In my 20 some years of being a Christian, one thing that I’ve learned about myself is that the way I think about the world around me seems to be entirely different from the rest of society. Outside of the Church it’s very hard for me to find someone who looks at things with the same perspective that I do. In my younger years I was confronted on every side with people who wanted to change my worldview. They wanted to erase from my mind the rather naive notion that a God exists, and they especially wanted to erase from my life the high standard of moral values that I held. I had high school teachers debate me in class, trying to make a fool out of my ‘simple-minded belief’ in the words of the Bible. My English teacher told my parents outright that she thought it was her job to educate me out of Christianity. My science teacher used to prey on my yet developing mind with ‘foolproof’ arguments against the legitimacy of the Bible as the Word of God, and with a presentation of the blatant contradictions within the text which proved its errancy. I attribute the escape from the attacks of my youth to the grace of God and the prayers of faithful men and women. But there are some who are not so lucky.
I had a mentor growing up who was an active leader of the youth group. He seemed to know so much about the Bible and theology. He was able to counsel me, and he readily shared his faith with people around him. I looked up to him in my youth, and looked to his example to spur myself on to studying the Word of God. I admired his strength of faith. When I was 17, this young man only a few years older than myself renounced Christianity and said that the Bible was utter foolishness. That rocked my world. It turned out that he couldn’t get past an argument presented to him about the problem of evil.
When I went to college, I had the privilege of taking a course in what is known as ‘Apologetics.’ Apologetics, simply put, is the study of the defence of the faith. The word is taken from 1 Peter 3:15 which says: but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defence to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.(1) The word translated defence in this passage is the Greek word απολογια (ah-poh-loh-gee-ah) which literally means a speech of defence.(2)
Therefore when we speak of apologetics, we’re referring to the fact that something is being defended. The term itself is not strictly for use of defence of the Christian faith. There can be apologists of Atheism, Judaism, Islam, or any other system of thought that can be defended. For the purposes of this article (and this periodical), we will use the term Apologetics to refer strictly to the defence of the Christian faith. One final thought in defining the term - when we speak of the defence of the Christian faith, we’re talking about giving rational justification or warrant for Christian faith. Therefore while a great defence for the Christian faith is a life lived well for the glory of God, it is not what we’re talking about when we speak of Apologetics. Apologetics deals with rational arguments for the truth of Christian doctrine.
As we should all be well aware of, the primary goal of the Christian is not to be able to defend the Bible, and to be able to give solid arguments for the truth of the Christian faith. The primary goal of the Christian is to know Christ (Phil. 1:21) and as we see from this verse in 1 Peter, to sanctify Him as Lord in our hearts. So the study of Apologetics should take second place in the life of the Christian. First and foremost the Christian should know what the Bible teaches, and he should be diligent in fostering a rich spiritual communion with our most Holy God. That being said, it is the belief of this author that the study of Apologetics is an important practice for the Christian to undertake, and that doing so not only strengthens his faith, but allows him to talk more intelligently with those who don’t believe. As G.K. Chesterton said, ‘ It is very hard for a man to defend anything of which he is entirely convinced. It is comparatively easy when he is only partially convinced.’(3)
I’ve noticed that in my conversations with people, I have a difficult time articulating why certain things are so, because my Christianity is the funnel through which I see everything. To the Christian it’s just obvious that God exists. The Psalmist writes that ‘the heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.’(4)
It’s easy for us to see that God exists because we don’t have the stumbling blocks in front of us that atheists have. Most Unbeliever’s have honest questions which need to be addressed honestly before they will be receptive to the Gospel.
That is the overall aim of this periodical. It is the purpose of this periodical to discuss Apologetics, to provide arguments for Christian doctrine, to consider common and popular arguments against Christian doctrine, and to address the difficulty of presenting the Gospel to postmodern man, as well as the culture we find ourselves in, with the goal of enabling us to share our faith effectively. Through our study of Apologetics, we will hopefully be encouraged by the philosophy of our faith, and by the evidences given through philosophy, science, and other sources.
Footnotes:
(1) quoted from the New American Standard Bible, 1995
(2) BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature. 3rd Edition, Chicago:The University of Chicago Press, 2000. 117
(3) Chesterton, G.K. Orthodoxy, Nashville:Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2000. 239
(4) Psalm 19:1, quoted from the New American Standard Bible, 1995
Psalm 19 is a key text in developing the Cosmological argument for the existence of God, which will be covered later
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Praise God / Upcoming Things
Well, to my one reader I'd like to say I'm sorry it's been so long since I've last posted. I've been terribly busy. I had my wedding ceremony on May 31, spent my honeymoon in a private resort in the Philippines, and have been getting used to married life.
I'd like to begin this post by saying praise the Lord for He is good. Last night a friend of Eunji's came to believe in Christ for his salvation at our weekly Bible study. His name is 병준(Byung-joon). I'm so thankful to God that He chose to use Eunji and I to be a part in this brother's salvation.
I've been thinking about so much in the last couple of months and having great conversations with people lately that I've decided that I'm going to write and publish a few posts concerning topics which I feel are important and necessary for me to address. In the next couple of weeks look for posts on the following topics: 1) the fallacies of the postmodern worldview and a discourse on it's being embraced in the vehicle of the Emerging Church; 2) clarifications of the doctrine of the Trinity; and 3) the idea of 'following our dreams'
I hope you enjoy reading these essays/ponderings. I plan to write/publish them within the next 3 weeks. For now I'll leave you with an article I wrote for a journal that we've begun to publish at my church here in Busan.
I'd like to begin this post by saying praise the Lord for He is good. Last night a friend of Eunji's came to believe in Christ for his salvation at our weekly Bible study. His name is 병준(Byung-joon). I'm so thankful to God that He chose to use Eunji and I to be a part in this brother's salvation.
I've been thinking about so much in the last couple of months and having great conversations with people lately that I've decided that I'm going to write and publish a few posts concerning topics which I feel are important and necessary for me to address. In the next couple of weeks look for posts on the following topics: 1) the fallacies of the postmodern worldview and a discourse on it's being embraced in the vehicle of the Emerging Church; 2) clarifications of the doctrine of the Trinity; and 3) the idea of 'following our dreams'
I hope you enjoy reading these essays/ponderings. I plan to write/publish them within the next 3 weeks. For now I'll leave you with an article I wrote for a journal that we've begun to publish at my church here in Busan.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Official Explanations
Because so many people were wondering, I've decided to finally write and clarify my current situation. There has been much confusion as to whether or not I'm married, who I married, when I got married, why I got married, etc. I truly do apologize to those of you who are close to me, and who I have left in the dark concerning my life, with the excuse of being busy. As C.S. Lewis said "Be sure it is not for nothing that (God) has knit our hearts so closely to time and place - to one friend rather than another and one shire more than all the land." God has put you in my life to be my friends, family, teachers and mentors, and since He has been so gracious to allow me the privilege of having you as such, it is not my desire to spurn you and isolate you from me. I humbly apologize to any of you who have felt that I do not value you or the role you have played (and continue to play) in my life. Every person who I have ever met, even in passing, has had an impact on my development. I can only hope that you will know that you have affected me, and that your life has not gone unnoticed. Our actions mean more than we think, and the small choices we make every day make more impact in this world than we may ever realize. Humble gratitudes aside, I should get to the meat of this blog...
Last year I came to the realization that I had found the girl whom I would marry. I was deeply in love with a God-fearing woman named 박은지 (Eunji Park), and felt that I could not live without this woman in my life. Knowing that I would marry her, we began to discuss when we would get married. We decided that we would get married in the Fall of 2008, or in early 2009. However, as time went on, we really felt that we wanted to get married earlier (me in particular). The only reason we were going to wait until Fall 08 or early 09 was because of finances, but when we started seriously looking at the finances we decided that we could probably get married as early as May. So that's what we decided on. We booked the wedding hall and started ourselves on the path of planning a wedding. (On a side note, I'd like to make a small note about the difficulty in booking a wedding hall here. We booked it almost 6 months in advance, and it was the only available date anywhere near what we wanted.)
I had been looking to go home in early February and buy a ring to 'officially' propose to Eunji. However, as we got closer to the time, we began noticing some hiccups in the timing. I had applied and been accepted to a program that places English teachers in the public school system here in Korea. I had also been posted in Busan, which was important as this is where we'll be living (I've made a promise to Eunji that I would work in whatever city in Korea she wants to live in for the time that we spend in Korea before moving to the States to start studying for a Master's Degree. She's working in Busan at the Cambodian Consulate.). My new job demanded that I be in Korea during the last week of February, and I would be finishing my previous job in the middle of February. Contiguously, Eunji would be moving out of her place and looking for a new place to live from the 1st of March. This presented a housing problem for us. My work provided me with a one-room studio apartment or a housing allowance. I couldn't change from one to the other during the contract, though. There was no way that we were going to both live in an apartment the size of most people's bathrooms, and since we had to find a place for us to live in to start off our lives together, there was no way for her to find a place to live in for only 3 months. Aside from that there was also the problem of us becoming legally married. In Korea you cannot do the wedding license at the ceremony (for couples of differing nationality); it has to be done at the consulate or the embassy. Eunji works 6 days a week and I work 5. The consular is rarely at the Canadian consulate in Busan, and the Embassy is in Seoul, 3 hours away by bullet train. We weren't sure when we would be able to get legally married. All of these things working together on our minds presenting us with a problem, made us think that we wouldn't be able to get married in May after all.
Then Eunji told me that she would be able to go to Seoul on February 15th. So we decided that was going to be the day we got married. We also found a great place for us to be able to move into on February 29th. Everything worked out. We went to Seoul and were legally married on February 15th, 2008. There were no rings, no 'official' proposals, no ceremonies, just document giving, stamping, and receiving, and then we were back on the train to Busan that same night. Happenstantially (I love making up words), the first week of our marriage were spent with me living at my friend Will Copico's apartment followed by us living in different cities for the second week as I had to be in Daejeon for the orientation of my new program. Needless to say (funny that we say that right before we say something), the first two weeks of our marriage were rough. Now I've been living in the bliss (or difficulties depending on how you look at life) of being a newlywed. We have been adjusting to each other and I've been finding out just how much I put myself above other people. Who would have thought that to love your wife like Christ loved the church would be a difficult ideal to attain to? I found out soon enough.
Now my parents are here and we're anticipating our official ceremony, where we declare before everyone that we are committed to one another and are following the will of God in our lives by allowing HIm to join us together to serve Him. We have added to the stress of adjusting to our new lives together the stress of planning a wedding, trying to accent two cultures in a most sacred ceremony. We're really looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it there on May 31st to see us declare our love and commitment to each other publicly. For those of you who cannot make it, your presence will be greatly missed, and my heart will contain a certain amount of sadness and grief at the absence of those whom I cherish dearly. With every true thing in life, there must be a balance. Without sadness we would not know joy. It follows naturally then that in our time of greatest joy, our hearts will be aching for those whom we miss.
Last year I came to the realization that I had found the girl whom I would marry. I was deeply in love with a God-fearing woman named 박은지 (Eunji Park), and felt that I could not live without this woman in my life. Knowing that I would marry her, we began to discuss when we would get married. We decided that we would get married in the Fall of 2008, or in early 2009. However, as time went on, we really felt that we wanted to get married earlier (me in particular). The only reason we were going to wait until Fall 08 or early 09 was because of finances, but when we started seriously looking at the finances we decided that we could probably get married as early as May. So that's what we decided on. We booked the wedding hall and started ourselves on the path of planning a wedding. (On a side note, I'd like to make a small note about the difficulty in booking a wedding hall here. We booked it almost 6 months in advance, and it was the only available date anywhere near what we wanted.)
I had been looking to go home in early February and buy a ring to 'officially' propose to Eunji. However, as we got closer to the time, we began noticing some hiccups in the timing. I had applied and been accepted to a program that places English teachers in the public school system here in Korea. I had also been posted in Busan, which was important as this is where we'll be living (I've made a promise to Eunji that I would work in whatever city in Korea she wants to live in for the time that we spend in Korea before moving to the States to start studying for a Master's Degree. She's working in Busan at the Cambodian Consulate.). My new job demanded that I be in Korea during the last week of February, and I would be finishing my previous job in the middle of February. Contiguously, Eunji would be moving out of her place and looking for a new place to live from the 1st of March. This presented a housing problem for us. My work provided me with a one-room studio apartment or a housing allowance. I couldn't change from one to the other during the contract, though. There was no way that we were going to both live in an apartment the size of most people's bathrooms, and since we had to find a place for us to live in to start off our lives together, there was no way for her to find a place to live in for only 3 months. Aside from that there was also the problem of us becoming legally married. In Korea you cannot do the wedding license at the ceremony (for couples of differing nationality); it has to be done at the consulate or the embassy. Eunji works 6 days a week and I work 5. The consular is rarely at the Canadian consulate in Busan, and the Embassy is in Seoul, 3 hours away by bullet train. We weren't sure when we would be able to get legally married. All of these things working together on our minds presenting us with a problem, made us think that we wouldn't be able to get married in May after all.
Then Eunji told me that she would be able to go to Seoul on February 15th. So we decided that was going to be the day we got married. We also found a great place for us to be able to move into on February 29th. Everything worked out. We went to Seoul and were legally married on February 15th, 2008. There were no rings, no 'official' proposals, no ceremonies, just document giving, stamping, and receiving, and then we were back on the train to Busan that same night. Happenstantially (I love making up words), the first week of our marriage were spent with me living at my friend Will Copico's apartment followed by us living in different cities for the second week as I had to be in Daejeon for the orientation of my new program. Needless to say (funny that we say that right before we say something), the first two weeks of our marriage were rough. Now I've been living in the bliss (or difficulties depending on how you look at life) of being a newlywed. We have been adjusting to each other and I've been finding out just how much I put myself above other people. Who would have thought that to love your wife like Christ loved the church would be a difficult ideal to attain to? I found out soon enough.
Now my parents are here and we're anticipating our official ceremony, where we declare before everyone that we are committed to one another and are following the will of God in our lives by allowing HIm to join us together to serve Him. We have added to the stress of adjusting to our new lives together the stress of planning a wedding, trying to accent two cultures in a most sacred ceremony. We're really looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it there on May 31st to see us declare our love and commitment to each other publicly. For those of you who cannot make it, your presence will be greatly missed, and my heart will contain a certain amount of sadness and grief at the absence of those whom I cherish dearly. With every true thing in life, there must be a balance. Without sadness we would not know joy. It follows naturally then that in our time of greatest joy, our hearts will be aching for those whom we miss.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
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