Review of the 2015 Defending the Faith Apologetics Conference

 

From Biola University and Stand to Reason in California to CARM in Idaho to Reasonable Faith in Texas – it seems that if you want good Christian Apologetics, you have to go west, young man. The Northeast is unfortunately sparse in resources for the intellectually eager Christian yearning for some depth to help them buoy up in a world which is certain that Christianity equals Nonsense.  

Fortunately for residents of the tri-state area, Mt. Airy Bible Church holds a Defending the Faith conference every October, which features some of the best speakers in the field. This year’s lineup featured J. Warner Wallace, Dr. Paul Copan, and Dr. David Wood. 

Dr. Copan is most famous for his book Is God a Moral Monster, which tackles the many criticisms leveled at the apparently despicable God of the Old Testament. Copan’s speaking style was frank, bemused, and sprinkled puns, drawing out good-natured groans from the audience. 

Copan’s first talk was on Old Testament slavery. Copan pointed out that, if one examines the “slavery” laws, it’s easy to see that they were a form of social welfare: that those who were unable to support themselves could hire themselves as workers to the wealthier landowners. The laws ensured that they would receive proper reciprocation for their labor, protection from abuse, and that when their term of service was complete, they would leave with enough resources to live independently. The laws strictly forbade the selling or purchase of human beings. 

Copan’s second talk looked at the historic difference which Christianity has made. He first examined the mess which Hinduism has made of India as a case study. India is the closest thing in the modern world of what the pre-Christian, pagan world would have looked like. Copan asked “what would it take to change such a mindset?” Somehow, that pagan, pre-Christian world has developed to the liberal world so invested in human interests seen today. Copan argued that this reform was not a result of Grecian Democracy, Roman rule, secular beliefs, or of science, but rather the advance of Christianity. He showed in his lecture how science, indeed, owed its roots to Christianity. Finally, he showed how modern, non-Christian, secular historians acknowledge this very thing. 

The second speaker at the conference was Dr. David Wood, an atheist-turned-Christian-Apologist from New York who spoke with a dynamic energy befitting his youth. Wood’s presentations were less like lectures and more like what one might see at youth conferences: energetic talks for the audience to put into application. 

Wood’s first presentation was on how a Christian should interact with a Muslim. His experience with Muslims, he said, was entirely un-intentional, and came from the gradual conversion of his Muslim best friend, and the aftershock of Muslim response to this conversion. It had since become one of his primary platforms. He spoke of the common objections which Muslims will bring to Christians, such as “Show me where your Jesus says ‘I am God, worship me,’” and “The Bible has been corrupted.” Dr. Wood then showed from the Quran how the Muslims’ criticisms of Christianity backfire against their own religion. 

Dr. Wood’s second presentation was on the “problem of evil.” In this presentation, Dr. Wood did not so much dwell on the arguments and their responses, but rather on what he considered a larger problem: disproportionate skepticism. What Wood argued was that when a skeptic is confronted with a problem – say, the fine tuning of the universe, or the fact that a finite, material universe must have a timeless, immaterial cause – their level of skepticism regarding the sparse answers they have to offer remains fairly low. However, when they present a problem to Christians – such as the problem of evil – no matter what solution the Christian may offer, it does not meet the high bar of skepticism the critic has set. Dr. Wood argued that the skeptic was being disingenuous, and should retain the same level of skepticism for their own arguments that they have for the Christian’s. 

Finally, it was time for J. Warner Wallace to present. While Wallace has been in the Apologetics game for several years, his star rapidly began to rise when he joined Stand to Reason and wrote his first book, Cold Case Christianity. Not only does Wallace have one heck-of-a hook for his ministry – that of a cold case homicide detective looking at the evidence for Christianity from the perspective of, well, a cold case homicide detective – but he is a charismatic speaker who brought with him a multimedia presentation to stake his claim as the star of the show. 

Fittingly, Wallace put on three total presentations, peppering his talks with illustrations from homicides and court cases he had worked, guaranteed to keep the audience’s attention. The first of the presentations was from his first book, and looked at the evidence for the reliability of the gospels by examining the texts of the gospels as he would eye-witness accounts. He then looked at various textual, scholarly and historical proofs that these gospels were dated close to the events they recorded. 

Wallace’s second talk was from his latest book, God’s Crime Scene, which examined the evidence for God. He did this by looking at the universe as he would a crime scene, and then asked the same questions he would of a crime scene: could all of the evidence be explained from within the room, or was there an intruder? 

The kinds of things Wallace looked at were the fact that a finite, material universe must have an ultimate cause, that values such as good, logic and justice must be grounded in something superior to natural causes, and the fact that fine-tuning of the universe for life is best explained through intelligence. 

Wallace’s final talk looked at the evidence for Christ’s resurrection, again, like a police detective. Having established the eye-witness nature of the Gospel accounts in his first talk, Wallace then looked at what they said and at the lives of the apostles, both as recorded by the Gospels, their successors and early historians – to examine whether they acted like co-conspirators in an elaborate plot, or like men whose lives had been changed by a miraculous event. 

The event also featured a Q&A session with the presenters. 

If you live in the Northeast, and have any interest in Christian Apologetics, be sure to check this event out next year at this time. 

A Biblical Perspective on Extraterrestrial Life

A Biblical Perspective on Extraterrestrial Life
Since the UFO craze began in the late 40’s and early 50’s, there have been some few prominent Christian ministers and theologians who have ventured to guess at whether or not intelligent biological life exists elsewhere in the universe. Successful world evangelist Billy Graham made some statements affirming his belief in aliens in his book Angels, God’s Secret Agents. Renowned Christian philosopher William Lane Craig speculated that aliens may exist in the August 2008 episode of his “Reasonable Faith” podcast.
On that episode, Dr. Craig made the very relevant point that whether or not aliens, in the classic science fiction meaning of the word, exist has no real bearing on the Christian faith. If little green men should touch down tomorrow on the White House lawn, all the premises of Christianity would hang together just as they did prior.
That said, there is a fairly solid case to be made against the existence of intelligent aliens if one takes the Bible to be truthful.
The first argument comes from the creation account. This is a much debated account both within and outside of Christian circles, but the gist of the account tends to be that the earth is the central focus of creation, with special emphasis on human beings themselves. If this seems unlikely in the vastness of the universe, keep in mind that size does not necessarily equate with significance - as any particle physicist could tell you. This point alone does not make a strong argument against other intelligent life forms in the universe, but when added up with the whole of the argument, it hangs together.
The second point flows out of the first. If taken at face value, the creation account (Genesis chapters one and two) indicates that the world, and the universe around it were created in perfection. This is not the picture given, however, in the book of Romans where Paul says:
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”
What happened between the creation of the Genesis account and this creation of the Romans account that groans in corruption? What happened was a fairly significant event Christians refer to as “The Fall.” This occurrence, in which humans rebelled against God, not only affected human nature but, according to Paul, affected all of creation. In fact, no matter how one views scriptural accounts, it is clear that the entire universe flows from order to entropy in such a way that the entire structure is headed toward an extinction event that scientists call “heat death.” Paul, who could hardly have known about the ins and outs of entropy and heat death in the first century, does a fairly good job of describing just that in the Romans passage. This flow toward entropy, which the Bible attributes to the Fall of Man, would include any poor aliens that happened to be elsewhere in the universe. This hardly seems fair if humans were the ones who rebelled and not the aliens.
In fact, the entire redemptive story is decidedly human focused. God came in human form, died, rose, and ascended to heaven where he will reign for eternity in a human body. In this story human beings appear to get special treatment over and above extra terrestrials.
Finally, scripture makes it fairly clear that all of creation is scheduled to be destroyed (because of its corruption due to The Fall) and replaced by a newly perfect heaven and earth. These hypothetical aliens would presumably be swept away in this fiery holocaust without a second thought.
Now it should be made clear at this point that the Bible certainly does affirm the existence of a sizable number of spiritual beings that are both intelligent and fairly alien to humans, and while these beings have interactions with the physical realm throughout scripture, it would be a stretch to equate them with science fiction aliens. The Bible and the Christian faith don’t seem to leave much room for extra-terrestrials.

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Postmodernism Part 6: Conclusion (or Truth, Knowledge, Language and a Talking Donkey)

Conclusion: Truth, Knowledge, Language and a Talking Donkey
We have discussed the Biblical concept of Truth, of Knowledge, and of Language separately, but in reality, these three are integral to one another within the Scripture.  In order to illustrate this, I would like to talk about the story of Balaam. 
After Israel left Egypt under the leadership of Moses, they traveled in a nomadic fashion in a relatively small section of land between Egypt and Canaan.  Because of the dramatic way in which they left Egypt, and because of one or two military encounters they had during their travels, the Israelites were known and feared by the Canaanites.  One such group were the Moabites.
The Moabites had a problem.  They were certain that the Israelites were on their way, and that when they arrived, they would be an unstoppable force.  Certain of a military defeat, Balak, the king of Moab, decided to pursue a supernatural course to bring about the fall of Israel.
There was a well-known local prophet named Balaam who had gained a reputation for being able to successfully curse or bless individuals or groups.  His curses or blessings invariably stuck, making him 100% reliable.  Balak therefore decided that if Balaam were to be paid a sufficient amount of money, he would curse Israel, and they would then fall.
At this point, I must pause the narrative to comment.  Because of a mistaken worldview, Balak made a false assumption.  His mistake was a misinterpretation of cause and effect.  The fact of the matter was that Balaam was a prophet of God, meaning that God spoke through him.  Since God’s words are always true, when Balaam cursed or blessed someone, he was simply informing them of a curse or blessing that already existed and came directly from God.  In other words, Balaam did not have the power to bless or curse.  He was simply able to accurately tell people what God had already decided.  Balaam himself explicitly says this multiple times throughout the story.
So Balak sends generous gifts to Balaam, promising even more gifts if Balaam is able to successfully level a curse against Israel.
Since Balaam’s only ability was to speak that which God had already decided, he has a problem.  He can be a wealthy man if it just so happens that God has already cursed Israel.  But if this is not the case, his gift gives him no access whatever to the money.  So Balaam consults God and receives what, to him, was the worst possible news: not only does God strictly forbid him to go with to Balak, but He has actually blessed the king’s enemies.
Let’s pause again to examine Balaam’s incorrect assumptions.  Balaam has a gift which has been granted to only a handful of people over the years: the ability to talk directly to God and receive immediate verbal responses.  In terms of rarity and true value, this gift is possibly the most valuable thing to ever have existed such that it cannot be obtained for any amount of wealth.  However, Balaam esteems money and worldly wealth as more valuable than even his ability to talk to God.  We see that even though Balaam has received direct knowledge from God, his idea of truth is distorted by greed for wealth and the recognition of men.
Receiving the news that Balaam will not come, Balak does the only thing he can think to do, and tries to sweeten the pot by offering even more wealth than before.  Desperate to get his hands on the wealth, Balaam requests once more of God to let him go. 
Throughout the scriptures, we can find examples of people trying to negotiate with God.  This is problematic since, once God decides something, His decision is unalterable.  That said, God always allows people the option to disobey Him, but not without consequence.  This is exactly what happens in this case.  God tells Balaam to go, not because He changed His mind, but because Balaam has already decided to go, placing a premium on wealth rather than obedience to God.
As Balaam travels, God places an angel with a drawn sword in his path.  Balaam, a prophet of God, is blind to the danger.  Instead God intentionally grants spiritual sight to Balaam’s donkey.  The donkey swerves to avoid the angel several times, and Balaam flies off the handle, beating the donkey harshly.
At this point God gives the donkey the ability to speak.  Now, this is the only time we ever have a record of God giving speech to an animal.  Needless to say, this is a very unusual event, and it’s worth asking why God did this?
To answer this question, I must once more reiterate the position that Balaam held.  Not only did Balaam have the gift to verbally communicate with God, but the Spirit of God would come on him and he would actually speak the words of God to others.  It is impossible to overstate the honor that such a position held.
Balaam, however, was treating his position with contempt, by making himself mercenary.  By giving speech to the donkey, God was illustrating to Balaam that He, God, was free to choose anyone to speak for Him.  God made Balaam and his donkey equals in that moment.  There was nothing special about Balaam that made God select him for this gift any more than there was anything special about the donkey.
This is important for our larger lesson as well.  The ability to speak, to use language, is a part of God’s nature that he grants to man, because man was designed to reflect God’s nature.  And just like every other sacred gift that he gave us, we have corrupted and profaned language.  God can give language, and the understanding to use it, as he sees fit, just as he did by granting Balaam’s donkey a human level of understanding and speech.  He can also take it as He sees fit, just as he did to Nebuchadnezzar by reducing him to an animal level of understanding and no ability to speak.  Man’s worth does not come from within, as postmodernism would teach.  God’s nature is what makes man special, and when we fail to reflect His nature, we abandon our own worth.
At this point, God opens Balaam’s eyes and he, too, sees the angel with the sword.  Balaam repents of his sin, and is placed in the mortifying position of having to apologize to his donkey.  Most likely Balaam’s repentance had more to do with the giant angel standing over him with a drawn sword than it did with his realization of his true sin of undervaluing his position as prophet, because his later actions show that he still has a desire to somehow gain access to the wealth that Balak is offering. 
So Balaam goes to with Balak to the mountain top and instructs the king to offer sacrifices to God.  Now in the old testament, when sacrifices are offered, they are only offered for one of two reasons: repentance of sin, or as a way of subjecting yourself to the Creator by giving gifts to Him.  Both Balak and Balaam had sins aplenty to repent of, but there doesn’t appear to be any repentance implicit in these offerings.  Moreover, if they were subjecting themselves to God’s rule, they would accept what He had to say with humility.  Since they don’t do this either, it appears the sacrifices are a vain attempt to bribe God into giving them the answer they want. 
Once the sacrifices are given, Balaam opens his mouth, and prophecies for God.  The blessing that God pours out on His people in this prophecy is breathtakingly beautiful.  It almost seems like a love song of a Father for his children.
Now we know at this point that God’s words are true and unalterable.  Balak was in a privileged positions that very few earthly rulers ever get: hearing the direct Word of God.  If he had recognized his position of privilege, and really listened to what Balaam was saying, there was an answer to his problem which we will discuss shortly.
Balak, however, grasps neither the nature of God, nor the privilege of his position.  All he knows is that Balaam just blessed the people he ask him to curse, and that Balaam’s blessings are generally true.
In frustration, Balak tries several more times from various mountain tops, offering sacrifices and prompting Balaam to prophecy, and each time, he is granted the rare privilege of hearing God’s blessings on His chosen people.
Finally, with the knowledge that no curse will be forthcoming, Balaam makes a suggestion.  Realizing that:

1.)    The people of Israel dwell under God’s blessing

2.)    The Moabites are considered corrupt and wicked by God

Balaam realizes that that which is purified can be corrupted by that which is impure.  Now Balaam’s insight is absolutely true.  However, what he chooses to do with this insight reflects a corrupt use of this knowledge.  He suggests that Balak send some Moabite women among the Israelites to sleep with them, thus defiling themselves and bringing them under God’s judgment.
  This they do with relative success. 
Now let us consider an alternative option which probably never occurred to either Balaam or Balak.  Down in that valley lay the camp of a people which were under God’s blessing.  They had with them a book of law, given to them directly by God, which related how to live righteously in the presence of God.  In that book of law were specific instructions that gave foreigners living among them privileges almost equal to citizens.  Furthermore, there were explicit instructions in their law allowing Gentiles to convert to their faith and be welcomed among them as members.  And while it was true that that which was pure could be corrupted, it is also true that that which is corrupt could be purified. 
We know this, because a generation later this exact thing happens.  The harlot Rahab turns her back on her culture and people, asking to be inducted into the Hebrew people.  She, though formerly a Gentile and a harlot, is welcomed in and blessed  by God.  She marries a Hebrew and she is purified in the union rather than corrupting him.
Balak, Balaam, and the Moabites had the opportunity, given to them on a golden platter, to repent, avoid destruction, and seek out the true treasure of the knowledge of God.  Instead, they used the knowledge they received for their own corrupt purposes.
Hopefully you can see how this story illustrates the way that truth, knowledge, and speech all work together for the glory of God, and how Man abuses them to his own destruction.