Christian apologetics

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Christian apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith through logic/evidence based arguments. The word apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia (from Greek ἀπολογία), which means "speaking in defense." Christian witness to Jesus Christ in an informal spontaneous setting, most often in conversation, is an oral form of Christian apologetics. See 1 Peter 3:15.

Effective apologetics can be based in politics, faith, reason, linguistics, science, experience, and/or history. Atheistic societies or values are notoriously inhumane and hostile to freedom of speech.

Three major schools of Christian apologetics are: classical apologetics, evidential apologetics and presuppositional apologetics. A lessor known school of Christian apologetics is integrated apologetics which is a system of Christian apologetics introduced by Johnson C. Philip. Philip is a Christian apologist from India and he argues that while each school of Christian apologetics contains a part of the truth, they tend to be too narrow to do justice to the broad field of Christian apologetics. He proposes that all these schools of apologetics should be integrated into a harmonious whole.[1]

There are a number of subfields within apologetics. Some apologists specialize in internal biblical consistency (such as JP Holding, owner of the website tektonics.org), others in scientific defenses of the Bible, and still others in historical or philosophical defenses of Christianity (such as Gary Habermas or Lee Strobel). Although some feel that their faith needs no justification, many feel that Christians should be prepared to defend and spread their faith by intellectual means, especially as many people will not accept Christianity without a "rational" reason to do so.

## Contents

* 1 History of Christian Apologetics
* 1.1 Purposes
* 2 Types of Christian Apologetics
* 2.1 Evidentialist apologetics
* 2.2 Philosophical apologetics
* 2.3 Presuppositional apologetics
* 2.4 Growth of Christian apologetics in the world today while atheist apologetics is stagnating
* 3 Christian Apologetics and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
* 4 Christian Apologetic Ministries
* 5 Christian websites with a large focus on the topic of atheism
* 6 Christian apologetics clubs on college campuses
* 7 Christianity apologetics and the developing world
* 8 Growth of creationist apologetics and its effect on Christendom
* 9 Recommended books
* 9.1 Christian apologetics books on atheism
* 10 Major Christian apologetics websites and their web traffic
* 11 See also
* 12 External links
* 12.1 Introduction to Christian apologetics video series
* 12.2 General Christian apologetics websites
* 12.3 Historical and legal apologetics
* 12.4 Bible archaeology
* 12.5 Christian worldview/Christian philosophy
* 12.6 Creation science ministries and other resources
* 12.7 Bible prophecy articles and websites
* 12.8 Biblical inerrancy resources
* 13 References

## History of Christian Apologetics[edit]

Christian apologetics has existed as long as Christianity itself. Jesus himself spent time in the temple and the synagogues, debating and explaining the meaning of the scriptures. The Apostle Peter exhorted early Christians to practice apologetics, writing,

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." 1 Peter 3:15-16.

The Apostle Paul also spent time in Athens, debating Stoic and Epicurian philosophers. Acts 17:16.

Great theologians such as Athanasius, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Augustine, and Aquinas continued the tradition of apologetics on a dramatic scale. At the same time, apologetics was practiced by countless individual Christians, explaining and defending their beliefs.[2]

### Purposes[edit]

Apologetics has generally been used for two purposes: Efforts to persuade others of the truth of Christianity, and efforts to defend the reasonableness of one's own beliefs, while not seeking to convince others of their truth.

## Types of Christian Apologetics[edit]

### Evidentialist apologetics[edit]

Evidential apologetics seeks to defend Christian belief through evidence. This can take the form of:

* Defense of the historical accuracy of the Bible
* Biblical Archaeology, seeking to show that the Bible is consistent with the physical evidence;
* Christian Legal Apologetics
* Bible prophecy
* Creation science and Creationism, seeking to show that the creation accounts of the Bible are the most reasonable explanation for life as we know it and that the evolutionary paradigm is untenable.
* Biblical scientific foreknowledge

### Philosophical apologetics[edit]

William Paley was an advocate of the teleological argument.

One of the most famous statements about the teleological argument using the watchmaker analogy was given by William Paley in his 1802 book Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity.[3]

Philosophical apologetics seeks to defend Christian belief through philosophical argument: primarily arguments for the existence of God. This can take the form of:

* The Teleological argument: When you find a watch in the sand, you infer that it is designed, even if you do not see the designer, because it is complex, has a definite purpose, and could not have come to be through any known non-intelligent causes. Therefore, when we observe a complex, purposeful universe which could not have come to be through any known non-intelligent cause, it is reasonable to infer the existence of a designer, aka God.

This is connected to the anthropic principle, which is the argument that so much fine-tuning and exact physiological constants allows us to be here, provides evidence in support of an intelligent designer.

* The Cosmological argument: Every event in the universe is caused by something. It is impossible that everything should have a cause, going back to eternity. Therefore, there must be a first cause, which itself is not caused, and that first cause must be capable of causing the universe, aka God. Creationist scientists demonstrate that the first law of thermodynamics and second law of thermodynamics argue against an eternal universe and they also demonstrate that these laws point to the universe being supernaturally created.[4][5][6]

In the 20th century, this argument has been strongly supported by science, with the discovery that the universe had a beginning. Prior to the 1920s, it had been widely believed that the universe's existence had been eternal.[7] This verifies the very first three words of the Bible: "In the beginning."

* The Ontological argument: God is the being than which no greater can be conceived. It is greater to exist than to not exist. Therefore, if you conceive God as not existing, you are not conceiving the being than which no greater can be conceived, and are therefore not conceiving God. Therefore, it is impossible to conceive of God as not existing. Therefore, God exists.
* The Argument from morality: All humans are born with a natural, moral code. A moral code implies a moral code giver, aka God.

* Christianity and logic

### Presuppositional apologetics[edit]

Presuppositional Apologetics seek to defend Christian belief by showing that belief in Christian precepts is necessary to make sense of the human experience as a whole.

### Growth of Christian apologetics in the world today while atheist apologetics is stagnating[edit]

Today, there is a growth of Christian apologetics in the world, while the atheist apologetic community is in a state of stagnation. See: Growth of Christian apologetics

## Christian Apologetics and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ[edit]

Dr. Simon Greenleaf is often cited in the field of Christian legal apologetics.

See also: Christian Apologetics and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is critical to the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" (I Cor:15:14). Traditionally, Christianity has believed in a physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.[8] The Christian apologist Michael Horner of CRU has an excellent resource which offers a defense of the resurrection of Jesus Christ entitled Did Jesus really rise from the dead?. In addition, Dr. Gary Habermas offers an online audio library which defends the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In recent history, Dr. Gary Habermas is considered the foremost Christian apologist for defending the resurrection of Jesus.[9][10][11][12][13] Dr. Habermas had a debate against the philosopher Antony Flew regarding the resurrection which was chronicled in the work Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate and the debate had a panel of debate judges. J. Hampton Keathley, III, Th.M. in his essay Evidences for the Resurrection wrote: "The decision of the judges were as follows. The panel of philosophers judging content cast four votes for Habermas who argued for the fact of the resurrection, none for Flew, and one draw. The panel of professional debate judges voted three to two, also in favor of Habermas, this time regarding the method of argumentation technique." [14]

In recent history some notable defenders of the resurrection include: William Lane Craig, Ben Witherington, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Edwin M. Yamauchi, N.T. Wright and Michael Horner.[15][16][17][18][19]

Legal scholars, legal authorities, and eminent lawyers such as Simon Greenleaf, John Warwick Montgomery, Lord Darling, John Singleton Copley, Hugo Grotius, Lord Caldecote, J. N. D. Anderson, Lionel Luckhoo, and many others have asserted that western legal standards argue for the resurrection of Christ.[20][21][22][23][24]

## Christian Apologetic Ministries[edit]

There are a number of Internet based Christian apologetic Ministries or Christian apologetics ministries which have an Internet presence. Some of the more notable Christian apologetic ministries are: Reasonable Faith, Ravi Zacharias Ministries, Fixed Point Foundation,[25] Tekton Apologetics Ministries, LeadershipU, Probe Ministries, Christian Answers Network, Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, A Christian Thinktank, Answers for Hope, Brace E. Barber and Catholic Answers.[26]

Brace E. Barber leads a Christian Apologetics Ministry. Brace brings a message of hope along with step-by-step instructions to churches, parents and organizations in order retain youth raised in Christian homes in the Christian faith. Brace challenges commonly held assumptions about the shallow nature of Christian youth education. Brace is a West Point graduate and Army Veteran. He brings a military-strategist mindset to the problem of the loss of youth from the Christian Church. He provides insights, analysis and solutions to solve the problem.

## Christian websites with a large focus on the topic of atheism[edit]

True Freethinker is a Christian apologetics website run by Ken Ammi which offers many refutations of atheism.

See also: Atheism vs. Christianity

Four of the more notable Christian apologetics which have a large focus on the topic of atheism are: True Freethinker, the Creation Ministries International resources on atheism and the Fixed Point Foundation website.

## Christian apologetics clubs on college campuses[edit]

Ratio Christi is a global movement that equips university students and faculty to give historical, philosophical, and scientific reasons for following Jesus Christ.

The Christian apologetics organization Stand to Reason wrote:

“  |  Ratio Christi, a fairly new apologetics organization that is seeking to change the intellectual atmosphere at universities by bringing Christianity into public, academic discussion. Their goal is to start on-campus apologetics clubs at 500 universities in the next five years. This is where you come in--because it’s also Ratio Christi’s goal to connect each of these clubs with a person who has been trained in apologetics (but who probably has a different day job) to act as chapter director.

Ratio Christi helps each chapter organize one or two campus-wide events a year by connecting them with speakers and debaters like William Lane Craig and Gary Habermas, helping them find the funding, etc. But after the event has come and gone, the lay apologist is still there to lead discussions and interact with the Christians, skeptics, atheists, and seekers who may never have realized that Christianity has a weighty intellectual tradition behind it.[27]

|  ”

|
|

## Christianity apologetics and the developing world[edit]

See also: Christian apologetics and education

Because of the rapid growth of Christianity in the developing world where people often have modest incomes, there is a large pent up demand for theological/Christian apologetic higher education which has spawned various initiatives such as Trinity Graduate School of Apologetics and Theology which offers free/low cost training in these academic disciplines.[28][29] Trinity has over 40 international, highly qualified, and highly experienced faculty members and mentors.[30] The majority of degrees obtained through Trinity are done so through distance learning over the internet.

Students from developing countries receive a free education from Trinity and students from developed countries pay a nominal registration, but they pay no fees.[31]

## Growth of creationist apologetics and its effect on Christendom[edit]

Answers in Genesis is a Christian apologetics ministry which offers origins apologetics and other Christian apologetics.

See also: Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International and Global creationism and Growth of evangelical Christianity

Dr. Johnson C. Philip & Dr. Saneesh Cherian wrote in their work Introduction To Integrated Christian Apologetics]]:

“  |  American evangelical Christians have began to notice in the fifties that compromise is a slow poison that ultimately destroys respect for truth. Some of them came together and started writing aggressively on themes defending the historical and scientific reliability of the Bible. This gave birth to the modern interest in Apologetics and Creationism. At the dawn of the twenty-first century the influence of this revival has spread all over the world, and today more than one hundred and fifty organizations function around the world, devoted solely to apologetics. Their influence has be so strong that a large number of Seminaries all around the world have begun assert the historical and scientific reliability of the Bible...

...with the birth of the modern creationism and apologetics, a revival set in motion among the evangelical Christians. This group became quite vocal and aggressive in the sixties, and by seventies they started exerting significant influence among theologians, thinkers, and the Bible teachers all over the world.

Thousands of apologetic books, hundreds of magazines, and tens of thousands of articles have been produced defending the Bible since. In turn, this has started to diminish the influence of rationalists and radicals on Christians.

From the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century the rationalists had their heyday, snatching away millions of young people from their Christian faith and commitment. The wounds of this loss can been seen in Christendom even today, but at the same time this loss has been greatly minimized now because of the work of Christian apologists.

Today anyone desiring to know about the Bible, and its connection with science, evolution, history, archaeology, has read any number of books on this topic. Literally thousands of titles are available, and he can choose anywhere from the most simple books to the most technically advanced ones. Thus the modern apologetics movement has been able to arrest the way in which rationalists have been bleeding the Christian church.[32]

|  ”

|
|

## Recommended books[edit]

Ex-atheist Lee Strobel

General Christian apologetics:

* Carl Gallups, The Magic Man in the Sky: Effectively Defending the Christian Faith, WND Books, 2012, ISBN 1936488523 [1]
* Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict Fully Updated To Answer The Questions Challenging Christians Today, 1999, ISBN 0785242198
* Lee Strobel, Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus , Zondervan, 1998, ISBN 0310209307
* Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, Kregel Publications, 2004, ISBN 0825427886
* Brace E. Barber, TESTED: A New Strategy for Keeping Kids in the Faith 2018, ISBN 978-0967829241

Old Testament apologetics:

* Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable & Relevant?, IVP Academic, 2001, ISBN 0830819754
* Kenneth Kitchen, On The Reliability of the Old Testament, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006. ISBN 0802803962

Biblical creation apologetics:

* Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution, Master Books, 1999 (Free on-line version) ISBN 0890512582
* Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution 2, Master Books, 2002,(Free on-line version) ISBN 0890513872
* Phillip Johnson, Darwin on Trial. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois. 1991[33] ISBN 0-8308-1324-1
* Duane Gish, Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!, El Cajon: Institute for Creation Research, 1996[34] ISBN 9780890511121

* R. C. Sproul, Not a Chance: The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology, Baker Book House: 1994[35] ISBN 080105852X

### Christian apologetics books on atheism[edit]

* Christian apologetics books on atheism

## Major Christian apologetics websites and their web traffic[edit]

See: Major Christian apologetics websites and their web traffic

## See also[edit]

* Resources on becoming a Christian
* 22 arguments for the existence of God
* Philosophical naturalism
* Eucharistic miracles
* Atheism
* Evolution
* Christian apologetics website resources
* Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)
* Israel Tourism for some biblical archaeological sites available to tourists
* Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective
* List of proofs of God
* Essay: How to "get" a church For the experience of the supernatural as aid to the acceptance of the miraculous of the Biblical story
* Essay: The superiority of the King James Bible: Looking through! For the support that correct linguistic understanding gives to the resolutiion and reasonableness of apparently confusing, conflicting, or non convincing understandings.
* "Catholic Heresies and Traditions Adopted and Perpetuated by the Roman Catholic Church in the Course of 1600 Years"
* Adiabene for the support of history for the Biblical Son and rule of David
* House of David for the support of archaeology and epigraphy for the Biblical witness to David and David's kingdom
* New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective For the contemporary 1st century and normative Jewish approach and custom authenticating New Testament data and perspective.
* Life and Doctrine

## External links[edit]

See also: Christian apologetics websites and articles and Major Christian apologetics websites and their web traffic

* Christian apologetics by Answers in Genesis

### Introduction to Christian apologetics video series[edit]

* Introduction to Christian apologetics video series

### General Christian apologetics websites[edit]

* SearchCreation.org Search Engine
* Christian apologetics
* Stand to Reason
* Apologetics.com
* Tekton Apologetics Ministries
* Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
* Probe Ministries -Christian Apologetics
* Christian Apologetics Wiki -- Wiki-based Christian apologetics
* 10 Reasons to Believe
* Christian Research Institute
* Typologetics - Apologetics through literary analysis of the sacred texts

### Historical and legal apologetics[edit]

Historical apologetics:

* Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? by Michael Horner
* Journal articles of Dr. Gary Habermas
* Are the Biblical Documents Reliable?
* The Impossible faith by JP Holding

Christian legal apologetics:

* Christian legal apologetics

### Bible archaeology[edit]

* Bible archaeology
* St. Luke, archaeology, Book of Acts
* Archaeology and the Book of Acts
* Archaeology and the Book of Acts \- Gordon College
* Book of Acts - Paul's travels
* Archaeology and the Old Testament by Patrick Zukeran
* The Archaeological Evidence for the Bible is Non-Existent! A reply from James F. Williams

Bible archaeology and dating:

* Dating in Archaeology: Challenges to Biblical Credibility by Garry K. Brantley, M.A., M.Div.

### Christian worldview/Christian philosophy[edit]

* Ravi Zacharias, modern apologist
* Stand to Reason
* Leadership U
* Worldview Academy

Videos on atheism:

* Videos on atheism

Websites, articles and videos focusing on atheism:

* Atheism website resources
* True Free Thinker.
* Fixed Point Foundation -- Committed to publicly defending Christianity by empowering Christians and challenging skeptics.
* Rebuttals to common atheist arguments

### Creation science ministries and other resources[edit]

* The International Association For Creation
* The Creation Network
* The Big Map of Creation
* Creation Ministries International
* Answers in Genesis
* Institute for Creation Science

Conservapedia articles on evolution and creation science:

* Evolution
* Creation science

### Bible prophecy articles and websites[edit]

Analysis of Bible prophecy from Christian scholars/apologists

* Science speaks - Prophetic accuracy by Dr. Peter Stoner
* Public Theology and Prophecy Data - Factual Evidence that Counts for a Worldview by Dr. John Bloom, Robert C. Newman, and Hugh G. Gouch, Jr.
* The Case for Jesus the Messiah — Incredible Prophecies that Prove God Exist by Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon and Dr. Walter Kaiser Jr.
* The Case for Jesus the Messiah — Incredible Prophecies that Prove God Exist - Part Two by Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon and Dr. Walter Kaiser Jr.
* AboutBibleprophecy
* Prophecy about Jesus
* Defense of city of Tyre prophecy

Rebuttal to atheist Steven Carr concerning Bible prophecy:

* Steven Carr's The Jury Is In Chapter 11: Rebuttal by JP Holding

### Biblical inerrancy resources[edit]

* Tekton Apologetics Ministries
* Christian Thinktank
* Inerrancy.org
* A Christian Thinktank

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Integrated Apologetics at CreationWiki.
2. ↑ e.g. Acts 18:25-26; James 5:19-20.
3. ↑ William Paley - William Carey University
4. ↑ Evidences for God From Space--Laws of Science
5. ↑ Thompson, Bert, So Long, Eternal Universe; Hello Beginning, Hello End!, 2001 (Apologetics Press)
6. ↑ http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences14.html
7. ↑ http://www.harvardhouse.com/Science-Religion.htm
8. ↑ http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/crj0056a.txt
9. ↑ http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/dialog_rexperience/dialog_rexperiences.htm
10. ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/books/lichabrvw.html
11. ↑ http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/NTeSources/NTArticles/CTR-NT/Habermas-Resurrection2-CTR.pdf
12. ↑ http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/crj_explainingaway/crj_explainingaway.htm
13. ↑ http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/historical_apologetics/habermas-nt.html
14. ↑ http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=639
15. ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/historical.html
16. ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html
17. ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/yama.html
18. ↑ http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Early_Traditions.htm
19. ↑ http://powertochange.com/discover/faith/jesusrose1/
20. ↑ http://www.bibleteacher.org/sgtestimony.htm
21. ↑ http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissart1.htm
22. ↑ http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0302W3.htm
23. ↑ http://lawreligionculturereview.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_lawreligionculturereview_archive.html
24. ↑ http://www.trinitysem.edu/journal/philjohnsonpap.html
25. ↑ http://www.fixed-point.org
26. ↑ http://www.catholic.com
27. ↑ Ratio Christi Apologetics Clubs
28. ↑ Global survey documents theological education trends, Anglican Community News Service, September 19, 2013
29. ↑ Why Free Graduate Theology Programs
30. ↑ Trinity International Committee
31. ↑ Why Free Graduate Theology Programs
32. ↑ Introduction To Integrated Christian Apologetics, Dr. Johnson C. Philip & Dr. Saneesh Cherian
33. ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/darwin.html
34. ↑ https://www.icr.org/store/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=2176
35. ↑ http://www.ldolphin.org/chance.html