In Honor of Dr. John Warwick Montgomery: October 1931 to September 2024.
"But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15).
What does it mean to give a defense of the Christian faith? Discovering a valid answer to this question has occupied a good portion of my life. I, like most Christian apologists, use the verse listed above from 1 Peter to defend the idea of giving a defense. The Greek word most relied upon is apologia, which means intelligent reasoning or a properly and well-reasoned reply; in essence, an apologia is a thought-out response to address a contradictory argument adequately. This is not the only passage from Scripture that implies the Christian should be able to elucidate the validity of the Christian claim. Other passages include 1 Corinthians 15, Paul's appeal before the pagans on the Areopagus (Mars Hill) in Acts 17, and Paul's explanation of the natural knowledge of God, which can be obtained through natural revelation in Romans 1 and 2.
Much of my theological training has involved extensive education in how to give a defense. A good amount of my teaching in churches and classrooms over the years has centered on evangelism and apologetics and does to this day. In fact, I consider my book, Being Dad, a work of apologetics in that it "gives a defense" of the idea of a good and gracious God from the idea of a good and gracious father. It utilizes the concept of an analogia entis, or an analogy of being, as taught by Thomas Aquinas. This is a concept I first learned while reading Myth, Allegory, and Gospel, edited by Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. The extrapolation in Being Dad, is that a good and gracious dad is not just like a good and gracious God, nor is he unlike that God, but rather, he is an analogy or foggy picture of a God who is both good and gracious. This God has given us fathers to be his priests in the home, to be pictures of his grace, and to point their children to him.
I have said many times over the years that I owe most of what I know to Dr. Rod Rosenbladt.
Dad Rod guided me, formed me, and pointed me toward an understanding of the need to share and defend the faith to those who are outside of the Church. But Dr. Rosenblat had a teacher, too. Rod's mentor and primary influence was Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. Dr. Montgomery was considered by many to be the foremost living apologist for biblical Christianity. Dr. Rosenbladt studied under Dr. Montgomery at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he served as Professor of Church History and Chair of the Division of Church History and History of Christian Thought from 1964-1974,. Rod, in turn, passed what he learned from Dr. Montgomery onto his students at Westmont College and Concordia University Irvine.
John Warwick Montgomery was truly the "General" of the Lutheran apologetics movement.
At Rod's instigation, I studied under Dr. Montgomery for a brief time. In 1997, I traveled to Strasbourg, France, to participate in what I think was the first annual International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism, and Human Rights. For two weeks, I learned:
- To evangelize first.
- Not to give people problems they don't already have.
- Evangelize again.
- Remove the intellectual obstacles on the road to the cross.
- Defend the veracity of the New Testament documents.
- Understand and defend the validated claims of Christ in the New Testament.
- Present a Christ who claimed to be God and proved it by forgiving sins, fulfilling prophecies, performing miracles, raising people from the dead, and finally raising himself from the grave as the first fruits of our resurrection.
- To show that Christ was either a liar, a lunatic, or our Lord and Savior.
- Even if it seems we've already been evangelizing, do it again for good measure.
- Lastly, we must understand that when one finally comes to the faith, it is the power of God alone, through the work of the Holy Spirit, by means of the proclaimed Gospel, that has brought them there.
Dr. Montgomery was the author of over one hundred scholarly journal articles and more than fifty books, most of which are available at 1517.org. He was internationally regarded as a theologian, apologist, and lawyer. He was truly the "General" of the Lutheran apologetics movement. His influence on me and on 1517 cannot be underestimated. He will be missed. But, as we mourn for him, we do not mourn as those who have no hope. We know that Dr. Montgomery is now in glory with his friends Walter Martin and Rod Rosenbladt and may even be working out his differences with Lutheran theologians, now in glory, with whom he disagreed while here on earth—people like Gerhard Forde. In Christ, we trust we will one day be united with him and sit with him at the supper of the lamb at the great high feast. Rest in peace, Dr. Montgomery.
