23AR28-25
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AR 28:25 - “Save your children by shielding them from an ideology”
In this issue:
HOMOSEXUALITY - defending the Bible in the gay debate
ISLAM - insights from growing up in in the Middle East and finding Jesus as an adult
NEOPAGANISM - have children suffered the most from it?
Apologia Report 28:25 (1,622)
July 12, 2023
HOMOSEXUALITY
"Does Leviticus Apply to the Gay Debate?" by Greg Koukl -- "Critics accuse Christians of conveniently picking and choosing from Old Testament laws. ... The complaint, though, is based on a misunderstanding about the Mosaic Covenant that even Christians fall prey to. ...
"Gentile nations were not under the laws God established for the Jews in the theocracy. They lived in a different 'state.' Therefore, nothing in the Mosaic Law, in virtue of being in that Law, governs any Gentile at any time, in any place. Indeed, nothing in the Old Covenant governs any Jew anymore, either, since the New Covenant now replaces the broken Mosaic Covenant (Jer. 31:31ff).
"Then why quote Leviticus 18 to condemn homosexuality? For the same reason we quote Leviticus 18 to condemn adultery, incest, bestiality, and child sacrifice - all mentioned in the same passage. ...
"Some laws are the kind that apply only to local jurisdictions. Other laws are the kind that apply to all people at all times, and every government should enforce them." Anticipating the question: "How do we know which is which, though?" Koukl responds in detail. Stand to Reason, Apr 1 '23 (email title: "Why We Follow Some Old Testament Laws but Not Others") <www.bit.ly/43frkOr>
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ISLAM
It appears that Ayman S. Ibrahim is living a fruitful life (PhD, University of Haifa; PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary; professor, Islamic Studies & director, Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). He is the author of numerous books. <www.amzn.to/46xVXS0> (Also consider his review <www.bit.ly/46KxuZY> of Creating the Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Study, by Stephen J. Shoemaker.)
Themelios (48:1 - 2023) contains a glowing assessment of his latest: Reaching your Muslim Neighbor with the Gospel. <www.bit.ly/3NDMCzh> Reviewer Duane Alexander Miller (Protestant Faculty of Theology, Madrid) describes its outline: "The book is divided into two parts. The first part addresses 'Understanding Muslims and Islam.' He begins by explaining that there are many ways of living out Islam. ... While we can outline the heart of Islamic teaching and we can trace its historical development and divergence, we cannot provide an all-encompassing definition that would satisfy all Muslims. There are always exceptions. Islam is no monolith.
"Ibrahim also challenges the notion that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. He notes that a good number of people are leaving Islam, and that the Christian should respond with intercession and evangelism rather than fear. ...
"In chapter 3 he presents us with his own philosophy for Muslim evangelism, which is decidedly Christo-centric.... abandoning the popular polemic approach of attacking Islam and/or Muhammad. While employed fruitfully by a few highly educated people - Zakaria Boutros, David Wood - polemical attack is not what Ibrahim advises his readers to emulate. ...
"But this Christo-centric approach also means being suspicious of using the Qur'an to evangelize Muslims. ...
"Chapter 4 encourages us to minister out of love, not fear. Chapter 5 covers key elements of how Muslims view the world and live in it. ... Chapter 6 explores some common misconceptions that Muslims have about Christianity. These include crucial beliefs like the Trinity and the validity of the texts of the Bible, namely that they have not been corrupted. Ibrahim offers us some possible paths of apologetics that he has used in the past.
"Part 2 of the book turns its attention to offering 'Tools for evangelizing Muslims.' ... In [chapter 7] the Christo-centric philosophy is applied, and we are told to emphasize the sinfulness of humanity. ... Chapters 8 and 9 remind the reader of the importance of prayer and provide some irenic questions for engaging in fruitful conversations about the gospel and for getting to know our Muslim neighbor better."
As for chapter 10: "Instead of 'Proclaiming Christ,' this chapter might better be titled, 'Using Scripture to Connect with Muslims.' ...
"Ibrahim avoids affirming Muhammad as a true prophet while remaining respectful. Likewise, he references the Qur'an at times, but he does so without insinuating that it is authoritative or trustworthy.
"My favorite thing about this book is the various memories that the author shares from growing up in Egypt. Ibrahim sprinkles stories of his childhood throughout, such as his recollections of not being allowed to touch a Qur'an or how the Christians of Egypt often lived in quietness and fear and in so doing, he offers us insights that other authors could not.
"This is an introductory book. If you have studied the basic tenets of Islam and or read about apologetics for Islam, you're not going to encounter much new material in this book." <www.bit.ly/3JHAHzu>
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NEOPAGANISM
"The Return of Paganism" by Liel Leibovitz (Commentary, May 2023, cover feature) -- "In 1990, scholars from Trinity College set out to learn just how many of their fellow Americans practiced some form of pagan religion. The numbers were unsurprisingly small: about 8,000." <www.bit.ly/3romcu2> However, "the researchers asked again in 2008, and this time, 340,000 Americans said yes to paganism. A decade later, the Pew survey posed the same question, and, if it is to be believed, there are now about 1.5 million Americans professing an array of pagan persuasions, from Wicca to the Viking lore, making paganism one of the nation's fastest-growing persuasions. So fast-growing, in fact, that my colleague Maggie Phillips recently reported in Tablet magazine about the thriving, and officially recognized, pagan faith groups within the U.S. Army. <www.bit.ly/43lcfe3> 'What's important now,' one of its leaders, Sergeant Drake Sholar, told Phillips, 'is showing religious respect and understanding across the board as Norse Pagans, or Heathens, return to a distinguishable religious practice. ...
"There are millions more heathens who would shudder to be called such, yet who offer a vision of a perfectly pagan American future. It behooves us, then, to reckon with the paganism in our midst. ...
"Just what do pagans believe?
"The answer, while wonderfully complex, may be distilled to the following principle: Nothing is true, everything is permitted." This "perfectly captures the soul of paganism, illuminated by the idea that no fixed system of belief or set of solid convictions ought to constrain us as we stumble our way through life.
"To the pagans, change is the only real constant. ...
"Still, change alone does not a belief system make, and pagans, despite differences galore, unite by providing similar answers to three seminal questions: what to do about strangers, how to think about nature, and how to please the gods." Leibovitz summarizes each and begins with the modern example of intersectionality.
"Scan the modern pagan cosmology, and you'll see much that would have made those ancient Germanic cultists nod in recognition. ...
"Study pagan mythologies and you'll emerge none the wiser, in part because the gods, like their human worshippers, seem to consist of little more than appetites and caprices. But while they may not be understood, they have to be appeased - and this left classical pagans with a question of a more practical order, namely what might they possess that the all-powerful deities could possibly want. ...
"And so the pagans scanned the horizon for something truly precious and exquisite, something whose sacrifice would be an unmistakable sign of devotion. And, across time and across cultures, they alighted on exactly the same thing: kids. ...
"So prevalent among the heathens of antiquity was the practice of child sacrifice that the Torah issued a strongly worded prohibition against it, in Leviticus 18:21: 'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek.'"
Yes. There are multiple contemporary similarities as well. Leibovitz could easily have related this to the popularity <www.bit.ly/46Ds7M4> of convenience abortion, or the explosive growth <www.bit.ly/3PG38Sh> of child sex-trafficking. Instead, he describes the results of the globally botched response to Covid-19 on the young as well as the consequences of the gender dysphoria "peer contagion" among teens.
Leibovitz adds to all this: "Writing about the roles schools played in destabilizing the mental well-being of children, NYU psychologist Jonathan Haidt and journalist Greg Lukianoff argued that our academic institutions were practicing 'reverse CBT.' <www.bit.ly/44leq2M> While Cognitive Behavioral Therapy teaches its adherents to catch catastrophic thoughts before they turn into full-fledged panics, schools were now teaching children to see the world in black and white, perceive opposing viewpoints as harmful, and surrender to their worst fears."
In response, Leibovitz identifies "three urgent steps":
* - "First, let us realize that all of the above-mentioned permutations [are] part of a cohesive belief system, paganism, that is gripping those who have rejected monotheistic ethics and mores. ...
* - "Second, we must understand that the good, old-fashioned faith traditions ... have seen it all before. Judaism [Tablet magazine's primary audience] has been facing down pagans for millennia now and answering each of their deathly dicta with sound, humanistic alternatives." All references discussed are sourced from the Old Testament.
* - Third, "the most urgent yet most difficult one: Save your children by shielding them from an ideology that perpetually seeks ways to harm them; root them instead in traditions that nurture them and give them dignity, hope, and a future." Leibovitz concludes by briefly discussing suggestions for this as well. <www.bit.ly/3XBVD0D>
The rapid global advance of child sex-trafficking has the USA at its center according to the film Sound of Freedom, <www.bit.ly/3JXxbRz> released on July 4th. (Angel Studios also produces the fictionalized television series on Jesus, The Chosen.)
Just days before the release of the film, Jordan B. Peterson posted his interview with actor Jim Cavaziel and Tim Ballard (the man Cavaziel portrays in the movie). They explore how people become pedophiles and what the people rescuing trafficked children face. It's a deeply spiritual episode, though in no sense evangelical. <www.bit.ly/Sound-of-Freedom>
For an important counterpoint regarding Sound of Freedom, we just learned of this July 7 alert from MinistryWatch: <www.bit.ly/3NNr1os>
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