Apologetics, Polemics & Justin Martyr

Polemics, from the Greek word meaning war, refers to theological disputation or debate. It speaks of contending for the truth in the face of internal attack from false teaching. Apologetics refers to a defense of the faith in the face of external attack.

Justin Martyr, I think, was considered, if not the first, one of the early Christian apologists. Okay, so we're going to continue with the book Forerunners of the Faith. This is lesson number four, which is titled Contending for the Faith, Contending for the.

Faith.

When you hear that statement, what book of the Bible do you think of?

Jude.

Jude.

Okay.

Contending Earnestly for the Faith in Jude

So let's turn to Jude. Of course, there's only one chapter in Jude, but that's where you get this term contending or fighting for the faith, depending how it's translated. We're going to be looking at, in this lesson, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and the Pre-Nicene.

Church.

So this is a period, at least what I'm looking at on the paper, from about 150 AD to 253.

AD.

Jude, like I said, only one chapter, but look at verses three and four. Jude, who we believe is most likely the half-brother of Jesus, he writes, for I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and Wait, I'm reading from 3 John, never mind.

I had that turned to the wrong page. Jude three and four. Jude writes, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

The introduction says this, from the very beginning, the church had faced threats from both without and within. Externally, the church has endured opposition and persecution from both proponents of false religion and hostile governments.

Internally, however, the church has been threatened by who or what? False teachers. They claim to be part of the church, but promote doctrines or practices that are antithetical to genuine Christianity.

So you have the threats from the outside, like you said, hostile governments, all sorts of different threats. But I think the threats from the inside are much more dangerous. And these are the false teachers who, as Jude says later, you know, they crept in unaware.

So when they first come in, they say they believe in Jesus. They look like Christians, but Jesus called them, you know, wolves in sheep's clothing. So they appear to be sheep, but it turns out that's not the case.

And that's revealed at some point. So the book says God has always raised up leaders in the church to respond on both fronts. So the threats from outside and within the word, the first thing you had to fill in, in your book, the word is what this comes from a Greek term, meaning legal defense begins with an a apologetics.

People are going to stop laughing at this at some point, but you know, apologetics is not someone who apologizes for their faith, right? I'm sorry. I'm a Christian. Just please forgive me. That's not what apologetics is still getting a few laughs.

So I'll probably say it next time too. But apologetics is not that apologetics means to defend the faith or make a legal defense. That's where the word comes from. So apologetics refers to a defense of the faith in the face of external attack.

First Peter three, 14 and 15. Let's turn there. If you would first Peter three, 14 and 15 is a key passage in this regard.

Okay.

So you've heard of apologetics ministries, right? Name a apologetics ministry or two that you're familiar with.

Josh McDowell.

Josh McDowell.

Okay.

Maybe.

I'm not, I guess I'm not as familiar with him. Uh, I think, uh, yeah, yeah, there, I mean, there's a lot, uh, Frank Turek is one of the more well-known, uh, apologists and he came around here years ago.

I remember he spoke at the Turner's falls, uh, high school and did a great job. Frank Turek. And there's a few other. Norman Geisler was, uh, uh, a big name apologist back in the day. And I heard he spoke at this.

Can any of the old people have been members here a long time? Can anyone confirm that? Did Norman Geisler speak here? Does someone remember that?

Barbara?

Who's that? UMass.

Okay.

All right.

Maybe someone from the church put them up for the night, but I remember Norman Geisler, people talking about him coming to town. So all these different apologetics ministries, and it's a very necessary that people do this.

Look at first Peter three, 14 and 15 says, do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and reverence.

So Peter says, what? Always be ready to give a response, to give a reply. And that is apologetics.

Larry?

Would Ken Ham fall into that category with the arc adventure, you know, with kind of using history and scripture?

Right.

Who's familiar with Ken Ham and you know, they have the arc encounter and answers in Genesis, right? That's the name of the ministry. I mean, I would consider that an apologetics ministry. I don't know if he does officially, but yeah, we know in the public schools and just in, you know, Western civilization or all over the world now, you know, evolution is taught and even, even people in churches when they read Genesis and God created the heavens and the earth and six days and well, you know, it can't actually mean six days or this idea of a young earth.

Ken Ham takes all of that and he has a, he has a reply. He has a biblical defense of why, no, actually that that's what it says and that's what it.

Means.

So I would consider that an apologetics ministry.

Yes.

Can I recommend a book is Genesis history? I think it's Dell, Dell Tackett, Dell Tackett.

Okay.

Is Genesis history?

Yeah.

Really good. Apologetics.

Okay.

Is Genesis history? I haven't read that one. So we see that first term apologetics.

Okay.

And Justin Martyr, I think was considered, if not the first one of the early Christian apologists. So taking what people say in the name of God, comparing it to the word of God and here's why what they're saying is wrong and here's what's right according to scripture.

So apologetics is one word. I think we're all familiar with that within Christianity, apologetics ministries. Here's another word begins with a P what is it? Polemics.

Okay.

Polemics as War Against False Teaching

Now polemics, you don't hear as much about a, so polemics is a Greek word meaning war.

Okay.

If you listen to someone who has a polemical approach or a polemics ministry, I mean, yeah, they are at war with the, the, the false teachers. And you know, what did Jude say? You know, earnestly contend for the faith and contend means to battle, to fight.

So it puts a lot of people off because, you know, depending on someone's tone of voice and does depend on what they say, obviously, and are they right? But, you know, polemical, a polemical approach is often, you know, not received well, but it's been going on ever since the early days of the church and you could argue the prophets engaged in polemical speech as well.

I think of Elijah in particular, but polemics from the Greek word meaning war refers to theological disputation or debate. It speaks of contending for the truth in the face of internal attack from false teaching.

A key verse in this regard is second Corinthians 10 five. So you don't have to turn there. It's just one verse we'll quote quote from in a moment where the apostle Paul talks about casting down the false arguments of his opponents.

So second Corinthians 10 five says we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Okay.

So polemics. Any comments on, can you think of a polemics ministry or a ministry that, you know, takes that approach?

Anyone? Larry.

Our pastor.

Yeah.

Okay.

You know, right now, you know, with the heresy that's going around locally, uh, he's been very firm on scripture and, uh, contending.

Yeah, I think, you know, this is my opinion. I think my, my language and my rhetoric is, is not, I don't even really consider it polemical. To me, I'm just, Hey, here's what scripture says and here's what they're saying.

And here's why it's drawn. I would consider it more apologetics. I'm thinking of just one website that was known for polemics. Some of you maybe have heard of pulpit and pen who's familiar with pulpit and pen.

So not as well known as like Frank Turek and some of these other guys, but you know, they are often considered harsh, but you know, their argument would be, okay, look at some of the things the prophets and apostles wrote.

And at times it requires that to kind of shape people and wake them up to how serious. So I think I'm fairly moderate in my speech, but you know, that's, it's all a scale, I suppose.

Okay.

Yeah.

This is a question because it's, we're talking about spiritual warfare and Corrine was just asking me, I went to a gathering of classmates and of course, and so I called a Christian friend of mine from down South, who's a Christian that he would pray along with me that, that I would be able to share the gospel with my classmates because there were several of them.

There.

And he's of the Pentecostal or charismatic influence. And so as he was praying, he's praying all this against all these spiritual darkness and in a thorough taking authority over these evil spirits and everything.

And I was thinking, you know, I don't, I don't want to mess, I don't want to mess with any evil spirit or angel. If one angel can, can slay 186 ,000 people with one bowl, I bet you an evil spirit is going to, is going to just be a lot more powerful.

I don't think I want to enter into, I don't even want to recognize them. What do you think?

I think tying that into what Jude says, he says, speaking about people who would maybe take a polemical approach to talking to the devil. You hear these people rebuking Satan and I bind you Satan and doing all that.

And like, who, who, who are you, who do you think you are to be able to do that? I don't think they're binding Satan by the looks of it. All these people that are binding the devil, it seems like the devil's running around pretty free.

But Jude says, yet Michael, the archangel in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, he dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but he said, the Lord rebuke you.

So even the archangel Michael wouldn't, you know, say, you know, railing comments against the devil, like some of these guys on TV do. So yeah, that you're, you're messing around with some dangerous stuff there, even if you think you're on the right side of it.

So it says in this lesson, we will consider a number of significant Christian leaders in the second and third centuries. When faced with threats from both outside and inside the church, these leaders rushed to the, to defend the truth and to refute error.

Titus one verse nine says the term pre-Nicene or anti-Nicene refers to the time period before the council of Nicaea, which was in three 25 AD.

Okay.

So that's section one, section number two. The apologists says the Lord Jesus promised that his followers would be hated by unbelievers in the world. John 15 verse 18, he told his disciples, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

And then second, Timothy three 12, the apostle Paul gave a similar warning to Timothy. And he said, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ, Jesus will be persecuted. And I would just add one other verse where Jesus said in Luke six 26, a woe unto you when all men speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

So if there's a Christian leader and just the world just loves him and he's getting invited to the, you know, to the white house and the governor's inviting him over for dinner and he's, you know, on the cover of time magazine and he's just, this guy is amazing.

He's America's pastor. He's wonderful. I mean, to me, that's always a red flag because, you know, John the Baptist didn't get invited to the King's mansion. He got invited to the King's prison. I mean, I'm not saying that there's never an exception throughout history.

It's just that if you stand on the word of God, if you're faithful to the scriptures, I mean, the world's not going to love you.

Okay.

So as we move, this is in your book, so you can follow up as we love each other.

Yes. Yeah.

Your love is the Lord loves us. Brothers and sisters love us. That's, that's enough. Uh, number two.

Okay.

This is in your book. As we move into the second century of church history, believers continued to face persecution and hostility from the non Christian society around them says Christians were often viewed as troublemakers and a public nuisance.

Are Christians viewed that way today? You know, 30 years ago, I don't think that it wasn't as true as it is now. But like I said, nothing new under the sun. So Christians, just a bunch of troublemakers and a public nuisance, a Roman society's negative attitude towards Christianity was perpetuated by a number of vicious rumors.

So this is where you need to fill in, in your book. What were these rumors?

Okay.

One, the first, and I'll read through these after, but the first one, the first rumor was that Christians are actually what atheists. Now that seems like a strange route to see nobody saying that today.

Why would anyone claim that Christians were atheists? Well, they didn't believe in the gods, the approved gods of the system. Like if you're worshiping the emperor and we say, we don't believe in him.

Well, what are you? An atheist? Cause he's God. Well, that type of thing. What's the second rumor that Christians were insurrectionists. No comment on that. Christians were guilty of immorality. And then the fourth one, which, you know, you've probably heard me talk about this before, but Christians were accused of being cannibals, right?

Okay.

So the first charge, the first rumor that Christians practice a atheism, Christians were accused of being atheists because they flatly rejected the Pantheon of Roman deities. So when natural disasters occurred, unbelievers were quick to blame the Christians insisting the gods were angry because the Christians were turning people away from them.

Okay.

So that's one, one argument, and you know, that can be used on either side. Second, the insurrectionist argument, early Christians were also suspected of sedition and accused of being insurrectionists in part because of their worldview.

It was so radically different from the society around them. For example, they refused to participate in anything that smacked of the worship of Caesar and they would not even declare Caesar is Lord insisting instead that only Jesus is Lord Romans 10, nine.

So yeah, if you're living in the Roman empire, Caesar is a God and whether the people really believe that or not is another story, but Hey, you needed to do whatever Caesar said. So if Caesar said, you know, whatever it is, shut down your church for a year, you better do it or else you're some sort of rabble rouser or troublemaker or insurrectionists.

Well, it's the same today. Not exactly, but you know, if you're not kind of going along with the zeitgeist, if you're not kind of doing what society says and thinks you should do, uh, yeah, the, the leaders and the, you know, there's all sorts of things.

You don't know how much of this is accurate, but there is reason to believe that some Christian ministries either have a target on their back or they're being monitored because some people in power just wonder, are they, are they, I don't think they actually think anyone's leading an uprising, but you know, are they contributing to this?

Because when people, let's face it, if a, if a pastor says, Hey, obey Jesus in this instance and not the governing authorities, well all of a sudden, you know, they're gonna, they're gonna want to hear what people are saying.

And that did happen during COVID. So I think that kind of brought this to the forefront where people realize that this might be headed down a road that, you know, we don't know what's going to happen in the future.

Aaron.

It's still happening, not necessarily with the government, but those that are in government.

Authority.

I mean, look at the school, when it had the, um, the school board, the board of education for Greenfield didn't want them because of the curriculum they were teaching, that it was, uh, homophobic and all of the ics and isms that they used to say that you're a bad.

Person.

Um, because that's what the general trend is right now. But we have to fly our rainbow flags and the fact that the Christians and a lot of churches are choosing not to, that's where they're getting it.

So if they're treating it as an insurrection because we're not walking in lockstep with.

Them.

Yeah.

And I think we brought this up once the Christian school that was star or has been started in Greenfield. Uh, they didn't just say that they were homophobic, which I mean, you know, is going to be one of those responses that's just going to get leveled against them.

But someone from town, I don't know if they were actually on the school committee. They said, no, they have a white supremacist agenda, which in people's mind links them to like, well, when you hear the white supremacist, you think of like the Klan, which really they were, they were terrorists.

You know, the KKK was a group of terrorists in their activity down south. So that's what they're trying to kind of paint Christians as. Maybe they are like that. It's not just you're homophobic. You're a threat to society is, is really what they know.

Most fair minded people know that that's not true. And, but that's the rhetoric that you're starting to hear these days, which is, is dangerous.

Okay.

The third thing Christians were accused of was immorality. The third rumor suggested that Christians participated in sexual immorality at their secret meetings. Now, of course, why did Christians have to meet in secret?

Because of persecution. I mean, you didn't really have a choice, but in their secret meetings, this rumor was sparked by a misunderstanding of the Lord's table. Oh, sorry. I'm looking at the wrong one.

Uh, so their secret meetings, they had love feasts. This is mentioned in Jude verse 12. It was misconstrued by the imaginations of the pagan society, uh, as were, uh, as were affectionate, familial terms like brother and sister.

In other words, basically what Christians called each other, brother and sister. And Hey, there's a couple they're married and they're calling each other's brother. They basically, they're saying Christians were guilty of incest.

But obviously when Christians were saying brother and sister, we don't actually mean like they're like, Marcus is my brother, but he's not physically my brother. You know, my, my wife is my sister in Christ, but she's obviously not.

So they were just misconstruing everything to try to make Christians look bad.

Okay.

Aaron.

This one was news to me. So it confused me.

Yeah.

It was like there were prostitutes in the temples and that was part of Christians of being just like them. If they were saying they were being immoral or was it just the incest?

Right.

Well, but you know how it goes. Uh, the world can accuse Christians of things when they're guilty and the world knows they're guilty, but it doesn't really matter as long as they can.

Their, uh, worship in that form as bad, but it was bad Christians.

Right.

Well, that would be, I mean, hypocrisy happens. So that's one, one element. Maybe they didn't view the temple prostitution as immoral. I mean, I don't know. I mean, you know how it is. There's things that we do that are moral, but it's called immorality, but there's certain things that are sanctioned behaviors sanctioned by the government that are clearly immoral according to scripture, but they call that that's love.

That's, that's wonderful. That's to be celebrated, but we're horrible because you know what? It's not that it's fair. It's not that it's right. It's just.

Yeah.

It was like they were, if it was a specific immorality or if it was just the hypocrisy.

Well, this would have been incest, which even that would have been scandalous in Roman culture. But again, it wasn't, wasn't true. Uh, finally cannibalism. So perhaps the most shocking of all Christians were even accused of being cannibals.

This rumor was sparked by a misunderstanding of the Lord's table. When outsiders heard the phrase, this is my body and this is my blood. They failed to understand their symbolic meaning. So when we come together and have communion, we eat the flesh and blood of course, you know, as whatever evangelicals and Protestants and Bible believers, we, our language is a little different.

The Catholic church makes a big thing about this. I heard one priest say, we eat our God. You know, we literally eat his flesh and drink his blood. Of course, that is the view of Rome that the bread and wine, uh, magically or mysteriously turn into the literal flesh and blood of Christ, even though it still retains the attributes of bread and wine.

But you can understand someone who has no concept of any of this, just hearing about Christians, you know, partaking of the body and blood of Christ. And yeah, that's going to sound weird, but they didn't bother investigating what was actually happening because Christians were the enemies.

They were the scapegoats. Hey, if it makes them look bad, let's go with it.

Is that transubstantiation?

Yeah.

That's the Catholic doctrine that says the, the bread and wine become the literal flesh.

And blood. Yeah.

Yeah. Yep.

And we can't help, but I mean, we've tried to translate or understand, interpret, expound on exegete, whatever word you want to use the Bible as literally as possible. But there are just, this is one of those that gets confusing.

Yeah.

I mean, we take the Bible literally, and this would be a, you know, if you want to talk about apologetics here, we could talk about for a moment how the Bible, we do want to take the Bible literally, but what does that mean as it was intended by the authors?

There's obviously a symbolism and allegories in scripture. I mean, clearly. So the Catholic church might say, Hey, you evangelicals, you believe that the Bible should be taken literally. We agree when Jesus said, this is my body.

That's what he said. That's what it means. They could turn that argument around on us. Well, you know, to us, it's, it's, it's obviously a metaphor. The, I am statements of Christ. I am the bread of life.

Yeah.

But does anyone think he's actually bread? Like I am the door. Nobody thinks Jesus is a literal, I am the good shepherd. Well, Jesus technically was a carpenter and not a shepherd. Like these are obviously metaphors, but you know, that's their doctrine.

That's their story. And they're sticking to it and they have their arguments and we have ours. And this is the whole process of apologetics to fight for what you believe in and tell people why something is scriptural or why it's not.

Yeah.

Remind me of the reference that where God says, come, let us reason together, say it.

The Lord.

Isaiah.

Yeah.

Isaiah. Anybody know?

So he's got me on the spot here.

Over. Yeah.

Look that up.

Well, anyways, I think, I mean, it says, though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. So it has to do with, with forgiveness. No, but I think that we can use that further when it says, come, let us reason together.

Yeah.

The Lord say he's given us a brain.

Someone will find that verse. Who's got it?

Oh, Google has it.

It doesn't matter.

Okay.

Uh, in response.

Okay.

We read the rumors. Isaiah.

What?

118.

118.

118. Yes.

I was thinking chapter 18, but I knew that was something else. So thank you. 118.

Come now.

Let us reason together, says the Lord. So these are the false rumors in response to these false rumors. A number of early Christian apologists wrote to defend the faith by setting the record straight.

The most well-known of these apologists was a man named who Justin Martyr. So the discussion question is, how do unbelievers view Christians in our society? Is there perception accurate or inaccurate?

What should believers do to make a defense in the midst of a secular culture?

Okay.

So how do unbelievers view us in tolerant Bible thumpers?

Yeah.

And of course this is generally speaking. Not every unbeliever says this. Holier than now, holier than now, 22 shoes.

Yeah.

I mean the S the self-righteous argument always perplexes me because we're the only people that I know who say, you know, no, we're not good enough. Like these are the people who say, well, I'm a good person.

I'm, I'm a good person. That's that self. I am good. That's righteousness. So the person who says, I'm a good person, I mean that's self-righteousness or I'm going to heaven cause I'm such a good person.

That's self-righteous. We're the ones who say, no, we're sinful. We're, you know, our heart is desperately wicked. You know, who can know it? We need God's grace without God's grace. We have no hope and how that's considered self-righteous, but again, it doesn't really matter what's true.

They're just kind of throwing stuff at us to see what sticks. And that's the name of the game. So, okay. That's how Christians are seen in our society, you know, like intolerant. I can, that's a, that's a big one.

Is their perception accurate or inaccurate? Now I would say it's inaccurate. Are there people who seem that way? Well, maybe I would phrase it this way or turn it around and say, well, they're very intolerant as well.

I mean, if we are intolerant of certain ideas and beliefs, I mean, that's true for the other side because they're intolerant of our beliefs. But as far as I see, Christians are very, there's always exceptions, but Christians generally are very kind to people are, we live in this world with all of these different things being pushed.

And I mean, we're tolerating it. I mean, I might preach against it, but again, everyone tolerates certain things. Everyone doesn't tolerate certain things. It's just kind of looking at each other and with opposing viewpoints, Aaron,.

We are intolerant. I won't send my kids to public school because I don't want them to be exposed to the things that the world says are good. And while that is true, I am intolerant. It doesn't mean I don't love somebody.

So they're taking the basis in our society. They're saying some very true things. We're against, we're not tolerant of, we are Bible thumpers and we think that we are.

Righteous.

Well, because they don't have the second half of it, the righteousness that comes from God, the intolerance, because we love, we are not going to tolerate sin for our children. But that doesn't mean we don't love other people.

So they're taking hafters. But yeah, I mean, you just talked to somebody, Joe Schmole on the street, and they say these.

Things.

They're not necessarily wrong. It's just not necessarily a bad thing that we are.

Yeah, that's definitely one way to approach it and just kind of turn that around.

But, uh, ultimately we're judged by what's in our heart.

Yeah.

So we have hate in our heart.

We're wrong.

But being intolerant doesn't mean you have to hate something. It just means you're not going to let that line be crossed. To put it in the world terms, you're setting healthy boundaries.

Yeah.

I mean, they, yeah, uh, the signs that say no hate, like it's people's front yard. Well, they hate Donald Trump.

I mean, that's right.

I mean, they do hate certain things, you know? But the point is everybody is against things. Everyone is for certain things. We want, it's important that we're kind to people and we're not just standoffish and in your face.

We need to love people, show kindness to people. We want to win them over. We don't want to just, you know, crush them. But some on the other side seem to want to crush opposition. So anyway, that could be a whole class in and of itself.

But, uh, is their perception accurate or inaccurate? What should believers do to make a defense in the midst of a secular culture?

Okay.

What should believers do to make a defense in the midst of the secular culture? I would just say, bring the Bible to bear and anything comes up certain topic behavior, whatever, just here's what the scripture says.

Here's why I believe it based on, you know, chapter and verse. And churches just need to continue patiently teaching, instructing, sound doctrine, and encouraging people to do the right thing. Stir people up to love good works and just keep doing what we've been doing.

Cause the other approach, some people have the idea that Christians just need to kind of do away with doctrine. All these things that the Bible took, the church has taught all these centuries. Please just kind of set that aside and Hey, let's just have a conversation.