17AR22-40
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AR 22:40 - The biblical exodus "is not a myth"
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - responding to unanswered questions before they lead kids to reject their faith after they leave home
FRIEDMAN, RICHARD ELLIOTT - "millions fleeing Egypt may be an exaggeration, but the exodus itself is not a myth"
HIGHER EDUCATION - smoking out the surpression of free speech via "trigger warnings," "safe spaces," neo-Marxism and "white guilt" teachings found on the college campus
Apologia Report 22:40 (1,360)
November 1, 2017
PLEASE NOTE: Our office will be closed next week with AR scheduled to resume the week of November 19.
APOLOGETICS
"How to Prepare Your Kids for the Protection of Their Faith" -- can you guess where it all begins? PRAY. Do you have a greater investment than your kids? Pray like you believe your kids are just that. Do you think this subject won't come up in the Final Exam that comes when we stand before God at the end or our life? It's pretty basic. When professionals investigate people, they look into how time and other resources are used. Is there enough evidence to prove you believe your kids are your most important investment?
Next, challenge the claims of your kid's culture. (Hint: Many of the claims of your culture are also making claims on your kids.) To focus on what those claims are as they uniquely apply to your kids, just watch what is popular with them. You'll get plenty of clues.
When you challenge the claims of their world, do it together. Using today's digital metaphor, think of those claims as spiritual phishing. Just as we must all be vigilant to detect the scams and malware constantly working to "phish" into our data and steal it, always have a running game with your kids to "Hack-the-Crack" - cracks in the ideas that are being sold to them.
There are flaws in much of what passes for wisdom in the world around us. These flaws are the cracks we need to hack or reveal for what they are. Can you spot the lies that come with the messages of pop-culture? Help your kids learn how to think critically about this. What are we being sold as the most important things in everyday life? Discuss: "How deep should our buy-in be on this?"
Sue Bohlin is a veteran apologist with Probe Ministries. In a May 31 post <www.goo.gl/6GnEzM> this year (and from which this item was adapted) she writes: "What makes kids walk away from the faith is usually having unanswered questions. [W]e should trust our lives and our eternities to Christ not because of warm fuzzy feelings, but because Christianity is true! Do you know WHY it's true? ...
"Keeping Your Kids on God's Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith by Natasha Crain [1] is super accessible and understandable. One of the best apologetics books I've seen.
"Teaching Others to Defend Christianity by Cathryn Buse [2] is written by a former NASA engineer (now a stay-at-home mom of littles) who uses her 'mad logic skillz' to walk the reader through the basic Big Questions of Life in an organized way."
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FRIEDMAN, RICHARD ELLIOTT
The liberal Bible scholar's <www.goo.gl/P7DpKh> new book, The Exodus [3], was released in September. His publisher claims that "The biblical account of millions fleeing Egypt may be an exaggeration, but the exodus itself is not a myth. Friedman does not stop there. Known for his ability to make Bible scholarship accessible to readers, Friedman proceeds to reveal how much is at stake when we explore the historicity of the exodus. The implications, he writes, are monumental. We learn that it became the starting-point of the formation of monotheism, the defining concept of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Moreover, we learn that it precipitated the foundational ethic of loving one's neighbors - including strangers - as oneself. He concludes, the actual exodus was the cradle of global values of compassion and equal rights today."
Publishers Weekly (Sep 4 '17) finds that "Friedman, a Bible scholar and professor of Jewish studies at the University of Georgia, sets out to prove the historical authenticity of the exodus from Egypt and underscore its significance in this multipronged book. By investigating verses from the Bible, evaluating inscriptions, incorporating material from archeological excavations, and assessing relevant historical data, Friedman builds his case that a small contingent of Levites were the actual group to leave Egypt, and soon after they joined the societies of Israel and Judah. He also claims that the Levites and the Israelites fused their individual gods to worship just one, which was a 'necessary step in the formation of monotheism.' Furthermore, Friedman professes that the Levites' status as 'other' in Egypt led to the ethic of caring for the stranger. In an attempt to prove his assertions, Friedman includes many details and takes pains to provide as much evidence as possible - at times falling into prose too dense for the layperson. Christian readers with a strong interest in the Bible will appreciate Friedman's exploration."
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HIGHER EDUCATION
"College Professor: Believing in Hard Work is White Ideology" by Timothy Meads -- "Pennsylvania State University-Brandywine professor Angela Putman recently asserted in an academic paper that the notion 'if I work hard, I can be successful' is merely a product of white ideology, reports Campus Reform. ...
"Putman believes that it is somehow a bad thing to teach students personal responsibility. ...
"In the past, Professor Putman has put forth even more radical ideas to confront racism." Meads briefly discusses these as well. <www.goo.gl/cofGNJ>
Feminists Camille Paglia and Christina Hoff Sommers criticize similar nonsense ("trigger warnings," "safe spaces") found on the college campus across America, especially neo-Marxism: <www.goo.gl/pBLjv4>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Keeping Your Kids on God's Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith, by Natasha Crain (Harvest House, 2016, paperback, 272 pages) <www.goo.gl/g3D9AF>
2 - Teaching Others to Defend Christianity: What Every Christian Should Know, by Cathryn S. Buse (Crosslink, 2016, paperback, 194 pages) <www.goo.gl/Yutgt9>
3 - The Exodus, by Richard Elliott Friedman (Harper, 2017, hardcover, 304 pages) <www.goo.gl/zfFUAF>
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