Bøker av Joseph E. Keysor

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OF POSTMODERNISM is partly spiritual autobiography. Brief descriptions of the author's temporal life - including teaching experiences in Asia and in the Middle East - are secondary, being merely the worldly framework for a deeper journey from unbelief to faith, from basic but essential doctrines to deeper scriptural concerns for sanctification, election, and holiness in the context of daily Christian living. Short biographical narrative sections are alternated with extended comments on the decades through which the author has lived. The materialism of the 50s and the emptiness of modern public education and mass entertainment; the counterculture of the 1960s and the closely related movements of feminism and gay rights; the rise and fall of the politicized religious right and the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism in the 70s and 80s; the abortion catastrophe and America's increasingly rapid slide into political leftism - these and other aspects of our modern and postmodern society are examined in the light of biblical teachings and values as the author understands them. Also examined are some of the problems of the nominally Bible-believing churches. Diluted concepts of repentance and theoretical notions of faith lead to something less than the authentic spiritual life as described in the New Testament. Various areas of conformity to the world hinder the witness even of the nominally Bible-believing churches, leading to a situation in which biblical Christianity is no longer of any relevance in the greater portion of American society. A chapter of Christian apologetics is devoted to the philosophical assaults made by secularism and especially atheism. Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac; the massacres of the Canaanites; the problem of evil, as well as the problem of good (whence do goodness and love arise in a meaningless universe?); the age of the earth, and the historicity of Genesis - these and yet other contentious areas are examined in such a way as to demonstrate that the traditionally biblical world view and the full historic reliability of the Bible are just as valid today as they were in the 1st century AD. Further discussion centers on the inadequacies of secularism, with its intellectual poverty and inability to account for many fundamental aspects of the human experience. The final chapter is entitled "The Wrath of God?", and raises the question of God's judgments being operative on earth in our own day, before the end times, before the tribulation. Is it not inevitable that America also will go the way of Babylon, Greece, and Rome?

This is a collection of essays written from the vantage point of belief in the Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice for Christians. It does not attempt to prove the truth of the Bible, except incidentally, in response to specific secular criticisms. Rather, it presupposes that truth, and is hence primarily aimed at a Christian audience (though it is hoped that some on the opposing side will have an interest in responses in the 2nd essay to common criticisms of the Bible and of Christian faith). The essays do not have to be read in any particular order. The first essay ("The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Christian Life") explores some fundamental weaknesses in doctrine and practice in the Bible-believing churches that prevent them from presenting the reality of Christ and from responding to secular challenges as well as they might. These include superficial concepts of repentance and faith, derived from superficial concepts of God's holiness and our sinfulness. The second ("The Decline of Christianity and the Oppositions of Radical Secularism") deals with some key points of secular opposition to biblical Christianity. This includes brief overviews of such topics as the massacres of the Canaanites; biblical slavery; the sacrifice of Isaac; the creation account in Genesis; and other relevant topics. Also discussed are the inherent deficiencies and crimes of secularism, along with a brief overview of Nietzsche's The Antichrist, his bitter attack on Christianity completed shortly before his collapse into insanity. The purpose is not to refute his work, but merely to expose it. The third ("The Wrath of God?") deals with the subject of God's sovereign anger, not as it will be manifested in the end times or the tribulation, but as it might be relevant to the United States today, in our present situation. Is America now as a nation coming under the direct judgment of God?

The book is a broad overview of some of the basic questions and topics in the ongoing debates between secular and faith-based (specifically Christian) approaches to understanding reality. The first part consists of 73 short questions and/or propositions that range over some of the main points of contention in discussions of these topics. Some of the subjects considered are: the benefits and harms of science . . .the limitations of science . . . religious and secular violence . . . and the rationality of faith: that is, the validity of faith-based reasoning, if God does exist. This is followed by a selection of short essays on various aspects of the theist / atheist debate, written from a traditionally Christian vantage point. The failure of the 'Enlightenment', "The beneficial results of the Protestant Reformation," "There has never been a Christian country," John Calvin's alleged authoritarianism, German liberal Protestantism in the 19th century, and the profound secularism of modern German society in the 19th and early 20th centuries are also discussed.Following are two previously published magazine articles by the author, used with permission. One seeks to demonstrate the secular origins of the Holocaust in humanistic philosophies; the other analyzes Nietzsche's bitter and irrational hostility towards Christianity as expressed in his book The Antichrist. The main purpose is not to refute Nietzsche, but to bring his extreme and now outdated views into the open.