Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Revolution in Christian Apologetics!

The Revolt Against Unbiblical Christianity Begins!



"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."

(John 17:17)


"So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ."

(Romans 10:17)

"And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

(2 Timothy 3:15-17)

"Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."

(2 Timothy 4:2)



"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God For it is written: “ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

(1 Corinthians 1:18-25



Biblically Reforming the Way American Evangelicals Defend the Historic Christian Faith Against the Challenges of the Postmodern and Secular Age


by Lee Edward Enochs
Chairman,
The Evangelical Debate Society


In Defense of the Historic Evangelical Christian Faith



On October 31, 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther, in opposition to serious heresies being taught in the Roman Catholic Church, nailed his 95 "thesis"on the door of Wittenburg Cathedral and on that very day the cataclysmic and global spiritual revolution known as the Protestant Reformation was born.
A few years later, at the important Diet of Worms, (Diet" meaning a formal meeting, not a weight-loss plan, and Worms being a city south of Frankfurt), under the heated threat of excommunication and execution at the hands of the evil Roman Catholic hierarchy, Martin Luther was forcefully commanded to recant his teachings and obey without question the Roman Catholic heresies against the authority of Scripture and Justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, Martin Luther refused to bow his knee in unscriptural submission and subservience to the wicked and ungodly Romans Catholic leaders.
In April 1521, Luther appeared before Emperor Charles V to defend what he had taught and written. He said in his famous speech at Worms, that he could not recant or go against his conscience and the Word of God and at the end of his famous speech, the he spoke the famous words, 'Here I stand; I can do no other, so help me God.'
Today, I am standing with Martin Luther and standing against false teaching in American Christianity. This false teaching is in the area of Evangelism and Christian Apologetics. I have attended some of American Evangelicalism's most prestigious Churches, Universities, Colleges and Seminaries and I have seen a very unbiblical trend transpire, where American Evangelicals are being sold a deceptive and fraudulent bill of goods and are being told by pastors and professors that the Bible is not sufficient and is not to be used in sharing our faith and defending the faith.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In an exceedingly hostile postmodern and post-Christian era of American Civilization wherein the insidious and irreligious forces of godless secularism threaten to eviscerate and castigate the cultural viability of Evangelicalism in contemporary society, the historic Evangelical Christian Church currently residing within the North American Hemisphere, must resist, at all costs, the tendency towards assimilation, apostasy, synergistic compromise and gallantly arise to the challenge of boldly proclaiming and defending the glorious saving Gospel of Jesus Christ is a rapidly declining culture slouching towards Gomorrah and teetering near the brink of catastrophic destruction.

Despite this seemingly insurmountable challenge and the atheistic forces of unbelief that threaten to destroy the Christian Church in America, we, Bible believing Evangelical Christians, have been given a Scriptural mandate by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to preach and teach His Gospel to all humanity irrespective of hardship and the possibility of perceived detrimental consequences by the secular state.

Ominous dark clouds of rancor and hostility presently loom on the cultural horizon for contemporary Evangelicalism, as ethical and religious relativists, with a blinding hatred towards Biblical Christianity, are working overtime at concocting local and national legislation that would force Evangelical Christians to legitimize false, perilous and inherently anti-democratic religions such as militant Islam and embrace without question, sinful "alternative lifestyles" such as homosexuality, transgenderism and other grotesque paradigms of promiscuity.

Instead of disengaging from contemporary society and amusing ourselves to death via the ever increasing onslaught of technology driven entertainment, being desensitized to the state of the Church in America by burying our heads in the sand like the proverbial oblivious ostrich, contemporary American Evangelicals must at once take notice of the current climate of hostility towards us and arise to meet the enemy in the realm of ideas and public discourse. The Evangelical Christian Church in America needs coherent, Biblically based defenders of the faith once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). This is where the discipline of Christian Apologetics comes in.

In our exceedingly hostile secular world, it is of paramount importance, the we Evangelical Christians equip ourselves for the task of defending the Christian faith in a coherent, culturally relevant and Biblical manner. The science and discipline of defending the Christian faith is known as Apologetics, the field of Christian study concerned with the systematic defense of a position. Someone who engages in apologetics is called an apologist or an "apologete". According to the seminal Oxford English Dictionary, "The term comes from the Greek word apologia, meaning defense of a position against an attack."

The Apostle Peter summed up our mandate to defend the Christian faith in secular society when he wrote,

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within you, yet with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15).

The Apostle Jude also exhorted us to engage in the practice of defending the Christian faith when he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

"Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

Repeatedly throughout the ministry of the Apostle Paul he had to engage in the task of defending the legitimacy of his ministry and the veracity of the Christian faith as the following verses clearly illustrate,

"Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now" (Acts 22:2).

"Then Paul, after the governor had nodded to him to speak, answered: Inasmuch as I know that you have been for many years a judge of this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself" (Acts 24:10).

"Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!(Acts 26:24).

"My defense to those who examine me is this" (1 Corinthians 9:3).

"Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace" (Philippians 1:7).

"But the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel" (Philippians 1:17).

"At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them" (2 Timothy 4:16).

Thus, we find in the infallible Scriptures, a Biblical mandate given by God to defend the Christian faith against the false charges and false doctrines of non-Christians and to present a positive case for the truthfulness of the Christian faith in order that the lost might come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Hence, Christian Apologetics, like Missions, is ultimately an extension of the Great Commission the Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave to all Christians to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 24:44-47, John 20:21 and Acts 1:8).

The Apostle Paul also stressed the importance of Evangelism when he wrote,

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things! (Romans 10:9-15).

" For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).

"But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:5).

This mandate to reach the world with God's self-revelation of Himself and His saving message is not limited only to the pages of the New Testament Canon of Scripture, but we see God's passion for the glory and fame of His great name replete throughout the Old Testament record as well, as the following Scriptures clearly indicate,

"that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other" (1 Kings 8:60).

"Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; And let them say among the nations, The LORD reigns" (1 Chronicles 16:31).

"Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You" (Psalm 51: 12-13).

"The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isaiah 60:3).


Thus, we see in Scripture that Apologetics, the task of defending the Christian faith is directly related to the Biblical mandate of global evangelization. Apologetics is seen in Scripture in direct correlation with evangelism and world missions. The ultimate goal in defending the Christian faith is to testify to the veracity of Christianity in order that all the peoples of the earth might repent of their sins and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Thus, just as "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20), any attempt to engage in defending and upholding the truthfulness of Christianity that is detached and unrelated to spreading the fame of God's great name here and abroad, is utterly deficient and meaningless. The Christian task of apologetics is not an esoteric activity meant only for "Christian intellectuals", but defending the faith is meant for all Christians, irrespective of their sociological framework, for the explicit purpose of reaching this lost world with the saving message of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose again from the dead in order to give eternal life to all those who sincerely repent of their sins and believe in His great name.

"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31).

Throughout the annals of Christian history, the Lord has raised up godly Apologists, to defend and proclaim the truthfulness of Biblical Christianity as evidenced by the defense of the faith given by Christ's Apostles and early disciples in the first century, New Testament period, the Ante and Post Nicean Patristic Church Fathers such as Tertullian

However, throughout the annals of Church history some Christians have unfortunately utilized

When Almighty God spoke His divine Word from heaven, it was complete and lacking nothing. The Bible, God's exclusively authoritative, inspired, infallible and inerrant Word, is entirely self-sufficient and self- authenticating in every respect and needs no external and autonomous man-made verification. The veracity of the Christian faith and the methodology of demonstrating Christianity's inherent truthfulness is self-contained within the Scriptures themselves and God's inspired Word absolutely needs no historical, archealogical, scientific attestation and confirmation by mere mortal, blinded and fallen men. The Word of God is absolutely perfect and entirely truthful in every respect and will efficaciously peform without exception or fail, percisely the intended means by which God sovereignly ordained it. As the Scriptures majestically declare,

"So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11).

Evangelicals need not employ natural theology in their defense of Christianity, since the Bible is self-sufficent and needs no rational defense. The Bible is true because God has spoken from heaven and revealed the knowledge of Himself through the wonder of creation and human conscience.

In a Postmodern and Anti-Christian World, Evangelical Christians Need to Reject Using Naturalistic Arguments in Defending the Faith Against Oppostion and Employ the Biblically Based Apologetics Approach Known as Presuppostionalism to Refute the Errors of the Wicked and Uphold the Truth Revealed in the Word of God. It is inherently more Biblical than the Thomistic and Natural Theology Apologetical approach postulated by JP Moreland, William Lane Craig, that is essentially a Evangelical spin on the thought of the Greek Philosopher Aristotle that came into the Evangelical Church through the backdoor via the mass embracing of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. Natural Theology proponents within American Evangelicalism such as Frank Beckwith, Moreland, William Lane Craig and Norman Geisler, have in adopting a Thomistic view of epistemology have subsequently appropriated a Thomistic and Roman Catholic view of the Noetic effects of sin on the fallen will of humanity which is utterly incongruent with the Protestant Reformation's view of the "Bondage of the Will" Thomistic Apologetics often leads to an adoption of Roman Catholic views of the Fall, Orginal Sin, Human Depravity, the Grace of God and Justification.

If the will is not utterly fallen via the Fall and mankind has not been plunged into absolute epistemological and volitional darkness as Calvin and Luther postulated, then the Catholic position known as "Synergism" naturally (no pun intended) follows. Many Evangelical and Calvinistic Protestants throughout America were not a bit suprised that one from the Thomistic Club of Natural Law and Molinist Natural Theology proponents whould go over to Rome, since they have essentially been espousing Roman Catholic views of theology for a long time now anyways. The worst thing about Frank Beckwith's so called "conversion" to Roman Catholicism (he was already there in his theological and philosophical system) is the timing. One would expect that Beckwith would have more integrity than renounce his Evangelicalism mid-way through his tenure of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Throughout many leading Evangelical Churches, Bible colleges, Universities and Seminaries this very unbiblical naturalistic approach to sharing the Gospel and defending the faith is being used as the normative standard of Christian Evangelism and Apologetical methodology and it is very, very sad indeed to see so many Evangelical abandoning the historic Evangelical and Reformed Faith and adopting a pagan system based more in Aristotle than in the Christ of Biblical Christianity.
We must revolt against this nonsense and unscriptural subjegation of the Evangelical Christian faith and return to the Bible alone as our only authority under the reign of the One Sovereign King, our Lord Jesus Christ who was sent by God the Father to die on the cross and rise again from the dead to offer eternal life to all those who will sincerely repent and believe in the Good News!
Have you repented of your sins and placed your faith in Jesus Christ?
Are you a Christian who has been using unbiblical methods in your evangelism and apologetics? The time is now to return to Jesus Christ and the Bible alone to preach the Gospel and defend the faith once and for all given to the Saints (Jude 3).