I’ve been without internet for the past couple of days. No worries. I’m alive, but…
One of my loves is philosophy and the other is theology and the other is destroying apologetics. I just don’t much care for apologetics. One may say that philosophy and apologetics go hand in hand, but they are wrong. Philosophy teaches us to think through theological issues. Apologetics insist on a line in the sand – or at least how I see it.
This article in Revelant Magazine does a pretty good job and describing the issues that many are facing today with apologetics. The bit about idolatry - yup.
But “faith,” unfortunately, is becoming Christianity’s new F-word. More and more, apologists are succumbing to cultural norms. They trade “the mystery that has been hidden” (1 Corinthians 2:7) with “human traditions and the elemental spiritual forces of this world” (Colossians 2:8).
Yet if our apologetics is driven not by our love for God, in whom we place our faith, but by our fear of labels, then our apologetics is just idolatry, making our defense of Christianity an idol to man. We must replace this worship of man with a proper worship of Christ (remember, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”) Only then will we have the proper mindset to defend the faith for the glory of God, not man.
via Christianity’s New F-Word | RELEVANT Magazine.
I have faith in God. Maybe that is wrong. Maybe that is crazy for someone who wants to be a scholar one day to say, but I do. I have no need to qualify it, nor quantify it, only to live it. I have Faith in God.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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Well, I think you’ve finally come up with the most provocative blog post title possible… Congrats?
That’s how I roll, Robert – like jelly
Do you agree that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”?