Appologetics – Page 3 – “Reasons for the Faith, aka Apologetics”

Thinking and Communicating Foundationally

I wrote in The Authority of Scripture, that it matters what Christians believe about Genesis.

Genesis Chapters 1 – 11: God’s Eyewitness Account is our sure Foundation.

It also matters that we have a clear understanding of the foundation that Genesis chapters 1-11 provides for the Gospel, and indeed for all aspects of our faith.

Genesis 1:26-28 explains that God created human beings in His image, male & female. In

Genesis 2:20-25, God also defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Genesis 3:1-24 illustrates how sin and death entered the world, and that we need a Savior to spare us from the consequences of our sins.

Genesis 6:9 – 8:22 narrates the events of the worldwide flood, which explains the existence of the worldwide fossil record.

Genesis 9:18-19 and 10:1-32 show that there is only one race – the human race. We all came from Noah’s sons and daughters-in-law. The modern science of Genetics, via the Human Genome Project, affirms the Bible’s teaching on that.

Genesis 11:1-9 records that all the different people groups were scattered across the earth away from the Tower of Babel, where climate factors such as heat and cold led to the variations in skin tone and other surface characteristics we now observe.

Communicating Between the Competing Foundations.

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis demonstrated the importance of understanding one’s own Biblical foundation, and of recognizing the different foundation that dominates our culture. He described how to have a calm discussion over some often-heated issues.

Ken gave a speech at the University of Central Oklahoma in front of an audience that included many who were hostile to Ken and his message. Ken took the time gently to explain what he believes and why he believes it. He then acknowledged that people who have the foundation of man’s word instead of God’s word will understandably come to different conclusions about issues such as gender, marriage, and abortion.

He then stressed our common humanity, stating: we are all related. The audience actually applauded that observation!

See: The Relevance of Genesis in a Secular World with Ken Ham for all the details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPOiy4xtUPM

Teaching the Generations to Think Foundationally

We live in a culture that constantly reinforces the “man’s word” foundation. Our schools, universities, government agencies, public libraries, TV, movies, and social media operate from those assumptions. The culture is openly hostile to God’s word.

We must remain vigilant to spot the atheistic assumptions that are presented as scientific fact, such as Darwinian evolution. We also need to be diligent to teach our kids and grandkids the skeptics’ common objections and the Biblical answers to them. People walk away from the faith when the skeptical objections go unanswered. If the objections go unanswered, they must be true, right?

We need to learn the common objections such as: “Science has proven there is no God;” and “a loving God wouldn’t allow so much evil and suffering.” We also need to learn the Biblically sound answers to those objections. Finally, we need to train our kids and grandkids in how to recognize and respond to the objections.

Conclusion

Our marching orders as Apologists come from 1 Peter 3:15-16, where we are instructed always to be ready with an answer for anyone who asks for the hope we have, and to do so with gentleness and respect.

I think Ken gives us a great example to follow.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

The Inerrancy of Scripture

It matters what Christians Believe About the Inerrancy of Scripture.

John MacArthur of Ligonier Ministries answers the question: “What would you say to a Christian who denies the inerrancy of Scripture?”

See this 9:30 video produced by Genesis Apologetics on the Reliability of Scripture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAH_-Du2428

MacArthur comes in at roughly the 6:57 mark. He spells out the serious consequences that flow from believing that the Bible is not inerrant:

You are denying God’s own claims for the Bible

You are denying what the Holy Spirit, the author of Scripture, says about Scripture (that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God; that every word is pure; that Scripture is God-breathed.)

You are denying every time in Scripture that it says “thus says The Lord…”

You are denying the overall superintending power of God over His Revelation.

It says that you are the judge of Scripture. You just made yourself the authority over the Bible. You’re the one we have to trust to tell us what’s true and not true in the Bible.

The only reason you deny inerrancy is because there is something in the Bible you don’t like. You’ve then said that “what the Bible says can’t be true.”

Once you’ve broken a link in the chain of Scripture, how do we know that anything in it is true? When the Bible claims inspiration for all of it, and you break that, what do you do? How do you trust any of it?

You could say you don’t believe in the Biblical account of Creation, that you believe in evolution instead. Evolution isn’t in Genesis. the question then becomes If that’s not true, what else isn’t, and who is the person who will tell us what is and isn’t true?

You literally unravel the Scripture if you Deny it’s inerrancy.

What is Biblical Inerrancy?

According to https://www.theopedia.com/inerrancy:

“Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrines or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.”[1] The conservative evangelical stance on inerrancy was most recently and thoroughly articulated in 1978 in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.

For a longer exploration of Biblical inspiration and inerrancy, see:

https://answersingenesis.org/is-the-bible-true/why-should-we-believe-in-the-inerrancy-of-scripture/

Conclusion

As Apologists, we are called on always to be ready with an answer (1 Pet. 3:15). I think readiness includes having a firm grasp on why we have the confidence that we have in God’s Word.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

The Authority of Scripture

It matters what Christians believe about Genesis.

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis (A.I.G.) has helped me understand why it matters whether or not Christians believe what Genesis says about the creation of the heavens and the earth.

Do we accept God’s eyewitness testimony about His creation, or do we allow man’s interpretation to rule instead?

The Devil led Adam and Eve to sin by questioning God’s word. “Did God really say…?”

The Devil is still using what Ken calls a Genesis 3 attack on God’s word. Now he is getting us to question whether God really created the world in six 24-hour days.

He is very cleverly using the words of scientists to intimidate us with the false dichotomy of “God or Science.” Nobody wants to be branded as “anti-science.”

Our schools have adopted the religion of atheistic naturalism. Darwinian macro-evolution is taught as if were scientifically proven. The Bible is characterized as mythology. These factors no doubt contribute to the 60%+ attrition rate of our young people abandoning the faith.

If Christians accept the Darwinian assertion that the earth is millions of years old, we are telling our children that we don’t trust God’s word on the subject of the creation. We should not be surprised that they have stopped trusting the rest of scripture.

Answers in Genesis has answers to the skeptics’ questions about creation.

We need to equip our kids with answers to the questions asked by those who are hostile to God.

According to the A.I.G. website https://answersingenesis.org/

“Answers in Genesis is an apologetics (i.e., Christianity-defending) ministry, dedicated to enabling Christians to defend their faith and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. We focus particularly on providing answers to questions surrounding the book of Genesis, as it is the most-attacked book of the Bible. We also desire to train others to develop a biblical worldview, and seek to expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas, and its bedfellow, a “millions of years old” earth (and even older universe).”

A.I.G. produces and disseminates comprehensive research. It employs or otherwise collaborates with a wide range of scientists, including Dr. Georgia Purdom (PhD in molecular genetics – Ohio State University) Dr. Gabriela Haynes (Ph.D. in Geology/Paleontology – Federal University of Ceará State in Brazil), and Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson (PhD in cell and developmental biology -Harvard University).

Please check out Ken’s presentation: “Communicating the Christian Message in a Secularized Culture,” where he gives a succinct explanation of the new obstacles our culture poses to preaching the Gospel in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRcY08hMg0&t=1483s

Conclusion

There are scores of Godly men and women toiling in the Apologetics vineyard. A.I.G. is tending one of the rows that, in my opinion, has been somewhat neglected.

I encourage you to add their ministry to your list of resources.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Christmas Myths Old and New

Mike Winger of BibleThinker.org is doing yeoman work combatting myths about Christmas.

Old Myths that Will Not Die

Here’s his YouTube video in which he takes on “the usual suspects,” i.e., those myths that we have to refute every year:

Is Christmas PAGAN? In defense of Christmas.

“Is Jesus just a rehashed pagan deity? Is December 25th the birthday of pagan gods? Christmas trees are pagan? Where did Santa come from? Is there anything wrong with celebrating Christmas? What is the REAL threat to Christmas today?”

Mike provides accurate information about Mithras and Horus and Dionysus, pagan deities that some Atheists claim were the model for Jesus. Unlike the New Testament documentary evidence for Jesus, there are no actual ancient sources for these myths.

Even the specific claims about these deities show they don’t parallel the virgin birth of Jesus.

December 25^th is not the Roman celebration of Saturnalia. Saturnalia isn’t remotely like the celebration of Christmas, for that matter.

No, the Bible doesn’t forbid us from celebrating feasts/holidays beyond the ones specifically mentioned in the Old Testament.

Christmas trees are not pagan.

A New Myth

Here’s his video posted on 12/17/18 in which he takes on a more recent myth, namely, that Christmas Trees are frowned upon all the way back in the book of Jeremiah:

Christmas Trees Are Not in The Bible:

“When we read Jeremiah 10 in context it is obvious that it is not about Christmas trees or anything like it.”

Mike says that the context of Jeremiah 10 is clearly about the practice of idolatry. The ideas of Christmas trees didn’t exist back in the times of Jeremiah. Mike notes that the people pushing this idea are trying to take a modern idea and force-fit it back into the Old Testament.

Timeless Wisdom

Pastor Greg Laurie said it well: “Text without context can be a dangerous pretext.”

I encourage you to check out each video and then discuss them with family and friends. Doing so can help prevent the Grinch from messing with your Christmas joy!

I also encourage everyone to subscribe to Mike Winger’s YouTube channel, Bible thinker – Clearly Teaching and Defending Biblical Truth.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7u2HaYBKDaLPcWmldxgGEA

Merry Christmas!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Objective Morality? Not Without God!

Many Atheists are also moral relativists who believe there is no objective standard of morality, i.e., right and wrong. There is a strong, logical case for the existence of objective morality. Once an Atheist recognizes that there is objective morality, he then grasps at any possible reason to continue denying God’s existence.

One argument they try is that the objective morality simply evolved in our DNA as humans themselves evolved.

Apologists Discuss the Atheistic Views About Objective Morality

I was prompted to ask some other Apologists about the validity of Atheists’ arguments.

Below is a thread from a private discussion group for graduates of the Cross-examined Instructors Academy on December 7 & 8, 2018, between Vada Hedgeman and yours truly.

1. (My first post): My son Ryan is an Apologist. He enjoys talking with his fellow Millennials who are Atheists. He gets push-back on his argument that the existence of the Moral Law is necessarily proof of God. What are some strong replies to the assertion that the Moral Law that is in each of us could have gotten there via evolution?

2. Vada Hedgeman (a fellow group member who lives in L.A.) replied: Well, in those topics I tend to listen to the Atheist’s position (whether they claim evolution or something else) because none of their answers explain why it’s not just a matter of opinion.

Every argument that I’ve ever heard, even the really good ones still leave me with this question “but why is it wrong if I were to disagree with that view and kill anyway? It’s still just a matter of opinion, correct?”

And it always is…. I was reading an article from an Atheist this week on this topic and it was pretty good but it just didn’t answer all of the questions. At the end of the day, it’s all just a matter of opinion in the Atheist view. Even if they say the strongest argument ever – it’s just their opinion at the end of the day unless we have a lawmaker who is telling us that murder/rape etc. is wrong.

Our very own Frank Turek (President of Cross-Examined) had a good interaction on this topic with Christopher Hitchens:

Here are a couple concise articles…. I got it from cross-examined because I like the way they concisely approach this topic

https://crossexamined.org/objections-objective-morality/

https://crossexamined.org/312/

3. (My reply to Vada): Thank you for your very thoughtful reply! Here’s a different objection from the Atheist: “OK, I agree there is a moral law that is part of our DNA. I just think that the moral law component of our DNA simply evolved and wasn’t put there by God.”

4. (From Vada): Well, my response would be that I didn’t say its part of our DNA… what makes them believe that moral law is part of our DNA?

Show me some proof of evidence that morality comes from DNA. And I’d hate to keep sending CrossExamined articles, but it just so happens I got a lot of info on this particular subject from CrossExamined. This article response to that exact objection, brother:

https://crossexamined.org/does-our-morality-come-from…/

5. (My reply to Vada) that DNA article was spot on! I think it will give Ryan exactly the response he needs. Bless you, my brother!

Can our Morality Come from Material (Our DNA)?

The article Vada sent to me was written by Neil Mammen, a circuit design engineer who lives in Silicon Valley. It does a good job of dismantling the argument that the moral law inherent in everyone could have come from material, i.e., our DNA. Here’s the coup de grace:

But here’s the problem I see with the DNA theory: If DNA is the source of our morality then can anyone really say that something is ACTUALLY wrong? Why is slavery wrong? After all, for most of the history of the human race, the majority of the human race and human cultures have felt and believed that slavery was acceptable (as long as THEY weren’t the slaves).

Please go read the full article.

Michael Oswald
michael@msochartered.com
http://www.msochartered.com
Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Equipping the Next Generation

I attended the Cross-Examined Instructors Academy 2018 (“CIA”) in Dallas last week. Frank Turek and his team really know how to put on a high-impact event!

Let’s All Help Equip Parents to Equip Their Kids.

I came away with crystal clarity that the highest Return On Investment for Apologists is for us to equip parents to equip their children to learn the Bible and confidently explain the reasons for the faith. This will go a long way toward reversing the heart-breaking trend of 60%+ of Christian kids leaving the faith after high school.

Natasha Crain’s Solution.

Natasha Crain, http://christianmomthoughts.com/, focuses on Christian Parenting. She told her story of starting a blog six years ago. She didn’t even know what Apologetics was at that time, but after getting hostile posts from several skeptics, she learned!

Natasha explained how our failure to learn Apologetics and teach it to our kids has resulted in the above-mentioned loss of 60%+ of our kids. If we don’t teach them the truth and teach them how to spot the lies that skeptics use, we leave them vulnerable. We need to prepare them in advance for the attacks that are coming.

Now, she helps parents bridge the gap between what Apologetics is, why it is important, and how to teach their kids. She helps parents respond to the challenges from skeptics. She observed that intellectual-sounding questions from skeptics cause kids to leave Christianity if they aren’t equipped to respond.

She has developed a 5-step method for parents to use in equipping their kids:

Commit to continually deepening their own understanding of Christianity and other world views such as Atheism.

Use teachable moments that come along AND create teachable moments of their own. Doing more of Step #1 creates more moments. Set aside 30 minutes each week to grow together as a family.

Study the Bible with their kids.

Regularly ask their kids what questions they have about Christianity. Parents needn’t fear questions, because Christianity is true!

Ask their kids the tough questions they aren’t asking the parents.

Proliferating the Solution.

Natasha just announced the Grassroots Apologetics for Parents (GAP) ministry she and her team are launching this fall. they have 40 chapters of GAP rolling out internationally in the pilot.

See here for more information: https://www.womeninapologetics.com/gap-program-kicks-off-this-fall/

How Can You Help Equip the Next Generation?

Please share this blog post with your networks of fellow Christ-followers.

Please also share news of other efforts that are focused on equipping parents to equip their kids.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

What Would You Like me to Learn at Apologetics Training?

I am looking forward to participating in the upcoming Cross-Examined Instructors Academy 2018 (“CIA”). https://crossexamined.org/what-is-cia/

I will have the opportunity to train under the guidance of Frank Turek, J. Warner Wallace, Natasha Crain, Sean McDowell, and other top Apologists.

If you had the chance to ask any or all of them some questions on the subject of Apologetics, what would you ask?

What are the challenges from skeptics that you would most like help answering?

I will write one or more articles about this after I get back from Dallas.

Please send your questions and challenges to me at michael@msochartered.com.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

How do we Know Christianity is True?

Why the Truth of Christianity Matters.

Parents, do you know how to keep your kids from becoming Atheists when they go off to college? Start training them early on about all the reasons to believe Christianity is true.

Proverbs 22:6 tells us we are to “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Training is different from teaching, as J. Warner Wallace wrote in his book Forensic Faith. He used the illustration of preparing for a boxing match. If you are only interested in learning about boxing, you can read a book on the subject. However, once a boxing match has been placed on the calendar, the boxer immediately starts getting into physical and mental condition to win the match.

Think of your child’s first year of college as boxing match. She is going to be in an environment that is openly hostile to the Christian faith. She needs to go through a long process of learning all the reasons to believe that Christianity is true. She also needs to practice the art of responding effectively to things that Atheists often say.

The popular culture is dominated by people who hold the Materialist world view. Entertainment, education, and government all teach that faith is hostile to science and should not be allowed in the public square. They define faith as “blind faith,” or “faith in spite of the evidence.”

Many of the people she will encounter will parrot things they hear popular Atheists such as Prof. Richard Dawkins say. Dawkins (among others) claims that faith is hostile to science. By respectfully asking (1) what do you mean by that? And (2) how did you come to that conclusion? It is possible to get them to realize that Atheism doesn’t have a very solid foundation. See the book Tactics by Greg Koukl for more on using what he calls The Columbo Tactic.

How Can We Know Christianity is True?

Frank Turek is co-author of the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. He says you only have to answer four questions in the affirmative to know that Christianity is True:

Does Truth Exist?

Post-modernists say there is no truth, while making the claim that post-modernism is true.

If someone says there is no such thing as truth, ask them: “Is that a true statement?”

If there is no truth, then anything written by an Atheist can’t be true.

You can’t get away from truth. It is objective and absolute.

Does God Exist?

There is a lot of evidence God exists, including scientific, historical, and logical evidence.

The scientific evidence known as the Big Bang shows that time, space, and matter all had a beginning. There was nothing, and then the entire space-time continuum leapt into existence out of nothing. (In the words of Aristotle, “Nothing is what rocks dream about.”)

Even Atheists admit that time, space, and matter had a beginning. Logic and reason tell you that anything which comes into existence must have a cause (or a creator). Nothing can cause itself to come into being. Therefore, whatever caused time, space and matter to exist must be timeless, space-less, and immaterial. It must also be personal, in order to make the choice to create something. It must also be incredibly intelligent and incredibly powerful to be able to create everything out of nothing.

Are Miracles Possible?

The greatest miracle of all is in the first verse of the Bible – in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If this is true, anything else that is not logically impossible is at least possible. Walking on water is easy for God – He created the water! God created life from non-life. He can raise someone from the dead.

Is the New Testament True?

Here is a summary of the reasons we can trust that the New Testament writers were telling the truth. The testimony was:

Eyewitness (the writers were either apostles of Jesus or people who spoke to the apostles and to others who knew Jesus);

Early (written while many other witnesses were available to refute any lies or errors);

Embarrassing (containing unflattering details the authors would not have invented);

Excruciating (some writers were tortured and killed for refusing to recant what they knew to be true about Jesus), and

Expected (the Old Testament contained many prophesies about the Messiah – see Isaiah Chapter 53).

If you are ready to sink your teeth into the evidence for the truth of Christianity, read the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.

Do All Religions Teach the Same Things?

A common myth permeating the secular culture is that all religions basically teach the same things, so Christianity isn’t really the only way to God (or to heaven, or to know the truth).

It is important to know that the different religions do NOT agree with that assertion. The basic beliefs of Pantheism, Islam, (and Materialism, for that matter) differ wildly from the Judeo-Christian worldview.

Further, only Christianity teaches salvation by grace and not by works.

Christian Apologist Ravi Zacharias (a former Hindu who grew up in India) is a master at helping separate fact from fiction in this regard.

I encourage everyone to view this brief (11:46) video with the unfortunate title “Ravi SCHOOLS a Skeptic at Yale University Q&A”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNuYJw_T350&t=134s

This title was selected by the person who posted the clip. It was not one chosen by Ravi or his team at RZIM. I say the title is unfortunate because it is unnecessarily combative. We are called to be winsome Apologists (please see my January 17, 2018 post on that very topic).

In response to the question of “What entitles us to believe that the Christian Faith is the exclusive means to truth?” Ravi first defines truth and what it means to know the truth.

Starting at the 4:15 mark, he explains what makes Jesus unique.

The Gospel meta-narrative is unique. Everything is designed to show that the problem with humanity is not outside ourselves, but inside ourselves. We have lost the purpose for which we were created, namely, to be in relationship with God. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind & strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands hang all the law and the prophets (in other words, the entire Old Testament). That imperative is unavailable from any other world view. We are made in the imago dei and are of infinite worth. We are all creatures in need of forgiveness.

The four absolutes we look for (evil, justice, love, and forgiveness) are answered in the life, death, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. These attributes about Jesus were prophesied, predicted, and exactly fulfilled.

Why does this matter to Americans? Only the Judeo-Christian worldview supports the Declaration of Independence.” Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights”. Pantheism doesn’t say that. Materialism doesn’t say that. Not even Islam says that. Only the Judeo-Christian worldview offers each of us intrinsic worth. Read the Gospel of John for the full story of Jesus.

Atheistic Materialism when taken to its honest and logical outworking ends with all life being nothing more than accident and chance. Even according to Atheist Richard Dawkins we are the products of blind pitiless indifference, machines of accidental happenstance. This logically means that things like morality, self- sacrifice, and justice are made up by humans and are of no real consequence. We know intrinsically that truth can be felt much more deeply by looking honestly at the world around us. We are not accidents of molecules bumping into one another, we are created beings of immense value and are loved by our Creator. Either human life has value and morality is just as real as the air we breathe, or it’s not and it’s just a difference of opinion between those who murder and those who love.

Are Atheists Smarter Than Christians?

Some high-profile Atheists such as Richard (The God Delusion) Dawkins assert that Atheists are smarter than Christians. They start from the assumption that only unintelligent people would believe in a supernatural being. This assumption is rebutted by evidence such as the Christians who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, led the Human Genome Project, etc., but it sounds plausible and is rarely challenged by journalists who interview Dawkins, et al.

In the latest Tru-ID podcast by Adam Coleman, Adam speaks with fellow Apologist Joel Furches. Starting at the 24:00 mark, Joel explains the importance of having Apologetics in the Churches. Among other things, he addresses studies purportedly linking intelligence in academics to Atheism.

Joel has a background in Psychology and Education. He describes how the education system is set up to reward those who are analytical and to discount those with other learning styles. Joel notes that people don’t think in just one way, so education should target all the ways people think. The people getting left in the dust are the intuiters. Joel notes that the average religious person tends to be more intuitive, while that average Atheist tends to be more analytical.

Joel noted that the higher one goes in education, the more one encounters hostility to religion. Joel asserts that the academy essentially manufactures Atheists.

Apologetics in the church gives the analytical thinkers (Christians and Atheists) something to chew on.

This is one of the most content-rich podcasts I’ve heard since I started paying attention to Apologetics. Joel also addresses the Problem of Evil, about which I will have more to say in my next post.

The podcast is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhSNeqs3yg0