24AR29-19
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AR 29.19 - Fresh evidence for key Old Testament events
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - using reason to defend our hope, "but not reason alone"
+ - strategies for for handling Challenging Conversations
ARCHAEOLOGY - progress in dating earliest evidences for Jerusalem
MISSION - from long ago, a valuable perspective - and context for today
Apologia Report 29:19 (1,660)
May 9, 2024
Please note: Our office will be closed for the next two weeks for vacation. Look for AR to mysteriously reappear soon afterward.
APOLOGETICS
In this field of ours we fall short by not consistently practicing "gentleness and respect." This acknowledgment is noticeably absent from our public communications.
In "What Does 1 Peter 3:15 Mean? Our Hope Is Not in Apologetics," Jonathan K. Dodson seeks to help fill the void: "Peter is not asking us to defend a theological repository of Christian belief. Rather, he is exhorting persecuted Christians to live in such a way that their hope provokes questions about their faith. ...
"There is something more mystical at work here than apologetics.
"This mystical emphasis also appears in the first half of the verse, 'but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy . . . ' Peter is as concerned about our heart work - 'in your hearts' and 'hope in you' - as he is our mental work. ...
"Peter is exhorting oppressed Christians to respond to attacks, not with mere reason, but with the Lord Christ sanctifying our hearts. ...
"When someone asks me a question about the faith that I don't have a good answer for, it will rattle me unless the Lord Jesus is taking up holy ground in my heart. However, if I am honoring good apologetics in my heart, I am more inclined to feel defeated if I don't have a good answer or self-righteous if I do. What we hallow in our hearts makes all the difference."
Dodson - the "theologian in residence" at Citizens Church of Plano, Texas <citizenschurch.com> and founder of Gospel-Centered Discipleship <GCDiscipleship.com> - cautions that "when our hope is in robust apologetics, we will be tempted to respond in 'unkindness and disrespect.' We might win the argument but lose the person.
"In conclusion, we should certainly use reason to defend our hope, but not reason alone. Rather, we should strive to set apart the Lord Christ in our hearts, making our hope more visceral, so that when others inquire about our faith, they receive an informed, gentle, and dignifying response." <www.tinyurl.com/ypdb93sh>
Dodson is also the author of 1–2 Peter and Jude: A 12-Week Study published by Crossway <www.tinyurl.com/42ux92kr>
Summit Ministries <summit.org> was founded in 1962 by by David A. Noebel, author of Understanding the Times (Harvest House, 1994), which is now appreciated for having long been one of the few works of its kind to doggedly maintain an insightful chapter on the persistent threat of Communism. This alone is reason for Summit billing itself as "one of the foremost leaders in training Christians in apologetics, worldview analysis, and social engagement" (with a strong history of working with high school students in particular).
We recently received a general mailing from Summit which included a reprint taken from Chapter 9 of the book Challenging Conversations: A Practical Guide to Discuss Controversial Topics in the Church, by Jason Jimenez, <www.tinyurl.com/5n8f8hxy> founder and president of Stand Strong Ministries, and a faculty member at Summit. <www.tinyurl.com/2svwx2mh>
The chapter, "How Should Christians Think About Politics?," speaks to a topic in which few apologetic ministries engage young readers. Jimenez responds to "the growing number of churchgoers who no longer hold to traditional views" (the very people that young Christians are most likely to encounter). The "big culprit" here is identity politics.
After a broad summary of "Political Ideology by Religious Group" ("conservative, moderate, and liberal"), Jimenez notes that "tribal Christians (knee-deep in identity politics) are silencing those who don't share their intersectionality factors - that is, they no longer see other Christians as the household of God...."
In reply, Jimenez suggests we "look to God, not politics." And to do this, "We are to remain vigilant in electing morally sound officials, implementing policies that stand up to Scripture, and serving our communities in the love of Jesus without pushing our political views down other people's throats."
The "foundational truths that mark where a Christian should stand" are usefully set forth in "The Moral Paradigm," his chart of biblical principles, "The Moral Paradigm," and discussed at length. These include Religious Freedom, Biblical Family, Right to Life, and - longest of the four - Limited Government.
Jimenez closes with three tactics: "Relate (Personalize the Conversation)", "Investigate (Analyze the Conversation)", and "Translate (Harmonize the Conversation)."
Other chapters include:
* - The Three Highly Effective Tactics of a Conversant Christian
* - Can a Person Who Suffers From Depression or Mental Illness Really Be a Christian?
* - Is Substance Abuse a Disease or a Choice?
* - Is Church an Appropriate Place to Talk About Pornography?
* - What’s So Bad About Having Sex Before Marriage?
* - When Are Divorce and Remarriage Okay?
* - Can Someone Be Gay or Transgender and Still Be a Christian?
* - Does a Woman Have a Right to an Abortion?
* - What’s the Best Way to Have a Conversation About Racism?
Jimenez' coaching on strategy and presentation demonstrates that he draws upon ample experience with challenging conversations. <www.tinyurl.com/2svwx2mh>
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ARCHAEOLOGY
"Radiocarbon chronology of Iron Age Jerusalem reveals calibration offsets and architectural developments" by Bob Yirka (MSN/Science X Network, Apr 29 '24) -- "A team of archaeologists, antiquities specialists, Bible scholars and mass spectrometry specialists ... has dated material uncovered in the First Temple in the city of David, in Jerusalem, to an unprecedented level of accuracy.
"In their paper <www.tinyurl.com/3nwwtz3z> published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how they used radio-carbon dating, tree ring analysis and other techniques to accurately date artifacts collected from a dig site in one of the oldest parts of Jerusalem. ...
"To date, such efforts have not led to results accurate enough to make such associations. In this new effort, the team sought to date more recently found artifacts with much more accuracy.
"The work by the team involved analysis of artifacts (such as seeds and a bat skull) found among strata dated to between 770 and 420 BC - which has been named the Hallstatt Plateau. ...
"The team found that they were able to date many of the artifacts to historical events, which allowed them to verify that the city was first settled sometime between the 12th and 10th century BC, and that it expanded westward thereafter. They also found evidence of an earthquake and the rebuilding that occurred thereafter during the 8th century BC - and the Babylonian destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC." <www.tinyurl.com/sw25464m>
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MISSIONS
Perspective. What goes through your mind when you learn that in a remote location: There's no digital communication of any kind. Personal mail is only delivered three times a week and no newspapers are available at all. Religious practice is enforced by law. From sundown on Saturday to sundown on Sunday it's illegal to travel for any reason other than church attendance. All work, including cooking and hobbies, is forbidden during this time as well. In addition, sermons and the Bible are the only reading material allowed on Sundays. Anyone disobeying these laws is jailed.
Life inside a special school that is the focus of this community requires that during cold months its students are to chop their own firewood to heat their dwellings and draw their water from a well. They take turns helping to cook and serve group meals.
Context. The above school was Andover Theological Seminary, a new Congregationalist institution originally located in Andover, Massachusetts, upon its founding in 1807. In 1808, Adoniram Judson entered the school and hoped to become America's first missionary.
A little later, Judson fell in love and wondered how he would explain to the parents of the girl he hoped to marry that he intended to spirit her off to the Far East, where both of them would likely die. He wrote her parents with these words, concealing nothing: "I have now come to ask: whether you will consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure and to her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of ocean travel, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of Burma; to every kind of want, distress, degradation, insult, persecution and perhaps a violent death? Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for sake of Zion and for the glory of God?"
They did consent, and he indeed married the young woman. She was the first of her family to convert to Christianity, the other members following in her steps.
Judson and his wife did indeed both die as foreseen and eventually lost more loved ones in this way than many would ever expect. Most died in Burma, but a good number did so during the long voyages between there and America in the age before steamship travel. In fact, Judson himself was buried at sea near the very spot where his first child had been during their initial journey to southeast Asia 37 years before.
Our source for the above brought on soaring inspiration: Adoniram Judson: Bound for Burma, by Janet and Geoff Benge <www.tinyurl.com/4ux39km7>
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