Another Fond Memory: Meeting Dr. Phil

Some time ago I wrote a column about meeting one of my great heroes in the faith – Dr. John C. Whitcomb – and what a great joy it was to dialogue with this great man of faith. In April 2009, my family experienced the same joy while in Bremerton, Washington, where we met another great defender of the Christian faith – Dr. Phil Fernandes.

Dr. Fernandes works as a teacher at King’s West Christian School, and is the Senior Pastor of Trinity Bible Fellowship in Bremerton. Coming to Christ in adult life, it wasn’t long before the people he had been witnessing to began to question Phil’s new found faith, and he was compelled to supply those sceptical of Christianity with appropriate answers. After studying under some of the most well-respected Christian apologists in the world, Phil became thoroughly trained in how to demonstrate clearly and concisely the flaws in the worldviews and arguments antagonistic to Christianity. At the same time, Phil became adept in erecting a concrete case for the truthfulness of the Bible through solid scientific, historic, and philosophical evidences.

Dr. Phil understood that while we are all called to defend the faith to some extent in our own mission fields, not all are called to do apologetics at the same level. For those interested in apologetics as a concentrated field of study and ministry, Dr. Phil began the Institute of Biblical Defence back in 1990. The purpose of the institute is to equip Christians with the necessary tools to reasonably defend their Christian faith against the very best arguments – even the most scholarly sounding ones – that the antagonists have against Christianity as a worldview.

He has posted more than a thousand audio messages on the internet for people to download, free of charge. Many of these make up entire seminary-level courses, covering such topics as historical apologetics, philosophical apologetics, introduction to philosophy, the history of Christian thought, ethics, and non-Christian cults – just to name a few. These may be downloaded from Dr. Phil’s own website biblicaldefense.org, sermonaudio.com, or 3bible.com.
 

 Myself and Dr. Phil Fernandes. A happy memory!

 Dr. Phil and the Feakes family. Though he has the ability (and constant opportunity, it seems) to dialogue and challenge the intellectually elite, Dr. Phil still has time for simple folks like ourselves.

 It’s a fight! Not really, just a “clowning shot.” “Doc” and I both have backgrounds in contact sports (he was a boxer, I was a kickboxer). Today we fight a very different battle, against “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

 The left hand of fellowship?

 Always teaching. Dr. Phil is a wealth of knowledge and when he has something to say even a simpleton like me has enough sense to sit up and take notice. Thanks, Phil, for an unforgettable time of getting to know you.