Category: Apologetics

Are We Too Familiar With Jesus?

Does Jesus not really surprise us anymore? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Awhile back, I wrote a post on why Christianity isn’t appealing. I get why unbelievers don’t like the message of Christianity, but what I don’t get is why we who are believers sometimes don’t seem to blink at it. We talk about the God of all creation who loves us immensely more than we can know and forgives us for everything and yet it seems that pales in comparison often to everything else in our lives.

Last night I thought about this more when driving home from an event my wife and I started talking about a Jesus mythicist. I gave the quote that has been said that if Jesus had never existed, we could never have invented Him. Jesus is just too amazing a figure for that. C.S. Lewis once said that the things Jesus said were the most amazing things ever said by human lips.

Could it be that here in the West, we have heard the story of Jesus so much that it never really amazes us? Many of us have grown up hearing the gospel for as long as we can remember and so we take it for granted. Do we need to look at what we believe again?

Atheists will often get us on for the outlandish things we believe. We believe Jesus was born of a virgin, (Which I do affirm) that He walked on water, that He raised the dead, that He multiplied bread and fish instantly, and that He rose from the dead. Granted there is good evidence for this stuff, but we should consider that to an extent, we do believe some things that on the face are hard to believe. These are definitely claims that would be hard to believe and if we heard them from some other position could be skeptical as well.

Yet Jesus did all of them.

We could consider that an ethical message like the Sermon on the Mount is still transforming us today. We could consider that His very life has been one of the greatest drives to moral living if not what I would contend, the greatest drive. We could consider the way He astounded His opponents every step of the way as something incredible.

We could actually be surprised by Jesus again.

We do have a downside sadly that when we go to the text, we who have grown up with it have this background here with many assumptions. It’s kind of like how I often wish we could approach texts for the first time again. Could we come to Romans 9 without debating Calvinism and have it without thinking about whether we believe in it or not? Could we approach Revelation the same way?

Then let’s also remember that this was done for love by Jesus. Love of God and love of us both. We are truly forgiven. Some of us might think we don’t have much to be forgiven of, which means we probably have more than we realize. We could all rejoice though who are Christians that our debt is paid. We are forgiven. We are promised eternal life. We are loved by the holy Trinity.

This doesn’t mean there will never be times of sorrow and sadness in our lives. Paul reported about despairing to the point of death even. It does mean that it doesn’t need to dominate us. We can always point to multiple blessings in our lives when we think about Christ.

After all, there could be a great danger that if we don’t do this, we take Jesus for granted. We act like what happened was no big deal. Of course, Jesus did this, because He’s Jesus, but God was never under any obligation to forgive us for everything. If He wanted to condemn us all to Hell and spend eternity with just Himself and His angels, that would have been entirely allowable. No one could say He had done wrong. He owes us nothing.

Any maybe, just maybe, if we can realize this, we will take it more seriously than before. We have all been given grace abundantly. Perhaps those of us who are Christians should live like we really believe it.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 12/21/2019

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I came across my guest in an unusual way. A Christian friend of mine shared an interesting article on a Christian defense of Dungeons and Dragons. Now I was intrigued since I played growing up and I know several Christians today who still do. I’m still heavily involved in role-playing games, though these are all video games.

The article was a good one and lo and behold, written by a professor at a Christian university. I was intrigued. I also realized that this was a person I had heard of before. He was interviewed by Mary Jo Sharp in her book Why I Still Believe to talk about beauty.

So I thought getting in touch with him would be a simple matter. We could talk about the interaction of Christianity and culture and about beauty as well. After all, could it be that those who are seeing the devil in everything and repelling from the culture are doing more harm than good in the long run?

I reached out to him then and he was delighted to come on the show. We set the date and as you can imagine, it will be this Saturday. We will be talking about the interaction of Christ and culture and straight from Houston Baptist University, my guest will be Philip Tallon.

So who is he?

According to his bio:

Dr. Tallon is the assistant professor of theology at Houston Baptist University. He got his PhD in theology at the University of St. Andrews.

Dr. Tallon is a member of the Honors College faculty and Chair of the Apologetics Department. Both areas of service allow him to explore the intersection of theology, philosophy, and the arts: helping students to understand the Lordship of Jesus over “every square inch” of creation.

Dr. Tallon’s primary areas of research are in Christian theology and theological aesthetics. He is especially interested in doing ‘theology through the arts,’ which examines how the arts can reorient and enrich our understanding of Christian truth.

We’ll be talking about beauty, play, and culture. How do we find God in all of these things? What is the way that Christians are to interact with culture? Could there be danger in seeing a devil behind everything that seems contrary to us?

I hope you’ll be watching for the next episode. We are almost completely caught up with episodes after all. Please also go and leave a positive review on iTunes for the Deeper Waters Podcast.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

The Purple Cow Fallacy

How do we interpret prophecy? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

It’s not a secret to my readers that I am an orthodox preterist in my eschatology. Sometimes, I like to debate with futurists and dispensationalists. Eschatology is just a subject I enjoy discussing. I will also say my wife is still a futurist, though not a dispensationalist, because I do not press the issue on her and want her to come to her own conclusions.

Anyway, one mistake I see futurists often making is what has been described to me as the Purple Cow fallacy. In this, imagine a famous rock star in the 60’s. He predicts after his retirement that one day another great musician like him will show up. It will be known this has happened when the hide of a purple cow is seen across America.

There are two schools of thought on how to interpret this prophecy. The first is the globalist school of thought. This is the one that says that the sky will turn the color of the hide of a purple cow. The other is the localist. These say that a man will take the hide of a purple cow and put it on the back of his car and drive across America.

One day, the localists claim the prophecy has been fulfilled as someone has driven across the country like that. The globalists are immediately aghast. How can you say that the prophecy has been fulfilled? Would not everyone have seen the sky change color that way?

You and I are observers on the outside. We think this whole prophecy thing is a crazy delusion so we have no skin in the game. Still, from our perspective we can point something out. We can point out that the globalists could be right on the meaning, but in this debate, they are begging the question. They are assuming that the prophecy is only fulfilled if their interpretation of it takes place, when what is under question is the interpretation of the prophecy.

We Christians have to deal with this as well and this includes dispensationalists and futurists. How many Jews tell us “How can you say the Messiah has come? Would not the world already be living in perfect peace and harmony and the third temple be built?” Christians have to say that obviously hasn’t happened yet, (And for the third temple I dispute it ever will) but that doesn’t mean the Messiah has not come because that is begging the question about what the prophecy means.

So it is with dispensationalists that I encounter often where it is assumed that a prophecy must be interpreted a certain way and if it hasn’t happened or I don’t think it will happen that way, then I am calling into question Scripture. Not at all. I am calling into question your interpretation and to keep pointing to your interpretation is to beg the question.

This is not an argument per se that futurism and/or dispensationalism are wrong, but it is a request to stop using a fallacious argument. This also does not prove preterism is true either, though I am convinced it is. However, if you do debate this kind of topic regularly, watch for this fallacy. Once you become aware of it, you see it happening often.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Is Religion Natural?

What belongs to the order of nature? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

While browsing Facebook on Sunday, I saw a meme shared in an apologetics group saying homosexuality is natural because animals perform homosexual acts. Religion is not because animals do not do that. Therefore, it’s not homosexuality that isn’t natural, but religion that is unnatural.

Memes are to some people meant to get you thinking. This one did get me thinking.

“Why do people think arguments so dumb are so powerful?”

To begin with, as in memes, there is never any defining of terms. What is religion? What does it mean to be natural?

I could also question that animals don’t do religion. Some animals are said to have strong burial rites that they follow. Who is to say that a lion roaring over his prey is not designed to praise his creator that way?

There’s also the problem that there are many behaviors that animals do that we would not consider to do. Animals freely poop in public and unless you live in San Francisco, this is normally frowned upon. Animals also eat their own young and again, most of us don’t have a drive to legalize cannibalism because it’s natural.

But if the person wants to play this game, we’ll play this game.

I do not know of any animals who are writing rational discourses or presenting rational arguments. By this standard then, to make a rational argument is unnatural. Therefore, we should not make rational arguments.

I also do not know of animals doing science. Now I know that so many of our atheist friends love science, but if we’re going this route, then science has to be deemed as unnatural. Therefore, if we want to do what is natural, we cannot do science.

Now if you’re an atheist reading this argument, do notice something.

Nowhere in here did I say homosexual acts are sinful. While I do think that, you do not have to agree with me on this point. I just said that this is a bad argument for a position. It is possible to affirm that you think my view is false and yet that an argument against it is bad. I think there are bad arguments against atheism and bad arguments for Christianity.

If someone wanted to refine this, they would need to define their terms. I never did in this piece because I wasn’t the one making the argument and I was trying to go by the understanding I figured the meme maker had. I could be wrong, but that’s part of the problem of the poster not defining his terms. I can’t read his mind.

And for Christians, keep in mind this doesn’t make the argument either. This argument I have presented cannot establish homosexual practice is wrong. We must make our own arguments that way.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Book Plunge: Walking This Walk

What do I think of Brad Erlandson’s book published by Xulon Press? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Upfront, Brad is a friend of mine. He gave me his book free of charge as a gift and I wish to provide a fair review. I am going to try to avoid bias as best I can.

I have long had the opinion that if you had a good writer and director behind it, you could take the life of any person you meet on the street and turn it into a major motion picture and it would be a box office hit. People are fascinating and their stories are interesting.

Erlandson’s story is a common story about growing up in a family and actually being rebellious. Eventually, he finds his way to Jesus and from then on, his story is about his zeal to spread the gospel. Something about the book is that he goes regularly from autobiography to exhortation about how he thinks people ought to live.

In the last third of the book, he gets to the main part where he talks about being hit by a drunk driver and how he is now in a wheelchair as a result. He talks about his attitude toward the lady who hit him and how to view the disabled. He talks about his opinion on faith healing and how some pastors do go too far with this.

There are times I found myself disagreeing with some positions Erlandson gave in his book, but these are rightfully on secondary issues and Erlandson says he is fine with people having different opinions, which he knows from our personal discussions. He doesn’t deny that these issues should be discussed, but they should not be a point of disagreement. With this, I fully agree.

The book is also easy to read. There is not really difficult theology in there that people will not understand. There is a touch of apologetics involved. This is not just about the problem of evil, but other areas. Erlandson himself spent some time teaching apologetics at a church.

Sometimes, I did wish Erlandson would focus more on the crash. As I said, this showed up in the last third of the book. Perhaps it would have been good to have done it like it can be done in a TV show where you will get shown a scene of a later event and then the episode goes to show you how you got to that event.

I also did think sometimes Erlandson seemed to get distracted and spend more time with a story than I thought necessary. These stories could be interesting at the time, but then you’d move on and wonder what it has to do with the main story. Of course, the problem could lie with me.

Still, Erlandson’s story is a sad story and a happy one both. It is sad to think about the evil that he has gone through, but there is joy in seeing that he handles it and perseveres. Does he want to be healed? Of course, but he at the same time still lives and enjoys his life in the meanwhile. It is one thing for evil to happen to you in the past. It is one thing to stay in that and let it keep happening to you. As he says, you can get bitter or better. Erlandson has chosen better, and may it not be taken from him.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

The New Baby It’s Cold Outside

Is the new one really an improvement on the original? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Yesterday, I heard about the new rendition of this old song by Kelly Clarkson and John Legend being released. Musically, they’re good singers. I can’t really comment much beyond that as I am not one with much of a taste for music. However, the idea was the old song was a creeper song. The girl is at the guy’s place. The guy is encouraging her to stay and well, the reason he wants her to stay is so he can have sex with her. Some went beyond that and called it rape, as if the woman will never play sly with a man and try to make him look like he’s seducing her when she’s really seducing him. Yes. Believe it or not, women can sometimes want to have sex themselves.

So here comes a new version meant to be an improvement. It’s meant to strike a blow against the patriarchy. I listened to it last night and then looked up the lyrics to clarify some matters, but as I listened, I thought, “This song is even worse than the other one is supposed to be.”

If in the old one, the guy was trying to get the girl to stay so she would have sex, this guy seems like he’s practically ready to hold open the door and throw the girl out. From the lyrics, he has taken her back to his own place and she has no car. Now today, if a guy takes a girl back to his place, well, we all know what that means.

So when she says she doesn’t want to stay, he’s calling her a cab immediately and even telling her the driver’s name. She talks about her parents and he’s thinking “What? You still live with them?”! (Did he possibly take a minor back to his place? If there is a minor, then why is she talking about drinking?) He even has a line in there at that point saying, “Your body. Your choice.”

Now of course, if any possible hint shows up that the girl could change her mind, he’s there to say how much he wants her. However, as soon as she’s ready to go, he’s ready to encourage her. The other version might have the guy trying to seduce the girl, which by the way is in many ways normal. Men even in marriage will often want to try to do anything to encourage the lady in their lives to have sex.

So what do I gather from this? That first off, if this is a blow against the patriarchy as it’s called, it’s a horrible one. Second though, it really shows me again that our culture is clueless when it comes to sex. We don’t know how to think about it. Perhaps some of us don’t understand the idea of a man and a woman dating with sex being off the table because it’s, you know, reserved for marriage.

Our culture doesn’t understand what sex is or the many purposes of it or why it should be reserved for marriage. Sex has been reduced to a recreational activity. Some people have said that our culture thinks too much about sex. This is false. It’s just the opposite. We think too little about it. Doing it, dreaming about it, watching it, and talking about it, does not equal thinking about it.

This is really a good chance for our Christian community to shine as well by doing marriage right. (Even though Shaunti Feldhahn exposed some myths about divorce, it is still way too common today even among Christians.) Doing marriage well is a service to God. Now I am not saying divorce is never an option. If you are in an abusive situation and there is no hope of change, get out.

Every marriage will also sometimes require hard work. This is normal and when the situation is worked out, the couple can very well be stronger than before. Part of that will be the proper understanding of sexuality.

The misunderstanding of sexual ethics is one thing that for those of us who live in America could very well lead to the breakdown of our society as it strikes at the heart of the family, the building block of society. People want to be loved and they want to have sex and there’s no sin in that. It’s how they are fulfilling those desires that is the problem.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 12/14/2019

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

The fairer sex have always been seen as worth pursuing in the eyes of men. Who can blame us? Have you seen them lately? Women are absolutely beautiful. Many an honorable man encounters a woman he is attracted to and comes to love and treats her right and marries her and spends the rest of his life loving her.

Sounds good.

Sadly, there are men out there that are less than honorable. We understand that. Some of them are teenagers in a rebellious state. Some of them are criminals that are behind bars. You can find them in all places. Fortunately, many a woman can find a safe haven in the church since the church does its job of protecting those women and….

Wait.

What’s that?

You mean that these people can be found in the clergy?

That many people who claim to follow Christ can also be mistreating and abusing women in a sexual way?

And the church tends to side with the accused more than with the victim?

What can the church do to make sure we are a safe haven for victims of abuse? How can we love victims of abuse? What steps can be taken to help someone overcome a paralyzing trauma that has the potential to wreak havoc on the rest of their lives?

My guest is someone who went through that abuse. Her story is both horrible and helpful. She is a survivor who has gone on to be a thriver and she wants to raise awareness. There are plenty of people in the church that sadly prey on others. It doesn’t have to be that way though. Her name is Mary Demuth and her book is called WeToo.

So who is she?

According to her bio:

Mary DeMuth is an author, speaker and podcaster who is passionate about helping you live a re-storied life. A survivor of neglect and sexual abuse, Mary was gloriously rescued by Jesus when she was 15. She has spent her life healing from trauma so she can help others not feel so alone. She is the wife of Patrick and mom of three adult children. For more information, visit wetoo.org.

I hope you’ll be watching for this episode. I hope by the end of the month to be all caught up. We’ll be talking about a lot of material that could be very adult-oriented so please be mindful of that if you have children around. Please also go and leave a positive review of the Deeper Waters Podcast on iTunes.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Book Plunge: Christobiography

What do I think of Craig Keener’s book published by Eerdmans? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Remember decades ago when there was a much talked about book called “Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask?” Now Craig Keener has published Christobiography and it could just as well be, “Everything You Wanted To Know About The Gospels As Greco-Roman Biographies But Couldn’t Even Think To Ask.” It’s hard to imagine a more thorough treatment and yet Keener somehow did it in only 500 or so pages of content. (If you think saying only 500 is something, keep in mind his Acts commentary has four volumes of around 1,000 pages each, his commentary on John is 1,600 pages, and his two-volume Miracles is over 1,100 pages.

So what do we have in this book? We have an expounding on the work of people like Burridge and Licona and Aune and others. It is a look at what is meant by the Gospels being Greco-Roman biographies. Too often, it is thought that if they are biographies, they should read like modern biographies, which just doesn’t work. The past is a funny place after all. They do things differently there.

Reviewing a book like this is so hard because there’s just so much. At the start, Keener looks at what these biographies are and then gives a case as to why the Gospels are these kinds of biographies. He looks at other considerations like novels and other fictional writings to show that the Gospels are quite different from those kinds of works.

After looking at some biographies from the ancient world and what kinds of biographies there were, he looks at what ancient audiences would have expected from a biography. If you turn on the TV to watch a sitcom, you expect an entertaining show but nothing that will be a real drama or that gives a historical account. If the ancients thought the Gospels were Greco-Roman biographies then, what did they expect?

How did biographies approach historical information and what was expected of a history in the ancient world? Keener looks at this. Were they expected to give intricately detailed accounts? How were they to be written? How did one do the research when writing a history? Also, what sources are used? This is relevant since so many people say the Gospels didn’t cite their sources. Keener deals with this kind of objection.

He also looks at what was allowed when writing these kinds of works and how flexible one could be. In one part, he looks at three different lives of Otho to show how there were differences and similarities on key points. Then he looks at what kinds of flexibilities could be allowed in the Gospels.

There are objections that can be had? What about miracles and what about John? Keener has written profusely on both of these so he doesn’t give much here and encourages looking elsewhere, but the information here is still quite good.

Then we get to sections on memory and eyewitness testimony. This is a favorite of many skeptics, but Keener makes a good case for the reliability of eyewitness testimony and why we should trust not just memory but especially community memory. He has much to say about oral tradition as well. These sections I found incredibly helpful.

As you might have guessed, this is just being a brief summary. Why? Because there is so much in this book that anyone who wants to take the Gospels seriously needs to read it for themselves. Nothing I say can do a volume like this justice. Go get it today.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Is God Designed?

Does the designer need a designer? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I’m not a proponent of Intelligent Design, but sometimes in this discussion, a claim comes up that if the universe needs a designer, well surely the designer must be so much more complex. If so, does He not need a designer? Many Christians get stumped by this line of argumentation that seems convincing, but it really isn’t.

For one thing, why would an atheist want to make this argument? If you want to say complex things need designers, then the theist can say “There you go. Then a designer is needed for the world we see around us.” It doesn’t help that they usually ask “Who made God?” rather than “What made God?”

But if you want to bypass that as an atheist and say that complex things don’t need designers instead, then you have an argument that says God is a complex thing that needs a designer and complex things don’t need designers. Take one option in this argument and you damage your position. Take the other and you destroy the very argument you’re making.

But it gets worse for this argument. It is still often assumed that God is a complex thing, which is understandable since most Christians today don’t study philosophy at all. Most of what we know about God then comes from Scripture, personal experience, and what we hear in church, not that those are all bad, but many times we read Scripture through our own bad philosophical lenses and the information from the other two isn’t often the best.

One of the ideas about God that has been held for centuries is that God is a simple being. Some of you reading that will be stunned. After all, you cannot really comprehend God. How can a being like that be simple? Simple doesn’t mean easy to understand. It means just not composed of parts. It’s easy to understand this in material terms.

For instance, I am writing this on a computer. You can take apart my computer bit by bit and if you’re really skilled, put it back together. If you went through a junkyard of computers, you could hypothetically take some material you find there and build your own computer.

That works with material realities, including you and I, but how do we apply this to things that are immaterial. Humans might be composed of several materials, but what is something like an angel composed of since it is immaterial? In this case, an angel has its own nature and its own existence. Those are two things. The nature exists first in the mind of God and then it is granted existence by God.

Then you get to God. God is no combination whatsoever. What it means to exist, to be, is what God is. He has no limitations on Him. Asking what made Him is like asking what created existence. It’s a nonsense question.

Note also that this is not an argument for the existence of God at this point. It’s just an explanation of the nature of God. Being an atheist doesn’t mean you have to believe it, but you should stop trying to use a bad argument.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Why Is Christianity Not Appealing?

What makes people notice something? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In this one, I really am coming with no certain answers yet. I am just thinking out loud about something that has been on my mind and I leave it to you readers to join in the thought process and see what you think. It is the question of why is it people aren’t really drawn to Christianity like they should be?

I realize that this could be a Western phenomenon. Go to other places where there is a greater need from perceived people and you will find willing martyrs most anywhere. Many of us can’t be inconvenienced to go to church if it’s raining a bit outside.

But I have been thinking about this since a few months ago when Pokemon Sword and Shield were announced and then when the games came out, which a friend bought Allie and I a copy of one for each of us respectively. Beforehand, it was a constant barrage of news from Poketubers, people on YouTube who make videos about the series, each trying to find out the latest rumors about the games and give us the information. Now that it’s out, people are still making videos sharing theories and giving feedback and matters of that sort.

We’ve all seen several trends go. Some are still with us. Video games are still extremely popular. The Matrix is still a movie series I can easily remember. Since it is around Christmastime, we can expect many old classic Christmas movies will be played.

We also have seen a rise in popularity of Superhero movies, including the whole arc of the Avengers, which my wife and I still need to finish seeing. I have also said I wouldn’t mind watching the Diehard series this Christmas, which I’ve actually never seen any of and why not watch a Christmas movie around Christmas time? Star Wars has disappointed some fans, but not because they don’t love the series, but they do. If a new Harry Potter movie comes out, people want to go see it.

Let’s face it also. Many of us do get excited about something like this. Even if it’s not a movie series, it could be a TV show or a sports team. There is some great enthusiasm and we want to tell others about it.

So why not Jesus?

I have a few thoughts.

One is that we have become too familiar with the story in some ways. We no longer see the way it impacts our culture. If we heard it all our lives growing up, it doesn’t have the shock effect that it would have. We treat the story almost as if it’s normal.

A second theory is that we don’t really understand it. It’s easy to understand a movie when you see it, but many of us can’t really enter into the ancient world like that. Movies seem to lack something. I’m sure if some of us saw a miracle right in front of us, we would be excited, but many of us do not.

Third, we have really tamed Jesus. Jesus is no longer someone intrusive. We tend to downplay Jesus turning over the tables in the temple or lambasting the Pharisees. We know He was crucified, but don’t really understand how that is. Mr. Rogers doesn’t get crucified. Jesus didn’t get crucified because He was a darn nice guy. Threats get crucified.

Fourth is that talking about Jesus is a risk. We could “offend” someone after all. Many of us also sadly aren’t prepared for opposition, which is why apologetics is so essential today. Also, in a day where sexual ethics are upfront and center, we’re especially scared to talk about Jesus.

I also speculate that God is hard for us to think about. After all, what do you think about when you think of God? We tend to think in images today, especially in the age of television, and you can’t image God. Sadly, He often seems static to us.

Like I said at the start, this is just something I’m still thinking about, but I’m eager to get some feedback on this post. It’s also important to stress that this is a problem often for us as well. Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft once said he sometimes fears he’s a bigger Red Sox fan than he is a Jesus fan. Many of us can probably relate to the struggle in other ways.

Let me know what you think!

In Christ,
Nick Peters