Should We Study Apologetics?

Pod Cast: The Story of Christ & the Pagan Mystery Stories Part 2

This Pod Cast can be found in two places:

1. Confident Christianity Web Site under "Audio"
2. itunes

Be sure and check out Dr. Clay Jones' latest blog on this very subject! Dr. Mark Foreman will be presenting this topic at the upcoming Evangelical Philosophical Society Apologetics Conference in November. I hope you can make it. I'll be there!

MJ

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End O' Summer 2010 Newsletter

Click to view our latest Newsletter.

*Tough questions from students!
*Introducing a new female Christian apologetics blogger!
*Jesus University

David Wood: "How Can God Die?"

Book Review: "Choosing Your Faith" by Mark Mittelberg

Choosing Your Faith In a World of Spiritual Options

Over the past couple of years, I have attempted to teach apologetics at an accessible level for the local church. Sometimes I hit and sometimes I miss this mark. So, I have continued to look for a well-reasoned, introductory apologetic work with a more pastoral tone. I look for a book that would serve as a springboard for church members into an investigation of their beliefs. I believe that Mark Mittelberg’s new book, Choosing Your Faith, fulfills this role.

Mittelberg offers apologetic arguments, he calls “arrows,” that point towards belief in the Christian God, but he also offers a fresh look at how people choose their faith. He outlines six different paths to belief (or non-belief): 1) The Relativistic Faith Path, 2) The Traditional Faith Path, 3) The Authoritarian Faith Path, 4) The Intuitive Faith Path, 5) The Mystical Faith Path, and 6) The Evidential Faith Path. Mittelberg explains the benefits and problems with each one and what faith structures adhere to the different paths. He concludes that the Evidential Faith Path must be the one that tests all others, because it is based in logic and experience. As he states on page 155, “As we have seen, logic and experience are inescapable tools—you can’t deny them without using them—so we might as well accept them and learn to use them well.”

Overall, I found the book to be a very readable and understandable introduction to apologetic arguments. When my own church members or seminar attendees ask me where to start, I will definitely point them to this book along with Timothy Keller’s book, The Reason for God. I specifically found the paths to faith helpful in understanding the differing backgrounds of those with whom I speak to about the Christian God. I also found Mittelberg’s book a revealing insight into my own beliefs and into how I came to faith in God. Thanks, Mark!

MJ

Book Review: "Radical" by David Platt

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

In America, the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness for Christians has turned into the pursuit of more and more stuff to entertain ourselves and make ourselves more and more comfortable. As American Christians, we have become so inwardly focused that David Platt, the pastor of Brookhaven Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, argues we are now worshipping a Jesus of our own creation; a Jesus that highly resembles us. In his book, “Radical,” Platt calls for a turning away from the materialism that has ensnared the American church and a return to the radical command of Jesus to use our individual lives and resources to impact the world.

This book has challenged me to rethink my priorities at an even more difficult level: at the level of my financial expectations and my material wants. It has also encouraged me in my own writing as I, too, have found myself questioning the American Christians who are prone to grumble over petty things while her brothers and sisters in Christ around the world go daily without food, clothing, or shelter.

I hope this book will encourage you as a reminder that your treasures are to be laid up in heaven not here on earth where they can rot, be destroyed, or stolen. And to take this admonition literally, trusting in the truth of Jesus’ words. Also, I hope you will be encouraged to notice your brother and sister in Christ, even those in your church, who need your help as members of the same family of God.