I received the below comment a few minutes ago—on my thirtieth birthday—in response to my post three days ago entitled “Dissertation Defended.” It’s a good example of a false dilemma, also called a false disjunction or the fallacy of the excluded middle.
Unfortunately two Ph.D.s can hardly be said to serve God’s kingdom. Just think of the gospel ministry by-passed because of such esoteric work. I hope you’ll have more opportunity now to minister and evangelize while the night has not come and there’s still time to work for the Lord of the harvest.
Two thoughts:
1. I think you’ve done more for God’s kingdom in the last several years than the vast majority of Christians who aren’t working on PhDs.
2. I wonder if this commenter would also chide Jesus for not beginning His ministry until He was 30 (Luke 3:23).
In some parts it’s also called, “piffle” and “poppy-cock”.
I for one, as a Pastor (studying part time towards a Masters), am very grateful for the work of scholars who put in the hard yards to make my measly excuse for research and study in sermon preparation so much easier.
Remarks like that completely overlook the diversity of gifts Christ has given us for the precise purpose of accomplishing the work of said harvest.
Congrats on the Ph.D.
Such comments come from the anti-intellectual Christian of North America in this time. They are a tiny hiccup in the throat of Christendom, and an ironic one at that! The failure of Christian Intellectuals at the turn of the last century lead to the Fundamentalist/Modernist Controversy, and the abdication of most Higher Learning facilities by the Believing. In other words, it is BECAUSE Christian scholars failed to articulately defend Bible-believing Ph.D’s that such commenters even exist. Thank you Andy (and Dr. Carson!) for raising the bar for all Christians in fulfilling Romans 12:2.
I would have enjoyed this post more if there were some hilarious typos in the comment. Congrads Andy-man… happy birthday!
Introducing the New Testament sits within reach right here on my desk, and has been helpful for this pastor several times already. Keep up the good work for the Lord of the harvest, Andy. And maybe II Corinthians 1:4 applies? You are now better prepared to comfort pastors, who seem to get this flack all the time. :-)
That’s a pretty bold statement from someone who doesn’t know you beyond this blog. It assumes so many things that it is almost embarrassing to mention them all. First, what is evangelism? Can someone be evangelizing even as he writes papers and does research? Of course. And can evangelism take on many forms? Indeed it can.
The negative (or lazy?) view of doctrine and disciplined study is a troubling trend in evangelicalism.
Ouch! God calls some of us to do things that plenty of folks don’t understand or might think are foolish. Our job is to be prayerful and obedient to His call, even when we face opposition. And for the record, there is a need in our culture today to have well educated Christians who can reach a population of people that those without PhDs won’t be able to minister to.
I would think it a fine present to be falsely accused for the sake of Christ Jesus and the kingdom of God on my birthday.
Congratulations for that and for earning your 2nd PhD.
(Perhaps now you will have more opportunity to expose the false dilemmae and proponents of the fallacy of the excluded middle) =]
May our Lord continue to guide, use and bless you in His service, dear Brother.
One might wonder how much Gospel work could have been accomplished during the time it took for such a one to write that comment! Andy, I have made repeated use of the results of your scholarship at our church plant! Your dogged determination and study has had great benefit here. May God bless your efforts to better serve Him in your future endeavors…Ο Θεός να ευλογεί
Apparently, he has a disdain for the variety of gifts represented in the body of Christ. A disdain that is opposed to the purpose of God. “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” What a shame to disdain the excercise of various gifts especially when it is the intention of God.
I Cor. 12
14 ¶ For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
I just wanted to chime in and say I’ve only met you once Andy, but your blog has been very helpful to me as a missionary on the field, and your studies have enabled you to offer a far wider range of resources than if you’d, say, studied only in a Bible institute. Congrats and keep up the good work!
I like the analogy from Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions (comparing PhD work to MD work):
Someone who is on the front-lines (e.g., a pastor or missionary) should be quite grateful to another who has taken the time to hone his gifts in areas of theory (as well as practice). A practitioner can draw on such work as a resource to better his ministry and further Christ’s kingdom without taking years out of his life to organize and develop the same helpful information. Yes, members of Christ’s body are mutually dependent.
There are many who would attack a tree with a dull ax because of all the work time they would have *wasted* in the sharpening process. Sigh!
It is clear that many Christians (even church leaders) are theologically famished, and the unfortunate result has been worldliness and antinomianism among professing believers. I sincerely congratulate you, Andy, and pray that your endeavors will continue to point people to Christ. I am a recent subscriber to your blog (having been recommended by my pastor, Reverend Tim Williams of Greenwood, IL), and it is encouraging to see the Lord raising up young men to study and serve. God Bless!
Brother! I hope the comments by these brothers (and sister) encourage you after such a misled comment. I am grateful to God for your gifts and how you are using them to serve Him; and I am greatly anticipating seeing you more often in the coming months!
Be as bothered by such comments as you *should* be: not at all. Congratulations.
Of course it is only those who are not as educated who need to hear the Gospel “while the day is young!”
Sad; truly sad.
Of course, if you did not have all that education then you would not know what a false dilemma was (wink).
I’m 34 with only a master’s degree, evidently unemployable, hold nothing close to your academic record, and have accomplished very little that would please your commenter’s apparent views on what constitutes utility and “success” in God’s eyes. That you have two PhDs before age 30 indicates you’ve been doing anything BUT wasting your time–rather numbering your days and optimizing your God-given resources for His glory. What God’s carried you to is cause for rejoicing–to the praise of the glory of His grace, not cause for ridicule. I feel strongly inclined to believe only jealousy and inferiority could have motivated such a conclusion, far more so than a genuine understanding of and zeal for kingdom work.
First of all, congrats, Dr. Naselli. A title very well-earned.
I’m always intrigued when intellectual pursuits are dismissed. As if they aren’t real or useful or sanctified. The Christmas hymn says to us, “Sages, leave your contemplations!” and I even get a little perturbed. I find Jesus in this work. God uses scholars too. The general contractors (Nehemiah) need the history nerds (Ezra) and visa versa.
We’re supposed to make a good shoe and sell it at a fair price. That shoe may be metaphysical, but it’s still honorable.
Enjoy your accomplishment. You worked hard. And God is honored in your work.
False antithesis indeed. I bet the poster has benefited immensely from the work of Christian scholars. It’s like original languages. I sure don’t want to study Greek for thirty years, but somebody’s gotta do it so idiots like me who know just enough Greek to hang themselves won’t make every exegetical and linguistic fallacy in the book (you know, the book by that guy with the PhD from Cambridge).
P.S. I love Monsieur Loach’s summation above of the lacking logic. =}