The Death Of John Warwick Montgomery

When I was a teenager, shortly before the internet came along, I got a lot of my information about Christianity from television. One of the few individuals on Christian television (and television in general) who spoke highly of the evidence for Christianity and often articulated it well was John Warwick Montgomery. I remember occasionally seeing him on John Ankerberg's program, and I probably saw him elsewhere (maybe on D. James Kennedy's show, for example). Montgomery represented a more intellectual and generally more mature form of Christianity than what you typically encounter in modern Evangelical circles. He had a positive effect on my early thinking about religious issues, and I'm grateful for his influence in my life.

He died last week. Shane Rosenthal posted an article about Montgomery just after his death. In that article, Rosenthal links the audio of a radio program Montgomery appeared on with Rosenthal and others. I recommend listening to it. You can access it here. They interviewed some people at a pastors' conference (pastors, their wives, etc.) and asked the attendees some questions related to apologetics. The large majority wanted to use their conversion testimony or something similar in discussions with non-Christians rather than take an apologetic approach, made derogatory comments about apologetics, etc. Montgomery made a lot of good points in response, and the responses of the hosts of the program are often good. Here are a few examples of Montgomery's comments, but these aren't all of the good ones he made. I recommend listening to the whole program:

"Well, there's, of course, laziness as one factor. The neat thing about talking about your own experiences is that you don't have to do any reading or studying whatsoever, and you don't have to get any fix on the non-Christian's point of view. This, of course, is exactly the opposite of the way St. Paul operated when he was on the Areopagus in Athens." (4:39)

"If relationships and friendship are a precondition for presenting the gospel, how could we ever spread the gospel to every creature? I mean, life is short." (14:15)

"If that [merely telling personal stories] had gone on in the first century, we'd still be out in the bush eating each other. We would never have heard the gospel of Christ." (33:13)

"So, if we want to be consistent, we're going to have to look at it [religion] the same way as we look at getting to McDonald's [following evidential directions to find a McDonald's restaurant] or getting to the hospital or making decisions in ordinary life. We can't suddenly yell 'Postmodernism!' If we did, we ought to carry it out consistently for everything that we do. And if so, you will end up in a rubber room." (39:13)

"It is perfectly amazing the minimal amount of contact that most Evangelicals have with non-Christians. They talk about this business of friendship [with non-Christians] and relationalism, and all that, but they are frightened to death of having any serious contact with unbelievers." (50:59)

The program was recorded in 2006, meaning that Montgomery was in his mid-seventies at the time. But he speaks with more passion than you typically get from Christians who are in the physical prime of their life. How many Christians ever speak with that sort of passion about apologetics or call people to so high a standard? That's rare, even though apologetics is such a large part of the Bible and life (as reflected in Acts, for example).