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   Bible reading for weekend May 14 -- 16 May 14 -- Isaiah 13 and 1 Peter 1 May 15 -- Isaiah 14 and 1 Peter 2 May 16 -- Isaiah 15 and 1 Peter 3 ================    "...then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness." (Isaiah 16:5) WOE TO BABYLON. After pronouncing judgment upon Assyria, Isaiah looks forward a hundred years to pronounce judgment upon Babylon, the nation which will eventually destroy the city of Jerusalem and carry many Jews into exile. Chapters 13 to 23 contain a number of oracles against specific nations that have, or will, come against God's people.  There is something within fallen humanity that seeks to unite themselves together in opposition to God. From the tower of Babel (Gen 11) to the final Babylon (Rev 17-18) people build communities that exalt human ability, power, and autonomy, setting themselves against God...

Bible reading for Aug 6.  Judges 20. "'Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.' But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel."  (Judges 20:13)  CIVIL WAR. The events of the previous chapter lead to a battle between the cities of Benjamin and the rest of the tribes of Israel. The city of Gibeah (a Benjaminite city) refuses to give up any of their guilty citizens for judgment, so warfare ensues. The battle develops just like the siege of Ai in Joshua 7-8. From that we see that the nation, rather than removing the idolatrous influences in their land, finally have become like the pagan nations and now must be judged in the same way. Thousands die in the fighting.  REFLECT. How is it that people who claim to belong to God can descend into such debauchery? Why is it that immorality and injustice, when not dealt with, seem inevitably ...

Bible reading for Aug 5.  Judges 19. "So the two of them sat and ate and drank together. And the girl's father said to the man, 'Be pleased to spend the night, and let your heart be merry.'" (Judges 19:6) HITTING BOTTOM. As you read this chapter, reflect back on Genesis 19 and the angelic visitors to Sodom. The people who are called by God's name have sunk as low as the godless nations. We witness a callous disregard for life and human dignity, along with sexual perversion, abuse, and brutality (Eph 2:1-3; 4:17-19). Notice how many times we hear something like, "let your heart be merry" (vv 6, 9, 22). Like Sodom, the people of Israel center their lives around the sensual pleasures of food, drink, and sex (Ezek 16:49-50). In the first chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul teaches that when men and women, and societies, turn away from God, and from his design for human life, they do not become more human, but less human (Rom 1:18-32). It is God...

Bible reading for July 30.  Judges 13. "And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, 'Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.'" (Judges 13:3)  A NAZIRITE FROM BIRTH. The next several chapters will focus on a remarkable and colorful hero named Samson. His birth narrative has similarities with that of Isaac (Gen 17-18), John the Baptist (Luke 1), and our Lord Jesus (Matt 2; Luke 2). Samson was to be a Nazirite (cf Numbers 6) from his birth, indicating his separation for the Lord's service. Sadly, there were areas in his life not sanctified for God's service. The angel would not give his own name, saying that it was "wonderful", meaning perhaps, "too high for you" (compare Gen 32:29). The NIV has "beyond understanding," and the NLT, "too wonderful for you to understand". There is a lot we don't know about angels! And perhaps, this was a pr...

Bible reading for July 20.  Judges 3 "They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses." (Judges 3:4)  THE FIRST THREE JUDGES. This chapter records the exploits of the first three judges (the military, judicial leaders raised up by God) -- Ehud, Othniel, and Shamgar -- which covered a period of about 120 years (c. 1370 --1250 BC). The land had not been completely occupied. There were Canaanite strongholds still within their borders. It was God's plan that these remain in order to test Israel and to teach the next generation about war (vv 1-7). We see the cycle of compromise, bondage, and deliverance begin. (See the diagram in yesterday's post.) Compromise and inter-marriage were so dangerous because a) they resulted in the loss of the distinctiveness of the nation of Israel; b) they endangered the continuity and purity of the messianic lineage (Gen 12:2...

"...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) Apologetics is the study and practice of giving a reasonable defense (from Gr., apologia ) of the Christian faith. As a field of study this has grown immensely in recent years.  I thought I would list ten of the books that I have found most helpful in this area.  This is just my opinion of the top ten, but I hope it may be useful for you in deciding out of all the resources who or what might be best to read.      There are a number of approaches represented in this list.  It's a bit of a mix, but all of them have been helpful to me.   I've starred two books that are recommended as good introductions to apologetics, along with some honorable mentions.  Blomberg, Craig L. The Historical Reliability of the Gosp...

The following words are taken from "Surmounting the Clash of Worlds," a lecture delivered by Carl Henry on July 7, 1989, at the dedication of the new campus of Tokyo Christian Institute (which later became Tokyo Christian University).  This call to wholistic Christian thinking sets naturalism and biblical theism in the sharpest of contrasts...    "We are self-deceived if we allow naturalistic speculation to parade as something modern, when in fact it was repudiated almost twenty-five  hundred years ago by the great philosophers of Greece.  Pagan though they were, the classic Greek sages recognized that naturalism cannot bring  into being or sustain a stable society and, in fact, robs human life of distinctive value and meaning.  The Greeks insisted that if time and change  control all reality, and if truth and right are subject to ongoing revision, then human civilization becomes impossible; moreover human life loses  fixed meaning and spec...

The following words are taken from "Surmounting the Clash of Worlds," a lecture delivered by Carl Henry on July 7, 1989, at the dedication of the new campus of Tokyo Christian Institute (which later became Tokyo Christian University).  In many ways this is a mandate for Christian education -- that we should not teach Christianity in bits and pieces but toward a comprehensive way of thinking about all of reality.  Henry explains clearly the conflict of Christian theism and atheistic naturalism...  "The Christian outlook cannot be effectively maintained by piece-meal retention of a few selected and respected tenets and the surrender of other  important elements.  The fact is, the naturalism that now pervades many influential universities of the modern world is far less vacillating in what  it believes or disbelieves than are some so-called religious institutions.  Naturalism does not selectively dispute only the doctrine of creation, or  the h...

In June of 1932, J. Gresham Machen gave three lectures at a meeting of the Bible League in Caxton Hall, Westminster, London. The titles were "The Importance of Christian Scholarship for Evangelism", " The Importance of Christian Scholarship  for Defense of the Faith", and " The Importance of Christian Scholarship   for Building Up the Church."  The PDF of this series, as well as MP3 readings of the messages are located on the Reformed Audio site .  It would be worth your while to listen to them! Here are just a few excerpts... Let us, therefore, pray that God will raise up for us today true defenders of the Christian faith. We are living in the midst of a mighty conflict against the Christian religion. The conflict is carried on with intellectual weapons. Whether we like it or not, there are millions upon millions of our fellowmen who reject Christianity for the simple reason that they do not believe Christianity to be true. What is to be done in suc...

From my bookshelf I picked up again the classic little work, The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think (SPCK, 1963; Servant Books, 1978), by Harry Blamires.  This author was encouraged to write by none other than C. S. Lewis, his tutor at Oxford.  Writing from mid-twentieth century Britain, Blamires examines our wholesale surrender to secularism and how to recover a uniquely Christian approach to thinking and dialogue.   "We twentieth-century Christians have chosen the way of compromise. We withdraw our Christian consciousness from the fields of public, commercial, and social life.  When we enter these fields we are compelled to accept for purposes of discussion the secular frame of reference established there.  We have no alternative -- except that of silence.  We have to use the only language spoken in these areas." (p. 27) "We have stepped mentally into secularism.  We have trained, even disciplined ourselves, to think secularly about s...

Here are a few more highlights from Covenantal Apologetics, by Scott Oliphint.  "So mystery, for the Christian, is a confession that God, though knowable and known, is never in any way exhausted by our knowledge of him." "The Christian God, however, is truly great. He is and will eternally be one God—simple, transcendent, necessary, and eternal. But he is also able, freely, to choose to be in a relationship with his creation, for eternity, all the while remaining who he is and has always been." "If persuasion is the means by which we are to defend the Christian faith, then this requires, in the end, that we must be people who pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). It means, in the first place, that we cannot expect to imbibe the spirit of the age and at the same time to present a credible defense of Christianity. This is the ethos of persuasion..." "One of Van Til’s favorite phrases was that we are to be suavite...

"This Enlightenment attitude of 'partisanship as pejorative' is based on a supposition of neutrality. It assumes that the very diversity of ideas is itself an end, rather than a means to an end. The problem that pluralism produces is that it destroys itself in the process. Contradictory and opposing ideas, by definition, cannot all be held and applied by one society. Some partisan notion will always dominate and, in so doing, will smother any notion of pluralism." - Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics

Here's an excellent revision (or update) and presentation of Van Til's presuppositional method of apologetics: Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practice in Defense of Our Faith , by Scott Oliphint (Crossway, 2013). Here are some initial hightlights...  "... 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) "...unless one begins from God’s authority, revealed in the world and in the Scriptures, then we will always have an inadequate foundation for our views and our lives." "Christian apologetics is the application of biblical truth to unbelief." "...if one is to be adequately prepared to give an answer for one’s Christian faith, the lordship of Christ must be a solid and unwavering commitment of one’s heart." "The point for the Christian, however, and the p...

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1 Peter 3:15 NIV) "Defense is proper and necessary because in every age historic Christianity will be under attack. Defense does not mean being on the defensive. One must not be embarrassed about the use of the word defense. The proponents of any position who are alive to their own generation must give a sufficient answer for it when questions are raised about it. Thus, the word defense is not used here in a negative sense, because in any conversation, in any communication which is really dialogue, answers must be given to objections raised. Such answers are necessary in the first place for myself as a Christian if I am going to maintain my intellectual integrity, and if I am to keep united my personal, devotional and intellectual life."   (Francis Schaeffer)

Handy chart which summarizes Warner Wallace's cumulative case for the reliability of the Gospels.  I recommend his book, and he has quite a few Bible inserts like this, available for download here (look for his "Monthly Bible Insert").  

How we are to defend the faith :    a)  With cheerfulness (24:10; 26:2) (Lu 6:23; 21:13; 1 Pet 2:9) b)  With respect (24:10; 26:2-3) (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 3:15) c)  With our personal story (26:9ff)(Luke 21:13; Phil 3:3-11) d)  With confidence in God’s word (24:14-15; 26:6)(Luke 24:26-27,44) e)  With a good conscience  (24:16) (1 Pet 3:16; Titus 2:7-10) f)  With persuasion (24:25; 26:18-20, 29)(Prov 11:30; 2 Cor 5:20; Jude 1:3) g)  With endurance (24:22-27; 26:24) (1 Cor 15:58)  Quotes... “Snarkiness has no place in Christian apologetics.”  ( Chris Travis )   “Religious experience occurs in the sanctuary, but its claim to truth has to be tested in the public world of facts.” (Lesslie Newbigin)   “If your souls were not immortal, and you in danger of losing them, I would not speak this way to you; but the love of your souls constrains me to speak...” (George Whitefield) "Fallen man is not simply an imperf...

Here's a very good interview with Francis Schaeffer Institute Director Mark Ryan, entitled “Finding Common Ground in a Divisive World” (Covenant Seminary, August 27, 2013)  There are some excellent real-life examples. Here are a few highlights... When looking to engage others honestly with the gospel, we must not let ourselves validate the common stereotypes. There are enough other barriers to the gospel already; we don’t need to add to them by behaving in ways that play into the negative or restrictive images many people have of what they think Christians are like. Also, we have to learn to approach people not as evangelistic projects, but as fellow human beings—made in the image of God even though fallen and imperfect—and so give to them the same consideration and attention that we would like and expect for ourselves... My emphasis is to help people reframe apologetics and get them to see that it’s not so much a discipline to be mastered as it is an orientation of the he...

Speaking at Cru tonight on the reliability of the Bible.  Can we trust what it says?  Here are some follow-up resources for further study... Recommended (start here): MP3 message: "Literalism: Isn't the Bible historically unreliable and regressive?" by Tim Keller Article: "Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why It Matters, " by Craig L. Blomberg Two helpful websites : BeThinking.org:  The historicity and authority of the Bible   Carl F. H. Henry Center:  Christ On Campus Initiative . Suggested reading list (basic) :  Geisler, Norman, and Nix, William. From God To Us: How We Got Our Bible  Keller, Timothy. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism  Pink, A. W. The Divine Inspiration of the Bible Specific resources for NT integrity: Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony  Blomberg, Craig. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels .  Bock, Da...