Coming to Grips with Apologetic Methods

Over the course of my Christian life, I have at least set up a tent in every apologetic camp. First, my apologetic method was quoting C.S. Lewis. Then, I thought that the most effective method was to give "Evidence that Demands a Verdict." Then, I thought that the most effective method had to be classical apologetics a la R.C. Sproul. Now, I realize that finding the "most effective method" is irrelevant, because it is always and only GOD who works through the means of a witness to breathe life into spiritually dead people.

With that said, not every apologetic method is created equal, and each one has its own unique strengths and dangers. To be sure, there is not only one way to do apologetics in a way that glorifies God. God is glorified whenever we present the Gospel of Scripture to a lost and dying individual. Let us now look at the positive and negative points of the two major options and then draw some observations.

Positives of Presuppositionalism

Definition: Presuppositionalism is the method of apologetics which acknowledges that all of a person's beliefs are inter-connected and must be addressed as a unit, called a worldview. Presuppositionalism also acknowledges that the best way to engage the unbeliever is to show them that their worldview is inconsistent or arbitrary and that only the Christian worldview makes sense.

1. Presuppositionalism understands that coming to faith is not merely a matter of finding the Christian interpretation of facts more convincing than a secular interpretation.
   This method of apologetics is, in a sense, Calvinistic apologetics. It recognizes that sin has a noetic effect (i.e. it affects the intellect) so that no unregenerate person can look at the "brute facts" and come away with an accurate understanding of and love for the God of the Bible. Salvation is more than just a matter of believing that 51% of your evidence points to Christianity and only 49% points against it. Rather, the way we look at reality has to be changed by the Holy Spirit through regeneration before we can exercise true saving faith.
2. Presuppositionalism gets to the heart of the matter very quickly.
   With this method, you don't have to wade through layers upon layers of historical, theological, and theoretical objections before presenting the Gospel. You can immediately present the Gospel, using Scripture as your authority. When the unbeliever objects to your use of Scripture as authority, you can point out that they must appeal to an authority (usually reason) to know anything as well.
3. Presuppositionalism is irrefutable.
   This may seem like a bold statement, but there is truly no way to refute a presuppositionalist. For a person to even communicate an objection to absolute, universal laws or standards, they have to use language and reason with the understanding that language and reason communicate something that is absolute and universal. Thus, in opening his mouth, the opponent refutes himself. That is not to say that the presuppositional argument will convince the unbeliever, but to deny the argument is to resort to the realm of non-reason.

Negatives of Presuppositionalism

1. It is easy to overlook genuine questions to which the unbeliever longs to hear an answer.
   There are different sorts of barriers that unbelievers have towards the Gospel. Some are intellectual, and some are emotional. Imagine a man whose wife left him for another man and whose mother recently passed away after a long, agonizing battle with cancer. This man may not have as many intellectual objections to the faith, but he will almost certainly be dealing with the problem of pain. Another person may have heard that the Bible is historically unreliable, and the best answer to his question may be just to answer his question without delving into an in-depth discussion on epistemology (although the conversation may eventually get to that point).
2. It is easy to confuse proof and persuasion.
   This may seem like a tedious distinction, but it is absolutely crucial. To prove something is to create an argument that is sound and cannot be overturned. To persuade a person of something is to cause them to accept your conclusion as their own. It is far to easy for us to think that if we can prove something that we can also persuade someone of it. However, this is not the case. We know that "The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19.1) and that God's "eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made" (Romans 1.20). God uses the entire universe to prove His existence, but men can reject this clear proof for God's existence and darken their hearts. Likewise, we can present proof of God's existence without persuading the unbeliever. The perfect argument will not replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh.

Positives of Evidentialism

Definition: Evidentialism is the method of apologetics which presents the unbeliever with evidence for the reliability of the Christian faith.

1. Evidentialism recognizes that Christianity is based in historic events.
   Christianity is grounded in the fact that certain things happened in real time and space. Evidentialism understands that there are certain facts and propositions that one must accept in order to become a Christian.
2. Evidentialism encourages study of Scripture and its context.
   Since the evidentialist is seeking to prove Scripture's internal consistency and its historical reliability, he must know his Bible know his history.

Negatives of Evidentialism

1. Evidentialism places too much credit in the mind of fallen man.
   We believe that we are totally depraved - that is that sin affects our entire being, including the mind. Evedentialism assumes that if we give the unbeliever sufficient evidence, we can persuade him. However, this is utterly false. God alone opens and shuts the eyes of our hearts. Faith is not a matter of having 51% of our evidence supporting Christianity and only 49% opposing it; but it is a matter of God regenerating us and making us able to understand the truth.
2. Evidentialism ultimately has no defense against materialism.
   Many times, evidentialists appeal to the idea of an uncaused first cause to prove the existence of God. However, when a materialist comes along and says that the stuff the universe is made of is eternal, the evedentialist runs out of evidence. You cannot tackle the issue of first causes without the presuppositional argument

In conclusion, every person is different, with a unique personality and background, so we must address them as individuals. We cannot simply commit ourselves to a specific apologetic method and blast away at the unbeliever. To do so is not only foolish, but it also shows that we have a greater desire to prove ourselves right and the unbeliever wrong than to give glory to God by our witness. We have seen that both of the major competing schools of apologetics have advantages and disadvantages. There is no universally "right" way to do apologetics except to preach Christ and Him crucified and resurrected and let the Holy Spirit do the work.

Varieties of Unbelieving College Students

Introduction:  Though I am continuing to do evangelism every Wednesday on campus, I haven't posted an outreach report in several weeks primarily because my experiences in witnessing to college students are pretty predictable.  Since I don't want to keep reporting the same thing over and over, I figured I would provide this post to talk about the general patterns that I see when witnessing to college students. 

I have literally witnessed to thousands of people over the last 17 years since becoming a Christian, and it can be interesting to think critically about how different types of people react differently to the gospel message.  The following are broad categories that I've observed in people on campuses.  

Types of Unbelieving College Students

1.  The Moralistic Therapeutic Deist:  Moralistic Therapeutic Deists (MTDs) usually have a religious background that is informed in some way by historic Christian teachings or even pseudo-Christian teachings.  Thus, it is necessarily a broad category that can have adherents ranging from Roman Catholicism to Mormonism.  They don't call themselves Moralistic Therapeutic Deists, nor would most of them even know what that term means.  MTDs generally believe that God wants them to be happy, healthy, comfortable, and moral.  MTDs differ from prosperity gospel adherents in that they do not generally teach or believe that God wants you to be wealthy nor do they necessarily try to justify their false beliefs with twisted interpretations of the Bible.  Instead, they start with a very vague notion that God is more interested in your personal peace, comfort, and that you're a nice person instead of understanding who God is what He requires of man in propositional form.  This means that talk about God's attributes and whether or not God has specifically revealed Himself in the Bible is usually considered irrelevant since they believe that being "good", "happy", and "fulfilled" is what's important to God.  Thus, MTDs usually think that as long as they follow the societal status quo and do what most other "normal" and "nice" American people do, then they'll go to a "better place" when they die.  The idea of a "Hell" is often met with apathy, agnosticism, and uncertainty with most MTDs I've spoken with; for they generally reserve eternal judgment for only really "bad" people like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.  They are generally pretty pleasant people to converse with even though I've found that some MTDs are easily offended with the idea of a righteous and holy God that sends "nice" unrepentant people to Hell.  I think this is because a high, Biblical view of God flatly contradicts and crushes their high view of mankind and thus it absolutely overwhelms how they've always viewed the divine.

2.  The Skeptic:  There are about just as much varieties of skeptics as there are Moralistic Therapeutic Deists.  Some of them wear goth or death metal themed clothing, don bedhead hair, have an unshaven and unkempt appearance, have multiple body-piercings and tattoos whereas some are preppy looking, clean-cut, hipster atheists.  They can be nasty or nice when you try to casually approach them to talk about the things of God, and I've found that their outward appearance is usually no indicator of whether they're willing to engage in reasonable conversation or not.  Skeptics range from hard atheists to soft agnostics that are willing to listen and engage intellectual issues.  However, I've found that those who come from a fundamentalist Christian background can be the most difficult to talk to because they have loads of unbiblical, traditional, fundamentalist church "baggage" that you have to get around to have a productive conversation with them.  Also, when you couple that nonsense with the fact that somewhere along the way they were "burned" by professing Christians or sold a bill of goods that didn't cash out for them it makes a productive conversation even harder.  Thus, when you try to talk to them about the gospel, the first thing that comes to their mind almost in a knee-jerk reaction is the kooky fundamentalism that they ditched and their internal alarm system goes off and they automatically become defensive and difficult to interact with.  Some skeptics have been emotionally scarred by religion, others have been turned off by the blatant hypocrisy, and some just think that the whole thing is a kook-fest con job that preys on ignorant people to get their money and so they leave it all to search for greener, more "rational" pastures.  I remember a few weeks ago I tried to hand a young lady a ministry card and she said, "What's this?" and I responded, "It's a card about Jesus" and she replied, "Well, I don't want that!" and I said, "Why not?" and she retorted, "I spit in His face!" and I said, "Why would you say something like that?" and she said in a very snarky tone, "Just to annoy you!"  I told her to have a nice day and took my card back.  She obviously was angry at God for some reason or another.  Merely handing her a card and explaining to her that it was about Jesus made an otherwise reasonable person respond with immediate hatred because for her, anything having to do with the Christian religion functioned as a trigger that caused her guard to immediately go up.  I also had a conversation with a German exchange student last year that was almost at the same level of nastiness and I'm sad to say that I worked very hard to be patient, gentle, and kind while also exposing her logical fallacies and lack of Bible knowledge, yet it was almost like pouring fuel on a fire as she started verbally steamrolling me by continual interruptions and generally irrational behavior.  It was obvious that this was turning into a "pearls before swine" scenario and so I kindly exited my way out of the conversation by saying something like this:  "Ma'am, it's clear that you are not interested in discussing this right now, for you have interrupted me four times already when I've tried to answer a question you asked of me, therefore, I'm going to politely end our conversation here."   Of course, there are many more reasons why skeptics reject the Christian religion, but one thing's for sure, they all do so willingly and sometimes passionately.  I generally like to give them the chance to talk when witnessing to them one-on-one by asking, "Based on your understanding of Christianity, what is the gospel?" It is then that they reveal that the "Christianity" they have rejected is no true Christianity at all and that their reasons for rejecting it are emotional/moral and the purported intellectual arguments against it are just a smokescreen to hide their real reasons for rejecting it (Rom. 1:18-25).     

3.  The Hedonist:  This is the party-animal.  This is the "Animal House", John Belushi kind of person who is simply attending college for the next beer-swizzling gig or the place where naked girls can be found.  These guys are often the most difficult to get a serious conversation going because they are perpetual goof-offs and class clowns.  They take very few things seriously unless it has to do with to their boozing and partying.  These people are a disaster to try to speak to if they are in front of others since they are used to "performing".  Thus, its best to deal with them away from the immediate presence of others if possible.  They often are the most boisterous hecklers, and when they get backed into a corner in a public interaction during preaching, they sometimes start cursing and throwing out ad hominem bombs.  This is when knowing their name and asking them by their name to calm down in a lower tone of voice can be very helpful.  Then, when (if) they calm down, you can give them the floor to voice their concern without the profanity and name-calling.  Oftentimes, I've found that talking to them about sin, righteousness, and judgment and their accountability to God on Judgment Day sobers them up, especially when discussing these things in the context of their own impending death.   

4.  The Cynical:   The cynical person is negative, critical, and pessimistic.  They are usually very bright and oftentimes very well read.  They recognize that the world is a broken, messed up place and because they don't have a solution to the problems that they see, they express a jaded or scornful skepticism or negativity to most proposed solutions to the mess; especially religious solutions.  Those who are well-read are also often cynical about skepticism since they recognize that atheistic and/or post-modern philosophy really has nothing to offer to fix the problems inherent in the world, especially as those problems are related to their own personal lives.  Thus, they are world-weary and they drudge along, trying to make things personally better for themselves in the here and now since they figure that's about the best they can do.  I've found that talking to these folks about how Christ can give them "rest" if they are weary and heavy-laden can either be an encouragement for further discussion or a reason for them to roll their eyes and blow you off.  If they do the latter, I usually try to find out what their religious background is to see if they've been burned by Christianity in some way and then I attempt to explain to them what the Biblical gospel is and focus on grace, hope, and redemption, both personal redemption and the redemption of the creation that will occur when Christ returns.  Through these conversations I've found that most cynical people have only a very surface level experience with Biblical Christianity such that they "checked out" a long time ago but because they "didn't see anything of any value" going on or they were emotionally burned by it and so they quickly ditched it.  The cynical person can be the most difficult type of unbeliever to talk to because they are the most skeptical out of all the various types of people I witness to. 

5.  The Pluralist:  The pluralist thinks that all religions ultimately lead to the same God.  Because of this, their thinking is usually very surface level and they sometimes get angry when you start to show them that all the major religions have competing and contradictory truth claims.  They are sometimes the worst listeners because they don't want to be confused with the facts.  I've found that asking them the following question helps lead the conversation in a positive direction or it gives me the opportunity to exit the conversation and move on to someone else who is willing to listen:  Do you believe that religions that have contradictory, competing, and mutually exclusive truth claims can all be true at the same time and in the same way? 

6.  The False Religionist:  The false religionist can also be difficult to talk to because they are confident that they are right and you are wrong, even to the point of spiritual pride.  This is most evident in adherents of sinless perfectionism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and aggressive Word of Faith/Prosperity Gospel proponents.  These people are generally unwilling to listen to Scripture and oftentimes a discussion with them turns into what I call "Bible ping-pong".  In "Bible ping-pong", you quote a verse that undermines their doctrine and they respond with one that seems to support it.  Then you explain how the verse in question doesn't actually support their view and they either ignore your explanation or dismiss it as incorrect since it dies the death of their thousand qualifications.   Thus, the more aggressive false religionist almost always has an interpretive rescuing device for all of the verses that counter their view.  I once encountered an aggressive heretical open-air preacher on the campus of UNCG.  He held to sinless perfectionism and at the end of my preaching he started asking me pointed questions like "Do you still sin?"  I responded that I was a sinner saved by grace and that yes, sometimes I still sin though I hate it.  He then proceeded to call me a lost man, and I responded, "But the Bible says in 1st John 1:8, 'If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us" and I then asked him if he believed in sinless perfectionism.  He said that he wasn't a sinner, denied that he had sinned for a long time, and I repeated the verse and explained to him that the Bible teaches that he's deceived because he holds this view.  It was then that he went ballistic, going crazy, making accusations and generally trying to defend himself before the 100 people that were listening to the preaching.  It was then that I stepped down from my step stool, gathered my belongings, and went home.  Usually, when I deal with an aggressive false religionist that insists upon distorting the Scriptures to their own destruction in spite of the contextual interpretations I have already offered that refutes their false doctrine, I politely leave the conversation since it is another example of casting pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6; 2 Peter 3:16).

7.  The False Convert:  This is a person who says they have repented and place their faith in Christ yet they live like an unbeliever.  They usually can't explain what the gospel is and they are strangers to the doctrine of repentance.  Sadly, many professing evangelical churches are producing scads of false converts with their easy-believism, non-Lordship, no repentance "gospel".  The false convert, along with the MTD adherent are the two most common types of unbelievers that I come into contact with on campus and oftentimes false converts are also MTDs.  I usually ask them about their church background and they almost always report that they responded to an altar call, were led in a "sinner's prayer" and made a "decision" for Jesus.  However, after the sappy music stopped, the lights were undimmed, and when the emotion and false fire wore off a few days later, they were back to their old, sinful tendencies and never went to a church meeting again.  Some of them still attend church services and are being further confirmed in their false conversion by the false messages that they are continually imbibing from the false teachers in their churches.  Usually when I start to explain the Biblical gospel to these folks, I get responses ranging from astonishment, to apathy, and to anger.  I'm sad to say that many false converts are apathetic, which is the fruit of a general cynicism towards religion in "Bible Belt" culture, but also because they too were promised a bill of goods that didn't cash out for them.     

8.  The Ready Listener:  This is the person that God has prepared to hear the gospel.  Surprisingly, this unbeliever comes from a variety of backgrounds, and I'm glad to report that the more you pray for God to put these types of people in your evangelistic path, the more you'll encounter them.  Out of the six or so people I witnessed to this past Wednesday, at least two of them were ready listeners.  The ready listener listens well, asks sincere questions, and is already convicted of their sin to a greater or lesser degree.  It is evident in some of these unbelievers that God is drawing them to Himself as they report to you that they have been witnessed to several times already by various believers and they often report that you just "showed up out of nowhere".  Its as if they intuitively sense that God has placed you in their path though they have yet to embrace Christ as Lord.  You will often have your most fruitful and lengthy conversations with these people and the positive experiences that you get from them will encourage you to pray for God to put more of them in your path.  If you come from an Arminian, fundamentalist Christian background with revivalistic tendencies, it will be tempting for you to "pray the sinner's prayer" with people like this, for many of them almost seem as if they are ready and willing to do it right there and then, regardless of their location.  But when that temptation arises, do as the apostles did and lovingly call them to repentance and faith in Christ and urge them to cry out to Him until either He saves them or they go to Hell.  Give them your contact information so that they can follow-up with you and then leave the rest to the Holy Spirit. Trust God to save them, not man-made mechanisms that are rooted in early 19th century revivalism.    

IN CONCLUSION, the above patterns can also be found in American society in general and several of the above patterns are sometimes found in the same unbeliever.  There may be more "patterns" that you have noticed in your interactions with unbelievers, but the above are some of the consistent ones I've noticed when evangelizing college students.  May God grant you the grace to depend upon the power of His Spirit working through His preached word as you seek to reach the lost with the glorious good news.

Spiritual Gifts 3: The Varieties and Nature of the Revelatory and Sign Gifts

INTRODUCTION

How Are We To Understand these Gifts?

So just what exactly are these revelatory and sign gifts?  And to ask our final question again from part two:  Are they still available to the church now or did they cease in the first century with the close of the apostolic era?

That last question is more controversial and my brief answer to it is that I am "open but very cautious".  Please let me explain.  It goes without saying that as a Calvinist, I believe that God can do whatever He wants as long as what God does is understood by the reader to be consistent with His nature and plan (Titus 1:2; 2 Tim. 2:13).  However, After I was converted in 1994, I was involved in an Arminian Charismatic church for about a year and I left that movement two reasons: (1) The church I was attending eventually started doing some really weird things during the service that I thought were crazy and counterintuitive (i.e., hundreds of people standing up and speaking in "tongues" with no interpretation, "slaying in the Spirit", people barking like dogs, howling, etc.), (2) I studied their view on spiritual gifts and I found it to be unbiblical. Thus, I left the Charismatic movement. As a result of my studies and experience, I'm very skeptical when Charismatics claim to have gifts of healing, tongues, and prophecy since their entire epistemology is built upon experience instead of the objective, propositional truth found in Scripture.

It is important to note that over the last 25-30 years there has been an upsurge of Calvinistic, continuationist[1], Baptistic Christians due to the influence of various ministries such as Sovereign Grace Ministries (i.e., C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris), Desiring God Ministries (i.e., John Piper), the Acts 29 Network (Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Francis Chan), Sam Storms with Enjoying God Ministries, and through the writings of theologian Wayne Grudem. All of the aforementioned Calvinistic, Baptistic, Christians teach that the revelatory gifts continue in some form today. I don't agree with all of their conclusions, but in studying the writings of their best representatives, I believe they make some valid points; and I'll mention those as we come to the relevant passages.

Second, I have first-hand testimony from trustworthy Calvinistic Baptist missionaries, some of which were dogmatic cessationists[2] before they arrived on the mission field in third world countries. However, after experiencing some type of prophetic, revelatory element in their ministries, they had to modify their views.  I personally know at least one Calvinistic missionary who cannot share his experiences of the supernatural with his supporting churches because the staunch cessationist views held by these churches would potentially cause them to stop supporting him.

Third, and most importantly, I have attempted to read and study the best Calvinistic representatives from both the cessationist and continuationist sides, and I think they both have valid and invalid points.

Now, as we work through these verses, I will attempt to fairly and accurately summarize the exegetical arguments from both sides and explain from Scripture why I think one side is closer to the truth than the other yet sometimes I will point out what I perceive to be errors on both sides. Thus, if you are a staunch cessationist, you're probably not going to be happy with my conclusions. If you're a charismatic, you won't be happy either.  I'm interested in trying to understand how the Bible answers this question, not in simply towing a particular theological line so that I fit in with all who call themselves Sovereign Grace Baptists. So, if you take a different position than I do on the issue of cessationism vs. continuationism, I ask that you please not monopolize this time to debate the issue. My goal is not to cause conflict or breed confusion, but to clarify what I think the Bible teaches on this issue so that we can make proper application of the spiritual gifts to our lives.

So what exactly are the nature and characteristics of these revelatory and sign gifts?  Let’s look to the Scripture to see what it says to us:

• v. 8's "word of wisdom" is literally "the message (logos) of wisdom (sophia); i.e., "a message/utterance full of wisdom" or "an utterance characterized by wisdom".  Some interpreters think that this refers to knowledge or wisdom that is required to make decisions or choose the proper course of action. [MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary on 1st Corinthians, 298.]  A second interpretation is that this word "wisdom" (sophia) is to be understood in light of Paul's own argument in 2:6-16.  In that passage, the "word of wisdom" isn't some special mystical understanding of the deeper things of God; but instead, it is a Spirit borne recognition and ability to proclaim that Christ crucified is God's true wisdom over and against the false, worldly wisdom (i.e., pagan philosophy) that the Corinthians had imbibed.  In other words, a person with this gift has the ability to contrast the wisdom of the cross with the wisdom of the world.  I think this interpretation makes the most sense given the fact that in the context of 1st Corinthians, Paul is consistently contrasting the folly of the world's wisdom with the folly of God's wisdom manifested in the cross of Jesus Christ (1:18-2:16). 
• "word of knowledge" is taken to mean by some interpreters to indicate that some people have a special, God-given ability to communicate God's word, the Bible [MacArthur, Ibid.].  Others take it to mean, "it is a 'spiritual utterance' of some revelatory kind" [Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, (Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans, 1987), 593].  In other words, this is knowledge that is directly communicated from the mind of the Holy Spirit to the mind of the believer.  Given the fact that this same idea appears in 14:6, it is probably best to take it this way since it is located between "revelation" and "prophecy" in that passage.  Something else that seems to lend further credence to this second interpretation is that since it is listed alongside the other revelatory gifts that are "partial" and "to be done away with" at the second coming of Christ in 13:8-12.  At that point, a "word of knowledge" would obviously be unnecessary since at the second coming we will then "know [God] fully [instead of having partial knowledge] just as I also have been fully known [by God]".  For a possible example of this see, Spurgeon on Private Prophecies and New Revelation.
• "faith" in v. 9 isn't referring to saving faith, but a special gift of faith where a believer is given "a supernatural conviction that God will reveal his power or mercy in a special way in a specific instance." [Fee, 593]  This interpretation is almost unanimously held by interpreters.  MacArthur defines it as "an intensive ability to trust God in difficult and demanding ways.  It is the ability trust Him in the face of overwhelming obstacles and human impossibilities." [MacArthur, 299]  Listen to how this special gift of faith serves others,

Hudson Taylor believed God would win many Chinese converts through him, and without any money or support, refusing to ask for a penny of help, he began what became the great and fruitful China Inland Mission.  George Muller, solely through trusting God in prayer, continually saw Him provide for his orphanage in miraculous ways.  Countless missionaries have claimed tribes or nations for the Lord, and evangelists have claimed cities for the Lord, and seen Him faithfully respond to their faith.  Their prayers are answered and their faith itself is strengthened and multiplied.  [MacArthur, 300] 

• "gifts of healing" literally translated is "gifts of healings".  The use of the word charisma suggests that the "manifestation" isn't given to the one healed, but to the person God uses to do the healing.  Also, the plural "healings" (charismata) refers to the individual healings themselves and doesn't suggest that the "gift of healing" was permanent for the person who had this gift.  See 1 Tim. 5:23 where Paul tells Timothy to take some medicine rather than healing him or urging him to seek out someone with this gift and cf. also 2 Tim. 4:20 where Paul didn't heal Trophimus but left him sick at Miletus.  Gifts of healings were a sign gift in the early church; i.e., a special gift given to authenticate the message and ministry of Jesus (Matt. 8:16-17), the apostles (Matt. 10:1; Acts 4:16; 9:40; 20:9-10; 28:8), the seventy (Lk. 10:1), and apostolic associates such as Philip (Acts 8:5-7).  It was to show that the power of God was truly behind the message of the gospel as opposed to all the other false religions competing for attention at that time and it was also a means by which O.T. prophecy was fulfilled (Matt. 8:17 cf. Isa. 53:4; Isa. 35:5 cf. Matt. 11:5; John 9:6-7).  "[G]ifts of healings" would have been one of the surefire marks that Paul was a true apostle and that the Corinthians could confirm this by recalling him doing miracles in their presence (2 Cor. 12:12).  The writer of Hebrews notes that attesting signs and wonders were done by the apostles to confirm their ministry and message as being from God (Heb. 2:3-4).  God continues to heal today either through miraculous means or providential ones.  A Christian may pray for God to heal him and God may choose to answer his prayer as a means to glorify Himself and/or to accomplish a particular purpose in the lives of others.  However, He is not obligated to heal since He has given us no blanket promise of healing people under any age before the consummation (Num. 12:9-10; Deut. 28:21-22; 2 Kings 5:15-17; 2 Chron. 26:5, 21; Ps. 119:67; 1 Cor. 11:30).  As with all sign gifts, these gifts waned as the first century drew on, and after the death of the last apostle, it is generally reported by the early church fathers that the sign gifts had essentially ceased.  My view is that I see no good evidence to believe that any believer has this particular gifting today, and at least in my mind, I have no clear warrant from Scripture or church history to expect such things.  Thus, there is no question that God can still heal today, but I seriously question whether any believers after the time of the apostles have been given the ability to restore sight to the blind, restore amputated or withered body parts, and raise the dead.  I am not ruling this out completely, but I would need unequivocal, empirical proof that is consistent with Scriptural revelation.  The apostles provided undeniable evidence of their gifts of healings such that even their staunchest opponents were unable to deny that a genuine miracle had been done (Acts 4:16).  There is no reason why I shouldn't expect the same evidence from would-be claimants today (1 Thess. 5:21).  This is also why our Detailed Statement of Faith says, 

We believe that no one possesses the gift of healing today but that God does hear and answer the prayer of faith and will answer in accordance with His own perfect will for the sick, suffering, and afflicted.

Don’t be gullible.  If one claims to have this gift, the proof will be in their claimed healings.  “But examine all things carefully and hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21).  

• "effecting of miracles" - lit. "workings of miracles" in v. 10 (and vv. 28-30) covers other miraculous things beyond healing the sick.  MacArthur defines a miracle as, ". . . a supernatural intrusion into the natural world and its natural laws, explainable only by divine intervention." [MacArthur, 301]  In other words, a miracle is when God decides to act within the natural world in a way that He normally doesn't.  God normally works through natural laws (Heb. 1:3), but in some cases He chooses to do otherwise according to His all-wise plan.  Jesus' first miracle at Cana where He turned water into wine (John 2:11) is a great example of an "effecting of miracles" so as to confirm the authenticity of His ministry.  Peter summed up the attesting and confirmatory nature of miracles in the ministry of Christ when he said in his Pentecost sermon, "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know . . ." (Acts 2:22) The apostles did the same, for Acts 14:3 says that Paul and Barnabas “ . . . spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands” (Acts 14:3) and Paul later wrote to the Corinthians, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles" (2 Cor. 12:12) and again, we see in Hebrews 2:3-4 that miraculous signs were a mark of an authentic, apostolic ministry, "how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will." (Heb. 2:3-4)  Jesus made wine and food, walked on water, stilled a violent storm, instructed Peter to get a coin out of a fish's mouth to pay the temple tax, materialized in a room with the doors being shut, and ascended into heaven.  All of those were miracles of nature that the apostles never did because it was Jesus' purpose to show His power over nature as God the Son (Mk. 8:27; Lk. 8:25).  No disciple ever did a miracle of nature, but they did do works of dunamis or "power".  This was associated with the casting out of demons and raising the dead (Lk. 4:36; 6:18; 9:1, 42; 10:17-19).  As far as I know, no one has this kind of power today.  We have no credible evidence that any believer is healing the sick, raising the dead, healing the blind, or casting demons out of others at will.  On the other hand, first-century Christians such as Philip and Stephen displayed the gift of miracles (Acts 6:8; 8:7) and Paul used it to confirm the gospel and bring a man to faith (Acts 13:6-12).  Some Jews who thought they had the power to cast out demons but didn't were bloodied and bruised by the demon-possessed man they were trying to exorcise demons from (Acts 19:14-16).  I essentially agree with B.B. Warfield when he says regarding the ability of a man to work miracles,

These miraculous gifts were part of the credentials of the apostles, as authoritative agents of God in founding the church.  Their function confined them distinctly to the apostolic church, and they necessarily passed away with it.  [quoted in MacArthur, 302.]     

• "prophecy" (propheteia) in v. 10 when compared to the description given in 1 Cor. 14:1-5 indicates that it consisted of a spontaneous, Spirit-inspired, intelligible message, orally delivered in the gathered assembly and intended for the edification and encouragement of the people.  Future prediction is one element of prophecy, but not a necessary element.  Those who prophesied were in control of themselves (1 Cor. 14:29-33), thus indicating it wasn’t akin to some pagan ecstatic utterance or frenzy.  MacArthur says, “. . . prophecy is the Spirit-given and Spirit empowered ability to proclaim the word effectively.” [MacArthur, 303.]  John sums up the purpose of prophecy succinctly in the book of Revelation:  “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (19:10) The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament defines it this way, “Prophecy is the revelation and the testimony of Jesus Christ; it is the Word of God . . .” [Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. VI, 850.]  The TDNT notes that John the apostle’s experience in writing the Revelation took him beyond the normal experience of the senses (Rev. 1:10; 4:1-2; 17:3; 21:10), but Paul’s writings note that this was not normative for non-apostolic prophets [Ibid, 851].  The non-apostolic prophet’s chief task is the spontaneous proclamation of the Word of God.  Though the Spirit controls His mind and directs him what to say, he is fully self-aware, not raving and frenzied like the pagan prophets.  When he is speaking, he can stop if a revelation is given to someone else and he may remain silent in the congregation even though something is revealed to him (1 Cor. 14:29ff).  He is not only self-regulated in regards to what he says since he can be silent when given a revelation, but he is also regulated and judged by the other prophets who compare what he says to the infallible standard, which is apostolic teaching (1 Cor. 14:29-33).  Thus, “[t]he responsible personhood of the prophet remains intact even though the whole man with his understanding and will stands under the operation of the Holy Spirit” [TDNT, 851]  As an important aside, Paul’s instruction in 1 Cor. 14 speaks strongly against uncontrolled ecstatic frenzies exemplified in pagan prophets who do not stay on the sober ground of the Christian faith which has been objectively revealed in apostolic teaching.  Thus, the prophet is responsible to use his gift responsibly. Though Paul considered prophecy to be held in high esteem in the Christian church, it was still something inadequate and transitory.  As with a “word of knowledge” and “tongues”, prophecy is listed alongside the other revelatory gifts that are "partial" and "to be done away with" at the second coming of Christ in 13:8-12.  We will no longer need fragmentary revelation when we have the Fullness of Truth right in front of us!    
• "distinguishing of spirits" (diakriseis pneumaton) is also known as the “gift of discernment”, and it is that uncanny God-given ability that some people have to quickly sniff out false doctrine for the protection of the church.  You know these people.  They seem to pick up on things before other Christians do.  They tend to get uneasy before everyone else does when they are exposed to false teaching. However, they have a supernatural ability of keen discernment that God gives them for the purpose of protecting the church from being attacked by spiritual wolves.  Sadly, they are often wounded by their fellow soldiers in Christ as they are typically criticized as judgmental, nitpicky, and overcritical.  However, these people are also usually given spines of steel to weather the criticism because they understand that there’s a whole lot more at stake than their personal reputation; but instead they can quickly see that very gospel of Christ is being attacked. This gift of “distinguishing of Spirits” has to do with judging (differentiating) prophecies and “testing spirits” (cf. 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Thess. 5:20-21) so as to determine its faithfulness to Scripture.  They are well needed in the church since many claiming that their teaching is Biblical truth seem Scriptural on the surface when they are actually promoting a cleverly constructed counterfeit that would deceive even most believers.  This gift is especially important when Christianity is culturally accepted.  When persecution is occurring, false teachers are going to be harder to come by since preaching anything close to Biblical truth could cost them their lives.  When evangelicalism is profitable and popular, false teaching abounds.  Counterfeit teachers almost always have plenty of truth mixed in with their spiritual rat poison.  Sadly, many otherwise sound Bible teachers pick up worldly ideas from psychology, philosophy, or pop culture and mix that in with their teaching, thinking that the worldly ideas are biblical when they really aren’t and thus compromising the gospel in some way.  This is when the gift of discernment is really needed to help the saints separate between the wheat and the chaff.  This gift can also be used in situations where believers are trying to work out a problem between themselves and need a discerning mediator to help (cf. 1 Cor. 6:5).  Sadly, even praise of the gospel can be deceitful and misleading.  Acts 16:16-17 reports “a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’” After being annoyed by her incessant yapping, he rebuked the demon and it left her.  What the girl said was true and could be seen as being favorable to the gospel, but Paul didn’t buy it for a minute.  Instead, he recognized that the purpose and motivation behind it was the opposite of what she was proclaiming.  The demon behind the girl’s cries wanted to destroy the gospel and the work of God’s men.  In this case Paul couldn’t judge by what was said, for it was true; instead, he knew that she was a demonic instrument for evil because the Holy Spirit had supernaturally revealed the false spirit that was behind her true proclamation.  “False teaching can be judged by comparing it to Scripture, but false spirits can only be revealed by the Spirit’s gift of discernment.” [MacArthur, 305] This gift can also be used to determine whether a manifestation of gifts is really of the Holy Spirit or another spirit.  All imitation of gifts aren’t necessarily a work of demons, for many sinning Christians today are simply “doing ministry” out of fleshly, carnal power.  Nevertheless, God gives some the ability to unmask false teachers and their teachings as well as the ability to recognize when false spirits are involved as well as nonsense from carnal hypocrites.  The problem however is that people with the gift of discernment can sometimes degenerate into a critical, proud and judgmental people who exhibit a self-righteous attitude.  This happens oftentimes when they get tired, burned-out, and overburdened with false teaching.  The cure is prayer, meditation on Scripture, rest, and space from discernment work so as to become refreshed, refocused on Christ and His love, and reinvigorated to defend the truth with grace (Col. 4:6).    

• "tongues" (glossa) in v. 10 is a Spirit-inspired supernatural ability to speak a foreign language(s) that that speaker does not know.  It is to be done in an orderly, controlled manner in the church meeting [cf. 14:27-28] and apart from interpretation; it is speech that is unintelligible to both the speaker and the hearers in the assembly [14:14, 16].  It is a sign to unbelievers because it is a foreign language that is spoken to those in the assembly by someone who does not know the language they are speaking, thus it can serve as a means to prove to the unbeliever that the gospel of Christ is the truth [14:22].  If left untranslated, it is not edifying to the congregation if it has no interpretation and actually hinders worship and edification [14:2, 5-19].  Sometimes the gift of languages involves a miracle of hearing instead of speaking; cf. Acts 2:5-11 where Peter was preaching in his language yet the hearers each heard the message in their own language.      
• "interpretation of tongues" (hermeneia glosson) is the gift of being able to interpret and then articulate to the church what the tongues-speaker just said for the benefit of the entire congregration (1 Cor. 14:26-28).  It is the idea of translating the foreign language that was spoken by the tongues-speaker.  As with tongues, the language translated is not learned beforehand, but instead, the Spirit gives the interpreter the supernatural ability to translate what was said by the tongue-speaker into the common language of the congregation so that all can understand and be edified (1 Cor. 14:5).  When tongues are interpreted in the congregation, it functions like prophecy for the foreign language speaker present in the congregation. 

IN CONCLUSION, Paul's point isn't to give us an exhaustive list of the types of spiritual gifts or tell us exactly how many there are but to show believers that they shouldn't try to emphasize one gift above another, but instead recognize that the body functions as an interdependent unit with all the members necessarily contributing.  This is because “ . . . the gifts are for the building up of the community as a whole, not primarily for the benefit of the individual believer." [Fee, 589]

---

[1] Continuationists are those Calvinists who believe that the sign gifts and revelatory gifts continue in some way into the present (i.e., gifts of healings, signs and wonders, knowledge, tongues, and prophecy).

[2] Cessationists are those who believe that the sign gifts and revelatory gifts ceased in the first century (i.e., gifts of healings, signs and wonders, knowledge, tongues, and prophecy). 

The Cries and Screams of those in Hell

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.  Revelation 20:15

NOTE:  The following is an update from a dear brother who is a missionary to Japan who works with HeartCry Missionary Society.  Be sure to pay careful attention to what is written in bold below, for it represents the perspective we all need to have when it comes to dealing with the eternal souls of men who are Hell-bent on bowing the knee to their idols.

Update and Prayer Requests for Japan 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 

Here in Tokyo, our family, church and friends are safe. Just after we finished a Bible study, we felt the big earthquake. Some things fell down, but we just ended up dizzy from the movement. The coasts are the most affected areas.  Most probably you have watched on the news that they are estimating 20,000 dead people, and that there was some explosions in two nuclear plants in Fukushima. The reactors didn't explode with these explosions, but the government is trying to cool down the reactors to prevent this from happening. There was a release of vapor with high levels of radiation from one of the reactors. The country is in a state of emergency.  Some people were contaminated, but thousands are being evacuated 20 kms. away from the nuclear plants.

The world's perspective of what is happening is focused on the spectacular show of houses and cars floating, on the buildings on fire, or the power of the tsunami. The most terrible sound we Christians heard these days is not the terrible sound of the earthquake or the roaring of the tsunami, but we heard in our spirits the cry and screams of thousands of souls going to hell. We do not deserve to be alive, each person who is reading these lines or breathing today--it is just because of the mercy and grace of our God. It is hard to see so much pain and devastation, but we cannot blame God. We have to praise god for blessing us with another day to live.

God decided to take away the life of thousands of people, and He decided also to keep the lives of many. We are crying for the consequences of His purposes and sovereignty. God is allowing all this devastation, death and suffering in Japan for a purpose. We believe there is a specific precious message from Him to each one of us. So it is our first prayer that we will eagerly seek to listen to His voice behind this tragedy. To spend time entertaining our interest in the images and videos will make all these events worthless. All this will make sense only if we listen to the message of our Lord.

It is disgusting to see people who call themselves Christians united in prayers with buddhists and idol worshipers. Everybody is 'spiritual' now in Japan, but everybody is conveniently keeping silent about to whom they are really praying, and describing this time as an impersonal act of nature for the sake of the false atmosphere of world spiritual unity.  Jesus have mercy on us.

After this tsunami in Japan, it is very sad that Japanese people continue praying to the animals, to the toilets, to Buddha, to mountains, to their worthless idols, to demons and much other garbage. But it is more sad that many Christians are afraid to tell that there is only One God and there is Only One NAME under heaven by which we can be heard, and His name is Jesus Christ. God have mercy.

Please help us by praying so God has more mercy and patience with this idolatrous country. Japan is the country that rejected the most-over hundreds of years-the Gospel and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray for more mercy for Japan.

Please pray for more missionaries who are ready to suffer for the faithful preaching of the true Gospel. We need more missionaries here because the missionaries who do come, most of them return after only a very short time here.

Please pray that all Japanese people will repent from their idolatry and will run to our Lord Jesus, that they may be reconciled through repentance and faith.

Please pray that in this time of unbearable pain, the Japanese people will find through our Lord Jesus reconciliation, and real hope, comfort, love, joy and peace.

Please pray so Christians in this country will be brave enough to share the name of Jesus and to attack the idolatry.

Please pray so many Christians will talk with Japanese people about repentance and faith in Jesus, and that Christians will not use  "Bible Promises for God's children" to counsel and encourage the God-rejecting people.

Please pray for God to break our pride and break the pride of this country.

Pray so Japan will understand that their idols and thousand of gods are dead, and that they will not enslave or kill Christians like they did in the past, but this time they will melt and surrender and live on their knees worshiping the Only True God. 

Whatever You Do, Don't Tell the Creationists!

The following articles are interesting links to subjects that are of interests to creationists.  The first article is about a tacit admission from an evolutionist that he and the rest of his evolutionary colleagues really don't have any good scientific hypotheses about how life started because each one is riddled with problems:

Don't Tell the Creationists

The next article is a response by an AiG writer to some evolutionists that have done shoddy research in an attempt to undermine a Native American rock drawing (petroglyph) of a dinosaur.  Creationists have appealed to this petroglyph in the past as evidence substantiating what the Bible already teaches; namely, that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time:

Feedback: Kachina Bridge Dinosaur Petroglyph

Rob Bell Resources

Note:  For those who are interested, the following information copied from an article at Apprising Ministries is a good resource for those who need accurate information concerning the heretical doctrines of Rob Bell.



As a leading online apologetics and discernment work, Apprising Ministries has been warning you about the teachings the Emerging Church icon Rob Bell, co-teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church along with his good friend Shane Hipps. As I told you in Unrest With Rob Bell Inside Mars Hill Bible Church, there are many sincere believers there; my concern is while they are trying to follow Jesus, there seems to be something seriously going wrong within the leadership of MHBC.
The more Bell’s book tour contines, for example on MSNBC below, the more Google searchers end up here and I’m being contacted by people within MHBC in their attempt to get more perspective concerning what Rob Bell advocates and teaches; not just in his new book, but his theology in general. I’ve also told you about an infestation of ne0-Gnostic corruption called Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), which is now pandemic within mainstream evangelicalism through its foolish embrace of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church with its quasi-universalism in a new version of postmodern Progressive Christian theology under their spiritual circus “big tent” of empty Emergence Christianity.

Some ask: “But do you really have to put it like that?” I’ll answer with the words of the late Dr. Walter Martin: If you have any brains you do. For you see, this isn’t a game; this is a spiritual war for the souls of men, and we only have one lifetime to reach them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ — And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus has given you years of straight ahead apologetics exposing the drifting of Rob Bell; when that didn’t work, He’s also sent polemists like me to tell it like it is in a more blunt fashion. And if you think I’m rough, wait until you see the next preachers God sends as this spiritual darkness decends upon apostatizing evangelicalism.

You don’t like that kind of talk; well, as Martin used to say—and too many cult of celebrity preachers conveniently forget today—the Christian ministry is no place for personality contests. Please keep in mind that this isn’t simply about Rob Bell; I’ve said many times that he appears to be a very genuine and sincere man, however he’s sincerely very wrong about the nature of God. You need to remember, it’s not unloving to tell someone the truth; you can get in a lot of trouble doing it, but it’s not unloving. In the case of Rob Bell, the truth is he’s heavily involved in the practice of a form of neo-Gnosticism.
Like I said before, as an exact case in point consider the following from Bell’s recent sermon I will say it again, and again, and again:

It’s interesting how many traditions (pause) When you read the great enlightened ones; meditation, centering prayer, reflection—in every tradition you can find the mystics—and what’s always at the heart of the spiritual lives, the everyday lives of the great ones was always a period of time.
Whether it’s prayers, chanting, meditation, reflection, study—whatever you call it—what is it essentially; it’s taking time to breathe. Because when you’ve been breathing, (slight pause) in a proper sort of way, you’re far better equipped to handle what life throws your way. (5:41-6:23)

If one doesn’t recognize here that Bell is praising “the mystics” for their supposedly superior spiritual understanding, which is but a reimagined Gnosticism, I personally believe it’s simply because they just do not wish to see. The fact is, in pieces like Rob Bell In A Nutshell: Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and Through Rob Bell “The Great Enlightened Ones” Tell Us Man Has Divine Greatness as well as Shane Hipps And Rob Bell Teaching Heresy, I’ve shown you that universalism is part of the fetid fruit of those who practice this spurious CSM, e.g. like Bell and the unholy EC trinity of apostates, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch.

The Lord be praised, I was already warning you about this two years ago in Rob Bell And Christian Universalism. In closing this, for now, below the video for the further edification of the Body of Christ I’ll share some resources that will help you quickly cut through the mystic mythology of Rob Bell et al.

ROB BELL ON THE RECORD CONCERNING SCRIPTURE
ROB BELL AND SHANE HIPPS TEACHING MYSTICISM
IS ROB BELL EVANGELICAL?
DOUG PAGITT ON ROB BELL AND UNIVERSALISM
ROB BELL: “TRAMPOLINIANITY” AND THE VIRGIN BIRTH
God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of “Love Wins”
The Blood-Drained Gospel of Rob Bell
We Have Seen All This Before: Rob Bell and the (Re)Emergence of Liberal Theology
Love Wins – A Review of Rob Bell’s New Book
Rob Bell’s Abstract Elvis
Postmodern Liberalism: Repainting a Non-Christian Faith (I)
A Christian Critique of Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis
The Scoop’a on NOOMA — Part 1
Review of Velvet Elvis

James White Exposes Rob Bell's Parallelomania

HT:  Alpha and Omega Ministries

Thanking God for an Excellent Wife

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.  Proverbs 31:10

This past week I have been essentially unable to do ministry work because my wife was bedridden with a nasty sickness for three days.  I have done my best to care for the children, do the laundry, and keep the house tidy.  After the children have been fed, played with, read to, prayed for, and put to bed, I have tried to keep up with my daily Bible reading only to find myself quickly and easily falling asleep after reading two or three chapters.  I must confess that caring for my home during my wife's sickness has absolutely worn me out.  I can still feel the effects of fatigue as I type this sentence.  All of this was done with help from both my father-in-law the last three days and two dear ladies from our church coming to my home last night to help finish the daily chores and care for the children so that I could attend my monthly church men's meeting.  That last sentence was written to point out that I did all of this with some help, whereas my wife receives very little help day in and day out. 

Realization

Now, I said all of that not to complain, but in thankfulness to God for such an excellent wife.  I am now more aware than ever that she arises every morning and works very hard till she retires at night usually around 10-10:30 p.m.  Then she gets up and does it the next day, and the next, and the next.  There is no vacation, no lunch hour, and essentially no reprieve.  When the two youngest children are napping during the early to late afternoon, the seven year old is still up and about working on crafts, school, or doing some other activity whereby it is difficult for my wife to rest while the two younger children are resting.  Usually, if the seven year old doesn't prevent you from resting or napping, the doorbell is almost sure to do so, for our seven year old has a dear neighborhood friend of elementary school age that sometimes rings the doorbell about the time you are starting to nod off.

Also, did I mention that sometimes she gets up several times per night to attend to sick children?  Does she then get to "flex" her schedule by starting later in the day?  Not at all; instead, like clockwork, these same sick children get up at the same early hour and she begins her new day, often still physically and mentally exhausted from the day before, yet she presses on.

Did I mention that she does all of this while also successfully homeschooling our seven year old?

Repentance

As she rose this morning, still feeling the effects of her sickness, though slowly recovering, she began to start her day.  While she was in the shower and I came downstairs to do something, I saw a pile of clothes already forming at the base of the steps that lead to the laundry room and I was overcome with conviction after I passed by the pile.  At that moment it was if the Holy Spirit said to my mind, "Look now at the pile that is forming, look now at your wife, and don't be selfish, but selfless.  Consider your ways young preacher, lest you find yourself wifeless and caring for your whole family with the added burden of the ministry."  I then picked up the clothes with tears in my eyes, placed them in the hamper, while repenting to God for being so selfish.

Resolution

I came upstairs to find my wife tending to the children after attempting a quick, frequently interrupted shower.  I didn't want to interrupt her in her daily routine, but before this still half-sick woman was off with the two older children to the grocery store, I embraced her, told her how thankful to God that I am for her, and I repented for my past failures in easing her daily burden due to selfishness.  Now, I am praying that God will keep me attentive to the needs of my wife, especially as it pertains to daily care for the family.  I pray that God will grant me absolute dependence upon Him to minister to my family rather than engaging in the self-deception of thinking that I can do these things by my own power rather than depending upon Christ.

May God grant us all the eyes to see such things, for it is only by the Spirit that we see them.  Thank you Jesus!

Why You Need to Think Deeply About the Japanese Tsunami Disaster

Dear friends, may we consider the brevity of life and the reality of eternity as we think about the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan:



First-person footage of Tsunami disaster 

Here's a question you ought to ask yourself regularly:  What's going to matter in a thousand years?

Not only was I bombarded by the media giving me minute-by-minute updates of the Japan disaster, but I was once again confronted with death face-to-face this past weekend as I not only buried my grandmother and preached her funeral, but I watched her take her last breath and quietly slip off into eternity.

When I preached her funeral, I asked the funeral attendees the question above.  You could have heard a pin drop.  Is success, prosperity, and notoriety going to matter in a thousand years?  Is pleasure, philosophy, and taking pride in our accomplishments going to matter?  Is anyone going to care how successful you were, how much money you made, or how much pleasure you indulged in?  Is anybody really going to care about any of that in a thousand years?

After partaking of the best success, sex, and worldly wisdom that an ancient Israelite kingdom could offer, an old Jewish sage writing about three thousand years ago summed it up best,

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 2:11

Friends, don't fool yourself.  If your efforts in this life are geared towards helping you become more wealthy, to satisfy your sensual pleasures, to increase your worldly wisdom, or to scratch your latest itch, you can be sure that its all going to amount to a pile of dung after you are gone.  The best you'll have is others wrangling over your material possessions or have others read and critique your confusing addition to the already endless cesspool of worldly wisdom while your carcass is in the ground turning to dust.   If you are a believer and are blessed, your relatives and other believers might take some interest in what you did, but think about it; do you remember the accomplishments of your great, great grandparents?  Do you even know their names?  Just like them, your worldly accomplishments aren't going to matter one bit.  Nobody is really going to care who you were or what you did.  However, lest we think that we are only left with nihilism, the same Jewish sage I quoted above finished by stating what really does matter:

The conclusion, when all has been heard is:  fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.  For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.  Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

It is a dreadful thing to consider that thousands of Japanese people have entered into eternity and faced a just God as they were either drowned, swept out to sea, or injured to the point of death in the catastrophe.  As I prepared for my grandmother's funeral, I wondered how many of them had lived for themselves rather than God.  I wondered how many of them were ready to stand before the Judge of all the earth and give and account for every thought, word, and deed.  When I preached her funeral and looked out over the faces in the crowd, I wondered the same thing about the people I was preaching to.  While some were thankful for their salvation as evidenced by the occasional "Amen!", it was sad to watch many of them laughing and talking to each other while I was preaching, thus giving evidence that they were uninterested in the gospel.  Oh how blinded they are to what awaits them!

Many of those who remain in the wake of the Japanese disaster will be hurt, angered, and their hearts will become further hardened and rebellious.  Christians need to be there to minister grace to them.  Some will wonder where was God during this time, just like they did when the Twin Towers fell on 9-11-2001.  Christians need to be there ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within them.  Many intellectuals in the western world will write books, papers, and articles mocking God by claiming that this natural disaster is another reason to question the existence of an "omnibenevolent" God; not realizing that their foolish mockery rests on their definition of "omnibenevolent", not God's definition.  Such folly is the expected outcome when finite, prideful, and arrogant creatures refuse to humble themselves before the infinitely wise Creator (Psalm 147:5).  Christian apologists will be ready for these detractors; answering the same old worn out arguments that have been used by mockers since the time of the early church.

Why You Need to Think Deeply About the Japanese Tsunami Disaster

In the New Testament, Jesus was asked if some Galileans who died in a disaster were worse sinners than all other Galileans.  They wanted to know if those who died had it coming to them because of their sin.  Here's the narrative:

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus' answer ought to stop you in your tracks.  He's basically saying, "Look, don't worry about those sinners, you need to worry about yourself because if YOU don't repent you're going to Hell!"  While it is true that unrepentant sinners will get what is coming to them sooner or later (Gal. 6:7), Jesus didn't confirm their suspicions, but instead demolished them and pointed out their own need for personal repentance lest they too perish not only temporally, but eternally. 

IN CONCLUSION, may we weep with those Christians who weep in Japan.  May we pray for them and their unbelieving families that remain, trusting God to work in the lives of those people in His own time for His own sovereign purposes.  May we also be willing to lend a helping hand by either going over there ourselves or by supporting those who are going through prayer and financial support.  Either way, its going to cost us something to be disciples of Jesus.  May we do things like this for the glory of God so that when we stand before Jesus, may our work done on this earth be spiritually valuable like "gold, silver" and "precious stones" (1 Cor. 3:12), work that is pleasing in His sight.  So what's going to matter in a thousand years?  The answer is twofold:  (1) That you were ready to meet your Righteous and Holy Creator because you were reconciled to Him through faith in the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Messiah, and (2) that you gave up your own desires so that you could do Jesus' desires, that you didn't consider your own life of any value to yourself, but instead you used your time on this earth to love God and your fellow man with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  That is what is going to count for time and eternity.

Book Review: "Thinking About God" - Part IV

INTRODUCTION:  This article is the final part of our review of Dr. Gregory E. Ganssle's book Thinking About God:  First Steps in Philosophy.  I'll summarize how Dr. Ganssle answers each issue in part four of his book with each chapter heading designated by the blue, bolded, italicized font below.  I'll then briefly assess each answer by comparing it to how the Bible answers these questions and deals with these issues.  
  
IN PART FOUR, WHAT IS GOD LIKE?, Ganssle utilizes the tools of philosophy to help us think about God's attributes. 

Chapter 23 - Beginning to Think About What God is Like.  Ganssle rightly notes that the concept of "God" has had a long history in philosophical discussions because it has tended to teach people how to think about power and action in the world.  He also notes that we can begin with traditional notions of God (personal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent) as part of the task of theology and that questions of God's nature are part of the starting points for a specialty area known as philosophical theology.


Assessment:  There's not much to comment on for this chapter, so see the assessments that follow.

Chapter 24 - What Can God Do?  This is a helpful chapter in that Ganssle shows that God can do anything He wants insofar as its consistent with His nature and plan.  This means that God cannot make a God so big He can't lift because such is a logical impossibility and God cannot actualize the impossible.  Ganssle explains,

A physical object that is so big that an all-powerful being cannot move it is a contradiction.  There cannot be such a thing.  It is like a square-circle.  So God cannot make one.  You see, to say that God is all-powerful does not mean that God can do any task I can name in words.  It means that he can do anything that is not a logical contradiction.  A square circle is a logical contradiction.  It is a logical impossibility.  It is not a genuine possibility.  It is really not a thing at all and therefore it is not surprising that God cannot make one.  It is not a real limit to God's power that he cannot perform contradictions. [p. 157]

Thus, there are logical limits to what an omnipotent being can do.  Then, Ganssle moves into an interesting and informative discussion regarding God's relationship to the laws of physics and logic.  He notes that while physical laws are put into place by God and that these physical laws operate given the relationship of certain parts of the universe with other parts, then God can interfere with them because He set them up and that this account for God's ability to do miracles.  However, logic is not like this, for logic necessarily holds in all possible worlds and necessarily holds even in the mind of God.  In other words, God cannot actualize a contradiction; He cannot make a contradiction true.  However, Ganssle carefully notes that to say that God cannot tamper with logic isn't to put an external limitation upon God as if there is something outside of God that is more powerful than Him that He is subject to.  On the contrary, the laws of logic are expressions of who God is and how He thinks [p. 164].  God's nature is to be perfectly rational, God always operates in accord with His own nature, thus, God is limited by His own character and nature.  Ganssle makes an astute observation,

I think that the most ultimately basic fact is that God is who he is and he is not who he is not.  On this fact, I think, rests the law of non-contradiction. [p. 165]

Logic then, isn't external to God; it doesn't have authority over Him.  It is simply a reflection of who He is.  


Assessment:  This was a helpful chapter as Ganssle rightly argues that God's omnipotence means that He can do anything that is consistent with His nature and plan.  He can neither contradict Himself nor make that which is logically impossible an actuality (2 Tim. 2:13).  Ganssle's explanation of the nature of God and His relationship to logic is both helpful, lucid, and Biblically correct.  I can't recommend it enough.  

Chapter 25 - What Can God Know?  In similar manner with the last chapter, Ganssle argues that God can know everything; everything that can be known that is.  Ganssle argues that some things cannot be known, for instance, that which is false cannot be known; though God can know that certain thing are false.  Ganssle argues this is the case because knowledge as generally defined by philosophers consists of justified, true, belief.  Thus, if what can be known are only true beliefs, then false beliefs cannot be known since it is logically impossible to know them given the standard philosophical definition for knowledge.  Ganssle gives examples such as it is impossible for God to know that 1+1=3 because it is impossible for it to equal three.  He cannot know how to draw a square circle because it is impossible for square circles to exist.  As Ganssle notes,

So when I said earlier that there are things that God cannot know, I was thinking of false statements.  False statements cannot be known because in order to be known at all, a statement of claim has to be true.  Of course God know that each false statement is false, but this case it not the same knowing the false statement.  [p. 168]

Ganssle goes on to argue that God can know everything simultaneously not necessarily because He is spread out everywhere like a fog in space, but because every point in space is present to His mind and will.  He then goes on to discuss the different ways that God relates to time: (1) the atemporal view and the (2) "God is everlasting but in time" view.  The first view says that God is outside time, does not experience any temporal succession, and knows all events as one eternal now.  The everlasting time view says that God is everlasting but in time.  On the second view God has always existed but He experiences time sequentially.  Thus, on this view, God experiences Washington's presidency before Bush's.  Ganssle then discusses these two views and some of the philosophical problems and solutions for them but finishes by noting that both approaches allow philosophers to hold that God knows all true things. 

Assessment:  I appreciated Ganssle's careful discussion about how God can know all things that can be logically known.  The discussion regarding God's relationship to time was helpful but Ganssle himself didn't seem to favor one position over another.  My own view is that God has perfect knowledge of all events in the time-space-matter continuum because He planned it from eternity, thus providing the grounds for His knowledge (Isa. 46:10).

Chapter 26 - Can God Know the Future?  Ganssle notes that given current philosophical discussion, it is hard to see how God can have knowledge of what is happening now that are are independent of all of the facts about what others events are going on and still be outside of time.  On the other hand, he notes that it is hard to see how God can know what you will eat for breakfast tomorrow if God is in time and your choice is not determined.  Ganssle notes that there have been three ways to try to argue for God's knowledge of the future: (1) God knows what you are going to do without His knowledge undermining your choice to do it, (2) God isn't in time, so His knowledge of what you will do isn't "ahead of" anything since He is outside of time, and (3) God knows all true things but that there are not any truths about what you will freely choose in the future.  Thus, God doesn't know what you'll have for breakfast.  Ganssle notes that the second option has been the most popular.  He explains that technically speaking, God doesn't foreknow anything because all the events that occur successively to use are known as one eternal "now" to Him.  In other words, there is no past, present, or future in God's mind, but He knows every point in time at the same eternal "moment".  Thus, on this second view, God can have exhaustive knowledge of what you will do without you being in control of your choices.


Assessment:  I appreciate Ganssle's opening discussion, but much of his argumentation presupposes libertarian free will, which I reject since I believe the Bible teaches otherwise.  See the assessment for chapter 25 for my brief commentary from a Biblical perspective. 

Chapter 27 - Does God Communicate?  Ganssle begins this final chapter by arguing that we can know things about God either by inferring these ideas from what we observe in the world or if God directly reveals some true things to us.  Ganssle also says, "If God is real, we ought to expect that what we infer and what he reveals will fit together." [p. 179]  Ganssle then implicitly argues against deism by noting that if it can be inferred that God has a moral nature, then it can also be inferred that He made us with a purpose.  Ganssle then argues that because we are language-making creatures it makes sense that god would use understandable language to communicate with us.  He then argues that it would make sense that God would do this in a book since (1) a book can be preserved for generations to come, and (2) a book can be analyzed, studied, and critically interacted with because it is public knowledge.  


Assessment:  This final chapter was helpful and didn't contain much that I would disagree if one first assumes the truthfulness of Biblical Christian theism.  However, I did take issue with Ganssle's statement that "If God is real, we ought to expect that what we infer and what he reveals will fit together." [Ibid.]  This is not necessarily true since it depends upon who is doing the inferring.  As noted earlier in this review, Ganssle rightly noted that no one is neutral when evaluating arguments and data.  Thus, it is impossible to infer anything about God neutrally since the data that make up the lines of inference are themselves pre-interpreted.  This is why the rationalists and empiricists all came up with competing and contradictory philosophies.  Thus, everyone is some sort of a presuppositionalist whether they like it or not.


IN CONCLUSION, I recommend Ganssle's book but with reservation since he argues for libertarian free-will and as a philosopher, he seems to be careful to avoid taking the teaching of Scripture into consideration when developing his arguments.  Now, I realize that some philosophers reading this review will criticize me for assuming that all of our thinking should be grounded in the Scriptures, but I am grateful that God has revealed Himself such that not only can we know some things for certain (i.e., Acts 2:36), but that those revealed certainties provide the necessary and sufficient preconditions for the intelligibility of reality.