Countdown to Padre: 4 Days (Screw-Ups and Spiritual Warfare)

(Unlike last year, where all of my Beach Reach writings were on Another Ascending Lark, I will be doing all of my Beach Reach posting/updating here.)

I am quite sick and tired of snow.

Around 5:30 AM, as I limped out the door of my Canyon apartment, a bitter breeze slapped me in the face. Sluggishly I rounded the corner to where my car was parked and found it totally iced up. I turn the car on, grab the scraper out of my back seat, and begin de-icing my ride. Several minutes later, the car is drivable, but I am not. Early mornings and frigid temperatures do wicked things to the body - needless to say, it wasn't until I neared Amarillo city limits before I could move my fingers again. 

I arrive at the FM90 station for my morning shift just in time to turn the transmitter on and fire off the legal ID. Normally, by the time I fire the sign on ID, I have already checked the weather, the setlist, everything, but today I fire it with seconds to spare and nothing prepared. What then followed for the next three hours was probably the worst day on the air I've had - by the time my replacement showed up, my palm was still planted on my face for absolutely butchering my news piece just minutes prior.

Now it's close to 9:30, and I have another hour to wait before class starts (where I will undoubtedly get asked "dude, what happened today?" by my classmates and professor). Despite my Sabbath rest yesterday, I am already exhausted. The cold morning, the bad day at the radio, and another freezing bug-slaying afternoon are putting me in a less-than-stellar condition, physically and mentally.

This all before the fact that we leave for Beach Reach in four days. I haven't even gotten there yet.

I still have shopping (and packing) I need to get done for the trip. Friday aside, my normal schedule is still in place, meaning early mornings, long days, and packed evenings. Even though this is my third Beach Reach, and I know the system in and out, I feel completely unprepared to go. I am horribly out of shape as an apologist (thank goodness we have an 15+ hour drive before us), I am starting the week off on fumes, and I am doubting my ability to do the work the Lord has called me to do.

Hopefully you caught that possessive pronoun before the word "ability". It's the wrong pronoun. Heck, its the wrong phrase.

One does not simply go down to Beach Reach in order to show off their evangelistic/apologetic/missional muscles. At least, nobody usually makes past a day or two of ministry before reaching their tipping point of their own strength. I fight feel like a screw up at the moment, subjected to the jeers and taunts of spiritual warfare, but perhaps that's not a bad thing. Rather than being confident in my fleshly abilities as a think tank, experienced apologist, and Beach Reach veteran, I have no choice but to turn to Christ and rest in Him. Not only that, I have no choice but to worship him for the fact that He is the one who equips me for the work He has called me to do.

I will have what I need. It may not be what I *want*, but it will be what I need to make Christ famous.

/end pre-update 1

What Is The Biggest Obstacle To The Apologetics Movement?

Image credit:
 www.genwhymovement.com

Right now is a great time to be an apologist. We are living in a period of time where apologetics is booming, both in academic and everyday life. It's never been easier to get your hands on material that can strengthen your faith and empower your evangelism, and the time to utilize these resources has never been more urgent. With the rise of the current missions movement abroad, religious persecution in the Middle East, and increasing secularization in America and Europe, being equipped to give a defense of the Gospel wherever it is challenged is no longer optional; it is required if you are to be a witness in today's world.

Every movement has it's obstacles to overcome, and the apologetics movement is no different. Right now we are living in what one apologist has described as "the anti-intellectual age of the church", and we are seeing the fruit of this anti-intellectualism wreck havoc on churches and Christians, many whom end up leaving the church when they arrive at college. Another consequence of this anti-intellectualism is the rise of apathy - Christians just do not seem to care about defending their faith or developing a solid worldview. 

I've been pondering what the biggest hindrance to this movement is. Is it the problem of the anti-intellectual church? Is it the apathetic indifference of the average Christian? Is it the lack of funding, or publicity, or accessibility? What is holding this movement back from accelerating a full speed? 

My personal opinion: apologists are the biggest hindrance of the apologetics movement. 

Hear me out: I don't believe apologists *in of themselves* are the biggest hindrance. Obviously the work of diligent apologists, both professional and layperson, has born much fruit already! I also don't believe that the problems listed about aren't considerable challenges for us to face; indeed, they are tall, looming obstacles to overcome. When I say that apologists are the biggest hindrances, I am talking about a specific type of apologist: the unloving apologist. 

The problem with the unloving apologist is that they are everywhere. They may not have the audience of William Lane Craig or Lee Strobel, yet they have a bigger influence in the lives of their congregation than the heavyweights do. They may not travel the nation on speaking tours at sold out college lecture halls, yet collectively they can impact numerous churches every week. The problem is not that they have tense moments or occasionally lose their cool; we have all had encounters where we failed to love others. The problem is that these apologists routinely show a lack of love for others; they are unloving people in general. They are not what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13: "4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful…" (1 Cor 13:4-5 ESV). 

The main thrust of 1 Cor 13 is that love makes or breaks us. Without love, all of our efforts, publishing, researching, debating, evangelizing, studying, sharing - it all goes down the drain (vv 2-3). It doesn't take a moral failing of a big-name apologist to turn off the Church from taking apologetics seriously - all it takes is hundreds of average Joe apologists in congregations across the country who are rude, disrespectful, arrogant, and condescending to convince Christians that apologetics isn't worth it. 

There are Christians who won't consider apologetics even if their fellow apologist gives the shirt off their back and sells their house for the Kingdom. That problem is on their heads. However, where we see an apologist live without the love of Christ, we must admonish them to show love rather than winning every argument at any cost. If that apologist is ourselves - if we are the ones who are not living a life of love - then we must repent immediately and drink deeply of the sacrificial love of Christ. We should keep in mind, as apologist Jim Spiegel wrote, "When it comes to proving religious truth, an ounce of love is worth a ton of argument." (1)  

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1: Spiegel, James (2010-01-21). The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief (Kindle Location 1191). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

An Intentionally Provocative Question on the Bible and "Jesus Calling"

I was thinking about this the other night, and it's bothered me to the point that I should write something rather unrefined/unpolished on it.

In America we have a plethora of Bibles of many different translations, in many different sizes, and in many different specialties and customizations. On my desk I have a hardcopy of the ESV Study Bible, the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, and a plain text HSCB and ESV. If I factor in all the Bibles I have through my Logos software, I easily own 50 different Bibles (irrelevant is the fact that maybe a third of those are in languages I can't read.) If I factor in the Bibles owned by my three theology junkie roommates…you get the point.

There are countries and places in the world where owning a Bible is punishable by death (see North Korea or most of the Middle East), or literacy is so low that even if you have one you can't read it even if you tried. Voice of the Martyrs has a ministry called Bibles Unbound where the sole point is to get Bibles into the hands of Christians in places where it's pretty freaking hard to do so safely and effectively. Whereas I have brothers and sisters in Christ who would risk their lives to get a basic copy of the Word of God in their own language, I have copies of Bibles that are gathering dust from their non-use.

And then there's Jesus Calling.

There's been plenty of cyberink spilled on the theological BS of the book, it's blasphemous premise, its pathetic, powerless, spineless, 21st century Americanized carved-by-the-hands-of-man "Jesus" problems of the book: the White Horse Inn Blog, Reformation21 Blog, and Tim Challies have written solid critiques of the devotional. If you haven't read these insights, you should. If what they have to say scares you/concerns you/motivates you to hold a book burning party, good. If you feel convicted that you should get rid of the book learn to study the Word, praise the Lord!

This is my question: how many Christians in America, if given the choice between owning a Bible and owning a copy of Jesus Calling, would choose the latter over the former?

I have a feeling that if you asked that question to brothers and sisters who have been longing for their own copy of the Bible that they wouldn't even acknowledge the existence of the second option. The Bible would be enough. Why is it not the enough for us?

Why is it not enough for me?

Welcome to The Diakonos Musings!

To those who step foot (or IP address) on this blog, welcome to The Diakonos Musings.

This is the personal blog of the cultural apologist/music critic Austin Gravley (yours truly). My main blog, Another Ascending Lark, is currently on hiatus for reasons you can read here. I created this blog because, between Another Ascending Lark and the Christian Apologetics Alliance blog (where I serve as an editor and monthly contributor), I have no outlet for personal writing or writing on subjects that are unsuitable for the previously mentioned blogs. The Diakonos Musings is my solution to that restriction.

I have learned from the first time I started Another Ascending Lark and the second time I started it/reformed it (almost a year ago) that I am good at over promising when it comes to what I want to write about. I will not be setting any expectations here. I will write about whatever I want, whether its on cultural issues, theological topics, personal stories - I make no promises about what to expect and what not to expect (or when to expect them, for that matter). Unlike Another Ascending Lark, I will not be making a Facebook page or a dedicated Twitter for this blog (although I will definitely be tweeting new posts from my personal account @AALblogAustin). On the sidebar to your right is an email subscription option for all you email lovers. Really, if anything, this is my informal, deadline-less writing outlet that is subject purely to my whim and wit as to what I want to say. 

So, now that you have taken up precious seconds of your life to read this brief little introduction, I would invite you to look around - but alas, there is nothing to look at! All in good time. For now, although Another Ascending Lark is on hiatus, the posts there are still viewable, readable, and, therefore, consumable. Obviously if you found this blog because of the hiatus announcement, you probably knew that already, but if you didn't…well, now you know. In the mean time, I wish you all a Happy New Year and a good Monday!

A Brief Word On Whether Or Not The Bible Is A "Moral Book"

A couple of days ago, I had a discussion with a few atheists on Twitter on whether or not the Bible was a "moral book" or not. I challenged them to explain what moral system they could appeal to that would render the Bible an "immoral book". Rather than giving a legitimate answer, they instead pressed me to defend why I thought the Bible was a "moral book", which was a claim that I had never made. Confused, they asked if I agreed with them when they said the Bible is an "immoral book". I told them that I did not agree with that statement. So I deny the claim that the Bible is a "moral book" but I also deny that the Bible is an "immoral book". This then led them to throw all of the nasty things in the Old Testament (e.g. genocide, wars, slavery, ect) in an attempt to get me to agree with them that the Bible is an "immoral book".

The inherent problem with classifying the Bible as a "moral" or "immoral" book is that it is simplistic, engages in hardcore reductionism, and is a lazy way of not doing your homework when it comes to studying the Bible in an intellectual way. To summarize the entirety of the Bible and classify it as either a "moral" book or an "immoral" book is to ignore the vast amount of research and study that has gone into ANE (Ancient Near East) culture to help us understand the times and cultures of the Bible in a better way. For a worldview that claims to be the pinnacle of reason and rationality, they often take the most shallow, most anti-intellectual path possible when it comes to the Old Testament. Criticizing the Bible by calling it a "immoral" book is not a deep critique of the Bible - if atheists were truly about knowledge and reason, why are they not digging deep into ANE culture to get a better understanding of the things that happen in the Old Testament? Why is it that they often stop with a knee jerk reaction when the read of war and slavery and strange dietary laws? 

Christian intellectuals explore the archeological, historical, sociological, and theological areas related to those things to attempt to understand a better picture of those things to see if there is anything about our understanding of those things that change once we understand them more fully. Paul Copan has written an excellent (and thorough) book called "Is God A Moral Monster?" that deals with all of the things in the Old Testament that are certainly difficult to deal with, and explores all of those areas (archeological, historical, sociological, and theological) in connection to the sticky parts of the Old Testament. If you want to hear a thorough Christian explanation of those things, I highly encourage you to check it out. 

Michael Horton on Assurance of Election

"Scripture itself teaches us to draw assurance from God’s unconditional election. Believers are not taught to doubt or question their election, but to “make [their] calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). Jesus promised that he will gather his elect from the whole earth and deliver them from the wrath to come (Mark 13:27). He cares for his elect and answers their cries (Luke 18:7) and assures his own that they are chosen not only to be saved but to be preserved in that grace (John 13:18; 15:16). Who can charge against God’s elect, since Christ has died for their sins and even now intercedes for them at the Father’s right hand (Rom. 8:33)? Sometimes storming out of the room, my father used to react viscerally whenever, as a teenager, I was debating election with my mother. On one occasion, I followed him outside and apologized for raising the subject when he made it clear that it offended him. Turning to me with tears, he asked, “What if your dad’s not one of the elect?” It is so easy for us to turn gospel into law, faith-creating good news into anxiety-generating questions. It is true that in some circles election is not understood as a comforting and assurance-producing doctrine, but the very opposite. In some pietistic circles, a Christian can refrain from receiving communion for years — even over a lifetime — out of a lack of assurance concerning his or her election. However, this is not how we find election taught in Scripture. In response to my dad’s question, I quoted Jesus’ words in John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” “Have you heard his voice and followed him?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied. “Then this is Jesus’ answer to you in the next verse: ‘I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.’ “ Everything changed, even in his countenance. Once he understood that point, election became the opposite of what it had been before to him; it was now a marvelous comfort. He would always say thereafter that this was a life-changing moment."

Horton, Michael S. (2011-10-11). For Calvinism (Kindle Locations 1240-1257). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

A Brief Word on Obama's Re-Election

Unless you live out in a place where there is no human contact or any kind of data service, you all know that last night President Obama won his second term. While I admit I was surprised at this, and I also freely admit that I was greatly disappointed, I also must admit I did not like Romney at all. For the record, had I gotten my voter's registration in before the deadline, I would have voted for him, but solely on the basis for the unborn having slightly more favorable conditions in the infant genocide of 21st century. On every other issue, I did not think Romney was any better than Obama.

It was disheartening to see some of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ express blatant idolatry last night as news broke that Obama won Ohio (and, subsequently, the election). It's perfectly okay to be upset and disappointed that your candidate didn't win, and I grieved last night that an evil man has once again resumed control of a nation. Some of the responses of my fellow Christians, however, led me to believe that the Messiah failed to show up last night. Not every Christian I know was like this; indeed, there were some Christians who said things that I have no doubt brought a smile to the Father's face.  However, I believe that last night showed a great stain on the American Church; we are more willing to mourn and lament the fact that a Mormon did not take control of a nation than we are more willing to mourn and lament that our nation does not acknowledge Christ as it's true King. We Christians give lip service to the claim that Jesus is our true King, but our actions grossly betray it, and last night is a shining and prime example.

I believe that God in His sovereignty has appointed America to suffer another four years under this president for the sake of waking up the Church and purifying her. My prayer is that this will finally wake Christians up by putting them in a situation where their comfort is threatened. The Church has always been the strongest when it is most threatened, and while I am certainly not suggesting that American Church is the new pinnacle of persecution in the world, a small dose of unfavorable conditions for the Church is better than no taste of persecution whatsoever. My biggest hope and prayer is that Christians will begin to take up the call to defend the faith, and that the apologetics resurgence would grow in influence and power. I pray Christians discover that they have been given an intellect and that they would begin to use it in their schools, places of employment, and the public square. Regardless, we can praise God that He has not abandoned His bride (which is not America), and that is true even when Obama is inaugurated in January. We can rest in the great power of God and know that whatever happens to us in the next four years and the next 20 years is not a threat to God's saving work in Christ Jesus, which no king or ruler can undo.

This morning I had a deep time of confession and prayer for this nation, out of brokenness and love for my fellow Americans and our President (yes, I love President Obama). If the re-election of Obama brings the Church to her knees before her Savior in a broken and contrite spirit, then glory to God.