciples was a simple two step process: baptism, and observance of all Christ’s commands. Gospel proclamation has not run its course in the heart of the convert until the convert has made a costly commitment to follow Christ in obedience, understanding all of the things that Christ commands, and then seeking to obey those commands. Discipleship, not regurgitation of basic gospel facts, should be the goal of sharing the good news.
Thompson’s strategy for moving through a ministry of reconciliation with one’s family, friends, and neighbors is a spectacular plan not only for being obedient to God in restoring relationships, but for evangelism. The real essence of Thompson’s work is that he calls on believer’s everywhere to get busy with the ministry of reconciliation, and that he brings this ministry of reconciliation full circle to produce committed disciples of Jesus Christ. Concentric Circles of Concern is the great commission fully understood, and fully explained.
In addition, he provides detailed plans on how to go about “being reconciled,” to family and friends. While I don’t agree with Thompson on everything (there was one chapter where he got involved in some wierd psycho-babble about needing to love yourself; it is a book from the 80’s after all), I highly recommend it to anyone who is curious to read it. It is an easy read with small words and a few pictures and diagrams, faithful to the Scripture, and full of good insights and thought-provoking statements.I have a copy, and would be willing to loan it out to Members of the Bridge if you’re interested.
Apologizing to Kamloops
Posted by: | CommentsApologizing to Kamloops
Many of you may wonder what exactly I’m saying when I title this article “Apologizing to Kamloops.” Many of you may be asking, “Apologize? Apologize for what? What did you ever do to Kamloops?” That’s a good question, and I’m glad you asked. Actually, the word ‘apology’ means more than just saying “sorry.” The modern English word has its history in Late Latin, and actually derives from a Greek compound: “apo” + “logos.” Its basic meaning is to give an answer, or to respond, or to give a defense or justification of a certain position.
From this understanding of the word ‘apology’ we get an entire philosophical and theological discipline known as Apologetics. Apologetics is a particular science in which skilled theologians, pastors, and the average Christian attempt to justify or defend the faith of Christianity. There are many skeptics who challenge the notion of a loving God who loved us so much that He came to die for us. This concept is so unique and extraordinary that it naturally defies belief. It seems to be more the stuff of fairy tale or legend. However, it is true. God does love us. And God did come and die for us. It happened.
Living in Kamloops, I encounter friends and neighbors every day who doubt the existence of God, question the claim that He loves us, and object to the fact that He died for us. There is nothing wrong with their doubts. I have struggled with these doubts myself many times before. Yet, after the struggle, I am still a Christian. I am happily and enthusiastically a Christian, and there is no reluctance or hesitation on my part when it comes to trusting Jesus. I have tested him, challenged him, tried him, and found him to be perfectly legit in all of His claims, and in every single promise He has ever made to me. I find Jesus to be more trustworthy than my any other close friend that I’ve ever had. Nobody I know has the track record that Christ has when it comes to fulfilling promises.