Today, Houston Baptist University officially announced Lee Strobel as the newest member of our faculty in the School of Christian Thought! I am very excited. It is hard for me to wrap my head around the the thought that I will be working with Lee Strobel. Only about a decade ago, I began to read Lee’s book, The Case for Christ, as part of my own investigation into the evidence for the existence of God. His work was instrumental in finding scholars who could answer my questions. I began listening to lectures and debates by the people Lee had interviewed in his books. Plus, I began to read the works by these authors: Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig, Love God With All Your Mind by J.P. Moreland, True for You, But Not for Me by Paul Copan and many more. It will be such an honor to serve alongside a man whose work has already been so influential in my life!
HBU faculty Licona, Sharp, and Strobel with Mark Mittelberg at EPS 2012
I hope you will considering joining us at HBU for your degree. We have a lot of “awesome” going on here! Check out our master’s degree in apologetics. Through our program you have the opportunity to study with top notch scholars! Michael Ward is heading up the C.S. Lewis Center,
through which HBU apologetics students have the opportunity to study in
Oxford. Plus, Nancy Pearcey, the founder and director of the Francis Schaeffer Center for Worldview and Culture and The Pearcey Report, is additionally offering two-track apologetics courses with a graduate track alongside the undergraduate track! It’s very exciting here in Houston!
Responding with Reason and Precision Houston, Texas with J.P. Moreland, Craig Hazen, Mike Licona, Mary Jo Sharp, Louis Markos, Micah Parker, Scott Swiggard and more!
April 1 – 2, 2011
Friday 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm Saturday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Cost: $40 (includes lunch on Saturday!)REGISTER NOW!
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church 18220 Upper Bay Road Houston, TX 77058
Conference Topics & Speakers Include:
Defending Your Faith Kickoff with J.P. Moreland, Craig Hazen, and more
The A, B, Cs…Ds & Es of Defending the Gospels with Mike Licona
Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? with Craig Hazen
An Open Dialog with an Atheist with MaryJo Sharp
Gods Existence, Fine-Tuning, Kalam, & the Moral Argument with J. P. Moreland
C.S. Lewis’ Most Influential Arguments with Louis Markos
A Dialog of “Unveiling the Veil” with Scott Swiggard, Chris Bolyard, & Jim Westerman
Mighty Warriors with Micah Parker
Conference Location:
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (across the street from NASA) 18220 Upper Bay Road Houston, TX 77058
“People may not always live what they profess, but they will always live what they believe.” Neil T. Anderson, Victory Over the Darkness, pg.124. Anderson’s powerful words hit at the very heart of the Christian’s life. It is one thing to live your life while professing Christianity. It is yet another thing to live your life believing the Christian message to be the truth about reality. To believe that Jesus was actually God entails some transforming factors: 1) God is real; there is more than just the natural world; 2) God has been, is, and will be active in the lives of his creation; and 3) What God says about us is the truth about us. 1) I still think many Christians have a difficult time with this first point. We are so inundated by naturalistic biases that we begin to question why it is that we think there is something other than strictly matter (these biases, related to “plausibility structures,” are aptly covered in the book, “In Search of a Confident Faith” by Moreland and Issler.) Doubt is not the problem here. Many people will have doubts, as can be seen even in the Scriptures; in the case of Thomas questioning Jesus (John20:25-28), and in the case of Paul and the Bereans (Acts 17: 10-12). The problem is the response to doubt. An inappropriate response would be to allow the doubt to continue without a proper investigation into both sides of the concerning issue. Then the doubt can become an emotional commitment without proper reasoning or without being intellectually honest. An appropriate response would be to read arguments on both sides of the issue causing the doubt—in this case in the area of metaphysics (metá = beyond, physiká = physical)—and to grapple with the arguments presented. There are many articles and books at differing levels for a person to begin their investigation; from a very introductory level to a very experienced level. Christians, who doubt, need to be honest with themselves and deal with the reality of God’s existence. Why do they believe God is real? What has brought them to this knowledge? Can they articulate that belief? In order to live like God is real, we first must believe the foundational premise that God is real. When Thomas was presented with reasonable evidence, he professed Jesus as God. When the Bereans were presented with a case for Jesus as God, they went home and checked it out for themselves; with many then professing Jesus as God. Without establishing each argument, a quick list of arguments for God’s existence to check out include: 1. The Cosmological Argument – Kalam Cosmological Argument – Thomist Cosmological Argument – Leibnizian Cosmological Argument 2. The Design Argument – The Anthropic Principle – Information as Design – Irreducible Complexity 3. The Moral Argument – Relativism – Conventionalism – Ethical Subjectivism – Objective Morality – Where Do Morals Come From? 4. The Argument from Consciousness 5. The Argument from Beauty 6. The Argument from Evil A good beginning resource for these arguments is The Holman Quicksource Guide to Christian Apologetics by Doug Powell of www.selflessdefense.com. Most of the arguments listed plus the argument from consciousness (from the mind) and the argument from beauty can be found in Scaling the Secular City by J.P. Moreland; along with many more not mentioned here. I have listed these arguments because it is important that Christians know there are numerous arguments that deal directly with the existence of God; not as a thorough treatment of any argument. I’ll continue with the points two and three later. MJ
In Search of a Confident Faith: Overcoming Barriers to Trusting in God
Authors: J.P. Moreland and Klaus Issler
Intervarsity Press
Review: Mary Jo Sharp
In Search of a Confident Faith is an excellent comprehensive apologetic for establishing trust in God “for real.” I wanted to review this book due to my own interest in Christians becoming confident in their faith. The book reaffirms the Christian faith as one of propositional knowledge confirmed through personal experience; but does so at a very accessible level. Moreland and Issler address many helpful points concerning the influence of Western culture in creating doubt in Christians’ faith. First, the authors address the misuse of the term “faith” in today’s culture as a “blind leap” or as in place of reason. The term historically entailed a much richer meaning of trust and confidence, which crucially required the proper exercise of reason, evidence, and knowledge. Second, they describe the essential role of knowledge in the Christian faith; through a look at the Biblical view of knowledge, through breaking down the concept of knowledge, and through addressing our plausibility structures (explained more thoroughly later). Third, the authors attend to intellectual and emotional doubts: both through logical arguments and then through practical steps in handling these doubts. Fourth, Moreland and Issler handle doubt caused by low expectations of God’s intervention into a believer’s life and make practical suggestions for increasing trust in God. Their writing systematically and carefully treats each area without losing interest or bogging down in terminology.Of particular interest is the section on plausibility structures, which the authors define as a set of background assumptions that establish a tone for what people think, how they feel, and how they act. Plausibility structures form our default beliefs and determine the things we are embarrassed to believe. According to Moreland and Issler, “Our current Western cultural plausibility structure elevates science and scorns and mocks religion, especially Christian teaching.” (page 46) The result is a tendency for Christians to doubt the supernatural worldview of the Bible. Those Christians who experience this doubt may not even realize their assumptions about knowledge are based on influence from this plausibility structure.
The Western cultural plausibility structure is broken down by analyzing commonly accepted background assumptions involved, including: 1) “It is smarter to doubt things than to believe them. Smart people are skeptical.” 2) “Religion is a matter of private, personal feelings and should be kept out of debates—political and/or moral—in the public square.” 3) “Science is the only way to know reality with confidence….science has made belief in God unnecessary.” 4) “We can only know things through our five senses.” (page 48) Plus, the authors provide steps to appraise and refute doubts caused by this plausibility structure, including a thorough questioning of the validity of the doubt itself. For example, is it really true that “it is smarter to doubt things than to believe them”? The authors suggest this kind of thinking is “intellectually irresponsible because our lives flourish with truths but flounder with falsehoods.” (page 51) For an example, the correct medicine for an ailment will help a person get well, but the wrong medicine (or taking no medicine at all due to skepticism) could have devastating effects.
Moreland and Issler then move onto dealing with specific intellectual doubts and emotional wounds, including childhood coping strategies that keep us from moving into a relationship of trust in God. The section on treating emotional wounds is reminiscent of Neil T. Anderson’s approach in “Victory Over the Darkness.” The source of the coping strategy is targeted (i.e. an abusive parent, failure to live up to parent expectations, etc.) and then a biblical truth is put in its place. And by including the source and treatment of emotional doubt, the authors have produced a comprehensive apologetic that is refreshing and transforming.
In part two, the authors investigate possible ways of increasing expectations of our faith in God. First, they explain why believers should expect God to intervene in their lives: Jesus promised to intervene in their lives. Second, they offer the example of Jesus’ faith and how he lived his life fully in God’s Kingdom through reliance on the Holy Spirit and reliance on God. Third, the authors give an explanation of some of the indicators of a life lived with a supernatural worldview. They explain that much of the doubt believers experience is caused by the apparent lack of God’s activity in their lives. So the solution to this particular doubt is to give more witness of the supernatural activity of God in our individual lives. If more Christians would give this witness, their testimony would build up other believers’ trust in God; their “God-confidence.”
This section of the book is strung together with candid personal stories by both authors. Not only do Moreland and Issler offer stories, but they also share their own struggles with and failings in spiritual transformation. Their personal touch in this section gives the book a “realness” lacking in some apologetic literature. The reader will not find merely another discourse in theology or another lecture in philosophy; but will find these authors are sitting down with the reader to share their own journey to the truth about world in which we live. In keeping with the personal feel of the book, the conclusion to part two offers active steps to grow in reliance on God; including a brief but extremely helpful discussion on the difficult subject of discerning God’s Will. Christians who read this book will definitely be edified and encouraged.
