Thinking

I’m an Uncle!

Hah! Now I’m posting something that has nothing to do with apologetics!

I’m now an UNCLE! 😀 My sister had a son, Isaac Bejamin, who is the first child on her side of the family, the second on her husband’s side.
He is currently very sick, but getting much better. I had the joy of visiting yesterday and earlier today. I’m going to be the Godfather :).

YAY 😀

Cleaning the Altar

This past Saturday (the 19th), I went with my girlfriend to clean up after a church had been vandalized.

When we got to the church, most of the damage had already been undone. There were several crosses that had been smashed amongst the pews. There was a safe in the basement that had a hole punched through it. The vandal(s) had dumped powdered bleach all over the items in the basement, including chairs and tables.

The church is having an event this weekend, so cleaning up was a top priority, not just cleaning the damage, but doing as much as we could to get the church in general in top shape.

Part of my job was to clean the altar. It was wonderful. I was polishing/washing and my girlfriend was drying. As I was wiping down the altar, I was singing softly “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy… on me.” It was a wonderful connection. God’s presence is real in the world and such events do nothing but confirm God’s hand in all things as far as I am concerned. It was a truly spiritual experience and one that I’ll never forget.

Thinking as a Christian Philosopher

I think one of the most interesting things I’ve found as I continue on my path as a Christian Philosopher is how it can shape thinking about everything.

Faith in Christ permeates every aspect of my being.

I just experienced it as I was walking across campus. I stared out over the hills and looked at the trees. There is one that is dead, and has fallen to the ground. Sitting as it was, on a grassy hill at night, with only faint light to set the scene, it was tragically beautiful. I continued in this mindset, observing the beauties around me as I walked back.

It is impossible for me to survey such beauty of nature without reflecting on the beautifier behind it all. Even the idea of light seemed glorious to me. I thought about how the light rays spread out from each light along the path, imagining lines tracing the light into the distance, an infinite path for some, and it was beautiful. I saw a hill that had the paths traced by water flowing down it darkened by shadow in the pale light. It was beautiful. I heard the thousand thousand crickets, the song they sing echoing through the night. It was beautiful. Above all, there was the cross on top of the chapel, the highest point on campus. It all came together. The rays of light streaming around it, the crickets singing to it, and the water flowing from it.

The world God has created is nothing short of unfathomably beautiful.

Being a philosopher has some very interesting effects on thinking. As I observed all this beauty, I was also thinking about qualia related to the mind, dualism vs. physicalism, the warrant of Christian belief, etc. It is striking to contrast these things going through my head, for despite the seemingly vast gap between, say, observing the beauty of light and thinking about pressuppositionalism, there is one tie that binds: Christ.

It is also interesting to me to see how this has changed my thoughts on life. There is eternity to ponder. The current life serves as a framework from which to ponder this eternity. The present life is vastly important, but the smaller things seem to matter much less. Some things that seem like “big deals” seem to fade into smaller things. God calls in all things to ponder Him. We are to love Him with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul. It is this that brings all things again into perspective–for the Christian, there is but one filter through which to see all things: the filter of faith in Christ. That is why a Christian can take all things in stride. We can walk in faith. Accusations against such faith do nothing to our soul.

Again, in all things, there is one tie that binds: Christ.

Why this blog?

I’ll start by simply stating the purpose of this blog. I’m going to use it to talk about mostly topics related to Christian Apologetics, though I may use it for other things.

Doctrinally, I’m Lutheran. I believe in Jesus Christ as God and Savior. I believe in the Triune God, the innerrancy of scripture, the depravity of man, etc. What this blog is going to be about, however, is less doctrinal apologetics and more philosophical apologetics.

I’ll make another post as soon as I can.