A Taste of “Apologetics”

    The word “apologetics” has been coming up more and more in Christian discussions, not the least being the recent RZIM seminars. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine.”

     So, to give us a taste of apologetics, let’s look at our Lord’s cursing of the fig tree in Matthew 21:18-22 and in Mark 11:12-25. When Jesus saw the fig tree, it had leaves, but when He walked up to it He found no figs, “because the time of figs was not yet.” In his essay Why I Am Not a Christian, the philosopher/ mathematician/ atheist Bertrand Russell comments, “This is a very curious story, because it was not the right time of year for figs, and you really could not blame the tree.” He then goes on to blame the Lord.

     F.F.Bruce, in his book Hard Sayings in the Bible, indicates that there really was something wrong with the tree. He quotes a missionary from Palestine, W.M.Christie: “Now the facts connected with the fig tree are these. Towards the end of March the leaves begin to appear, and in about a week the foliage coating is complete. Coincident with this, sometimes even before, there appears quite a crop of small knobs, not the real figs, but a kind of early forerunner. They grow to the size of green almonds, in which condition they are eaten by peasants and others when hungry. When they come to their own indefinite maturity they drop off.” These precursors of the true fig are called taqsh. Their appearance is a harbinger of the fully formed appearance of the true fig some six weeks later. So, as Mark says, the time for figs had not yet come. But if the leaves appear without any taqsh, that is a sign that there will be no figs. Since Jesus found “nothing but leaves”—leaves without any taqsh—he knew that “it was an absolutely hopeless, fruitless fig tree” and said as much.

     A botanical study of the fig tree in Wikipedia says, “Two crops of figs are potentially produced each year. The first or breva crop develops in the spring on last year’s shoot growth. In contrast, the main fig crop develops on the current year’s shoot growth and ripens in the late summer or fall. The main crop is generally superior in both quantity and quality to the breva crop.”      

     So, these few paragraphs are no “apology” for what the Bible reports; they are an attempt at a reasonable, logical explanation of some of the details.                       Ì 

The Beauty of the Lord

    For a few years now, I’ve been watching for any article that might be titled “The Beauty of Christ.” I’ve even asked several people to write such an article but they’ve always declined. It’s thus become a bit of a quest for me—a ‘holy grail’—can such a thing really exist? Can anything physical ever convey even a tiny fraction of the spiritual reality?

     So I’ve gone on, hoping but not finding. Then I read a chapter of The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy L. Sayers. She pointed out how ordinary people, who talk in ordinary sentences, and write ordinary prose, may not have the spiritual gift to show these high truths—and it is a spiritual gift. She believes that what I’m looking for can only come from specially gifted artists—poets, painters, musicians, and sculptors. And she may be right. I’m not good with the latter three types of artists, but poets I think I know.

     What might I learn of the beauty of Christ from poetry? Confining myself to the Believers Hymn Book, here is the true beauty of the Saviour, perceived by dozens of gifted writers:

Behold Him there, the once slain Lamb!

    My perfect, spotless Righteousness.
The great, unchangeable I AM,
    The King of glory and of grace!       #15

And more visions of Christ:—

Behold! Behold, the Lamb of God

    On the Cross!...
Behold His arms extended wide,
    On the Cross!                                      #30

Great are the offices He bears

    And bright His character appears
Exalted on the throne.                          #40

Crowned with thorns upon the tree,

    Silent in Thine agony…                    #42

I may sing with Christ beside me,

    Though a thousand ills betide me.
Safely He hath sworn to guide me,
    Peace, peace, is mine!                      #57

Love esteems it heaven to abide

    At His side.                                       #94

I’ve found a Friend; O such a Friend!

    He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love
    And thus He bound me to Him.    #103

     With only a quarter of the book examined, suddenly I’ve found a boundless supply of metaphors, similes and just plain true, poetic statements. Jesus really is worth knowing better! Ì                                   

“Sir, we would see…”

        In the Reference Department of Burlington Central Library, there is a lectern with a bronze plaque commemorating Mary Roberta Fraser, who died in a tragic accident  in Malaysia on February 15, 1964. Her story is especially sad because at 24 years of age, she slipped over a cliff without anyone seeing her fall. I talked with the librarians but none of them knew anything about her. My own research turned up the details that she was a secretary at the Canadian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. On a weekend sightseeing trip she climbed above the waterfalls on the Telaga Tujuh on Langkawi and fell to her death over an 80-foot drop.

        This brings me to my main reason for writing. There was, in a back room at Compass Point Bible Church, another lectern, an old oak lectern, now perhaps lost, that had engraved in the reading surface, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Those Greeks who came to Philip had the right idea—I hope they did get to see Jesus.

        Mary Fraser has mostly been forgotten, outside of her family, but what about Jesus? The admonition on that old lectern is just as necessary today. And nothing can cheer the heart of a Christian more than a sight of Christ—his humanity, his deity, his love, his suffering, prophecy about him, his miraculous works, his resurrection, his return, his glorious kingdom… In fact, that plea comes from our hearts too—“Sir, show us Jesus!”

An Eleventh Commandment

            It’s the mid-1950’s, and David and Gwen Wilkerson stand outside a little church in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. Should they take this post—and will they even be offered it? They come up with several conditions for God to meet, including “get rid of the cockroaches”—and they “put out the fleece.”  Thank God, He meets all their requirements and the story of Teen Challenge begins.

            Let’s go back two millennia and watch as Another faces decisions, as well.  This time the suggestion is a lot more intense— “Throw yourself down!”   The tormentor even quotes scripture– “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”  And what did Jesus say?  Because, of course, it was He.  “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

            Let’s go back another millennium, to Gideon and the archetypal case of “putting out the fleece”.  Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request.  Allow me one more test with the fleece.” Although Gideon appears in the list of faithful in Hebrews 11, he obviously knew he was pushing the limits; he was taking God to the edge, so to speak. And David Wilkerson, in The Cross and the Switchblade, knew he was doing the same thing when he said, “I’d like to ask permission to put one more fleece before You, Lord.”

            Just for comparison, secular literature has similar confrontations.  Leigh Hunt pictures an arena with “ramping and roaring” lions.  A lady wants to show her lover’s devotion so she drops a glove into the pit, hoping he’ll retrieve it in front of the crowd. He does, but the poet says, “The leap was quick, return was quick, he has regained his place, Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady’s face… “No love,” quoth he, “but vanity, sets love a task like that.”

            Can you see the parallels?  Rightly or wrongly, there is a demand for God (or the knight) to act. There is a demand to show how powerful He is.  There is pressure to do what the subject wants.  The knight yielded to that pressure, although grudgingly. Gideon’s God and Wilkerson’s God yielded—we don’t know why, but likely out of compassion and mercy.  But Jesus wouldn’t put His God to the test.

            The eleventh commandment, therefore, is, “Do not test the Lord your God” or, in the good old fashioned style, “Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God.”       

            Tempting God or putting Him to the test is, simply, trying to force His hand—and that not out of humility but vanity.  For a missionary to say, “God will keep me safe from the head-hunters,” would be putting God to the test. If the missionary died would God look weak?  For the missionary to say “we are going to the natives whether or not God returns us safely,” is the God-honouring attitude.  It raises him to the same spiritual plane as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who said, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us…but if he doesn’t…we will not serve your gods”; or Paul, who said “as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death,” or even Esther, who said, “If I perish, I perish.”

            So this is the position—it is a sin to try to force God’s hand.  It is a sin to bargain with God, to say “Lord, I will do what You want, IF…”  The all-wise Father says “My son, give me your heart.” No if’s, and’s or but’s.  God gave Gideon permission to run the “fleece test”, but His preference seems to be, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  God may very well give signs when we ask for them but it is the low road of faith, not the high road.  He makes all kinds of wonderful promises—we will never be the losers—but we can’t strike deals with God or twist His arm.

Book Review: Oxford Bible Atlas

Curtis, Adrian, ed.
Oxford Bible Atlas, 4^th ed.
Oxford University Press, 2007.
x, 229 pages.

     There are at least two tools that every serious Bible reader should have—the first is a concordance, such as Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. With this, he or she can find passages on any Bible words, and follow the development of any subject from Genesis to Revelation.

        The second tool is a good Bible atlas, and the Oxford Bible Atlas may be the best. Many years ago, I bought the 1^st edition, published in 1962, and I would say that 50% of my (slight) knowledge of Bible geography is due to this one book. I recently upgraded to the 4^th edition and I’m still enjoying buyer’s delight! Everything I loved in the first edition is still there, but now I have high-quality, full-colour photos to supplement the maps and words.

        The new editor, Adrian Curtis, seems well qualified for the job, being identified as “Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible in the University of Manchester, where he has taught since 1970. He is also a Methodist lay preacher.”

        Curtis has divided the book into four main parts. First, The Setting— Maps are implied from the garden of Eden all through scripture to the New Jerusalem—and north isn’t necessarily at the top—and all of the Biblical maps were verbal not pictorial. We know well that Israel stretched “from Dan to Beersheba”, but Curtis indicates that the area was only “a little larger than Wales” or “about the area of Vermont.” For Canadians, we might add, “one-third the size of Nova Scotia.” Maps and photos (including satellite photos) depict the natural regions of Palestine: the Coastal Plains, the Western Hills, the Negeb, the Rift Valley, and the Eastern Hills. This section includes commentary on the seasons, rainfall, crops and both domestic and wild animals.

        Section two, The Hebrew Bible, works its way chronologically through the Old Testament, from the time of Abraham, the Exodus, the Judges, David and Solomon to the time of Alexander the Great. The maps and photos show good detail and the Bible-reader can almost put himself in Moses’ sandals, coming out of Egypt, or Hezekiah’s, as his workmen cut the tunnel from the Gihon Spring in Jerusalem.

        Section Three is The New Testament, starting with the kingdom of Herod, illustrating the ministry of Jesus, and the travels of the apostles. From the map of Galilee, I learned that when Jesus (living in Capernaum) said, “Go tell that fox…”, that fox (Herod Antipas) was only 15 kilometers away, in his capital of Tiberias; and this was the king who had already executed John the Baptist.

        The final section of the atlas, Archaeology in Bible Lands, reviews some of the details of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, with map locations and photos of some famous “digs”, such as Jericho, Beth Shan and Lachish. There are also interesting comments on the domestication of the camel, the eating of the pig, the history of written documents, and the story of the Rosetta Stone. One use of knowledge of the Iron Age is to banish one modern cult’s teaching that the American Indians are descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. In fact, the Native Americans had no knowledge of iron, but the Jews most certainly did

        I recommend this atlas for several reasons: We need to know the relative positions of Bible towns and cities (e.g., a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho).  Knowledge of seasons and crops is useful (Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning). One final good use of the atlas is this—it allows us to place rulers and their kingdoms or empires in their place time-wise, as well as geographically. In other words, this book is another great well of information for the thirsty Christian.

Find all the Books of the New Testament

Find all the Books of the New Testament (any direction J)… N U 2 O S N O X R E V E L A T I O N P Y H B S T J R L N S N A I S E H P E W M Z P B V U X M O Y R Q Z 3 J O H N W N X L S I O N T O A F H F T R Q D T N H X K I H I X X H I K T P B N Y S N A I H T N I R O C 2 U O T G T S N A I P P I L I H P B J J R Z R J U D H F P U F L U O C B A B D Z W Q T O Z S G E R A H G B B N U N L A C T S E Z K K L N W Y R M Y Q X I P H I L E M O N E Q E S E A K L S N A I N O L A S S E H T 2 G C N Q W I E O M A R K S H W Q H D Q G E U D A H E Y S H I A T U T C L R Q J T C X J G I B G E X S V Q P L F 2 P E T E R H Q Z I T Q 1 T I M O T H Y V N J N H O J 1 Q Y D A R U B I X Z L K R L C H U S N A M O R A L F X H E O A J O R F T I W D W C L 1 R T A S C F B L J F T C O X E W E E P L P D B G X P T S N A I N O L A S S E H T 1 E H P I O I 2 T I M O T H Y V Y S E M A J T C W B C L U K E F N M M V H E B R E W S E P R G A M B Z A S N A I H T N I R O C 1 R H

Book Review: Basic Christianity

Stott, John

Basic Christianity.

Downers Grove, Illinois:

IVP Books, 2008.
174 pages.

     In November, 1952, when he was 31 years old, a mission was held at Cambridge University and John Stott was invited to be “chief missioner”. Part of his responsibility at that time was to give eight evening lectures at the University Church—so he chose as his theme, “a systematic unfolding of the gospel.” Over the years he conducted fifty such university missions, gradually refining his material until he was able to publish, in 1958, Basic Christianity.

     Stott’s preface and first chapter set the groundwork for the rest of the book. Without trying to explain him, we can string quotes together from these first twenty-five pages to show his direction: “Large numbers of people…see a contradiction between the founder of Christianity and the current state of the church he founded…was he true?...the meaning of what we call “salvation”…God reaching out to us…we would have remained forever agnostic…God has done something…have we listened?...We have to be ready not just to believe, but to obey.”

     In Part 1, Who Christ Is, Stott gives a clear-sighted and logical review of Christ’s claims to deity, of his character and of his death and resurrection. I particularly enjoyed Stott’s paragraph proving that “we can make our own estimate” of Christ’s character. “The moral perfection that was quietly claimed by him…is clearly shown in the Gospels.”

     Part 2, What We Need, deals with sin and its consequences. Stott leaves us in no doubt about the universality of sin as he reviews the ten commandments, then indicates the consequences, specifically,  alienation from God, bondage to self, and conflict with others. “A lecture will not solve our problem; we need a Savior.”

     There can be few sweeter devotional works than Part 3: What Christ Has Done. Here we learn that Christianity is “a rescue religion”, we learn why the cross was necessary, and we realize that “we need more than an example; we need a Savior.” Here we also learn that, to put it bluntly, “Our sins sent Christ to hell.” But God’s plan of salvation is “first to put right our relationship with him, and then progressively to set us free….”

     Part 4 is a light on salvation that I have seldom heard in a public gospel presentation and never with such clarity. How To Respond! Here Stott talks about “Counting the Cost” and “Reaching a Decision”. “Having heard his voice, we must open to his knock. To open the door to Jesus Christ is a graphic way of describing an act of faith in him as our Savior, an act of submission to him as our Lord.” Stott’s last chapter is “Being a Christian” and points to even greater treasure: “an intimate...an assured …a secure relationship”.

    Basic Christianity is so well-written and so graciously written, and Christianity itself is so reasonable that I came away wondering how anyone could read the book and not become a Christian on the spot. Atheists and agnostics come at Christianity from the wrong end— they want to prove (or disprove) God from science or philosophy. In fact, that was the way God allowed things to go in a past era (in Job’s day perhaps) but none of that really worked. So God has bypassed that method and come all the way to earth. He has reached out and shown us himself, in Jesus.

     So finally, a recommendation in the strongest possible terms—if you haven’t read this book, read it—if you’ve read it before, read it again!