The Legacy of John W. Montgomery

Born, Oct. 18, 1931 — Died, Sept 25, 2024

Sep 25, 2024

I recently interviewed Craig Parton about a book he co-wrote with John Warwick Montgomery titled The Art of Christian Advocacy, and before our conversation officially got rolling, I asked Craig how Dr. Montgomery was doing. After a short pause, he responded by saying, “Between you and me—not good.” At almost 93 years of age, he had just finished teaching a series of summer courses at the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism, and Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Well, this morning I received an email from Craig, and his colleague Dallas Miller, announcing the death of John Warwick Montgomery. Their email included the following notice:

Dr. John Warwick Montgomery, born October 18, 1931 Warsaw, New York died on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 at the the Bischwiller Regional Health Centre in France. Dr. Montgomery was a citizen of the United States, United Kingdom and France. He resided in Soufflenheim, France for much of the past three decades. A full obituary [is available at the end of this article].

I converted to Christianity in the Spring of 1985, and shortly thereafter I discovered a weekly radio program hosted by Dr. Montgomery called, Christianity on Trial in which he took calls from listeners with questions about the Christian Faith.1 The show primarily dealt with issues related to Christian apologetics, and he would frequently encourage listeners to call with questions relevant for non-Christians who might be tuning in. The result was that he frequently received calls from Christians who were looking for help in dealing with objections they had received as they attempted to share their faith with others.

Looking back, this was just what I needed at the time, since as a new believer myself, I had many of those same questions floating around in my head. And week after week, I found my budding faith strengthened by Dr. Montgomery’s common-sense approach. At the time, Montgomery worked at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law in Orange County, California, and on occasion, I recall him mentioning two of his colleagues, Kim Riddlebarger, and Rod Rosenbladt, who I would later end up working with for several decades in my role as producer of The White Horse Inn radio broadcast.

During that period I began to attend several lectures and conferences featuring Dr. Montgomery and I profited greatly from his legal and evidential perspective. As a result, I had many conversations with fellow Christians in those days about the importance of presenting Christianity as a truth-claim, rather than as a kind of therapy. Most of my friends thought that “sharing your testimony” was more effective than arguing with others about various factual or historical details. But Dr. Montgomery had convinced me that a careful study of the New Testament revealed that the earliest Christians continually appealed to facts and evidence, and rarely (if ever) appealed to their own changed lives as a vindication of the Christian faith.

Following one lecture in particular, I happened to be involved in a conversation with a fellow attendee in the parking lot, and at one point Dr. Montgomery exited the building and asked, “Is anyone able to give me a lift?” I quickly volunteered. His car was a few miles down the road at a repair shop waiting to be picked up, so I escorted Dr. Montgomery to my orange Volkswagen Bug and drove him to his destination. On the way, I told him my story about being raised Jewish and stumbling onto several ancient Jewish prophecies about the coming Messiah, including the following:

Micah 5:2-4
Israel’s Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, but his origins are mysterious (i.e., he appears to be more than human). His name will be great to the ends of the earth. The discovery of this prophecy opened the door to others and started me on a path that led to my conversion to Christianity.

Psalm 22:1, 16, 27
This psalm describes the suffering of an individual who is forsaken by God (cf. Mt 27:46, Mk 15:34); lots are cast for his garments as his hands and feet are pierced (Mt 27:35, Mk 15:24, Jn 19:23). And yet, mysteriously, the result of this man’s suffering is that all the families of the nations begin to worship Yahweh.

Isaiah 52 & 53
The Suffering Servant of Isaiah’s famous prophecy causes “good news” to be published abroad, which results in salvation reaching “the ends of the earth.” Kings around the world “shut their mouths because of him.” This servant is despised, rejected, and “pierced for our transgressions” (cf. Ps 22:16). Though he is laid in the grave, he eventually sees light and divides spoils in a victory celebration. These chapters are so clear that they read like pages ripped out of the New Testament Gospels.

When I told Dr. Montgomery about all this, along with the fact that I had discussed these and other passages with family members and rabbis, he was fascinated by my story and asked me a ton of follow-up questions. He was the first theologian I had ever met, and the first to encourage me to further my education and to work to recover this important apologetic approach of “fulfilled prophecy,” which has largely been abandoned in recent times.

Well, a few decades went by and in my role as the producer of the White Horse Inn, I invited Dr. Montgomery for one of our weekly roundtable conversations. This resulted in what is still one of my all-time favorite episodes: “Christianity: A Faith Founded on Facts” (which you can listen to here). On that program, I interviewed various attendees at a Christian convention asking how they would attempt to persuade a friend or relative who was unconvinced about the truth of Christianity. The overwhelming majority of respondents told me that it’s essentially a waste of time to try to argue with them and that instead, we should just love them as best we can. Dr. Montgomery’s responses to assertions of this kind are simply priceless.

Some of Dr. Montgomery’s books, including his most recent volume, co-written with Craig Parton, *The Art of Christian Advocacy* (2024).

This November I will be speaking with Gary Habermas and others at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas. The event is part of an annual series of lectures that are held in honor of John Warwick Montgomery and his legacy. In the Inaugural Lecture he gave a couple of years ago, Dr. Montgomery decided to address the question, “Why Do Unbelievers Reject the Solid Evidence for Christian Truth?” During his presentation, he noted the following:

[T]he nature of our world [is] characterized since at least the 18th century by increasing secularism. In this world, there is a plurality of conflicting religions and ideologies, and most people see them as matters of personal belief and emotional satisfaction. But they all purport to offer true (and conflicting) descriptions of the nature of the cosmos and the true values for human existence. A not insignificant number of these answers, when implemented (one thinks particularly of Islam) can leave a society devoid of human rights. It therefore becomes imperative to think in terms not of individual satisfaction but of truth in evaluating and choosing one’s philosophy of life.
And here Christianity alone provides the solid, empirical basis for a sound approach to the universe and a valid relationship with its Creator and Redeemer. 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 “I [the Apostle Paul] delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present.”
This is not an aprioristic, analytically meaningless claim, as offered by the competing ideologies of modern secularism, but a use factual assertion that can be supported by the very approach to evidence we use every day to distinguish fact from fancy.
I suggest that the 21st century Christian community (sadly including a good number of its evangelicals) has reduced biblical faith to cultic status by refusing to present the gospel as a matter of evidential truth. And I firmly believe that this reductionism is one of the most important reasons for the decline of our churches and the dechristianization of our modern socieities.2

These words resonate with me deeply, and the fact that they do is part of John Warwick Montgomery’s legacy.

To read a full obituary by Craig Parton, use the following link:

Jwm Obituary With Footnotes

1.97MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Faith Founded on Facts (Part 1)

Shane Rosenthal

March 21, 2023

On this episode, Shane weaves together several interviews he’s recorded over the years on topics related to the Christian view of “faith,” how it’s grounded in the facts of the real world, and why we…

Read full story

Some of these episodes from the 1980s have been digitized and are now available here. In particular, look for the “COT Classics.”

You can read this address in its entirety in Appendix B of The Art of Christian Advocacy

The Humble Skeptic

Faith Founded on Facts (Part 1)

Discussion about this post