Scripture – “Reasons for the Faith, aka Apologetics”

Do You Know MLK’s Biblical Basis for his Civil Disobedience?

MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Makes a Powerful Biblical Case for Disobeying an Unjust Law.

Monday, January 18, 2021, was our country’s annual celebration of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Gospel Coalition published an annotated version (by Justin Taylor) of his heart-rending Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

You can read Justin’s post here: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/an-annotated-guide-to-martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail/

MLK was a Christian First.

Martin Luther King Jr. was above all things a Christian. People who are hostile to Gospel are quick to call him “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” but go to great lengths to omit his title of Reverend. Nevertheless, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was instrumental in the success of the Civil Rights movement in this country.

This success was all made possible, in my opinion, because they were not at all confused about the source of their claim to justice.

The Religious Reason for MLK’s Actions.

Below are the 8^th and 9^th paragraphs of the letter, along with the annotation shown in bold italics (emphasis in the original article):

“[Religious reason]

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”

Conclusion.

I am keeping this post brief so you can more quickly go read the (very long!) annotated Letter.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Justification as a Tool for Racial Healing

For Racial Healing, Start with Scripture.

Steve Ham is the Senior Pastor at Hyde Park Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He wrote an article titled Racial Discrimination Needs Justification More Than Justice on September 11, 2019. The article appeared on the Living Waters website.

Please see the full article, here:

https://www.livingwaters.com/racial-discrimination-needs-justification-more-than-justice/

I include here several large blocks of text that, in my opinion, spell out the opportunity the church has to employ the doctrine of Justification as a tool for racial healing:

“Understanding Justification

Justification is an important doctrine because it eliminates class distinction. Paul makes this very clear as he talks about it in the context of Jews and Gentiles. Of course, we know that there is a difference between Jews and Gentiles, and Paul even acknowledges it. “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners” (Galatians 2:15). Paul and Peter were born as Jews under the Old Covenant law while Gentiles were not. Even so, Paul makes a striking statement that levels the playing field for everyone. “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

Do you see the leveling in this? Even though there is an outward difference by heritage and culture, Paul and Peter both know that there is no better class of Christian. Nobody is justified by works of the law.

We are all level in either being separated from God and under the condemnation of sin or being covered by the goodness of Christ who died on our behalf through having faith in him alone. Either way there is no class of goodness that any of us who are classified by the word “human” can claim of our own. Justification is a declaration by God upon sinners who otherwise by their own merits would stand condemned. Instead, through faith in Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for our sin, God looks at us through the righteousness of Christ and makes a glorious declaration of “not guilty.”

What Can the Church Do About the Racism Epidemic?

Because of the Great Commission, the church is already spread through nations, tribes and tongues in the world. We have individual believers everywhere in every setting who can live out the ramifications of justification and preach its hope.

None of us need a bigger voice than what we already have in our own individual context. We can speak and act in our own mission fields that we often categorize as vocations, families and neighborhoods. If we are living and speaking out the racially equalizing message of justification in our mission fields, can you imagine the impact of the church? It’s easy to forget that the church is so dynamic. There are Christians placed everywhere all over the world. Why should we underestimate what our voices and lives can do in our own settings? We are empowered in the Spirit to live out the equalizing effect of justification and preach its truth. Our power is in a message that brings equalizing force to racial discrimination with eternal gain for anyone who hears and believes. The voice of the church is everywhere if only we will all speak out in our own settings and point to justification in Christ as the greatest equalizing power in the world. There may be a cost for using that voice in our own settings, but Christ never said that people would accept us. In fact, he said we would be persecuted for the sake of his name.

I would rather mobilize every church member with the eternally equalizing message of justification in the commission that Christ has actually given us rather than having a priority of changing a social landscape that can never give people a real solution to their biggest problem. Not one of us needs to feel impotent when facing this massive cultural problem. We simply all need to be individually obedient to the commission Christ has already given us. Instead of pushing the ideas of social commentators in the hope that they might go viral and impact the culture, we need the Great Commission to go viral with the equalizing message of justification that brings everyone level at the foot of the cross.”

Conclusion

Let’s make use of the tools Scripture offers whenever we seek to solve a problem!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

The Church can Work to Eliminate Racism

How the Church can Work to Eliminate Racism

We, the Church, have an opportunity to work together to eliminate racism.

The Church (i.e., we who follow Jesus) can (1) proclaim the truth of Scripture that we are all one race; (2) expose the lies that enable racism; and (3) preach the Gospel as the ultimate cure for the sin of racism.

Racism is a Sin that Requires a Divine Cure

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis thinks we would do away with racism if we all recognized that we are all brothers and sisters, and then treated each other accordingly.

“At the central core of racism, we find the sinful hearts of men living in a fallen world. This fundamental problem has no earthly cure. There is no speech that can be given, no law that can be passed, and no publicity campaign that can solve it. Only the truth of God’s Word combined with the strength of God’s Holy Spirit living within us can bring us victory over this sin.”

– Charles Ware; Ken Ham.
One Race One Blood, pp. 38

Yes, we are all One Race.

From the Evidence Bible’s daily post on 6/11/19:

“Science may have caught up with the Bible, which says that Adam and Eve are the ancestors of all humans alive today.”

Peter Underhill of Stanford University in California remarked on findings published in the November 2000 issue of the journal Nature Genetics…Geneticists have long agreed there is no genetic basis to race—only to ethnic and geographic groups. “People look at a very conspicuous trait like skin color and they say, ‘Well, this person’s so different’…but that’s only skin deep,” Underhill said. “When you look at the level of the Y chromosome you find that, gee, there is very little difference between them. And skin color differences are strictly a consequence of climate.”

“When the families scattered from Babel, they each took different combinations of genes with them. In such small populations, trivial differences (such as skin color) can arise quickly in only a few generations. Even evolutionists admit this is true. But different shades of skin and slightly different genetic traits are trivial and do not constitute different ‘races.’” Carl Kerby, Answers in Genesis

Acts 17:26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.”

See: We are all of the same race—the “human race.”

Here’s How to Treat Each Other as Brothers and Sisters:

Dr. Voddie Baucham, in his sermon title One Blood, explores how racism has roots in Evolutionary theory. He shows that it matters very much whether one accepts the One Blood hypothesis described in Genesis.

The basis of all the ethnic divisions we have seen is the denial of the One Blood, One Race hypothesis.

The solution, he says, is in taking literally what God’s Word says in Genesis. Adam and Eve were literal, not symbolic, people. Noah was a literal person from whom all humans are descended. The flood was a literal flood. It was through the sons of Noah that we derived the various types of people.

If we accept what the Bible says, what does that mean for how we (the Church) act?

We celebrate all are one in Adam and in Noah.

Also, we celebrate that we are one in Christ.

We refuse to allow faulty thinking about race to divide and separate us.

We recognize that all racism is a sin, even in ourselves.

We stop using race as a category. We can talk about ethnicity instead, and then use that point to open up opportunities to get into the Gospel.

We can acknowledge our culture but advance the Kingdom.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. If we believe that, it should impact how we communicate “out there,” treat people “out there,” and what we expect from people “out there.”

– Dr. Voddie Baucham – One Blood – Sermon Library – 9/30/17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ5JZ9MUfKA

Conclusion

We have an opportunity to impact the culture. Let’s seize it!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Thinking and Communicating Foundationally

I wrote in The Authority of Scripture, that it matters what Christians believe about Genesis.

Genesis Chapters 1 – 11: God’s Eyewitness Account is our sure Foundation.

It also matters that we have a clear understanding of the foundation that Genesis chapters 1-11 provides for the Gospel, and indeed for all aspects of our faith.

Genesis 1:26-28 explains that God created human beings in His image, male & female. In

Genesis 2:20-25, God also defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Genesis 3:1-24 illustrates how sin and death entered the world, and that we need a Savior to spare us from the consequences of our sins.

Genesis 6:9 – 8:22 narrates the events of the worldwide flood, which explains the existence of the worldwide fossil record.

Genesis 9:18-19 and 10:1-32 show that there is only one race – the human race. We all came from Noah’s sons and daughters-in-law. The modern science of Genetics, via the Human Genome Project, affirms the Bible’s teaching on that.

Genesis 11:1-9 records that all the different people groups were scattered across the earth away from the Tower of Babel, where climate factors such as heat and cold led to the variations in skin tone and other surface characteristics we now observe.

Communicating Between the Competing Foundations.

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis demonstrated the importance of understanding one’s own Biblical foundation, and of recognizing the different foundation that dominates our culture. He described how to have a calm discussion over some often-heated issues.

Ken gave a speech at the University of Central Oklahoma in front of an audience that included many who were hostile to Ken and his message. Ken took the time gently to explain what he believes and why he believes it. He then acknowledged that people who have the foundation of man’s word instead of God’s word will understandably come to different conclusions about issues such as gender, marriage, and abortion.

He then stressed our common humanity, stating: we are all related. The audience actually applauded that observation!

See: The Relevance of Genesis in a Secular World with Ken Ham for all the details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPOiy4xtUPM

Teaching the Generations to Think Foundationally

We live in a culture that constantly reinforces the “man’s word” foundation. Our schools, universities, government agencies, public libraries, TV, movies, and social media operate from those assumptions. The culture is openly hostile to God’s word.

We must remain vigilant to spot the atheistic assumptions that are presented as scientific fact, such as Darwinian evolution. We also need to be diligent to teach our kids and grandkids the skeptics’ common objections and the Biblical answers to them. People walk away from the faith when the skeptical objections go unanswered. If the objections go unanswered, they must be true, right?

We need to learn the common objections such as: “Science has proven there is no God;” and “a loving God wouldn’t allow so much evil and suffering.” We also need to learn the Biblically sound answers to those objections. Finally, we need to train our kids and grandkids in how to recognize and respond to the objections.

Conclusion

Our marching orders as Apologists come from 1 Peter 3:15-16, where we are instructed always to be ready with an answer for anyone who asks for the hope we have, and to do so with gentleness and respect.

I think Ken gives us a great example to follow.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

The Inerrancy of Scripture

It matters what Christians Believe About the Inerrancy of Scripture.

John MacArthur of Ligonier Ministries answers the question: “What would you say to a Christian who denies the inerrancy of Scripture?”

See this 9:30 video produced by Genesis Apologetics on the Reliability of Scripture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAH_-Du2428

MacArthur comes in at roughly the 6:57 mark. He spells out the serious consequences that flow from believing that the Bible is not inerrant:

You are denying God’s own claims for the Bible

You are denying what the Holy Spirit, the author of Scripture, says about Scripture (that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God; that every word is pure; that Scripture is God-breathed.)

You are denying every time in Scripture that it says “thus says The Lord…”

You are denying the overall superintending power of God over His Revelation.

It says that you are the judge of Scripture. You just made yourself the authority over the Bible. You’re the one we have to trust to tell us what’s true and not true in the Bible.

The only reason you deny inerrancy is because there is something in the Bible you don’t like. You’ve then said that “what the Bible says can’t be true.”

Once you’ve broken a link in the chain of Scripture, how do we know that anything in it is true? When the Bible claims inspiration for all of it, and you break that, what do you do? How do you trust any of it?

You could say you don’t believe in the Biblical account of Creation, that you believe in evolution instead. Evolution isn’t in Genesis. the question then becomes If that’s not true, what else isn’t, and who is the person who will tell us what is and isn’t true?

You literally unravel the Scripture if you Deny it’s inerrancy.

What is Biblical Inerrancy?

According to https://www.theopedia.com/inerrancy:

“Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrines or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.”[1] The conservative evangelical stance on inerrancy was most recently and thoroughly articulated in 1978 in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.

For a longer exploration of Biblical inspiration and inerrancy, see:

https://answersingenesis.org/is-the-bible-true/why-should-we-believe-in-the-inerrancy-of-scripture/

Conclusion

As Apologists, we are called on always to be ready with an answer (1 Pet. 3:15). I think readiness includes having a firm grasp on why we have the confidence that we have in God’s Word.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.