- Sept 17, 2006 - Defending the Defense of the Faith
- Introduction
- Review
- What is a worldview?
- "Comprehensive philosophy of life"
- "The whole network of fundamental beliefs about reality, knowledge, and ethics that function as an interpretive grid by which all information and experiences are interpreted."
- Today we're going to talk about the defense of the faith, or apologetics
- Fits hand-in-glove with a study of worldviews, because ultimately one is defending one worldview from another
- Use this class as an introduction to the subject
- as well as defending the practice
- What is the defense of the faith?
- ASK FOR DEFINITIONS
- Defending truth
- Proving correct beliefs
- Refuting error
- Apologetics
- READ 1 Pet 3:17
- Context
- Theme of Peter
- Exhort Christians to a denial of the world so they can better seek the kingdom of God
- Leading up to passage
- Get Christians to understand who they are and the inheritance they have in Christ
- "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you"
- "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people"
- "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation." (1 Pet 2:11-12) THEREFORE
- Submit to lawful authorities
- Be good husbands and wives
- Be good churchmen, kind, courteous
- Suffer for doing right, not for doing wrong
- The Text
- And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. 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; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
- What does this passage imply about apologetics?
- There is an evident hope in the unbeliever
- Is apologetics contentious?
- Does apologetics consist entirely in reasoned argumentation?
- "having a good conscience, that when they defame.."
- The above context
- So, what is Apologetics?
- The discipline that teaches Christians how to give a reason for their hope
- Polemics
- Correcting error in the church
- We're not really concerned with this in our class
- We won't cover calvinism vs arminianism
- We will mainly cover unbelief
- Presuppositional apologetics
- Describe in relation to traditional apologetics
- "Let's step out of our worldviews temporarily and discuss things"
- Try to defend the faith on neutral ground
- Are unbelievers neutral?
- No!
- In fact, they are actively suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18)
- Are believers neutral?
- No! Why would we want to be?
- For the sake of the class, presuppositional apologetics is the defense of the faith, while holding the assumption that we all have presuppositions that we bring with us to any discussion.
- How can we defend the faith?
- Proof
- Presenting rational basis for faith
- John 14:11
- Look at Jesus's works and see that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him
- 1 Cor 15:1-11
- Evidence for the resurrection
- Defense
- Answering objections of unbelief
- Much of Paul's writings
- "What shall we say then, shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"
- "What shall we say then, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid."
- Apologetics
- Offense
- Attacking the foolishness of unbelieving thought
- 1 Cor 1:18-2:16
- For the message of the cross is foolishness..
- Where is the wise?... Has not God made the wisdom of this world foolishness?
- Does the defense need defense?
- "I've never seen anybody come to faith in Christ through apologetics."
- Acts 17:2 - Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
- Paul saw results
- Augustine and CS Lewis
- Is Apologetics all we use?
- No
- Testimony
- Godly life
- Scripture
- All truth is God's truth. We should never think so simplistically that one technique will solve all our problems
- "Without faith it is impossible to please God."
- Either: What good is defending the faith against someone who's dead set against Christianity?
- Or: Restated: "If we try to reason about God, we're violating the requirement to have faith"
- True, but what is faith?
- Let's try some definitions
- "Faith is what credulity becomes when it finally achieves escape velocity from the constraints of terrestrial discourse--constraints like reasonableness, internal coherence, civility, and candor" - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason - Sam Harris
- "Faith, simply put, is that we hold and accept to be true in the absence of evidence."
- SOMEBODY READ Heb 11:1?
- SOMEBODY PARAPHRASE
- Faith is believing something is true that one
has not seen, or that has not yet happened
- Sitting on a chair one has never seen before
- Gravity will still hold an hour from now
- I prefer this more general view of faith
- "Just preach the Word because it will not return void."
- Is 55:11
- The Bible does not contain the word "just"
- All we have to do is emulate Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others
- "What really matters is that you love Jesus and are willing to be used."
- Craig Hazen's theory is that people see some apologists who don't appear to have a love for Jesus so much as a love for apologetics
- So, I will restate as, "Many of the apologetically-minded people I know are jerks."
- There is no excuse for this.
- We are called to love God first and foremost
- Apologetics should flow out of this love, and therefore the "hope that is within us"
- "Presuppositional apologetics involves arguing in circles."
- We all argue in circles
- When we seek to prove our worldview, we cannot help but do so from the perspective of our worldview