John Ferrer says about himself: “Currently residing in Fort Worth Texas with my wife Hillary Ferrer, I am a college professor, and graduate student. My passion is for intelligent faith, that is, a profound Christian faith which is existentially relevant, intellectually compelling, demonstrably true, and altogether beautiful. I foresee myself teaching and writing for many years and have prioritized these efforts so that I have preached or taught at about 45 churches and 7 schools spanning 5 countries in the process. Apologetics, religious studies, theology, and philosophy are all pet subjects of mine.”
John Ferrer is currently a ThM and PhD student in Philosophy of Religion at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has a M.Div in Apologetics (Biblical Languages) at the Southern Evangelical Seminary a B.A. in Religion and in Communication (Theatre) at Charleston Southern University.
He is currently adjunct professor in philosophy at Tarrant County College, as well as adjunct teacher in the Behavioral and Social Sciences department specializing in philosophy and religious studies, namely, Great Religions of the World. John also has experience in missionary, researching and various other ministry duties.
Some of the topics John Ferrer speaks on:
OCCULTISM IN THE CHURCH
When we think of the “occult” we often think of black capes and crystal balls, but occult thought and practice, like mist, often finds its way into the church through misdirected prayers, poor interpretation of the bible, and bad theology. In this presentation I address three distinct features of occultism and show how to identify counteract their influence in our churches.
SEXUAL ETHICS
Human sexuality is a powerful, beautiful, even spiritual force. Exercised properly it can be a wonderful gift of God, used poorly it can destroy relationships, families, churches, and society. Sex is powerful, whether destructive or constructive. I defend and employ a graded absolutist ethic from a Christian worldview to address several key topics in sexual ethics including homosexuality, marriage, divorce, and remarriage. I can also elaborate on the foundations of a Christian Ethic (graded absolutist) and use an issue in sexual ethics or another topic to illustrate how to implement a graded absolutist ethic.
THE CHRISTIAN MIND
When churches are first exposed to intelligent faith and apologetics it can be overwhelming. It is no surprise that the evangelical church has a recent history of anti-intellectualism. In this presentation I justify intelligent faith on Biblical grounds as it serves in worship, ministry, and discipleship. I then show how every believer is called to “love God with their mind” and suggest some different ways that everyone in the church can strengthen this often-neglected dimension of Christian living. This topic easily morphs into the related topic: A general introduction to Christian Apologetics.
WORLDVIEW THINKING
Being able to understand and interact with people from different perspectives is critical for a robust evangelism. Without such “worldview” awareness Christian evangelism easily becomes weak, insensitive, and irrelevant. I teach on the Biblical justification for worldview thinking, propose several helpful test questions for the viability of a given worldview, and then I illustrate this worldview test by looking at Pantheism, Atheism, and Christian Theism.
WORLD RELIGIONS
The world is brimming with diverse religious sentiments. As Christians we need to be informed about the effects of these religious beliefs and feelings. It is not enough to simply understand the differences but we should also understand the similarities and common values that provide bridges for the introduction of the unique truth of Christ. As apologists it is easy to spend all our efforts shooting down deception (and there are plenty of targets to be found) without doing much to build upon the remnant truths in common between Christianity and the world’s religions. By finding points of affirmation we evangelists earn opportunities to address the critical, even deadly, differences. I have several religions I can teach on including The Bahai, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Judaism; several non-religious/unspecified religio-worldviews including Atheism, Agnosticism, Mysticism; and several cults such as Satanism, and Mormonism.
THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
The fact of evil poses a difficult challenge for Christianity. God’s goodness, power, and wisdom all come under question when pitted against the evils of this world. I argue however that evil lends depth to life and faith, creates contexts of remarkable good, destroys shallow religiosity, and gives an indirect witness to the goodness of God. I deal with the classical and contemporary forms of this problem and show how Christian theism stands unscathed in front of this formidable onslaught.