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Articles - Miscellanea

CULTIVATE THE FALLOW GROUND

The prophet Hosea writes, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD” (Hosea 10:12, emp. added). The prophets often illustrated God’s truths from nature or from an agrarian viewpoint. They saw land that was generally plowed and sowed in crops laying idle; land that normally was productive was left lifeless, useless, and nonproductive (fallow). In Exodus 23:11, God required Israel to allow their ground to be fallow one year in seven. The fallow ground of Hosea was fallow, period! It was a graphic picture of carelessness and indifference in the people’s lives. Jeremiah joined the chorus of Hosea by writing, “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3, emp. added). Great food for thought!

Nothing is as cold as lead, yet nothing is so scalding as molten lead. There is nothing so blunt as iron, yet nothing so sharp if sharpened. There is nothing so merciful as God’s love, yet if He is provoked nothing is more terrible than His wrath. “Break up the fallow ground” (Hosea 10:12; Jeremiah 4:3) is picturesque. There is nothing so ineffective in the Christian as a forsaken, barren, or fallow life. Do we like a personal faith that produces no fruit for Christ? Are we content to not produce the fruit of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23)?

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W. Terry Varner, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics Comments
The Honor of Courage

In his essay, “The Honor of Courage,” Henry van Dyke wrote,

. . . [T]he history of the brave is written in letters of gold.
It is this that men have loved to read in . . . annals of war—deeds of self-forgetful daring which leap from the smoke and clamour of battle, and shine in the sudden making of splendid names. (Six Days of the Week 308-09)

We honor the courage of the “self-forgetful daring” of the healthcare professionals who are now battling day and night on the front-lines of the war against the COVID-19 pandemic. We are thankful for their extraordinary skills and sacrificial service.

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MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
“Concerning Religious Liberty in America”

Today, I would like to share some thoughts with you about religious liberty in America. . . .

From the Founding Era onward, there was strong consensus about the centrality of religious liberty in the United States.

The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety. It reflects the Framers’ belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government.

In his renowned 1785 pamphlet, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” James Madison described religious liberty as “a right towards men” but “a duty towards the Creator,” and a “duty….precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.”

It has been over 230 years since that small group of colonial lawyers led a revolution and launched what they viewed as a great experiment, establishing a society fundamentally different than those that had gone before.

They crafted a magnificent charter of freedom – the United States Constitution – which provides for limited government, while leaving “the People” broadly at liberty to pursue our lives both as individuals and through free associations.

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William P. Barr, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics
Preaching on Faith and Its Necessity

Introduction

   Recently a television program was aired in the Atlanta area featuring Thomas B. Warren in an interview about the Warren-Flew debate. The primary thrust of this program, as is the thrust of the whole “Issue of Life” series, was to show the need for belief in God and further to show the credibility of belief in God.

   A responsible person was reported to have questioned the value of this effort by wondering, “If the money spent on this effort were spent on this effort were spent on trying to convert people, would it not be more profitable?”

   The failure of this person—and he represents the thinking of thousands in the church—to realize what is involved in preaching the gospel and converting people is essentially the major lack of the church in its responsibility to evangelize the world.

   I hold in my hand the Bible. It is God’s book. It is His communication to man. In this Bible God reveals to humans today what He wishes them to know about Himself and indeed what He wishes them to know about themselves. Although we may learn many other things from our observation of the world about, the Bible contains that which God wishes us to know for our spiritual welfare.

   This writer has been preaching for a little over thirty-five years. When I began, I almost never found anyone who questioned the authority of the Bible. The whole controversy involved the matter of what the Bible said. Today much of our controversy involves whether it even matters what the Bible says.

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Robert S. Camp, MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
'Tis the Season...

This is the time of year when many Christians expend the bulk of their religious fervor (most of the balance occurring at Easter). It is also a time when a great deal of the religious significance of this season is overwhelmed by crass commercialization and unrestrained materialism. Some Christians are repulsed by Christmas because of what commercialization has down; others do not celebrate it because there is no directive in the Bible to give Christ’s birthday a special celebration. Whether one opts to recognize the birth of Christ or to ignore it altogether, one fact remains: the birth of Christ is one of the four greatest, most improbable, and intensely inscrutable events in all existence. These events overshadow all human history, achievement, and thought. They are 1) the Creation (the work of God), 2) The Incarnation of Christ (the birth of God as a man), 3) the death and resurrection of Christ (the suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection of God), and 4) Christ's Second Coming (the return of God). If we would stop the excessive spending, insatiable wanting, and foolish squabbling, we might have time to consider things “that cannot be told, which man may not utter (2 Corinthians 12:4 ESV).”

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Jim Hyest, MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
The "Oxygen" and "Poison" of Gratitude

In a 2019 book, Os Guinness makes the observation that gratitude is “foundational to . . . trust in and allegiance to God, and memory is gratitude’s oxygen just as forgetfulness is its poison” (92). Scripture implies that forgetfulness will poison thanksgiving while positive remembrance will keep it alive. Moses reminded Israel of this in the following: 

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. . . . Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth. . . . And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17-20, ESV) 

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Charles C. Pugh III, MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
Remembrance

ON [VETERAN’S] DAY we remember; and, remembering, judge ourselves. A nation, like an individual, is the sum of all the preceding character that has contributed to it. There is the best and the worst, both made profitable by a just conscience, which recognizes and decides between them. The light of high endeavor never goes out; the torch passes from generation to generation, borne safely amid tumult and peace, amid onslaught and reverence.

   Today the nation stands on the golden hillcrest of which only the boldest had dared to dream, and looks back along the road. A long, magnificent road gloriously alive with the figures of brave men and brave women, of loyal hearts of undiscouraged purpose, of God-fearing manhood.

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MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
The Virtue of Work in Human Flourishing

Reading an essay by syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, during the early days of 2015, introduced me to a small, but unusual book called the Fate of Empires and Search for Survival. The author of the book is the late Sir John Glubb, British diplomat who lived from 1897 to 1986. The Thomas essay was originally titled “America Interrupted” and first appeared in the Cal Thomas column published by the Chicago Tribune, 29 December 2014. I read it from a copy of The Intelligencer (Wheeling, WV) handed to me by a friend. The headline of the article in the Wheeling paper was “Without Duty, Decadence.”

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Charles C. Pugh III, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics Comment
THE CULTURE OF ARMAGEDDON

“Is there a cultural war?” A good question. What do we mean by culture? Culture is “the sum total of ways of living developed by a group of human beings and handed on from generation to generation” (qtd. in Gagging of God 538). This definition creates conflict between good and evil, right and wrong, God and the world, but cannot be avoided. Incidentally, this is the meaning of Armageddon in Revelation 16:16. 

The biblical worldview. In the beginning (Genesis 1-3), God set forth the biblical worldview culminating in Christianity (Hebrews 1:1-2a; John 14:6). The biblical worldview insists man obey, serve, worship and glorify God (Revelation 4:11). God defines both the origin and purpose of man. God created man in His image (Genesis 1:26-27) and as the apex of His creation. He imbued man with all the traits of personality. God created man a creature of choice; i.e. man could choose to obey or disobey God. Consequently, man walks in the biblical worldview when his behavior is learned and modified by the divine standard, the Bible.

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W. Terry Varner, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics Comment
Early Defenders of the Faith

From its beginning the Christian faith has been in conflict with the world, facing the hostility of rival religions, philosophies, and political powers. The “city of God” (as Augustine calls it) has always been at war with the “earthly city,” and that conflict, in the view of Augustine, is the dominant fact of world history. It is a struggle for the hearts of men, and it still goes on wherever Christians are found.

   In the first three centuries the church encountered four chief antagonists: Judaism, philosophy, paganism, and the Roman state.

   Judaism.  The earliest extended account of a controversy between Christian and Jew is the Dialogue with Trypho, written by Justin Martyr not far from the year 150. Trypho was an educated Jew, perhaps identical with a Rabbi Tarphon, who is mentioned in the Jewish Mishna. Justin went about, wearing the philosopher’s cloak to mark him as a teacher, and talked of Christ as he had opportunity. He was walking one day in Ephesus when he was hailed by Trypho, who asked what was the nature of the philosophy he professed. In reply Justin gave an account of his early studies with Stoic, Pythagorean, and Platonist philosophers. Then he met an old man who was able to go beyond Plato, telling him of ancient prophets to whom God had revealed things hidden from philosophers, especially the future coming of his Son, the Christ. Justin was converted and resolved to devote his life to teaching others.

   Trypho laughed when he heard the story, saying that Justin would have done better to stay with the teaching of Plato, unless he was willing fully to accept the Law and the prophets, along with observance of circumcision, the Sabbath, and the other ordinances.

   Justin replied by quoting Isaiah on the calling of the Gentiles, and Jeremiah on the two covenants. Christianity, he declared, is the new covenant foretold by the prophet. It replaced the old, and it is now being preached to every people. So the discussion went on, with constant appeals to the Old Testament, which was recognized by both as a final authority. Particular emphasis is laid on the divinity of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection, and the conversion of the Gentiles. Micah had spoken of the last days, when Jehovah should be exalted, and the nations should say: “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:1-7; cf. Dialogue 109). Through Micah God had made a similar prophecy. “From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering” (Malachi 1:10-12; cf. Dialogue 117).

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William M. Green, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics Comment
A Few Thoughts On Probability

When I was training gospel preachers, I would at times tell them the following: The affirmation of a probability is the admission of the possibility of the contradictory. What does that precisely mean? It means that when a person asserts that something is only probable, he is already saying at the same time what is being asserted may not be correct at all. In other words, if I say that I will probably attend a ball game tonight, it is also the case that I may not attend that ball game. The contradictory (I may not attend) is possible just as the affirmation (I will probably attend) is possible and stated as a probability. The chances of the occurrence of my attending or not attending do not cancel this truth: When I say that something is probably the case, I am also saying that it is possible that it may not be the case at all.

A second fundamental point needs to be stated just here: Nothing ever probably occurs in the real world external to the human mind. Probability is not a characteristic or an attribute of the world in which we live. I am afraid that in the discussion of probability this truth is sometimes not realized.

Whatever happens—happens. Whatever does not happen—does not happen. When it happens or does not happen, probability is nowhere to be found in the event.

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Mac Deaver, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics Comments
On American Motherhood

In our modern industrial civilization there are many and grave dangers to counterbalance the splendors and the triumphs. It is not a good thing to see cities grow at disproportionate speed relatively to the country; for the small land owners, the men who own their little homes, and therefore to a very large extent the men who till farms, the men of the soil, have hitherto made the foundation of lasting national life in every State; and, if the foundation becomes either too weak or too narrow, the superstructure, no matter how attractive, is in imminent danger of falling.

But far more important than the question of the occupation of our citizens is the question of how their family life is conducted. No matter what that occupation may be, as long as there is a real home and as long as those who make up that home do their duty to one another, to their neighbors and to the State, it is of minor consequence whether the man’s trade is plied in the country or in the city, whether it calls for the work of the hands or for the work of the head.

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Theodore Roosevelt, MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
Apatheism Is More Damaging to Christianity Than Atheism and Antitheism  

The greatest threat to Christianity is found not in the arguments of the atheist but in the assumptions of the apathetic. The “new apathy” is a more dangerous threat than the new atheism.

The “new atheism” fad of Richard Dawkins, Samuel Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and dozens of other ornery antitheists created a lot of noise over the God Question, reaching its peak in the late 2000s. The loud, kaleidoscopic festival of fallacies served up by these commentators attracted a lot of media attention. Westerners had never had such a public and prominent debate on God’s existence, and millions were seduced by superficially intriguing yet ultimately facile questions like “who created God?” and “is a prime mover not equally as plausible as a giant plate of pasta floating in space?”

Western liberals bemoaned the crimes of the religious, dreaming Lennonishly of a world without fanaticism—as if Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Hoxha had not amply proven that extremism can exist among the atheistic. There were religious responses, but too often they were simplistic and unconvincing, like the infamous “crocoduck.” More nuanced and incisive rebuttals, such as Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition and David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions, somehow never quite achieved the same recognition.

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MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
The Importance of Meta Apologetics

The need to explain the meaning of Christian apologetics is not uncommon in the classroom, much less, casual conversation. When introducing the term in the classroom or Bible study, I typically begin by asking about the modern use of our word “apology” to jumpstart a conversation about the older meaning of apology from the Greek word apologia. If I am in a philosophy class this helps clarify what to expect in the reading of the Apology of Socrates by Plato; and if I am in a Bible class it is a way to elaborate on the meaning of 1 Peter 3:15 and connect it to our modern meaning of Christian apologetics. After this simple introduction I typically jump into an overview of the major pillars of Christian faith: existence of God, the inspiration of Scripture, and the deity of Christ. However, the more familiar someone becomes with topics and writers in Christian apologetics, the more relevant another kind of inquiry becomes, that is, of meta apologetics.

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Matthew Sokoloski, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics Comments
A Special 2019 Apologetics Event

Reflecting on the past and present event opportunities afforded Warren Apologetics Center should produce deep gratitude. The words of Paul strike a chord: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

The Warren Center, namesake of Thomas B. Warren, one of the greatest voices on behalf of Christian theism in the 20th century, challenges religious skepticism through the rich legacy of Warren’s classical (biblical) apologetics approach. He being dead still speaks (cf. Hebrews 11:4). His debate with Antony Flew, arguably the world’s foremost philosophical atheist in the 20th century, has been called the most significant debate on the existence of God during the last 100 years or more. From Warren’s flawless logical theistic argumentation, the great public interest generated by the debate, and all followed three decades later by Flew’s “conversion” to belief in God, it may very well be the time when atheism was handed its most devastating defeat since the earliest days of Christianity.

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Charles C. Pugh III, MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
Remembering Thomas B. Warren

In 1994, or perhaps 1995, I was a student at East Tennessee School of Preaching. At the time I was having a dispute with my teacher, Al Simmons, on a logic matter. If I recall correctly, Al was teaching a hermeneutics class when the dispute arose; Al was a good student of Scripture and logical analysis. Before my enrollment in the school, I took some philosophy classes at Boise State University and one formal logic class. This was about 1990, while I was serving in the US Air Force. Since Al was the teacher of the class, I was on the short end of the dispute, but I was convinced I was right on the problem. All I knew to do was call someone of logical note, and I thought the best one to call was Thomas B. Warren. Not knowing how to get in touch with Dr. Warren, I called Garland Elkins at Memphis School of Preaching. I explained my conundrum and asked for assistance. After a few moments of conversation, he said I should call Warren, something which I was very much interested in doing. After having given me his number, I made the call.

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Ron Thomas, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics Comments
Is the Christian Faith Rational?

  There are Christians who become troubled when they think about their faith and sometimes they wonder if their Christian faith is true. Too many Christians have accepted the facts of Christianity solely on the basis of trust and confidence in others (parents, friends). They have never given a close and careful consideration to examine the basis of Christianity (the Bible).

   The age in which we live is both sophisticated and educated. It demands that we know what and why we believe something. Believing something does not make it true. A thing is true or not true regardless of whether anyone believes it. This is true of Christianity as of everything else.

   There are those who reason that Christianity is at least non-rational if not irrational. They use Paul’s statement: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8, ESV). However, this is an abuse of Paul’s statement. Christianity is rational. The Bible is the ground of faith. Faith in Christianity is built on evidence. Paul wrote: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17, NKJV). The Christian faith is reasonable and rational.

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W. Terry Varner, MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment
Our Culture and Life

Someone wrote, “The culture around us has declared war on all biblical standards. . . . Some Christian unwittingly began following suit several years ago. That has opened the door for a whole generation in the churches to embrace postmodern relativism openly and deliberately.” No one will deny that our culture lacks a biblical basis and has a secular basis. To understand the “war on all biblical standards,” we mean there is no right and wrong, no true and false, no good and bad but only shades of gray. This is not the proper way of understating God’s truth. Stated above is what is called postmodern relativism. The confusion of the above concerning our culture is troubling. We believe the following observation is correct: “The United States is entering a post-Christian era and is rapidly becoming a foreign nation to committed believers” (Charisma Magazine). The question is: “How can we instill in our society a love for God’s truths.” Consider the following:

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W. Terry Varner, MiscellaneaWarren Apologetics
Remembering

On the evening of September 3, 1814, 35 year old Francis Scott Key was held captive on British warships while the British attempted to subdue Baltimore. On that rainy night Key watched as Fort McHenry was continually bombarded by cannon and rocket fire. When dawn broke on September 4, Key was so inspired to see the large flag still flying over the fort that he wrote a poem entitled, “The Defence of Fort McHenry.” The poem was later set to music and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” On March 3, 1931, by congressional resolution, “The Star-Spangled Banner” officially became our National Anthem.

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Miscellanea, Bill WatkinsWarren ApologeticsComment
The Greatness of the Christian Life

Because of the debates like that which he had with the late Antony Flew, Thomas B. Warren is remembered as a great debater. However, Thomas B. Warren was also a great preacher. I recall listening to him deliver a masterpiece sermon a few years before his death in 2000. The sermon was on the Christian life, and the text was Philippians 4:1-23. In the introduction Warren observed that there are times when we need to take lengthy passages and “follow along” in the passage to see what it is telling us. In this case, he asked, “What is Philippians 4:1-23 telling us about the Christian life?”

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Charles C. Pugh III, MiscellaneaWarren ApologeticsComment