A Beginner's Plan for Studying Apologetics

A Beginner's Plan for Studying Apologetics

C. S. Lewis: Why He Matters Today

http://www.youtube.com/v/egYTTe4w0tk?autohide=1&version=3&autoplay=1&autohide=1&attribution_tag=0VRbtci1uF_4mx1Kz55uHQ&showinfo=1&feature=share

Cosmological Argument - Eternal God

How do you know that Christianity is the one true worldview?

The Church Outside Our Denomination - Reasons to Give Thanks

I could have titled this blog entry "The whole counsel of God."


I had a good discussion with a colleague of mine.  We both teach at an Christian School that is inter-denominational, committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy of the Scriptures.  Earlier in his career, he taught at a school within his denomination.  He told me that, although his convictions toward the particular doctrines of his denomination are rock-solid, he much prefers the current environment.  


That discussion led me to think about the diversity within true Evangelicalism and how important it is.  To be clear, "true" Evangelicalism includes the belief that God's Word is absolutely without error and that it holds all authority in all matters of life and death.  It also includes the truth that Jesus is Lord and only He is.  There is no other Lord and there is no other way to heaven, salvation, God the Father, sanctification and glorification - except through Jesus.


This post could also have been called "the whole counsel of God" for this reason.  Evangelical denominations are full of imperfect human beings who lack the ability to keep all the important things about God in view at the same time.  There are two reasons for this.  First of all, we are not God.  We are not omniscient.  We are not all-wise.  Our minds cannot know everything.  Further, our minds cannot consider each thing we do know in relation to all the other things we do know.  Secondly, sin has tainted our perspectives.  Sin turns even our pursuit of the things of God into an exercise in self-worship.  We wear what we've learned like badges of intellect or spiritual assent.


For this reason, all Evangelical denominations value their "distinctives" at the expense of the "whole counsel of God."  Further, Christians in each denomination tend to view themselves as intellectually and spiritually superior to others.  That is really too bad.


So, when my colleague trumpeted the value of being at a place that includes Bible-believing Christ followers from many denominations, I began to consider the benefits that some of the Evangelical denomination brings to our school and, in a universal sense, the Body of Christ.

• From Reformed & Presbyterian Christians we learn the sovereignty of God and our exclusive purpose in glorifying Him.
• From Baptist Christians we learn the need to preach the gospel and make disciples around the whole world.
• From Wesleyan & Methodist Christians we learn to about holy living for sanctification.
• From Pentecostal & Charismatic Christians we learn about "the forgotten God" and how we must be utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
• From Lutheran & Episcopal Christians we learn about the need for discipline in the Christian life.
• Some things that have been reiterated to me from Christians within denominations other than my own:
• Beauty - In God's created order and in our expression of it through the arts.
• Apologetics - And the need to defend the Gospel from secular and pagan movements and world views. 
• Justice - And the need to practice our religion by presenting the Gospel AND to feed the poor.
• Sola Scriptura - That God's word tells us everything we need for salvation and sanctification.

It's not that true Evangelicals don't believe that all these things are true and worthy.  It's just that, without each other, we probably won't remember them all.  We should all strive to know "the whole counsel of God."  

I like what D.A. Carson says in his book Preach the Word.

When Paul attests that this is what he proclaimed to the believers in Ephesus, the Ephesian elders to whom he makes this bold asseveration know full well that he had managed this remarkable feat in only two and a half years. In other words, whatever else Paul did, he certainly did not manage to go through every verse of the Old Testament, line by line, with full-bore explanation. He simply did not have time.

What he must mean is that he taught the burden of the whole of God’s revelation, the balance of things, leaving nothing out that was of primary importance, never ducking the hard bits, helping believers to grasp the whole counsel of God that they themselves would become better equipped to read their Bibles intelligently, comprehensively. It embraced:  

• God’s purposes in the history of redemption (truths to be believed and a God to be worshiped) 
• an unpacking of human origin, fall, redemption, and destiny (aworldview that shapes all human understanding and a Savior without whom there is no hope), 
• the conduct expected of God’s people (commandments to be obeyed and wisdom to be pursued, both in our individual existence and in the community of the people of God), and 
• the pledges of transforming power both in this life and in the life to come (promises to be trusted and hope to be anticipated).

I am afraid that we cannot know what Paul intended unless we know each other. 

Where Did The Laws Come From?

One glaring omission from the writings of modern day atheists like Dawkins and Hawking is an answer to the question "where do the laws come from?" These men and many others claim that God did not create but that the natural laws did.

Of course it makes absolutely no sense to suggest that the law of gravity, for instance, could create anything. But suppose for a moment it could. There's still the monumental problem for the atheist. For they cannot explain who created the natural laws?

For, before there was anything, the laws could not have existed. They had to be created. And, of course, we Christ-followers know exactly Who created them.