christianity 101 (apologetics)

Build a Firm Foundation

1.Apologetics2.Old Testament3.New Testament4.Basic Doctrine5.The Church

/noun/: [1] systematic argumentative discourse in defense (as of a doctrine)

/noun/: [2] a branch of theology devoted to the defense of the divine origin and authority of Christianity

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

2. Is the Bible reliable?3. Is Jesus God or just a good

guy?

APOLOGETICS

1. Why doesn’t God “just reveal” himself?1. Where are the miracles today?

2. “I don’t need apologetics. I just believe.”

3. Constructing a “ladder of apologetics.”

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion

raised against the knowledge of God, and

take every thought captive to obey Christ,

2 Corinthians 10.5 (ESV)

• Teleological Argument• Cosmological Argument• Moral Argument

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

Theistic Proofs

• Also known as the argument from design

• Looks at purpose, complexity, and intentionality

• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: Entropy

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

Teleological Argument

16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things

we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms,

rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was

created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else,

and he holds all creation together.

Colossians 1:16–17 (NLT)

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

Teleological Argument

Strengths WeaknessesEasiest to explain and understand

Doesn’t necessarily point to the God of the Bible

Abundant Scriptural support:

Doesn’t explain evil and disorder

Psalm 19.1; Job 38-39; Eph 1.11; Col 1.16-17

• Teleological Argument• Cosmological Argument• Moral Argument

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

Theistic Proofs

• The argument of cause & effect• Every physical thing we observe is an effect

• (it was caused by something else)• There cannot exist an infinite amount of

causes• The universe had a beginning

• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

Cosmological Argument

Until the Big Bang Theory, astrologers believed the universe did not have an

origin.

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

Cosmological Argument

Strengths WeaknessesBased on common sense Doesn’t prove a first

causeEasy to illustrate Doesn’t explain evil and

disorderIn continuity with science

• Teleological Argument• Cosmological Argument• Moral Argument

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

Theistic Proofs

• The argument of right from wrong• All humans have a universal moral law

written on their hearts• That moral law had to come from a

transcendent lawgiver

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

MoralArgument

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

MoralArgument

Strengths WeaknessesMost people will concede the basic idea of morality

Doesn’t explain the origin of evil

Most closely points to the God of Christianity

1. Can you prove God’s existence?

2. Is the Bible reliable?3. Is Jesus God or just a good

guy?

APOLOGETICS

• Christianity stands on the Bible• The Bible claims:

• God-inspired (2 Tim 3.16)• Able to predict the future (Gal 3.8)• Powerful and active (Heb 4.12)• To offer salvation (Luke 11.28)

2. Is the Bible reliable?

IF the Bible is true, then all other religions are false when/where they contradict Christianity.

12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which

we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12 (NLT)

• Written over a 1500-yr time span• Covers over 40 generations• Written in different places

• Wilderness, dungeon, prison, palace, island

• Written by over 40 authors:• Kings, peasants, philosophers,

fishermen, poets, etc.

2. Is the Bible reliable?

Fun Bible Facts

• Written on 3 different continents• Asia, Africa, Europe

• Written in 3 different languages• Hebrew (2 Kings 18.26)• Aramaic (common language of Near East)• Greek (International language in 1st

Century)• Composed of different genres:

• History, poetry, prophecy, personal correspondence

2. Is the Bible reliable?

Fun Bible Facts

• How were the books “chosen,” and by what criteria?• Internal Consistency• Fulfilled Prophecy• Archaeological Confirmation• Historical Accuracy

2. Is the Bible reliable?

Biblical Reliability

• Internal Consistency

2. Is the Bible reliable?

Biblical Reliability

After you have read this letter, pass it on to the

church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I

wrote to them.

Colossians 4.16 (NLT)

• Jesus’ arrival was predicted hundreds of years before he was born• Isaiah (681 BC)• Daniel (530 BC)

2. Is the Bible reliable?

Biblical Reliability

14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a

son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God

is with us’).

Isaiah 7:14 (NLT)

2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little

to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come

forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming

forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Micah 5:2 (ESV)

2. Is the Bible reliable?

Extant Ancient Documents

Author Written Earliest Copy

Time Span

No. of Copies

Pliny the Younger

AD 61-113

AD 850 750 years 7

Aristotle 384-322 BC

AD 1100 1400 years 5

Caesar 100-44 BC

AD 900 1000 years 10

The Bible AD 40-80 AD 125/330

80-250 years

5300

1. Was Jesus a real person?2. How has he been viewed?3. What does the Bible say

about his identity?4. Basic Intro to Christology

WHO IS JESUS?

“I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess

as a historian that this penniless preacher from

Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus

Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”

-H.G. Wells

“As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most

influential life ever lived on this planet.”

-Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette

“Nero fastened the guilt on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome…”

1. Was Jesus a Real Person?

Tacitus, AD 56-117

Non-Biblical Historical Sources

“They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before itwas light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be calledupon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate,and then reassemble to partake of food–but food of an ordinary andinnocent kind.”

1. Was Jesus a Real Person?

Pliny the Younger, AD 61-112

Non-Biblical Historical Sources

“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he wrought surprising feats. He was the Christ. When Pilate condemned him to be crucified, those who had come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared restored to life. And the tribe of Christians has not disappeared.”

1. Was Jesus a Real Person?

Josephus, AD 37-100

Non-Biblical Historical Sources

The Christians worship a man to this day–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. [It] was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.”

1. Was Jesus a Real Person?

Lucian, AD 125-180

Non-Biblical Historical Sources

“There is more physical and documented proof that the historical Jesus

lived 2000 years ago than there exists proof of

Alexander the Great.”

-Josh McDowell, author, researcher

1. Was Jesus a Real Person?

2. How has he been viewed?

Who Do You Say That I Am?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erK28tenDnA

3. What Does the Bible Say?

How Would You Defend the Deity of Christ?

Divine Titles

Divine Roles

Divine Actions

Object of Worship

OT Applied to Jesus

Explicit Affirmations of Deity

3. What Does the Bible Say?

Explicit Affirmations of Deity

John 1:1, John 1:18, John 20:28, Acts 20:28 Romans 9:5, Titus 1:13, Hebrews 1:8, 2 Peter 1:11 John 5:20

OT Applied to Jesus Matthew 3:3 (Is 40:3), Hebrews 1:10-12 (Ps 102:25-27), 1 Cor 8:6 (Deut 6:4)

Object of Worship Matthew 2:2*, 2:8, 2:11*, 8:2, 9:18, 14:33*, 15:25, 20:20, 28:9*, 28:17* Revelation 4:5*, 7:9-12, 22:3*, 22:8-9*

Divine Actions Mark 2:5-12, 4:35-41 (Ps 107:23-31), 6:47-52 (Job 9:8)

Divine Roles Psalm 3:8 (Jonah 2:9), Matthew 1:21-23, Revelation 7:10, John 10:11-15, Ezekiel 34:11-16, Acts 2:16-18 (Joel 2:28-32), Acts 2:33, John 16:7

Divine Titles Mark 10:45, Daniel 7, Psalm 8, Psalm 2:7-9, Romans 1:1-4, John 1:49, John 5:25-27

4. Intro to Christology

THE CHALCEDONIAN CREED We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and thesame Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood;truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with the Fatheraccording to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all thingslike unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead,and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother ofGod, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to beacknowledged in two natures, unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; thedistinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property ofeach nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not partedor divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, theLord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and theLord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed downto us.

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

-C.S. Lewis