Introduction to Apologetics

Purpose

Express the importance of apologetics in the lives of an everyday Christian. Apologetics is not an elite, exclusive topic for a select few, but a useful, intellectual discussion for all Christians to consider. This documents discusses the concept of apologetics.

Note: This document was used as  a guide for CCF Friday Night program on Nov 19, 2010. Not everything was covered in depth as we understand the academic heaviness and time limit. The notes are compiled for the purpose of people who are interested in digging more.

Disclaimer

Think about things on your own, question everything. The people who prepared this document are students too, and not people trained in seminary.

What is apologetics?

Apologetics comes from the Greek apologia meaning “speaking in defence”. Apologetics is the process of defending one’s faith through systematic reasoning. It is mentioned in the Bible by Paul (Acts 22:1, Acts 26:2, 1 Cor. 9:3, Phil. 1:7 - “my defense”). It is ultimately arguments to convince someone to change their views to your belief system.

The verses that best captures the essence of apologetics:

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer (apologia) to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” - 1 Peter 3:15-16

As Christ’s ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20), we are to always be prepared to give an answer to the people who asks us about our faith. But it is important to not forget the rest of the passage which many people miss. We are to give an answer (or make a defense) with gentleness and respect. Though we are to demolish arguments that are against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5), our main goal is not destroy other people’s arguments nor prove that they are wrong. But we are to convince them about the truth that is found in the gospel, the good news, and that as ambassadors we are carriers of this good news and we are vessels of God’s love on earth. It is not just about talk, nor just about actions, but about both.Our message should convey the intent of the gospel, which is that God loves us and chooses to save us by sacrificing His Son on the cross for our sins. With the congruency of our words and character, we hope that God can use this to bring people to believe in Christ. In all, revere Christ as Lord!

There are many approaches and methods in apologetics, and it can be categorized into:

• Classical - logical reasoning:

• Moral: the universal moral law
• God’s existence: Big Bang and First cause, intelligent design

• Evidential - evidence that supports the truth:

• Historical/Archaeological: Validity of the Bible, Jesus as a historical figure
• Fulfillment of Jewish prophecies in Jesus

• Presuppositional - disarming people’s belief system, changing people’s presuppositions to conform to biblical revelation

• Absolute truth vs Relativism (post-modernism)

Although many of these topics touches on the fields of archeology, history, science and philosophy, a major type of apologetics that everyone should be quick to employ is Experiential Apologetics. The person examines him/herself and assess whether he/she is a better person as a Christian. This is significant as everyone has a different testimony, and we are all given different stories for different purposes.

There is not a method of apologetics that works in all situations, and it is something personal. God has given you unique experiences, challenges, gifts, situations that will prepare you to share the gospel to certain people. Apologetics is not a set of procedures to follow but an art of persuasion. Still, there are some important guidelines to follow:

• Pray - be soaked in prayer to acknowledge that we need to reply on God (2 Cor. 3:4-5) and that we need to check our pride and seek humility.
• Scripture - saturate your mind and hearts with the Word of God, you need to your stuff to defend your faith.
• Listen - don’t bombard people with your arguments, but be respectful and listen.
• Heart over duty - sharing our faith is not a checklist, but an action compelled by God’s love (2 Cor. 5:14).
• Courage - Be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:9). Do it.
• Continue learning - God can use you powerfully (2 Peter 3:18)

Why do we need to learn and do apologetics?

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, But do this with gentleness and respect.” - 1 Peter 3.15

We learn apologetics to do two things: to defend our faith against our worst enemy (our own self-doubt), as well as providing good reasoning against non-Christians.

An article by Christian apologist William Lane Craig (“In Intellectual Neutral”) describes the importance of apologetics nicely. He describes the erosion of truth and facts in our modern day because people assume that these details are insignificant and boring. He cited surveys in the States that stated that students did not know when...

• Franklin Roosevelt was president (World War 2)
• what the Special Theory of Relativity (A theory of Einstein)
• what “Manifest Destiny” referred to (The 19th century American dream to spread westward).

A similar survey asking about Christian history and doctrine was similarly bombed, as people could not identify the...

• Council of Nicaea (An early Christian council that confirmed many theological concepts in the face of cults)
• who Augustine was (early church father, apologist)
• Martin Luther (Reformation movement)

To not know one’s own history and beliefs implies that they do not know what they believe in at all. Charles Malik (Lebanese ambassador) said this about the Christian faith:

• The two tasks of evangelism is to save the soul (convert spiritually) and to save the mind (convert intellectually), and the church is lagging in the second category
• Our churches are filled with people who are spiritually born again, but still think like non-Christians
• People are very focused on earning money, serving the church or preaching the gospel, but don’t focus on sharpening their ability to think and to develop in areas of creative thinking
• People must recognize the value in studying philosophy. Malik assesses that it will take the church at least a century to catch up with the universities, which are in a strategic position to shape Western thought and culture. The modern church is not.

• Our trained professionals will absorb modern culture at the universities.
• Important? Of course. The gospel is never heard in isolation, but in the cultural background of our lives
• In the modern day, is Christianity still seen as a intellectually viable option? For the secular, does Jesus Christ seem as silly as fairies and leprechauns?

• Evangelical scholars are often seen in evangelical circles, but almost unheard of in the secular realm. Hiding away to teach to the evangelicals are easy, but leaves little impact to the world at large, allowing the intellectual drift of the outside culture to slide into secularism
• “We desperately need Christian scholars who can compete with non-Christian thinkers in their fields of expertise on their own terms of scholarship”

Examples of the use of apologetics in university setting:

1. Many students are influenced by today’s predominant worldviews:

1. There are many ways to heaven
2. What works for you works for you, what works for me works for me
3. Every religion is good because each has part of the truth
4. Science can’t explain God
5. God doesn’t exist because there is evil and suffering

2. There are mormon missionaries very active talking to people on campus. It is very easy for one of us to encounter them (I know a good number of CCFers who talked to them), and we have either the choice of avoiding them or sharing to the true gospel to them.
3. There is a strong presence of Islam on campus with their strong promoting events on campus.  As Christians, how can we defend our faith if we were to talk to them?

Other reasons for apologetics, that are more general:

• Following Jesus’ example
• Be aware of false prophets
• Self-edification

On secular view of Christianity

“Don’t be deceived into thinking that people in our culture are no longer interested in the evidence for Christianity.  Precisely the opposite is true.  It is vitally important that we preserve a culture in which the Gospel is heard as a living option for thinking people, and apologetics will be front and center in helping to bring about that result.”

- William Craig

On emotion-driven Christianity

“Emotions will carry you only so far, and then you’re going to need something more substantive.  Apologetics provides some of that substance.  As I speak in churches around the country, I frequently meet parents who approach me after the service and say something like, ‘If only you’d been here two or three years ago!  Our son (or our daughter) had questions about the faith which no one in the church could answer, and now he’s lost his faith and is far from the Lord.’”

- William Craig

Discussion questions

1. Do you think every Christian should be learn about apologetics? Why or why not?
2. What are the predominant beliefs of your friends and of the people you encounter on campus?
3. Share a personal experience when you had to defend your faith.

Post-modernism: Is there absolute truth?

Post-modernism is the rejection of objective truth. In context, it is the rejection of the absoluteness of Biblical truth and authority. It is the belief that no one religion has the whole truth; rather, each religion has a piece of the truth, and no one has the whole truth.

Why is post-modernism important to discuss? When we start moving away from Biblical authority, we allow many concept to be questioned.

• Abortion: Christians consider this as murder. But to murder someone, he/she must be alive. Post-modernists question at which point the baby is alive
• Divorce: Bible states that the only grounds for divorce is sexual infidelity. But the most popular cause of divorce is cased by “irreconcilable differences.” That means they couldn’t get together. A marriage is the union of two sinners. Of course it would not be easy. But post-modernists don’t accept the Biblical stance that divorce is discouraged
• Homosexuality: The Bible states that marriage is between one man and one woman. But the traditional definition of marriage is under fire, as it was deemed “unconstitutional”. In Canada, marriage has been redefined to mean an union between two people, thus allowing for homosexual unions to be called “marriage.” This, however, opens the door to other challenges to the definition of marriage. Polygamist groups exist in BC, and has been there for many years, even though they are technically illegal in Canada. If we’ve changed the definition of marriage once, it’s only a matter of time before “marriage” expanded to include more and more things. What about adults marrying children? In fact, a woman in Taiwan recently married herself. Actually, why even get married? Many couples now live together and have children and have never gotten formally married.
• Feminism: The Bible states that men and women have their respective roles. It notes that both men and women deserves respect and one gender is not better than another. Feminist claims that men and women deserves equal opportunity and should both be able to do the same things. However, men wearing female clothing is still looked down upon. No one complains that there are very few women miners or taxi drivers. The largest issue yet is that women still expects men to be chivalrous, yet demand equality. Isn’t that just favourism?

Watch: Tim Keller, Desiring God 2006 Conference: Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel

Elephant Analogy, time: 52.02 - 55.10

• Several blind men encounters an elephant and attempts to describe what it looks like. One holds onto the leg and says it’s round. Another touches the side and says it’s flat. They are all right...but wrong, at the same time, because they are incapable of grasping the whole elephant. However, in order to say that they are all wrong, one must be able to see the elephant. So for the relativist to say that there is no such thing as truth, they must have access to that whole truth (i.e. see the whole elephant) that they are claiming that cannot be achieved.

“In my opinion this sort of thinking could not be more mistaken. The idea that we live in a post-modern culture is a myth. In fact a post-modern culture is an impossibility; it would be utterly unlivable.  Nobody is a post-modernist when it comes to reading the labels on a medicine bottle versus a box of rat poison! You better believe that texts have objective meaning! People are not relativistic when it comes to matters of science, engineering, and technology; rather they are relativistic and pluralistic in matters of religion and ethics. “

- William Craig

Historical: Is the bible reliable (+ prophecy fulfilment)?

“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”

- Luke 1.1-4

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.”

- 1 John 1.1-4

We have a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report to us supernatural events, which took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim to be divine rather than human in origin.

- Voddie Baucham

Luke and John both states that the Scriptures were designed to present historical facts. When most people talk about proving the Bible, they are asking for scientific proof. But you cannot prove a document that claims to be historical with science. You prove it with evidence. Often, people have this double-standard when it comes to the Bible, when compared against other historical documents.

Archaeological facts regarding the Bible

• The Protestant Bible has 66 books, written by a number of author in 3 languages (Greek, Hebrew, Arabic) over 1500 years. Most other holy books are written by a single person
• 2300 archaeological digs has occurred, in relationship to historical events of the Bible. No historical event has been proven false so far. As in, not all events has been proven, but none has been proven false
• There are over 6000 manuscripts of the NT in existence today. This is far more than the 10 copies of Homer’s Iliad. Translations have been made from these original manuscripts and not made from other translations. We are certain of 99% of the NT’s content.
• The NT would’ve been assembled, latest, by 95 AD. The earliest copy we have dates back to 120 AD, 25 years after the original. Homer’s Iliad, the earliest copy we have dates 2100 years after the original

• This short time period would have prevented embellishing of Biblical accounts, especially since eyewitnesses were still alive when these stories were circulating
• And we know that eyewitnesses were consulted. In Acts 16, Luke’s narrative goes from “they” to “we”. Luke also mentions many characters and stories that the other Gospels don’t, implying first-hand details

• The integrity of the Bible was confirmed by the early church fathers. In particular, by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD
• Other, non-Christians historians wrote about Jesus as well

Logical flaws in the Bible?

• What are people saying when they say the Bible is wrong? Not very clear
• The Bible is not necessarily written in chronological order. Typical orally transmitted tradition (like that of the Jew) tend to focus on the central idea, but the surrounding details are not as important and seen as incidental. It is critical to understand the writing style of the various people in the Bible. You wouldn't say Shakespeare was a poor writer simply because he used grammar, writing style and figures of speech that are uncommon to modern society

Relations to the Old Testament

• The OT is a collection of books that Christians have in common with the Jews, meaning that it’s integrity is maintained by a group that is not interested in the Christians
• Jesus fulfills 48+ prophecies made in the OT regarding him

People evidence

• Joseph of Arimathea is not likely to be a fake person, since he is a member of the Sanhedrin, and the Sanhedrin would not have tolerated a lie of this magnitude, especially since Joseph gave Jesus a proper burial instead of allowing them to be treated like a criminal. No other competing burial story exists.

• A majority of the early Church leadership risked much to proclaim Christ

• Christ was not accepted as the Messiah in the Jewish Sanhedrin. This meant that following Christ lead to being shunned (and persecuted) by your Jewish neighbours
• Later on, when the Romans stopped recognizing Christianity as a Jewish sect, Christians were open to be persecuted by the Roman Empire, especially under the rule of Emperor Nero (54 - 68 AD). Many Christian leaders died in this time period

Is there a God?

Arguments for non-existence of God:

• Evil and suffering show that God does not exist (an all-good God would choose to remove all pointless evil and suffering; an all-powerful God would be able to do so; evil exists; therefore the all-good, all-powerful God of the Bible does not exist)

• Counter-argument: How do we know that suffering is pointless? We cannot imagine a good reason for some suffering, but that does not mean there is not a reason. A God who is big enough for us to be mad at for not stopping suffering and evil would also be big enough to have reasons for the suffering that we cannot understand.

• If there is a God, how can his believers have done so much evil? If a good God exists, then those who claim to follow him wouldn't be so evil. Christianity has produced the Crusades.

• Counter-argument: This argument doesn't disprove or prove anything. Violence is grown in all worldviews. Yes, out of Christianity grew the Crusades and anti-abortion bombers, and out of Islam came global terrorism, and so on. But out of atheism grew Stalin and the Khmer Rouge and others. There is something in the human heart that is so prone to violence that it can twist any worldview, or belief about God into a warrant for violence.

• There is no proof that God exists

• Counter-argument: In order to state there is no proof for God's existence, the atheist would have to know all alleged proofs that exist in order to then state that there is no proof for God's existence.  But, since he cannot know all things, he cannot logically state there is no proof for God's existence. At best, an atheist can only state that of all the alleged proofs he has seen thus far, none have worked.  
• He could say he believes there are no proofs for God's existence.  But then, this means there is the possibility that there is a proof or proofs out there, and that he simply has not encountered one.

Arguments for existence of God:

• Moral compass

• Where does the source of morality come from?
• It is from natural selection?

• Natural selection is about survival of the fittest, and not about doing what is morally correct.

• It is from the society and culture?

• Many cultures and religions have very similar moral law.
• It’s true that society, culture, and parents teach us good moral conduct, but there is an intrinsic sense (awareness) of what is good and bad.

• If we can compare between two things what is morally better, then there is standard. Where does this standard come from?

• How can we say that a culture tradition is morally better than others  if there is not a standard. Once again, we seem to be aware that there is a standard of what is morally good and bad.
• As Christians, we believe that human are created in the image of God, and therefore we bear this moral conscience.

• Fine tuning of the universe (intelligent design)

• There are many physical constants and regularities in the earth (% of oxygen in the air, presence of water, gravity, atomic forces) that make it perfect to sustain organic life. The odds against these constants and regularities happening by chance are very very very small.
• This doesn’t necessary prove that a God creator exists, but it is a strong evidence. The Big Bang theory could be possible to explain this, but the idea of a God creator is much possible.

• Cause and effect

• God is the first cause in the origin of the universe.
• It is shown that there is entropy in the universe (Thermodynamics) and that this increases over time. Therefore, there is an origin (a time zero). Therefore, there must be a first cause.

Is Jesus the only way? What are the good news?

Pretty much everyone agrees that Jesus existed, but the dilemma centers whether Jesus is truly God or a good teacher. From all religions, Jesus is the only person who boldly claimed that He is God, and that He is the only way to salvation:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” - John 14:6

It is inconceivable that someone who made such claim can be a good teacher. He is either super crazy or He is the real deal.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

– C.S. Lewis (author of Mere Christianity)

There are many evidences of the places Jesus visited, certainty of His death on the cross, reliability in the eyewitness accounts about His Resurrection, prophecies written in the Old Testament that He fulfilled... With all these facts, it still takes faith to believe in Jesus. After all, Christians are saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), and no one can please God without faith (Hebrews 11).

Post-modernism criticizes Christianity for exclusivity. Many people nowadays believe that there are many ways to salvation. But they are also exclusive, as they are excluding the Christian belief. In the end, every religion is exclusive. But at the core of the Christian faith, there is a God who sacrifice Himself for His enemies, a God who offers saves people by grace, a God pursues people to establish a relationship, a God who dwells among us and showed us how to love. A God that teaches us that our actions are not prompted by fear nor stress for doing good works, but that we are compelled by His love to obey Him (2 Cor. 5:14). Among all exclusive religions, Christianity is one that can lead to love and peace in our world.

Trusting in the reliability of the Bible, I know I am not good enough and that no matter how many good deeds I perform, there is a natural tendency inside me to not obey the law of Morality. And looking at today’s society, I see so much brokenness and immorality. I wonder what is the purpose of us here. What is the original intent of the God of the Bible to create humans? And why we have chosen to disobey Him? Because of this disobedience and the impossibility to uphold the law of Morality, I should be condemned and destined to wrath. But out God’s immeasurable riches of love and mercy, Jesus came to earth to live the perfect life that I cannot live, and Jesus received the punishment and wrath that I deserve, and resurrected so that in Jesus we can be reconciled with God and live eternally with Him. All because of Jesus, who died for my sins on the cross so that the justice of God can be satisfied. This is the gospel, so illogical, but yet so lovely and captivating that I cannot help but worship and bow down to Jesus, my Lord and Saviour.

"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.“

- Romans 3:21-24

Final Words

Remember, it’s all about Jesus. Apologetics exists with the end to convince others about Jesus, not about logically disarm other people’s beliefs and take pride in knowing more. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that people are saved, so our job is to love and proclaim the good news to others as labourers, but God is who bring people to Him. He is graciously using us to proclaim His message.

If you are interested in digging more, we personally recommend you to watch Tim Keller’s sermon on The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in a Postmodern World.

Reference

• http://carm.org/introduction-apologetics
• Tim Keller, The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in a Postmodern World on 2006 Desiring God National Conference
• http://www.corningmennonite.org/tools/keller.html
• C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.