The Value of Apologetics

Wayne Grudem, in Systematic Theology, has some words on “proofs” for the existence of God. These same ideas are equally applicable to the whole field of apologetics, in my opinion…

The value of these proofs, then, lies chiefly in overcoming some of the intellectual objections of unbelievers. They cannot bring unbelievers to saving faith, for that comes about through belief in the testimony of Scripture. But they can help overcome objections from unbelievers, and, for believers, they can provide further intellectual evidence for something they have already been persuaded of from their own inner sense of God and from the testimony of Scripture.

- Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem.

In other words, apologetics cannot change unbelievers’ minds, it can only defend the position believers already know to be true. This fits with the Scriptural basis for the study of apologetics as a defense, not an evangelistic argument:

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,(1 Peter 3:15 ESV)

It also fits what Scripture tells us about the unbeliever’s ability to understand spiritual truth without the presence of the Holy Spirit:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.(1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV)

How many times do we find ourselves wondering why unbelievers don’t believe? Wonder no more – they do not and cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.

Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”

Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.(John 12:37-41 ESV)

Preaching, or “Speaching”?

Apprising Ministries has a post describing Doug Pagitt’s view of preaching. Among other things, Pagitt describes preaching and says:

…you stand up and give a speech that was created in isolation, is meant to be offered to the most broad cross-section of people possible and delivered from your sole perspective, it seems to me that you are giving a speech.

Pagitt then points out that he is unable “to separate that type of preaching from making a speech,” except by saying that somehow, preaching is worse than speech-making.

Here’s the only problem…

What he has described is not preaching.

1. A sermon is not “created in isolation.”
A sermon is created by a minister of the Word, but he draws on the power of the Holy Spirit. (Not to mention commentaries written by hopefully godly men who have preceded him…)

2. A sermon is not “meant to be offered to the most broad cross-section of people possible.”
A sermon is meant to be offered to the church, which is comprised of believers gathered together to worship, praise, and learn about our Father in heaven. There are probably some parts added in for the unsaved (hopefully, those parts can be referred to as “The Gospel”), but there is definitely a specific target (the church). Even if we point out that “the saved” and “the unsaved” by definition include “everybody,” we still can’t say that it’s “the most broad cross-section of people possible” because the “targeting” of the sermon is still directed at two (and only two) very specific groups or roles – the saved and the unsaved. It’s not directed at a hundred different marketing demographic groups, despite the trends of the church in the past 40 years-ish. You’re not preaching to the “twenty-somethings” or “the boomers” or “young marrieds” or “professionals,” you’re preaching to the Body of Christ.

3. A sermon is not “delivered from your sole perspective.”
If it is, then Pagitt is right – that’s a speech. And if you’re a pastor delivering such a “speech,” then repent with fear and trembling, because what you are supposed to be doing is preaching the Word, in season and out of season. Not your perspective. You are to be giving the sense from trust committed to the ministers is guarded.

But what can I say, that’s my prayer for everyone…

Site Update

Well, I’m obviously still working on the design of the site… It will probably be in flux for a while, until I find a look and feel that I like enough to stick with. I’ve given up on the idea of building my own layout, and instead am using “canned” layouts from Blogger and other sources. I want to concentrate more on content than on the design.

Also, another quick note… I’ve decided after much consideration to remove the “Photos” and “Links” sections of the site. They hadn’t been updated for quite some time, and I decided to refocus the site to emphasize the blog. So they’re gone. In the meantime, if you want more to read than my site, then first of all WHY??? And secondly, check out the links in the blogroll to the right.

A quick note about the blogroll: the fact that a site is linked does not mean that I endorse what they say. It just means that I have found stuff on their sites interesting enough to read on a regular or semi-regular basis. That’s all. Sites will also come and go periodically from the blogroll as I find newer, more interesting ones, or as I simply lose interest in some of them.

At some point I’ll put together a whole big disclaimer page but that’s it for now.

Quick trivia: The spell checker on “Blogger” doesn’t recognize the following words: blog, blogger, blogroll.

Random Thoughts, 07/20/2006

Periodically, I will have random thoughts or see stuff on the web that I’d like to share, but by themselves don’t merit a full blog post. So, I’ll gather them together into aggregated posts under the heading “Random Thoughts.” Welcome to installment #1…

The Kingdom of God
JollyBlogger has a post today about a lecture by Richard Pratt on the Kingdom of God. Not sure I follow this statement in section 3: “Jesus said that the kingdom comes when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.” I suppose I’ll have to download the lecture and give it a listen…

“Index of My Love for Righteousness”
There’s a great quote on “Think About These Things” from D. A. Carson about testing our faith and practice:

One of the most terrible indices of how far a people have strayed from righteousness is the degree to which they can no longer perceive their own guilt. Men and women who truly love righteousness and integrity are invariably aware when they breach it. The most holy people are the first to confess their sin with shame and contrition. The most guilty people are blissfully unaware of their corruptions and idolatries. So we must ask ourselves: where on this sort of spectrum are our churches found? Or our culture? Are we characterized by profound contrition, or by a frank inability to think that we have really done anything all that wrong?

Al Mohler on Drug Therapy
“Do we just take a pill to mask spiritual problems?” Food for thought here.

And that’s it for today’s random thoughts. Until next time…

Pregnancy, Week 9

Well, Shannon is still struggling with morning sickness, but the Preggie Pop Drops seem to be helping.

In the meantime, today we had another doctor’s visit, but this one was scheduled, thankfully. And we got another ultrasound! Doesn’t it look just like me?

We had a bit of disagreement during the visit about the nickname to use for the baby. We both agreed that we’re not terribly fond of “peanut,” but we couldn’t pick what name to use. Why don’t you help us? Update: The poll is no longer active. Sorry.

All in all, we are wonderfully blessed with this pregnancy.

Oh, and did I mention, we got to hear the heartbeat again? Now you can, too! Click here to download an MP3 of the baby’s heartbeat.