I’ve been doing some research into Puritan apologetics over recent weeks and thought I’d share a little of what I’ve discovered in a short series of blog posts. Today and tomorrow I want to work towards a definition of apologetics.

What is apologetics? This question can be answered by surveying both the relevant biblical material and the history of apologetics. Thankfully, we don’t need to start from scratch as this work has already been done by many scholars. For example, Avery Dulles’s History of Apologetics,* generally recognized as one of the classic histories of apologetics, surveys both the biblical material and the history of apologetics. It can therefore be used as one source for constructing a definition of apologetics.

The foreword to Dulles’s book describes it as “an instructive account of how the major systems of theology have formulated the case for Christianity.” Apologetics, in its widest definition, then, is formulating a case for Christianity. In the preface and early pages of the book, Dulles further refined this definition:

• By only including in his survey apologists who viewed Christianity as their religion and who accepted it as a revelation from God.
• By excluding theologians who were focused only on a particular doctrine or denomination.
• By distinguishing apologetical writing from controversial writing, with the latter being only concerned about controversy with other Christians.
• By excluding dogmatic theology from apologetics because whereas dogmatics is simply the stating of Christian doctrine, apologetics has more of a persuading and reasoning character.

Using these criteria, a fuller definition of Christian apologetics can be suggested: the formulation of a persuasive case for Christianity as a whole, by a Christian who views their religion as a revelation from God. That’s consistent with Douglas Groothuis’s definition of apologetics as “the ancient and ongoing discipline of defending and advocating Christian theism.”[1]

This general definition can be made more specific by following Dulles’s analysis of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles to determine whether they “fit into the category of apologetic documents” (13). He acknowledged that “at a glance, they bear little resemblance to modern apologetical treatises. They are narrative in form and contain little sustained argumentation. They purport to tell a story rather than to prove a case.” (13-14)

Despite this initial difficulty, Dulles says the question should still be asked to what degree the New Testament authors were “motivated by the intention of persuading unbelievers to accept Christianity or of helping believers to overcome their doubts and hesitations.” He then answers, “If one defines apologetics in terms of this general intention, one will find at least an apologetical ingredient in all these writings. (13-14)

Tomorrow we’ll look more closely at Dulles’s distinction between two key apologetical activities: persuading unbelievers and persuading believers with a view to further refining our definition of apologetics.

Blogs

Sabbath as a Sermon for the Ambitious
It’s fascinating how many articles on Sabbath are appearing in both Christian and secular media. What’s also interesting is how many Christians are re-discovering Sabbath after years of rejecting it due to legalistic associations in their youth. Here are a couple from different perspectives. Here’sd another: Finding Sabbath Again

I Couldn’t Call God ‘Father’
Moving testimony of a Muslim covert to Christianity:

In my mind, “Father” was not a word of honor toward the God I had come to know. “Mother” would have felt like a much better word. But God wanted to reveal himself to me. And he did so with complete patience and gentleness. As I studied the Bible, I saw the grace and love of the Father. As I prayed, I felt the attention of the Father. As I worshiped, I felt the embrace of the Father. He healed my past, my present, and my future. He has transformed me. He even enabled me to truly forgive my earthly father. I used to hate the word “Father,” but today I worship God the Father with great love and passion. I worship Jesus Christ as Lord, the One who has saved my soul. And I love to walk in the Spirit, who is always with me.

In Defense (Somewhat) of Self-Help
Oh yes! It’s always good to find at least one person who agrees with us.

“In my experience, Reformed evangelicals are often so eager to engage in polemics against culture that we often create a conflict that isn’t actually there. And in this case, we tend to create a conflict between common sense and faith. Self-discipline, forward-thinking, intentionality, awareness of one’s own weaknesses and strengths—how is any of this inherently frictional with Christian confession? If it’s not, then another question: Where is the theologically orthodox and accessibly literary body of Christian self-help literature? Perhaps we balk at the phrase “self-help.” Fine. What ideas do we have for alternatives? Is there a space for Christians writing about motivation and inspiration and discipline in a way that is decidedly spiritual but not decidedly reducing life to propositional theology?”

The Psalm-Singing Church
If you want some guidance on how to introduce more Psalm-singing to your congregation, study the practical examples Nick gives at the end of this article

“It should sadden us to learn that the church of our day has neglected one of the greatest treasures God has given her to worship Him–namely, the Psalter. The living God has breathed out an entire book of truth for us to sing back to Him whenever we gather together in corporate worship. Perhaps such a neglect has occurred on account of antiquated translations, difficult accompanying tunes or simply because of a lack of familiarity with the Old Testament people, places, events and symbols. Regardless, the church is certainly no better for having passed over the numerous inspired songs in the Psalter.”

How to Love Visiting Church Members in the Hospital
Timothy Reymond explains how he came to approach hospital visitation more positively.

What made the difference?  Two simple things, really.  First was just plain old experience.  Like developing any skill, you do a few dozen hospital visits and you’ll get more comfortable at it.  But more than that, I’ve learned to do a few simple, specific things which have transformed hospital visitation from a laborious drudgery into a true means of grace, both for the person I’m visiting and for my own soul.  I share these with you in the hopes of encouraging and equipping you, my brother-pastors, to make the most of these precious ministry opportunities.

Here’s my own article on the subject: Tips For Hospital Visitation

“A friend of mine was recently speaking to a pastor of a large congregation about how things were going in ministry. This particular pastor proceeded to tell my friend that a prominent public figure was coming to speak at the church he pastored. He then went on to boast about the large turnout that they expected at this event. To this, my friend said, “Oh yeah. Jesus comes to our church every Sunday.” Though some might consider this to be a flippant, cynical or juvenile response, it is, in fact, one of the most under-acknowledged and under-appreciated truths to cherish. In every church where the word of God is faithfully proclaimed, the sacraments are rightly observed and discipline is administered, God has promised to attend His people with His presence. ”

Research on Suicide in Our Churches and 3 Reasons Churches Must Be Concerned about Mental Health
“Thankfully, in recent years church leaders have developed a better understanding that struggles with depression and battles with mental health are not solely spiritual issues. Just as godly people can struggle with physical sickness, godly people can struggle with mental sickness. Both are a result of our fallen and broken world. While we have made progress in this area, according to a recent LifeWay research project on 1,000 people, there is still work to do. You can read the whole research project here; the research points to at least three reasons pastors must be concerned about mental health:”

New Book

Some Pastors and Teachers by Sinclair B. Ferguson (RHB $31)

Kindle Books

You can get Tony Reinke’s excellent book 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You as a FREE audiobook this month!

Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ by John F. MacArthur $2.99.

Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in All the Scripture by Trevin Wax $2.99.

Sexual Temptation: Establishing Guardrails and Winning the Battle by Randy Alcorn $0.99.

Office Checkout 

A selection of articles, resources, books, and gadgets to improve the life of desk-dwellers everywhere.

Want to save $400 on a stand-up desk? This is a desk-topper usually selling for $600 and presently available for $200. I’ve just ordered it for my home office. I’ve already got a stand-up desk at the Seminary. Here’s a smaller and less expensive one that’s also on offer and here’s an old article I wrote on why stand-up desks are so important many years ago: Your Chair is Your Enemy: Stand-up! And some other articles, in case you’re not yet persuaded.

Get Up, Stand Up! | The New York Times
“The scientists then found strong statistical correlations between sitting and mortality. The men and women who sat for the most hours every day, according to their accelerometer data, had the highest risk for early death, especially if this sitting often continued for longer than 30 minutes at a stretch. The risk was unaffected by age, race, gender or body mass. It also was barely lowered if people exercised regularly. But interestingly, the risk of early death did drop if sitting time was frequently interrupted. People whose time spent sitting usually lasted for less than 30 minutes at a stretch were less likely to have died than those whose sitting was more prolonged, even if the total hours of sitting time were the same.”

Sitting will kill you, even if you exercise | CNN.com

4 Reasons You Should Buy a Standup Desk—Right Now | Michael Hyat

How I Set Up My Desks: One for Sitting, One for Walking | Andy Naselli

And some entertaining and informative after-hours reading for a couple of bucks.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Only $2.99 for this best-seller which is a great book for the evening wind-down.

As promised when I announced the launch of Exploring the Bible videos, here’s the first weekly video to go with Expedition One. I hope the kids will find it helpful to motivate and encourage them.

If you want to bookmark a page where all the videos will eventually appear, you can go to YouTube or the Facebook page for Exploring the Bible.

If you haven’t yet started your kids on the book yet, you can begin anytime and use it with any Bible version.

You can get it at RHB, Westminster Books, Crossway, or Amazon. Some of these retailers have good discounts for bulk purchases by churches and schools.

The Lawmaker was made under the law for the salvation of law-breakers.

“They think they’re above the law!” How many times have we said it of Washington and local politicians. “They make the law for others, but don’t keep it themselves.” “It’s one law for her and it’s another law for us!”

But we don’t need to go far from home to see the same tendency. We make laws for our children about media use or driving speed, but we don’t keep our own law and don’t sanction ourselves either. We all have a tendency to make laws for others that we put ourselves above.

But there is one Lawmaker, who, though he really was above the law, yet came under it far more than anyone else did (Galatians 4:4)

The Lawmaker made the law

Christ made the moral law which is summarized in the ten commandments. These were perfect permanent laws for personal morality.

He made the ceremonial laws for sacrifices, worship, cleanliness, diet, etc. These were perfect temporary laws for a certain phase of true religion.

He also made the civil or judicial law for the regulation and ordering of Israel. These were perfect temporary laws for the Old Testament nation of Israel 

Given that Christ’s mind and heart were behind the law, we can’t love the Lawmaker and hate the law

The Lawmaker administered the law

Christ did not just make the law and walk away, but presided over its implementation and administration. He saw law-breaking and punished it in individuals, families, tribes, nations. He also saw law-keeping and rewarded it. He sent prophets to call to obedience and announce warnings and judgments for disobedience.

This is not just a past tense administration. Christ is still administering the law, using it to convict of sin, restrain sin, and guide the expression of gratitude.

The Lawmaker submitted to the law

Amazingly, this Lawmaker who made the law and administered the law, also came under the law. This submission was:

With a head full of knowledge. Sometimes we can sign up for something without realizing all the small print and conditions. As its maker and administrator, Christ knew the law inside and out. He knew its extensive precepts and its excruciating penalties. He knew all that law was, all it entailed, all that had to be done, all that had to be suffered. No one was ever such a legal expert as Christ was. He knew more law that all the authors of the millions of books in Harvard’s Law library.

With a will full of freedom. When Paul says that Christ “was made” or “was born” under the law, we might be tempted to think that this was a passive experience, that this was something that happened to him rather than something he actively chose to do. Nothing could be further from the truth. We must understand this language as saying that Christ made himself or put himself under the law. Try to imagine voluntarily putting yourself under the laws that you make for your dog or your cat, and you just begin to grasp the incredible willingness of Christ in this act

With a heart full of love. He did this out of love for the law and out of love for the law-breakers. What a strange combination! He loved the law so much he wanted to magnify it and make it honorable. He loved law-breakers so much that he put himself in their place to keep the law they could not keep and suffer the penalties they could not suffer.

The Lawmaker suffered the law’s penalties

Theologians often distinguish between the active and passive obedience of Christ. The active obedience refers primarily to Christ’s actively obeying the law’s precepts and the passive obedience refers to his suffering the law’s penalties. There are some dangers with this distinction but as long as they are not separated and as long as they are viewed as present together throughout Christ’s life, then it is a useful distinction.

Christ’s passive obedience began as soon as he was conceived in Mary’s womb. As soon as he was made of a woman, he was made under the law and subject to its curses. Not that he deserved this penalty, but rather he took the penalty his people deserved. Their liability to punishment was transferred entirely and completely to Christ, for him to suffer in all its width, length, and depth. The Lawmaker and Lawkeeper was treated as the law-breaker to save the law-breakers.

The Lawmaker obeyed the law’s precepts

“Great, that’s my disobedience dealt with!” Wait, not so fast. What about the requirement of perfect obedience? You still owe that. You’re out of the hole, but how do you climb the mountain? Christ’s passive obedience paid your debt, but you still have no assets. You’ve gone from overdrawn to zero balance, but you need to offer God a righteousness. “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).

That’s where Christ’s active obedience saves the day and your soul. His perfect obedience was no less necessary than his perfect suffering. So much so, that we can say that Christ’s suffering was not enough for our salvation. Christ died for our sins and lived for our righteousness. If it’s sometimes hard to believe that Christ died for our sins, it’s sometimes even harder to believe that he lived a perfect life in such an imperfect world. Not one sin committed and, even more amazing, no duty omitted.

This Changes Everything

This changes the way we view the law. It is no longer a threat, a terror, a cause for fear, or an awful impossibility. When we look to Sinai, we don’t hear thunder, see lightning, or feel trembling. We see a sunny scene of tranquility and peace because we see no penalty to suffer and no obligation left to obey (as a means of salvation).

This changes how we view Christ. Believer, he didn’t only die for you but lived for you. We not only see our salvation in the last few chapters of the Gospels but from his conception onwards. Every chapter that records his perfect words and deeds records the righteousness he transfers to us.

This changes the way we view death. Even if we managed to live without ever doing what we shouldn’t do, it still leaves so many things we should do not done. How can we lie on our deathbeds with any peace if we don’t have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees? Gresham Machen’s deathbed provides the answer. In his last telegram to his Westminster colleague, John Murray, he wrote: “I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.”

Blogs

Spiritual Fitness
I didn’t enjoy being reminded of my Dad’s aging body. Thankfully his mind is still sharp and active as this article demonstrates.

What Pastors Need to Know About Mental Health, Ministry, and Liability
Extremely important and super-helpful article:

As churches become increasingly aware of the widespread and serious nature of mental illness, church leaders may wonder how they should engage mental health ministry in the church—and what legal risks they may face in doing so.

The Doctor is In
In connection with the above, this podcast interview is well worth listEning to.

This week we bring the doctor in! Dr. Mike Emlet recently wrote Descriptions and Prescriptions – A Biblical Perspective on Psychiatric Diagnosis and Medications. He’s trained as a medical doctor, as a pastor, an active counselor, and he teaches counseling. Dr. Emlet seriously cares for people’s body and soul, taking both a biblical and scientific approach to that care.

The 100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America
Tim Challies doing what he does best:

Newsmax recently released their picks for the 100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. I’m sure it was no small project to sift through the thousands of possibilities among the millions of Evangelicals to arrive at a mere 100. Their top-ten are Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, Mike Huckabee, Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, Jerry Falwell Jr., Joyce Meyer, Mike Pence, and the combination of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. It’s quite a list and has generated no small amount of response. I spent some time pondering it over the holidays and thought I’d share a few thoughts on it.”

The Staggering Consequences of Neglecting Your Bible
Think you know Psalm 1 back-to-front? Think again.

To see the full force of the plight of those who ignore the Scriptures, consider it from the perspective of the opposite of the description of the righteous.

My Favorite Social Media Warning Book
“The book is about the importance of down time, spacing out, day dreaming, and mind wandering to create, to think afresh, to make deeper connections. This is an important book, my favorite when it comes to social media stuff. Especially when it comes to the constant warnings about social media.”

Here’s To a Judgment-Free Year?
Trevin Wax takes on one of our culture’s shibboleths:

A New Year’s declaration cannot free us from judgment. What we need is the declaration of God that we are righteous because of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has shown us favor – not by overlooking our sinfulness and selfishness, but by issuing the right judgment against all that is wrong with us when Jesus was crucified.

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Reduced prices on a number of commentaries in the Christ-centered Exposition series.

From Weakness to Strength: 8 Vulnerabilities That Can Bring Out the Best in Your Leadership by Scott Sauls $2.99.

Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith by Larry Osborne $2.99.

Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God by Marty Machowski $2.99.

New Book

Departing in Peace: Biblical Decision-Making at the End of Life by Bill Davis ($15 at RHB).