At the request of a few readers of my blog, I’ve expanded my about page to a “Short” and “Long” versions. The short one is first, read the long one after the short one if you want more information about me.
Short
Hello! I’m J.W. Wartick and I created this blog with the sole intention of writing apologetics. Christian Apologetics and Philosophy of Religion are my passions, and God continually opens new opportunities in this area. I have been accepted to Biola University to work towards a Master’s Degree in Christian Apologetics.
I am a student member of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and the Evangelical Theological Society.
I believe that the Bible is the Holy and Inerrant Word of God and the sole source of pure Christian Doctrine. I believe in the Triune God: The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are not three gods but One God. One Essence, Three Persons. I acknowledge and fully believe and adhere to the Three Ecumenical Creeds of the Christian Faith. I believe that salvation is in my Lord Jesus Christ alone, there is none other.
As part of my mission with apologetics, I’d love to hear questions and answer them as best as I can. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you’d like to see addressed in my blog or personally. I attempt to respond to everyone who comments on this site or contacts me, but due to an increase both in the amount of comments and the time taken by my off-site activities (marriage, studies, work, etc.) I will not always respond or may respond very late. My apologies in advance.
The destruction of unborn human life is abhorrent.
Publications:
Book Review: Revelation by Richard Swinburne, Hope’s Reason: A Journal of Apologetics, Volume 1, p. 5-8.
“Past, Probability, and Teleology,” Hope’s Reason: A Journal of Apologetics, (2010-2011 Volume 1) p. 67-78.
Long
My story is long, not of necessity, but because I like to talk (well, write, but you get the idea). It’s not a story about how I’m a recovering drug addict or something. I think it’s really quite boring. It’s a story of a young man who grew up in the church, always believed in God, doubted for a bit, and then was called back to a full and wonderful relationship with God.
I am a PK (pastor’s kid) and I was raised in the church. It wasn’t until I was about 19-20 years old that I began to be reflective about my faith. I felt that the scientific paradigm of the age of the universe and evolutionary theory presented hefty challenges to Christian belief. In moments of despair, I went to friends and poured out these fears to them. Primarily, however, I would pray, crying out to God to let me know He was there. God called me to Him and revealed Himself to me. This moment is very personal, and my written account of it is quite long, so for these reasons I won’t be posting it here.
I realized after this event that I wanted to do something for the glory of God. Initially, the most obvious choice was to go into the ministry. As I continued my studies, however, I discovered my passion was not in ministry, but in the scholarly side of church work–specifically philosophy of religion and apologetics. I was reading more and more of these two subjects and found myself deeply engaged in both mind and heart. I have heard it said that God calls everyone in different ways. He called me through a vision, while also calling me through various works written by His people. Thus, I decided to go into philosophy and apologetics. I’m unsure of what my future holds in these areas, though my eventual goal is to have a kind of traveling seminar which instructs the laity in basic level apologetics, while also writing works that range from novels related to Christian issues to basic level philosophy of religion to advanced apologetics and philosophy of religion.
I have seen God opening doors as I’ve pursued this dream, a dream which, in retrospect, is quite funny. I remember when I was young thinking that nothing could possibly be more frivolous than philosophy; now, philosophy is my life. I used to be mostly a fideist, not realizing that one needs to “Always Have a Reason” (hence the header for my site). My interaction with God used to be limited to going to church mindlessly and praying once in a while, now I strive (though often, in my human weakness, fail) to have an open and engaging relationship with God.
I find myself saturated with both Scripture and philosophy, and I could not be more happy. God continually guides me in this process.
Alright, hopefully this gives enough biographical data to satisfy those who wanted to know more. Feel free to ask me questions about my life, I’d be happy to answer them, within reason.
The images used as my site header are on a random loop. I’ve featured pictures of the Torah along with pictures of distant galaxies. I’ve always been in wonder about God’s creation, and these images help reflect that feeling.
P.S. As a final note I wanted to make it clear that I realize some of my older posts may not be up to par (some of my new ones may not be either). Credit this to the fact that I’m still learning. I delete/update posts as I realize they are useless or need modification. Other posts are faulty, but I let them stand because they at least had a few good things to say.
This blog is protected under the creative commons licensing 2.5.
Discussion
37 Responses to “About”
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Hey there, JW
I just discovered that my blog banner wasn’t appearing and had to upload another one, guess it was gone for about three days, hmmm….
I notice that you’ve added a custom header to your theme. I like it! (Thumbs up!)
And btw, a Masters in Christian Apologetics is marvelously cool…I’m jealous!
Posted by Disciple | August 16, 2009, 11:35 PMJust wanted to let you know I was here… I will be back often.
Posted by Sue | August 18, 2009, 3:40 PMHowdy, JW
Just wanted to suggest something. Probably most browsers now look for feeds on blogs, but just in case, why not add a link on your sidebar to your RSS feed? And one for your comments feed too?
The code is yourblogaddress.com/feed/ for the regular feed
and yourblogaddress.com/comments/feed for the comments feed. I know you’ve got those listed at the bottom of the page, but folks would see ‘em better up on the sidebar. And you can grab one of those little orange feed icons and stick it on there too.
Of course, you’re probably busy actually writing for your blog, not fiddling with the sidebar like I’ve been doin’. Yeah, there’s that.
Posted by Disciple | August 20, 2009, 4:11 AMOops, forgot the last forward slash in the comments feed address, like so:
yourblogaddress.com/comments/feed/
Posted by Disciple | August 20, 2009, 4:12 AMThanks for the info! I gotta say I don’t really have any idea what any of the stuff you’re talking about. I’ll try to figure it out tomorrow when I’ve gotten some sleep.
Posted by J.W. Wartick | August 20, 2009, 4:50 AMHeh. Sorry about that. I remembered that you said something about not knowing how to do the banner stuff when we first talked a while back. (But I gotta tell you again how much I like the one you’ve got up there now.) So I thought you might not know about RSS and feeds and such. So here goes.
Look at the bottom of your pages, any page. They all have these little words that say “Entries (RSS)” and “Comments (RSS)”. Now, depending on what browser you’re using, you should see the most recent comments on your blog displayed. That’s because WordPress creates a little file called a “feed” that lists your latest posts in one file and the latest comments in another, so that someone can use software to read those files so they can keep up with you without having to actually visit your blog. They can “subscribe” to these feeds all over the web and click a button to update all their subscribed feeds and read all the latest from all their favorite blogs and it’s simple for them.
Another way of them getting your feed is to look for that little icon that may be in the little address bar in your browser where you type URL’s (if you’re using Firefox or Flock or something like it). Click on that and you’ll see the latest posts and you’ll also see a link or a button you can click on to subscribe to that feed and you’ll have an option to add to the page you use as a homepage (Yahoo, Google, etc).
I’m sending my feed out through FeedBurner because they’ll handle it for me, make it look much nicer, take care of subscriptions, let me know how many, allow folks to subscribe through email or through other ways, and I don’t have to mess with it and that’s what I want. No mess. Plus I can add my podcast later the same way (yes, I’m toying with the idea and have been for some time).
If you are still scratching your head, go to my blog, click on the little orange links on the sidebar and gaze upon the loveliness you will see. And read more about it at Feed 101 (link below). Trust me, all this will make much sense to you after a little while. If I can understand it, you can. I am sure of it. Yep, I am.
google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=79408
And now I shall leave you alone so you can get some writing done. And I shall follow your example and get down to business now too.
Posted by Disciple | August 20, 2009, 8:34 PMOh, and feel free to delete these comments after you’ve read ‘em. Or before you read ‘em if you just don’t really care about such things. I’m fine with that.
Posted by Disciple | August 20, 2009, 8:35 PMNeat! thanks for the info. I think I get it now. Not really sure how to make my links pretty like yours though.
Posted by J.W. Wartick | August 24, 2009, 2:49 PMWow J.W.,
I am impressed with your site. I can’t wait till I have more time to read your stuff.
Posted by Stephanie | October 25, 2009, 12:16 AMThanks for stopping by, Steph! Let me know what you think.
Posted by J.W. Wartick | October 25, 2009, 2:32 AM“Aploogetics”? What is that, exactly? Are you apologizing for all the terrible things that have transpired under the guise of Christian ficion? Is there a faculty of Religious Aplogetics where you apologize for all the organized religions of the world and the horrible atrocities that are undertaken under their fictitious scrawlings?
Posted by Dan | November 14, 2009, 7:11 PMNo, apologetics is the “defense of the faith,” in layman’s terms. It involves defending (here Christianity) from attacks, like this one. I’ll allow the comments to stand, but in the future, I would prefer a more mature level of conversation rather than a string of ad hominem attacks.
Posted by J.W. Wartick | November 14, 2009, 11:03 PMHahahaha, that was funny, Dan. Oh, wait, you were serious? Is this Dan Brown? I want to ask you something, Mr. Brown: When folks say they don’t like “organized” religion, does it mean that they do like “disorganized” religion? What does that mean, anyway? Is there an UnChurch of Disorganized Religion somewhere? I’ve always wanted to ask someone that and since your book, the Duh Vinci Code, came out, some folks take you to be an expert on that kind of nonsense, don’t you know.
Posted by Disciple | March 24, 2010, 8:30 PMGreetings:
Just added your blog (HT: Chris Reese) to my blogroll.
Keep up the great work here!
Paul D. Adams
http://inchristus.wordpress.com
Posted by Paul | April 2, 2010, 11:34 AMThanks for the honor! I’ll check out your site in turn. If I could figure out how to do such things, I’d have a blogroll as well.
Posted by J.W. Wartick | April 4, 2010, 3:57 PMGreat work. Have added to to my blogroll.
Roger, Australia.
http://www.faithinterface.com.au/
Posted by Roger Morris | May 20, 2010, 9:13 PMI sent an email to oontabob@yahoo.com! Is your account of personally experiencing God when you called out available on this site? I’m interesting in reading it! I love your articles, as I mentioned in the email I sent you, but I also have a request which is also in the email!
Posted by court | December 6, 2010, 7:31 AMJW. Appreciate your interest in apologetics and other areas. I have served as the Pastor of apologetics at two churchs but also serve with a pro-life ministry you might be interested in–mobile pregnancy center ministry.
http://www.icumobile.org
Pastor Adam Barton,
Akron, Ohio
Posted by Adam Barton | July 14, 2011, 10:58 AMThanks for stopping by Pastor Barton! I have heard of that ministry and I think it is extremely important. Would you be interested in being featured on my site in a post?
Posted by J.W. Wartick | July 14, 2011, 11:48 AMhey there, erm…since im new to this whole bloggy thing, Is it safe to assume that when you comment, you check back to see if I commented back? cuz, with blogger I dont see anything there that notifies you that I commented. if there is a way, im so clueless to it. anyway, if you comment, thats what i’ll be doing, commenting on my own blog.
just so you dont think im ignoring you lol
Posted by Karen | September 1, 2011, 9:50 PMYeah I don’t know how to use blogger that well. I initially made this blog on there, but I moved it all to wordpress because I liked the format better.
I don’t think you’re ignoring me at all!
Posted by J.W. Wartick | September 1, 2011, 11:00 PMHey J.W.
that movie Bunraku comes out september 30th to a VERY limited audience. So limited that its in 10 theaters and nowhere near you, or me for that matter. It is, however available Video On Demand. My comcast/xfinity has it for $7 so I can watch it, but im bummed I wont get to see it on the big screen. I dont know if you’ve got on demand, or even cable, but im sure there’s a way to download it. Anyway, that was all.
check ya later.
Posted by Karen | September 17, 2011, 3:19 AMThat’s not so fun! I don’t have cable or on demand, so I’ll have to wait till it’s on DVD. Let me know how it is!
Posted by J.W. Wartick | September 17, 2011, 9:18 AMHey there!
I blogged about it, but pretty much the movie was awesome.
Posted by Karen | September 21, 2011, 8:26 PMNice review. I’ll have to watch it sometime
Posted by J.W. Wartick | September 22, 2011, 2:33 PMHey J.W.
I just found out the movie will be released to dvd in november.
Also, I had a dream about a week ago. you and I were at work, having one of our conversations as usual. The topic, I dont remember, but the part I do remember is telling you that the answer to the age old question of Why are we here, had recently come to me. You had said, Oh really? and I said yup. the answer? We are here simply for God’s amusement. The universe is like a huge amusment park and earth and its inhabitants are just one of the many things to keep God entertained.
I dont know why I had this dream. It could be because of the books im reading, books that im pretty sure you’d find absolute rubbish. But, it is after all, fiction.
Posted by Karen | October 10, 2011, 11:01 PMKaren, I appreciate the comment as usual. Sounds like a pretty funny dream! I definitely don’t think we’re just an amusement park…. though that would be amusing
.
Posted by J.W. Wartick | October 11, 2011, 7:02 PMyeah, I dont know what was up with that dream either. I’ve been reading these books about fallen angels and their offspring, nephilim and this band of other angels bent on detroying the nephilim in Gods name. The books are pretty good, though even I found some of the stuff a tad unbelievable, even for fiction.
Posted by Karen | October 12, 2011, 7:31 PMHey J.W.
just wanted to drop by and say hello, and to tell you that i’ve done the unthinkable and joined facebook.
Posted by Karen Edwards | December 17, 2011, 3:43 AMAdd me!
Posted by J.W. Wartick | December 17, 2011, 10:45 PMI am new to WordPress so I was checking blogs similar to the one I have created and I came across yours. I like it. God bless.
Posted by conmakhalira | February 15, 2012, 8:34 AMThanks for your kind words! Welcome to wordpress!
Posted by J.W. Wartick | February 15, 2012, 1:20 PMLook’s like your doing great things. Keep up the good work. I’ve added you to my favorites and will be back soon. May God continue to bless and keep you in all that you say and do!
Posted by Cory | March 22, 2012, 2:01 PM