Is Hell a Problem for Apologetics? (Rethinking Hell Conference Video Clip)
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- come up in certain various contexts, all right? Well, what is apologetics more specifically?
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- I really enjoy this definition that was given by the Christian theologian and philosopher Cornelius Van Til.
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- He says this with respect to what apologetics is. He says, apologetics is the vindication of the
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- Christian worldview over against the non -Christian worldview. Now the reason why
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- I like this definition is that it places the dispute between the believer and the unbeliever within the context of antithesis of worldview systems.
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- So that we're not simply defending the faith based upon individual data points or individual pieces of evidence or facts.
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- Rather, we are defending an entire system of thought, a system that gives meaning and context to the individual data points and facts that we discuss.
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- For example, when we speak of things like righteousness or justice or good, evil, heaven or hell, these topics are not floating out there in some platonic abstract realm in which they have no broader worldview context.
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- We understand these categories of heaven, hell, righteousness, justice and sin within a broader worldview perspective.
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- And it is vitally important that when we're engaging in apologetics, we have one foot in the individual facts and another foot in the worldview context in which those facts are given their meaning.
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- And when we talk about, say, the topic of hell, it's no different. So we need to understand and have contact with the broader worldview perspective in which we are coming from, in which we're arguing for our specific positions.
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- Now, you do have different flavors of apologetics and I'm going to go really quickly through this, but I think it's important.
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- Apologetics is sort of like ice cream. You can get your strawberry flavor, your vanilla flavor. There are different traditions, okay?