14AR19-13

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Apologia Report 19:13 (1,196)

April 30, 2014

Subject: An innovative "visual defense" of Christianity

In this issue:

APOLOGETICS - diagraming the worldview option decision matrix

HELL - a typology of five views on the nature of hell defended by North American evangelicals along with their arguments

HOMOSEXUALITY - addressing nine contemporary objections to the traditional Christian view

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APOLOGETICS

A Visual Defense: The Case For and Against Christianity, by Robert Velarde [1] -- One of the earliest and most significant directional influences on the development of young minds is an inclination toward either the arts or the sciences. Formal apologetics education usually happens in the arts environment, yet many pursue it after first studying the sciences.

A Visual Defense may hold a unique appeal to science majors. The Amazon.com description explains that "to provide Christians with a means for analyzing arguments so they can understand and defend their faith, Robert Velarde has developed an accessible means for visually mapping Apologetics." He does so in small segments at multiple levels, giving us 25 chapters in fewer than 200 pages. Among the smallest segments are the spaces between elements within the diagrams that begin each chapter. Those spaces represent reason, conclusion and direction in the evaluating an argument. Much must be considered as one moves from one element to the next in these diagrams, and Velarde helps the reader think it all through. The readers who gain the greatest benefit from the book will likely be those who give the most thought to each move in the arguments Velarde lays out. How can one evaluate the strength of someone else's worldview, step by step? How does a person move from one viewpoint to another? What's involved in weighing the merit behind the possible conclusions to a statement of belief? Velarde breaks these thought processes down into bite-sized chunks to give the reader an appreciation for apologetic discourse.

The introduction's four sections review the thinking ahead and map the elements involved: intellect, apologetics, faith, and reason. The rest of the book, in two parts, briefly considers the case for and against Christianity. Velarde includes plenty of direction for further study, as this book is merely an overview of the playing field and its rules of engagement. Logic, one rule that receives little attention, is a given, intuitive and ever present among the pages.

As Velarde takes readers through the steps needed to address objections and responses, some will doubtless complain that something was too brief or is missing. Velarde has covered his bases well. Anyone who's dissatisfied is welcome to write another, more advanced book.

Introductions are meant to offer opportunity for further understanding. Velarde addresses this in multiple ways. Readers benefit from the author's advance reflection by way of suggested discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Velarde suggests options for further study here as well. An appended glossary accompanies both subject and name indexes. However, Velarde's annotated bibliography will be where the self-taught find the greatest treasure.

This is a book for serious readers who know they have not achieved advanced understanding. Consuming the content slowly in small bites with periods of reflection in between will likely yield the greatest rewards.

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HELL

"Raising Hell about Razing Hell: Evangelical Debates on Universal Salvation" by John Sanders (Hendrix College) -- "provides a typology of five views on the nature of hell defended by North American evangelicals and summarizes the primary biblical and theological arguments used to support each view. The final section of the article concentrates on the contemporary dispute over universal salvation...."

Sanders sums up his article this way: "The debate about hell within evangelicalism surfaced in the 1990s, when several significant evangelicals affirmed annihilationism and the notion of a remedial hell. The debate has intensified with the critique of eternal conscious punishment by a high-profile evangelical pastor [namely, Rob Bell]. Whereas proponents of eternal torment roundly rejected annihilationism [conditional immortality] in the first round of this debate, today's evangelical defenders of eternal punishment are more willing to see it as a legitimate option for evangelicals. However, they strenuously attempt to keep universalism outside the evangelical tent. Nonetheless, both hopeful and confident versions of universalism have been published by genuine evangelical scholars. At the core of the debate lie the perpetual conflict between two models of God within the movement: the God of theological determinism and the God of freewill theism." Of this, Sanders finds that "the different understandings of divine love and justice in the two models lead to different views on hell."

Sanders' other concluding assessments note first, that two books have appeared [God Wins (2), and Erasing Hell (3)] which "manifest a tone that does not demonize Bell and attempt to present his arguments fairly. For evangelical theological debates [sadly], this is a positive development."

Second, "the defenders of the eternal torment view not only fail to engage" with the robust evangelical defense of annihilationist, remedial hell, and universalist positions, "but largely seem unaware that it even exists." Perspectives in Religious Studies, 40:3 - 2013, pp267-281.

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HOMOSEXUALITY

Embracing Truth: Homosexuality and the Word of God, by David W. Torrance and Jock Stein [4] -- David C. Searle's review begins by describing this book as a major work "which unashamedly states faithfully and compassionately the biblical ('traditional') view [and] deserves the widest possible readership on both sides of the theological divide."

Even so, Searle admits that some among its thirteen contributors may "lose many readers" due to having become too academic in their writing. The four sections of the book begin with a review of "the immense changes of the past forty years and handles skillfully nine contemporary objections to the traditional view." The second section discusses related Christian belief such as scriptural authority, sex, marriage, homosexuality and the Church's traditional view. The third section is largely written by Robert Gagnon. Think of it as a condensed version of his magisterial work, The Bible and Homosexual Practice [5]. The final section covers celibacy, compassion, and community.

The back cover says the "bracing collection of interdisciplinary essays encourages the church to stand fast against the prevailing socio-cultural winds and offers helpful directions for navigating its course with a canonical compass oriented to the church's north star, Jesus Christ." Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology, 31:1 - 2013, pp98-100.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - A Visual Defense: The Case For and Against Christianity, by Robert Velarde (Kregel, 2013, paperback, 208 pages) <www.ow.ly/w8rNQ>

2 - God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and Why the Good News Is Better than Love Wins, by Mark Galli (Tyndale, 2011, paperback, 224 pages) <www.ow.ly/w8Jpf>

Note: This summer Galli plans to release the similarly titled God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and Our Dangerous Fascination with Ourselves (Tyndale, July 2014, paperback: 224 pages) <www.ow.ly/w8JEC>

3 - Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We Made Up, by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle (David C. Cook, 2011, paperback, 208 pages) <www.ow.ly/w8JYk>

4 - Embracing Truth: Homosexuality and the Word of God, by David W. Torrance and Jock Stein (Handsel, 2012, paperback, 256 pages) <www.ow.ly/w8sHM>

5 - The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, by Robert Gagnon (Abingdon, 2002, paperback, 520 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/yzs5v3e>

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