UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES: 2006/01-02
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The Newsletter of Contend for the Faith, Inc
1 Chronicles 12:32
JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2006
Learn to Contend for the Faith at the Spiritual Counterfeits Conference
New Conference Will Equip Saints
There has never been a greater need for Christians to be able to give good responses to the challenges to the faith leveled by those who question it (1 Peter 3:15).
Because of this, a new annual conference is being held at Southern Evangelical Seminary March 3-4, 2006. The Spiritual Counterfeits Conference will have a group of excellent speakers who will address the cults, world religions, and false teachings in the church.
Dr. Ron Rhodes will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Norman Geisler will also be addressing the conference. These two men have written over 100 books on defending the Christian faith.
Some of the hot topics that will be discussed at this event are the Da Vinci code, Harry Potter, wicca, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Islam, evolution, the word/faith movement, and the emerging church.
This conference presents a great opportunity for believers to learn about the false teachings of these various groups and how to respond to them biblically. Learn how to better contend for the faith and reach the lost for Christ by attending this first annual Spiritual Counterfeits Conference.
For details, read the enclosed brochure or visit the SES webpage.
Stand for Truth in Science Class
Christians who understand the importance of engaging the culture on the key issues of the day have an opportunity to speak out about the science curriculum in Union County public schools.
The Fair Science Committee, a group of citizens concerned about truth and accuracy in the science curriculum, has been formed to address the serious errors found in the Union County biology textbooks.
The group plans to petition the Union County School Board concerning the following:
An objective critique of the theory of evolution as currently being taught. The elimination of erroneous “proofs” that have been discredited. Academic freedom within the classroom in accordance with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for science.
To get more information about the Fair Science Committee, go to www.fairscience.org and sign the online petition. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
Contender Placemats Available
He’s smart. He’s tough. He has a really cool outfit. And he is here to help your kids and grandkids learn to defend the faith!
He is The Contender, a cartoon character designed to do much more than entertain your children. Through the medium of an educational placemat, The Contender wants to teach your kids sound doctrine and the basics of contending for the faith.
The first of these full-color placemats deals with the issue of truth. The front side teaches what truth is, and the back teaches about the nature of truth. Understanding truth is the first step in apologetics.
These placemats are available from our ministry and are designed generally for young people ages 5-14. But make no mistake, adults can learn the basics of defending the faith from The Contender as well. (Actually, there are Ph.D. professors who need these placemats too!)
These placemats can be viewed and ordered from The Contender’s own webpage on our website.
Order your Contender placemats now so that all of your young contenders can learn about truth at the kitchen table.
SPEAKING SCHEDULE 2006
March 3 & 4, 2006
2006 Spiritual Counterfeits Conference, Southern Evangelical Seminary, Charlotte
www.SES.edu/cults
March 5, 2006
Christian Worldview Thinking, Pilgrims in Progress class, Room 233, Calvary Church, Charlotte, 9:00 am
www.calvarychurch.com
March 20, 2006
Chapel Service, Southern Evangelical Seminary, Charlotte, 7:30 pm
www.SES.edu
March 25, 2006
Becoming a Person of Impact Youth Conference, Sardis Baptist Church, Indian Trail, 5:45 pm
www.sardisbaptist.com
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
UNDERSTANDING THE CULTIC MINDSET
I recently received a phone call from a Jehovah’s Witness who lives on the west coast named Nelson.
When I answered the phone, the man on the other end said, “Is this Contend for the Faith? Do you answer Bible questions?” I responded “yes” to both questions. When I asked his name and where he was calling from, he somewhat reluctantly told me his name was Nelson and that he lives in Washington.
Nelson then proceeded to ask me about the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17. His question was about verse three where Jesus says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” His question was, “If Jesus said His Father was the only true God, then how can Jesus be God?”
This was the beginning of a twenty-minute conversation that was really more argument than discussion. I had heard about a particularly strident JW who has been calling apologetics ministries around the country and essentially picking a fight with whichever apologist answers the phone.
As soon as I heard Nelson’s first question, I suspected that I was his next intended target. Since the denial of the deity of Christ is the core of the false teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, this is where their apologists start their attack.
I decided to treat his query as if it were from someone who was genuinely seeking an answer. I briefly described the nature of God as revealed in the Bible – that within the nature of the one true God there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each is referred to as God and each is shown to have the attributes of deity.
Nelson immediately jumped on my description of the Trinity (even though I did not use that term) as being unbiblical. “Jesus cannot be God,” he said. “He denies that He is God in John 17:3.”
I responded that Jesus did no such thing. To affirm that the Father is God is not to deny that the Son is God. I said Jesus could have said that the Holy Spirit is the only true God and He would have been equally correct. This is why understanding the nature of God is so important. Nowhere did Jesus deny His own deity, and He affirmed it many times and many ways.
After Nelson asserted that Jesus “never said ‘I am God,’” I said both He and His disciples declared His deity often. Then I cited what is probably the clearest text on Jesus being God in the flesh. John 20:28 reads “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”
The Greek text here shows that Thomas, beholding the resurrected Christ, actually says to Jesus “The Lord of me and the God of me!” I told Nelson that Thomas clearly declares Jesus to be his God.
Nelson responded, “Thomas wasn’t talking to Jesus.” I said, “WHAT!? If you have the verse in front of you, please read it to me.”
He read, “And Thomas answered and said to Him . . .” and I interrupted him. “Read that again please” I said. He did, so I asked “Who does the ‘to Him’ refer to?” “It doesn’t refer to Jesus” he replied.
“THEN WHO DOES IT REFER TO?!” He said it refers to the Father. I asked how in the world he could read that passage in context and come to that conclusion.
As JW’s will often do, he wanted to jump to another passage of Scripture. I urged him to focus on the verse in John, but he said that Matthew 8 and Luke 7 would answer the question.
Here was his argument: In Matthew 8:5-13 Jesus heals the servant of a centurion because of his great faith that Christ could do this. In verse 13 Matthew records that “Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go. . . .” But when we read the parallel account of this event in Luke’s gospel, it says that the centurion sent friends to speak to Jesus (Luke 7:6), but he himself did not go. The point is that when you put these two accounts together, when Matthew 13:8 states that Jesus spoke “to the centurion,” it means that Jesus communicated to the centurion through his friends, but not directly. Therefore, his argument goes, when Thomas said to Jesus “The Lord of me and the God of me!” he was really communicating to the Father through His servant Jesus.
While this is a creative way to attempt to deny the obvious import of Thomas’ declaration in John 20:28, it utterly fails. I said, “I understand your point, and I have one question for you. Where is the parallel passage in another gospel that states Thomas was really talking to the Father?” “There isn’t one” he said.
If there were only Matthew’s account of the healing of the servant, everyone would assume that Jesus was approached by the centurion directly. However, in the Roman world if a friend made a request on behalf of a centurion, it was viewed as the centurion making the request. That is why Luke and Matthew do not contradict each other. But we only know of the friends representing the centurion because of Luke.
In the absence of another gospel clearly specifying that Thomas “said to God the Father, ‘The Lord of me and the God of me!’”, it is impossible with any credibility to deny that Thomas’ statement in John 20:28 is a the declaration of the deity of Christ.
John then records, “Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.’” (John 20:29).
It strains credulity beyond the breaking point to claim that Jesus here is commending Thomas for believing that the Father is God because he has seen the Son who is not God. Thomas, being an observant Jew, always believed that the Father was his God.
Those trapped in the cults are forced to read the Bible through heretical glasses forced upon them by their leadership. Our job is to help them remove these cracked glasses so they can see God’s Word clearly.
