Here are some interesting thoughts about Obama's comments concerning Roe v. Wade.
What do you the readers think?
Friday, January 23, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Defend the Faith Apologetics Conference
The Institute for Christian Apologetics here at NOBTS hosted the first annual Defend the Faith Apologetics Conference this week. Some of the speakers included noted apologists such as Paul Copan, Gary Habermas, Mike Lacona, and James Walker. Each day plenary speakers and breakout sessions dealt with issues in apologetics such as cult theology, Islam, the resurrection, the reliability of the New Testament, postmodernism, and the new atheism. If you happened to miss the event, I've got good news for you. The entire conference, plenaries and breakout sessions, are available on the Defend the Faith website for only $25.
One plenary was particularly good. On Friday, Dr. David Platt, pastor of the Church At Brook Hills and former NOBTS Dean of Chapel, was the plenary speaker. I have to admit, I was wondering why Dr. Platt would be speaking at an apologetics conference. He is a gifted preacher, but he is simply not known for being an apologist. After hearing his two plenary sessions on Friday, however, I wonder no more. Dr. Platt's two sessions had the most impact of any of the sessions. After being fed apologetics information for a week (at times it was like we were attempting to drink from a fire hydrant), the final two sessions were kind of like a 'sending off'. Here's a summary of Dr. Platt's second session:
"Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful - Christian community is the final apologetic." - Francis Schaeffer
Apologetics is all about making a defence for the faith that we have in Jesus Christ and there is no greater apologetic than Christian community. If Christians cannot live together in a Christlike way, then any attempt to defend our faith, no matter how persuasive, will ultimately fail.
After making this great point Dr. Platt then turned to how the church treats the poor. About 3 billion people live in desperate poverty (less than $2 a day). 30,000 children die each day from starvation and preventable diseases. Yet many Americans are not even inconvenienced by this extreme poverty because these people are not just poor, they are powerless. We go on living like they don't even exist. The indicting part is that God measures the integrity of our faith by our concern for the poor. Jesus even tells those who do not feed the hungry and clothe the poor that they will go to hell. Think this is a little extreme? Check out these verses: Proverbs 14:31, 21:13, 28:27, Luke 6:20-25, James 5:1, Matthew 19:21-23, 25:41. What should be condemning, especially to Southern Baptists, is that the Bible talks more about how we treat the poor than it does the hot-button topic of homosexuality.
Is our conservative devotion to the Word going to lead us to a liberal concern for the poor? Just think about how much money we spend on building programs for church, verses how much we spend caring for the needs of the world.
DISCLAIMER: This is not advocating a works-based Gospel where one could care for the poor enough to earn salvation. It is, however, advocating the stance that if one is saved, there will be evidence of salvation, including a genuine concern for the poor.
One plenary was particularly good. On Friday, Dr. David Platt, pastor of the Church At Brook Hills and former NOBTS Dean of Chapel, was the plenary speaker. I have to admit, I was wondering why Dr. Platt would be speaking at an apologetics conference. He is a gifted preacher, but he is simply not known for being an apologist. After hearing his two plenary sessions on Friday, however, I wonder no more. Dr. Platt's two sessions had the most impact of any of the sessions. After being fed apologetics information for a week (at times it was like we were attempting to drink from a fire hydrant), the final two sessions were kind of like a 'sending off'. Here's a summary of Dr. Platt's second session:
"Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful - Christian community is the final apologetic." - Francis Schaeffer
Apologetics is all about making a defence for the faith that we have in Jesus Christ and there is no greater apologetic than Christian community. If Christians cannot live together in a Christlike way, then any attempt to defend our faith, no matter how persuasive, will ultimately fail.
After making this great point Dr. Platt then turned to how the church treats the poor. About 3 billion people live in desperate poverty (less than $2 a day). 30,000 children die each day from starvation and preventable diseases. Yet many Americans are not even inconvenienced by this extreme poverty because these people are not just poor, they are powerless. We go on living like they don't even exist. The indicting part is that God measures the integrity of our faith by our concern for the poor. Jesus even tells those who do not feed the hungry and clothe the poor that they will go to hell. Think this is a little extreme? Check out these verses: Proverbs 14:31, 21:13, 28:27, Luke 6:20-25, James 5:1, Matthew 19:21-23, 25:41. What should be condemning, especially to Southern Baptists, is that the Bible talks more about how we treat the poor than it does the hot-button topic of homosexuality.
Is our conservative devotion to the Word going to lead us to a liberal concern for the poor? Just think about how much money we spend on building programs for church, verses how much we spend caring for the needs of the world.
DISCLAIMER: This is not advocating a works-based Gospel where one could care for the poor enough to earn salvation. It is, however, advocating the stance that if one is saved, there will be evidence of salvation, including a genuine concern for the poor.
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