1. MANEUVERING FOR POSITION.

"... 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, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander."
1 Peter 3: 15-16 ¹

Apologetics has been defined as a "form of discourse in defense of one's position". In its application to Christianity during the second century, the first Apologists perceived that their role was to defend Christianity against paganism, against the state, and against Greek philosophy. ² Such defenses have been made ever since and a whole field of theology has been defined for the area of studying and establishing creditable methods for doing Apologetics.

My concern is not to question or analyze the theoretical process of apologetics, but instead to voice a concern about our current modes of applying that process. The basic purpose of this paper is to examine and question our present mode of doing a modern apologetic.

My starting point in this endeavor arises from a lifelong frustration of observing that the Biblical doctrines of the faith once given to the saints has not appeared competitive with the more popular ideas that plague modern man. Even allowing for the Gospel to be providentially out of season, I have become convinced that the Church in our age has fallen into a type of emotional trench warfare. This conviction is based upon observation of the ongoing polemic of Evangelical Christians against popular practices of life and belief. Please note that key word in the last sentence: "against"! This type of reply, as our usual mode of defense, may be a most inadequate apologetic defense of the Gospel. I think that such a mode of defensive apologetic may be a strategic disaster for the Christian Community. By this I mean that by being against certain specific practices and beliefs we unfortunately have become associated in the popular mind as "againers"!

It was in this sense that the Anti-Federalists struggled in vain for certain principles of state craft that were valid points for argument. In their historic context these "againers" became identified as the negative group who were afraid of change and progress. This was in stark contrast with the Federalists who were for something positive to solve the problems of the nation. In the end these "againers" lost their case.

In like manner, after the 1973 case of Roe Vs. Wade, those people who were properly horrified at the now legalized extermination of human life became labeled as the Anti-Abort ion faction. Within a few years, the leaders of these organizations realized the necessity of becoming Pro-Life and have since attempted to attain a more positive metamorphis. Unfortunately their image has been firmly established in the popular mind and they are still usually perceived as "againers".

In light of recent attempts to counter the publicity for a tawdry movie entitled The Last Temptation of Christ the evangelical crowd could at the very least try to learn something from various minority groups who have used the media more effectively to present their case. Once again it would appear that the evangelicals have been manipulated into a corner where any rightful protests can be used to promote the movie! ³

Yes, something has to be said about this issue, just as something had to be said about the modern trinity of hedonism: drugs, sex and rock lyrics. However, our first temptation is to speak hastily and ineffectively. And once these hasty words are spoken, there is usually no second chance to give an effective apologetic!

While very many of our evangelical leaders have methodically developed detailed replies to worldly agendas and issues, the nature of too many replies have been defensive reactions. In the public mind, the weakness of this apology is readily apparent and our reaction to the worldly agenda is perceived and presented as a negative response. Once again, it is the Christians who are "againers", and the conflict is publicly lost even before the first battle. This is hardly the situation described in our text above, where the world is perceived as the malicious slanderer!

Somehow or another the tables have been turned against Evangelical Christians, and we have gotten ourselves into a pickle. Certainly, we are confronted today with a large and growing body of untruth and we must witness for the faith that is in us. However, the direction of our approach to counter that body of untruth may be more important than our usual process of being apologetic! Perhaps, like the professional military we should be more concerned with who holds the high ground.

 

2. WHO HOLDS THE HIGH GROUND?

"Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him."
Isaiah 64:1-4 NIV

We begin our study by looking at God's process of using the ministry of Moses in exposing the real powerlessness of Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt at the time of the Exodus. One commentator has suggested that there was a direct relationship between the plagues and a challenge to particular gods and ideas of Egypt. Thus, the Egyptian Mythos was systematically stricken at its very roots as plague upon plague savaged the assorted deities and the comfort and lives of the people. The Sacred Nile was turned to blood. A second plague struck at the frog headed goddess Hert. The uncleanness of the third plague challenged the punctilious purifications of Egyptian worship. After all manner of personal affliction, even their mighty Sun god was quenched in darkness by the direct action of God. ⁴

While it is not so dramatic, a second example of divine confrontation with pagan deities is recorded in the first scroll of Samuel. In Ashdod is inflicted God's judgment upon idolatry. ⁵ There, the fallen idol of the Philistines causes some commotion. Of course, the Philistine reaction is improper, instead of seeking to worship the only Lord and God, they instead seek to remove the perceived instrument of divine wrath and truth from their midst.

A third example of God's direct approach can be found in Elijah's confrontation with the Priests of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel. Again, the primary spirit of a particular age was challenged, and most appropriately. Would this sun-god, Baal be able to rain down fire? ⁶ Once again the gods of fraud are exposed in the revelationary action of our One True God.

Of course, not all of God's prophetic and apostolic servants were used in just such a direct apology. In fact, there is some indication that such dramatic incidents have ceased with the final direct undercutting of the Pagan Mythos in the little understood descent into Hades of Jesus described by Peter and Jude. ⁷

Just as Jesus died once for all so it would appear that this particular confrontation, recorded by Peter and Jude seals the end of paganism. In both instances, Christ's action are used in a context to encourage the Saints to consider the completeness of Christ's victory. Similarly, we should view the historic achievements of God's direct dramatic witness, as proof of His victory, sealed and assured.

Yes, He has come down, He has acted directly to discredit the idols of wood and stone.

"I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come - yes, let him foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."
Isaiah 44: 6b-8 NIV

It is He who holds the high ground! Of this, we should be certain in our apologetic witness. Instead of reacting with the suddenness of a knee jerk when the world challenges our faith we should learn to be patient and wait for an appropriate opportunity. When we then contend for His truth we should make our apology with the understanding that His is the victory already won. That knowledge should be more than sufficient to give us strength for the positional warfare that characterizes the theological struggles of our time.

 

3. INTO THE TRENCHES.

"I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."
Jude 3b-4 NIV

We know however, that there is important work and witness for us to make in His name and for His gospel and glory. We are charged as well to contend for His truth. Now, it would appear from the nature of the letter of Jude that this contention is on at least two levels. ⁸

The first level is at the personal level. Here we are concerned with what goes on in the mind of the individual believer. We must regularly be made aware that our intellectual abilities are as seriously flawed by the fall as are our spiritual discernment. Therefore, we must regularly contend for a purity of faith in our own minds. The temptations of the worldly Mythos is very real.

On an evening early one summer, I happened upon a PBS program entitled Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. It was an absorbing experience, even as I critically denied the truth of his message point by point. I did not finish the show, it was beginning to sound as if life and myth should have his faulty relationship. It is well, that I did not run across the writings and stories of this modern "Homer" when I was younger.

Just holding together a Christian consensus in the face an increasingly mythical mind set is proving to be most difficult. Especially since the worldly philosophies have been so successful in penetrating the majority of Christian institutions during this century.

This brings us to our second level of contention. The certain men of Jude's warning must be biblically disciplined when they do not respond to regularly encouraged self-evaluation if the remaining Christian organizations are to maintain cohesion. Here the sad witness to the world of Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart and their responses to the discipline of their church comes to mind as an example of failed understanding of our mutual obligations to submit to one another in the Lord.

Not only do we need to realize our own tendency to misunderstanding but we have to relearn our collective responsibility to close ranks and maintain spiritual and organizational unity so that we have a chance to hold the battle line with some chance of success. This means that more and more the church is going to have to learn what it means to be a Church!

 

4. HOLDING THE LINE ONLY?

 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Ephesians 6: 12 NIV

This is the third level of contention with which our paper is primarily concerned. This is our contention with the worldly presuppositions of the modern Mythos inspired by the father of falsehood. This is the pagan Mythos that underlies our own culture as surely as that Mythos codified by Homer underlay the Greek culture. ⁹

It is this Mythos that is challenged every time we make public witness for the faith in Jesus Christ. This spiritual competition can no longer be avoided. We have a difficult choice: either we hide our heads in the sand and give thanks for our own personal salvation and ignore our culture, or we can choose to take the battle to the enemy and challenge the presuppositions of the our thoroughly modern Mythos.

John Whitehead given that choice, leaves no doubts about his understanding that "Full-dimensional Christianity, as the apostles taught, means acting, from the point of salvation onward, upon the basis that Christianity is the truth. It means affecting culture." ¹⁰ In this sense, he sees little hope for a pietism that "stresses the personal 'salvation' experience" where "Bible study becomes simplistic, and any form of intellectualism or social activism is considered unspiritual." ¹¹

We have been in this position for far too long! We have endeavored to hold a fixed position and have been infiltrated at practically every point of apologetic articulation just in the course of holding on. It is imperative that like the old soldiers of the Great War, we look beyond the mud and slime of our positional polemics to the green fields beyond where a war of theological maneuver can be waged once again.

During that Great War, from whence comes the division titles of this paper, there is one example of great opportunity missed. For much of the war, the entire British Expeditionary Force was supplied, fed and clothed from the depots along a single railroad. At any time from 1916 to 1918, if the Germans had strategically taken out that facility for more than three to six days, the whole of the British front would have collapsed for want of the proverbial horse shoe nails! This is the type of spiritual opportunity that we should be interested in identifying within the collective ideas of the modern Mythos. One author has insisted that this primary spiritual target should be the "fact of evolution" propounded by our worldly opposition. ¹²

 

5. THE GREEN FIELDS BEYOND.

"Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God."
2 Corinthians 4: 1-4 NIV

When Paul went to Corinth he ministered without "eloquence or superior wisdom as" he proclaimed the testimony about God. He also reports that he resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified while he was with the Corinthians. ¹³

We can more readily appreciate his words here knowing that just previous to his arrival in Corinth he had been hounded out of Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. When in Athens, Paul was invited to reason with the members of the Areopagus. As in the three previous cities, there was scant return for the efforts of his ministry. By contrast, the response in Corinth was wide open for the word and he labored there for a year and a half.

We may wonder if Paul was being discipled in evangelistic procedures, or is it more likely that he was serving in several different capacities as the Lord provided for His own plan of proclamation? Of course we know from Acts 18: 10 that there were providently many of the Lord's own to be found in Corinth. Yet, there were also small numbers won to the Kingdom in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and Athens as well.

What are the differences of situation that demand a change in approach? In chapters sixteen through eighteen in Acts we see that in Philippi Paul had directly confronted a spirit possessed slave much to the chagrin of her owners. In Thessalonica and Berea opposition quickly arose from the Jewish leaders. In Athens, while there was no organized opposition, there was an openness to hear every possible teaching. And this precisely was the key problem for hearing the Word. It is this problem that Alan Bloom identifies as an openness that "has driven out the local deities, leaving only the speechless, meaningless country" in our own age. ¹⁴

It was there in Athens that Paul began a theological struggle against the wisdom of the Greco-Roman World. Certainly, the essential battle had already been won by Jesus Christ. Certainly, we understand that this challenge was only the beginning of an ongoing apologetic that lasted for several centuries. But it was a beginning that we should probably imitate.

Just this spring I had an opportunity to record Dr James Kennedy's special program taped in the Court House in Dayton, Tennessee. In that program the wellsprings of Evolution were publicly challenged in a grand style! However, within two weeks, Channel 28 (WTTE) began substituting a new program in Dr Kennedy's time spot. When the station was asked about this abrupt change they weakly claimed that most of the television evangelical programs were somewhat unreliable in their availability! ¹⁵

Certainly, some of the modern media ministries such as Eternity and World are seeking to become accepted as legitimate news sources, but just try to keep them on the shelves of School or even Public Libraries on a regular basis! I have also read of Cal Thomas and his release from Public Broadcasting employment and of Franky Schaeffer's difficulty in gaining access to prime time for any serious evangelical programming.

Even though our struggle for making a public apologetic is growing more difficult, we should not lose heart. The Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote a lengthy memoir about his struggles to be heard in the Soviet Union. In his memoir he notes "that strength and steadfastness are the only things" feared by the powers that be. ¹⁶ Here is a man who depending upon the power of God took on the most powerful bureaucracy in the world. He often wondered why he did not simply disappear at many opportunities, yet he persisted, and when at long last he was summoned for disposition the worst that they could do was to be send him into exile.

Sure, Billy Graham can afford prime evening time for televising his crusades and our televangelists can minister on Sunday mornings to their limited audiences. But, is this really what is needed today? What we need is an opportunity to directly challenge the truth and honesty of our contemporary worldly Mythos!

What can our worldly media do to us where we have so much more in the way of legitimate freedoms? Like Paul, we have an Athenian ministry to perform on a regular basis. And the ministry implied here is to reflect the glory of our God and King in public debate. It is our responsibility to seek out opportunity to witness to the truth by challenging the worldly agendas of the growing New Age. In this ministry we must remember that it is through Christ and for Him that our efforts are to be directed with energy and dedication. John Murray explains the proper sense of this ministry:

"There are three things that need to be stressed - sincerity, earnestness, urgency. We are never to be self-assertive - that is pride. We are never to have a superiority complex - that is the opposite of meekness! We must never act as if we had in ourselves a reservoir of resources to meet every situation. But let us never be apologetic about the gospel. Let us never have an inferiority complex respecting the gospel, but forthrightness, confidence, arising from the conviction that there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby men must be saved, that it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes." 17

Amen to that! Sincerity and earnestness there is in plenty, however there seems to be a general lack of urgency. The challenge of making our apologetic credible is difficult as Murray points out the traps of human weakness, but let us never shrink from the fact that such an apology is due on a regular basis. As things are today, there is very much work to be done!

¹ This as well as all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. 1973, 1978 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Quotes are hereafter acknowledged with the note: NIV.

² Reese, W. L. Dictionary of Philosophy & Religion: Eastern & Western Thought. (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1980), PAGES 20-21.

³ Evangelical Press Service. "Oft-Delayed Film Raises Controversy", World. (Asheville: Joel Belz, 18 July 1988), page 12.

⁴ Exodus 7: 14 - 11: 10 Chadwick, G.A. The Book of Exodus, The Expositor's Bible. (New York: A.C. Armstrong & Son, 1903), pages 121 to 195.

⁵ 1 Samuel 5: 1-12. Keddie, Gordon J. Dawn of a Kingdom. (Welwyn: Evangelical Press, 1988), pages 70-75.

⁶ 1 Kings 18: 16-40. Farrar, F.W. The First Book of Kings, The Expositor's Bible. (New York: A.C. Armstrong & Son, 1903), page 389.

⁷ 1 Peter 3: 18-22 & Jude 6-7. Note: In the apostolic age, these "angelic spirits in prison" were understood "as the patrons of the kings and mighty men of the world and as such constituted the origin and source of heathenism." Reicke, Bo. The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude, The Anchor Bible. (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1964), page 110. Now the preaching to those "spirits in prison" is not understood as evangelic, but simply the proclamation of Christ's victory. Stibbs, Alan M. The First Epistle General of Peter, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. (Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans, 1976), page 142. It is with this in mind that I enter this event into the argument of this paper.

⁸ I am reminded of a certain management technique that is used in the business and educational world. There, the usual cure for personality problems is not to call in the errant individual and chew him out for his "sins". That, might offend the Union or some Human Rights commission. Instead, a very general statement of the particular problems is sent out to all of the staff for their reading. Usually, the key offender takes no offense. But, it is the conscientious worker who takes to heart the severe warnings. While I am certain that Biblical Discipline should be maintained, it is in this first level of application that I feel Jude has its most impact.

⁹ I have found both liberal and conservative authors to be in agreement about the reality of this modern Mythos. They only disagree upon the salient features of that Mythos. Schumacher, E.F. Small is Beautiful (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), pages 80-82 enumerates six overarching ideas, while Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1980), pages 90-93 identifies only three "indust-realities" that explain the elements of human experience. Whitehead, John W. The End of Man. (Westchester: Crossway Books, 1986), page 40 also identifies these same common elements.

¹⁰ Whitehead. The End of Man. Op. Cit., page 27.

¹¹ Ibid., page 21.

¹² Ham, Kenneth. "No 163 - Creation Evangelism: A Powerful Tool in Today's World", Impact. (El Cajon: Institute for Creation Research, January 1987).

¹³ 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5 New International Version.

¹⁴ Bloom, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), page 56.

¹⁵ At the time of this writing, I have not had an opportunity to check with our source in Florida, but I really wonder what is truly going on?

¹⁶ Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. The Oak and The Calf: Sketches of Literary Life in the Soviet Union. (New York: Harper Colophon, 1980), page 197.

¹⁷ John Murray. Collected Writings of John Murray, Volume One: The Claims of Truth. (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1976), page 185.

Bahnsen, Greg L. "A Critique of 'Classical Apologetics", The Presbyterian Journal.
(Ashville, Presbyterian Journal Company, 4 December 1985), page 6

Bloom, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind.
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Boyd, Ian. "The Mind of Chesterton: 'Where There is Anything, There is God'", Eternity.
(Philadelphia: Evangelical Ministries Inc., March 1988), page 64

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Evangelical Press Service. "Oft-Delayed Film Raises Controversy", World.
(Asheville: Joel Belz, 18 July 1988), page 12.

Gerstner, John. "A Reply to Greg L Bahnsen's Critique", The Presbyterian Journal.
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Ham, Kenneth. "No 163 - Creation Evangelism: A Powerful Tool in Today's World", Impact.
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(Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1976)

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