My Apologies
I’m often intrigued by the study of Apologetics. (Or is it Apologetix?).
As an amateur philosopher/theologian, I often run across apologetical studies and apologitsts. Christian philosophers seem to naturally fall into the role of apologist by virtue of the very nature of philosophy. After all, philosophy deals with those key questions. Where did we come from? How did we get here? Where are we going? What is the meaning of life? Christians believe that the Bible has the answers to those questions, but of course as soon as you introduce the idea of God into the equation, you also introduce other issues. There’s the problem of evil. There’s the Euthyphro Dilemma. There’s the paradox of sovereignty and free will.
These topics fascinate me to no end. But I’ve heard countless people talk down about the idea of philosophy. They say things like “You think too much.” (I actually had someone say that to me). I often wonder what the point is. After all, should I concern myself more with knowing the truth more than studying error (as though I do that all day).
The analogy of the counterfeit bill always comes up. They say that bankers don’t study counterfeits in order to be able to recognize them, they study the real bill so well that they instantly recognize a counterfeit. Therefore, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with what the world says or thinks. We should simply focus on knowing the Bible really well and telling the Gospel straight from Scripture. God will give us the opportunities to do this. I’m not going to completely bash this way of thinking. God can certainly use this method, but as far as the logical argument goes, J.P. Morland exposes it for the logical problem it is by starting with the fact that the analogy simply isn’t true! Bankers don’t actually behave that way.
But the question has still been raised. What do we do with apologietics? Is it necessary? Does it do any good. How do we rectify the fact that “you can’t argue anyone into salvation,” which is true by virtue of the fact that salvation by definition is a change of heart and mind which the Holy Spirit must produced, with verses like 2 Corinthians 5:11 which says “…knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others,” and 1 Peter 3:15: “…always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you?” In short does apologetics have a place? If so, what is it?
Who is Caesar?
In our present economic times there is much angst over many things. Jobs are being shipped over seas (supposedly). Banks are collapsing. Mortgages are being defaulted. Fraud is rampant. Oh and there’s the bit about government spending. Back on April 15th I attended the Dayton tea party. It was a wonderful experience. It was the first time I’d done anything really political (outside of voting) since attending pro-life demonstrations back in high school. It was great to go and cheer and jeer at the Obama administration and all of the spending he’s doing. As a Libertarian, I’m generally opposed to the idea of taxes. I obey the law of the land because I don’t believe in dodging taxes - it’s not that kind of issue. But I support the repeal of the 16th ammendment and the abolition of the IRS.
But how does this jive with being a Christian. I’ve been mulling this one over for a while. Can I rightly be against taxes if I’m a Christian. What does the Bible say about taxes? Matthew 22:17-21 comes to mind. Several of the religious leaders of the day pose the question to Jesus, “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?”. What’s Jesus’s response? He holds up a coin and says “Whose image is on this coin?” They answer that it is Caesar’s so he delivers the line in verse 21. “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
So from this the most direct interpretation is that Jesus is telling us to honor the earthly King by giving him the taxes due to him. This is backed up by Romans 13. Case closed right? Maybe. This brings me back to my original question. Who is Caesar? At that day Caesar was the emperor - the supreme king over all the known world. Why was the coin Caesar’s - because he commissioned its minting and allowed his citizens to use it. It bore his image as a branding mark. But what about today? Who is Caesar in our culture? I think most people would say it’s the federal government. We don’t have a king, but we still have a central federal government that comissions the minting of money and allows its use. Therefore the federal government is Caesar and the money we owe in taxes is the federal government’s. Render unto the federal government what is the federal government’s. Case closed now?
I don’t think so. I think we’re missing a very key part of the equation. We have a unique situation here in this land. Abraham Lincoln described it best. We have a government that is “of the people, by the people and for the people.” I would argue then that the people are Caesar. In Rome the government was of, by and for Caesar. Now the government is of, by and for us. And as our stewards, the federal government owes us what is ours, not the other way around. We commission the federal government’s use of our money for the common good. So when the government uses our money to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”, we allow it. But when they use our money to allow and fund the injustice of illegal immigration, insure domestic strife, dismantle our common defence, promote individual welfare and destroy the blessings of liberty to ourselves and especially our posterity, that is when we balk.
It is not as though citizens thing Caesar should not have his money. It is as though Caesar is unhappy with an underling who is using his money in a way he does not wish it to be used. I think this fundamentally makes sesne. It’s how I reconcile my Libertarian stance with my Christian world view. I think it works very well together. Thoughts?
A Pattern
I spend a bit of time reading various things online. I try to keep my mind sharp by interacting with multiple perspectives. I also try to keep it in tune by starting with the Word of God. But as I see people out in the world I tend to notice a bit of a pattern.
Christianity is repeatedly ridiculed as a fairy tale belief. They say things like “Kids, you know how Santa Claus turned out to be fake? Just remember that when your parents tell you about Jesus.” Faith in general is repeatedly characterized as irrational and unthinking. So it comes as no surprise to me that someone might grow up in the church being taught doctrine but never being taught why or how to think critically about it and eventually come into contact with a non-believer who does have some rational logic behind their rejection of God, and the person is naturally drawn to it.
Why does this bother me? Because it’s false! Faith and reason are not antithetical. Faith is part of reason and reason is part of faith. But the notion that Christianity can only be concluded by laying aside your brain is ridiculous, yet I see it all over the web.
Who’s to blame for this? I firmly place the blame on Fundamentalism - the most cultic era of Christianity that lead people to believe truth just because we say it’s true and not ever think critically about it. Some evangelicals have tried to rescue it, but the effects of modernism are still far to entrenched in people’s memories of the church, that it’s easy to make this characterization.
What do we do? Teach people (especially our kids) how to think! Teach them philosophy. Teach them logic. Teach them church and secular history. Teach them these things along with teaching them the Bible and how to have a sincere faith. That’s my perspective anyway.
Inactivity
I hate how busy I can be at times. I haven’t posted in ages, I’m sorry guys =/. Someday I’ll be able to post every day. There are so many ways in which my brain expands every day, and I just wish I was eloquent enough to express it. I also wish I had the time.
Stick with me people.
Awesome!
This is something that’s been on my mind for a while. It’s something that comes up every once in a while for me, and I have to say something.
Have you ever heard someone (usually a pastor) say something like the following:
The word “awesome” is a big word. Only God is awesome. We should only use the word “awesome” to refer to God, because when we use it to refer to lesser things, we imply that God is not awesome.