Is Licona, NAMB's top apologist, a "Reluctant Inerrantist"?

News is circling around right now regarding Mike Licona, the Southern Baptist's Apologetics Coordinator for the North American Mission Board (note: Mohler seems to indicate that Licona is not longer with NAMB.  I have no confirmation of this.  As of this post, he is still listed on the staff page).  The controversy surrounds some things Licona has written in his massive, 700+ page book entitled The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach.  Therein, Licona casts doubt on the historicity of the events described in Matthew 27:51-54.  Licona instead seems to prefer an "apocalyptic" or poetic reading of that passage.  This, of course, has created some discussion as to whether or not Licona really holds to the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy or, rather, if he holds on to it firmly enough.  Apologist James White has dubbed Licona a "reluctant inerrantist" citing not only the book but also his recent appearance on the Unbelievable radio broadcast opposite noted atheist Bart Ehrman.  On that program, Licona is clear in stating that he didn't consider Biblical inerrancy to be a "cardinal doctrine".

Well, if you find this conversation interesting and important, as I do, you can get caught up here:

Listen to James White's analysis of the entire controversy here.  And also here.
Read Albert Mohler's review of the situation here on his blog.
Read Norman Geisler's "Open Letter" to Licona here.

I've read some responses that are supposedly from Mike Licona to Mohler and Geisler, however, I have not found solid confirmation that they really come from him.  Licona's "Risen Jesus" website seems to be kind of dysfunctional right now.  There is an incomplete Facebook page in his name that has a few interesting pieces on it -- thanks to Sam Shamoun.  You can check it out here.

Okay, have fun!

Almost Half-way There: Adding an Apologetics Book to the Pot

Look at that folks, 44% of our goal is complete.  Thanks to your support, we are well on our way to funding a much needed 3-day retreat for the TIBM team.  I was encouraged this morning as we gathered for our weekly prayer meeting to hear from each member prayer requests related to those they were discipling.  We heard about students at the College of DuPage, children, Nepali senior citizens and young adults, Karen teens, and more.  I praise God for the ongoing work, and I am reminded of how important it is for our team to have these few days of rest and renewal in May.  So, please help us to reach our goal of $1000 for this retreat.  Your contribution helps pay for gas, lodging, food, and recreational activities for the whole team.  

Today, to sweeten the deal and help motivate you to give, I want to add a new prize to the pot.  Remember, one name will be drawn once we reach our goal to win the entire prize pot.  Added today is the book Reasons for Faith: Making a Case for the Christian Faith, a book on Christian apologetics featuring articles from people like Josh McDowell, J.P. Moreland, Gary Habermas and others.  That goes along with our growing treasure trove which includes:

• The DVD Parenting Seminar entitled Your Child: Essentials of Discipline with Dr. James Dobson.
• An autographed copy of my book Ethnographic Chicago
• An autographed, pre-publication version of my latest work "Pursuing Cruciformity in Diaspora Mission"
• and a copy of The Journey: The Study Bible for Spiritual Seekers (NIV)

For your chance to win, simply give a donation with your credit or debit card of any amount (really, any amount) using the using our secure Chip-in/PayPal system. As usual, whenever you make a donation to TIBM, it is fully tax-deductible and will be put to work for the Kingdom of God.

Thank you for your support and prayers!

Are we prepared for the cost?

Yesterday I was riding my bicycle - my new favorite hobby - and listening to various podcasts.  One was from a recent episode of the Dividing Line with James White (excellent BTW).  A caller phoned in to ask Dr. White if he could recommend any resources on a presuppositional apologetic approach to people of other faiths.  Without getting into what that means, I want to go directly to the conclusion of the resulting discussion in which the caller said something like, "So, I guess I'm just going to have to do my homework and understand what people of other faiths are saying." To which Dr. White said something like, "Uhh . . . yeah."

I liked that because it highlights something for me that I feel is a very significant problem in the Church today.  Christians sort of generally want to have an answer for the Muslim, Mormon, Hindu, or whoever -- a set of memorable apologetical one-liners to throw into the faces of people from other faiths who may come across our paths.  But we don't really want to get our hands dirty.  We want a quick and compelling (to us) presentation or pamphlet.  We don't want a Hindu friend.  We don't want a relationship with a neighbor.  But we have been called to love.  And . . .

"Love is costly. Out of love, something may be offered to a recipient for nothing, but that is not the same as saying it didn't cost the giver anything.  It may cost everything.  Yet when it comes to the issue of witnessing to people of other faiths, we seem to be looking for methods that cost us nothing."

These words by Michael Ramsden in his article "Bearing Witness to the Love of Christ with People of Other Faiths" are right on.  I recently heard of something in a church not too far away from where I live that made me so happy.  It was something like this -- their pastor had begun a series on Islam and Muslims.  No doubt a study designed to help equip the members of that church to have meaningful and effective encounters with their Muslims coworkers and neighbors.  But, you know, such studies are a dime a dozen in evangelical churches.  And very often, the only thing that happens is that the Christians walk away with a feeling of renewed confidence (and sometime arrogance) in the truthfulness of their religion over against the particular cult or world religion featured in the study.  But something totally different happened in the church I'm talking about.  Something kind of cool.

As I heard the story, some of the members of the church spoke with the pastor at the conclusion of the study. They said basically that while they appreciated the study on Islam and Muslims, the reality was that most of them had coworkers, neighbors and friends who were not Muslims but Hindus.  And they said something like, "Pastor can you equip us to share the love of Christ with the Hindus in our lives?" And the pastor said, "Yes."

That's so good, so pure in my mind.  Because the church members there could have just filed that study away someplace and continued to be unengaged with the global mission field around them.  But they refused. They have begun to choose the hard path of love, relationship, dialog, understanding, incarnation, death.

Let me remind you again of this important call to repentance issued by the Lausanne Theology Working Group:

“We need to repent of approaches to people of other faiths that reject or denounce their existing religion as wholly evil or satanic, with no effort to understand, critique and learn, and to discern through genuine encounter, friendship and patient dialogue where there may be bridges for the gospel” (p. 28, full version)."

So, I want to simply echo the question that Ramsden has asked in his paper.  When it comes to sharing the love of Christ to people of other faiths, are we prepared for the cost?  It will cost us everything.  Sadly, most Christians are not ready to pay that kind of price.  Are you?

Alpha and Omega Ministries, The Christian Apologetics Ministry of James R. White

Alpha and Omega Ministries, The Christian Apologetics Ministry of James R. White

I only want to say that I love and highly recommend the ministry of James White.  Follow his blog, check out his books and debates, listen to the Dividing line.  Be blessed.

Postmodern Pluralists: The Intentional & Unintentional

Today, I am writing in response to an important paper submitted by Carver T. Yu for the 3rd Lausanne Congress coming up in just about a month.  Yu's paper is entitled "Truth Matters, Stand Up for Truth" speaks to one of the major issues facing the global Church today -- how do we make a case for the truth of Christ in the pluralistic and globalized world of today? I highly recommend that you go and check out Yu's paper at the Lausanne Global Conversation right now!

Now, as I read the paper myself, two very different kinds of people came to mind. Both of whom may be thought of as devotees of the postmodern, pluralistic worldview that Carver Yu describes in his paper.  A worldview in which truth is proclaimed as "a cultural construction valid only for the culture that constructs it" and having no bearing on anyone else. This view sees all truths as relative to each other and presumes that the individual person is the "ultimate ground of reality. . . the postmodern pluralist believes that each and every individual creates her own logic and makes her own rules in constructing her own world of reality and virtue." Volker Roggenkamp illustrates this worldview as something like a child who first discovers the game of soccer. In the beginning, the child just kicks the ball anywhere and shouts, "Goal!" The door is a goal, the fence, the wall, the tree, the family dog, etc.  As the child matures, he or she realizes that in truth a goal isn't just whatever someone says it is, but that there are universal rules and standards that make the sport meaningful, enjoyable, and sustainable.  The postmodern pluralist wants to engage life in the same way a small child plays soccer.

The two people that come to mind for me as I think about this worldview are two main types of people who make up the global mission field of postmodern pluralists.Thus, those of us who are concerned about world evangelization, must carefully consider who these people are and how we can proclaim Christ to them.
The first is embodied by a sociology professor I once had. Highly educated, militantly atheistic, openly and publicly antagonistic to the Christian faith – a conscious, intentional proponent of this worldview – he publishes books and articles about it, blogs it, tweets it, teaches it, etc. The second however, is embodied in an individual that I know who has recently left his wife for another woman. When confronted as to the moral aberrancy of his conduct, though not consciously a postmodernist, he responded in a way that typifies the worldview. Phrases like, “You’re entitled to your opinion, but it is my business”; “I have to follow my heart”; and “If you don’t like my life then get out of it” are met by platitudes from like-minded peers such as “Don’t worry about what anyone else says”; “Be true to yourself”; and the like. This second individual is unintentional, unversed in postmodern theory, and often unable to articulate the rationale behind his values and beliefs.

I want to state simply that the Church must seek to answer both types of people. From personal experience, I would testify that what we find effective with the first type will not often be so fruitful with the second.  I'll admit, I have more questions than answers on confronting these two types of postmodern pluralists.  But here is where I begin:

First, I’d like to see the Global Church make an effort to identify, affirm, and meaningfully support those among us who are the truly great apologists of our day. Then to call on them to redouble their efforts to (1) give public and compelling defenses of the faith that are of irreproachable soundness and quality and (2) equip the whole Church to effectively join the battle for truth in our day.

Second, we must have a related but nevertheless distinct strategy to win the hearts and minds of the masses of unintentional postmodern pluralists who are especially plentiful in Western society today. Who is good at this? Who has thought through this particular issue that can share with the rest of us? We need to hear from such leaders. If you know someone with a track record of effectively engaging what I'm calling the unintentional postmodern pluralists, please direct them to this post and ask them to leave some feedback.  In response to my question on this issue of the second group, Carver Yu commented: "This is perhaps more urgent. The mass of unintentional or unthinking pluralists are expanding. A new breed of evangelists has to be nurtured to understand the heart and mind of this group. How do we do it? I need help here."


Okay, then. So, my excellent readers. Please do help us out on this issue. I look forward to hearing from you.

To Burn or Turn & Other Thoughts on Evangelism

Today will, I believe, be a truly rambling edition of "The Ramblings."  I want to share some thoughts today about evangelism in the 21st century.  That is, what does it mean for us to be a faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ in our world today.  As I write this (9/10/2010 at 5:54PM CST), the very latest news out of Gainesville, Florida is that Terry Jones has indefinitely suspended his planned "Burn the Qu'ran Day" event.  That's a relief.  Of course, the news on Jones has been changing pretty quickly, so I'm not holding my breath.
But, I think there is in this whole, ridiculous affair an important question about evangelism.  In the mind of Jones, burning the Qu'ran was a necessary step in proclaiming the truth about Jesus in our world today.  In his own words, "Why is there always room for discussion and discussion and discussion . . . why is there not sooner or later a time when we climb upon the mountain and we tear the altar down?"  Dr. James White, on the contrary recommends an approach that is drastically different. He believes that mature Christians should actually read and study carefully the Qu'ran in order to demonstrate to Muslims why it is not truly the word of God.  So the question with regards to the Qu'ran is, do we burn or turn -- the pages that is.  Jones and White recently had this brief exchange on the Aramaic Broadcasting Network:

I think the point made by David Wood at the end of this clip is quite compelling. Islam depends on the existence of uneducated and immature Christians who know neither the sound teachings of the Bible nor the actual teachings of Islam in order to spread.  Let me add to this a great insight made by Jochen Katz on the subject:

"Ideas cannot be fought by burning the books that contain them. Ideas and ideologies have to be fought by putting sound arguments against them. They can only be overcome by exposing their errors and/or immorality."

I commend to you the entire Katz article, "Cancel the 'Burn a Qur'an' Day! When Irresponsibility Meets Irrationality". It is well-reasoned and well-written.  At the end of the day, I come down well on the "turn" rather than the "burn" side of this debate.

Now, if you are looking for a bit more positive, I want to commend to you another article.  This is one of the advance papers for the 3rd Lausanne Congress and entitled "A Fresh Approach to Witness for the 21st Century: A Global Perspective."  It has been submitted by Rebecca Manley Pippert and Bishop Benjamin A. Kwashi, two of the truly great evangelistic leaders of the Church today.  The article does a great job of illustrating the need for the Church to have a renewed vision from the Lord about sharing the gospel.  The authors point out that "less than 2% of Europeans call themselves Evangelical Christians" and less than 5% of Australians attend church.  They articulate concern over the "prosperity gospel" that is often being proclaimed in Africa and much more.  The following video is meant to provide an introduction to the problem of "prosperity preaching" in Africa:

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Pippert and Kwashi also make some great points about contextualization such as, "There is no such thing as a Christian culture or civilization." The provide some snapshots of evangelism issues from different parts of the world and ask compelling questions such as:

• How do we communicate the absolute uniqueness of Christ in a country where there are many faiths or as in India, where there are literally thousands of gods and goddesses to worship?
• How do we respectfully share our faith when our family is of another faith and where there is deep misunderstanding and prejudice concerning Christianity?
• How do we present Christ to someone who finds the claims of truth offensive?
• And more.

Most important for me where the comments made about confidence.  That followers of Christ must become confident that the gospel is not only for us but for the whole world.  That we must become confident in the fact that there is no greater power in the world than the power of the Holy Spirit.  That we must become confident in the power of the gospel message itself.

So, do take time to read the Pippert and Kwashi paper. And, I would love to hear from you any comments, questions, or views that you'd like to share on the issue of evangelism in the 21st century.

YouTube - James White "Discussion" with Ehteshaam Gulam

The cross-examination was aaaaamazing! What a joke! I have a deep respect for Dr. White's ability to not throw anything at Gulam. Did this guy just wander in off the street? I mean wow!

Best quote from Gulam, "I wish I had more substance in my presentation." Hey, you and me both, buddy.

YouTube - James White "Discussion" with Ehteshaam Gulam

The Bible or the Quran: Which is God's Word

Link to a great video of Sam Shamoun v. Shabir Ally

Answering Muslims: Sam Shamoun vs. Shabir Ally: The Bible or the Qur'...: "Thanks to Nazam for forwarding the link."