My Philosophy of Apologetics Ministry || John Pesebre

By philosophy here I mean a formulated set of belief concerning a specialized ministry in campuses. This specialized ministry is mentoring students in apologetics. The foundation or basis for this philosophy is the Word of God.

The Bible, God and the Christian’s Salvation

The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments contain the totality of God’s revealed inscripturated, inspired, inerrant and infallible Word. This revelation is a direct act of God and not merely a record of the acts of God. It does not become the Word of God contingent upon a person’s obedience to it, but it IS the Word of God independent from the responses of men.

As such it is the ultimate authority of truth because of the direct action of the God of truth.

In the Bible God reveals that He is a Trinity, creator, and a covenant-making & -keeping God who effectually calls and completely draws His people to Himself through the redeeming and atoning work of the Son of God incarnated as the Lord Jesus Christ from all of human history.

God is also all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing, etc -- the Highest Conceivable Being of whom there is no shadow of falsehood, ill and incapacity. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

Man having rendered sinful by the sin of Adam, continues to be in a covenant relationship with God as covenant-breakers. Even after justification, the Christian still possesses the ravages of sin in his life. This is the reason why the child of God enters into a continual sanctifying work to lead the believer in conformity with the image of Christ. There are many ways that a believer is sanctified, but among them is learning from the ministry of teaching elders who appropriate the Word of God’s usefulness in teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Ministry

My teaching ministry focuses on the necessity of preparing Christian, college students to make a defense to anyone who asks them the reasons for the hope that is in them.

The Mandate

The mandate and charter verse for this ministry is 1 Peter 3:15.  It is a function of believers to provide defense for the truth that they assent to and apply as the marching orders of their lives. This does not come easy so the ministry of Christian elders is to train younger Christians on this Christian duty. This apologetics ministry is not borne out of mere human necessity but from a direct mandate from God for every believer. The elder or teacher then ministers for the perfecting of the saints in this area.

The Need

In the Philippines, 74% of the Christians students attending college experience doubt to their faith on a weekly and monthly basis based on survey I conducted of more than 500 respondents. 82% of them indicated that they would want a campus ministry that specifically focuses on mentoring them on apologetics.

The Response

College students who benefitted from the apologetics ministry I am heading have been hearty in their approbation of the ministry’s impact on their lives. They have become a good source of feedback and affirmation for the ministry to continue.

The Gift

I have been in the Christian teaching ministry for almost 20 years now beginning as a pastor of a small church in Marikina and at the same time tenured as Academic Dean and faculty of our denomination, Conservative Baptist Association of the Philippines. Because the school did not have an adequate teaching roster, I became familiar with a broad range of seminary subjects. Integration to the sciences, arts, mathematics, etc occurs not only because of my previous college education but also of a growing and undying interest in science and the arts. I firmly believe that growing interest, the fulfilment, and the humble experience I had teaching and pastoring churches are good evidences for the gift God has bestowed upon me.

The Ministry Goal

It is my prayer that these Christians, college students will learn how to handle the difficult questions and challenges not only posed to them by their academic secular community but also their own doubts and the doubts of their brothers and sisters in their particular church communities.

It is also my prayer that these students would be an integral instrument of God in the evangelistic and discipleship ministry in their campus as they serve under the many Christian organizations in it.

Method

The formal strategy comes in the form of weekly meetings in campus. Here they are mentored in an apologetics track called the 4H which I personally developed for Filipino Christians. The 4H apologetics method is a 4-step process of Hear, Help, Heal and Honor. Each on of these four contains two questions that will facilitate the study and/or conversation of the believers about a particular doubt.

Hear. Hear is anchored in creating intellectual virtues where the Christian will listen to the question intently and try put how he/she understands the provenance of this proposal and the problem it is trying to address in Christianity. The goal is to create an environment conducive to rationality and production of beliefs.

Help. Heal sets itself up in confronting the objection by affirming the Christian commitment this doubt is trying to address and then engage in a refutation of the objection.

Heal. Heal shifts to a theological discussion on the nature of God but will start off by discussing the wrong idea of God that the objection is trying to create. Once that idol is identified, the Christian then will move to presenting the counterpart Biblical teaching about God that the objection is trying to diminish. This is the point where it is necessary that the Christian opens Scripture.

Honor. the conversation to a typical inductive Bible study, meditation and action point.

The informal strategy comes in the form of simple inquiry from students and our frequent follow up. It is also important to note that we send out weekly 4H apologetics lessons to them as supplement to their training.

Psalm 9, John Owen and God's Wonderful Deeds || John Pesebre

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. (Psalm 9:1, NIV)

Question 1: How do you engage in prayer with the excellencies of God?
Answer: By starting with the Gospel.

Question 2: But how do you start with the Gospel?
Answer: By considering the "wonderful deeds" (Psalm 9:1) already DONE by Christ.

A central thought that serves as an anchor for an active faith and growing prayer life can be exemplified in the thought of the great Puritan teacher John Owen:

"For a man to gather up his experiences of God, to call them to mind, to collect them, consider, try, improve them, is an excellent thing, — a duty practiced by all the saints, commended in the Old Testament and the New. This was David’s work when he “communed with his own heart,” and called to remembrance the former loving-kindness of the Lord."*

In short, Owen is saying to make "gathering up your experiences with God" an interpretive activity of your life towards the "the former loving-kindness of the Lord" to you. Such duty springs from a person who understands the Gospel. That's how you grow your prayer life. That's how you grow your faith. That's how you grow in the knowledge of God. That's how you "hold firmly" (1Cor 15:2; Heb 4:14) to the Gospel.

It is fair to say that many people today do not engage in this type of faith-building, grace-growing reflection because their life of reflection is anchored on a disconnect of what they can do and what God has done in their lives -- so much so that whenever they start to act on their belief, they do not have the "Gospel tools" (Owen) that are rooted in the confidence of the excellencies of God. Rather, they connect to the excellencies of their will and self-determination. A disconnect happens in our faith and deeds because we are just deeds-focused.

Old saints reflect on what God has done as the springboard of what God is to do in them. Commonplace as it may look like, the word "done" is actually a very powerful word when it is attached to the work of Christ. The word "done" helps us to understand the Gospel and how to utilize it in the growth of our faith or the "do's" of our faith. Prof. Michael Horton of Westminster Theological Seminary and author of numerous Christian books confirms this when he said, "You cannot experience God without knowing who he is, what he has done, and who you are in relation to him." Horton actually offers a pattern of reflection: from God to myself. From the excellencies of the reflection of who God is and what He has done (in the redemptive narrative of all of Scripture), I then begin to reflect on my experiences with this truth. What am I in relationship to this divine being and the work He has done? You want to be used by God? You have to begin with how He made you useful.

It is important that we have certain measures to "hold firmly" (1 Corinthians 15:2) to the Gospel because as Paul said, "Otherwise, we have believed in vain" (1Cor 15:2). Owen exhorts us "to gather up ... experiences of God, to call them to mind, to collect them, consider, try, improve them." In short he is saying, always reflect and consequently make faith actions related to it. It is supposed to consume our life.

How do you go about your prayer? If you follow the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication) as a prayer pattern do you intentionally put the theme of "done" both in adoration (His deeds seen in Scripture) and thanksgiving (His deeds as seen in your life)? If not, then probably this is the reason why your prayer life is monotonously boring and your faith not increasing in satisfying measures.

Hold firmly to the Gospel

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* Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, IX.3.2.1. accessed at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/owen/mort.i.xii.html)

"Love wins" and #neighborology" || John Pesebre

Ang isang pauli ulit na skepticism na naririnig ko sa mga believer at atheists alike na nakausap ko is the idea na ginagamit lang nung Christian yung friendship as a PLOY in trying to avoid questions that they raise. You might have heard of the "instrumentalization of reason" nila Adorno at Horkheimer, pero meron din yung instrumentalization of kindness or piety. May dishonesty sa so-called love-tactic ng "love wins."

Clearly residue na rin yan ng kultura ng industriya ngayon. If you want something mag manufacture ka ng instrument to get that. Imbes na mag deal ng uestions of people nagre resort sa mga seductive ploys ng piety at pseudo-kindness. Walang honesty doon. (Pwera na lang kung jejemon kausap mo na gusto lang mang slander. In such a case kelangan mo either wag sumagot or guluhin mo ang conclusion niya). Parang mag manufacture ka ng love para ma win mo siya sa conversion.

So . . . "love wins" daw pag may nagtanong kung bakit DAW majority ng mga giyera sa mundo ay sinimulan ng mga Christians. O kaya "love wins" kapag ang isyu niya ay walang pakialam DAW sa political realities ang Christianity. O "love wins" kung bakit DAW ang Diyos ng Old Testament ay isang genocidal monster. Imbes na sumagot, parang yung minsan sabi ni Spongebob kay Patrick na wag lang magbenta ng linalako nika but magpakita ng pagmamahal sa customer. So sa unang pintong kinatok nila, pagbukas nung may ari nung bahay, sabi kaagad ni Patrick, "I love you." Pinagsarhan.

#neighborology dumbs down God || John Pesebre

A proponent of #neighborology posted this on his Facebook wall last Holy Week.

"God was NOT up in heaven while Jesus was down on earth. God was right there IN Jesus on Calvary. In Jesus, GOD took the punishment for us. The JUDGE of the heavens is judged. Jesus' cry of abandonment on the cross is God's own LAMENT." -Dorothy and Gabriel Fackre

This is what happens when you confine God in a box called spacetime na as if ang Dios ay nasa domain ng material din. The truth of the matter is, God is both immanent (malapit) and transcendent (beyond or outside His creation). God was in heaven and He was also on earth. Ano may binary na ganyan ang Dios na pag nasa Caloocan ka, wala ka sa Cubao?

Ang #neighborology would use this to sort of Romanticize the idea of the "love wins" incarnated God at the expense of His transcendence. Ang malimit na ginagawa sa secular na publuc space ay ganyan -- ibaba ang nature ng Dios sa level ng humans. So sa kaso nga netong post na 'to, hindi na Siya omnipresent.

Ano parang ghost town sa langit? So maging mapanuri tayo. Minsan ang error nagmumukhang tama kung sinasamahan ng katotohanan.

Sleep, light and divine design for our minds and brains || John Pesebre

Credit

In terms of years we are barely within a time frame where our species could have fully adapted to the life-altering effect of industrialization. That topic is tremendously huge. What I am humbly concerned in this blog is about how our sleep and nights have changed in the past century because of our affair with "light." From TV to electronic gadgets, we were slowly led to what we are now, light-dependent night crawlers.

Maraming mga factors why our sleeps and nights have changed pero gusto ko lang i-address ngayon is yung sa issue ng ating isipan that has has something to do with the confusion that happens with our pineal gland -- that hormone which  "regulates your daily and seasonal circadian rhythms, the sleep-wake patterns that determine your hormone levels, stress levels, and physical performance." Alam ko na may debate sa role ng non-conscious activities ng ating isipan. Tugon ko lang dito is yung binanggit ni David Eagleman, neuroscientist sa Baylor College of Medicine at bestselling author. Sabi niya,

"[T]ake the vast, unconscious, automated processes that run under the hood of conscious awareness. We have discovered that the large majority of the brain's activity takes place at this low level: the conscious part – the "me" that flickers to life when you wake up in the morning – is only a tiny bit of the operations. This understanding has given us a better understanding of the complex multiplicity that makes a person. A person is not a single entity of a single mind: a human is built of several parts, all of which compete to steer the ship of state. As a consequence, people are nuanced, complicated, contradictory. We act in ways that are sometimes difficult to detect by simple introspection. To know ourselves increasingly requires careful studies of the neural substrate of which we are composed."

It is good I think to consider the proposal of Eagleman. Marami talagang nangyayari sa paligid natin na malimit hindi na tayo conscious dito, at kapagdaka o malimit, malaki ang ginagampanan niya sa pagbabago natin -- tulad na nga nga pauno kong sinabi na role ng industrializatin at "light" sa ating mga naging nightcrawlers sa bahay man or sa work.

I just want us to consider the life habits critically as it engages sa breakneck speed an nangyayari sa atin over the past few years.

Simple proposal lang: sleep, light and divine design for our minds and brains

Sleep

Hindi na mahirap matagpuan ang science ng sleep ngayon and its relation sa positive psychology. Ayon kay Richard Taite at Constance Scharff writing at Psychology Today, sa kanilang article na pinamagatang "Three Reasons Why Good Sleep Is Crucial for Mental Health" ang tatlong ito ay,

1. The brain needs regular cleaning.
2. The brain needs time to process powerful experiences. 
3. Peace of mind contributes to peaceful sleep. 

Light

Ayon sa isang dalubhasa,

"Sun exposure kick starts the pineal gland and stimulates the mind. Any type of light exposure, either directly or indirectly, activates the pineal gland, prompting it to produce serotonin; the neurotransmitter responsible for mood and energy levels. This is why it’s crucial to avoid light after the sun goes down, because you need your pineal gland to produce melatonin and suppress serotonin. This process can only be accomplished by reducing light from electronics and lightbulbs as much as possible." -Dr. Edward Group

Yung hormone na melatonin pala helps give us not only duration ng sleep but also quality.  Sa Indy 500 na pagharurot ng industrialization, it is very easy not to notice etong tipo ng pandaraya sa ating isipan (technological hegemony, cf Gramsci) at di halatang pag control ng ating buhay ("societies of control" [Deleuze]).

Divine design for our minds and brains

Malaki ang role ng ating sleep sa mechanism  ng ating kaisipan.

Napunta ko sa reflection na ito today because I was reading Isaiah 26 where I was intrigued by verse 3 - "Thou will keep him in perfect peace [shalom shalom] whose mind is stayed on thee."  There is a basic divine design for our minds na hindi "alienated" sa Dios. Kapag nawawalan tayo ng pag iingat ng ating isipan dahil sa tayo ay "nabulag ng mandarayang mundo" (cf Gary V) there are many ways the world fascilitates further alienation. Among the most effective is altering our brain.

Maraming magagandang hatid ang industrialization sa atin, pero mayroon ding hindi magaganda. Isa sa mga bagay na nakikita ko is that because industrialization is allied with technology, both are idol makers. What technology creates is inconvenience; industrialization, the means to buy that convenience.

Now there is nothing wrong with convenience. But if it reaches a point of idolatry, then it becomes the enemies of our souls.

Our minds will wander, get distracted -- an alienation from God that creates a painful void for our self-understanding and self-concept.

An idol takes on the driver seat of our minds and subtly marginalizes God slowly out of the picture. Yes we still recall God yet they are lodged in a memory like a trunk of a car; no longer in a driver seat.

Other People's Stories || John Pesebre

We get acquainted with a lot of stories from watching them in TV and other media. We discover the elements of the stories and how these elements weave within a narrative towards an end. Ang mga stories na ito ay napaka makapangyarihan kasi we acquire their language, their goals, their purposes, etc.

Nakadevelop tayo ng construct na need natin siya.

However, puna ng isang author* nung 90s kaya daw natin gusto ang mga kwentong ito is dahil HINDI SIYA DEMANDING sa atin -- walang demand na buuhin ang kwento, sulsihin ang mga bahagi, pagsumikapan ang mga kailangang abutin. Nakaupo ka lang jan at nag aantay mag unfold ang kwento.

Our lives contain very similar (or even identical) na mga bahagi din ng kwento na nakikita natin sa mga teleserye atbp na ito. The problem is DEMANDING siya sa atin -- kailangan nyang mabuo, sulsihin, at pagsumikapan.

Kaso oftentimes we numb ourselves sa DEMAND na yan and we'd rather watch a flood of narratives on a screen and entertain ourselves to futility.

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* “Human beings are narrative animals: every culture countenances itself as culture via a story, whether mythopoeic or politico-economic; every whole person understands his lifetime as an organized, recountable series of events and changes with at least a beginning and middle. We need narrative like we need space-time; it’s a built-in thing.... The narrative patterns to which literate Americans are most regularly exposed are televised. And, even on a charitable account, television is a pretty low type of narrative art. It’s a narrative art that strives not to change or enlighten or broaden or reorient—not necessarily even to “entertain”—but merely and always to engage, to appeal to. Its one end—openly acknowledged—is to ensure continued watching. And (I claim) the metastatic efficiency with which it’s done so has, as cost, inevitable and dire consequences for the level of people’s tastes in narrative art. For the very expectations of readers in virtue of which narrative art is art.

Television’s greatest appeal is that it is engaging without being at all demanding.” quoted in Wyatt Mason, “David Foster Wallace Thought Readers Are Smart And Tolstoy Was His Role Model,” in Huffington Post; available at  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/david-foster-wallace-thou_n_631183.html

#AfterModernity and its postmodern schtick || John Pesebre

"[What] postmodernism means . . . is after modernism." - David Foster Wallace

Ang irony ng manifestation ng postmodernity sa ilan sa atin sa mga evangelicals ay nakita na rin ng isa sa mga icons ng postmodernity nung 90s America na si David Foster Wallace. Sabi niya, "Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy." And the irony is when you extend sa mga diskarte nila after magamit nila yan.  Yung tila baga mga items (ie, reason, logic, etc) na buset na buset sila sa mga critiques nila, ay yun din ang gagamitin nila to rebuild a new structure. Ganyan ang condition ng ilang naive pomo evangelicals dito sa atin. Kumbaga pipintasan ang damit mo, tapos pag hinubad mo at iwan, dadamputin niya at siya ang magsusuot.

As an example, let's take si #AfterModernity at ang kanilang pag downplay ng reason. May mga Dostoevskian "beauty will save the world" pa yan -- isa yan ang kanilang weaponries to diminish the role of reason. Paulit ulit nila yang gagawin. Buti na lang laging may nagtatanong sa kanila to clarify. Nung una hindi pa nakakahalata kaya sumasagot palagi using yung kanyang homespun logic. Pero later na realize yata kaya nag resort na lang sa sloganeering at mga pithy statements na very obvious naman na conclusion nila pero hindi na nila babanggitin yung method of inference nila. Bakit? Kasi nga kung inferential ka, nag-iinvoke ka ng logic.

Alam nila yung irony kaya maikli na lang sumagot. Walang hint ng inference. At yan ang malimit na nakaka buset sa evangelical kuno na postmodernity dito sa Pinas. Sabi ni Wallace, "a lot of the schticks of post-modernism — irony, cynicism, irreverence — are now part of whatever it is that’s enervating in the culture itself.”
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." - Isaiah 1:18

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*Schtick - a gimmick, comic routine, style of performance, etc., associated with a particular person.

An Icy Bag of Trinkets || John Pesebre

Take me to an ice-covered mountain
From where snowballs roll down
To a frozen lake below, like a set of
Marbles in the hand of a dead child.
Where the chill of the morning fog
Burns my skin, and freezes my tears
Like funny dew drops falling from
The roof sills down to a frigid earth.
There where no vultures stake out
And no bear lies in wait to ambush --
Just me and these little trinkets of pain
Rattling with the howling Siberian wind.

A Poem of Headless Cockroach in Schopenhauer's Home || John Pesebre

Just so you know
I can't weep
I can't groan
I can't hear a thing
Coz I'm a headless roach
Scornful, stinky and stuck
In this dark and damp drawer
Waiting for nothing
Hoping for nothing
But because I'm a roach
Headless at that
I cannot go to nausea
Coz I was already nausea
Before I lost my head.

Irony and #AfterModernity || John Pesebre

Among the difficulties ng #AfterModernity is that it will eventually chauffeur itself (albeit unconsciously siguro) to an irony.

May disdain sila na ang systematic theology ay Western pero pag pinagawa mo sila ng systematic theology nila, hindi sila makagawa kasi nga dahil dun sa disdain nila. Isa pa, duda ko kung makagawa nga ng theology na free from any Western influence. The hypocrisy pag sinundan mo ang train of thinking -- sa mga presuppositions, mga formulations nila, atbp -- mapapansin mo na mas Western pa sila mag isip: like yung self-designated na continental philosophy adherence nila, o di kaya'y yung commitment daw nila sa Trinity at sa mga Western traditions na kinabibilangan nila, like yung mga authors na kino-kowt nila, o di kaya yung critical theory nila. Western na western.

I mean isn't that ironic? Kaya nga sabi ko dati, "Why don't you just shut up?"

Bottom line I think it is just virtue signalling, yung maghu-hook sa moral elitism tapos gagamitin yun na stepping stone sa anumang self-advertisement when in fact they are the very icon of what they are against.

Pinoy Culture Warzone || John Pesebre

(Credit)

So I walked under a bus, I got hit by a train.
Keep falling in love, which is kinda the same.
I've sunk out at sea, crashed my car, gone insane.
And it felt so good, I want to do it again.
-- "Busses and Trains," Bachelor Girl 

"I tried so hard and got so far,
but in the end it doesn't even matter."
-- "In The End," Linkin Park

Late 80s at 90s pa nung magkaroon ng nihilistic na self-reference ang kultura. Kasabay din nito yung self-inflicted wounding ng marami sa Pinoy Goth.

Etong cultural motif na ito na usually mga kabataan nag-thrive sa postmodern bracketing na "You do your stuff, I do mine." Kaya naman yung mga Pinoy youth, would consider self-expression na championed ng awitin ng Bachelor Girl at Linkin Park as "authentic expression" -- devoid of any adult and institutional meddling.

May continuity/discontinuity na nangyari decades later. Naka survive yung self-reference, pero nawala yung self-infliction as expression of authenticity. Naka survive yung legitimacy ng conscience ng autonomous individual pero nawala yung walang paki-alaman.

Ngayon, lalo na ngayong napaka political ng Pinoy  -- naging socially aware ang pinoy sa mga political realities niya. Gusto nya nang mag absolutize ulit sa mga self-referenced rules niya. Hindi na siya nihilistic bagkus meron na siyang social narratives at tuturo siya ng mga tao o grupo ng mga tao na magdi disrupt ng narrative na yan. Ang matindi pa neto, yung katunggali nya ganyan din ang mindset.

Nag full circle kasi di nakuntento sa pangako ng kultura nung 80s at 90s.