Part 3: Apologetics Crash Course

In this session I used a power point to present all of the content I covered. Below you will find what I had in my power point, but unfortunately it will exclude most of the additional verbal information I shared during the actual session. This is one of those "you need to have been there" sessions to get everything out of it.

Apologetics Crash Course

What is this? Defining Terms

• Apologetics– A reasoned defense of the truth & presenting grounds for Christian hope.
• Apologia – [Greek], meaning defense or vindication.
• 1 Peter 3:15, Philippians 1:7, 15-16

• crash course – noun; a brief, intensive course of instruction as to prepare one quickly for a test.
• I have 1 hour and 30 minutes to teach you something significant about a broad topic that some spend a lifetime studying…
• I hope this will encourage you, challenge you, and motivate you to learn more in the future.

What all does Apologetics entail?

If you are a Christian who is obedient in reading your Bible daily, you are already learning an apologetic from God Himself, he didn’t have to reveal Himself to us, walk among us, die for us, and show Himself after He was raised from the dead, but He did!

There are many forms of Apologetics…

Arguably, Theological Apologetics (aka Discernment Apologetics) is the most vital for a Christian “young” in the faith, but it is also the most unpopular because of all the cults and confusion in the Church at large today!

Evidential & Presuppositional Apologetics are the most popular and are slowly gaining a large audience in the 21st century among Christian groups. There are arguably more Apologists today than there have ever been in history, thanks to our advances in science and research.

Why Bother? 

#1 – We are commanded to defend the faith! Remember the verse: 1 Peter 3:15

#2 – Apologetics helps you know your faith. It helps you define & defend what the truth is!

#3 – Apologetics is an attempt to keep people out of hell! We should not sit idly by…

#4 – We need apologetics to counter the bad image that Christianity has received in the culture…

#5 – We need apologetics because there is a constant threat of apostasy…

#6 – Because of the false teachings of the “Christian-like” cults, and others…

#7 – The rise of immorality in America is a threat not only to society but to Christians; we cannot ignore God’s word without consequence!

#8 – Schools & Colleges are NOT friendly to Christianity, even most “Christian” Schools today!

The educational institutions today are filled with teachers who HATE Christianity…

In reaction to this slide I showed a short clip of a video of Frank Turek speaking to a group - we started at 2 minutes and 20 seconds and went until around 7 minutes. Feel free to watch what we watched or view all of it at this link: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=416121223272

Evidential Apologetics

(We visited all links & watched all videos below)

Displaying that Transcendent Truth Exists

• Rules of Logic, The Law of Non-Contradiction, & the Roadrunner Tactic/Suicide Tactic/Boomerang Tactic

Displaying that a Transcendent Mind Exists

• The Transcendental Argument

Displaying God’s Existence in Science & Creation

• The Kalam Cosmological Argument (in brief)

• The Teleological Argument (in brief)

Displaying God’s Necessity for Ethics/Morality

• The Moral Argument (more on this in the homework)

Displaying the Reliability of the God’s Word

• Archeological & Historical Accuracy (“Is The Bible Reliable?” – TrueU)
• Biblical Manuscripts: the Number of, Consistency of, the Copying of, the Earliest Dated, etc.

Displaying the Reliability of The New Testament

• Early Testimony, Eyewitness Testimony, Embarrassing Testimony, Excruciating Testimony, Expected Testimony, Extra-Biblical Testimony, Enemy Testimony (Using the Books of the Bible plus History)
• Frank Turek’s “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist” Book & Course go over all this in detail – we will cover this next fall.

Theological & Discernment Apologetics

Study of the Cults & World Religions

• Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Roman Catholic, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. 
• Ambassador Apologetics, Sat. @9AM)

Study of Essentials, Exegesis & Biblical Theology

• Hermeneutics (we touched on this…)
• Systematic Theology: Soteriology, Pneumatology, Christology, Eschatology, Ecclesiology, Incarnational Theology, Patriology, etc…
• Study of famous Heresies: Pelagianism, Gnosticism, etc.

Presuppositional Apologetics

• The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. - Romans 1:18-20 
• “How To Answer The Fool” by Sye TenBruggencate

Audio Homework was given out via 2 CD's for everyone to listen to on their own time. This will be the kind of homework I will give out (super easy), but when we begin Tactics, the course itself will have more challenging homework!

Always remember....