Oh, I
loved this one! The guest is K. Scott Oliphint, a professor at Westminster in
Philly, and he’s got a book out. He sounds like he really knows his stuff.
Let’s
see if they let me post this one.
I guess
I want to talk about the importance of getting into it. Of going all
analytical. Of “over-thinking,” whatever that means.
This
very morning, I was driving my kids to school and they launched into an
impromptu comparison of the churches we’ve attended. Among the things they
noted was the fact that, at this church, there’s a ball pit in the home where
we go for our small or community group meetings, which is a vast improvement
over the non-pit offerings of other churches. The ball pit, one of my kids
said, is “awesome.” But, she continued, “someone kicked me in the head” in the
pit. Alas, it’s a trade off. When one picks a church, one must consider whether
or not there is a ball pit—but one must understand the risks: You Might Get Kicked In The Head.
And by
sharing this, I am illustrating what exactly?
We make
our choices based on what we believe, on what we value.
Here’s
the thing: I’m not much of a theologian or an apologist. I prefer reading Ernest
Hemingway, probably Charles Dickens, and maybe even obscure poetry or some
William Faulkner’s wild prose over and above this hard-core doctrinal stuff.
That said, I think it’s super important. One has to get over one’s own
prejudices and weaknesses. The apologetic must
come first. If you’re a Christian, but you don’t really know why—or if you
can’t speak intelligently about beliefs—it’s a problem. I think it’s why we
Christians get a bad reputation. We kinda sound dumb. It isn’t our odd dating
habits or even the whole creationism thing; it’s that we can’t adequately back
up our beliefs about these things. We get a little stupid.
So,
like, don’t pick your church because you get to play in the ball pit. Go for
the apologetic, the Truth.
All this
to say that I really liked this episode. I found it rigorous, substantive, good
for the soul.
I know I
think anecdotally. This has been highlighted more and more in my life as a
writer. I’ll be approached to look at some piece of analytical writing and I’ll
kinda wince at the dryness of it all. I’m sure the analytical-types read my
stuff and ask, “But where’s the content?” I’m all like, You have to earn your content through story.
The
interesting thing is that God does it this way too. I don’t want to say that He
“earns” His content, but God talks doctrine often enough by using story. He
“backs up” the apologetic with the life of Abraham or Isaac or Moses or Joseph
or Hannah or Elizabeth or Mary.
So don’t
diss story.
But
don’t diss apologetics, either.
My guess
is that many a fine Christian is backing off this stuff because it seems so
esoteric. Really, that can’t be right. God did give us exciting stories like
the Red Sea parting and King David doing stuff you see in the movies—but He
also gave us the book of Romans. Go figure.
This
episode will give you some apologetics to ponder. This way, you go beyond Ball
Pit Thinking.
Jennifer Bell is mostly a writer, but she's
also an English teacher. The author of two books of fiction, she lives with her
husband and two kids in Phoenix.
