Tag Archives: Why apologetics

The Western Front

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“If all the world were Christian, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now — not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground — would be to throw down our weapons, and betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. The cool intellect must work not only against cool intellect on the other side, but also against the muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether.
Most of all, perhaps we need intimate knowledge of the past. . . . the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.
The learned life then is, for some, a duty.”

Click to access Lewis.Learning%20in%20War-Time.pdf

CS Lewis – Sermon on Wartime.

The above quote from Lewis excited my thinking as a young man at Bible college, and it excites me today.

Lewis preached this in 1939 to Oxford students wondering about the point of their studies with a war happening, and much of this sermon is applicable today.

Today, we live in a hustled and busy environment in which Christianity is assaulted at every corner. It is therefore easy to retreat into one’s faith, and to focus less on the failings of post-Christian America and more on the hope we have in Christ, but to do so is to abandon the younger generation.

Today we are in the midst of a great cultural downgrade, and the effects on the Church cannot be denied. This great cultural downgrade has led to a loss in the rigor of our thinking, and greater searches for “new things” as at Athens in the years of that city’s waning greatness; precisely because Americans give little thought to philosophy and theology leads many to simply accepts the mainstream humanism that has become the de facto state religion in America. And because this muddy, ill-conceived philosophy permeates every layer of our society, our children are infected in their schools, online, and by their friends.

Ephesians tells us that we are in a great spiritual war, and so it is easy to ignore the rigors of apologetics. After all, it’s a “spiritual war”; yet, we cannot divide the spirit from the intellect. Apologetics is simply one great front in this formidable struggle with principalities, powers and the rulers of the darkness of this evil time. And just as World War II was not confined to the Western front and the westward action of the English and Americans, it would have equally been impossible to defeat the Germans if the Western front had been ignored. So too within this great spiritual struggle, apologetics cannot be ignored.

We are commanded to provide an answer for those who ask of our hope – I’m reporting for duty as best I can, I hope you will also volunteer in the battle for hearts and minds, ultimately for the glory of King Jesus.

Singing in the Mountaintops, engaging in the trenches.

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I work at a job where I am blessed to be able to listen to music while I work. Tonight, while listening to some southern gospel, I found that blessing that I only find in that type of private worship. It was a mountain top experience. I grew up in the Detroit area, but in a church made up largely of southerners (such as my grandparents) who moved north to look for work in the auto industry. Thus southern music makes up a prominent part of my “playlist.” While I love the great hymns of the faith, it is the distinctive harmony of southern gospel music that is the expression of my worship at my highest moments, and that succors me at my lowest points. And like Peter at the mount of transfiguration, I would ask that I could stay on this mountain peak forever.

Yet, like Peter I can’t. Mountaintop experiences – as wonderful as they are – can’t carry me through life. Like all of God’s sheep, I must spend time in the valley where the grass grows.

The purpose of this site is to be an entry level material for Christian casemaking or as it is better known, “Christian apologetics.” In a sense, this is a “get in the game” site for Christians in relationship to answering the objections of the faith. I hope you have a deep devotional life. I hope you have those moments when your heart soars in worship and praise, and you deeply feel the profoundness of the Father’s love for believers. But I also hope you realize we cannot live only in our devotional life. This is why sites like mine are necessary.

Answering the questions of the faith are not merely an aspect of the Christian experience that we might find interesting, it is one that we must engage in. Peter tells us plainly that we are to always be ready to give an answer for those who ask of the blessed hope that lies within us. Yet the nature of the spiritual equipment we use demands thought in how to do this.

When we discuss spiritual warfare, the classic passage is the armor of God discussion in Ephesians. In this discussion, the word of God is described as a sword – the only offensive weapon in the panoply of faith. Swords were important weapons in the Roman world, but the soldier was required to spend an extensive amount of time drilling to use the weapon effectively. Apologetics is a part of the drilling – its about learning to use Truth effectively.

I hope you have a devotional life, but I hope you are engaged in the trenches as well – and paradoxically, if you study some apologetical material, I hope it makes your mountain experiences all the more exhilarating – I can tell you, that has been my experience.