Apologetics in action

So I was looking a brother's display message from g-chat, and he linked this video:



This is so good. A rap from a conversation from a believer to a stranger (non-believer) about the gospel. As you can see, there are so many questions and objections that a non-believer has to accept to the gospel. As believers, are we equipped enough to share the gospel when we encounter these objections?

Apologetics is not the main thing. God is the one who saves, and by His power humans are saved. God chooses humans as vessels to make His gospel known to the lost. It is a privilege. We should equip ourselves with knowledge so that we can become more effective vessels for God. That effort to acquire knowledge is prompted by love, because we want to serve and glorify God, who has done wonders in our lives.

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." - 2 Timothy 2:15

it's all about Christ

First of all, a belated Merry Christmas!

It is a time for celebration, relaxing, enjoying, eating, and maybe some shopping. I personally like to spend some time meditating about my life. What are the things that really matter in life? What are the things that I have been learning from God? How should I invest my time the coming new year?

Though celebrating is good thing, I see the importance of meditating why we are celebrating. Because the reason for celebrating Christmas is to commemorate an event that will change the fate of humanity. That God sent His Son, Jesus, to live as a man who embodies the intent from God regarding what a man should be. Jesus taught us how to pray, how to love, how to serve, how to be humble, how to submit, etc. Thw

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." - John 1:14

Furthermore, Jesus died on the cross so that in Him we can be reconciled with God, and spent in eternity with Him. To love us, God paid a very costly price with the atonement of Jesus.

Some postmodern thoughts argue that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. And they like to categorize Christianity as been very exclusive. It's true, Christianity is exclusive, Jesus is the only way to God (John 14). But their thoughts are also exclusive themselves, as they are categorizing that Christianity is not the true. So in the end, every religion is exclusive. Out of all religions, I believe that Christianity (which in its core is about a God who gave up His life for the good of His enemies) is the one that can save me and can lead to a life of peace and joy. I know by experience that even if I attempt to achieve morality and do many good works, I always fail. Always falling short. Because I realize I am sinful by nature, and that even though I know what it is good to do, I end up doing what is evil. So, I cannot attain salvation myself. It's only through Christ Jesus, who lived the perfect live that I should live, and received the punishment of my sins that I deserve, so that I can be reconciled with God. This is grace, and that is the beauty of Christianity.

I can't help, but to acknowledge that I am in need of Christ, and that He is the only way to salvation. So I bow down and worship Him. Because it's all about Christ.

For those interested in digging more how to express the supremacy of Christ in this postmodern era, there are this series of lectures from Tim Keller (preaching Christ in post modernism) that are heavy but very helpful. I don't like itunes, but I willing installed it for this haha.


A few random facts about Christmas:

• The reason why Christmas is celebrated on Dec 25
• Not because Jesus was born on Dec 25. Winter in Israel is harsh, and the passages in Luke narrates that there were shepherds taking care of their sheep outside. This suggests that it is likely not winter
• Dec 25 is the winter solstice. It is a cosmic symbolism, the sun gives light, and Christ is the light of the world.
• Some pagan celebrations were on the same day, so installing Dec 25 as Christmas served to re-affirm the truth of Christianity
• The idea of Christmas trees was initiated by Martin Luther (no idea why)
• The sugar cane candy
• The red color symbolizes the blood of Christ that was shed for our sake
• The white color symbolizes the purity, blamelessness, sinlessness of Christ
• The cane refers to the cane of the shepherds
• The cane has a shape of a "J" of Jesus

Vector vs point

In physics we learn about vectors, and it can make a pain when you have to add/subtract vectors in x, y, z dimensions separately, and then use the sum of squares to get the resultant vector...

Even though calculations are a pain, I like the fact that vectors provide more information, because it consists of a "magnitude" (like how big or how small), and a "direction" (which is indicated by a positive or negative sign, and an angle to tell you where it is going).

I sometimes like to make an analogy of vectors with bible study. Why do we do bible study, when you can study the bible yourself? I believe that there is one correct interpretation for a given passage of the bible, but there can be many different applications. To a certain extent, every person might have a different perspective (and different way to apply) a passage, so each person has a vector. When we study the bible together, we get to hear the insights from others, so that we can grasp more from the truth of the passage. It's like vectors adding vectors, and the goal is to get a resulting vector that is aligned with the truth, which is only able when the Spirit give us discernment.

Ok, that wasn't my main point...

Many times I hear people asking, what are the requirements for a person "to be ready" for dating? And there are good ones mentioned in the 722 Love & Marriage series by Voodie Baucham (if interested, there are 3 more sermons from the series). And one starts making a list of things people should know, and a certain level of maturity one should have, before even thinking about dating. And then one goes to more details about specific traits a man should have, and specific ones that a woman should have. It's like setting a minimum threshold (like a point on the graph).

I certainly agree that there should be a threshold. But I don't think we should focus too much on the threshold itself, but to focus more on direction. Because if we want to become the man who can love his wife on the same way that Jesus love us by dying for the church (Ephesians 5:25), and if that is our threshold, then it is pretty much impossible. It is only by God's grace that we can strive to become more like Christ, and love with His love to others. So I think it is about a growing hunger and desire to conform in Christ's image, and that is a daily pursuit of God, a daily submission to Christ's lordship, and a daily purge of our sinful ways.

Reaching a threshold is good, but there is still so much more to grow! So I believe the most important requirement is the constant desire to grow towards God's direction. That is like a vector with a positive gradient (positively-growing vector). Because if we reach a threshold, and become complacent, it is really easy to fall back to our old ways, because our sinful nature is affecting us daily (like gravity). That's why I like to be like a vector to constantly engaging towards holiness in the pursuit of God.

David was a man after God's own heart, not so much because he reached a threshold. But because he always sought after God, even after he committed adultery, in Psalms 51, he expressed great remorse and a desire to be restored by God. It is continuing process.

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen." - 2 Peter 3:18

Bankai

This term God has blessed my good friend Jonathan and myself the privilege to present the CCF about the importance of apologetics, which is the "art" of logically defending our faith so that other people can be convinced of the truth of Christianity. If you are interested about the details, there is a doc.

Our primarily focus is to emphasize the important of learning about apologetics for every Christian, as this is not just something reserved for pastors or ministers. Also, we gave some examples of the existing apologetic arguments regarding different topics such as "does God exist?", "is the Bible reliable?" , "is Jesus the only way?", "is there an absolute truth?"

One particular thing that I want to point out is that apologetics is not about demolishing other people's arguments, and preach that Christianity is the truth. The reason is because a person can have a lot of knowledge, and able to logically defend the our faith so well that is flawless, but people might not still be convinced. Because knowledge isn't everything (1 Cor 8:1). We are commissioned to preach the gospel to make disciples of Christ, and the gospel is the "good news" showing the all powerful God pouring His love to save us by sacrificing Jesus. The gospel centers on the cross of Christ, where God showed the greatest display of love. So the gospel is the good news about the great love God has for us.

The point of apologetics is to convince to other people that Christianity is true, and it is something we do when preaching the gospel. Since this message is one of love, we as God's ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20) should present ourselves consistent with the message. Meaning that there is congruency between the message and the messenger. That's why Christians ourselves can be either the greatest hindrance for evangelism, or we can be the greatest tool to share the gospel (since God chooses to use humans to make His message known).

Therefore, when we defend our faith and share the gospel, it is not all about logic or words. We also need to show credibility with our character, that we "walk the talk". So we should convey the essence of the gospel when we defend our faith, which is love, that God loves us, and we are filled with this love to love others, and we want other people to know God, because we love them.

So there needs to be this "harmony" between the message and the messenger to make the delivery of the gospel effective. It is similar to the anime Bleach, which is about people who fight with spiritual swords. And the closer the warrior get to know the sword, the stronger he becomes. If the warrior can call his sword by name, he attains a great portion of power from the sword. As he continues to train and grow, the harmony between the warrior and the sword become so great that the warrior can unlock the full potential of his sword, which is bankai.

In the same way, if we practice apologetics and share the gospel, our character and lifestyle needs to be very consistent with what we say :).

There is a caveat: many people use the excuse that actions of love are enough, and that words are not always necessarily to make the gospel known to others. And that knowledge is not that important. It is true that you need to "walk to talk", but you need "to talk"! Otherwise, it is still inconsistent as there is no message, and no sharing of the gospel. So my point is that both are necessarily, but that there is priority in love.

Here is a more eloquent post about apologetics.

3 in 1?

One attribute of God that is very interesting but very difficult to understand is the triune nature of God. We Christians believe in the Trinity, God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is something very hard to comprehend, one God who exists in 3 persons. Also it is not easy to defend since the word "Trinity" is not explicitly written on the bible. So many other religions and cults usually criticize the doctrine of the Trinity.

I am no expert in this subject, but if you're interested in knowing more, I recommend the following sermon by Mark Driscoll from the doctrine series: Trinity - God is

I kinda like analogies, so I want to use one here to explain the little I understand about the Trinity. You can see a simple circuit in series:
- V = voltage of the power source
- I = current flowing in the circuit
- R = resistance

So God is the perfect infinite power source, all powerful and infinite! Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6), so in this case the wire that connects the power source to the resistor, that path is Jesus. It is only through Jesus that we have access to the Father. As Christians, we believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is when the Holy Spirit enters in us and transforms us. So the current that flow through the resistor, is the Holy Spirit. As expected, the believer is the resistor, because we naturally tend to resist to what the Spirit desires. 

For every believer, we want God to increase, and we should decrease (John 3:30). In the same way, the resistance should go downs so that the current increases (according to Ohm's Law, V = IR). We need to let the Holy Spirit fill our lives, while letting our old ways behind. As the current increases, the power (P = VI = RI^2) will increase in a quadratic fashion. When the Spirit is at work in us, it's true power:

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." - Ephesians 3:20-21 

I am an electrical engineer from Waterloo after all.

Passio

Nowadays, we often hear the word "passion" being spoken in many Christian events. It seems that the current definition means somewhere in the lines of "something I really feel excited about", or "something that I am emotionally attached to", or "something that I have the heart for".

I think these explanations are not bad, but they are not quite complete. And whenever someone uses the word "passion" in sentences like "I feel passion for this..." or "I am passionate about this ministry...", I am slightly bothered because many times the word "passion" is not fully understood.

Passion comes from the latin passio which simply means "suffering". The reason why the suffering of Christ on the cross is called the passion of the Christ is simply because passion means suffering. A similar usage is found in Acts 1:3 with the KJV, the greek "pathos" is translated into passion, while NIV translates it into suffering.

To have passion is to be willing to suffer, and this is accompanied with strong emotions. The catch is to not rely on emotions, because when discouragements and trials come, it will not persists. It is about willingness.

This is just my personal choice, so whenever I use this word I can't take it lightly because to have passion for God means that you are willing to suffer for His sake. And that is not an easy path, but I believe it is the right one.

"The passion of Christ is the victory of divine love over the powers of evil, and therefore it is the only supportable basis for Christian obedience. Once again, Jesus calls those who follow him to share his passion. How can we convince the world by our preaching of the passion when we shrink from that passion in our own lives? On the cross Jesus fulfilled the law he himself established and thus graciously keep his disciples in the fellowship of his suffering." - The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer


Another example, is that the word "passion" can be used to refer to the strong emotions a man feels about his wife. To really have passion for your wife means that you are willing to suffer for her, in the same way Jesus loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25).

Back

It has been a while since I last blogged. Somehow, I feel overwhelmed with full-time work, and it is so draining and consuming at times, that it is hard to get time to gain insight in my walk and to properly focus on God.

I plan to make some adjustments to re-calibrate myself. By the grace of God, I want to continue sharing about the things He teaches me, in my joys and in the sufferings.

Good to be back.