April 29 1996

ARTICLE TOOLS

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* Willimon's dichotomy between objective truth and the person of Jesus is undeserving of his otherwise gifted mind ["Jesus' Peculiar Truth," March 4]. Objective truth (which he never carefully defines) simply means that we don't create truth, but discover it in a reality that exists independently of ourselves. This view is neither "Enlightenment," as he claims, nor unbiblical.

New Testament creedal statements are not only confessions of faith, but assertions of fact. Faith in the person of Jesus is intimately tied to objective historical truth. Let's not confuse the excesses of naturalistic rationalism with the objectivity of truth. The result can be none other than a return to the "encounter theology" of theological liberalism.

- Jim Leffel

Columbus, Ohio

* While finding myself in hearty agreement with Willimon's central point--that Christianity is about a Person rather than a set of propositions--I am puzzled as to why he poses an unnecessary dilemma: that somehow the proclamation of the gospel and the defense of objective truth are (tactically, at least) mutually exclusive endeavors. To claim that unbelievers may be misled into thinking they can reason their way to God is to misunderstand the purpose and role of apologetics. Apologetic teaching does not supplant the proclamation of the gospel, it only serves as a supplement.

To downplay the teaching of objective truth in favor of "just preaching the gospel" is to ignore the reality that our entire access to the Person he advocates rests on the reliability of a book that is misunderstood and maligned in our modern day. Sometimes we must overcome the defenses of the mind before an individual can lower the barriers of the heart.

- Arthur F. Witulski

Tucson, Ariz.