Thanks to EPS and Biola for providing a wonderful Apologetics Conference. It was a true joy to be there, and we enjoyed meeting all the students who stopped by our table. For those of you who signed up as being interested, you’ll be receiving an email from berkeley@ratiochristi.org soon. If you weren’t able to sign up at the table, but are interested in helping us start up, feel free to send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.
The East Bay has made it into the news again, and as usual, it isn’t a positive story. On November 2, the 99% gathering known as Occupy Oakland initiated a general strike in the city which deteriorated into isolated acts of violence and damaged property. Now, students at UC Berkeley have occupied Sproul Plaza to protest planned tuition increases by the regents.
Watching the Occupy movement brings to the forefront a concern which seems to be hard-wired into us humans. From trivial things like “Why does Frank have a parking spot and not me?” to the tragic “Why does this person have to sit in the back of the bus just because of their skin color?” people tend to be very concerned about justice. Now, justice means different things to different people, and we never seem to see injustice until we’ve been personally wronged. But, as flawed as it may be, we all have a sense of what is just and fair. So, where do our innate senses of justice and fairness come from?
by Glenn Smith, Chapter Director at Texas A&M University
Ratio Christi operates differently from how Christian apologetics have traditionally been done. In the past, apologists were alone, doing work that was breaking new ground. Therefore, the only avenue available to them was through teaching, writing books and articles, and debates. So, when Ratio Christi came along, many Christians and apologists simply did not understand how we went about our work. From the perspective campus directors, we are finding that the Christian community needs an explanation of what we are not . . . and what we are.
“We MUST double the number of students getting an M.A. in Apologetics”
Rick Schenker, President of Ratio Christi
Ratio Christi is deploying apologists to grassroots assignments all over the country. They are putting “boots on the ground” at universities throughout the nation. Their biggest need is more trained apologists. Prior to Ratio Christi’s emergence on the scene of the apologetics movement, there was a “white elephant” standing in the room of almost every Masters level apologetics class. No one wanted to mention it, but it was on everyone's mind. The white elephant was the question, “What am I going to do with all this training once I am finished?”
We are all called to carry out the great commission, but who really holds the office of an evangelist?
Many Christians would describe an evangelist as someone that travels from church to church to preach messages. Their messages inspire believers to give to ministries that focus on taking the gospel to the unreached. Perhaps they would mention someone that preaches a message to bring revival to the church and convince people we bring to their meetings to become a follower of Christ. The right answer, however, according to Ephesians chapter 4, is that the evangelist is a person who equips believers to “do the work of the ministry so that they may build up the church.” That means the person who gives us the intellectual ability to answer the questions and objections of family and friends is really acting in the office of the evangelist. By training believers to give a reasonable answer, these people are probably doing more to win people to Christ than many traveling preachers. Apologetics is the branch of Christian theology that seeks to address the intellectual obstacles that keep people from taking faith seriously, and therefore it is the apologist who is the true evangelist.
