Questions to be answered:
1. What is apologetics? (Hint: It does not mean saying “Sorry, I am a Christian!”)
2. Why is it important to learn to be a Christian apologist?
3. What scripture verse guides us in apologetics?
4. How should we present ourselves to others as we explain our Christian faith to them?
5. Is there a place for doubt?
6. What is “the ultimate apologetic”?
(1) Apologetics
A basic definition: From the Greek apologia, which means “defense.” For Christians, it is the reasoned defense of their faith.
An expanded definition: “Christian apologetics lays before the watching world a winsome embodiment of the Christian faith that for any and all who are willing to observe there will be an intellectually and emotionally credible witness to its fundamental truth.” James Sire, A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics
(2) Importance of Apologetics
Being able to give a reasoned (logical) explanation of the Christian faith will allow you better to present that faith to interested unbelievers and to defend it against those who are skeptical or even hostile.
(3) Key Scripture
1 Peter 3:15
English Standard Version
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,….
(4) Our Approach
The passage from 1 Peter highlights for us that apologetics is not about arguing people into heaven but loving them in. We should present ourselves humbly, not arrogantly; gently, not harshly; and respectfully, not rudely. Remember, it is the Holy Spirit who will convict our listeners of the truth of the gospel, not you. Not everyone who heard Jesus accepted him, and not everyone to whom Paul preached was convinced.
(5) Doubt
Remember the story of the man whose son was possessed by an evil spirit from childhood? He said to Jesus, “And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:22-24, ESV
· Apologetics isn’t only “I understand therefore I believe,” but can also be “faith seeking understanding.”
· How did Jesus respond to doubt? Read John 20:24-29: Jesus and Thomas
A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or too indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe what they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after reflection.
Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts – not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’. It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them. Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive…. [S]uch a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
(6) The Ultimate Apologetic
But now I want to share with you what I believe to be the most effective and practical apologetic for the Christian faith that I know of. This apologetic will help you to win more persons to Christ than all the other arguments in your apologetic arsenal put together….
According to Jesus, our love is a sign to all people that we are his disciples (John 13:35); but even more than that, our love and unity are living proof to the world that God the Father has sent his Son Jesus Christ and that the Father loves people even as he loves Jesus. When people see this – our love for one another and our unity through love – then they will in turn be drawn to Christ and will respond to the gospel’s offer of salvation. More often than not, it is who you are rather than what you say that will bring an unbeliever to Christ.
This, then, is the ultimate apologetic. For the ultimate apologetic is – your life. William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith
Questions to be answered:
1. Why start with Jesus?
2. Was Jesus of Nazareth a real person?
3. Did Jesus claim to be God? Is Jesus divine?
4. Was Jesus really raised from the dead?
(1) Meet Jesus First
Why should we do this? “I am convinced that the strongest case for the Christian faith is Jesus himself. This may not appear to be an argument, but it is. What, after all, are we arguing for? Is it not that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Savior and Lord of the universe? If so, then meeting Jesus will be all that is required….
“So what is our argument? Come and meet him. Come and see. See him come alive before you as you read the Gospels.” James Sire, A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics
Jesus himself says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Revelation 22:13
(2) The Historicity of Jesus – Evidence Beyond the Bible
“There can be no serious question about Jesus’ existence. He certainly walked this earth. We need no archaeological evidence to tell us this or even to confirm it.” Hershel Shanks, The Brother of Jesus. Shanks, a Jew, was the editor of “Biblical Archaeology Review” and founder of the Biblical Archaeological Society.
· Tacitus (c.55/56 – c. 118 A.D.), a Roman senator and arguably the best of Roman historians
His last major work, Annals, written c. 116-117 A.D., includes a biography of Emperor Nero, who, during a fire in Rome in 64 A.D., was suspected of secretly ordering the burning of a part of town where he wanted to build something new. So, Nero tried to switch the blame to Christians. Tacitus despised Christians, so here is what he wrote:
“[N]either human effort nor the emperor’s generosity nor the placating of the gods ended the scandalous belief that the fire had been ordered [by Nero]. Therefore, to put down the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameless acts … whom the crowd called ‘Chrestians.’ The founder of this name, Christ [Christus in Latin] had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate ….”
· Josephus, a Jewish priest who grew up as an aristocrat in first-century Palestine and ended up living in Rome, supported by patronage from three different emperors. Like Tacitus, he was not a Christian.
In his great work of history, Jewish Antiquities (written c. 93 A.D.), Josephus wrote about the execution of Jesus’s brother James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, by the high priest Ananus during the temporary absence of a Roman governor in 62 A.D.:
“Being therefore this kind of person [i.e. a heartless Sadducee], Ananus, thinking he had a favorable opportunity … called a meeting [literally, ‘sanhedrin’] of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah … James by name, and some others. He made the accusation that they had transgressed the law, and he handed them over to be stoned.”
In a longer passage (with suspected later additions by a Christian(s) in italics), Josephus wrote: “Around this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who did surprising deeds, and a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who in the first place came to love him did not give up their affection for him, for on the third day, he appeared to them restored to life. The prophets of God had prophesied this and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, have still to this day not died out.
Summary: Non-Christian historians Tacitus, a Roman, and Josephus, a Jew, confirm the following facts about Jesus that we find in our New Testament:
(1) He existed as a man.
(2) His personal name was Jesus.
(3) He was called Christos (a translation of the Hebrew word Messiah) in Greek.
(4) He had a brother named James.
(5) He won over both Jews and “Greeks” (Gentiles of Hellenistic culture).
(6) Jewish leaders of the day expressed unfavorable opinions about him.
(7) Pilate rendered the decision that he should be executed.
(8) His execution was specifically by crucifixion.
(9) He was executed during Pontius Pilate’s governorship.
Lawrence Mykytiuk, “Did Jesus Exist?”, Biblical Archaeology Review (January/February 2015)
(3) The Divinity of Jesus
· Examples of Jesus’s own claims
Mark 2: 1-12 – Jesus forgives the sins of a paralyzed man (and then heals him). Jewish scribes, upon hearing Jesus, said “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Clearly, they understood him to be claiming divinity.
Mark 14:61-64 – Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy.” Again, Jesus’s audience had no doubt that he was claiming divine status. They knew that Daniel 7:13-14 and Psalm 110:1-2, which Jesus used to speak of himself, were signs of divine authority. Accordingly, they condemned him to death, the penalty for blasphemy.
John 10:30-33 - 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
John 8:58 - 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
John’s gospel includes many statements by Jesus that begin with “I am….” (Specifically, the bread of life; the light of the world; the door of the sheep; the good shepherd; the resurrection and the life; the way the truth, and the life; and the true vine.) The words “I am” in Greek use the same expression as the Greek version of Exodus 3:14 in which God identifies himself to Moses as “I am who I am.” John 8:58 is the clearest expression of Jesus’s divine identity among these “I am” statements. He is claiming not only to be eternal, but to be the God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. His Jewish opponents understood this immediately, as they prepared to stone him for blasphemy.
· C.S Lewis’s “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord” argument
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was the 20th century’s greatest Christian apologist (after he rejected his long-held atheism!) In his most famous work, Mere Christianity, he makes the case that Jesus Christ is exactly who he said he was – namely, God.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. 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 the 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.
(4) The Truth of the Resurrection
· In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes clear that the foundation of Christian faith is an historical event. Either Jesus was raised from the dead and we have hope of eternal life, or he remained dead and buried and our faith is in vain. “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.’” 1 Corinthians 15:32 (Paul quoting the prophet Isaiah)
· Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-19. What is “the gospel” that Paul preached? What evidence does Paul cite to establish the historical reliability of the resurrection?
· Read the 4 gospel accounts of the empty tomb: Mark 16:1-8; Matthew 28:1-10; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10. In what ways are these accounts similar? In what ways do they differ? What would you think if they were identical to each other?
· Christian evangelist and apologist Josh McDowell makes a very strong case that the gospel writers were telling the truth about Jesus being raised from the dead. In his famous article, “If I Had Faked the Resurrection,” McDowell lists the things which the New Testament authors should have done if they wanted to spread a lie:
Wait a prudent period after the event before publishing my account. 1 Corinthians, for example, was written in the early 50s, only 20 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2) occurred within 50 days of the resurrection!
Publish my account far from the venue where it supposedly happened. Christian belief in the resurrection originated in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus was crucified, and where there were lots of his enemies.
Select my witnesses very carefully. Avoid using names. Certainly don’t rely on the testimony of women as they were not considered valid witnesses in the culture of the time.
Surround the event with supernatural displays. No human eye saw the resurrection itself (only the resurrected Jesus), so some fanciful embellishments would be in order.
Painstakingly correlate my account with others. Avoid the befuddling differences we saw when we read the four gospel accounts.
Disguise the location of the tomb (or destroy it.) This way no one could ever find the body.
Squelch inquiry or investigation. Certainly not advertise that most of the 500 witnesses cited by Paul were still alive (1 Cor 15:6), thereby inviting people to go and ask them if they didn’t believe him.
Not preach a message of repentance. Who wants to hear that?
Stop short of dying for my lie. People won’t die for something they know not to be true. On the other hand, as Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist wrote: “I believe those witnesses who get their throats cut.”
·
Examples of Jesus’s own claims
Mark 2: 1-12 – Jesus forgives the sins of a paralyzed man (and then heals him). Jewish scribes, upon hearing Jesus, said “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Clearly, they understood him to be claiming divinity.
Mark 14:61-64 – Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy.” Again, Jesus’s audience had no doubt that he was claiming divine status. They knew that Daniel 7:13-14 and Psalm 110:1-2, which Jesus used to speak of himself, were signs of divine authority. Accordingly, they condemned him to death, the penalty for blasphemy.
John 10:30-33 - 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
John 8:58 - 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
John’s gospel includes many statements by Jesus that begin with “I am….” (Specifically, the bread of life; the light of the world; the door of the sheep; the good shepherd; the resurrection and the life; the way the truth, and the life; and the true vine.) The words “I am” in Greek use the same expression as the Greek version of Exodus 3:14 in which God identifies himself to Moses as “I am who I am.” John 8:58 is the clearest expression of Jesus’s divine identity among these “I am” statements. He is claiming not only to be eternal, but to be the God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. His Jewish opponents understood this immediately, as they prepared to stone him for blasphemy.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was the 20th century’s greatest Christian apologist (after he rejected his long-held atheism!) In his most famous work, Mere Christianity, he makes the case that Jesus Christ is exactly who he said he was – namely, God.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. 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 the 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.
· In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes clear that the foundation of Christian faith is an historical event. Either Jesus was raised from the dead and we have hope of eternal life, or he remained dead and buried and our faith is in vain. “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.’” 1 Corinthians 15:32 (Paul quoting the prophet Isaiah)
· Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-19. What is “the gospel” that Paul preached? What evidence does Paul cite to establish the historical reliability of the resurrection?
· Read the 4 gospel accounts of the empty tomb: Mark 16:1-8; Matthew 28:1-10; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10. In what ways are these accounts similar? In what ways do they differ? What would you think if they were identical to each other?
· Christian evangelist and apologist Josh McDowell makes a very strong case that the gospel writers were telling the truth about Jesus being raised from the dead. In his famous article, “If I Had Faked the Resurrection,” McDowell lists the things which the New Testament authors should have done if they wanted to spread a lie:
Wait a prudent period after the event before publishing my account. 1 Corinthians, for example, was written in the early 50s, only 20 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2) occurred within 50 days of the resurrection!
Publish my account far from the venue where it supposedly happened. Christian belief in the resurrection originated in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus was crucified, and where there were lots of his enemies.
Select my witnesses very carefully. Avoid using names. Certainly don’t rely on the testimony of women as they were not considered valid witnesses in the culture of the time.
Surround the event with supernatural displays. No human eye saw the resurrection itself (only the resurrected Jesus), so some fanciful embellishments would be in order.
Painstakingly correlate my account with others. Avoid the befuddling differences we saw when we read the four gospel accounts.
Disguise the location of the tomb (or destroy it.) This way no one could ever find the body.
Squelch inquiry or investigation. Certainly not advertise that most of the 500 witnesses cited by Paul were still alive (1 Cor 15:6), thereby inviting people to go and ask them if they didn’t believe him.
Not preach a message of repentance. Who wants to hear that?
Stop short of dying for my lie. People won’t die for something they know not to be true. On the other hand, as Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist wrote: “I believe those witnesses who get their throats cut.”
Chuck Colson was former White House Counsel and President Nixon’s “hatchet man.” It was said he would run over his grandmother to get President Nixon re-elected. In the course of the Watergate scandal (a cover-up by the Nixon administration of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C.), he became a Christian, pled guilty to obstruction of justice, and served seven months in a federal penitentiary. In 1976, after his release, he founded Prison Fellowship, which is our country’s largest prison ministry. In 1979, he founded Prison Fellowship International, the world’s largest prison ministry. His best known book is the powerful story of his conversion, Born Again. In another of his great books, Loving God, Colson explains how the collapse of the Watergate cover-up conspiracy “proves” that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true.
I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world -and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.
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