St. Eutychus

Apologetics: The Study of Scripture as a Scientific Pursuit

Peter Lillback, president of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia is our guest today. He’s looking at apologetics from the vantage point of the scriptures… He called this “The Study of Scripture as a Scientific Pursuit” – it’s actually more accurately “an introduction to presupposition apologetics.”

These are my notes.

Knowledge is a great challenge and a philosophical question – “how do you know what you know” – that’s the beginning of the study of the Bible. When we’re defending the faith through the scriptures we’re claiming to know something both of the Bible and of God.

The study of religion is useful in apologetics.

What is religion – from the Latin roots – “the tying/binding together of things that are separate.”

Scientism: I only know what I can know by the scientific empirical method. This is the form of religious skepticism that we know today. How do you put God into the test tube? You can’t. So taking this approach to religion doesn’t work.

The science of religion is different to the religion of science.

The science of religion – how do we know what we know? The study of the binding together of things (man and man, man and God) through religion…

This uses science in the broad sense of the word – it’s analogous to what a linguist, anthropologist or other pursuit of knowledge does (outside of the material sciences).

Think about religion in its broad sense – the way Paul Tillich considers it – “religion is that thing or person that is beyond everything else that we engage. It is that absolute transcendent reality or ultimate concern that defines us.”

Everybody has that ultimate concern that defines us. How do we really know what that ultimate concern is in our life? What is it?

Some of Lillback’s basic presuppositions:

Everyone is religious – we all have an “ultimate” concern or a transcendent reality.
Because all human beings are finite we all believe something – we’re limited, we’re not omni-anything, so some of our knowledge comes from belief or trust in something external. This is how we know, or think we know, what we know. The phrase “people of faith” applies universally – we all have a transcendent concern and a faith that comes out of that. These presuppositions come cf Abraham Kuyper. They necessarily therefore live their lives in faith flowing from that presupposition.
Nobody is objective. We can not look at the world objectively. We all have these presuppositions that get in the way of seeing the “facts” – we all look at things and define them via our bias. Nobody is ultimately objective. Cornelius Van Til: “imagine a man of water living in a world of water who builds a ladder of water to climb out of the water so that he can see what is not water” – we can not escape what we have perceived and defined our world to be. If we bring materialistic assumptions to the world we can not help but find materialistic conclusions (that by nature exclude God).

These presuppositions must be engaged with the people we encounter. People try to engage the world in the following ways:

Deduction: logical inference based upon the presuppositions in which we operate. The logic we use is like a refrigerator – if you put good meat into the freezer two days later it’ll still be good. If you put rotten meat in it won’t come out good. Logic is a capable tool, but not magical.
Induction: gathering data together to draw conclusions.
Intuition: instinctive knowledge based on our suppositions.
Revelation – we can not know God by our own investigations, we will only know God if he reveals himself to us. The daring claim of the science of religion as a Christian is that it is impossible to know God without revelation.

As Christians we too are finite, and not objective (in fact our subjectivity is moderated by the Holy Spirit – not just our bias) – we put our faith in revelation.

Our framework is exactly the same as the non-Christians. Our presuppositions are the same. Our treatment of ourselves is consistent with our treatment of others.

We all have this transcendent point from which we operate. Everybody starts with preconditions born out of their presuppositions. Ours is “I believe that God has spoken through the Scriptures…” Following this presupposition we can stand on the word of the Lord. Taking this stance removes the ability for culture to pull us in ebbs and flows and beat us with erudite arguments.

Philosophers in the realm of epistemology suggest we know certain things to be true regardless of our experience (eg. if I took two apples from one side of the room and two from the other and put them in the bag then we’ll all agree that two and two makes four. We intuitively know this). We also have knowledge by experience (a posteriori). The Christian says we have that knowledge through our experience with the Bible. We also have internalised knowledge through the work of the Spirit (a priori). The Holy Spirit is part of our presupposition (ED Note: which provides interesting ramifications re: confirmation bias). Scripture is self-authenticating to those with the spirit (ED Note: which also has some interesting ramifications re: circular reasoning).

We are called as gospel preachers and teachers to ask people to experience for themselves rather than understand our descriptions, “taste and see that the Lord is good” – Millbank used Edward’s honey analogy.

The Science of Religion is the knowledge of our ultimate concerns. These ultimate concerns come with presuppositions. We all interpret our world through our presuppositions. Christians believe that the knowledge of God is only possible through revelation. We believe the Spirit gives us an a posteriori and a priori basis for trusting the revelation of God through the Scriptures. The Christian therefore is called to study the scriptures “scientifically” – this is a Christian epistemology of the study of scriptures… we talked about definition, presuppositions and method… which leads us to the scriptures.

Kuyper: There are two types of science in the world because there are two types of people. Those who are born from above by the Spirit and those who have not. These types of people will look at the world and the Bible very differently.

We look at the Bible as though it is God speaking to us – other “biblical scholars” study the words on the page very differently. Even when the Bible is open it’s a closed book to the second category of people.

Bible bits that support this view:

1 Corinthians 2: An extraordinary passage on the epistemology of religion from a Christian perspective. This is a rough paraphrase (Peter read from an NIV, I had my ESV in front of me)… starting from verse 10.

“But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit… only by those who have been touched by God can know these things… we have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God… The natural person does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him…”

Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17): he declares his worldview and declares the need for repentance – Van Til said the greatest apologetic is to preach the Gospel.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

“We thank God continually because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.”

The word of God isn’t clever exegesis and stirring oratory but the way the Spirit works through the Bible.

Luther: I don’t defend the Bible, I preach the Bible. The Bible defends itself…

Apologetics from a Christian perspective is a declaration of the Bible’s truth from the Bible. And this is legitimate because everybody comes at the world with their own presuppositions.

Another analogy: an explorer visits a lost valley and discovers a lost people – a tribe where every person was blind. None of them had any idea what seeing was. And the explorer tried to explain to them what seeing was. Nobody believed him. They couldn’t fathom the existence of seeing. He spent time alongside them, becoming part of their community – one day they asked if he wanted to join the tribe – on the condition that he pluck out his eyes…

This is, apparently, an analogy for apologetics. Let the reader understand.

August 4, 2010

How to win (most of the time) rock, paper, scissors

Here’s a handy infographic/tutorial for winning Rock, Paper Scissors against inexperienced or very experienced players.

“Males have a tendency to throw rock on their first try, inexperienced RPS players will subconsciously deliver the item that won previously, and paper is thrown least often, so use it as a surprise.”

Via FlowingData.

I prefer to throw a little psychology into the mix – I just tell the person, honestly, what I’m going to play. And then it becomes a question of trust. Then, sometimes I cheat. Because cheating is the best way to win.

August 3, 2010

Letters to Lindsay

Lindsay Lohan has just been released from prison. She spent the last few weeks there for being an idiot. Incarceration is boring – but when it comes to celebrity incarceration it opens up whole new realms of possibility. We suddenly know exactly where the celebrity is at all times – we have a captive audience for our celebrity stalking. One man, Greg Rutter, took this opportunity and ran with it – he sent Lindsay a postcard each day of her imprisonment. And he blogged them.

They were mostly non-sensical. Which, when you think about the recipient, makes perfect sense.

“Writing is rules. Whether it’s about word choice or sentence length or subject matter each writer has decided on rules they have agreed not to break. Me? My rules are too many. I won’t use the word “penultimate” because I think it sounds pretentious. I’ll just write “next to last” instead, and problem solved. But why is “pretentious” allowed but “penultimate” not? Because those are just the rules.”

August 3, 2010

Your Best Life Now = No Bacon

Joel Osteen says bacon isn’t kocher for Christians… but turkey bacon is in…

August 3, 2010

YouTube Tuesday: The End Time Anthem

It’s been a while since I managed to post a YouTube Tuesday video this early on a Tuesday. But please, take a moment to enjoy this end time prophecy/hymn/anti-Obama rant. It’s helpfully subtitled. In case you’re watching it in a library.

Via Mike on Facebook.

August 3, 2010

Confessions #3: I only let other cars in because I hope for a courtesy wave

Picture this. You’re driving to work/college/home. It’s peak hour. There are many other cars sharing the road. There’s a spot where cars are known to park in the left hand lane. You duly merge ahead of time, because you used to live on that stretch of road and know accidents happen there. It even has a “black spot” sign that acknowledges that the government knows accidents happen there but can’t be bothered installing a “no parking” sign because that would be expensive. But wait, they installed a black spot sign there… anyway.

You have merged into the middle lane and you decide to be charitable. You let other cars in. Helping them to avoid a certain fender bender. And what? No wave. That’s just rude.

Really. The courtesy wave. That’s what I live for on the road – I really am quite a courteous driver. But only because I want you to acknowledge that I’ve made your day that little bit easier by removing the stress that comes from an impending obstacle, or perhaps a long delay at an intersection. Perhaps you’re ignoring the road rules and I’m cutting you some slack. Know this. I only do it in the hope that you’ll either wind down your window and wave, or hold up your left hand under your rear view mirror in the universally accepted and acknowledged manner.

That is all.

August 3, 2010

SLOL

I’m not really a LOLer. But I thought I’d jump on Ben’s word creating bandwagon. This morning. As I read this post where Ben recounts an incident that led to him receiving the cane in primary school. I snort laughed out loud (SLOL). In a lecture.

That’s the picture that goes with the post. Ben has more reason to hate U2 than I do.

August 3, 2010

The story of Ikenna Ukaigwe and the Bible Verse Picture

A little while ago now I shared with you this picture from my Nigerian friend Ikenna. I promised to tell you the story behind the picture – and at that stage I was hoping he would provide me with the long awaited John 3:16 photo. But it was not to be. Our conversations have become cold and distant of late – he barely even replies to my emails and when he does they are monosyllabic requests for money. I don’t pay these guys in advance, or indeed upon production of the goods.

For the record:

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Ikenna first contacted me in April. His first email is included in full below – you might be interested to know that I don’t have an official church website, but I had, in previous correspondence with a couple of other scammer accounts suggested that I worked for a church that was looking for mission partners overseas. These scammers often try to pull theological heartstrings – and I figured they were more ripe for supplying me with a Bible verse themed photo. Here’s what my friend Kenny had to say:

“I am a regular visitor to your church official website and i must acknowledge that your church, from what i read from your website is worth joining and i also wish you can come down here to open a branch of your church because since i got to know your church i have been looking everywhere for a branch of your church but i could not see it, at least this will give me and some other people the opportunity to worship with you from here.

Since i read about your church in a foreign magazine my friend gave to me, i have always wished to become a member and that is why i am writing you. The zeal to become a member of your church is due to the fact that i am convinced that the establishment of your church is a true vision from God and as such, i wish to also be a part of that vision to enable me improve and grow in my spiritual life.

I will like you to let me know what i am supposed to do to become am member of your church and also i will like you to send me some of your church bulletin or order of your church service to enable me follow up in all your church activities from here. may the good lord bless and keep you safe in HIS hands, i will keep praying for the church and also pray that you will find me worthy to accept my request, Amen.”

Well. This seemed like a pretty good opening. So I replied – sowing the seeds of my little scheme to land the photo, I got straight to the point:

“I am thrilled to hear that you have discovered my church. Where do you live? We are currently looking for mission partners in foreign countries who we will generously support as part of our annual Global Bible Knowathon.

If you would like to be a part of this upcoming prayer and fundraising event please send me a photo of yourself holding a sign with your favourite verse of scripture. This photo will be featured in our mission slideshow and will help us to raise funds for gospel ministry in your country.”

He responded quickly. The thing about friend Kenny is that he was so eager to please:

“I was so happy to hear your reply to my mail to you, i must tell you that i really wish to a part of your church. I live in Nigeria and i’m also a Nigerian. As regards the prayer even, i will like to be part of it. I will send you the photograph as soon as possible so that necessary things procedure can be followed.

Thank you and may the lord bless you, Amen.”

I kept on reeling him in, sensing that I might finally have cracked the scambaiting code:

“I am very excited to hear that you will be a mission partner. Please send me the photo as soon as possible so that we can start supporting you in prayer and petition, and through our weekly mission offering.”

But then I didn’t hear from him for two weeks – so I sent him a reminder:

“Is it at all possible that we might get a photo of you holding a sign with a Bible Reference written on it in time for our church service next Sunday?”

His excuse was that he had been sick, and in hospital.

“Sorry i have not written you to send the picture as promised,i have been very sick and been in the hospital but i promise you this i must get this picture before the sunday you talked about.

Thank you for your concern for me, God will bless you.”
This was the first in a string of emails that he sent me without waiting for my reply. The next one included the photo:

“How are you and your entire members of the church doing? I hope the good lord is taking good care of you all. Here is the picture and the bible quotation ( Revelation Chapter 21 vs 1 to 5), it is my favorite and it makes my heart glad and it also make me remember that God knows about my situation at all time. I run a small shop where i sell used clothes and other household things and that is where i took this picture.

I hope the picture gets a positive considerations. May the good lord be with you all in your exhibition.”

And when I didn’t acknowledge receipt immediately I got this one:

“How are you doing? Hope good.

I sent you my pictures yesterday, i hope you got, if you did, please let me know ok?

May the lord be with you, Amen.”

And then, somewhat impatiently, this one:

“I have not heard from you since i sent you my pictures, what is happening?”

Here is my reply – I didn’t want this fish to get away, so I hit him up for a second photo – this time with John 3:16 involved:
“Sorry I haven’t written back yet. Things have been so very hectic here.

The pictures look great. They will be very useful in our mission services. Please can you send me the details for the transfer of moneys raised.

Also, with those details, could you send me another photo with John 3:16 as the Bible reference – “For God so loved the world, that he sent his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

Could you underline the words “loved the world” – we believe this shows the importance of mission work.

Once again – thank you so much for your partnership in this matter. May you be blessed richly and abundantly through our friendship.

I apologise again for not replying to you.”

He responded, promising to deliver the goods:

“It’s so good to hear from you today, i must tell you that i was beginning to get worried over your silence since i sent the pictures. How did the service go? Did your church accept the pictures and the quotations? You asked me to give you details for you to send me money, how did the money come about? Please let me know in your mail but for the records, My full names are Ikenna Ukaigwe M. my address is [WITHHELD].

The pictures you asked me to send again, what will it be used for, please tell me, but i will send them ok? Please let me hear from you soon, i will be waiting, may the good lord bless and keep you and the members of your church, Amen.”

I had hopes. This was a bite, not a nibble. So I pulled out all the stops. I asked for personal details:

“I must apologise for the delay.

The money has not been collected yet – it will be collected in a service in two weeks time. Our mission service.

The pictures were acceptable – especially the one with you smiling. You look very happy in that photo, brother.

Brother, the pictures will be used in our mission book to be given to people for praying for other Christians around God’s wonderful creation. We will use your picture on the inside page, the John 3:16 picture will be on the cover of the book.

I will also need you to answer the following questions for a profile inside the book:

Your Name.
Your Age.
What church you are a part of in your home country.
How you became a Christian.
What you do for work.
What you do for fun.
Things that we, in Sydney, can pray for for you, in Nigeria

I look forward to learning more about you brother.”

Then disaster struck. Ikenna got “sick” again:
“I now understand what you mean by sending you the next picture with john 3.16. I want to believe that your church accepted my previous pictures as you said, i sent that picture because i want you and your church to know my best part of the bible but this one is just for the fact that you wish to use my photo for a purpose. I will still send it but i must also apologize for not sending it till now, i have been very sick, but i’m better now.

Expect the pictures and the information’s in my next mail may be tomorrow but brother Bruce i want to believe that my pictures will not be used in anything that will not be to the glory of God.

Thank you and may the good lord bless and keep you all, Amen”

I tried to reassure him:
“We will certainly be using the photos you sent me as indicated, the John 3:16 one is what we’re asking everybody involved from around the world to provide. We want their favourite verse and a John 3:16 one. Sorry I didn’t make this clearer from the beginning.”

And here’s where he pulled the bait-and-switch – asking me to give him money…

“I thank you so much for reassuring me of the use of my picture. But i am having some financial problems in sending you the pictures, my cameras got spoiled last week when my friend took it for a foto shoot, as a result i have prepared the placard with John 3:16 written on it but i have to go out and take this pictures and also scan it before i can send it to you, and this will cost me some money. Can you please help me out in any way.”

I would love to help. Truly. I would. But like any minister I am caught up in the whims of my elders and committees.

“I asked our elders, we can not help you until we have held the mission service, and we can not hold the mission service (to raise funds for you) without the John 3:16 photo.

It is my prayer that you will get this sorted out and that the Lord will provide you with all your labours deserve, and a working camera.”

Ikenna replied:

“I am really sorry for trying to bug the church, i really understand the way things works but i just felt like making a personal appeal on you to help but i didn’t know you will take it to the church, any way, i will see what i can do to make this work but i want you to be sure that i made you a personal appeal and i never intended the church to go against their normal procedures.”

I didn’t want to create any such expectations:

“Sorry Ikenna, I misunderstood. I look forward to receiving the photos. “

It turns out the clothes selling business isn’t great in Nigeria:

“i’m so sorry for not being able to send you the pictures, i am still battling with myself to see that i raise some money to do that, my camera is not yet fixed and things are very tough for me here but hopefully i will send it before this week runs off. i hope it’s not late yet.”

I decided this one had probably run its course – so I put forward a mega-request.

“No, it’s not too late. We run missions collections regularly. As soon as we receive the John 3:16 photo we will be ready to proceed. Oh, and we need your answers to the questions that I sent you for the profile we hand out on the day.

Here they are:

1. Full Name.
2. Date of Birth
3. Where do you live?
4. What is the name of your church?
5. Tell us a little bit about your family.
6. What is your job?
7. What do you enjoy doing with your time?
8. How do you serve your church?
9. What can we pray about for you?
10. What will you do with the money we send you?

And some for our children and youth (they like funny answers)
1. If you could have a special power, what would it be and why?
2. What is your favourite animal?
3. What is the silliest thing you have ever done?
4. How do you know that God loves you?
5. What do people eat for breakfast in your country?
6. What animal would win in a fight – a lion or a rhinoceros?
7. What is your favourite colour?
8. If you see somebody drop $100 on the street do you keep it or give it back?
9. Where is your favourite place to go?
10. If you were God for a day what would you do?

Thanks for your patience Ikenna. We look forward to receiving your photograph. Our last mission collection raised $2,700. People are really enjoying giving generously to our brothers and sisters around the world.”

Kenny stepped up his game too:

“I am still battling with the camera to take and scan the photograph, you may not understand how bad things are for me here but i pray that God will open your eyes to see.
May the name of the lord praise, i believe God can change things for me here.
ukaigwe”

And I sent what would prove to be my last piece of correspondence to Kenny:

“You managed to get the first photo very easily for me, I think you’ll be able to use your initiative to get me this second photo.

I look forward to receiving it so that we as your brothers can do our bit to bring about change in your world.”

If you google Ikenna’s name you’ll find him on Facebook and a couple of other social networks with just a profile picture and no developed legend. He doesn’t really seem like a very competent scammer. Anybody who has read anything about going undercover knows you need a good legend.

This wasn’t my funniest scambait to date – Dr Paul is going to take some beating. But it was my most fruitful.

August 3, 2010

Faulty Towers

Brad Towers is the “Lead Vision Caster” for the fictional Ridge View Bible Church – he’s blogging his way through his new career. It’s a journey worth following (Gary has posted links to a few pieces from his blog this week). Here’s a sample – describing his approach on his first Sunday in the job.

“People are going to walk into the sanctuary and it’s going to be pitch black. Suddenly, a beam of light will split the darkness, shining directly onto the worship leader (who I haven’t met yet, but I think his name is Thad). Thad will be playing an electric guitar, and will start playing a guitar lick that sounds like the opening from “Where the Streets Have No Name”.

People will look at each other and be like, “Are we at a U2 concert?”

Then without warning, the band will kick in, and they’ll actually be playing a Chris Tomlin song. At this point people will turn to each other with a knowing smile. They’re not at a U2 concert, this is church, baby!”

More importantly – and here’s one Labor could have paid attention to – is his take on mission statements.

“A mission statement (future leaders, write this down), is like a piece of art or a beautiful symphony. The more you study it, the more you get out of it. It’s not supposed to be hard and fast. You find your own meaning in a mission statement. You create your own mission out of the mission. (That’s an inspirational sentence if I ever wrote one).”

August 2, 2010

DIY Sous Vide

I don’t know what Sous Vide tastes like – but I like the cut of this jib – apparently sous vide cooking is all the rage (using temperature controlled water to cook stuff). I think I’ve seen similar methods on MasterChef. Anyway, Sous Vide cookers will set you back lots of money. A better alternative is to use a beer cooler and little sealable baggies.

So says Kenji Lopez-Alt – the guy who reverse engineered Maccas fries. Here’s an appetite whetter:

“Here’s how it works: A beer cooler is designed to keep things cool. It accomplishes this with a two-walled plastic chamber with an air space in between. This airspace acts as an insulator, preventing thermal energy (a.k.a. heat) from outside to reach the cold food inside. Of course, insulators work both ways. Once you realize that a beer cooler is just as good at keeping hot things hot as it is at keeping cold things cold, then the rest is easy: Fill up your beer cooler with water just a couple degrees higher than the temperature you’d like to cook your food at (to account for temperature loss when you add cold food to it), seal your food in a plastic Ziplock bag*, drop it in, and close your beer cooler until your food is cooked. It’s as simple as that.”

Read the whole thing at Serious Eats.

August 2, 2010

Rocking coffee machine

I like this concrete coffee machine – I’ve been toying with the idea of casemodding a two group machine I bought on ebay a few weeks ago (fixing its busted pump is a more pressing priority though…).