I used to really enjoy a certain on-air apologist for the faith. When I first believed, I truly appreciated the apologist "watchdogs" - self-proclaimed defenders of the common faith we hold in God's Son Jesus Christ. Listening to them gave me confidence that what I believed was shared by other thinking, reasoning people.
But as I have learned and grown in Him, I have increasingly found this type of apologetics to not be Christocentric.
While listening to a radio apologetics show yesterday, the discussion was between a practicing Mormon caller and two Christian apologists. As the conversation proceeded, the Christian apologists continued to raise issues about the falsehoods in the book of Mormon, DNA evidence that refuted the Mormon faith, tales about Joseph Smith and archeology that was contrary to Mormon historic writings. As I listened to the Christ-believers, I thought to myself...WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TELL HIM ABOUT JESUS?
Sometimes when we learn about other faiths, other ways of thinking or other doctrines, we find ourselves poking holes in these anti-Christ faiths rather than presenting the most blessed Jesus Christ. If we read how biblical "apologists" (the apostles) "defended the faith", they simply reiterated true doctrine about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Galatians, I John, Jude and Colossians may all be considered texts that are responding to anti-Christs in the their time. What you do NOT see is dialogue with these anti-Christs that presents arguments for why their faiths are not true. Therefore, we conclude that truly biblical apologists simply describe the truth about the Christ that refutes the false faith - they do not learn about the anti-Christ religion in order to refute it in a philosophical debate.
So then, while we are "defending Jesus" we can actually fail to be Christocentric.
In fact, we can replace Jesus the Christ with another set of "truths" that, while factually accurate, do not emphasize the person of Christ, thus are not in agreement with the Spirit of God whose sole aim is to reveal the Christ to the hearts of men.
Don't we know that we simply need to share the person of Jesus with the unbeliever?
- Jesus has come in the flesh.
- He IS God of all; the Son of the Living God
- He did die for our sins according to the scripture
- He did rise from the dead bodily/physically
- He is our messiah/King and He will return
2 comments:
I suspect that they "poke holes" because LDS already believe completely what you have listed.
Here is a link to the LDS statement of faith concerning Jesus Christ.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=e1fa5f74db46c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=735b862384d20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=true
In fact, the LDS does not recognize Jesus as God. They recognize Him as "The Son of God", but when they use this term, they do not mean that He is the Eternal, Creator of the Earth. The True Christ is the Son of God, meaning that HE is equal in essence with God the Father. For By Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were creatd by Him and For Him. (Colossians 1:15-16).
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