Book Review: "On Guard: Defending Your Faith With Reason And Precision" by Dr. William Lane Craig

"On Guard: Defending Your Faith With Reason And Precision"

Dr. William Lane Craig

Buy It: www.amazon.com

The Pray for an Atheist campaign in 2010 was the catalyst for me getting into apologetics. Around the time, I purchased several books in hopes of arming me for that furious fray. One of those books was "On Guard" by William Lane Craig. I finished the book several weeks later, and fast forward two years later, I bought the Kindle version and re-read it. William Lane Craig is one of my role models and heroes, and this book is a good reason why I consider him to be one of my favorite apologists. While I must be upfront with that I don't agree with Craig on everything, his winsome attitude and high standards for the Christian intellect is encouraging. He is one of the leading Christian thinkers of our time, and for good reason. I am thankful to be familiar with him and his works, all thanks to this book.

Having read Craig's mammoth "Reasonable Faith", I find that the best way to describe "On Guard" is to equate it to a For Dummies edition of "Reasonable Faith". "On Guard" is written more like an introductory text to Craig's more sophisticated works, written for those who do not have the tools needed to process a monster like "Reasonable Faith". Craig also writes "On Guard" with the slant of a defensive apologetic, whereas "Reasonable Faith" is offensive. Nowadays it seems to be the case that people who are getting into apologetics are getting into it because they are being challenged, and Craig's orientation towards a defensive apologetic approach reflects this.

With "On Guard", Craig addresses most of the topics in "Reasonable Faith" and simplifies them. The chapter titles are aptly named for those looking to answer specific questions, such as "Why Does Anything Exist At All?" (the Cosmological argument), "Can We Be Good Without God?" (the Moral argument), "Did Jesus Rise From The Dead?" (Craig's famous resurrection argument), and the like. There are also treatments on the problem of suffering and religious pluralism. Each chapter contains illustrations, questions for personal reflection, and visual summaries of the argument and the argument's objections. Compared to "Reasonable Faith", this book is far more approachable and nowhere near as intimidating.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out the only problem I have with the book, and it is not a pragmatic issue with the book but with the content. Namely, I find Craig's treatment of salvation and religious pluralism to be weak in a few areas. I am not going to write a defense of my position or an offensive polemic against his, but I felt that the condensed format present throughout the book backfires on him in this case.

"On Guard" is a fantastic introductory text, and the book I would heartily recommend to anyone who is wanting to begin studying apologetics or wanting to read Craig. If you have read "Reasonable Faith", "On Guard" should have a useful place as a Sparknotes-like commentary. Either way, it is another work from a man who has empowered many Christians to defend their faith in an increasingly hostile world.

8.5 out of 10.

Book Review: "5 Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth In Minimum Time" by Rick Cornish

"5 Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth In Minimum Time"

Rick Cornish

Buy Here: www.amazon.com

By the end of this week, I will be at Panfork for my summer job as a media staffer. To commemorate this upcoming event, I decided to finish a book that I had begun reading while I was down there last year. "5 Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth in Minimum Time" by Rick Cornish soon became part of my daily devotional routines during the summer, and while I was on my recent El Paso mission trip, I decided to finish it.

The format and content of this book lives up to the title. Rather than follow most theology books and treat each subject under a chapter or two, Rick breaks down what would otherwise be a systematic theology textbook into 100 essays that you can easily read in 5 minutes or less. The structure of the essays begins with introducing theology to the Bible, God, man, sin, Christ, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and closes with the last days. Each essay pertaining to those sections focuses on one topic or issue that falls under that domain, so you will get an adequate survey of the topics in bite sized portions.

My highest praise for this book comes with how it is written; Rick is a great writer and knows how to get to the point in a short period of time. He writes on page 21 that "I have tried to make these brief minutes count by communicating maximum truth in minimum time". I would say that he accomplishes this goal very well. While you won't become an expert of these topics with this book, people who are unfamiliar with them will walk away far more knowledgeable about their faith than they did before. To quote Craig Blomberg's endorsement of the book, "I have found these readings to be clear, accurate, well-chosen, and personally stimulating, covering the topics appropriately." I could not agree more

I should give a disclaimer that, while the book tries to treat each topic with a neutral stance (and does a good job at it), there is a slight slant to the Reformed perspective. Being a 5 point Calvinist, I have no problem with that, and I don't think the slant is strong enough to turn people off to it; nevertheless, in a handful of places, it is there.

This book is an invaluable tool to give to Christians who are wanting to get deeper in their faith, for youth ministers who are looking for material to teach theology in a way that is accessible, and for people with busy schedules who want to be able to read a little each day. I cannot recommend this book enough for those who are wanting an accessible yet helpful introduction to theology. Rick also has a church history version and an apologetics version of this book, so I will hopefully get around to those at some point in time.

8.5 out of 10

El Paso Mission Trip Closing Post

The mission trip to El Paso is in the books of history now. Here is a brief wrap-up of the last days of the trip.

On Thursday, we finished the roof. All the construction projects were finished early afternoon. I don't have any pictures from the other project, but below is a picture of the roof at it's completion





After an evening of celebration and fellowship, we slept and woke up yesterday morning for the trip home. Leaving exactly at 7 AM, we began the long, hot, and tiring ride home. Going through New Mexico with a weak AC made for a very warn van ride. Then we all arrived home and parted ways.

This trip was reminiscent of my mission trips in highschool, only without the drama and immaturity. We were determined, motivated, and responsible through and through. The last construction trip that I went on was the opposite. Those of us on the trip were blessed with great fellowship and we truly enjoyed each other's company.

Unlike Beach Reach, this trip had a different goal in mind, and I would say that the goal was accomplished. Several hundred people were helped through our free clinic, and all our construction projects were completed. Unlike Beach Reach, our immediate goal was not to share the Gospel - the medical team was blessed with several chances to share the Gospel, but it was not the driving goal. I didn't share the Gospel with any person on this trip, but my role in the trip was to assist the local church by making repairs to their facilities so they could better utilize them. That goal was certainly accomplished.

I have six days until I leave for Panfork. My mind, heart, and being is set on the summer, and it is here at long last. I have a LOT to take care of beforehand - namely, buying a car and taking care of some other things. But, the blog posts will continue. I will have at least two book reviews week, and hopefully some other goodies before I leave my home with a reliable Internet connection. For those of you who prayed for me and those of us on this trip, may you be blessed. As it is with every mission trip led by the Spirit, God's will was accomplished.

El Paso Mission Trip Update: Giving Up On Human Sized Portions of Burritos

"What, are we giving up on the human sized portions of our burritos?" - Tim Hawkins

The trip continues to be solid, and both the construction teams and the medical teams have seen success and accomplishment. While yesterday one of our clinic sites ran into some trouble, this opened the door to serve people in a completely different way, including one person who needed an extreme amount of help from the team. I don't know all the details of that encounter, but apparently it was a rather touching one. If I get more information I will write about it in the next post.

Today my team went back to the church where the roofing work was being done. Today was hot, long, and extremely exhausting. My legs feel like rubber, and after several hours of work, we managed to finish one side of the roof. Before we left, we began the other side of the roof with hopes of finishing it tomorrow.

As the title suggests, we had some rather impressive food for lunch (at least my construction team did). Below is a picture of a burrito in relation to a can of Dr. Pepper



I should add that the length of the burrito expanded when it was removed from the foil. The foil compressed that sucker. I was only able to eat half of it.

We have one more day tomorrow and then we leave early Saturday morning. Please pray that we have the determination to finish strong and hard. This has been a very enjoyable trip, but I am ready to return home and rest before I return to Panfork. Please also pray I would have the energy for another long day of work.

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El Paso Mission Trip Update: Homemade Mexican Food.

I lay on my bed after finishing another long day in the hot El Paso sun. The last two days have been very productive and tiring days. Roofing, tearing down ceilings, roofing, disassembling ceiling fans, roofing, installing drywall, roofing; it's been a time for firsts this week. Oh, I forgot to add "roofing" to that list.

The people of these churches that we are repairing have expressed a gratitude that has been humbling. While what we do seems insignificant, to these brothers and sisters it is a moment of praise for them. Its sobering to be reminded that missions can also be used to strengthen and support to body of Christ as well.

As an expression of their gratitude, the construction team has received homemade, authentic Mexican food. Not authentic like you see in a can of Wal-Mart refried beans, as in "We literally made this meal from scratch for you" authentic. I would show a picture, but due to a strange phenomenon of mysteriously disappearing food, I have no pictures to show you.

Work is done for the day, so until dinner and debriefing time there is rest. I have been able to read a lot this week, and I have been excited to catch up on books that I had to put aside due to school. I am about to finish a book I started reading during the summer at Panfork last year and hope to finish it, ironically, a few days before I return back out there again. Even more so, I have been able to read the Word a lot as well, and that is an added blessing of the freedom that comes from an absence of homework.

Until tomorrow, please keep praying for strength and focus for both the medical and construction teams. Also pray that our fellowship with each other (which has been awesome) to continue to grow, that we might be even further reminded of the joy of being a part of the body of Christ.


PS: As a side note, I was made aware by some colleagues in the apologetics community that Ken Ham, who I wrote about a few posts prior, made a response to the Christian blogosphere in general concerning the subject matter I addressed. I have no plans to comment or follow up on that.


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El Paso Mission Trip Update

Well, I know this is somewhat unexpected, as I did not mention this trip much in the way similar to Beach Reach, but I am on another mission trip at the moment, this time in El Paso, Texas. We are doing medical work and construction work for the week at various churches. The team this time is minuscule compared to the Beach Reach team and unlike Beach Reach we all eat and sleep at normal human times. Needless to say, this trip is very different from the last.
Yesterday we left and after a rather uneventful trip (highlights include evangelizing the alien population in Roswell, New Mexico) we arrived in El Paso and began preparing for the week. Once we arrived, we set up hundreds of family care kits to give to the families that our medical teams will give out over the course of the week (picture below).




Today has been a very lazy and relaxing day. After going to church on the other side of the city (involving one of the most adventurous van rides I've ever been on), we returned and ate lunch. Up until this moment, we have simply chilled and rested. I took a mini nap and played guitar, learning and experimenting with some very foreign and exotic scales (Purvi Thaat in the key of A, anyone?)
Although this trip will not be as intense as Beach Reach was, this trip is still very important to the overall picture of the bringing the Kingdom of God into the world. We covet your prayers for our team; it is hot, and the construction crews will be working all the hours of the day starting tomorrow. Both the medical team and construction team will experience spiritual warfare in various ways, so please be in prayer for us. I will update again soon. In the mean time, I stand in Ross as we try to hunt down the girl who came with us. Bad idea to take a girl into Ross. Just sayin'.
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A Brief Word on Ken Ham, Stand To Reason, and the OEC/YEC Debate

In the current intellectual state of the church, we tend to shy away from debates on difficult subjects. Debates on Calvinism/Arminianism, debates on ECT/Annihilation views of hell, debates on interpreting Revelation; the church currently has a disturbingly low tolerance level to difficult conversations. The reasons for wanting to avoid difficult talks on these subjects are numerous, and if we were honest, we would say that we just don't want to have conflict, even if it is constructive. There are times, however, when we avoid difficult talks because the people participating in the talks make the dialog utterly unhelpful to the larger picture.

Recently, a proponent of the YEC view of creation, Ken Ham, wrote this little piece about compromise in the church in it's stance on the age of the earth debate. Before you read any further, I suggest you read Ken's post here.

Read it? Good. I should state for the record, I am agnostic on the OEC/YEC debate and I do not argue for either side. Now, here are some things I would like to point out:

1. For one thing, targeting Stand to Reason in the way Ham has done will get me rilled up. Stand to Reason and it's ministry has been such a blessing to my life and the lives of many other people I know. Greg Koukl is one of two apologists who are huge influences in my life, and I have used his evangelistic methods in Tactics many times to have conversations with people that have been extremely rewarding. To suggest - as Ham does - that Stand to Reason's ministry is "compromised" because Koukl and others on his team are OEC adherants is completely unjustified.  Ken needs to remember that the goal of a Christian is to make disciples, which entails a range of far more important issues that are completely separated from the age of the earth debate, such as sanctification, prayer, worship, evangelism, ect. Apparently Ken is willing to throw Stand to Reason as a whole under the bus because of one standpoint that somehow compromises the rest of those more immediate concerns of making disciples - which Stand to Reason speaks to much more often than the OEC/YEC debate.
2. We are losing two third of the generations of our church, he is correct on that. But is it possible that we are losing so many Christians because of the kind of stances and attitudes taken by Ken? Where in the Bible does it say that the age of the earth debate is a matter that should separate brothers and sisters from the task at hand? It fascinates me that in his letter despite his disagreement with Stand to Reason on this one matter he offers nothing- nothing! - in appreciation for the work Stand to Reason does in equipping Christians to defend their faith on other matters. This kind of behavior is what is really causing the generational loss - glorifying a secondary issue of Christianity to the litmus test for how one holds the authority of the Bible. It's ironic how Ken writes about interpreting things through faulty perspectives when it seems that Ken interprets the work of a Christian ministry as a whole through the lens of it's stance on the age of the earth debate.

In all honesty, I don't care how old the earth is. Christianity and the Gospel does not hinge on the age of the earth. The OEC/YEC debate is important, to be sure, but the debate that continues to rage between OEC and YEC Christians must submit itself to Christ's call to make disciples and advance the kingdom of Christ into the world. Ken does the opposite - the call to make disciples and advance the Kingdom, a call that has been heard for two thousand years and answered by countless people who have given their lives to fulfill it,  must submit itself to one side of a contemporary scientific debate.