Apologetics Notes

Session 1: An introduction to Apologetics

Apologetics comes from the Greek word, apologia, meaning defense. Apologetics is the spiritual discipline that provides reasons for belief. Apologetics seeks to prove that Christianity is not only rooted in history and evidence, but is also consistent to and corresponds with reality. It also seeks to answer objections such as: “how could a good God send someone to hell? Is Jesus really the only way? Why has the church been so hypocritical and brutal?” Before showing you how apologetics is a valuable, necessary discipline, here are ten reasons why some Christians think apologetics is unnecessary and unbiblical. Listen carefully and ask yourself you would respond to such objections.

Arguments against Apologetics:

  1. The Bible does not need to be defended. It’s living and powerful, like a lion – you only need to let it loose. The Bible claims to be the word of God, but so do the Koran and the Book of Mormon. How do we know which is truth? When all we offer are subjective reasons like “I just believe it,” or as the Mormons say, “read it and see how you feel,” we dishonor God, because the Bible is a book that is set apart. The Bible tells us to test all things – which includes the Bible itself. Because God’s Word is the real deal, we have nothing to fear by subjecting the Bible to the same tests any book is subjected to.
  2. God can’t be known by human reason. “The world by wisdom knew not God “ 1 Cor. 1:21Paul is not talking about God’s existence or the historical reality of Jesus’ resurrection. Paul says that God’s attributes are clearly seen by the things he has made. He is saying that God’s plan of salvation can’t be known by human wisdom and is foolish by our standards.
  3. Paul did not want to use persuasive words of human wisdom. “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” I Cor. 2:4-5 This sounds like an irrefutable argument against doing apologetics until you realize what apologetics does: demonstrates that our faith is founded on the power of God and not in human wisdom. Apart from the reasons and evidence that we are instructed to give, and apart from demonstrating that our message has the authority of God, our evangelism will be nothing more than mere opinion. Our message will rest on the faulty wisdom of men rather than the power of God.
  4. Natural humanity cannot understand: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that from the Spirit of God.” 1 Cor 2:14. Man is blind apart from the work of the spirit, so trying to reason with him is a waste of time. Man’s mind is blinded by his will, and apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, our message will not get through. But the Holy Spirit is seeking men and opening their eyes. It is not for us to judge who is still blind. Our only job is to obey the Scriptural commands to give compelling reasons for belief and tear down proud arguments against God.
  5. Faith is important to God. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Heb. 11:6 We walk by faith, not by sight. Asking for reasons instead of “just believing” displeases God. Faith is only as strong as the object in which it is placed. Biblical faith is trust founded on evidence. We’re instructed to “test all things,” and warned against believing every spirit. God invites – and commands – us to be careful where we put our faith. Walking by faith and not by sight refers to our relationship with God. By sight we can see that God exists, that He created this world, and that He became a man and rose from the dead. But once we see the firmness of the foundation, we enter a relationship of trust where we must walk by faith. For example, if you were to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, you would make sure that the airplane and pilot were trustworthy. So you might examine the plane or at least the track record of the pilot. If they pass the test, you now exercise true faith by boarding the plane. Now you have to walk by faith, not by sight and trust the pilot when you go through turbulent weather. There is so much of God and his plan that we can’t comprehend; that is why we must walk by faith, and learn to trust.
  6. Do not answer a fool according to his folly. Atheism is the greatest folly. Yes, but the next verse says to “answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes.” As Christians, our job is to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” We need to show an atheist that he doesn’t have the foundation for morality or even logic. God wants to humble the proud atheist with the force of His truth.
  7. Apologetics is not used in the Bible. If apologetics is biblical, why don’t we see it done in the Bible? Actually, apologetics is used in the Bible. Moses used evidence to convince the Israelites that he was sent by God. Even Jesus used signs to prove his claim of God-hood. Paul reasoned daily in the synagogue practicing apologetics. In fact, one of his great apologetic discourses is in Acts 18.
  8. Reason is useless in religious matters. God is rational, and He created us to be rational creatures. He would not tell us to abandon the gift he gave us. In fact, He asks us to reason with him. Søren Kierkegaard developed the idea of fideism, which says we need to bypass reason and take a leap of faith. Fideism is self-refuting: Either there is a reason we should not reason about God or there is not. If there is a reason, then fideism contradicts itself by using reason. If it doesn’t have a reason why we should not use reason, then there is no reason to accept fideism. (still with me?)
  9. You can’t prove God by reason. But you can prove that believing in a God is far more reasonable than rejecting His existence. I will get into this more on the session on God’s existence.
  10. No one is converted through apologetics. If you mean “converted apart from the Holy Spirit,” then you’re right: No one is converted through apologetics alone. Only the Holy Spirit can change a will. But the Holy Spirit has used apologetics to bring people to Himself. C.S. Lewis and many others were compelled by the evidence.

Biblical Support for Apologetics:

1 Peter 3:15, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”

2 Cor 10:4-5, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

Phil. 1:17, “But the latter [preach Christ] out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.”

Jude 3, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Titus 1:9, “ holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.”

2 Timothy 2:24-25, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth.”

Isaiah 1:18, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’”

Matt 22:37, “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

1 Thess 5: 21, “Test all things; hold fast what is good.”

2 Cor.5:20, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

How Do We Know Christianity is True?

1 John 4:13, “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”

Rom.8:16, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

The Bible is clear: We know that Christianity is true primarily because of the witness of the Holy Spirit. A new believer may not know one single apologetic argument and still believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation. Because this is reality (Jesus is the only way), that person is justified in their belief because of the Holy Spirit. It is vital that we Christians remain dependent on the Holy Spirit and not our own reason. However, the Holy Spirit uses reason and evidence to strengthen our faith. He asks us to be discerning. Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, He will use evidence and reason to separate His message from that of false prophets.

So a believer will be converted by the power of the Holy Spirit apart from the evidence. But then as the believer grows, the Holy Spirit directs him to strengthen his faith by testing it in light of the available evidence.

We look at the evidence not just for out own benefit but for the purpose of reaching the lost. This brings us to the importance of apologetics. The Holy Spirit asks us to use evidence and reason for God’s glory to demonstrate that Christianity is the truth – it is the correct view of the world. All the while, the Holy Spirit is working behind the scenes opening the hearts and minds of skeptics.

The Value of Apologetics:

  1. It translates the gospel into a language the unbeliever can understand.
  2. It removes doubts and smoke screens that prevent people from coming to Christ.
  3. It shows that the Christian message is rooted in reality and is not just private belief.
  4. It enables us to convince people of their fatal disease so they will better understand their need for the cure.

Faith and Reason – Is there a conflict?

Faith is belief or trust that covers a gap in our knowledge. There is very little in life that we can know on strict first hand experience. Even our experience has an element of faith – we have to trust in our senses, or trust that we aren’t being deceived. The question is not whether faith is valid, but where will we place our faith.

Reason is our God given faculty by which we test the information we receive. Reason is what sets us apart from the animals and is part of the fact that we are made in God’s image. God is rational. Jesus is the Logos or Logic. God wants to reason with us. Reason is unavoidable. The issue is not whether we should use reason, but that we should use it well and be mindful of its limitations.

We need to keep a balanced perspective on both faith and reason. God is the Author of both, so both faith and reason need to have God as their starting point, and both need to be humble and deeply aware of their fallibility.

Faith needs to remember that it can be wrong, and that what is important is not the tenacity of its clinging to what it believes, but that it is clinging to what is true! Faith will recognize the need for reason to make sure that faith is clinging to the truth and not the lie. Faith needs to desperately rely on God to lead it to truth.

Reason needs to always remember how little we know. We know less than one percent of all knowledge, so it is ignorant to think that we can attain all truth by reason alone. Reason will always need faith. Reason needs to be aware of the spiritual element of life, and be constantly on guard against deception.

We can’t attain comprehensive knowledge of God or his ways by reason alone, but by reason we can demonstrate that a prophet, or religion, or worldview is false. Reason can test an authority to see if the authority is valid, but once that is proved, then faith takes over. For example, by reason we can see discover and prove that there is a God, that Jesus is God incarnate, and that the Bible is God’s word. But then we need to trust and believe what God has revealed to us about the trinity, or salvation, or hell. Reason’s job is to bring us to the place where we realize that reason has a limit.

Why should we believe anything at all?

What are some reason people believe things. Friends, culture, parents, television, a holy book, a pastor, or guru? The only reason we should believe anything is if it is true. If a belief does not line up with reality, then it is not worthy to be believed. Truth exists, it can’t be denied. As Christians we should be leading the charge in being truth seekers because of our desire to know God as he really is. We are so easily deceived; we should always be questioning and seeking the truth about life, and never being content to just believe the first report.

World view and Puzzle box tops.

Each religion and world view claims to have the box top to the puzzle pieces of life. The question is which box tops most closely resembles the pieces of life that we see. If you see a box top that is only a picture of a ship and a blue ocean, but then you look inside and see red and orange pieces and pieces that look like a mountains and people, then you would know instantly that you have the wrong box top. You can not make sense of the puzzle of life until you have the right box top. I believe that the Christian world view provides the best box top available and it does make sense of life.

Here is an example of apologetics. This shows how you can reason with a non-believer from the ground up to show that our Faith does correspond with reality. Our God is truly the God of the universe, not the God of private belief. This is a twelve step argument for Christianity.

  1. Truth is knowable
  2. The opposite of true is false
  3. It is true that the theistic God exists.
  4. If God exists then miracles are possible. As evidenced by:

a. The beginning of the universe (The cosmological argument)

b. The design in the universe and life. (Teleological argument)

c. The Moral Law (Moral argument)

  1. Miracles can be used by God to confirm a message from God.
  2. The New Testament is historically reliable. This is evidenced by:
  3. Early testimony
  4. Eye witness testimony
  5. Uninvented (authentic) testimony
  6. Eyewitnesses who were not deceived.
  7. The New Testament says Jesus claimed to be God.
  8. Jesus’ claim to deity was confirmed by:
  9. His fulfillment of many prophesies.
  10. His sinless life and miraculous deeds.
  11. His prediction and accomplishment of the resurrection.
  12. Therefore Jesus is God.
  13. Whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true.
  14. Jesus taught that the Bible is the word of God.
  15. Therefore it is true that the Bible is God’s word and anything opposed to it is false.

What apologetics has done for me.

Some one has said that the heart can not rejoice in what the mind knows is not true. Christianity is good news for man kind, the question is, is it true. I have spent years studying the foundation of Christianity and I have seen time and time again that it is true. It is so exciting to realize that at the heart of reality is a good and loving God, who loved us so much that he has provided a way for us to be reconciled to him and has an exciting future to all who will embrace him.

The Way We Discover Truth: Logic and Certainty

A valid vs. a truthful argument: Deductive logic has high degree of certainly because it can tell us if an argument is valid, but it can’t tell us if the argument is truthful. A valid argument would be: a) Socrates is a man, b) all men can fly, c) therefore, Socrates can fly. An argument is only as strong as its premises.

Inductive logic vs. complete certainty: To determine the truth of the premises, we use inductive logic, which is how we instinctively draw general conclusions from what we observe. For example, we are very certain that if you drop a ball it will fall, though we have no mathematical certainty it will fall. Just because it always has fallen in the past doesn’t mean it always will. But it is far more reasonable to believe it will fall than that it won’t. Because we are so limited in our knowledge, we can rarely have 100 % certainty of our premises. I’m talking about true certainty, not just tenacious belief: There is a difference between being convinced of something and being able to prove something with 100 % certainty.