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The Apologetics' Challenge
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By Spencer Gear [1]
Apologetics is a defence of
the truth of Christianity. The
Greek
term, apologia, from which the terms apology, apologist and
apologetics
are derived, was used to defend a case in a court of law. This
enables
a Christian to state what he/she believes and why
he/she believes it.
In the theological discipline of apologetics, a credible case for the
truth
of Christianity is defended.
The lesson is
that Christianity, devoid of its own core, is
really not worth defending. Thus the only version of Christianity
we are interested in mounting an apologetics for is what I consider to
be biblical (conservative, evangelical . . .) Christianity. Only
here do we find the fulfilment of our spiritual need. [2]
A "Bright" atheist, "Frank", provided me with some grist
for
the apologetic mill when I engaged him in debate on a Christian Froum
on the Internet. He asked some perceptive questions about God and
the Christian faith: (1)
If God is all-knowing, all-powerful,
all-merciful and all-good, why would He allow people to live and die
without the opportunity of salvation? (2) Why isn't God's word
available universally? (3). There are many people who live and die
without hearing your
Gospel. Thoughtful Christians have often asked this
another way, "Are the
unevangelised lost?" Or, "What happens to those who have never
heard the Gospel?" This applies to those who lived before and
after Christ. How will the person who has no Bible translation
and no missionaries be exposed to the gospel message that will lead to
salvation? Or, are they forever lost without the Gospel?
Check out my responses in this "answer."
Why is it
necessary for us in the 21st
century to have to address a topic such as, "Can You Trust Your Bible?"
We've had the New Testament (NT)
for close to 2,000 years and the first books of the Old Testament [OT]
(Pentateuch,
i.e. Genesis -Deuteronomy & Job) for about 3,500 years.[1a]
Ezra,
Nehemiah, Esther, Malachi, 1 & 2 Chronicles concluded the OT
canon
in approx. 400-500BC]. There's a prominent Western cultural
reason. When you turn on the TV or radio, or read newspapers and
magazines at Easter and Christmas times particularly (but it could
happen at
other times), you will be fed loads
of doubt about the Bible and its truthfulness. In fact, much of this
doubt
is being driven by some from within the church who do not believe what
the
Bible says. It's the agenda of some liberal church men and women.
Paul Wilson, Australian criminologist, doesn't accept the theologians'
views of evil. Rather, he prefers psychologist, Roy Baumeister's,
simple
definition that evil is "the intentional serious physical harm of
another
person or persons." Simple it might be, but I am still left with
questions:
What causes people to want to intentionally harm anybody? From where
does
that motivation come?
It was put to me once, "I used to believe in God until my child was
killed
in an accident." If God did not claim to be good, the problems of
evil and suffering would be simple.
The name, rhema, is particularly associated with the
ministry of the
late Kenneth Hagin Sr. (died 2003). The doctrine of "rhema," as
proclaimed by the Hyper-Faith Movement, claims that "you can have what
you say" or "you can write our own ticket with God" (the language of
Kenneth Hagin Sr.) [3] if you will only confess it. So,
health,
wealth and many other outcomes are based on a confession of the "rhema"
in one's life. "Name It and Claim It" theology is based on this
understanding of "rhema." Can this distinction of rhema be sustained by a study of
the New Testament?
What happens to you when you die? Bertrand
Russell said,: "When I die, I shall rot, and nothing of my ego
will survive." There's a doctrine that has been promoted by the cults that when
a person dies he or she does not go to heaven or hell but the soul
passes into a stated of unconscious sleep. It's called soul sleep
and is promoted by Seventh
Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others. Here it is clearly
refuted as an unbiblical doctrine.
I found the following
creative dialogue, invented by the authors (R. C. Sproul, John Gerstner
and Arthur Lindsley), to be a helpful way of
differentiating between Van Til's Presuppositional approach and that of
Tradional
Apologetics.
Have the disasters that struck the USA on September
11, 2001 really brought us to our senses? Are we Aussies any
different following this shock? Could this really happen
here?
As I reflect on these events that shocked the world, I am alarmed by
what
I see in Australia. I spoke with a man the other day and asked if Sept.
11 has had any impact on him. His immediate response was, "All
I’ve
noticed
are the insurance prices."
I have not heard words like, "This could be the
judgment of God on the USA. We deserve it just as much."
Here was a shocking prediction! At a
presentation
on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, in the middle of the year 2001,
researcher
George Barna said that, "Twenty-five years from now, historians are
likely
to say the year 2001 was right around the time when the era of moral
and
spiritual anarchy began." Barna’s comments were prophetic. His
view was
that within the next few years moral chaos would be inflicted on
American
culture.
Pollster George Barna in the USA recently "was
commissioned . . . to inquire of people what one question they would
ask of God if they had the opportunity. By an overwhelming
margin, the most urgent question was this: Why is there so much
suffering in the world?"
Christian leader, John R. W.
Stott, stated
that he considered "the fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the
single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in
every
generation." As Christians, how do we give a good answer to the
problems
of evil and suffering in our world? Those of us alive today have
witnessed on our TVs
one of the most horrific examples of suffering and destruction in
our world. I'm speaking of the tsunami disaster that hit the Indian
Ocean region on 26
December 2004.
Then there was
September 11! Terrorist carnage has put the world
on alert. Where was God? My counselling staff and I hear of some of the
most disgusting abuse of children by adults, and of parents by youth.
What's
going on in our homes? What's wrong with our world? Why doesn't God
step
in to stop all the depravity and the consequences of it?
John Piper of Desiring God
ministries stated "I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I
believe in God’s power
to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and
good to
pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed
by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray
for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan
for
everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am
praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain."
This is John Piper's penetrating biblical analysis of his own
prostate cancer diagnosis.
1. I am an Australian family relationships' counselling manager,
doctoral student in biblical studies, an active Christian apologist, and
may be
contacted
at:
P. O. Box 3107, Hervey Bay 4655, Australia.
2. Winfried Corduan, Reasonable Faith: Basic Christian
Apologetics.
Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993, p. vii.
The Truth Challenge
Copyright (c) 2007 Spencer D. Gear. This
document is free
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You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the OpenContent
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This document last updated at Date: 24 October 2007.