Well, I’ve been ghost as of late with good reason. The only places I pop up on the net are on the 5th in the 5Q lounge (and barely there) and doing my mod duties over at HCR. I’ve done a lot more looking, reading and listening than talking and typing.

Taking time, learning more about people. Even on the message board for my grad school classes, I do what’s required as far as posts are concerned and then kinda chill out. I’ve learned a lot more asking people questions and helping them form the right conclusions than just blurting the answer out.

My Pastor is rubbing off on me.

Meeky and I are well. Thank you, everyone praying for the little black reformed girl and her website designing, theologically correct boyfriend. We ‘presshiate it much.

I do have a LITTLE material I will be posting up soon. A few excerpts from some of the ‘stuff’ that people try to pull in the name of bashing Calvinism. Prepare for a good laugh (or puke).

There’s been an encouraging note (or TEN) as of late, as well. Over on the 5th, you all might remember me telling you to pray for Pastor Ken. Young guy, just married and starting a church plant.

In one of my latest Christian Soul Food posts (which has been going out consistently M-F every week since July – HOORAY FOR CONSISTENCY!), he commented to me:

You know Kerry I thought about you and Tracey last night…it was so funny. See on myspace they have these forums that I just found last night…Religion and Philosphy…

If you ever want to really warm your Apologetics chops up, that is DEFINITELY the fire! People go through great lengths arguing the non-existence of God through cynical questions they ask christians on the board…

Its CRAZY.

Man I thought we had some ‘others’ on the 5th…but trust me, they dont shake a stick at the GIANTS on the myspace who spend insane amounts of time using their God-given intellectual capacities against Him. Thats why I love studying Ravi Zacharias…he punishes intellectual arguments against God.

I dont know why I said all that…actually I was meaning to tell you that today…sorry I used your post for that.

I wrote back:

Hey Ken. :wave:

The longer you hang on message boards, you’ll realize it’s a lot of the same stuff, rehashed. Over the past 13 active years of doing apologetics (including 12 years on line, since I was on AOL back when they had just broke the 1 million mark), I’ve been at it with ‘freethinkers’, a few random folks from infidels.org, Dennis McKinsey (look up the Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy) himself (he’s a former church of Christ missionary), and I’ve probably forgotten more people who’ve attacked the Bible than I can count.

Don’t be too impressed.

You probably said that because at some level, they worry you a little and right now you need a little encouragement. Take my advice – they’re a bunch of ants shaking their fist in the face of the Almighty God whose air they breathe, dirt they’re made out of….speaking of which…..

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there were a bunch of scientists who had progressed so far in their thinking and discovery, they even found a way to stop death (provided you don’t get killed). Proud as they were about their accomplishments, they patted each other on the back and then got an idea.

They climbed up a high mountain and gathered on a plateau, high above the earth. With millions of well wishers, TV cameras and such watching, the lead scientist looked up at the sky and yelled out “GOD! we know you’re up there!! show yourself!”

A crack of lightning flashed across the sky, the sky darkened and a bright and blinding light came through a break in the clouds, illuminating the mountain.

WE KNOW YOU’RE PRETTY POWERFUL AND ALL. said the lead scientist as the others stood semi-resoulutely behind them, slightly shaken at the lightning and clouds gathering. He continued BUT WE’VE CONQUERED DEATH! WE CAN PROBABLY EVEN MAKE A MAN BETTER THAN YOU CAN!!!

The crowd below the mountain gasped and then erupted in cheers.

WE WANT TO MAKE A WAGER WITH YOU! WE’RE TIRED OF YOU INTERFERRING IN OUR LIVES! SO WE’LL HAVE A MAN-MAKING CONTEST. YOU AND US! AND IF OUR MAN IS BETTER THAN YOURS, YOU HAVE TO LEAVE US ALONE TO DEVELOP AS WE PLEASE!

A chuckle came from heaven.

Okay. You’re on. said the Voice (not John Hodge) from heaven.

The lead scientist smiled.

He bent over to dig his hand into the rich and fertile soil of the ground he was standing on and was interupted by a crack of lightning.

The Voice (again, still not John Hodge) thundered from heaven almost cynically…..Ah ah ah……. GET YOUR OWN DIRT. 😮

Similarly, the atheist and agnostic uses God’s tools (logic and reason), in the brain God gave him to reject the God who gave him life. The atheist much REACH DOWN in their limited understanding and assume the Christian worldview (since naturalism cannot account for morality, only matter, motion, time and space) in order to bring up any moral reasonings that they might try to use to discredit Christianity. It’s only in the Christian worldview – with set principles of right, wrong, absolute scientific and moral laws, that the world makes sense.

Sure, the atheist will say that there’s no absolute truth. But you (Ken) already pointed out that this is a self-refuting argument used by people who don’t think enough and simply look for the cheesiest and easiest excuse to reject the God of the Universe (okay, maybe you didn’t use those words… ). Logic, reason and such are tools given by God with absolute value to them (they find their ground and order in His very nature and being). When people use them, they implicitly demonstrate that they acknowledge the existence of God, no matter how much they supress it (Romans 1:18-20) with sex, drugs, false teaching, or lying to themselves and saying God doesn’t exist.

I might sound a little cynical and like I’m just blowing off folks….. but I’ve seen (most) of it all when it comes to arguments – whether folk try the ‘history of religions’ approach (Christianity supposedly borrowed from other religions – usually African or Babylonian…. cutting edge 19th century scholarship…. :rolleyes: …that’s been disproved so many times, it’s shameful to even bring up ), the ‘lower criticism’ route (the Bible supposedly has contradictions….), ‘higher criticism’ route (the Bible supposedly isn’t historically accurate….) or any number of other attacks.

Early in my walk, I ran into a LOT of these. And each time, God pointed me to the right resource (hence, the size of my library) to refute this stuff and establish a solid foundation in the faith as well as to demonstrate to me that He is who He said He is.

My girl just set up her myspace page and mine has been languishing since Feb. (it’s up, I just haven’t done anything with it). She just e-mailed me a template, so I might try something tomorrow.

Ken responded with just another one of many posts and e-mails that I’ve gotten recently that have given me confirmation that I’m doing the right thing:

Man thats why I love you!

It was my first time in a forum dealing with real “intellectuals” who refute the existence of God…and it gave me so much apologetic energy that I didnt know I had in me dealing all day and night with people who mainly believe.

THIS IS NO LIE…I emailed Tracey about it and was like “NOW I SEE WHY KERRY EXISTS!!!” Please to God understand that I meant that in the most positive, flattering way! What I mean by that is that I grew up in a denomination where we were taught to avoid argument at all cost lest we become “tainted” like the world.

The problem with that is that as a Christian you look pretty stupid unable to defend your faith, and now I see why many Christians are looked upon as unintellectual, and incompetent believers with “blind faith” (as I was accused of having on the forums). SO the first way they attempt to attack Christians on the forums designed to make Christians look stupid is to speak, type, and rationalize with a higher level of intellectual verbage than they probably would EVER use on a daily basis—I mean heck you can tell I have been hanging around them too much, my verbage is even changing a little.

So my point was that God gave us all intellect, and shoot…a brain period for His Glory, and he has raised up some pretty intelligent men and women in the Kingdom of God that I did once accuse of “overthinking” (yes, I did accuse you of that…you probably dont remember but please forgive me because I will never make that statement again!) to approach and speak on the language of the “athiest intellectual”. WHICH IS WHY I ABSOLUTELY LOVE RAVI ZACHARIAS.

AND GET A PAGE DUDE…IF FOR NOTHING MORE THAN TO OCCASIONALLY PARLAY IN A FORUM OR TWO…I can learn a lot from your skills in apologetics, but I would love to learn more from first-hand experience. Maybe like a tag team or something.

Although I’ve been avoiding myspace like the plague (even though Meeky just got a page up on there and sent me a template and I actually set up a page back in Feb, but haven’t done anything with it), I think it may be time to head into the internet trenches again.

Pray for me to have wisdom in my discussions online.

Pray for Ken to continue to grow and properly feed and shepherd his flock.