JustBelief: Course Overview

Session 1: What Is Christian Apologetics and Why Does It Matter; also, Truth and Worldviews
Why Apologetics? “Because reason demands it and God commands it.”Norm Geisler; Ours is a “cross-examined” faith Frank Turek Our mission is to transform our country with God’s word to produce an environment where Christians can thrive free of persecution. Combining Apologetics with the word of God is the best way I know to accomplish this goal. Paul’s encouragement, (R.C. Sproul’s as well) that we should always be “renewing our minds” (Romans 12:2) supports our apologetics initiative. (An added benefit, I believe, would be to help vanquish the destructive secular humanist worldview being promoted through indoctrination in public schools.)

The word apologetics is derived from the Greek “apologia” – which is a reasoned statement, or argument, as in a court of law. This language should bring to mind the verse from Isaiah 1:18, “Come let us reason together…” A master of apologetics, the Apostle Paul made similar pleas (13x) throughout the New Testament; most notably in Acts 17. William Lane Craig describes Apologetics as the branch of Christian theology that seeks to provide rational justification for the truth claims of Christianity. Objectively investigated and critiqued, Christianity, and the New Testament in particular, can be shown to be verifiably true. As an author, and a master of philosophy and debate, Dr. Craig is truly impressive. He presents evidence and arguments for the existence of God, the Resurrection and deity of Christ in a superior fashion. His reasonablefaith.org website is a wonderful resource for mastering issues in Apologetics. Classic apologist C.S. Lewis is author of Mere Christianity, a series of radio lectures produced in England during WWll, that brilliantly defend and commend the core tenets of the Christian faith. Lewis rightly reminds us, “It is critically important to examine the assumptions within a question.” J.P. Moreland states that “Apologetics is a ministry of helping people by giving reasons to believe in Christianity and responding to objections raised against Christianity.” He stresses that we should love the Lord with all our hearts and minds. (MT 22:37) Apologetics provides compelling evidence based arguments that contain great explanatory power. Because of this power, Christian apologists come extremely well armed to the truth battle for the Christian faith!

Apologists should keep in mind, “People will not care what you know until they know you care.” That is to say that they should perceive some kind of love and respect for their well-being. Ultimately, since apologetics is the handmaiden to evangelism, we are dealing with people’s eternal salvation. (MT 28:19 “the Great Commission”) The Lord Jesus is the best example of apologetic engagement. John 1:14 states, “We beheld His glory…full of grace and truth.” In The Apologetics of Jesus(2009), Norman Geisler shows that Christ consistently applied sound logic and perfect discourse as the ultimate model for defending the Faith. He spent His entire ministry giving a defense of who He was, and why He came. The Apostle Paul, as a Pharisee and brilliant legal expert in the Jewish Law, was uniquely prepared by God to explain and defend the New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ.

Our key verse in Apologetics comes from 1 Peter 3:15 “Be prepared always to give an answer, a reason for the hope that is in you, and do so with humility and respect.” As a handmaiden to Evangelism, God can use Apologetics to remove barriers to belief and pave the way for the “Good News” of promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (In Apologetics, combating unbeliefis paramount!) Consider this quote from Os Guinness, “By its very nature, unbelief in any form is not open to God and His good news, so to those whose hearts are closed, the good news is simply not good news. That of course is where apologetics comes in. It is a form of Pre-evangelism that precedes evangelism, for those who are not open to God and the Gospel. We must never distinguish apologetics and evangelism too neatly. What is urgently needed, in our far more Post-Christian times, is the creative persuasion that is the proper business of apologetics. Only so people will be open to seeing how good the good news of the gospel really is.” (Fool’s Talk)

Note that Apologetics aids in dismantling false ideas in culture that are directly opposed to the truth of the Gospel by challenging assumptions and beliefs. (Meyer’s favorite apologetic verse is found in 2 COR 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”) In addition, Apologetics can help remedy Christianity’s public image problem of anti-intellectualism and fideism. *The perception that Christians don’t know why they believe what they believe, (fideism) “leap of faith,” has led to an extensive falling away in the Christian Church. Church attrition, particularly among college aged students, is a serious and continuing problem in our country. It has adversely impacted our culture. It is well known, and much lamented, that the Church, to include our liberal seminaries, has effectively “abandoned the field” to the forces of secular humanism in America. (Kunkle – “Who Is Waiting for Your Kids?” – Leftist professors!)

Apologists are ambassadors for Christ (2COR 5:20); God makes His reconciling appeal through us where the Holy Spirit is activated in making converts to the Christian Faith. It is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to take the person beyond their new intellectual assent and make them actual Christians. Historically, the mission of the Church has always included the defense and commendation of the Faith (Peter, Paul, Irenaeus, Augustine, Aquinas, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Anselm, Luther, Lewis, Schaeffer, et al.)

While Apologetics plays an integral role fulfilling the Great Commission, we must recognize its limits. The apologetic task does not require the view that reason, argument, and evidence is the sole and final arbiter of truth. Apologetics does not assume that we can argue or reason someone into the kingdom of God. Neither can we evangelize, love, serve, preach (etc.) someone into the kingdom. Apologetics is, however, an important part of the ministry and mission of the Church: to make committed, confident, and impactful disciples of Jesus Christ. It has the added benefit of bolstering evangelistic confidence and zeal.

At this point, we are going to run through the portion of this compressed Apologetics course dealing with Truth and Worldviews. We have determined that Christian Apologetics is a reasonable defense of the Christian faith against objections, and commending it as true on the basis of evidence. Apologists will pursue truth claims using evidence from the areas of Philosophy, History, Science, Scripture, and Mathematics as well, since statistical probability has much to do with belief in Creator God and the deity of Christ. Demonstrated miracles and fulfilled prophecy establish the divinity of Christ; and the truth of the Bible since Jesus believed every word of Scripture. Master apologists Gary Habermas and John Montgomery have produced stellar work demonstrating the divinity of Christ as well. Philosophy and logic are used in apologetics to prove rational and coherent arguments. Logic is the science that evaluates arguments. An argument is a group of statements, including one or more premises. An argument will present only one conclusion. A conclusion is a statement in an argument that indicates of what the arguer is trying to convince the subject. Apologetics offers reasons for accepting the truth of the Christian Faith. As apologists, we seek to produce valid arguments based on sound evidence. Our arguments should provide an inference to the best explanation (W.L. Craig)for any question being addressed.

We are going to lay the groundwork for Norman Geisler’s upcoming discussion of Truth in Christian Apologetics, followed by a brief discussion of worldviews. WHAT IS TRUTH? Truth is the way things are; truth is objective reality. True truth is manifested in the person of Jesus Christ, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6) Consider that truth has always been under attack from the Garden of Eden until this day…”has God really said…” (Gen 3:1), directly from Satan, or through our Satan influenced culture. (Jesus stated three times that Satan is the ruler/prince of this world, or worldly system.) Norman Geisler says that “Truth is simply telling it like it is.” Truth should correspond to reality and match its object. Truth is not an exercise in pragmatism, something that “works for me.” Truth should not be based on emotions, as in whatever makes you feel good, or morally, or intellectually superior. Truth is not limited to something that can be demonstrated empirically or scientifically. (The issue of Scientism is brilliantly addressed by philosophers John Lennox, J.P. Moreland, and Alvin Plantinga.)

The truth of the gospel is never heard in isolation, but always against a backdrop of preexisting ideas in the culture; our Western cultural milieu. There are a lot of books and YouTube videos on the topic of Political Correctness, or what should more properly be called Cultural Marxism (Pastor Voddie Baucham continues to do important work in this area). Since its rise in Bolshevik Russia more than 100 years ago, this form of totalitarianism has produced well over 100 million deaths. Political Correctness is most oppressive on college campuses. Here, speech, and what used to be the free exchange of ideas, is checked by cultural gatekeepers within universities whose Marxist agenda and ideas cannot withstand the rigors of free debate. Our post-Christian unbelieving culture is aggressively winning over our young people with what David Kupelian describes as “The Marketing of Evil.” (IS 5:20) We have become victims of our own apathy. Insidious university indoctrination, where certain speech and ideas are protected while others are held in contempt, has infected not only academia, entertainment and the media, but the corporate business world as well. The detrimental influence of PC Culture can be seen in the censorship of conservative speech by social media giants Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Twitter. Taking a page from Nazi Germany, YouTube is burning books digitally by flagging videos online. These virtual monopolies are creating an Orwellian Hell on earth for citizens in the West who are starved for objective information and unbiased news content. Government elites and establishment bureaucrats (Orwell’s “piggies”) see themselves as the beneficiaries of this relentless media campaign reminiscent of the Maoist Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76). (David Horowitz, David Limbaugh, Mark Steyn, Daniel Horowitz and Ben Shapiro have written capably on these subjects.)

We all have a worldview. Evolutionists, Secular Humanists, New Agers, Islamists et al. all have a worldview. If it makes truth-claims about reality, then it can, and should be evaluated as to whether one has reasons to think those claims match reality, or not. A worldview can be evaluated by asking 1.) whether that worldview explains what it ought to explain, 2.) whether it is internally logically consistent, 3.) whether it is factually adequate, 4.) whether it is existentially viable, or livable. Christianity fares very well on all counts. Christianity ought to be embraced because it is true, not simply because it works, meets needs, or makes one a better person. As a worldview, and body of belief, Christianity provides the best explanation about the way things are. C.S. Lewis believed in the Christian worldview because it allowed him to make sense of the world, and see everything else by it. It was through the lens of Christianity that he was able to see and understand this world and beyond. The Christian Faith makes plausible, convincing claims about reality, and is a comprehensive and coherent answer to the metaphysical and existential dimensions of this life and beyond.

I will conclude by making a few comments regarding the pursuit of truth in scripture. The Bible claims to be the Word of God, is the source of ultimate truth and reality. “Thy Word is Truth” (John 17:17) The Lord claimed to be Truth: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). After establishing Christ’s Deity, we can know the truth of Scripture based on Christ’s pronouncements about the word of God. (“It is written…”) (MT4:4, 5:18, 24:35; Luke 16:17; 21:33) Many Western scholars believe the Bible is the authoritative source for our understanding of truth and the development of our Christian worldview. We could go into much greater detail re: the reliability of the Bible. Peter J. Williams, James White and Michael Kruger are the best academics on this topic. They authoritatively answer questions as to “Whether the Gospels and New Testament can be Trusted?” Bible scholars Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, John Montgomery, Ronald Nash, Doug Groothuis, D.A. Carson, Greg Koukl and Frank Turek also demonstrate the Bible’s authenticity.