Apologetics Provides Solutions Through Informed Doctrine

Christian Apologetics, by Doug Powell

What is Apologetics?

Supermarket or Antidote?

In the light of the command to be able to give a defense for the truth that is within us and love God with all our minds, we must equip ourselves with the facts, evidence, and arguments for Christianity. We must equip ourselves with a manner that can administer an antidote effectively. We are not to be clanging gongs but as the most beutiful music--welcoming, infectious, and irrestible.

To begin this training, we will start by assuming nothing. Before we can talk about Christianity, we must be able to show that God exists, period. But can we reasonably believe that God exists? And if God exists, which religion describes Him most accurately? The next section looks at several arguments for God's existence and His attributes. We will then compare our discoveries with how God is viewed by a variety of religions.

Does God Exist?: The Cosmological Argument

The Cosmological Argument has a long history and is employed effectively by numerous religions. It does not seek to show all of the attributes and characteristics of God, only that God does exist. But while the argument does not show which of those relgions is true, it does expose several religions and worldviews being incompatible with the features of the universe that the cosmological argument brings to light. These will be examined in chapter five.

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, however, hold a view of God that is compatible with the characteristics of our universe on which the cosmological argument is based.

Does God Exist?: The Design Argument

The different approaches to the design argument all try to show the same thing: that naturalism can only account for so much; at a certain point it's explanatory power fails. But it is not this failure that points to an intellingent designer (the so-called "God of the gaps" theory).

The precision of the universe, the nature of information , and the observation that random and undirected forces cannot account for the complexity of living things all lead to a transcendent, personal, intelligent designer.

Does God Exist?: The Moral Argument

In conclusion, moral relativism turns out not to be a moral system at all but merely a set of opinions. These opinions carry no sense of ought or authority and could change at anytime. It seems clear that though many people give lip service to this philosophy, no one lives it. As Paul Copan has pointed out,

RELATIVISM...isn't merely emotionally offensive. It doesn't hang together logically. As a worldview, it cannot be sustained.

RELATIVISM...is a sunny-day morality, but as soon as a person is wronged, they instantly believe in moral absolutes.

OBJECTIVISM...is the only coherent view of morality. Only objectvism makes sense of our experience, of our perception of society and laws, our intution and guilt. It is the only view of morality that can be lived consistently. and it points very strongly toward the existence of a transcendent, powerful, personal God.

Which God Exists?

The way of thinking about God that best corresponds to the characteristics we can know through reason and the observation of the universe is monotheism. Now the question becomes, "Which monothestic religion is the true one, or are they all false?"

Interestingly enough, the monotheistic relgions do not just have the same basic descrpition of God, they all claim to be talking about the same God. The God who has revealed Himself in the Old Testament is claimed by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. Islam, however, claims the Old Testament has become corrupted. And Christians believe the messianic promises in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Jesus. Judaism denies both claims.

Also, the three monotheistic religions all make claims about who Jesus was. To Islam He was a great prophet, but the gospels accounts of Him are corrupted and do not show who He really was. To Judaism He was a pretender claiming to be the Messiah promised by the prophets. To the Christians He was the long -awaited Messiah.

To see our way forward, then , we will next look at the authenticity and trustworthiness of the New Testament. If it is not a reliable account of the person and work of Jesus, we can narrow down our options to Judaism and Islam. But if the New Testament is reliable and trustworthy, then Islam can be rejected as inaccurate since it contradicts the New Testament.

We can then look at the Tanakh, what Christians call the Old Testament, to see if it has changed or is it trustworthy. If it is trustworthy, what does it say about the Messiah and does the Messiah look like Jesus? If the answers do not correspond to what we know about Jesus, then we can reject Christianity and embrace Judaism. On he other hand, if what we know about Jesus does corespond to the teachings of the Tanakh, then we can discount Judaism's view of Jesus.

Thus, our next step is to investigate the New Testament

Where did the New Testament come from?

It is interesting to note that the process of the creation of the New Testament made it far more likely to exclude authentic Scripture than to include false writings. The long process insured a helthy debate from many different perspectives. And yet the majority of the books of the New Testament enjoyed a sustained and overwhelming support for inclusion. Bruce Metzger describes this process by saying, "In the most basic sense neither individuals nor councils created the canon; instead they came to perceive and ackowledge the self-authenticating quality of these writings, which imposed themselves as canonical upon the church. Merrill C. Tenney agrees, saying, "The church did not determine the canon; it recognized the canon."

Thus we see the New Testament has a very strong chain of tradition surrounding its authorship by eyewitnesses or those who wrote down what the eyewitnesses reported. The books that are not included in the New Testament, useful though some may be, have no place in the canon given the criteria for inclusion. Thus the Bible was written by people who could reliably document the events they recorded.

To be continued:

Is the New Testament Reliable?

till then, God Bless!

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