Sunday, December 20, 2009

Coincidence ?

"An event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental", or another, "the noteworthy alignment of two or more events or circumstances without obvious causal connection".
I've heard it said that in Christian Theology, referring specifically to movements, or actions taken, by the Holy Spirit, that there is no such thing as coincidence. In other words, nothing happens by accident. I have come to accept this as an action of faith. In times of extraordinary travail, God will have already given you the tools to overcome it. Or, at least, to battle it, if the war is yet to be won. Case in point:
The church I attend had a visiting speaker some weeks back. He is the president of a Theological Seminary close to where I live. His topic of speech was Christian Apologetics. That can appear to be a misleading term, as we usually equate apology with "making allowance for" for any variety of reasons. However, in this instance "apologetics" means argumentative defense, or specifically, the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of Christian Theology.
His name was Alex, and he spoke very inteligently about a subject I have heard of a number of times over the years, but never truly appreciated the necessity of. Namely, this "Christian Apologetics".
I am very comfortable with my Christian Faith. For I believe in God. I believe He created the Heavens, and the Earth. I believe He created you, and me, in His image. I believe that He desires a relationship with you and me, and to this end He came in the form of man, born of woman. He was born about this time of year, grew up as you or I would, ministered to us, taught us how to love, how to live, and sacrificed Himself for our salvation.
That, of course, is a gross oversimplification of the gospel message. But fortunately, He left us an epistle of His intent, as well as the Third Party of Himself to help us get through the difficulties of understanding what all that means, as well as life itself.
Here's the challenge though. The more comfortable we get with our faith, the more we associate, socialize, and proffesionalize with people of the same persuasion. Nothing inherently wrong with that, it's just not all we are expected to do. For, if you know anything of the bible, Jesus commands his disciples to "go forth and preach the gospel". Preferrably to someone other than the choir. That often involves folks who want to make an argument against the subject. That's where apologetics comes in. And that's where this particular chapter of my life starts.
So Alex came, and spoke on Apologetics. He could only skip across the surface of the subject during the limited time he had, so what he told us certainly wasn't comprehensive. It gave me just enough of a taste of the topic to realize that I didn't know enough. Oh, I know most of the common material to defend my faith. But these days there are some really well spoken, and knowledgeable individuals out there who like very much to refute the Christian Faith. And on a multitude of different levels. Some call it cultish. Some dispute the time line. Some complain of contradictions in the Scriptures. Some dispute the validity of a belief in God at all. There are a number of alternative theories out there that claim to make more sense than believing that God made the world, the universe, man, and all his friends here on earth. And apologetics covers them all. It's not a new program. It's been around for as long as the Bible has. The disciples had to defend their faith against a religious sect who refused to believe that the Messiah was walking amongst them.
I can tell someone, who knows nothing of faith, "about" what I believe, that's a simple matter of quoting scripture, articles of faith, and witnessing to what God has done in my life. I have fifteen years of experience gained through a passionate study of the Christian Faith. However, I have little in the way of ammunition to actually defend it against an adversary bent on tripping me up and disputing what I believe.
So Alex said what he said, and left what he left...which was an invitation to an upcoming seminar on Christian Apologetics. Ever hungering for more knowledge, or better said, understanding of the Bible, and it's precepts, my wife, and I, along with several others from the church, bought tickets to the two day seminar.
We heard authors, theologians, mathematicians, politicians, clergy, and former atheists who had researched, written, spoken, debated and filmed subjects varying from the lineage of Christ, comparisons to other religions, supposed contradictions in time line of the Bible stories, secular historical reference to biblical accounts, archeological studies of floods, fires, monolithes, and temples, all back up and defend the teachings of Christ, eschetology of the church, validity of bible characters, and in general, meet head on any, and all arguements against the Christian Faith. They even televised a three hour debate against a self proclaimed atheist of world reknown. Topics ranging from the Darwinian Evolutionary Theory to seeds from an off world civilization were covered as possible alternatives to Creation. Nothing heard, or seen, convinced me for a fraction of a second to even question what I already knew to be true. There is a God, He is perfect, I'm not, but I didn't come from a monkey either.
So what's all this have to do with coincidence? Well, I'm not an evangelist, so it's unlikely I'll find myself on a street corner preaching the Word of God. I don't speak at universities, conferences, or seminars, so why the need to know? Fate formulated the answer to that one.
Two weeks ago I engaged in a debate on a well known blog forum with my twenty eight year old son. It started initially as a comment I had made referencing my political persuasion, and some disparity over the current administrations policies. I found out something new. My son no longer carries the same basic political beliefs that I possess. That, in and of itself, really wasn't much of a concern. I've never carried much of a candle for politicians, or their policies. Nor have I been too concerned with how that directly effected me, or my family. To be sure, I believe that some of those policies have the potential to create a clear, and present danger to the stability of this country, but they are still far enough removed from my street to make them little more than a nuisance, at this time.
After several heated parries with each other, we decided that the age old addage that politics, and family, don't mix, was true. Best to just agree to disagree. We sheathed swords, and moved on. Or so I thought. The following day I posted a quote from Cicero, a Greek character, circa 50 BC, referencing the then current state of his country, it's foreign spending policies, welfare system, and politicians. The primary point of posting the quote wasn't so much the subjects in the quote itself, as it was the mirror image it presented with reference to those same subjects as seen as issues today. A "Nothing new under the sun" thought process if you will. What proceded afterwards can only be described as an aggresive verbal assault on several fronts, met by a back against the wall argumentative defensive, or "apologetic" reaction.
I don't know that either side won. If "winning" can be construed as one side convincing the other of their views, I'm sure their were no victors. But many times small battles are fought for the very purpose of testing the opponents resolve. I don't know that I can fully comprehend the strength of my son's possition at this point, but this I do know, he's not the person I knew when he walked out the door some years back. This I know as well, his possition has changed for a reason, and the fear this possition creates in my heart for his welfare angers me.
So here's the coincidence, or lack thereof if you will, from my perspective. Several weeks ago a man spoke at my church. Big deal. He spoke on the subject of defending the Christian Faith. Big deal. My son, and I, engaged in a debate on a subject comprising the corner stone of a foundation in faith. Big deal. His philosophy potentially removes that corner stone from his life. Very Big Deal.
When it comes down to it, I care very little for the religious bend of the President of the United States . Hypocritical as it sounds, although I pray for his salvation, I'm not sure I'd want to spend eternity with him anyhow. My son is a different story.
O Absalom, my son, my son! Please don't let me find you hanging by the neck in the tree of knowledge! And God, if You're listening in, I could use another coincidence or two about right now.

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