Apologetics 101( part 1)

Let's open with a word of prayer. So Father, thank you that you've brought us here to study apologetics. Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit would lead us in this class, that you would even send more people to fill this room.

Lord, that we would be a people who are able to obey 1 Peter 3 .15. Lord, that we would be ready with an answer for those who ask us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Come on in.

The Homework Assignment and the Atheist Illusion Video

There's seats up front here and there's room to set up more. We are going to begin this class by telling you what your homework assignment is. Fortunately, it's easy. It is to watch a one-hour video on YouTube before next week, and I'm going to show you the first couple of minutes of it because I think it will actually whet your appetite to want to watch it.

It's an example of an apologist doing apologetics on a college campus and how that refutes atheism.

Is the issue.

I'm going to show about two minutes of this, maybe three or four, just to whet your appetite. The assignment is for everybody to go to YouTube.

In fact, who needs a pen?

Anybody need a pen? Yes.

All right, we need some pens.

Write down Living Waters. You can write down YouTube, Living Waters, atheism. It will come up as the first thing. It's got like a million hits. The video is made by Ray Comfort, so we're going to watch a couple of minutes of it to begin the class today.

What was Ray's last name there again? Comfort.

Religion is just absolutely uncalled for. We are just mere things floating on a rock in space.

We are not only figuratively, but literally.

We don't have to go to church on Christmas, and it is about being good, and that's what all religions are about anyway.

Are you an atheist? Yes. Are you going to kill yourself?

I'd like to.

So you're an atheist?

Yes.

Like what happens when you die?

I don't want to be a bag of dust.

Are you an atheist? Yes. When did you become an atheist?

Around age 12.

Believing in God makes no sense. To me, it's the dumbest thing. It's for people that can't accept the fact that they're going to die and rot in the ground like I'm going to do, and it gives them some relief from that thought because it's not the nicest thought in the world.

Are you an atheist?

It's about where I was going to stop.

Perfect.

It's a sign.

The fool says he's an atheist.

What's it called?

Living Waters.

Living Waters, and it is called The Atheist Illusion.

Richard Dawkins. Yeah.

Richard Dawkins is one of the famous atheists that you'll see him in the video a bit. So I showed that video, just a little bit of it, first of all to whet your appetite to go watch more. It's an example of how apologetics is used to refute things like atheism to defend the Christian faith.

What Apologetics Is and Why It Matters in a Hostile Culture

So let's begin, and the first question, what is apologetics? Anybody know? Well, it's right there. The answer is it's a reasoned defense of the faith. So it's using logic, it's using reason to defend the Christian faith.

1 .2. Apologetics is crucial for any Christian with loved ones in this culture. Has anybody noticed that our culture is drifting away from the Christian foundations of this.

Country?

So if you were to go to a college campus like Ray Comfort did in this video, you would find that probably it would be a very small minority of people who are believing the Christian message as it's been handed down for 2 ,000 years.

A majority are either agnostic or even, nowadays, atheism is on the rise. So in this culture, the culture is drifting away from Christianity, and you'll notice about the new atheists that they're becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity.

So it's not just a matter of them not believing that there's a God, but there's actually many who are on the attack deliberately trying to undermine the Christian faith and to undermine the scriptures.

So apologetics is crucial for anyone with loved ones in this culture. Maybe you feel like, you know what, nobody's going to talk me out of believing in God. I know there's a God. But it's still important to study apologetics because you could be that lifeline to somebody who is vulnerable, somebody who is being led astray by the lies of the enemy.

So apologetics is crucial for us in this day and age. We have to defend the faith. Well, is that actually important? Scripturally, do we need to learn to do that? The key verse for apologetics being commissioned for us to do is 1 Peter 3 .15.

Would somebody turn there and just read it nice and loud for us? This is probably the most famous verse relating to apologetics.

Sword drill.

First one to get it, start reading.

But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that.

Is in you.

Do it with gentleness and respect.

Okay, so the first thing to notice about the verse is the necessary heart condition of the person who's doing apologetics. The goal is not to be the smartest in the room. The goal is not to make another person look foolish.

The goal of apologetics is first of all an act of worship. Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts. There needs to be a humility when we study apologetics and when we study the Bible in.

General.

There needs to be a heart condition that is humble before God.

Okay?

And it begins with ourselves submitting to God. We can't argue for and lead someone to something that we don't ourselves have. We have to be believers in the first place. But then notice the rest of that verse says, set apart Christ as Lord, always being ready to give a defense or a reason for the hope that is in you.

That word is in the Greek apologia or apologia, however you want to say it. I think it's actually pronounced apologia. But the word means defense or reason. So it's defending the hope that we already have.

So apologetics then is a reason, defense of the faith. And we see that in 1 Peter 3 .15. It's also very prominent in the book of Acts. You could look up some of the verses I gave you here on the paper where you see Paul making a defense, defending the faith, standing up for the faith against false gospels.

You know, in chapter 15, what was the issue?

Anybody know?

What was the issue that was dealt with in Acts 15? That's Acts 17, which is a very apologetic chapter too.

They should abide by Judaistic laws and regulations?

There were some people who came into the church and started teaching that you must be circumcised in order to be saved. Well, what do you do when someone shows up teaching something like that? You defend the gospel.

The book of Galatians is addressed to that problem. And the 15th chapter of Acts is where the council comes together in Jerusalem to defend the true gospel of sola fide, faith alone, against the lies that had come into the church.

So somebody turn to chapter 20, verse 29. Acts chapter 20, verse 29.

Sergio, go. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

This is Paul meeting with the Ephesian elders on the beach. He's not able to actually go to Ephesus because he's trying to make Jerusalem by a certain time, by the Passover. And so he can't stop and go to Ephesus.

Instead, he calls all the elders to come meet him. And he only says to them what is most important because he only has one night with them. And they weep together and they pray together because he's saying, you're not going to see.

Me again.

So they're crying and Paul warns them that in the church, there will be wolves, savage wolves in sheep's clothing that come to steal away the sheep. So this is why apologetics is so important because we need to defend the sheep.

We have the sheep, the believers, right? We have little kids in this church. We have teenagers in this church. We have young adults and adults. And every last one of these sheep that believe in Jesus Christ is precious to God and precious.

To us.

Apologetics matters because it's defending the sheep against wolves that will come. They're going to come through the Internet. They're going to come in chat rooms. They're going to come on college campuses or high school or middle school campuses at the lunchroom table, teaching that there is no God, that Christianity is foolishness.

And the question is, will we be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have? So apologetics, we all agree, is very important, isn't it? In this day and age, never more so. Third, there are today two major schools of apologetics.

And I don't mean like certain campuses, but rather a school of thought.

Okay?

Two different ways of approaching apologetics. The first camp is called the evidentialist camp. Evidentialists grant that human reasoning is a common starting point. Their approach is to offer evidence, right?

That's where we get evidentialists. To offer evidence that will prove Christianity or demonstrate something that's false or true based on the ability of the human to reason and to look at these things.

So what you're going to see in this video is an evidentialist approach. But, it's interesting, it also brings in elements of the presuppositionalist approach. So that's the second thing. What is the difference between the two schools?

Evidentialists are appealing to evidence and assuming that the person that they're talking to is able to reason logically. And logic would bring them to the same place of belief that they have. But the presuppositionalist says no.

Because of the fall of man, even the reasoning of the human mind is fallen. This is what's called the noetic effects of sin. Noetic referring to knowing. The ability of a person to reason logically is not something that's common to everybody.

There is no such thing as just common knowledge or common wisdom. Because the fall has perverted our way of thinking. And so, someone who is presented with the greatest arguments, the greatest evidence for God, might very well look at that evidence and say, no.

Why? Because there's something wrong in thinking. This line of reasoning, this school of thought, comes especially from Romans 1. What are we told there? Having rejected God, they've exchanged the truth of God for a lie.

So there's a fallenness even in the human reasoning that exchanged the truth of God for a lie. So what does the presuppositionalist do to battle this? The apologist who's using this method won't even grant to the person who's listening that they are logical.

They'll demonstrate that a person, in order to reason together, would have to borrow from Christianity to do that in the first place. Because if this world is just stardust that's spun into existence, then there's no reason to expect logical consistency in the universe.

There's no reason for that to exist. What the presuppositionalist will do is presuppose that the scripture is true. That's the starting point. And so, never cede the ground to the unbeliever that the Bible is under investigation, or somehow on the table for conversation.

No, the presuppositionalist will say, the Bible is true. That's my starting point for my reasoning. It doesn't start with natural theology of why there's a God, or some objective thing beyond, because the human mind cannot come to the place of God on its own.

Make sense? So, just to give you a couple examples of those who use evidentialism, you've heard of William Lane Craig? He's a strong evidentialist. Mike Licona, Lee Strobel, J. Warner Wallace, Gary Habermas.

These are all taking an evidentialist approach. Now, some of the apologists who have followed the presuppositionalist camp is James White. Have you guys heard of him? He's probably my favorite. I've got to admit, I listen to James White at least once a week on his show called The Dividing Line.

Matt Slick, who started one of the biggest Christian apologetics websites.

CARM.

Yep, CARM. C-A-R-M stands for Christian Apologetics Research Ministry. He will be here on October 6th and 7th.

Really?

So, he's going to be doing our apologetics conference this year. Gordon Clark, Cornelius Vantill. I like this guy, Si Ten Bruggencake. He's got a weird name, but man, is he sharp as a tack. I would encourage you to look in and just Google some of these names.

Look them up on YouTube. Listen to how they reason with unbelievers and learn from them. Next, and Casper, you're up in about 10 minutes.

Ready? Okay.

Should I come back in and sit up?

Does it say?

Yeah, if you need to sit up, come on behind me. That's fine. Don't be distracted, guys.

Sorry.

Evidentialism, Presuppositionalism, and the Limits of Proof

So, next I'm going to show you in point five, arguments for the resurrection. Casper has been involved with a group at Stockton called Ratio Christi.

Right?

And so, he did apologetics study for about four years. It's more of an evidentialist approach, but it also can include some presuppositionalism. So, arguments for the resurrection by refuting the viability of alternatives is essentially an evidentialist approach.

You guys following me for the difference between presuppositional and evidential?

Okay, good.

These can be helpful to clear away obstacles in a person's mind. But mere Christianity is indefensible without the authority of the Bible. So, apologists should never surrender this ground. Now, follow me for a second.

Let's say that we sat down with an unbeliever, and I wanted to argue for the resurrection. And I say, well, let's look at all the alternatives, which is what we're going to show. We're going to do this in a minute.

Let's look at all the alternatives and show how they're just folly. There's no way that these alternatives could be true. It just doesn't make sense. And we show that it's more than likely that Jesus actually rose from the dead.

That explains the historical data better than anything else.

Okay?

Let's say we did that. Would a person necessarily then be a Christian?

No.

Why not?

Yes.

Yes.

Very good. Very good.

Okay. Even if I could prove the resurrection happened historically, how do I know what the resurrection means?

How do I know?

The only answer to that question is the Scripture. Now, truthfully, the only way we can know that the resurrection happened is the Scripture. But even the very meaning of atonement. What did it mean that Jesus died?

So what?

Many people died. Many people are murdered. The Romans killed and crucified thousands of people, not just one. What did the meaning of Jesus' death? What is the meaning of Jesus' death? How would we know that Jesus died as a substitute to pay the penalty of my sin, absorbing the wrath of God and turning away the wrath of God from me, that I would go free?

You can't know that apart from the Scriptures. And so here's the point. You should presuppose that the Scriptures are true. You can never give away that common ground. Defend the Scriptures as being consistent so you will find arguments against the Scriptures.

You'll find many arguments about, have you ever heard of the hundred contradictions of the Bible that Muslims pass out in the inner city? I would come across that a lot. A hundred contradictions in the Bible.

And they would try to find anything that looked like a contradiction to them. Part of apologetics would be defending the consistency of the Scripture. So that is a presuppositionalist approach to say that the Scriptures are, in fact, true and demonstrating that they're consistent at every point.

So what I'm going to teach now and just encourage you guys to do is to use evidentialist apologetics, like what we're going to learn now, as a tool to clear away obstacles in the minds of a person. But to recognize that there is a difference between apologetics and evangelism.

So I think I might have skipped over that point. Yeah, up in 1 .1 .2, with my little Dewey Decimal System thing I do. The aim of apologetics, it's different from polemics or evangelism. This is important.

Apologetics is like a tool in your belt. An evidentialist approach like this, to demonstrate the truth of the resurrection, is a tool that you can use. But it's different than evangelism. Evangelism is telling the good news.

And there's power in the message of the cross. In the video that we watched earlier, that you're going to go home and watch, by Ray Comfort, you will see a combination of apologetics and evangelism. And the moment where the conversation becomes evangelistic is very obvious.

You'll see it in the video. It's where the gospel itself takes center stage. It's where the message of Christ and why he died and how he rose from the dead and how that calls each of us to repent and believe.

That message is the power of God. So evangelism is telling the message of Christ and trusting that the power is in the word. That's what's truly going to convert a heart. And apologetics then just becomes a tool that we use.

So are you ready to go? So again, to set this up, this is an apologetic for the resurrection. It's a very helpful tool. It's one that helped me and I've used in the past. So I'm going to turn it over to Casper.

Let me say I pray for you and then the floor is yours. So Father, I pray for Casper and I ask that you would use him in this teaching. I pray for all of us to learn from it. In Jesus' name, amen. And guys, I'm going to slip out today at 10 .15 just to get set up for the service.

I've told Casper if this goes a little bit longer than that, that's okay because the service doesn't start until 10 .30. But we won't go beyond that. So if I do slip out, don't think I'm walking out on Casper.

Thanks for having me. All right. Definitely didn't think this many people would be here today. I want to say like a month and a half ago, I shared a pastor, Jeff, and it was at Simon. He had a pricey PowerPoint, but it looked like Super Nintendo and the five-year-old did it.

The last couple of days, my wife, she actually put this together in the last couple of days.

So it looks really good.

So I definitely give all credit to her.

Actually, can we shut off the light?

Because it's a little dark, so it's a little hard to see. So just going over the resurrection. I love going over the resurrection. I love apologetics. And the reason why I love going over the resurrection is because Christianity is not a blind faith.

What that means is Christians do not just believe just to believe. We can actually have evidence through apologetics to show people, unbelievers, that this is the evidence. And this is why we believe.

We live according to the evidence. We don't just have a blind faith from the evidence. So going over the resurrection is one of my passions. So has anyone in their life heard anything that tries to debunk the resurrection?

So the resurrection and someone trying to say, oh, this is what happened. Who has heard a couple things from other unbelievers?

Well, yeah, I mean, Muslims deny that he died on the cross. Ergo, there was no resurrection.

Okay, so did you have the denying of the crucifixion of God?

That he wasn't really dead, he was just in some unconscious state and came back.

That his believers really stole the body.

Okay, good. Anybody else?

So what we're going to do is actually go over all those and then some.

Before I go over this, just to recommend a lot of the information. I did some research, but a lot of this information, I don't know if you've ever heard of the person, Da Pau. He has a book that goes over the resurrection and he goes over the different alternative theories.

Also, I added a couple things and did some research on Da Pau's research as well.

So real quick, just wanted to go over.

So what does it matter if Christ rose from the dead? What does it matter if he rose from the dead or not?

Paul says all faith is in vain. It's meaningless if he didn't.

There's no power over death or sin. We have no eternal life. That it was an acceptable sacrifice. That God had come back from the dead to show that his death was acceptable. And it wasn't just like, he died, that's it.

Great answers.

So 1 Corinthians 15. If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. And you are still guilty in your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

So Paul says that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, our faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus. Because if Christ didn't rise from the dead, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, Paul is saying that all of our loved ones who believe in Christ are lost.

We are still guilty of our sins. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then we should be more pitied than anyone in the world. The resurrection is the evidence of Christianity. So going over the historical body of resurrection is just important because it means that the one who was resurrected can be trusted.

If there is evidence he was in fact resurrected on the third day, then we have good reason to believe that Jesus was telling the truth about everything else he said. The resurrection is how we know Jesus can be trusted.

So before we talk about the resurrection, I just wanted to go over, so the New Testament scholars, not all of them agree on everything about Jesus, the historical facts about Jesus. However, when we talk about, when it comes to the New Testament and the resurrection, there are some facts that the majority of scholars believe, whether they're atheists, whether they're non-Christian, whether they are Christian.

What we can do as Christians is we can look at the evidence, look at the historical facts that the majority of scholars believe in,.

And still come up with the resurrection.

So you do not have to be a believer to look at the evidence that is given. You don't have to believe in the Bible to show the evidence of the resurrection and show that Jesus rose from the dead, and that's what Christians have.

So they call it the minimum facts argument. So basically the minimum facts is that the majority of scholars, New Testament scholars, the majority agree on what we call the minimum facts. So what we're going to do is we're going to go over the different alternative theories that people have, and if they add up to the minimum facts that the majority of scholars, New Testament scholars, accept.

So that's what we're going to go over.

So the minimum facts argument is historically we can point out that Jesus was crucified, that Jesus died, Jesus was buried in a tomb, the tomb was discovered to be empty just a few days later, and friends saw Jesus and enemies saw Jesus after the resurrection.

So here as well, I added one more, and so you'll see later, but what I added to this is 11 out of 12 disciples died for what they saw.

So that's what we're going to go over.

Did Jesus Die? Historical Evidence for the Crucifixion

So the first thing that I wanted to go over is just did Jesus die?

So was Jesus crucified? How do we know that?

How do we know Jesus was crucified? How do we know Jesus died on a cross? And so what I put here, I put Old Testament, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, because some other religions don't believe that Jesus was crucified.

They believe in the Old Testament, but they don't believe that Jesus died from crucifixion. So I put Isaiah 53 specifically because they don't believe that Jesus died on a cross. And then what I put here was New Testament, where Jesus predicted that he was going to be crucified in all four Gospels, and actually, even prior, you have Paul and his other disciples, they talk about Jesus dying, dying for sins, and stuff like that.

So the earliest non-Christian references we have is Tacitus. He was a Roman historian, and what is... So Tacitus, he was a Roman historian, and he talks about the Emperor Nero, and the six days of fire, the great fire of how Nero, he basically burned a city or burned villages.

And so in part of his writings, he writes, Christus, Christ, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius.

At the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.

Tiberius was the governor. So here, Tacitus was either born from 55 to 120 AD, so between the first and second century, he wrote this. And here, the second part would be Flavius Josephus. So Flavius Josephus, he was a Jewish priest, and what he wrote was, Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die.

His disciples reported that he had appeared to them three days later after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. So actually, Flavius Josephus, his writings are actually disputed among scholars.

However, when...

And the reason why is because when Flavius Josephus, he was a Jewish priest, and a Jewish priest, in some of his writings, it actually sounds in favor of Jesus.

So what they actually did was,.

Matt Slitley actually does, is he puts the writings of Josephus, and he took out, actually, the parts of the writings that favored Jesus, and he took them out, and you would still get the crucifixion.

So the crucifixion scholars still would accept that, at least, that Jesus was crucified. And so, he also... So now we're going to go into the different alternative theories, and how the minimal facts don't add up.

So the first one we're going to talk about is the Sunni theory.

So I remember, what was your name?

Charles.

I remember Charles, he said that Jesus fainted on the cross, and that's exactly what the Sunni theory states. It's basically what Jesus did was, he actually just fainted on the cross, and the Roman soldiers thought that he just fainted and ordered him down.

And then when he was in the tomb,.

In the atmosphere of the tomb, Jesus was able to heal over a couple days that he was in the tomb, and he was able to revive, he was able to revive, and he was able to appear resurrected. So, how this goes over the minimal facts, so we have Jesus who's crucified, we don't have that he died,.

He was buried,.

The tomb was discovered empty, and then friends saw Jesus, enemies saw Jesus,.

And then his disciples were martyred,.

Believing that Jesus rose from the dead.

So how does, this goes over, how does the minimal facts actually stand up to the Sunni theory? So, Roman soldiers actually in the first century, if they did not kill their victims, then they would actually be put to death.

So, the fact that in this case, Jesus, the Roman officers, if they didn't kill Jesus, then they would actually be persecuted themselves. So the idea of that Jesus, killing Jesus was a big priority for them.

So, before Jesus was crucified,.

He was actually, we all know the story that Jesus was whipped, he was scorched. And so, the process of being whipped, this flagron would be a whip, and it had bones, it had metal balls, and it had actually pieces of bone, and the idea was to rip off flesh.

This was the idea of scorching for, when you were being whipped. And so, when I put to, I didn't even know that, Isaiah 52, 14, Jesus was so bad to beat you, good luck you.

So, crucifixion.

So actually, the word excruciating, actually means out of the cross. This is where the word excruciating comes from. And so, the process of crucifixion is, nails are in the wrists that hold the body upright.

Hands are partially paralyzed from nerve damage. Nails penetrate through the feet and ankles, which holds the weight of the person and gives the victim something to push on. Shoulders and elbows may be dislocated.

From the weight of the body, making arms almost useless.

Victim's weight forces to inhale and make exhalation very difficult.

Victim's must release the weight in order to exhale.

By pushing on the nails in the ankles and pulling on the wrists. So actually, crucifixion, when your nails on your wrists and your feet, actually when you're hanging, you can't breathe. So what you have to do is, you have to actually push yourself up and actually inhale.

So, the evidence that Jesus died, So, the causes of death would be shock from blood loss, asphyxiation, congestion of heart failure, and dehydration. Victims could live for several hours to a couple days.

So Roman officers, what they would do is to speed up the process, they would actually break the legs and so they would die in minutes. So, they actually did, from the Journal of American Medical Association, they actually did some research on this and you have doctors actually looking at the historical evidence and actually seeing where Jesus died from.

And so what that says is that Jesus' death wasn't short by the thrust of a soldier's spear in his side. Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken out from the cross.

So we see the Roman officers,.

When they speared Jesus from the side, blood and water actually flowed out. And if you were to speak to a physician, this is actually something that happens because the sac around the heart, it fills up with blood from the corner and you die.

So, historically, when Jesus was,.

He was scourged, he was whipped,.

He was crucified, and he was speared in the side. So, I know it's a lot of words, so excuse me. So it says that Jesus did not die from scourging.

He did not die during the process of crucifixion.

Or being pierced in the side. Then Jesus would have died of blood loss.

If the swoop theory was true,.

It implies that Jesus woke up from the tomb, used his torn hands to relocate his shoulder back into place, stood on his torn feet and rolled back the tombstone that weighed hundreds of pounds,.

Overpowered the Roman officers,.

Walked seven miles to Emmaus, walked seven miles to Jerusalem, walked through Jerusalem without being noticed with his pendants exposed while only wearing his grave clothes, find out where his disciples were hiding, find a way to break into the locked room the disciples were in without anyone seeing them, and then appear to them as if he rose from the dead.

And that all is well. So if the swoop theory is true, at the very least, the disciples would have thought that Jesus needed medical attention, not that he would have rose from the dead. So, if he only fainted, and he appeared to his disciples,.

His disciples would say,.

He needs medical attention. He fainted, he needs medical attention. He didn't rise from the dead, he just fainted. So, according to the minimal facts, we see that... So, according to the minimal facts, the fact that he didn't die doesn't add up to the minimal facts.

The Wrong Tomb Theory and the Empty Tomb

The next one is the wrong tomb theory.