Spizzerinctum and Apologetics
The class was a graduate level study called “Problems of Religious Knowledge.” It entailed a study of Logic and Epistemology as these topics relate to the question of whether religious propositions are matters of cognition. In other words, can one know, and know that he knows, that 1) God exists, 2) the Bible is the word of God, and 3) Jesus Christ is the Son of God, et al.?
Most of us who were enrolled in this class (approximately 25 students) were in our 20’s. A few were older. Thomas B. Warren was our professor. It was a great study, which I found to be the case with all of Dr. Warren’s classes at Harding Graduate School of Religion, Memphis, TN; now Harding School of Theology, Searcy, AR.
I cannot adequately express the deep gratitude felt for the profound influence Thomas B. Warren has had on my life. There are countless others who feel as I when it comes to the inestimable teaching of Dr. Warren. The memory of his teaching along with that of my mother and father, and such men as R. C. Oliver, Charles J. Aebi, Jess W. Nutter, W. Terry Varner, and others, is truly among the richest blessings that have been granted to me in this life.
I am thinking of a specific incident that occurred during the aforementioned graduate class. Some of the details I do not recall, but indelibly impressed on my memory is how during one of the class sessions, Dr. Warren exclaimed, “You fellows need more spizzerinctum!” That was the first time I heard the word spizzerinctum. In fact, as I recall, most, if not all, in the class had never heard this unusual word. [Note: In his book, Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken wrote the following about C. S. Lewis: “[N]ever was there a man who could so swiftly cut through anything that even approached fuzzy thinking. . . . In brilliance, he could hold his own . . .” (108-09). Vanauken’s description of Lewis also aptly describes Thomas B. Warren. His dear friend, Roy Deaver, said of Warren: “He is the greatest ‘thinking machine’ I have ever known” (8). And, Deaver himself was no intellectual weakling!] I actually wondered to myself as I heard the strange word spizzerinctum spoken by Dr. Warren if he may have invented the word. I do not doubt that there were others in the class who may have wondered the same thing. Of course, Warren did not invent the word. As I remember, he did not even give us the definition of the word. However, he did make it clear that we needed to look it up in the dictionary. So, I learned that spizzerinctum is a powerful word. It carries such meanings as ambition, determination, the will to succeed, vim, vigor, energy, and zeal. In some contexts, it refers to intestinal fortitude.
Paul instructed the Christians in Rome to not be “lagging in diligence [but] fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). The root word for the Greek term translated in this text as “lagging” (NKJV) is okneo. It indicates hesitation, delay, reluctance, and sluggishness (cf. Thayer 442). There is a sharp contrast between attitude and action in this Romans passage, and Bauer clearly shows this to be the case: “When earnestness [determination] is needed, never be indolent [lethargic]” (563). The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament is a very helpful tool in studying the New Testament text. In reference to the word okneo this scholarly source provides the rich observation that Josephus used okneo to describe “military attacks which slowed down because those fighting became soft and lost heart” (Rogers and Rogers 339). In light of this, Barclay’s remarks are even more obviously pertinent and powerful:
. . . We must not be sluggish in zeal. There is a certain intensity in the Christian life. There is no room for lethargy in it. . . . [T]he world is always a battle-ground between good and evil; the time is short; and life is a preparation ground for eternity. . . .
. . . [T]he Christian man is a man desperately in earnest; he has a fire in his bones; and therefore he is aflame for Christ. (178)
As always, Jesus provides the perfect example of manhood. He is the perfect example of what is entailed in proper ambition, determination, zest, and zeal for, and in, life (cf. 1 Peter 2:21; Colossians 1:28). Luke wrote, “Now it came to pass when the time had come for Him to be received up that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Jesus “knew full well what was before Him . . . . But He never flinched for a moment” (Ryle 332, emp. added). Marshall describes it as “expressive of firm determination” (405) to do what must be done. It is determination “not withstanding the clearly foreseen consequences of the journey” (Lamar 150). Hendricksen summarizes truthfully and eloquently in the following.
The face of Jesus as revealed in [Luke] 9:51 fills us with awe. His mind is fully made up. He is determined to go to Jerusalem in order to lay down his life for his own. High resolve to carry out the task which the Father has assigned to him, and love for his “sheep,” make his step firm, his face radiant and stedfast. Nothing . . . can cause him to swerve from his course. To the cross he must go. What sublime, wholehearted devotion (9:51-56)! (532)
Here we see Jesus challenged by “a fear to be surmounted [with] an energy to be displayed. . . . To start for Jerusalem is [a] march to His death; Jesus knows it” (Godet 10). To set the face is a fixed “purpose especially in the prospect of difficulty or danger” (Rogers and Rogers 132). To the follower of Jesus Christ, the example of Jesus in an apologetics context connects with the following words written by Peter:
And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:13-17)
Delivered from fear and distraction, disciples of Jesus Christ who “sanctify the Lord God in [their] hearts, and [are] always ready to give a defense [Gk. apologia] to everyone who asks . . . reason for the hope” manifest the power in that unusual word to which Dr. Warren introduced us many years ago. In his treatment of 1 Peter 3:8-15, the prominent 19th century British preacher John Henry Jowett comments:
If a man has sanctified in his heart Christ as Lord . . . changed into passionate enthusiasm . . . [and] trembling timidities have given place to firm and fruitful fearlessness . . . to give to every man who asketh him a reason concerning the hope . . . [he] does not peep out in an apologetic “perhaps” or a trembling “if”; it is . . . a confident “I know.” (72-73)
As these words are being written, nearly six decades have come and gone since that class on logic and epistemology, which centered on the question of can one know, and know that he knows, religious propositions. More than a half century has passed since Thomas B. Warren exclaimed to that class, “You fellows need more spizzerinctum!”
The years have passed, but two things learned from the above remain: 1) Truth is absolute and attainable, and 2) zeal for the knowledge, proclamation, and defense of the truth is essential. Two years following the class, and Dr. Warren’s exclamation, he received an invitation to contribute a chapter to the book What Lack We Yet? edited by J. D. Thomas. Near the close of Warren’s chapter, he summarized what this is all about.
The Bible teaches that there is one definite body of doctrine and that we must by loyal to that one body of doctrine (Galatians 1:6-9; Jude 3; Matthew 7:21-23; John 3:32; Revelation 22:18-19). The church was truly militant during the first century and it grew at an almost incredible rate. The church was truly militant from the mid-nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. Again it grew at an almost incredible rate. Not only did it grow in number, it remained basically sound during the times that it was militant during this later period. It is surely the case that when men lose their zeal for the militant proclamation and defense of the truth, they are either losing or have already lost their clear concept of the uniqueness and essentiality of the truth of the Lord. (Warren 190, emp. added)
Thomas B. Warren’s point to our class was about: 1) knowing the truth, and knowing that you can know it, and 2) the zeal—the spizzerinctum—to proclaim and defend it. He taught us to know the truth, know that we know it, and declare it with a fire in our bones!
Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. (Jeremiah 20:9)
Works Cited
Barclay, William. The Letter to the Romans. 1955. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1957.
Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 1957. Eds. William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick Danker. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979.
Deaver, Roy. “Foreword.” Lectures on Church Cooperation and Orphan Homes. Jonesboro: National Christian, 1963.
Godet, F. A Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke. The Foreign Theological Library. 5th ed. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1976.
Hendricksen, William. New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978.
Jowett, John Henry. The Epistles of Peter. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1993.
Lamar, J. S. The New Testament Commentary. Vol. 2: Luke. St. Louis: Christian Board, 1877.
Marshall, I. Howard. The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Luke. Carlisle: Paternoster/Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978.
Rogers, Cleon L., Jr., and Cleon L. Rogers III. The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.
Ryle, J. C. Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. St. Luke Vol. 1. Cambridge/London: Clarke, 1969 rprt.
Vanauken, Sheldon. A Severe Mercy. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977.
Warren, Thomas B. “We Show Our Faith in and Love for Jesus Christ by Obeying His Word.” What Lack We Yet? Ed. J. D. Thomas. Abilene: Biblical Research, 1974.