Good God, Moral Choice, and the Presence of Evil - Panel Discussion

From the Lanier Theological Library:

A conversation about evil must begin with discussion of what is good and ultimately who is good. As Christians, this starts with identifying the character and person of God as the source and measure of goodness. If humanity is created in God’s image as his representatives in the physical world, it should follow that we are made “for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Does this undermine the belief by some that God causally determines all human thoughts, actions, events, and therefore evil?

Panel members:

David Baggett (Professor of Philosophy, Director, Center for Moral Apologetics, Houston Christian University)

Ingrid Faro (Coordinator of MA in Old Testament–Jerusalem University College Program, Northern Seminary, Lisle, IL)

Catherine L. McDowell (Associate Professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC)

John H. Walton (Professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL)

Jonathan Walton (PhD Candidate, University of St. Andrews, Scotland)

Mark Lanier (Moderator - J.D. Trial Attorney, Bible Teacher, Author, and Founder of Lanier Law Firm & Lanier Theological Library, Houston, TX)

John Oswalt - The Centrality of Holiness

From the Henry Center:

In many views of salvation, especially Protestant ones, holiness is often marginalized. It is seen as a desideratum, but only as a somewhat incidental state procured by the Cross, to be realized as a reality at death. This view is the result of an inadequate understanding of the relation of the Testaments to each other. It is clear in the Old Testament that the achievement of holiness as a replication of the character of Yahweh in this life is the fundamental issue. The writers of the New Testament assume that this is still the issue, so do not restate it. Rather, they move on to consider the ways in which the Incarnation and the Atonement of Christ address it. This is especially clear in the Gospels and the Epistles. The failure to recognize these truths is one reason for the observed lack of distinctly Christian character in our contemporary society.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Commonality and Individuality

A Twilight Musing

Paul’s comments on the Lord’s Supper in I Cor. 11:17-34 are meaningfully followed by a chapter on the importance of communal and harmonious life together in the Body of Christ.  The abuses of the Lord’s Supper in chapter 11 are related to the absence of any sense of commonality in the church at Corinth, so that some poor members were being contemptuously ignored by those who were wealthy.  Chapter 12 of I Corinthians emphasizes the need of all members of the Body to appreciate and value each other, obscuring the superficial differences between them and embracing the lowly and the exalted with equal fervor.  Chapter 13 then goes on to assert “a still more excellent way,” the bonding of all members of the Body into a symphony of love.  The appropriate frame of mind in our partaking of the Lord’s Supper is that God cherishes and reaffirms both our individual gifts in the Body and our identity as one organism, with common purpose and mutual affection for one another.

As we commune together, we need to recognize that Jesus died for His Church, but also for each of us who constitute the Church.  “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (I Cor. 12:27).  Our Western culture cries out for individualism of a sort that gives us license to define who we are; but that identification is God’s prerogative.  Saul of Tarsus was seeking to establish his own identity as one who, by persecuting Christians and casting them in prison, would be regarded as “extremely zealous . . . for the traditions of [his] fathers” (Gal. 1:14).  But God stopped him in his tracks and called him to a radically new identity, in which he was to preach to both Jews and Gentiles “the faith he once tried to destroy” (see Gal. 1:13-24).  Consequently, he could say after he had accepted God’s definition for him that he had been “crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20).

How are we to know who we are in the eyes of God?  First of all, we must be still enough to let Him assign us our place: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (I Pet. 5:6).  This exaltation includes being called “children of God” (I Jn. 3:1), a privilege that can be attributed only to the undeserved love of God.  However, our individual identities as children of God feed into our relationships with each other in the Body of Christ; as children of God, we are “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16-17).  If we are siblings in the Body of Christ, we find our full identity in serving one another, as Jesus did.  He could have claimed special status as the only “natural” Son of God, but He “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Phil. 2:6-7).  Only as we serve one another do we fulfill our identity in Christ.  The only place for “competition” is in “[outdoing] one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10).  But this sort of holy abnegation is leading us to an eternal relationship to God that is the ultimate individualized identity: “To the one who conquers I [Christ] will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”  In the heavenly state, we will see God face to face and will rejoice in knowing Him as He knows us (see I Cor. 13:12).

In the meantime, “until He comes” to take us to Himself, we rejoice in being defined by where He has placed us in the Body that He inhabits and directs.  As we commune together in the Lord’s Supper, we affirm the worth that He imparts to us as units of His own Body.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Blood of Christ—Blood of Abel

Gustave Doré - Doré's English Bible

A Twilight Musing

The writer of Hebrews observes at one point that, in both contrast and similarity to hearing the terrifying voice of God at Sinai, we who hear the message of God through Christ have come to “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Heb. 12:23-24, ESV). 

Eugene Peterson’s translation of this passage throws light on this odd comparison: “You've come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel's—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace” (Heb. 12:23-24, The Message).  This presentation of the blood of Christ as a “proclamation of grace,” in contrast to the blood of Abel, which “cried out for vengeance,” provides a meaningful contrast that is relevant to our observance of the Lord’s Supper.

In the Genesis narrative about Cain and Abel, after Cain had killed his brother, God appears to him and says, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand” (Gen. 4:10-11, ESV).  Abel, said the writer of Hebrews, was “commended by God as righteous” (Heb. 11:4, ESV), so he was an innocent victim; but he was not, like Jesus, absolutely righteous and innocent.  The only response God could make to Abel’s murder was wrath and vengeance toward the murderer; but God could and did use the innocent death of Jesus as an avenue to show grace and forgiveness to all humankind.  Even on the cross Jesus asked His Father not to count His murder against those who carried it out: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34, ESV).

The wrongful death of Abel and the response of God to it shows us that no normal human in the fallen world, however righteous in his life, could, by his death, provide a remedy for inherited sin.  Justice could be done, at best, only by God’s wrath being visited on the murderer in response to the cry of the blood of the victim.  But the wrongful death of Jesus and the innocent blood He shed had the power to set aside God’s wrath and to deliver not only those who put Jesus to death, but all of humankind from the just consequences of their sins.

So as in the Eucharist we offer up to death our fleshly, sin-stained bodies and are symbolically infused with the New Covenant blood of Christ, we go beyond the innocent blood that can cry out only for God’s vengeance, and we rejoice in the shed blood of the absolutely innocent Lamb of God that cries out for the forgiveness of all sinners.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Lord’s Supper Meditation - The Ever-Renewing Legacy

A Twilight Musing

Recently, our daughter received an unexpected legacy through the will of a deceased friend of the family.  She was of course delighted to receive it and considered herself blessed by God through our friend.  But the pleasure was tempered by the fact that the gift came as a result of our friend’s death.  Her response reminded me of a passage in the book of Hebrews that speaks of Christ’s death activating a kind of will that bequeaths certain benefits to His disciples.

Therefore [Christ] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. (Heb. 9:15-17)

 Accordingly, when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, which commemorates the death of Christ, we also remember that we are receiving the benefits, or the legacy of His death.

The chief and most overarching of these benefits is, as the writer of Hebrews notes, deliverance from our transgressions and the cleansing of our consciences “from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). We are thus enabled to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord [we] will receive the inheritance as [our] reward” (Eph 3:23-24).  The beauty of the bequest spoken of here is that we will inherit, not as bondservants, but as children, having “received the Spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters], by whom we cry, ’Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:15-17).

Another bequest coming to us as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you,” and He “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:7, 13).  In addition, the Spirit will intercede for us with the Father (Rom. 8:26), and “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in [us], he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to [our] mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in [us]” (Rom. 8:11).  Moreover, the Spirit seals us for salvation and is “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it” (Eph. 1:13-14).

Also, as we inherited from the First Adam the penalty of death because of our sin, so through the death of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, we have received “the free gift of righteousness” and are thereby “reconciled to God” (Rom. 5:17, 10; see whole passage, vv. 8-21).  How glorious that our inheritance through Christ supersedes our inheritance from the fallen Adam!

Finally, our legacy from Christ gives us citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven, for God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:12-14).  Like Abraham, we recognize that we are pilgrims on this earth and long for “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16).  We share with Jesus a kingdom not of this world (see John 18:36), and through Him we have become “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (I Pet. 2:9).

So let us partake of the Lord’s Supper with appropriate understanding of the gifts bequeathed to us by His death.  We are privileged legatees of the Son of God.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Ethics, Morals, and Good Friday: A Lesson in Loyalty and Disloyalty

Judas Iscariot (right), retiring from the Last Supper, painting by Carl Bloch, late 19th century

What comes to mind when you think of Good Friday? On the cultural side, perhaps a day off from school, one last Lenten fish fry sponsored by the local Knights of Columbus, or making sure someone knows to bring the ham and deviled eggs to dinner on Easter Sunday. On the religious side, talk of Good Friday usually evokes images of a traitor name Judas, Peter’s three denials of his relationship to Jesus, and the bloody and disfigured body of the Lord hanging lifeless on a Roman cross. What about ethics? What about morals? Do these two words come to mind when you think of Good Friday? Maybe. Maybe not. At the heart of Good Friday, we find poignant though beautiful ethical and moral lessons giving voice to divine grace and love as they whisper and even shout the gospel message. Before I discuss one of those lessons, let’s make sure we understand the overlap and distinctions between ethics and morals.

Most will have a general sense of the terms, maybe even thinking they are synonymous. Insofar as they both relate to matters of right and wrong, good and bad, ethics and morals are similar. However, there is an essential distinction between the terms as they are used today. Speaking of ethics tells of the more theoretical aspects of right and wrong, asking questions about the nature of the good life, duty, obligation, or right actions. For example, if I say that murder is wrong, I make an ethical statement. Morals are a bit different, less theoretical, and more practical. When we speak of morality, we address concerns related to behavior, conduct, and rules for a particular person or society. When I say that it is wrong to take the life of an unborn child, I am speaking about morality. Such a statement certainly has an ethical foundation: murder is wrong. However, when I apply that ethical norm to concerns over aborting a defenseless child, I move from the theoretical to the practical, from ethics to morality. Assuming the similarities and distinctions between ethics and morals are somewhat clearer, how do they relate to Good Friday? Consider one way, one lesson about ethics and morals from the narrative, a lesson drawn from the actions of Judas and Peter: I call it a lesson in loyalty and disloyalty.

Before Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, he walked with the Lord for three and a half years. He ate with Jesus, witnessed the miracles, sat at his Rabbi’s feet, and listened to the Truth speaking the truth. Judas was entrusted with the money and ministered alongside the other disciples. Yet, in the end, after letting Jesus wash his feet and Satan fill his heart, he betrays the Son of God for thirty silver pieces. Then he hung himself. Peter was the self-appointed spokesman of the Twelve, the first to verbalize that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Peter was the only one who got out of the boat and attempted to walk on water, and he didn’t hesitate to draw his sword to protect Jesus and cut away Malchus’s ear. Yet, when pressed, his boldness evaporated, and his heart filled with cowardice. Though warned ahead of time by Jesus, he still did it; Peter denied his King not once, not twice, but three times. But he didn’t give up. Did he grieve? Yes. Was he broken? Absolutely. He was also one of the first two disciples at the empty tomb, and he didn’t fear jumping from his fishing boat into the water as he rushed to shore to embrace his risen Savior.

What might we learn from these two men, both loved by Jesus and part of His handpicked group of leaders? What do we learn as we consider that Judas went into the darkness and never returned, while Peter also went into the night but returned to the one who said He was the Light of the World? We learn about ethics and morals, loyalty and disloyalty. As an ethical consideration, loyalty relates to the duty and obligation of support and allegiance. Ethical loyalty is not blind sycophantic devotion divorced from an objective standard of goodness and its corollary oughts. Far from such a perversion of virtue, ethical loyalty centers on supporting and giving allegiance to a principle more than a person, or, in the case of Jesus, to the Person who is the living principle of the good and right. Peter eventually understood this and acted accordingly when Judas did not, bringing us to the morality of loyalty. When we realize that morality is the practical expression of ethical concern, we see just how moral Peter was contrasted to Judas’s tragic immorality. Because Peter committed himself to the ethic of loyalty, he was able to rise after falling, to grieve and repent until he eventually made his way back to Jesus. This is the point of Jesus asking Peter three times if he loved Him that morning on the beach after the resurrection. Each question Jesus asked was salve applied to Peter’s self-inflicted wound of temporary disloyalty. Each time Jesus responded with the commands to Peter to feed and tend the His sheep, Jesus was reminding Peter that He was loyal to him and willing to trust him once more: Jesus and Peter teach us the ethics and morals of loyalty.

Sadly, we learn from Judas the ethics and morals of disloyalty, a lesson in unfaithfulness, a lesson in violating allegiance and duty. Because Judas abandoned his ethical commitment to remain loyal to Jesus (yes, I do believe Judas fell away from something, from Someone he did know and at one time even love, and that Someone never stopped loving Judas), he willingly corrupted his morality and made himself subject to even greater corruption by Satan. Judas chose disloyalty when he could have chosen loyalty. He decided to grieve and die instead of grieve and return to seek the Lord’s mercy and live. There was room for another in Peter’s boat that morning, and Judas could have jumped in the water with Peter had he still been alive. He could have sought mercy from Jesus and even been restored, but he didn’t. It’s not that Judas could not. He would not. His compromise and fall into ethical disloyalty led to moral disloyalty. His fall is a poignant reminder of the ethics and morals of disloyalty.

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T. J. is a pastor, author, theologian, and apologist, with graduate degrees in Apologetics, Chaplaincy, Church Ministries, Philosophy, and Theology; and doctoral degrees in Biblical Studies, Leadership, and Pastoral Counseling. He became a Christian in 1978, was called into ministry that same year, and began preaching in 1984. T. J. has served as a youth pastor, evangelist, church planter, Christian school teacher and administrator, Army chaplain, pastoral counselor, and senior pastor. His ongoing writing work includes several published books and articles, and he currently serves as Sr. Minister at First Christian Church and Headmaster at Compass Christian Academy, both in West Frankfort, IL. In addition to his duties as Executive Editor at MoralApologetics.com, T. J. is also Executive Vice-President at BellatorChristi.com and an adjunct professor at Carolina University's Piedmont Divinity School. His areas of specialization include preaching and Bible teaching theory and practice, applied moral apologetics, Thomistic philosophy from an evangelical perspective, religious epistemology focused on passional reason, leadership theory and practice, and pastoral counseling drawn from a solution-focused brief therapy modality. He holds board certification as a chaplain and pastoral counselor and is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, Evangelical Philosophical Society, Society for Christian Philosophers, Evangelical Homiletics Society, International Society of Christian Apologetics, Association of Certified Christian Chaplains, and the Evangelical Missiological Society. T. J. and his wife, Amy, are blessed with five children.

Four Reasons Jesus Died

Editor’s note: This article was originally written for Foundations.

Sometime around 33 A.D., in the springtime, Jesus was crucified on a cross. He endured the most brutal and tortuous form of capital punishment in perhaps all of human history. Today, many people throughout the world recognize the Cross as the symbol of the Christian faith. This is appropriate since the Bible clearly teaches that the death of Jesus is absolutely central to the gospel, the good news which Jesus tasked His followers to believe and proclaim. The Apostle Paul says, “that Christ died for our sins” is of “first importance.” But what is the meaning of the Cross? Why did Jesus have to die?

Christians have reflected on this question for nearly two thousand years. In that time, the church has uncovered several different reasons for the Atonement or death of Christ. These different reasons are ultimately harmonious and complementary; they are like the facets of a diamond. Each facet reveals something important and beautiful about the meaning and purpose of the Cross. 

Facet 1: Jesus’s Death as Ransom 

Key verse: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45 

The Bible tells us that Jesus’s death was a ransom. The Old Testament provides some context for the biblical notion of “ransom.” Perhaps the most vivid example comes in the book of Ruth. In this story, we meet Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth’s husband had died, as well as her sons, and she was left alone and suffering. Fortunately, the law outlined the role of a “kinsman redeemer,” who would be legally obligated to redeem by ransom a family member who had been sold into slavery (Lev. 25:47-55).  Boaz ransomed or redeemed Ruth, buying back her former husband’s property and marrying Ruth, saving her from a life of poverty and hunger. Throughout the Old Testament, “to ransom” often has the sense of “buying back.” 

In the New Testament, Jesus says that He has come to give his life as “ransom for many.” Paul says that Jesus “gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). But who did God pay ransom to? Some have suggested that God paid Satan the ransom, but that is not supported by the Bible. Instead, we should think of God as satisfying the demands of His own righteousness in order to be our redeemer; He “bought us back” so that we might be free. 

Facet 2: Jesus’s Death as Victory over Evil

Key verse: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:14). 

The Bible also tells us that by his death, Jesus gained victory over the powers of evil. The very first prophecy in the Bible foreshadows this victory. After God created Adam and Eve, they were tempted by the serpent, who is Satan (cf. Rev. 12:9). Though Adam and Eve sinned, in Genesis 3:15, God said that a descendant of Eve would someday “crush the head” of the serpent. God promised that He would decisively defeat the devil through a human person. Christ, who is both fully God and fully man brought this about. By his death, Jesus freed humanity from the power of Satan. But Christ also demonstrated his power over death itself. Though Christ died on the Cross, the Father raised Him again, proving that death itself is “swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54). By the Cross, Christ defeats both sin and death; He crushes the head of the serpent. As the Bible says, “thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). 

Facet 3: Jesus’s Death as Moral Example 

Key verse: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21)

The Cross also shows us what God is like and how we should live. The Bible says that Jesus died for us because He loves us (cf. Rom. 5:8). In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a shepherd who left his entire flock to seek and save a single lost sheep. The shepherd searches for the missing sheep until he finds it and he “joyfully puts it on his shoulders” (Luke 15:5). Like the shepherd, Jesus says that He has come to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). The Cross shows us the love of God. 

The Cross also shows us what sort of life we should live. By dying on the Cross, Jesus shows that He is obedient to God’s will. And Jesus shows us how we ought to love others. Love is not merely a feeling and godly love may require personal sacrifice. Like Jesus, we may need to give of ourselves, whether that be our money, time, or even our lives. But, we also know that God sees what we do, that He is a just God, and He will reward us for following his commandments (1 Pt. 1:4).  

Facet 4: Jesus’s Death as Substitutionary Atonement 

Key verse: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness…” (Romans 3:25a). 

Jesus also died as a substitute for sinners. In the Old Testament, Israel sacrificed animals to cover their sins. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would slaughter a goat as a sin offering. This was for the “wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites–all their sins” (Lev. 16:21). This did not take away the guilt of sin (cf. Heb. 10:4), but it does show us that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). 

Sin is a great offense to holiness and justice of God (cf. Hab. 1:13). God could not simply forgive sin because He is a God of justice. He would be like a judge who let a convicted murderer go free. A judge that ignores the law would be no judge at all. But because God loves us, He paid the penalty of sin Himself by sending His Son to die in the place of sinners. In this way, God shows Himself to be “just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). God is God of holiness and of love; both features of God’s character are seen in the Cross of Jesus Christ. 

Conclusion

Jesus died on the cross for many reasons. Each of these reasons reveals something about who God is and why Jesus had to die. Jesus died to ransom and redeem us from death. He died to demonstrate His power and ultimate victory over sin and death. The Cross shows us that God loves us and wants us to live a life of obedience to God and love for others. Finally, Jesus’s death makes atonement for our sin so that we can be right with God. Without the Cross, we would be doomed to suffering and death. But because of it, we can live forever with God. 

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The Managing Editor of MoralApologetics.com, Jonathan has been a vital part of the Moral Apologetics team since its inception. Currently, he is the E-Learning Project Manager at ICM. He also serves as adjunct instructor of philosophy for Grand Canyon University and Liberty University. He also is affiliate faculty at Colorado Christian University. Prior to these positions, he was ordained as a minister and served as spiritual life director. He is the author or co-author of several articles on metaethics, theology, and history of philosophy. With a Master’s in Global Apologetics and a graduate of Biola’s Master’s program in philosophy, he recently finished his doctoral dissertation in which he extends a four-fold moral argument from mere theism to a distinctively Christian picture of God. Jonathan, his wife Sara, and their two children presently live in Lynchburg, Virginia. You can find his personal website at JonathanRPruitt.com

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Lord’s Supper Meditation – Participating in Eucharist

a Twilight Musing

Evangelicals tend to avoid the term “Eucharist” to refer to the Lord’s Supper because they associate it with Catholics and their view of the Mass, which is that the bread and the wine in the Communion literally become the body and blood of Christ.  However, “Eucharist” can be used merely as a general term for the Lord’s Supper based on its meaning in Greek, “thanksgiving.”  One could with some justification refer to our late November national holiday as “Eucharist Day.”  The use of the word at least can prompt us to ask, “In what sense is the Lord’s Supper a ceremony of thanksgiving?”

In instituting the Lord’s Supper, Jesus Himself set the tone of thanksgiving for the feast when He gave thanks for both the bread and the cup of wine (see Lk. 22:14ff) before He gave them to the disciples.  Moreover, our remembrance of the Supreme Sacrifice of Christ prompts us to be thankful that it enables us to be called God’s sons and daughters, children of God, siblings of Christ Himself.

 It is also worth noting that the context of Paul’s account of the origin of the Lord’s Supper is his condemnation of the Corinthians’ gorging themselves while humiliating “those who have nothing.”  In so doing, they were failing to appreciate the value of their brothers and sisters in the fellowship of Christ, as well as being in no frame of mind to be thankful for the Sacrifice they were called on to celebrate.

Finally, we can see a eucharistic attitude as one of two complementary purposes of the Holy Communion.  On the one hand, we engage in remembrance of the cost of what Jesus did for us, a rather somber act of looking back.  But on the other hand, we rejoice and contemplate blessings yet to come when we are thankful for the salvation He wrought for us.  The next time we encounter a reference to the “Holy Eucharist,” perhaps we can be more comfortable with that description of our regular observance, remembering that it simply means “thanksgiving.”

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Between Heaven and Earth

A Twilight Musing

Every observance of the Eucharist is a recapitulation of the Incarnation.  That is, it reaffirms the wonder of God’s infusion of physical things with spiritual purposes.  The original manifestation of this divine work was, of course, the creation of the universe (see Gen. chapter 1).  God reached out from His absolute, non-contingent Being to bring the material world into existence.  In doing so, He proceeded from the general to the specific, beginning with an undifferentiated mass, “without form and void,” over which the Spirit of God hovered.  He then proceeded to give every segment of His creation its own identity and spiritually determined function, distinguishing each stage from what went before by a process of separation.  He began by separating “the light from the darkness” and “the waters from the waters.” The next few days, He brought dry land out of the waters and generated vegetation “according to their own kinds.”  The sun and moon and stars were to “separate the day from the night.”  Animal life, like plant life, was each “according to their kinds.”    This perfect merger of the physical and the spiritual was culminated in humankind, who, though made of “dust from the ground” (Gen. 2:7) received the “breath of life” (i.e., the Spirit) from God.  Humans (the First Adam) were made distinct from all other creatures by being created in the image of God and being given authority over and responsibility for all the rest of creation (Gen 1:26-27).

But the First Adam fell from the perfectly blended state in which he was created and was plunged into a creature of disordered material that had to be reinfused with God’s Spirit in order to live.  God then implemented a long, tortuous process of what might be called “re-creation.” Once again God proceeded from the general state of chaos brought about by sin to bring fallen humankind a renewed awareness of what they had known intuitively in the Garden of Eden, which was the perfect merger between physical and spiritual realities.  In order for that Eden to be restored, God’s process would establish the necessity of physical redemptive sacrifice (going through a death to achieve renewed life), with the ultimate sacrifice being made by the Second Adam, the very Son of God, through Whose death all of God’s original purposes for the world would be realized.

Thus it is appropriate, as we partake of the Lord’s Supper, to contemplate how God over the ages worked a second time to extend an emanation of His absolute, non-contingent Self into the material world in order finally to present the New Adam, God Himself residing in physical human form.  In doing so, He once again proceeded from the general to the specific, beginning with the chaos of fallen humanity and revealing more and more of His remedial commands, from the discipling of the Patriarchs, to the Mosaic Law, to the painful process of refining His people in the fires of captivity, and culminating in the merger of heaven and earth in the person of Jesus Christ.  Our ingesting symbolically the substance of our perfect Lord Jesus reaffirms that with Him we stand restored to that perfect balance of material and Spirit that God originally intended for the capstone of His creation.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Sometimes Losing is Good

He who loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39)

Have you ever felt lost in a crowd? You look around and see the people, hear the sounds, feel the hustle and bustle of life around you…and yet, you feel lost. You are caught in the flow of everything beyond yourself, and for a fleeting moment you don’t know where you are or where you fit-in amid the cacophony of life all around you. You’re not alone, but you feel lost.

It’s a surreal feeling, the feeling of being lost to yourself…lost when you are with others but still out-of-sorts with who and where you are at that moment. An odd experience of self-awareness that leads you to viscerally sense the gravity and big-ness of everything around you…and the small-ness of yourself. Read that last bit again. An odd experience of self-awareness that leads you to viscerally sense the gravity and big-ness of everything around you…and the small-ness of yourself.

Would you believe this is what Jesus wants for your life? Does it seem odd to consider that Jesus is possibly closer to you than ever when you feel the most lost and unsure of yourself?

You are unsure of how you connect to everything and everyone around you, and feeling, well…lost to yourself. And yet, it’s at that moment that the door for a divine encounter presents itself to you. When you feel lost even to yourself, it is then that you can step through – step out of – yourself and into God’s presence. You experience it for just a moment at first, and then a little longer, until you finally realize that being lost to yourself is really the key to finding your true self and to living in God’s presence.

It is through the door of losing yourself, and only through that door, that you will find the identity God desires for you. A desire which is rooted in His love and purposes, and drips with abundance of mercy, grace, and healing. What you and I lack in ourselves, we find when we lose ourselves to Him. We may feel lost in the crowd, but losing ourselves may just be – is – the first step to finding God.

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Dr. Thomas J. Gentry (aka., TJ Gentry) serves as the pastor of First Christian Church of West Frankfort, Illinois, the Executive Editor of MoralApologetics.com, and Executive VP of Bellator Christi Ministries. Dr. Gentry is a world-class scholar holding 5 doctorate degrees and 6 masters degrees. Additionally, he is a prolific writer as he has published 7 books including Pulpit Apologist, Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord, and You Shall Be My Witnesses: Reflections on Sharing the Gospel. Be on the lookout for two additional books that he will soon publish. In addition to his impressive resume, Dr. Gentry proudly served his country as an officer in the United States Army and serves as a martial arts instructor.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Where is the Trinity in the Eucharist?

Old Testament Trinity, Simon Ushakov, Icon painting, 1671

A Twilight Musing

In our observance of the Lord’s Supper, we don’t usually think about or explicitly refer to the Holy Spirit, the Third Member of the Trinity.  That is perhaps understandable in one way, since what is being remembered is the submission of the Incarnate Son to His Father’s plan of redemption.  But it must also be remembered that Jesus had the Holy Spirit “in full measure” (see Jn. 3:34), and that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us up in the Last Day (I Cor. 6:14; Eph 1:19).  By the same token, our partaking of the Lord’s Supper, though it focuses on the sacrificed Son, also directs us to be aware of the Father who sent Him and of the Spirit Who is sent by the Father at the Son’s request (Jn. 14:15-18).

Moreover, Jesus tells His disciples that “it is to your advantage that I go away” (Jn. 16:7), because that will trigger the sending of the Holy Spirit (the “Helper”) to them, Who will “guide you into all the truth” (Jn. 16:13).  Morerover, the Spirit “will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:13).                              

We are thus enriched by the whole Godhead as we partake of the bread and the wine.  By the words of Jesus, we understand that the whole being and nature of the Son relates back to the Father, and that the Holy Spirit emanates from both the Father and the Son and acts in accordance with their unified will, being God’s Power dwelling in those who believe in Christ.  We rejoice in being reminded that the death and resurrection of Jesus sums up both the loving will of the Father and the powerful Good News articulated to us by the Holy Spirit, whose dwelling in us is the hope of glory implanted in our hearts.  It naturally follows that “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).  In communing with Christ, our attention is directed by the Spirit to what the Father has done in and through the Son, to our eternal benefit.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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I am Samson (Judges 14)

Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Simson bezwingt den Löwen

Samson. Aaah, Samson.

In Judges 14 he comes off the page to me as a larger-than-life contradiction. Read it. I suspect you’ll see it too.

Samson is a true enigma. A man used by God who also appears to use God. At least that’s what it looks like to me. His details in this chapter baffle me, starting with telling his parents to "get her for me" when he decides he wants a wife from the Philistines. Then the tearing apart of the lion, the eating of the honey, the posing of the riddle, the manipulative tears of his wife, the killing of 30 men, and finally Samson gives his wife to his best man. Again, Samson baffles me. 

But then I have to ask why he baffles me. Why do I struggle with Samson?

Is it his insistence on what he wants, even when it is driven by what appears to be a simple lust of the eyes? But I am just like him sometimes. I see with my eyes only, then expect those around me to give me what I want. I am Samson.

Maybe it is the way that God's purposes are working out in Samson, even though the details of his life leave me wondering at times if he even knows God? Then I hear the echo of my own life in that very description...God working through me though sometimes my life does anything but point to Him. I am Samson.

Perhaps my struggle with Samson is the way the power of God flows to and through him even when his choices cause others to suffer? He can't keep his secret from his wife, so 30 men die as a consequence. Yet, I think of the times I preach or teach or counsel--God working through me in each instance. Then I go home and have no patience with my family. I yell at my wife. I justify my selfishness as a matter of collateral damage in service to Jesus. Others suffer as God uses me. I am Samson.

Yes, I am Samson. At least sometimes I am Samson. The funny thing is that the longer I live the more I realize that I can be Samson...I have been Samson...I am Samson, and even still I want to be someone else. I want to be more like Jesus and less like Samson, and that's a good thing. Perhaps a bit simplistic or naive, but still a good thing. Actually, what is good about it is that I see myself in Samson, but I also see God in Samson.

To be sure, Samson's foibles and frailties are his own...his contradictions are his and nobody else's, but those moments of wisdom and power and justice...those are God's. Samson shows me God through his brokenness, and I am grateful. I see the same thing happening in my life. I am Samson.

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Dr. Thomas J. Gentry (aka., TJ Gentry) serves as the pastor of First Christian Church of West Frankfort, Illinois, the Executive Editor of MoralApologetics.com, and Executive VP of Bellator Christi Ministries. Dr. Gentry is a world-class scholar holding 5 doctorate degrees and 6 masters degrees. Additionally, he is a prolific writer as he has published 7 books including Pulpit Apologist, Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord, and You Shall Be My Witnesses: Reflections on Sharing the Gospel. Be on the lookout for two additional books that he will soon publish. In addition to his impressive resume, Dr. Gentry proudly served his country as an officer in the United States Army and serves as a martial arts instructor.

Should We Believe What Jesus Said?

If you want to be perfect (Christ and the rich young man). 2010. Canvas, oil. 85 x 120. Artist A.N. Mironov

As anyone who has followed apologetics knows, the resurrection was transformative for the earliest Christians. Those who witnessed the resurrection were willing to give their lives for what they knew to be true. But was it only the resurrection that transformed them? Most assuredly, the resurrection verified the claims of Jesus and solidified his teachings. If it were not for the resurrection, it is highly doubtful that the early church would have worshiped Jesus as they did. While the resurrection solidified and verified the ministry of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus impacted the way the disciples viewed the ministry of Jesus and what God was doing through him. Jesus had thoroughly taught the disciples what would happen to him. He taught what they would eventually abandon him. He taught what the Old Testament said about his ministry. And he also extensively trained them about an already-not-yet kingdom.[1] The Christology of Jesus impacted the disciples so much that they preserved his teachings, even before the resurrection, and passed them along after the ministry of Jesus was vindicated by the resurrection. As Paul Barnett points out, “It was [C]hristology that gave birth to Christianity, not the reverse. Furthermore, Christ gave birth to [C]hristology. The chronology drives this conclusion.”[2] If the Christological teachings of Jesus gave rise to Christian doctrine—because as Richard Bauckham notes, the “earliest Christology was already in nuce the highest Christology”[3]—then should it not behoove modern believers to pay close attention to what Jesus said? The teachings of Jesus not only impacted the early believers’ Christology, but they paid close attention to other aspects of the didactic of Jesus, as well. Thus, the modern believer should take the ethical, historical, and theological/philosophical teachings of Jesus into consideration as they live out, research, and build a biblical worldview.

The Ethical Teachings of Jesus

The Sermon on the Mount is just as controversial today as it was when Jesus first uttered it. Jesus taught such things as showing mercy unto others (Matt. 5:7), having a purity of the heart (Matt. 5:8), and maintaining one’s role as a peacemaker (Matt. 5:9). He taught that believers were to stand for the truth by remaining the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13) while also maintaining a compassionate heart by being the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). He also taught that angry bitterness and lust made one as guilty as committing murder or adultery (Matt. 5:21–30). One of the most forgotten teachings of Jesus in modern times is his call to love one’s enemies and pray for those who may mistreat a person (Matt. 5:43–48). If Jesus rose from the dead, and he did, then the believer must take seriously the ethical commitments to which he calls his disciples to live. If one chooses to reject his moral standards, then one must ask, “Whose standards am I following—Jesus’s or my own?”

The Historical Teachings of Jesus

Here again, it is common for one to dismiss the teachings of Jesus when it comes to uncomfortable historical matters. Granted, the issue with Jesus mentioning Abiathar being the high priest when Ahimelech held the position in Mark 2:26 poses some issues. But one finds good reasons to think that something in the transmission from Aramaic to Greek could have been left off as the teaching/text was being translated. James Brooks avers that the best explanation to describe the hiccup is that the Aramaic word abba (meaning father) was originally added to Abiathar (abba-Abiathar) in the original teaching. Thus, the teaching would say “he entered the house of God in the time of abba-Abiathar” (Mark 2:26), which would be correct as Ahimelech was the father of Abiathar.[4]

Nonetheless, if Jesus is truly the divine Son of God—and the resurrection confirmed that he was—then, it stands to reason that Jesus would know perfectly whether such people existed when he referred to a historical Adam and Eve (implied in Matt. 19:4–6), Abraham and the early patriarchs (Matt. 22:32), and even Noah (Matt. 24:37). In our age of skepticism, it is easy to cast doubt on these figures of the past. But at the end of it all, we must ask ourselves whether we can take Jesus at his word.

The Theological/Philosophical Teachings of Jesus

Finally, one will ask whether a person can trust what Jesus says about the world, the kingdom of God, heaven and hell, and the direction of history. While there are a plethora of viewpoints concerning eschatology, the arrow of history is undebatable when it comes to the teachings of Jesus. In his Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24–25), Jesus warned that such things as wars, false prophets, famines,[5] earthquakes, and various disasters would come. Yet he noted that such things only serve as labor pains, indicating that the coming of the Son of Man was nigh (Matt. 24:8). Much more could be added to this eschatologically rich message. However, the most important aspect of his message is that despite the troubles that would come, God would move the arrow of history toward a time when he delivers the people of God and recreates the heavens and the earth. The kingdom of God would reach its ultimate and complete actualization when the “Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31).[6] Some may call this fanciful thinking. But this came from one who actually defeated death itself.

Conclusion

Many things are difficult to believe. It is difficult for me to wrap my mind around the fact that light travels at 186,000 miles a second. Likewise, some of the things mentioned in this article may be like the speed of light—very difficult to fathom. However, at the end of the day, we must all ask ourselves who we trust. Who is trustworthy? Who is a reliable witness? For me, the thing that led me back to Christianity after a time of doubt was the amazing amount of evidence supporting the literal resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. If Jesus truly raised from the dead and defeated death, then that is One whose opinion is worth trusting. Some may call it naïve. Well and good. When you are able to conquer death, then let’s talk.

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About the Author

Brian G. Chilton is the founder of BellatorChristi.com, the host of The Bellator Christi Podcast, and the author of the Layman’s Manual on Christian Apologetics. Brian is a Ph.D. Candidate of the Theology and Apologetics program at Liberty University. He received his Master of Divinity in Theology from Liberty University (with high distinction); his Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Gardner-Webb University (with honors); and received certification in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Brian is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Brian has served in pastoral ministry for nearly 20 years and currently serves as a clinical chaplain.

https://www.amazon.com/Laymans-Manual-Christian-Apologetics-Essentials/dp/1532697104

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© 2022. MoralApologetics.com.

[1] This is especially true in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught that the kingdom was being ushered in through his ministry (thus, it was already here) and would fully be actualized in the eschaton (not yet).

[2] Paul Barnett, The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2005), 26.

[3] Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 235.

[4] James Brooks, Matthew, New American Commentary, David S. Dockery, ed (Nashville, TN: B&H, 1992), 66.

[5] Some translations add “epidemics.”

[6] Unless otherwise noted, all quoted Scripture comes from the Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman, 2020).

Meditation on the Lord's Supper - The Towel of Humility

Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles by Meister des Hausbuches, 1475

A Twilight Musing

By so simple an act as eating and drinking the plainest bread and wine, Christ seeks to draw His disciples together.  It is a time when His servants should be poignantly aware of His lack of pretentiousness and should determine to gird themselves with the towel of humility and (in attitude) wash one another's feet.  And yet how often do we partake of the Lord's Supper in an atmosphere of stuffy self-importance, congratulating ourselves that we have proven our superiority to the rest of the world merely by being in the assembly. 

It is difficult in congregations of a few hundred or more to preserve the intimate fellowship of breaking bread as it was experienced by early Christians meeting from house to house; but the problem is not entirely one of numbers.  In a larger sense, we always gather around a large table, for we share each Communion service with all the saints, past and present, and to fail to recognize this wider fellowship is to be spiritually provincial.  The solution to our isolation from one another is not to make the table smaller, but to make our awareness of the presence of our Lord, the Suffering Servant, large enough and inclusive enough to fill the hearts of all who partake of His feast.  Only thus may we capture the grandeur of His humility which links us together across time.  We can be neither neutral nor antagonistic toward those with whom we sup; the Lord's Supper calls all of us to love and serve each other as He has loved and served us.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Lord’s Supper Meditation – Ongoing and Once for All

A Twilight Musing

          Part of the legend of King Arthur, early king of Britain, is that he was the “once and future king”; that is, he both existed as a historical person and will return to save England from a time of great peril in the future.  Those who believe in both the historical Jesus and His return someday to gather His people to Himself and render final judgment on the earth will see the similarity between the presentation of the legend and the matter of faith about Jesus Christ.  I think there is also an application of the “once and future” idea to the experience of the Lord’s Supper.

          When we partake of the bread of the Communion, we are said to be ingesting the body of Christ, recalling that He existed and walked in the flesh among mankind, the incarnate Son of God.  In doing so He presented the perfect form of God’s original creation of humans, without sin or any kind of blemish.  He also died and was resurrected in the body, and every eye will see Him (Rev 1:7) when He returns to transform and call to Himself all who have been redeemed in faith.  What we celebrate in the bread of the supper is the “ongoingness” of the Gospel message: As Jesus  Christ existed and walked on the earth in human form, so He calls and enables us to live our lives on earth in His image.  But just as He succumbed to death, giving up that perishable body and receiving a new, imperishable one, so we take His body within us with the promise that we shall overcome death as He did.  In the bread of Communion, we express the assurance that our life in Christ is a both “once and future” reality.

          In the wine, however, is a different aspect of our salvation and redemption, for in partaking spiritually of the blood of Christ, we are to contemplate an action of our Lord that was “once for all” (Heb. 9:24-28), the shedding of His blood to implement the New Covenant.  Accordingly, when He instituted the Lord’s Supper, He said that the wine was “my blood of the covenant” (Mark 14:24).  So when we partake of the wine, we focus on the unique event in history that fixed and secured our salvation. Before that pivotal event, blood sacrifice was effective only as a foreshadowing of the final and eternally sufficient offering of the perfect Lamb of God.

          Our participation in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ through the Lord’s Supper enables us to be divinely reassured that though we continue to battle the vicissitudes of life in these perishable bodies, through the power of our resurrected Lord these mortal bodies have a future, even after being returned temporarily to the dust from which they were created.  For in Christ we have a Covenant sealed by the Father through His Son’s once-for-all spilling of blood for us.  Let us rejoice in these gifts of bread and wine to renew our assurance of completing the cycle of enduring life in the flesh, being planted as seed in the grave, and being raised to bear the fruit of unchangeable life with God.  Thereby, we are united anew with the One Who is truly “the once and future King.”

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Why? Apologetics, Moral Apologetics, and You

Saint Paul delivering the Areopagus Sermon in Athens, by Raphael, 1515.

I recently heard of a key administrator in a Christian university who questioned the legitimacy of continuing to fund the study of apologetics because the leader found the concern to defend the faith irrelevant and distracting from more pressing matters of ministry. Let that sink in for a moment. Apologetics is irrelevant and distracting? Sadly, there are many who agree with this leader’s concerns, and many more who would probably not be so bold as to relegate apologetics to a matter of irrelevance and distraction but who, nonetheless, have little time, energy, or resources to devote to defending the faith once delivered. Rather than cursing the darkness I find in this lamentable reality, I want to light a candle and, hopefully, shed light on why apologetics matters. My earnest conviction is that, far from irrelevance and distraction, apologetics is of the essence of the church’s mission in our post-modern, post-Christian, post-everything culture. So, here are three questions for those who are unsure that apologetics matters today.

First, why apologetics? Stated rather bluntly, the answer to this question is one word: obedience. Apologetics is commanded in Scripture, and the command is not isolated to academicians or those with specialized rhetorical gifts. Quite the opposite is true. Apologetics is the calling, the directive, the command to every believer. 1 Peter 3:15 makes this unequivocally clear, stating that each believer must “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.” Pretty straightforward, right? Indeed, it is, and as Peter wrote to everyday believers who found themselves suffering for their faith amid a hostile culture, he also wrote to us. Peter’s command is not labored to make his point, and that’s just the point—apologetics is the straightforward expectation of all who trust in Christ even when the world around them doesn’t. All of us are commanded, in the context of setting apart Christ as Lord of our lives, to always be ready to defend our faith, our hope, our reasonable trust in the promises of God found in His word and manifested in our lives. Doing so is a matter of obedience, and not doing so is a matter of disobedience. It’s that simple. So, rather than questioning the relevance and legitimacy of apologetics, the real question is whether we will obey God. Apologetics is about doing our duty. Of course, there are plenty of other reasons to make a defense of our faith, including the help apologetics affords in clearing obstacles to evangelism, the need to strengthen the faith of those who struggle, and the way in which apologetics enflames the soul with deeper love for God in the heart and mind. But when we reduce the matter to its bare minimum, doing apologetics is a matter of obeying God.

Second, why moral apologetics? Given that there are many ways to “do” apologetics, including answering questions about the reliability of the Bible, providing evidence concerning the resurrection, offering arguments for the existence of God based on the cosmos, and so on, the focused concern of MoralApologetics.com is to promote a particular type of apologetic engagement, namely, moral apologetics. The driving concern in moral apologetics is to begin with moral facts, moral knowledge, moral rationality, and moral transformation, reasoning thereby with the mind and heart to the existence of God. Not just any god, by the way, but a personal God who is the source of all morality, of all good, and who calls and graciously enables His creatures to find their truest self and greatest happiness in a life of righteousness and holiness reflective of His divine nature. While there are important nuances and careful qualifications that can and should be made by moral apologists, the fundamental reason moral apologetics matters is because all people are innately aware of a moral sense that permeates the very fabric of human existence. We know what right looks like, we know when justice has been violated, and we know that guilt is a pervasive human struggle. It is precisely at these points that the moral apologist can enter into the angst and struggle of human existence on common ground with every other person. Moral apologetics provides a touchpoint, a genuine connection between God’s goodness and humanity’s moral wantonness and frailty. In my experience as an apologist, many times I have started from a moral connection and found a ladder of sorts to climb from morality to questions of explicit religious concerns, and especially Christian ones. I hasten to add that moral apologetics is not the only starting point for a faith conversation, and sometimes it may not be the best starting point given the particulars in play in each dialogue with an unbeliever. What moral apologetics does provide, though, is an accessible and universal “sameness” from which I can talk with others about their struggles, the world, and the hope God offers in Jesus Christ. So, why moral apologetics? From my vantage point, it is usually the most direct route to move from the question to the questioner at a time when the vast majority of struggles humanity encounters are principally of a moral nature. Moral apologetics just makes sense as a beginning point in my efforts to obey God’s command to give a defense for the reason I find my highest and surest hope in Jesus Christ.

This brings me to the final question. Why not you? Given that apologetics is a matter of obedience to God’s good commands, and that moral apologetics provides a reasonable and plausible starting point for discussing matters of ultimate reality and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, why would you not commit to becoming a better apologist? Why not take your place among the ranks of God’s people who are His ambassadors of truth and goodness in a world beset with lies and wickedness? I can’t think of anything more legitimate and relevant.

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Dr. Thomas J. Gentry (aka., TJ Gentry) serves as the pastor of First Christian Church of West Frankfort, Illinois, the Executive Editor of MoralApologetics.com, and Executive VP of Bellator Christi Ministries. Dr. Gentry is a world-class scholar holding 5 doctorate degrees and 6 masters degrees. Additionally, he is a prolific writer as he has published 7 books including Pulpit Apologist, Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord, and You Shall Be My Witnesses: Reflections on Sharing the Gospel. Be on the lookout for two additional books that he will soon publish. In addition to his impressive resume, Dr. Gentry proudly served his country as an officer in the United States Army and serves as a martial arts instructor.

Lord’s Supper Meditation – Renewal of Vows

A Twilight Musing

Some married couples choose, for one reason or another, to renew their marriage vows.  It may be that they have had dissention in their relationship and want to reaffirm the promises they made to each other in the first bloom of their love.  Or maybe they want merely to say to the world, “Join us in celebrating the holiness of marriage vows and the richness of life that can be demonstrated by people being faithful to each other over a long period of time.”

The similarity between marriage and our personal and corporate covenant relationship with Christ is commonplace in Scripture.  Perhaps the most focused instance of this comparison is in Eph. 5:22-33, where Paul speaks of Christ as a husband to his bride, the Church, and the bond between husband and wife as an embodiment of the mystery of union between Christ and His church.  The husband is to cherish and protect his wife as he would his own body, and the wife is to honor and serve her husband as she would Christ Himself.

Based on this analogy, when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we would do well to see what we are doing as a renewal of our vow at baptism to submit to the Lordship of Christ, and a reaffirmation of trust in God’s promise in Christ to love and protect us, even to the giving up of His own life.  In partaking of the bread and the wine, our life in Christ is renewed, and we rejoice like a bride whose husband has given his life for her but has been resurrected to continue living with her.  We can, to alter an old saying, have our Lord, and consume Him too.

Those who renew their marriage vows usually do so only once in their lifetimes, but we have the opportunity frequently to reaffirm our union with Jesus.  Our earthly marriage to another mortal, however rich it may be, will end someday, while marriage with Christ will last forever (Rev. 19:6-9; 21:2-4, 9).  If we are married people partaking of the Communion, our physical union with our spouses is sanctified by our reaffirmed union with Christ; if we are single, we can find the ultimate intimacy in perceiving Christ as our lover.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

Models of Oral Tradition and the Ethics Behind Accurate Transmission

The Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloch

In a heartfelt testimony, Bart Ehrman describes the origins of his descent from a fundamentalist Christian to an atheist-leaning-agnostic in his book Misquoting Jesus. The central factor in Ehrman’s doubt was the differences found in the Gospel texts. The catalyst of his departure was an apparent error in Jesus’s quotation of 1 Samuel 21:1–6 along with apparent differences in the Gospels’ presentation of the life of Jesus.[1] Ehrman is not alone. While Ehrman is correct in that Christianity and Judaism are “bookish religions,”[2] James D. G. Dunn is also correct in noting that properly understanding the transmission of early Jesus requires a shift in one’s default thinking to an “oral mind-set.”[3] At the end of the day, it must be asked how much liberty early writers were given to report the deeds and teachings of Jesus. If the writers of the New Testament intentionally tried to mislead individuals, then there lies an ethical problem behind the formation of the New Testament Gospels. Let us look at the three models of oral traditions and which one most closely aligns with the New Testament texts.

Informal Uncontrolled Model—Bultmannian Viewpoint

The first model is advocated by German scholar Rudolf Bultmann and is called the informal uncontrolled model. In his book Jesus and the Word, Bultmann shows a striking similarity to Ehrman’s concepts as he writes, “I do indeed think that we can know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus, since the early Christian sources show no interest in either, are moreover fragmentary, and often legendary; and other sources about Jesus do not exist.”[4] Bultmann does not deny that a genuine Jesus tradition is found in the Gospels, but holds that they have faded from view. In this model, the transmission of the Jesus traditions was informal because of the lack of an official teacher to pass along (i.e., παραδιδωμι) the information, and it was uncontrolled since the community exercised great fluidity as the data was changed and shaped according to the needs of the time.[5]

Formal Controlled Model—Scandinavian School

In stark contrast with the informal uncontrolled model, Scandinavian scholars such as Birger Gerhardsson, Harald Riesenfeld, and Samuel Byrskog contend that the church had far more control over the Jesus traditions than the Bultmannian school conveyed. As Riesenfeld and the Scandinavian school deduced, the παραδιδωμι of the Jesus tradition was formal in the sense that it was entrusted to a special school of disciples, and it was controlled in the sense that the key features were memorized and preserved.[6] In his classic yet controversial book Memory and Manuscript, Gerhardsson compares the early transmission of the Jesus traditions to the παραδιδωμι (i.e., handing down) of the Oral Torah,[7] which was set forth with care using mnemonic devices, written notes, repetitions, and with a great concern for accuracy.[8]  Thus, “Jesus is the object and subject of a tradition of authoritative and holy words which he himself created and entrusted to his disciples for its later transmission in the epoch between his death and the Parousia.”[9] But what about the portions of Scripture that seem to present variations in the material? Gerhardsson holds that the traditions were more comparable to haggadic material than halakhic material[10] which permits a wider margin of variation. Thus, one should anticipate some variations in the retelling of the material while also maintaining a high scrutiny for truth and accuracy.[11]

Informal Controlled Model—Kenneth Bailey

A third model is provided by Kenneth Bailey in an article written for Themelios Journal, which he calls the “informal controlled model.”[12] The informal controlled model is an ancient methodology are transmitted by a community called the haflat samar.[13] Certain individuals of the community memorize the material and recite it to the community. The elders of the community also memorize the material and offer correction if the reciter should err in his retelling of the story or teachings. While the storytellers were given some license to adapt the material, the core essential data must remain the same. Bailey estimates that no more than 15 percent of the story could be changed to permit interpretations and applications, but even then, the essential markers of the material could not be altered.[14] Thus, for Bailey, the material is informal in the sense that the community is involved with the preservation of the material and controlled due to the insistence of the community to accurately convey and παραδιδωμι truthful information that accurately conveys what one said and did.

Conclusion

From my continued research, the New Testament Gospels seem to convey a blend of the Scandinavian formal controlled model and Bailey’s informal controlled model. The early credal material assuredly matches Gerhardsson’s and the Scandinavian model. However, the parables seem to hold a greater similarity with Bailey’s informal controlled model allowing for greater flexibility. It may be that different portions of the New Testament Gospels swing from one side of the pendulum to the other. Regardless of whether a passage is found in Gerhardsson’s or Bailey’s model, both emphasize the early Christian community’s commitment to accuracy and truthfulness. Therefore, one can take confidence in the early church’s commitment to ethical integrity and truthful transmission. The early Christians believed that they were preserving the message of Jesus whom they believed was the Son of God. As such, models such as Bultmann’s do not consider the early ethical standards of the first church. Also, Bultmann’s model does not seem to cohere with the biblical data. Craig Blomberg puts it best by saying, “we may confidently declare that the approach to oral tradition (that is, the formal controlled and informal controlled models) is far more likely to approximate historical realities than those of Funk, the Jesus Seminar, and others who promote the model of informal, uncontrolled tradition.”[15]

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About the Author 

Brian G. Chilton is the founder of BellatorChristi.com, the host of The Bellator Christi Podcast, and the author of the Layman’s Manual on Christian Apologetics. Brian is a Ph.D. Candidate of the Theology and Apologetics program at Liberty University. He received his Master of Divinity in Theology from Liberty University (with high distinction); his Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Gardner-Webb University (with honors); and received certification in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Brian is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Brian has served in pastoral ministry for nearly 20 years and currently serves as a clinical chaplain.

https://www.amazon.com/Laymans-Manual-Christian-Apologetics-Essentials/dp/1532697104

© 2022. MoralApologetics.com.

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[1] Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2009), 9.

[2] Ibid., 20.

[3] James D. G. Dunn, The Oral Gospel Tradition (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2013), 49.

[4] Like Ehrman, Bultmann argues that the earliest community was not interested in preserving historical information about Jesus and his messages, but they were rather more interested in the situations facing the evolving church. Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus and the Word (New York, NY: Scribners, 1958), 8.

[5] Historical accuracy was not the primary focus in this model. While Ehrman and the Jesus Seminar popularized this model, this is far from the only one.

[6] Riesenfeld argued that the “words and deeds of Jesus are a holy word, comparable with that of the Old Testament, and a handing down of this precious material is entrusted to special persons.” Harald Riesenfeld, “The Gospel Tradition and Its Beginnings,” in The Gospel Tradition (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1970), 19.

[7] Oral traditions associated with the Torah and the memorization of the written texts.

[8] Birger Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 335.

[9] Riesenfeld, “Gospel Tradition and Its Beginnings,” Gospel Tradition, 29.

[10] Halakhic material (Heb. “the way”) contained the totality of the laws that were passed down since biblical times and largely from written sources. Haggadic material—haggadah meaning “tales”—contains non-legal material that was offered to preserve historical events, folklore, and moral teachings that were part of the Jewish Oral Law (תורה שבעל פה). The Haggadah has passed along important teachings and interpretations, while also allowing for a more spiritual and allegorical dimension.

[11] Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript, 335.

[12] Kenneth E. Bailey, “Informal Controlled Oral Tradition and the Synoptic Gospels,” Themelios 20, 2 (1995): 5.

[13] Samar is an Arabic cognate of the Hebrew shamar which means “to preserve.” Ibid., 6.

[14] Ibid., 7.

[15] Craig L. Blomberg, “Orality and the Parables: With Special Reference to James D. G. Dunn’s Jesus Remembered,” in Memories of Jesus: A Critical Appraisal of James D. G. Dunn’s Jesus Remembered, Robert B. Stewart and Gary R. Habermas, eds (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2010), 125–126.

Meditation on the Lord's Supper: Betrayal

Judas Iscariot (right), retiring from the Last Supper, painting by Carl Bloch, late 19th century

A Twilight Musing

1 Cor. 11:23 (NIV)

    For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread . . . .

29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

           How strange it is that Paul's account of the institution of the Lord's Supper is introduced by saying it was "on the night in which [Jesus] was betrayed."  Why not say "during the last Passover meal with His disciples"?  or "on the night before He died"? Perhaps it is because the context of the account has to do with the integrity of fellowship in the Body of Christ, the church.  Just as Jesus was being betrayed during an intimate moment with His disciples, so the Corinthians were "sinning against the body and blood of the Lord" at the very moment when they should have been closest to Him and to each other. They were in a sense betraying the Lord just as Judas had, because they failed to recognize the meaning of Jesus' death.  Their affections were elsewhere.  We, like Judas, miss the whole point of the Incarnation of the Son of God when our hearts are not committed to the communion which He offers us.

           The self-examination called for in this passage does not primarily concern the most common sins, but rather cautions us against the particular danger of focusing on our differences, rather than on the body and blood which draw us together in Christ.  The spiritual blessing of partaking of the Lord's Supper comes from our discerning that Christian fellowship is made real only when we give Jesus our undivided attention.  To do otherwise is to betray our Master, along with Judas, whose heart was not in the room of fellowship with Jesus, but outside, where he finally went to satisfy his own individual desires.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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Communion Meditation – Bread of Earth & Bread of Heaven

A Twilight Musing by Elton Higgs

“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal!"...Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:27, 35).

In partaking of this bread, we reaffirm our commitment to the true Bread of Life, rather than to the bread which perishes. Our labors for the daily bread which sustains our physical bodies are set aside, and we allow ourselves to be drawn into the realm of eternal satisfaction with Jesus. The repeated supplying and partaking of our daily bread is necessary as a means to an end, which is learning to eat and drink of God Himself, so that we may be completely filled and satisfied. Jesus is making this point in John 6, when He contrasts the temporal manna in the wilderness, miraculous though it was, with the true bread--Jesus Himself—which sustains spiritual life, not merely physical life.

However, in our present form, we need both the bread of earth and the Bread of Heaven. The bread of earth prolongs our days on earth long enough for God's purposes for us here to be fulfilled; by the grace of God we are sustained so that we may be His instruments in the world. But the fulfillment of that instrumentality is accomplished only by our taking within us the nature of the perfectly obedient Son of God. The Bread of Heaven sustains us as reborn beings who are delivered from the captivity of the first Adam into the freedom of the Second Adam, Jesus our Savior. Thus the Bread of Life nourishes the eternal part of us, not just our doomed bodies. But just as Jesus manifested the Divine Nature in a physical and perishable body, so we carry out His ministry by a temporary reflection of the Incarnation, merging the mortal and the immortal in an uneasy union to carry out God's purposes.

Jesus calls us to be like Himself in the world, experiencing the tension between the first and the second birth. He sustains both natures by His provision of bread, which is profoundly symbolized in its double sense in the Lord's Supper. He calls upon us to embrace and ingest it with thankfulness for both the physical and the spiritual sustenance which are embodied in what is at once the bread of earth and the Bread of Heaven. We walk thus, suspended with Him, until He calls us home to feast imperishably at His table.

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Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

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