Introduction: Apologetics – The What and Why

What and Why Apologetics/Culture Shifts 

Overview of Course: 

1. This is Apologetics. Define.
2. Overview of the course – week-by-week.
3. Overview of major assignments and prep time the week before.
4. Overview of my expectations of students; their expectations of me.

Overview of Textbooks: 

1. Overview of the text books – Bible, Ravi Zacharias (Jesus Among Secular Gods), Gregg Koukl (Tactics), Atallah and Van Til (From Cairo to Christ).

Apologetics – Defining:  What it is not/What it is.

1. Define Polemics – Arguing theological points within the body. A theological branch that studies theological dispute. But, as a style of argument, more adversarial, it can be  used in Apologetics. Of or for war is origin.
2. Define Witness – Giving knowledge of or personal testimony to something’s validity.
3. Define Evangelism – Giving the kyrygma and inviting another to faith.
4. Simple Definition. Definition from Zacharias. Definition from Koukl. Definition from CC. Working Definition for the Course.
   1. Apologetics, in its simplest form is speaking out. Apo=Out; Logia=Speaking. Defined in Biblical and extra-biblical Greek texts as a Defense.
   2. Zacharias – apologetics is about a natural realization of the answers we can provide to people’s questions and concerns, answers that arise from a deep and passionate immersion in the realities of our faith. It is a willingness to work with God in helping people discover and turn to his glory. (RZIM.org)
      1. He invites students to read the narratives of Scripture with Apologist ears. (i.e. when Simon and Andrew followed Jesus, what questions were they asking, and why did the appeal of an itinerant rabbi persuade them to put their jobs, lives, families, and questions on hold.)
   3. Koukl – Apologists by nature often “defend the faith, defeat false ideas, destroy speculations raised up against the knowledge of God.” But today, in a postmodern culture, the Apologist is “an Ambassador” who chooses conversation over confrontation – more “diplomacy than D-Day” and “a more excellent way.”
   4. Our course working definitions:
      1. Apologetics (the short answer) – answering the faith questions of the lost from the position of intimacy with Jesus, affinity with the Scripture, and compassion for the seeker.
      2. Apologetics (the long answer) – learning practical, biblical, and logical ways to answer the questions that the religiously deceived, the philosophically confused, and the self-indulgent lost face about issues of faith and eternity (including God, Jesus, the work of the Spirit, salvation, heaven & hell, sin, evil, the Bible, and spiritual truth.)
      3. Apologia – defending Biblical truth in relation to faith questions the lost have.
      4. Apologist – one who uses apologetics as an element of evangelism to support his or her witness to the grace, truth, forgiveness, salvation, and eternal hope found in Jesus.

Apologetics – Examples of Modern Day Apologetics:

• Hyde Park – Dr. Jay Smith and 25 years at Speaker’s Corner.
• Khalid Yasin – as a young man who bounced around seven Christian foster homes, he embraced Islam at 19 (he says converted.) He is a Muslim apologist (he had declared Sharia law should be worldwide, homosexuals should be murdered, women’s rights and equality is a farce, the Twin Towers came down because of internally set explosives like demolitionists use, and is also convinced that Christian missionaries conspired with Western nations to inoculated Africans against other diseases , but the vaccines included HIV in order to control African population.
• Ravi Zacharias – an Asian Christ-follower of 55 years, he has been a Christian apologist for 45 and spoken around the globe. His focus is evangelism, apologetics, humanitarian support, spiritual disciplines, and training.
• Greg Koukl began his search with the certainty that he was too smart to become a Christian. He has defended the Christian faith for decades and teaches Apologetics for Biola University.

My Introduction;

I had some great examples, and some not-so-great examples of evangelism, witnessing, and apologetics.  When I was living in Myrtle Beach SC, I hung out with a guy named Ray who could argue with anyone. He was my best friend and I respected him, but more often than not, people left mad more than changed. He was incendiary. They didn’t doubt his commitment, or even his love, but the position was adversarial at best. I went to seminary and spent a lot of time in the inner city. I got to hang out with some very devoted street preachers; again, all to frequently, there was a disconnect. Even here in Italy, witnessing in the piazzas can get a little noisy and confrontational.

My Apologetics exposure for most of my life has been a bit jaded. When I moved back to the Beach from school, I experienced a sort of revival – there was a season of a simple declaration of the Good News and a lot of fruit. We baptized in the ocean at dawn, at twilight, we just didn’t know better. Somehow it seemed to simplify on us. The argumentative tone dialed back, the questions were less in-you-face. The presentation became a conversation.

Apologetics is Biblical. Each week, we will explore either exhortations for Apologetics or examples of Apologetics in action.

Scriptural Foundation of Apologetics:

Some would say that the Bible can’t be presented as evidence for itself. That’s like saying The Voyage of the HMS Beagle doesn’t contribute to what we know about Darwin, or Trump’s tweets are what we know about his presidency. Of course the Bible supports who God is.

OT Examples:

1. Psalmist as Apologist – Psa. 119 And the value of intimacy with truth and the Truth.
   1. I don’t know – not sure God even exists, and if he does, that he can even be known?
      1. Nature of God – Psa. 54-6, Psa. 23, Psa. 92, Psa. 103 
   2. I’ve always thought that Darwin and science disproved all this. How do you know God is behind it all?
      1. God as Creator – Psa. 8, Psa. 33
   3. I’m cool with Jesus. He was a great teacher, right? You mean there’s more?
      1. Jesus as Sacrifice – Psa. 22,
   4. I’ve not been too bad. But you’re right. I’ve got some stuff I carry. What do I do?
      1.  Consequences of Sin – Psa. 37, Psa. 51
2. Questions of Man.
   1. How can I get rid of my guilt? – Psa. 32:5
   2. How can I find happiness? – Psa. 34:1-10
   3. How can there only be one God? – Psa. 72:1, 11, 17
   4. Where did I come from? Psa. 139:13-17
3. Job the Apologist: 9:14, 32,
4. Prophets as Apologists:
   1. 1 Sam. 12:6-7ff
   2. Isa 1:18,  41:21-22, 29

Read Zacharias Chapters 1, 4 for Week Two: Existence and Attributes of God.