"warnie" via Adrian Warnock

Related Tags: cartoons, catblogging, Aggie, Flash

by Dan Phillips

Reasons We Believe, by Nathan Busenitz (Crossway: 2008; 224 pages)

I kind of hate Nate Busenitz. (You know... in a Christian way.)

He's, like, twelve years old (if that), and has already published an apologetics tool that (A) is really worthwhile; (B) will deservedly get much use; and (C) is recommended by John Frame.

Punk!

But I'll try to set my personal issues aside and introduce you to nate's opus, because I think you'll find it both informative and useful. It is an fine book, and I recommend it highly.

What Nate does here is something fresh and very needed. He takes the lofty theories of presuppositional apologetics, and shows us how to make use of Christian evidences. Specifically, Busenitz focuses on the Bible's own way of arguing for the truth of revelation, and then he points to real-world demonstrations of those truths.

I've long lamented a lack of such materials, which Nate has now supplied. Historically, presupp's have been wonderful in presenting negative cases, and not-so-much in presenting the positive. For instance, Douglas Wilson absolutely devastated Christopher Hitchens in a series run by CT. The negative case was nothing short of withering.

But as a positive case? Wilson actually says "I noted from your book that you are a baptized Christian [as a baby], so I want to conclude by calling and inviting you back to the terms of that baptism" — "terms" to which Hitchens had never himself agreed, and in which he was an unwilling participant. Wilson also passingly alludes to ankles, sneezes, and baptizing babies as evidence. I don't think Hitchens was left "without excuse"; I know he wasn't persuaded.

And so it has been. Presupp's do awesome destructive work, but not so much along the lines of positive evidence. That is left to the various stripes of evidentialists, who however allow for mythical "brute facts" and objectivity, and build a probabilistic case that does not always challenge the unbeliever's autonomy, nor leave him "without excuse."

That's where Nate steps in with Reasons We Believe. He actually does evidence, within a presuppositionalistic framework.

What I tried to do briefly and inadequately here (in supplying that lack), Nate does much better and at greater length. He takes "50 lines of evidence that confirm the Christian faith" (the book's subtitle), and traces them out. With documentation — in footnotes! What is unique about the fifty lines of evidence is that they are taken to reflect the Bible's own way of presenting the truth of God, its own line of argument, rather than one derived from some alien philosophy and hostile premise.

Then, from that Biblical starting-point, Busenitz shows how these truths evidence themselves in facts, logic, history. He does not try to adopt a fictitious "brute-fact" premise and try to argue from nowhere to the Bible; he begins with the Bible and shows how reality reflects its truth-claims.

Nate divides the book into six sections: an argument that Christian faith is reasonable and not blind; why we believe in God; why we believe in the Bible (subdivided into two parts), and why we believe in Jesus (also subdivided into two parts). Each of the last five sections is in turn subdivided into a series of concise lines of argument. Ten lines of argument explain why we believe in God; a total of twenty show why we believe in the Bible; another twenty demonstrate the rationale for faith in Jesus Christ.

Nate's style is concise, very readable, and at times conversational. The chapters tend to be brief and handily condensed. For instance, Reason Three for belief in God (order and design point to a Designer) is seven pages long; Reason 5 for belief in the NT Gospels (early Christians would have demanded an accurate record) is but three pages long.

Each argument is buttressed with substantial documentation. I was constantly struck by the wide variety of writers Nate used, ranging very broadly from the lightly popular to the deeply academic, and taking in practitioners of the various apologetics schools. He cites arguments from and/or quotes Carl F. H. Henry, Norm Geisler, John Frame, Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, John Stott, Roger Nicole, F. F. Bruce, John Ankerberg, Henry Morris, Paul Little, Ron Nash, C. S. Lewis, Harry Rimmer (apologist from a past generation; I actually worked for his son in the 70s), William Shedd, Robert Saucy, Dan Wallace, and literally a host of others.

This brings me to one suggestion I would urge for future editions — for this is a book that deserves long life and eventual revision and extension: Busenitz uses too many secondary sources. "Cited from" occurs in footnote after footnote (i.e. pp. 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, etc.).

Here's why I think this matters: this is a book that deserves to be used by many, and in many settings. I easily see high school and college students using it as a text. At present, students would be forced to use some of the citations with this formula: "Abraham Lincoln, as cited in ___, as cited in Busenitz...." I say with genuine respect, an author should do that footwork for his readers so that they don't have to. Use primary sources.

Pastors and friends and evangelists and bloggers and family members and writers of letters to the editor and most of the world won't care about that, however. And they're the ones who (in addition to students) should have this book. It deserves wide circulation and use. I talked our men's fellowship into making it our next study book.

I hope I've talked you into doing the same.

Well done, Nate.

(You punk!)

---

I'm inviting you to read one of the classics of the Christian faith with me. Read on to find out more...

To this point the "Reading Classics Together" effort has gone very well, at least in my opinion. Every week we've tackled together just a short portion of one of the classic texts of the Christian faith. In this way we've read through J.C. Ryle's Holiness, John Owen's Overcoming Sin and Temptation, A.W. Pink's The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross and Jonathan Edwards' The Religious Affections. We've had hundreds of people participate by reading the books together and discussing them each week (though, inevitably, I think many more people begin each of the efforts than finish them and many more people read than comment!). All along we've been reading some great works--books many of us have always wished to read but books few of us have ever made time for. And now it is time to decide on the next classic we'll read together.

Through the first four rounds we have bounced from a more modern work to a more ancient one. We've gone from Ryle to Owen, Pink to Edwards. Now that we've finished Edwards and have slogged through his brilliant but difficult Affections, we're ready to move forward in time to try something a little easier. And the next classic we will tackle together is one that should prove a far easier challenge: C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. This is regarded as a classic apologetic work that stands, even 55 years later, as a superior introduction to the Christian faith. It is a book that has been so widely quoted that I'm quite convinced that many of us have read most of it in other works!

Here is my disclaimer in which I hope to head off the inevitable critiques. I think we're all aware that C.S. Lewis held to the odd point of strange theology--unbiblical theology. So as we read this book we'll be appreciating it for what it does so well, but we'll also be ready to take note if and when what Lewis teaches does not accord with Scripture. The purpose of Reading Classics Together is not only to read books we agree with entirely, but to read books that have become Christian classics, whether for good reasons or bad! In this case I'm convinced there will be far more gold than dross.

Let's count on beginning with the Preface and Foreword on December 4. That gives you just over two weeks to find a copy and read the first few pages. After December 4 we'll proceed at a pretty good clip. The book has over 30 chapters but we'll read several chapters a week (many of them are just a few pages long) and try to work through it quite quickly. But we'll be sure to move at a reasonable pace so everyone can keep up, even through the holiday season.

Mere Christianity is very widely available. It has gone through many printings in both hardcover and softcover, can be found in e-book, audio book and, I think, even on YouTube. I'm sure you can also find free versions online, though I believe these (and the YouTube versions) would be unlicensed and therefore either illegal at worst or pseudo-legal at best. Just about every used bookstore will have a few copies in stock. So if you have a couple of dollars to your name, you'll be able to join in the fun.

If you are going to participate, please just leave a comment so I can try to gauge interest. And then find a copy of the book and get reading!

Here are links to three of the places you may shop (and in each case feel free to hunt around the sites as they probably have it in multiple versions):

Monergism Books | Westminster Books | Amazon

Meh
Here is one of the latest words added to the Collins English Dictionary. I guess this means I can now use it with good conscience.

---

On the Release of Fireproof in Canada
Julian provides a Canada-centric update.

---

Amending ETS
Denny Burk and Ray Van Neste will bring a proposal to amend the doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). Sounds like a good idea to me.

---

Abortion Changes You
"Greg [Koukl] had a really riveting interview yesterday with Michaelene Fredenburg from Abortion Changes You. She talked about the important, but often denied, fact that women who have abortions are never the same."

---

Child Trafficking
Carolyn McCulley offers a good post that deals with this too-common, utterly horrifying subject.

---

Musings on God's Providence
Russell Moore offers some musings on God's providence.

---

TIME writes about what happens to those who find themselves on the "enemies list."

---

Are Our Brains Becoming "Googlized?"
Search Engine Land looks at a recent study from UCLA that shows how the human brain is adapting to this strange new world we live in.

---

Deal of the Day: Family Worship Resource Package
Grace and Truth Books is offering a deal on a Family Worship Resource Package containing quite a few books. Regularly priced at $70, it is now selling for only $29.00.

---

This set of posts comes from Pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife Grace. The sermon series The Peasant Princess brought up dozens of questions that they felt they should respond to. The result is this blog series: Christian Sex: Frank Answers to Honest Questions.

Answer: Yes. Providing this act does not replace normal intercourse and does not decrease your oneness, then it may be helpful. Some couples have cited a number of particular reasons why this may be helpful. One husband and his wife do not have intercourse during her menstrual cycle and so she cares for him during that time with a helping hand. Upon occasion, though, she cannot bring him to climax and so he will do so while fondling her breasts so that the two of them are still participating. Some people report that their spouse simply has no idea how to stimulate their genitals and so they stimulate their own genitals in front of their spouse to teach them what they enjoy so that their spouse can then satisfy them. Still other spouses report that during heavy petting and/or deep massage they prefer to stimulate their own genitals while their spouse stimulates other erotic zones and they enjoy the simultaneous sexual stimuli from many places on their body. Refer to Answer #15, then explore freely.

The Irish poet Brendan Behan once quipped, "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your obituary."  Some atheists evidently disagree, and they want to help atheism get over a rather significant public relations problem.

Read Full Blog...

Marilynne Robinson's writing is the type that inspires high praise. For example, in a profile in the UK's The Sunday Times Bryan Appleyard called her "the world’s best writer of prose," and closed his profile in this way: "Now let me be clear - I’m not saying that you’re actually dead if you haven’t read Marilynne Robinson, but I honestly couldn’t say you’re fully alive."

Her second novel, Gilead, received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and the 2005 Ambassador Book Award. (Summary: "The novel is the fictional autobiography of the Reverend John Ames, an elderly congregationalist pastor in the small, secluded town of Gilead, Iowa who knows that he is dying of a heart condition. At the beginning of the book, the date is established as 1956, and Ames explains that he is writing an account of his life for his 7-year-old son, who will have few memories of him as an adult.")

Her third novel, Home, was published this year, and it is a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award. (Summary: "The novel chronicles the life of the Boughton family, specifically the father, Reverend Robert Boughton, and Glory and Jack, two of Robert's adult children who return home to Gilead, Iowa. A companion to Gilead, Home is an independent novel that takes place concurrently.")

Home was recently reviewed by Books & Culture and by Christianity Today.

Of interest to Calvinists is this line from a profile in the Washington Post:

"These are my favorite books in here,". . . as she motions toward the bookcase that fills one end of the small space. "See, look: Calvin, Calvin, Calvin." Sure enough, here are the multivolume "Commentaries" of the great 16th-century Protestant theologian, whom Robinson considers one of the most falsely caricatured figures in history. Here are the two volumes of Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion," without which she thinks you can't understand Herman Melville. Surrounding these are a multitude of other theological and educational works, few less than a century old.

Collin Hansen interviews Lyle Dorsett:

Since he published Orthodoxy in 1908, G. K. Chesterton has inspired Christians and challenged skeptics with his unique wit and wisdom. He delivered biting analysis still relevant today: "A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed." And he composed poignant prose that still touches the heart: "Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind." CT editor at large Collin Hansen spoke about Chesterton's legacy with Lyle Dorsett, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism at Beeson Divinity School.

Read the whole thing.

Kent Hughes, speaking at a recent men's retreat for Church of Christ the Redeemer in Spokane, Washington:

• Talk 1: The Importance of Discipline
• Talk 2: Disciplines of the Mind
• Talk 3: Disciplines and the Church

You can also read his book on the subject

HT: Unashamed Workman