Apologetics & Biblical Literacy

Welcome back to another episode of Revealed Apologetics. I'm your host Eli Ayala and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We're not there just yet, but I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas and just a happy time with their families and friends.

And I hope for some people who may just be lounging around and are, you know, the kids are playing with the presents and everyone else is just sitting around. Perhaps you'll find this surprise live stream of some usefulness.

I didn't plan to do this beforehand, so it's kind of like a last second thing. So I don't expect a lot of people to be listening in, but here's how things work in my mind. So when I'm reading, when I'm studying, sometimes there are a lot of things bouncing around in my head.

And so the best way to get it out is to do a live stream. So sometimes doing a live stream on YouTube or something on Facebook, it's just kind of an opportunity to vent the things that I'm learning. And hopefully with all the things bouncing around in my head, it'll be helpful to someone who's listening.

Why Biblical Literacy Matters for Apologetics

So today is not an interview. It's just going to be me sharing my thoughts on what I think is a very important topic. And I think it's very relevant to people who are not simply just starting in apologetics, but seasoned apologists.

This issue of the importance of biblical literacy when doing apologetics. And so I'm going to kind of unpack that a little bit as to the details of what that means. And it's going to be based upon my reading of this book here.

I haven't read the book in its entirety. There's one particular section that I read that I found super helpful. But first, this is Urban Apologetics, Restoring Black Dignity with the Gospel. And I think this is the general editor, Eric Mason, but each chapter is written by a number of people.

And again, I haven't read the whole book, but there is a section on biblical literacy. And I think they frame, let me see if I can get the author here. He frames the issue of biblical literacy, I think, in a very important way.

And I want to kind of share my thoughts on it. It's not a critique. I agree with him. Let me see if I could find the section here. Yeah, so on page 217 of Urban Apologetics, there's a section called Knowing Your Bible by Blake Wilson.

And in that specific chapter, he highlights the importance of biblical literacy in doing apologetics. And I think the way he highlights how that should be understood, I think, is very useful. A lot of people think of biblical literacy as kind of just like, oh, you know, the church lacks biblical literacy because people don't read their Bible and things like that.

That's kind of true, but I think he puts it in a particular way that I think is going to be relevant to connecting the intellectual life of the apologist and the practical outflow of thinking biblically.

So it is connecting the dots between knowing what you believe and how that knowledge should impact the way we actually live our lives and how that full picture is in itself an apologetic. As a matter of fact, when I was in seminary, there was a book.

I don't remember the book, what the book was, but it dealt with the topic of what they called incarnational apologetics. Incarnational apologetics. And if you know anything about the, appropriate because of Christmas, but if you know anything about the incarnation of Christ, the infleshness of the second person of the Trinity, so that the father sent the son and the son became a man and dwelt among us.

That's John 1 .1, John 1 .14, the word became flesh. This idea of infleshness, okay, is very important in this connection here. So incarnational apologetics is defending the Christian faith in your flesh, not to be understood in your sinful flesh, but to be understood in the way that you live your life so that the manner in which you live your life is itself an element of the Christian apologetic.

So that we don't only defend the faith by the arguments and the answers to objections that we give, but we defend the faith with those things coupled with a life that is truly transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the power of the word of God implanted in the hearts of the believer.

And so this is really, really important. It's not a topic that people get overly excited about because a lot of people want to hear like the arguments and they want to hear debates and arguments and things like that.

But I think it's very important as a reminder that, and you guys have heard me say this many times on my channel, the actions of our hands need to be consistent with the words of our mouths, right? I'm going to say that again, the actions of our hands must be consistent with the words of our mouths.

And that is not simply consistent Christian living, but that is also apologetics, right? Apologetics includes not just the words we speak, but the things that we do, the manner in which we live our lives.

Knowing Your Bible and Contending for the Faith

Okay. Now, just as a heads up, if anyone has any questions about anything, I will try my best to take some questions and I'll try my best to answer them. Again, the topic is biblical literacy. I'm not pretending that I am the Bible guru.

You know, I'm not the Bible answer man. Of course, when he was Orthodox and I don't mean Eastern Orthodox, I mean the other Orthodox, but I will try my best to answer any questions that folks have. And if you don't have any questions, that's okay.

Once again, I'm not expecting too many folks to be listening in. It's the holidays and I didn't plan this, this live stream. But if folks are listening in, feel free to ask your questions and preface your question with the word question.

Okay. All right. So I'm going to share my screen here again, just for folks just tuning in. I'm going to be talking about the importance of biblical literacy and apologetics. And it's very much based upon this book here.

A section in this book, Urban Apologetics, Restoring Black Dignity with the Gospel. Again, folks might, you know, hey, listen, I'm not black. I'm I'm not part of that that culture. However, there are certain things that I think we can draw from an apologetic that is geared towards a specific community.

I think touches on something that that connects with all of us. I think the idea of biblical literacy, especially placed within the context of this book, but more broadly speaking, placed within the context of Christian apologetics, I think is is hugely, hugely important.

And so. So, yeah. So I'm going to share my screen. I have a couple of slides here that I want to share. And again, if you have any questions, feel free to send in your question through the comments. All right.

Okay. So let's take a look here. My first slide here is entitled Knowing Your Bible. The key to biblical literacy is knowing your Bible. And it sounds simple enough. But you will be surprised that in my interactions with people, educated people, seasoned Christian apologists, I have actually noticed in a lot of people and I won't mention any names.

And again, we could all be guilty of this. But I have noticed in many Christian apologists, a vast knowledge in the philosophical literature and a broad overview knowledge of the Bible. But when you get into the details, there's a lot of knowledge that's lacking.

We focus sometimes we can we can commit this this. I mean, I'm not calling it a sin, but we can commit the sin of focusing so much on books about the Bible that we are not really living in the scriptures.

And so knowing your Bible really is a key component to biblical literacy. So that's that's kind of the first step here. So let me kind of speak a little bit more about this, this book here. If I can kind of go through the slides here, I'm going to make it full screen here.

All right. So Urban Apologetics, if you're interested in really defending the faith within the context of like the inner city and the sort of topics that come up in that context, this book is super interesting in that regard.

Primarily, this book focuses upon addressing the sorts of objections raised against Christianity from the urban black community. So it's a very niche, a very focused it's very focused upon that particular context.

So it has chapters responding to what is known as the black consciousness community or the black Hebrew Israelites movement. Many folks might be familiar with the black Hebrew Israelites through the work of vocab Malone, who is another Christian apologist who really centers his attention on addressing and providing a Christian apologetic against objections coming from that from that movement.

You also have what's called the black atheism movement or the Egyptian Kemetic spirituality movement, African mysticism, which a lot of these movements are characterized by a revisioning of history of various conspiracy theories, misinformation about Jesus and Christianity.

And again, it's very niche. It's dealing with specific groups. But how often do we when doing apologetics, do we confront misunderstandings of the Christian faith? Right. This is this is the primary thing that I've experienced that some of well, most of the objections against the Christian faith are predicated upon misunderstandings of the Christian faith.

And so while this book in particular has a specific focus, I think it's very useful to apologists in any context to recognize that one of the best and most powerful ways to defend the Christian faith is understanding the Christian faith.

One of the most powerful and potent ways to defend the Christian faith is to have a thorough knowledge of what the Christian faith actually teaches from the scriptures. And, of course, systematic theology and all these other sorts of things.

If you listen to my last live stream, also the issue of church history. So all of these things come into a very important focus when dealing not only with specific context, like this book reflects the urban set, the context, but in any context.

So that's super, super important to to keep in mind. All right. Well, well, first, when we're defending the faith, we want to keep in mind. And this is a passage of scripture that comes to my mind when I think of apologetics and and defending the Christian faith is Jude, chapter one, verse three.

I actually want to get it up here, not on the screen, but I have kind of let me get this up here. So Jude, chapter one, Jude, chapter one, it's the book before the book of Revelation. So it's the second to last book in the Bible.

Jude, chapter three, verse. Let's let's go with first. Let's go to verse three. So Jude, one, three. Here's what it says. It says, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

And I want you to focus on that last portion there. He says, I found it necessary. Jude found it as a necessity to write to them concerning the contending for the faith. And what what faith is that? It is the faith once for all delivered to the saints, that body of Christian truth.

And so what kind of comes out in this passage to me is this idea that we are defending a specific body of beliefs. And we can call that the Christian, the Christian worldview, which is comprised of, you know, elements of reality, our metaphysics, our epistemology, our ethic.

You know, we've talked about these things on this channel. It comes with thoroughly understanding what the Bible has to say with respect to those areas, with what the Bible has to say with respect to the Christian worldview, what the Bible has to say with respect to itself.

This is what is necessary to do. Christian apologetics know what we believe. All right. And so I don't remember where this quote comes from. And maybe someone could could help me out. But there was a quote by some Christian thinker.

I don't remember off the top of my head where he said something to the effect. Visit many books, visit many books, but live in the scriptures, visit many books, but live in the scriptures. I like that.

And I think that's it's very helpful. We need to be able to live in the scriptures, know the scriptures so that the truths of the Bible become the background music of our mind. All right. So that when, you know, the opportunity to, you know, to give an answer for the reason for the hope that's in us comes, then we're able to address those objections, address those issues that people bring up from a biblical foundation.

OK, so know what you believe. You can't defend what you don't understand. That's that's that's key. All right. And it's simple enough, but it's super important. All right. Understanding the word must be a key goal of the apologist.

All right. Now, I say this as a joke sometimes, but I don't mean it as a joke. All right. A lot of people will ask me, Eli, what is the best book that you can possibly get on Christian apologetics? What book should I master?

Well, there are a bunch of books covering a wide variety of topics. But the Christian apologist, the one who is going to defend the Christian faith, must be focused on mastering the contents of scripture.

OK, this is so vital, given the reality that the primary attacks upon the Christian faith come from misunderstandings of the Christian faith. So knowing the Bible is going to be vitally important to that end.

OK, so as I mentioned in this book, Urban Apologetics, more specifically, the chapter, the section that was written by Blake Wilson entitled Knowing Your Bible on page 217. He kind of lays out what what he understands as biblical literacy.

So I'm going to be using that term, that phrase from within the context of this book. So if you have a different understanding of what biblical literacy might mean, I'm taking it within this particular context, as I think the author here has.

I think he frames the issue in a correct context here. OK, so what is what isn't biblical literacy? What how can I phrase this? Biblical literacy is not OK. I'll say it that way. Biblical literacy is not.

And here's a direct quote from the book. And I like I like what he puts here. He says biblical literacy is not the ability to study and know key doctrines to the degree that one is able to divide themselves from other believers based on a disagreement in theology or to win a debate against another group in a contrary belief system.

I'm going to read that again. Biblical literacy is not the ability to study and know key doctrines to the degree that one is able to divide themselves from other believers based on a disagreement in theology or to win a debate against another group in a contrary belief.

OK, a belief system. Now, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not giving the the fluffy kind of how can I say this? Gee whiz. Let me see how I could how I could phrase this. What I'm not saying, OK, is that the ability to know key doctrines.

OK, the importance of dividing over certain doctrines and the ability to win a debate from particular perspective. I'm not saying any of those things are not important. I actually think they are incredibly important.

There are people who will say, you know, we shouldn't argue about the Christian faith. I disagree with that. People say, well, you shouldn't engage in debating. I disagree with that. I believe we should debate.

Well, we shouldn't divide over over doctrine. I believe we should divide over doctrine. I think division to a certain degree is very important because we want to clearly define where we stand on very key, important issues.

Now, of course, to that end, we want to make a differentiation between what we would call essential doctrine and non-essential doctrine. I believe, for example, it is a valid reason to divide in a sense between those who hold to infant baptism and believers, baptism, pedo-baptism and credo-baptism.

But the nature of that division is only on the surface level where it's an important division. And you want to stand on those issues from where you're coming from, but they don't deal with essential doctrine.

So I don't support the kind of division there that I cut them off as my brother and sister in Christ. If, for example, I hold to a more reformed Baptist perspective. So if you hold to a pedo-baptism perspective or you believe that you should baptize infants, I don't practice that.

But I believe, say, for example, Presbyterians are my brothers in Christ. Right. So we want to make a differentiation between non-essential and essential doctrine. OK, so I do believe that there is an appropriate time to divide.

I believe that when we are engaged in apologetics and we are debating, I think we should debate. I think we should argue. I think we should tear down strongholds, intellectual strongholds that are setting themselves up above the knowledge of God.

I believe that we in the biblical language of that military destruction, we should destroy arguments. That's not what I'm saying with respect to. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be focused upon those things.

But the author here defines biblical literacy as not the simple ability to do those things. OK, they're important, but it's more than that. To be biblically literate is more than that. The goal of biblical literacy is not to win a debate, but to win souls from all nations.

Think of the Great Commission. OK, so so check that out. The goal is not to win a debate. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to win the debate. Right. I don't want to win a soul by using wrong arguments or, you know, fallacious forms of reasoning.

I want to think logically. I want to think biblically. I want to win that debate. But my goal is not to win. My goal is to see a person converted to Christ as God through the spirit uses the words that I'm saying to to bring regeneration upon that that person who needs who needs to hear the gospel.

So I think that's important before we define what biblical literacy is within the context of the book here. OK, it's important to understand what biblical literacy is not. OK, so so that there's there's that.

Biblical Literacy as Knowing God's Heart and Mind

All right. So let's continue on. I want to go to the next slide here. All right. So how does our author here define biblical literacy? OK, well, he says biblical literacy is the ability to know God's heart and mind.

Having been opened up by Jesus upon salvation to know the scriptures, how to use them to experience his transforming power personally and how to share them with others so they may experience him as well.

OK, and he gives kind of a scripture there in Luke, chapter 24, verses 44 through 49. I actually want to read that. Let's see here. Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 44 through 49. All right.

Let's go there. OK. And this is this is in reference to Jesus walking with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And it says here, then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you that while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus, it is written that the Christ should suffer. And on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things. And he continues to go on. You guys know the story there. OK, so biblical literacy involves the goal of knowing the heart and mind of God as given to us in scripture.

And and that and having that knowledge is itself a work of God within us. Just as Jesus opened the disciples minds to understand the scriptures. So to true biblical literacy doesn't come in the knowledge of bare facts, but it also comes with the simultaneous supernatural opening up of our minds that is done by by Christ and the spirit.

OK, and so biblical literacy in this context, and I agree with the author here, is not simply Bible knowledge. Rather, biblical literacy is incarnational. It is it is exemplified not only in the apprehension of facts, but allowing the facts to transform our lives.

OK, that's super important. I can't even count because there's so many instances where I've heard Christian apologists give razor sharp responses to atheists, to Muslims and things like that. However, much of what they say falls flat because it is said in arrogance.

It is said in a rudeness and in a type of arrogance and rudeness that is not fitting a servant of Christ. Now, I know there are people out there who will say, well, listen, you know, Jesus flipped the tables and things like that.

Listen, I'm not against righteous anger, but I've I've been in this game for a while. I've seen a lot of people use that as an excuse. And when you see the fruit of how they act in light of what they're saying, there is a vast inconsistency.

And so I think this incarnational aspect of biblical literacy is is vitally important here. All right. Let's move on to the next point. All right. So now the author in the book here, he mentions what he calls the foundational biblical literacy.

And and one thing that he identifies as a foundation, a form of foundational biblical literacy is is the believer having an appetite for the word of God. OK, so, for example, 1st Peter, chapter two, verses one through three, says, therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all slander.

Like newborn infants desire the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow up into your salvation. If you have tasted that the Lord is good. OK, for the believer, we must we must develop an appetite for God's word to be biblically literate.

And to have that foundation of growth, we need to have a hunger for God's truth. Right. And this is this again. We need to seek after it as a baby seeks after the pure the milk of their mother. OK, so this is something that we need to be urging for.

We need to be striving for. We want to the new Christian who is who for the first time falls in love with Christ needs to be yearning to hear his voice speak in his word and allow that word to transform our lives.

Right. And that transformation element in biblical literacy is important because biblical literacy is also connected to our sanctification. Right. We are moving towards growth into the image of Christ.

And so we cannot grow into the image of Christ. We cannot progress into the image of Christ if we are not doing anything with that which we learn. Right. If we're learning the word of God, we're not putting it to practice.

Are you really growing? Are you really maturing? You see, spiritual maturity has nothing to do with how long you've been a Christian. Right. You can be a Christian for a long time to be very spiritually immature.

You could be a Christian for 70 years and still be wearing, as it were, spiritual pampers. OK, so again, this transformation element is vitally important. All right. Foundational biblical literacy. The author kind of highlights a couple of goals here.

OK, and the first goal of foundational biblical literacy is to help remove the remnants of fleshly attitudes and actions that reigned and ruled in our hearts and minds as nonbelievers. I'm going to say that again.

Foundational biblical literacy. Goal number one is to help remove the remnants of fleshly attitudes and actions that reigned and ruled in our hearts and minds as nonbelievers. To help remove the remnants of fleshly attitudes.

Again, you see this very important sanctification element. To be biblically literate is to not only know, but also allow the knowledge to transform. And in the midst of transformation, we are, by the help of the Spirit, removing remnants of fleshly attitudes and actions that had previously reigned in our members prior to being believers in Christ.

All right. So in essence, if I can sum this up really briefly, the goal of the Christian apologist and the Christian in general to attain biblical literacy is to grow in sanctification and allowing that sanctification process to occur within the context of being exposed and transformed by the Scriptures.

OK, so that's the first goal there. All right. Let's continue on. All right. Foundational biblical literacy. Goal number two, as I said, is spiritual maturity. It is important for those both within and without the church to recognize the gospel's power to transform a person's life for God's renewed purposes.

I'll read that again. The goal number two is that it is important, spiritual maturity, and that's important for those within and without the church to recognize, pardon, to recognize the gospel's power to transform a person's life for God's renewed purpose.

OK, it is not simply a transformation that occurs within, but the reality of that transformation that occurs within is evident from without by people who observe you. Right. People should be able to see the reality of that transformation.

Right. This is what Jesus says. He says, you know, blessed is the one not who simply hears the word, but hears the word and obeys it. And of course, what comes along with obeying God's word is the recognition of others that there is a change that has occurred.

Now, granted, we live in a sinful world. There will be people who will always find fault and always try to accuse. But let that never be the case because of what you're doing. Right. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

If you're going to be persecuted and pointed out, let it be for the fact that you are obeying God's word, both in thought and in conduct and in the way that you treat other people. Don't be that Christian apologist who is known for great arguments, but is just a jerk.

OK, now, again, people call me a jerk. I know I'm not perfect. I know I've been snarky at times. I've done a couple of debates. Maybe I've I've said something or whatever. I mean, we're all a work in progress in that regard.

But we want if insults are going to come and they will come. We want it to be because we are being obedient to God and we are. And that obedience is manifested not simply in our own personal devotion, but it also is flowing out of our interactions with people as well.

Right. The manner in which I interact with the unbeliever is itself an issue of obedience to Christ. Right. What is 1st Peter, chapter three, verse 15, set set apart Christ as Lord in your heart, always being ready to give a reason for the hope that's in you, yet doing so with gentleness and respect.

If I fail to do so with gentleness and respect and instead I am arrogant. Right. I am prideful. Right. I am unnecessarily demeaning towards the person I'm speaking with. Am I fulfilling 1st Peter, chapter three, verse 15?

I don't think so. I don't think so. And I'm talking more specifically to folks who tend to be very aggressive in their debate tactics and their interactions. And they try to justify that as kind of like holy anger, righteous anger.

And again, that's a thing. I mean, Jesus, you know, being angry is not a sin. Bible says that when you are angry, do not sin in your anger, which presupposes that there is a context in which it is appropriate to be angry.

That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying are those I'm referring to those people who hide behind the language of righteous anger. But in reality, their actions and their words don't reflect the teachings of the master.

Right. So there needs to be that very important consistency there. All right. OK, so spiritual maturity is goal number two. It is important for those both within and without the church to recognize the gospel power to transform a person's life for God's renewed purpose.

Let people see not for the purpose of putting on display, but because it is organic. It is a part of who you are in light of the fact that you have Christ within you. You have the spirit dwelling within you and you have this this hunger towards God's word.

And this is kind of overflowing and spilling out of the way you interact with people. Let that be the thing that people see and allow that to be an aid. Right. The way we act, the way the world perceives.

Let that be an aid to our apologetic. All right. It is a very powerful thing to have great arguments coupled with gentleness and respect and a loving a loving disposition towards those you're speaking with.

But at the same time being sharp, logical, biblical, non-compromising on biblical truth. That is a powerful duo to have those things coupled with the lifestyle that reflects the life transforming power of God's word when it is applied to your life.

All right. All right. Well, once again, if there are folks who have any questions about what I'm saying or anything related to apologetics or theology or the Bible, just be sure that you preface your question with questions so that I know that it's a question.

All right. Let's continue on. Let's move along here. OK, so a little bit more on spiritual maturity here. True spiritual maturity. OK, we mentioned this towards the beginning here. And this is mentioned in the book Urban Apologetics, page 219.

The author says here, and I think he's spot on. True spiritual maturity does not come from simply knowing information about the Bible, but applying that information and allowing it to transform us. I want to read that again and I want to read it slowly and I want it to sink in for folks.

OK, true spiritual maturity does not come from simply knowing information about the Bible, but applying that information. We got to apply it and allowing it to transform us with that transformation aspect.

The transformed life. OK, check this out. The transformed life validates the message of the gospel. OK, now I want to speak a little bit to that. OK, the transformed life validates the message of the Bible.

Now, in an ultimate sense, that's not necessarily true. I mean, my inability to be obedient to God is not what validates or invalidates the gospel. The gospel is true regardless of how I live my life.

However, the transformed life gives evidence of the power of the gospel as it works in me, right? Talk is cheap. We can say Jesus has changed my life. But how powerful of a witness it is when we're actually exemplifying that change because we're allowing the word of God to transform us.

OK, so again, I'm not saying that we have the power to validate or invalidate the gospel. The gospel stands on its own and is proclaimed in the word of God. The word of God is self attestingly true. It comes with the very authority of God himself.

However, we are pretty crummy apologists if we are not actually being transformed by the very truth that we are telling the world can transform them. You see, so it's very important to keep that in mind.

This whole issue of consistency, consistency, consistency, consistency is super important. Right. If we're going to say something with our mouths, we need to be walking the walk if we're going to be talking the talk.

Right. And so, again, very, very important. All right. Our last slide here. And here's an important note. I just wanted to jot down. For example, just because a believer is exposed to solid doctrine and sound theology does not mean that that believer will become biblically literate.

OK, so, for example, if you are in a church, a solid church that teaches solid doctrine, sound theology, that does not guarantee that a person in that church will automatically become biblically literate.

OK, for example, the Corinthian church, the Corinthian church was exposed to some of the best teachers, the Apostle Paul, Peter, Apollos. OK, but they were still they still were struggling to become biblically literate in the sense that they were able to move from intellectual content to life application and hence transformation.

OK, so, again, you could be in the context of a sound church, a sound doctrinal context. But that doesn't mean squat. Don't mean squat. If if that's not actually having a life transforming effect upon you such that it is evident to those around you and things like that.

So this is super important. So, for example, here. Yes, I'm going to share a quote. Well, I guess a comment here by someone who's listening in. Thank you so much. E .M., I suppose that's M, short for M.

She says here, sadly, some apologists call Christian tools for Satan, demonic and worse. If you dare to ask a question or disagree with their position, they use their biblical knowledge to belittle others.

Yes. These are the sorts of things that I'm referring to. Right. Yeah. You can be intellectually bullied by a Christian apologist or anyone within the church that has a lot of head knowledge. Right. But what is lacking is that application of the knowledge.

That's absolutely correct. Yeah. So I think that's a that's a good, a good, a good point to be made there. All right. Now, let's see here. Someone did have a question. So creationist, creationist, creationist to the second power, ask a question off topic question.

What's the meaning behind these black rings? Been seeing a lot of them. No idea what they mean. Sorry if that's irrelevant. Well, it is irrelevant to what I'm talking about here. And unfortunately, I don't know what black rings you're talking about.

So I'm actually unable to help you out there. Sorry, creationist, creationist. All right. Let's see here.

Do do do do do do do do. Yeah, no problem.

Erica, Erica Mendes says, I'm grateful you decided to address this subject. We all need a reminder. Yeah, that that's that's the reason why I did it. It says a reminder. I'm not saying anything new and and, you know, I'm not giving a new revelation.

This book here again, I haven't read the whole book. I mean, there may be things in this book I don't necessarily agree with. But this particular chapter, it really struck me in the importance of recognizing that biblical literacy goes further than just having having knowledge.

So, yeah. Thank you for that. Yes. OK. I think it was Spurgeon. So Spurgeon said the quote I was I was thinking before, visit many books, but live in the scriptures. I think I think that was Charles Spurgeon.

Biblical Literacy Requires More Than Head Knowledge

All right. Let's see here. Do do do do do do do. OK, so no more comments there. So so some concluding thoughts here as I'm kind of thinking about this now. Focusing on the importance of allowing the truth of God's word to transform our lives as a part of our apologetic is the important aspect.

However, I don't want to minimize the importance of head knowledge. OK, I'm not promoting here a form of anti intellectualism. You know, you know what I'm talking about, right? You know, you have that family member who's a believer and you're sharing with them all the different things that you're learning.

Perhaps you went to seminary or something like that and and you're talking with them. Hey, I learned this from my professor. I learned that from this philosopher. And they'll say, well, listen, it's all well and good that you're going to seminary.