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How I Got into Apologetics (And How You Can Too!)

I am often asked, “how did you get into apologetics?” For some believers, they’ll get interested in apologetics because of a crisis of faith. They’ll have intellectual hurdles that come up that they have to overcome. For me, I never was plagued with doubts. While I spent several years of my life as an atheist, I had a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit. As I walked with God, the inner witness of the Holy Spirit was a real and regular experience.

After coming to faith, I felt burdened to share my faith. I would share my testimony with anyone who would give me the time of day and led several of my friends to Christ. (And even a handful of strangers.) I felt, for the most part, confident when it came to evangelism.

Failing Forward

That all changed several years later when I met Ian and Chris.

Ian and Chris were co-worker friends of mine. They were both were more educated than I was, and both were very bright. One day, during our break time the conversation shifted to spiritual things. So I took the opportunity to try and share.

They shot me to shreds.

Ian was very scientifically-minded and thought modern science, and the Bible were incompatible. Chris was an ex-Christian and the son of missionaries. He grew up in church and lived on the mission field overseas. He later renounced his faith in favor of Buddhism.

They raised a host of issues that I couldn’t answer. I felt helpless and felt that I had failed not only them but my own Savior. So, I set out on a quest. I didn’t know much about Christian apologetics. I had read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis years ago, and that was about the extent of my knowledge.

So, I started Googling away. My search led me to a host of great materials. I found dozens of debates. A legion of lectures. A plethora of podcasts. A bonanza of books. Free college courses through seminaries and colleges.

The Problem: Info Overload

There was only one problem: There was too much information. It felt daunting and overwhelming. I sensed a call to do more with apologetics but didn’t understand where to begin or how to begin.

So, I prayed and asked for help. And God answered by way of a philosophy professor. I had joined a group on Facebook called the Christian Apologetics Alliance. In the group, I shared my frustration with sensing a call in this area. I had neither the time or money to go back to college.

A guy by the name of Tim McGrew replied. If you don’t know, Dr. McGrew is a philosophy professor at Western Michigan University. He’s a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the argument from miracles and historical apologetics. He’s debated some atheistic heavyweights like Bart Ehrman (Misquoting Jesus, Jesus, Interrupted) and Peter Boghossian. (A Manual for Creating Atheists)

Tim graciously provided me with a bibliography to get started. This list of books helped me get the knowledge that I needed to get seriously get going.

Starting Where I Was At

These sources provided me the ability to have something to say in the main areas of apologetics. Defensive apologetics as well as offensive apologetics. In other words, I could have something to say about the main objections to God’s existence or the Bible.

Doesn’t science disprove Christianity?
Aren’t miracles the worst explanation for anything?
Why does an all-powerful and all-loving God allow horrible evils in the world?
How could God send people to hell for a lack of information?
Is Yahweh evil? After all, didn’t He command Israel to kill the Canaanites?
Why are there contradictions and historical errors in the Bible?

Answering these questions is defensive apologetics.

I also learned how to make a positive case for God’s existence and the resurrection of Jesus. (Positive apologetics) Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection is the lynchpin of Christianity. Without it, nothing else matters. So making that case is indispensable.

Setting the Right Goals

The goal wasn’t to master everything. But I did have something to say to the main objections against the faith. Tim also encouraged me to master one argument for God’s existence to start out. Now, this did involve work and commitment. And it required that I stretch my mind and make my brain work.

But if eternal destinies are at stake, this was something I had to take seriously. Plus, as a father, I didn’t want to pass onto my children a brittle “don’t think, only believe” type of faith.

It still meant I still had to invest time and money. However, it didn’t lead thousands of dollars of college debt. Furthermore, it didn’t call for me spending hours burning the midnight oil studying. I only needed to spend an hour or so per day reading.

As a result, the increase of knowledge led to an increase in confidence. Instead of being intimidated by tough objections, I felt like I could handle them. My conversations in these areas became more “in control” rather than me getting flustered and defensive.

“Bringing Out of His Treasure What Is New and What Is Old”

So, without further ado, I want to pass on the list of books that Tim gave me. The good news is that some of them are older works that you can read free online because they are public domain.

Don’t assume old means “out of date.” It’s tempting to fall into the chronological snobbery fallacy. But these older works have arguments that hold up today. When it came to reading older books, C.S. Lewis once advised:

“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.”

CS Lewis, Intro to On the Incaration by Athanasius

Lewis went on to say:

“Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet.

Here’s my experience: Lewis is right. I learned more about defending the argument from miracles from reading old books. I’d say the same for defending the Gospels. He also gave me some other supplemental books and references that I’ve linked here.

I’ve added a few more books to supplement the list that I found helpful.

B = Beginner

I = Intermediate

DR. TIM MCGREW’S READING LIST

CONVERSATIONAL APOLOGETICS:

Greg Koukl, Tactics(B)
Norman and David Geisler, Conversational Evangelism(B)

BASIC REASONING SKILLS:

JP Moreland, Love God With All Your Mind(B)
Peter Kreeft, Between Heaven and Hell(B)

DEFENSIVE GENERAL APOLOGETICS:

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Section X (Free! Hume is presenting the skeptical view) (B)
William Lane Craig, Hard Questions, Real Answers, chapters. 4 and 5 (I)
S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain(B)
Clay Jones, Why Does God Allow Evil? (My recommendation) (B)

THE CHALLENGE OF SCIENCE

S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study, ch. 3 (B)
John Lennox, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?(B)
Arthur James Balfour, The Foundations of Belief(Free!) (I)
Mitch Stokes, How to Be an Atheist: Why Many Skeptics Aren’t Skeptical Enough (My recommendation) (I)

THE INCREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES

David Hume, “Of Miracles”(Free! Hume is presenting the skeptical view) (B)
William Adams, An Essay in Answer to Mr. Hume’s Essay on Miracles(Free!) (B)
George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles(Free!) (B)
Habermas and Geivett, eds., In Defense of Miracles(B)
John Douglas, The Criterion(Free!) (B)
S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study(B)
Craig Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts(My recommendation) (I)

POSITIVE GENERAL APOLOGETICS:

(Note: I focused on the Moral Argument. Other arguments are featured in these recommendations. Again, for a complete recommendation list, go here.)

S. Lewis, Mere Christianity(B)
Craig and Copan, eds., Contending with Christianity’s Critics(B)
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith(I)
David Baggett and Marybeth Baggett, The Morals of the Story: Good News About a Good God(My recommendation) (I)

POSITIVE BIBLICAL APOLOGETICS:

S. Lewis, “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism”(Free!) (B)
Edmund Bennett, The Four Gospels from a Lawyer’s Standpoint(Free!) (B)
F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?(B)
William Paley, A View of the Evidences of Christianity(Free!) (B)
John James Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences(Free!) (B)
Samuel Tregelles, Historic Evidence of the New Testament(Free!) (B)
Eddy and Boyd, The Jesus Legend(I)
Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace, Reinventing Jesus(B)
Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the New Testament(My recommendation) (I)
Brant Pitre, The Case for Jesus(My recommendation) (B)
Lydia McGrew,Hidden in Plain View (B)
Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?(My recommendation) (B)

DEFENSIVE BIBLICAL APOLOGETICS:

Richard Watson, An Apology for the Bible(Free!) (B)
Paul Copan,Is God a Moral Monster? (B)
Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion(Free!) (I)
F. Westcott, A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament(Free!) (I)
Köstenberger and Kruger, The Heresy of Orthodoxy(I)
Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties(B)
Geisler and Howe, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties(B)
Michael Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, 5 Volumes (B)

WHAT IF I’M ON A SERIOUS BUDGET?

You could load up on all the freebies still, and that would keep you reading for months. But if you had about $100 and just want to get started as easily as possible while covering all the main topics, I’d recommend:

William Lane Craig, On Guard (A beginner’s version of Reasonable Faith)
CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
Brant Pitre, The Case for Jesus
Lydia McGrew,Hidden in Plain View
Greg Koukl, Tactics
John Lennox, Has Science Buried God?
Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?
Clay Jones, Why Does God Allow Evil?

Jesus: The Greater Moses

Jesus Christ, Theology and Christian Apologetics

By Ryan Leasure

An untrained eye might miss it, but the Old Testament, properly read, points to Jesus. From Genesis forward, we see reference after reference to a coming Messiah who would one day crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).

Certainly the covenants with both Abraham (Gen. 12, 15, 17) and David (2 Sam. 7) point to a coming Messiah, but it’s another covenant mediator I want to draw our attention to — Moses. Outside of Abraham, Moses is probably the most significant figure in the Old Testament, because it was through Moses that God gave his Law to the nation of Israel.

As special as Moses was, though, God promised Israel that he would send another prophet who was going to be just as, if not more, significant than Moses himself.

The Promise of A Future Prophet Like Moses

As Israel approached the end of its forty years in the wilderness, God made a promise to them about a future prophet to come. We read Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 18:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him… The LORD said to me: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him” (v. 15-18).

I can only imagine that at this moment, Israel was fearful of what they were going to do after Moses departed. After all, the people relied on Moses to hear from God as they didn’t dare approach Him themselves. But what would a prophet like Moses look like? Numbers 12:6-8 gives us a clue. The text reads:

Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him, I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.”

Notice the LORD’s words here in response to Miram and Aaron’s complaints about Moses. The LORD says that Moses is not only a prophet; he’s an exulted prophet. Other prophets only get dreams or visions from God. But Moses can see God and speak with him face to face.

Did the Future Prophet Come?

Before we can answer this question, I need to address Mosaic authorship briefly. I realize several folks reject that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, but I am not one of them. After all, it seems as if Jesus was persuaded of Mosaic authorship (Jn. 5:46-47; Mk. 10:3-5; 7:10; 12:26; Mt. 8:4; Lk. 16:29).

Nobody, however, disputes that someone else wrote the end of the Pentateuch which describes Moses’ death. While the dating of the end of the Pentateuch isn’t clear cut, most commentators lean toward the post-exilic era (between 500-400 BC). Meaning, whoever wrote the ending did so about 1,000 years after Moses. We know it wasn’t soon after Moses because the author tells us that no one even knows where Moses’ body is buried (Deuteronomy. 34:6).

I raise this authorship and dating issue because the person who penned Deuteronomy 34 wasn’t convinced that the prophet like Moses had come yet. Verses 10-12 state:

Since then (the time of Moses), no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt — to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of Israel.

As far as the author of Deuteronomy 34 goes, the prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18 had yet to come. Even great prophets like Elijah, Elisha, or Isaiah didn’t make the cut. No, Israel still waited patiently for the prophet who would communicate with God face to face, speak the very words of God, and perform public miracles. Certain prophets had met some of the criteria, but none had met all of them.

Jesus: The Prophet Like Moses

It’s no wonder that so many first-century Jews expected the Messiah to be the great Prophet. After Jesus fed the 5,000, we read in John 6:14, “After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” In other words, these people recognized that the author of Deuteronomy 34 was correct. A prophet like Moses had yet to come at that point. But he’s here now!

Peter makes the connection abundantly clear in Acts 3. While preaching to a crowd in Jerusalem, Peter proclaimed:

Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. For Moses said, The Lord, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.

Of course, this Jewish audience would have been familiar with Deuteronomy 18. Peter emphatically tells the crowd that the great Prophet like Moses has finally come. It’s Jesus of Nazareth.

After all, Jesus meets all the criteria. As the Son of God, he’s the only one who had communicated with God face-to-face. As John 1:18 tells us, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship to the Father.” Furthermore, he not only communicated the very words of God; he was the Word of God incarnate (Jn. 1). And, of course, his public miracles are well documented.

Similarities Between Jesus And Moses

The prophecy of Deuteronomy 18 states that the coming prophet would be like Moses. But in what sense? Consider some of the similarities now:

Both were born under death decree (Ex. 1-2; Mt. 2:16-18).

Both escape into the heart of Egypt (Ex. 2; Mt. 2:13-15).

Both are described in detail in four books, beginning with their births and ending with their deaths (Exodus—Deuteronomy; Matthew—John).

Both were covenant mediators (Moses of the Old, Jesus of the New).

Both gave or received instruction on a mountain (Ex. 20; Mt. 5-7)

Both are transfigured on a mountain (Ex. 34:29-35; Mk. 9:2-13)

Both are isolated for 40 days without food or water (Ex. 34:28; Mt. 4:2)

Both are rebelled against by Israelites (Num. 16; Lk. 22-23).

Truly, Jesus was the prophet like Moses.

Differences Between Jesus And Moses

Despite their similarities, it’s their differences that matter the most. Consider these two:

First, like any prophet, Moses repeatedly said, “thus saith the LORD.” The LORD had communicated to him in some form or fashion, and he then communicated those same words to the people.

Jesus, on the other hand, never used the phrase “thus saith the LORD.” Instead, he said something radical — “truly, truly, I say unto you.” In other words, Jesus didn’t need to receive a word from the LORD because he was the LORD himself! Jesus spoke with authority, unlike any other prophet — including Moses.

Second, God accepted Jesus’ atoning sacrifice but not Moses’. In Exodus 32, after Israel sinned by worshipping the golden calf, God was going to consume them. Moses, however, sought to spare the people by offering up himself as an atoning sacrifice. We read in verses 30-33:

The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the LORD and said, Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin — but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the LORD said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

Even at this early stage, Moses recognized atonement must be made for Israel’s sins, and thus he offers up himself! But God rejected his offer. After all, Moses himself was just a man — a sinful one at that. He couldn’t possibly atone for the people’s sins.

But Jesus could. Being divine and sinless, Jesus could bear the sins of the world. And unlike Moses, God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice and demonstrated his acceptance by raising him from the dead.

So, while Jesus was a prophet like Moses, he was certainly greater.

Jesus Is Greater Than Moses

The author of Hebrews saw this comparison and didn’t hesitate to elevate Jesus above Moses. His words seem an appropriate ending to this article:

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house (Heb. 3:1-5).

Did Jesus Really Claim to Be God?

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Sometimes you’ll hear Muslim apologists and other skeptics of Christianity ask, “Where does Jesus say, ‘I am God, worship me’”? You won’t find Jesus using those words anywhere in the New Testament documents. Instead, we read Jesus kept calling Himself “The Son of Man.” On the face of it, that sounds more human than divine. Is that right? Did Jesus really claim to be God in words and actions other than “I am God, worship me”? And if He did claim to be God, why wasn’t He more overt about it? Why not just come out and say it plainly?

Frank invites Crossexamined.org board member, and budding apologist, Ryan Crews to the show to answer those questions and more. Join them for a fascinating discussion about the self-identity of Jesus, and how to answer objections to the divinity of Jesus.

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January 13, 2020/by Guest

How Jeremiah 29:11 is Far Better When You Properly Interpret It

Theology and Christian Apologetics

By Brian Chilton

Certain verses in the Bible have become so popularized that they are often removed from their context. In so doing, the biblical passage loses the impact that it holds. Worse yet, the text may be given a message that it never intended to carry. Jeremiah 29:11 is one such example.

The verse is a promise of God which states, “For I know the plans I have for you’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jer. 29:11, CSB). The verse has been often misapplied as it has become a staple for graduation Hallmark cards, plaques, and knick-knacks. For some, the verse holds a promise that God will never allow the person to suffer bad experiences or trouble. The graduate who receives such things may think that God will only bring good things to his or her life. But is that really what the passage says? Proper biblical interpretation unveils three theological truths that exceed the kitschy cliché that the verse has become.

Jeremiah 29:11 Indicates that God Can Be Found in Difficult Days. It is critically important to note that Jeremiah 29:11 is part of Jeremiah’s letter to the Israelites who would become Babylonian exiles. This is key to understanding the context of the verse. If the interpreter misses this point, he or she will not comprehend the nature of the verse. Quite frankly, I do not know that anyone would want this to be their graduation theme because God is telling the nation that they are about to experience difficult days ahead.

Living in an era of self-entitlement and luxury, it is easy to think that God will only bring good things to our lives. We almost view God as if he is a self-improvement coach rather than a Heavenly Father. Perhaps some would even like God better if God were the former rather than the latter. Nevertheless, God never promises that a believer’s walk will be easy. Rather, God promises us that God’s presence will never leave us in good times or bad. If you continue reading the text, God tells those who are about to suffer the exile, “You will call me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:12–13, CSB). God’s presence is always with his children (Matt. 28:20).

Jeremiah 29:11 Indicates that God is Sovereign Over the Good Times and Bad. Jeremiah 29:11 is comparable to Romans 8:28 in the fact that the prophet holds that God is sovereign over all times and occasions. Why does God allow evil to occur? This issue, otherwise called theodicy, is beyond the scope of this present article. However, it must be understood that God may allow bad things to occur to bring about a greater end.

I spoke with a church member today about the book of Job and the primary theological theme of the book. God tells Job that he must trust him because he set everything in motion since the beginning of creation. Life and the operation of the universe are far more complex than anyone could imagine. In a similar fashion, God is telling the soon-to-be Babylonian exiles the same, saying, “Trust me.” The author of Hebrews notes that one should not “take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him, the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives. Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons” (Heb. 12:5–7, CSB). When divine discipline comes, it is never to harm us. But rather, God’s discipline is always to make us better. Psalm 94 notes that a person is blessed when they receive the Lord’s discipline because they are being taught how to keep the law (Ps. 94:12, ESV). God even tells Jacob, “Fear not … for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you, I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished” (Ps. 118:18, ESV). The people of Jeremiah’s day had not been faithful which led to God’s disciplinary actions. However, God notes that God is still sovereign in the bad times as he is in the good times. He is telling the people, “Trust me.”

Jeremiah 29:11 Indicates that God Will Bless His Faithful Children in the End. Here again, Jeremiah 29:11 can be likened to Romans 8:28 which states, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28, CSB). In like manner, God tells those who would be exiled, “I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you … I will restore you to the place from which I deported you” (Jer. 29:14, CSB). While the people would face severe difficulty in their days ahead, they could live with the assurance that God would restore the fortunes of their people and their land. Similarly, we are part of the community of God’s people. We do not always get things right. Quite honestly, we probably mess up more than do right. Nonetheless, God has a better day coming for his children—a day where there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more heartache, no more divisions, and no more death (Rev. 21:3–4). Most importantly, that day will be a time where there will be no more separation from God (Rev. 22:4–5). Our faith will be sight (2 Cor. 5:7).

Jeremiah 29:11 is a wonderful verse. But the depth of its theological mines cannot be dug unless one takes the time to understand the verse in its proper context. While it may not be that this verse will be as desirable to place on graduation cards as it once was, the verse becomes more intense and stronger especially when troubles come. God’s ultimate plan for our lives is to bring great blessings. But those blessings may often become shrouded in the heartaches of life. By placing us in the pressures of life, God makes us into diamonds.

Living In A Post-Truth Culture

1. Does Truth Exist?, Theology and Christian Apologetics

By Bob Perry

I’ve made the case that truth, goodness, and beauty are objective features of the world we live in. Hopefully, you’ve found that to be interesting. But please don’t think this is just an esoteric triviality. It’s not. We are living in a post-truth culture. But it’s a place where the objective nature of truth, goodness, and beauty are deeply relevant. Our view of objective truth affects everything about how we live our lives. It’s the antidote to moral relativism. Truth matters. And understanding the profundity of that simple fact will revolutionize the way you interact with our world.

Here’s why.

The Assumptions of the Culture

Consider the three topics I’ve been talking about. And think about how you’re used to hearing about them:

Truth — “That may be true for you, but it’s not for me.”

Goodness — “Don’t impose your morality on me!”

Beauty — “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

Despite thousands of years of human knowledge and experience, our contemporary culture has made every one of these subjective. Suddenly, they’ve each become things we decide for ourselves.

In fact, if you were to express the notion that anyone of these is not subjective, you would be considered arrogant. Oppressive. A Neanderthal who wants to impose your personal values on the rest of the world.

Who are you to do that?!

The World Turned Upside Down

This is cultural relativism. A place where we are supposed to accept the idea that everyone’s opinion about every topic is equally valid.

And remember that pesky definition of truth as: “correspondence to reality”? That’s out the window. The new normal tells us that our highest calling is to “be true to ourselves.”

But what does that mean, exactly?

Follow Your Heart

When your standard for truth and virtue is the person you see in the bathroom mirror, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see what’s coming. Feelings rule. You are encouraged to “follow your heart.” And following your heart means you evaluate reality based on emotion instead of reason and logic.

If it feels good, you do it.

“If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad …”

Sheryl Crow

Conforming to reality becomes passé. An archaic inconvenience.

But there is a problem with that. And the problem is that the “persistent belief in something that does not conform to reality” is called a delusion.

Our culture has elevated delusion to an art form.

Philosophy Is About The Real World

It turns out that the whole discussion of truth, goodness, and beauty is more than the hobby of navel-gazing philosophers. These things have real-world consequences. Ideas always do. Good or bad, we live in a world where those ideas will play themselves out.

And so, we see the consequences of bad thinking in our politics and in the family and community relationships on which our politics depend. We read about them in the news — and in the “fake news” generated at both ends of the political spectrum. We suffer the repercussions of denying reality in our economics. And our children and grandchildren will — quite literally — pay the price for those willful delusions.

Most of all, we see it in the glorification of sexual autonomy that has infiltrated every corner of our culture. Denying reality is at the core of issues like abortion, sexual libertinism, transgenderism, and same-sex behavior. Defending each of them is nothing but a persistent delusion.

Faith Communities Are Not Immune

The Church is most certainly not immune to the corrosive acid of bad thinking. The vacuous nonsense you can find in the Word-Faith Movement, Universalism, and so-called “Progressive” Christianity is proof enough of that. And every societal ill listed above has also found its way into the church.

But when you boil it all down, the problems we see in our culture are nothing new. In fact, they’re as old as mankind. The denial of truth, goodness, and beauty started soon after we came on the scene. The Fall of Man was simply the first instance where human beings made the free-will decision to exchange the truth of God for a lie. Since then, we’ve only pushed the limits of that futile exercise even further.

The good news is that the antidote to bad thinking has always been the same. Seek truth in all its forms. Then align your life with it.

The Church should never be a safe space for bad ideas. It must be a place where people are treated with gentleness and respect, but also a place where corrupted thinking goes to die.

The Problem of Evil

Theology and Christian Apologetics

By Al Serrato

One of the most common challenges to the Christian worldview is the problem of evil. We see evil all around us; we need to do little more than pick up a newspaper or watch the nightly news to have our sensibilities assaulted with countless acts of senseless violence and suffering. Many are man-made and some a product of an indifferent Mother Nature; whatever the source, at times, it feels as if the world is awash in wickedness.

How, the challenger entreats, can your good and loving God create such things? Why did he imbue man with such capacity for wickedness? The Christian responds that God did not create evil. No, they claim, evil is the product of man’s twisted free will. How well does this claim hold up?

The challenger seems to have logic on their side. Reduced to a simple syllogism, the challenge goes something like this: 1) God created all things; 2) evil is a thing; 3) therefore, God created evil. Though raised anew in every generation, the challenge itself is not new. In the 4^th century, St. Augustine tackled it, as did St. Thomas Aquinas centuries later. What we call evil, they explained, is in fact a deprivation of the good and is therefore not really a “thing” at all. Like the “hole” in a donut, it describes what is not there, what is missing. But this does not always satisfy the challenger. Often, they may counter: an all-powerful, all-loving God would not have allowed deprivations any more than he would have created evil.

This response seems to accept the difference between deprivation and a thing and confronts the believer with the same challenge: a good God would never have allowed such deprivations, such departures, from the good. But this challenge actually misses the point of the distinction that Augustine and Aquinas drew; through sloppy thinking, it continues to view evil as a thing, even though it adopts the language of deprivation.

Consider: what we see as evil, whether a thought or an act, can only be gauged if we first hold in our minds what the good would be. For example, using a knife to cut someone is evil when done by the assailant but not by the surgeon. Setting off an explosion is evil when used to harm others but not when used to carve out a tunnel. The knife and the cutting; the bomb and the blast – these may be “things’ in a manner of speaking, but any measure of evil in their use depends not on what they are, but on the extent to which their use deviated from God’s perfect will.

We know this intuitively. And because some of us are better at knowing God’s will than others, we may mistakenly call something evil when in truth it is not. For example, a law prohibiting abortions would be viewed as “evil” by those who believe that a woman has the right to choose; they would view the act of stopping a woman from aborting her unborn child to be a departure from the “good” of free choice. This, of course, would be wrong. It would not be evil at all, but instead good, because such a law would comport with, and not defy God’s will.

Those who reject Augustine’s approach will insist that these are examples of things – namely acts that are being done: stopping the woman by force of law, setting off the explosive, cutting into a person. They will insist that a good God would not have created them. This misunderstands the point: what constitutes evil is not the action or the thing, but the use to which it is put. God, as the infinite expression and definition of good, is by necessity the ultimate standard of what is good. Consequently, what we describe as evil is, in reality, a rough gauge of the extent to which the thought or act in question departs from God’s nature or will, or at least what we view that nature or will to be.

So, why does God allow evil? Because when he gave us free will, he meant for us to have, well, free will. The opposite of free will would be directed will. Whatever actions we took would be controlled, the way a robot’s or computer’s would be. In such a world, there would be no abortions, no stabbings, no hidden minefields. But such a world would not know freedom. God allows evil, even though he never created it, because if He does not allow us to depart from His perfect will, then free will would be an illusion.

The Elephant in the Room isn’t Trump

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A couple of listeners wrote emails to express their disagreement with some of what Frank said in the show “Why Did Evangelicals Vote for Trump?” In this show Frank responds by investigating Jesus’s rebuke of the Pharisees (the politicians of Israel) in Matthew 23:23 and then by asking three questions:

What is the purpose of government?
What is your primary reason for choosing a president?
Who, of the available candidates, will best fulfill that purpose?

As you’ll hear the elephant in the room isn’t Trump and his personality. The primary reason we choose a president has to do with a policy, not personality (although personality is still important). Frank responds to other objections from the emails, and also answers this question from a parent: How do I respond to a child who claims not to believe in God anymore?

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January 4, 2020/by Guest

What is the Bible all About?

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What is the Bible all about? Sometimes we get too close to it and can’t see the big picture. Join Frank as he takes you on a grand overview of the Bible using the acronym CRIME: Creation, Rebellion, Intervention, Mission, Eternity. This will help you see how the Bible fits together to tell one overarching story of the Savior, who comes to save the very creatures who rebelled against him. So, while the Bible starts with a CRIME, it ends with redemption in Eternity for those who want it. That’s why we all have an important mission right now.

To get visual and more in-depth teaching on this topic and many others, get the complete 17 part series on DVD called Jesus, You and the Essentials of Christianity (instructor and student workbooks are also available).

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January 2, 2020/by Guest

The Christmas Story – Beyond Apologetics

Theology and Christian Apologetics

By Mikel Del Rosario

Experiencing the Christmas Story

Every December, I see a couple of approaches to Jesus’ birth on Christian blogs: Articles that approach the Christmas story from the perspective of “How Jesus came to Earth,” looking at it in light of what the Gospels tell about who Jesus turns out to be. Or, you get an apologetics approach that engages naturalistic objections to miracles like the virgin birth.

If you’re like me, you’ve often talked about the possibility of miracles or the historicity of the Bible around Christmas time. But what we don’t often realize, is that we can get so distracted by historical or philosophical questions in our 21st-century context, that we can miss out on what the Gospel authors are saying through the infancy narratives.

Beyond Apologetics

This year, I want to do something different and go beyond apologetics. What’s the message of the infancy materials? In this post, I’ll share one key thing everyone should know about Christmas—something that’s often overlooked: The Christmas story communicates that God keeps his promises. [1]

First, I’ll highlight Elizabeth’s story in the Gospel, according to Luke. Then, I’ll focus in on Mary’s story in the same Gospel. Finally, I want to give you two video resources that will help you dive deeper and better experience the Christmas story afresh this year.

But try something with me before we move on: Set any skepticism about miracles (or even ideas about Jesus’ deity) to the side for a moment and imagine what it would be like for two unsuspecting people to see the Christmas story unfolding around them. What would they be thinking?

God Keeps His Promises

An old woman gets pregnant–even though she never had kids before (Luke 1:5-25)

Most first-century Jews believed God created everything and interacted with people. So, to them, an old woman getting pregnant or a virgin conceiving a child apart from modern medical techniques were just minor miracles compared to the creation of the universe out of nothing. In other words: If God’s real, miracles are possible.

And that’s how the Christmas story begins; with miracles. An angel tells a priest named Zachariah that his wife, Elizabeth, would have a kid–even though she was way too old to have kids naturally. I recently had a conversation with my mentor, Darrell Bock, who explained what you’re supposed to get from the story of Zachariah’s skepticism. He put it like this:

Basically the angel says, “Well, you’re going to be quiet until you see God pull off his word. It’s designed to be a lesson to say, “If God promised this if God says this is gonna happen, this is gonna happen…You’re gonna watch it happen. You’re not gonna be able to speak or hear. You can have a little time to reflect on the fact that when God says it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen.

Don’t miss Elizabeth’s faith in contrast to her husband. She was marginalized in society because she couldn’t have kids, but then she says with confidence: “This is what the Lord has done for me at the time when he has been gracious to me, to take away my disgrace among people” (Luke 1:25).

After the baby’s born, they name him “John” (that was culturally weird since no one else in the family was named John), and Zachariah can finally talk again. He sings a song about John the Baptist’s role, pointing people to Jesus—the central figure of God’s plan to redeem and restore his people (Luke 1:67–79). But a bigger miracle’s about to happen.

A young teen gets pregnant–even though she never had sex before (Luke 1:26-36)

Mary was probably way younger than most nativity scenes make her seem. First-century Jewish girls were usually betrothed between the ages of 12 and 14! Guys were betrothed between the ages of 18 and 25 but the girls got married pretty young.

And Jesus’ conception was pretty unusual, too. The angel tells Mary her baby will reign forever; he’ll be called the Son of God. Most Christians immediately go, “I get it. Jesus is divine.” But what about people who don’t know the end of the story? What did Mary think when she heard what her baby was gonna be called?

She probably thought, “My baby’s the promised Messiah who’ll deliver God’s people.” In the Jewish Scriptures, “Son of God” often referred to kings (2 Samuel 7:14). Mary’s going, “Somehow, my son’s gonna be a king.” Her big takeaway was, “God’s keeping his promise to Israel through me!” But she still had a lot to learn about who Jesus would turn out to be.

Luke 1 is kind of like a musical in some ways because then, Mary sings her own song—a song that’s got Old Testament language all over it (Luke 1:46–56). And the lyrics are all about how God’s gonna restore Israel and defeat the people who are oppressing them. Don’t miss Mary’s example of faith. She probably didn’t think her baby was “Little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes” (Not sure what Mary would think about that Christmas song)! Yet, she willingly took up the challenge of bearing a very unique child in very unusual circumstances.

So an angel predicted Elizabeth, an old woman who wasn’t able to have kids her whole life, would get pregnant–and she does. Then the angel told Mary, a young girl who’s never had sex, that she’ll conceive a child supernaturally–and she does. Strange stuff is afoot. Strange stuff pointing to a pretty unique baby–a pretty unique way for God to fulfill his promises to Israel and bless the world.

A key message of the Christmas story that’s often overlooked is God keeps his promises. This is one reason Christianity isn’t about blind faith. It’s reasonable to put your trust in someone who is trustworthy.

Here’s the Point

The Christmas story is meant to show God keeps his promises–even if he ends up doing it in unexpected and unusual ways. Weird stuff happening told ancient readers God was up to something special. Experiencing this unfolding drama in the Gospels is part of the wonder of the season. You look at Mary and Elizabeth, and you see their faith. They trust God and recognize his grace to them. May we do the same. Merry Christmas!

[1] THESE INSIGHTS CAME FROM A SERIES OF CONVERSATIONS WITH MY MENTOR, DARRELL BOCK, AND A COUPLE OF OTHER NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLARS AT DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. SEE THE VIDEOS BELOW.

[hr]

Videos on Experiencing the Christmas Story

Here are two video resources that can help you go deeper and experience the Christmas story afresh. The first is a chapel discussion I facilitated, and the second is a podcast I hosted. A transcript is available for the podcast here. Both videos are brought to you by Dallas Theological Seminary.

Experiencing the Christmas Story – Chapel

Top Ten Ways to Advance the Gospel

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Are you dreading those awkward family dinners this Christmas season? Unsure about how to tactfully bring up the real reason for Christmas? Join Frank as he reveals the Top Ten Ways to Advance the Gospel, not only at Holiday dinners but at any event. These are some very practical ideas and can be used at any time during the year.

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December 24, 2019/by Guest

Tag Archive for: apologetics

Failing Forward

The Problem: Info Overload

Starting Where I Was At

Setting the Right Goals

“Bringing Out of His Treasure What Is New and What Is Old”

DR. TIM MCGREW’S READING LIST

CONVERSATIONAL APOLOGETICS:

THE CHALLENGE OF SCIENCE

THE INCREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES

POSITIVE GENERAL APOLOGETICS:

POSITIVE BIBLICAL APOLOGETICS:

DEFENSIVE BIBLICAL APOLOGETICS:

WHAT IF I’M ON A SERIOUS BUDGET?

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