Dr. John Lennox is the Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a noted apologist who has vigorously debated the new atheists, including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. I have to say, Dr. Lennox's session was the highlight of the day for me. Here on the blog (and on the main site), we've long been talking about the rise of the new atheists in America and abroad. It's a challenge for all of us who preach. In fact, Dr. Lennox pointed out that more and more preachers are facing congregants who arrive at services with their eyes pointed forward toward the pulpit with a finger in a book by Dawkins or Sam Harris. They have questions. Lots of them. And what alarms Dr. Lennox is that many preachers don't have answers. They've not kept abreast of the issues at hand. They've not thought things through beyond a spate of basic answers. In short, we aren't living out the imperatives found in a passage like 1 Peter 3:13-18. (And in case any of us gathered in the auditorium thought we were, a few challenging questions from Dr. Lennox put us all in our place - When was the last I dialogues with someone about these complicated issues? When was the last time I put myself in a situation to do just that? What have I been reading? What have I given others to read to help in their search? All convicting questions.)

But aren't "some made to be apologists"? Well, that's not really in our list from Ephesians is it? It's not there because we are all made to be apologists. Dr. Lennox insisted that we drop the notion of apologetics being a specialized field. It's a calling for us all (again, see the passage from 1 Peter).

So what do we do?

We tell our story. When pressed into apologetics before Roman leaders, Paul told us his journey from bigot to believer.

We sharpen our Swords. As Dr. Lennox pointed out, the only way to keep them sharp is to use them daily.

We cast our fear and take our message to the marketplaces. God wants to be heard. Let's let him.

As he noted throughout - it won't be easy. It requires great work, great study, a great dedication toward moving from feeding lambs to feeding sheep (lambs want a mere bottle of milk to their lips, sheep wants something more...are prone to wander...prone to stubbornness), but it's worth it. And so much is at stake.

*A few other notes: John Piper offered a session entitled "Preaching a Justification Undiminished." It was an extension of one of his recent books, The Future of Justification, that offers a push-back against the new Pauline perspective and other challenges toward traditional theological frameworks. If you want to learn morea about this swirling controversy, I suggest you go ahead and check out Piper's work - and then it would be good to take a look at N. T. Wright's recent push back against the push back (2009's Justification)! Interesting stuff...

*By the way, I had supper with the folks from the Truth for Life radio program and website. They said all the sessions from the conference (and all of Alistair Begg's sermons) will soon be available on their site for free download. Check it out.