...A Critique of Classical Apologetics The classical approach to apologetics seeks to use philosophical arguments to reason and prove theism. While they whole heartedly seek to reach this conclusion, theism means that the reality of the personal God revealed in Jesus Christ cannot be approached through this method. If the end goal of apologetics is, “defending the Christian faith,” then one must seek to make the basic tenants of the faith evidenced in the apologetic method used. The classical approach fails to do this. To succeed in presenting a classical apologetic argument would include laying out logical arguments, have the seeker agree with them, and finally reach the conclusion that there is one god. This is the farthest that this method...
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...APOLOGETICS APPLICATION PAPER Glenda Campbell APOL 500 July 4, 2014 Outline Introduction 1. Summary of the Islamic worldview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. Evaluating the Islamic Worldview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. Correcting the Islamic Worldview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4. Defending the Christian Worldview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Apologetics Application Paper Introduction According to Brown, people everywhere filter what they read and hear through the grid of their own worldview. We all see the world different and the assumptions and prejudices that have about the world have an effect on how we regard the world. The Christian worldview and the Islamic worldview are similar, but they are different in many ways. But, what is a worldview? The ways a person views and understands the world have an effect on everyone. Sire defines a worldview as "a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously)...
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...Atheist,” embraces a Christian, or theistic, worldview while Mr. Hitchens, author of “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” is very explicitly an atheist. Throughout the debate, Christopher Hitchens used his quick wit and sarcasm to bring forth some strong arguments against Christian beliefs. One of the arguments was that of the presence of various religions-if there are so many different religions, how can they all be correct and true? If I were to ask a Christian, a Muslim, and a Buddhist to tell me about God, they would each have remarkably different stories to share. The Christian would of course tell me all about God, while the Muslim would praise Allah, and the Buddhist would likely speak of the Buddha, and each one would claim that their view was supreme. Another argument that Hitchens offered was that it could not be proven that Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary. When the angel told Mary that she was highly favored in Luke 1:28, she was given grace, which is only imparted upon sinners. If Mary was a sinner, then she could not have birthed Jesus Christ, as he was theoretically pure and free from sin. Since every human is born filled with sin, then Jesus could have never existed as described in the Bible. Christopher Hitchens also argued that Christians “commit the most callous, the most cruel, the most brutal, the most indiscriminate atrocities…precisely because they believe they have divine permission.” Examples of such Christian terrorism can be seen...
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...Book Critique on The Advancement By Brandon Killings APOL 500 Christians live in a world that seems to have changed overnight. The meaning of marriage is being redefined by allowing same sex marriages and the meaning of the absolute truth has just disappeared. So Bush is trying to figure out where did this new approach of life originate and why did things change so sudden from one generation to the next. The text states that this drastic change didn’t just happen overnight, but it started during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bush tends to answer this question in his book, entitled, “The Advancement.” L. Russ Bush, is a dean and a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Advancement is an apologetic approach to the philosophy of naturalism. Bush used the term “advancement,” to explain the modern worldview based on a naturalistic philosophy. Bush felt that the term, “modern” is outdated and old fashioned because this term tends to provoke a mindset of staleness, rather than revolving and advancing. Bush organizes his book into eight chapters. In the book, Bush explains the ideas of postmodern evolutionary thought and offers a response from a Christian perspective. Bush’s main goal for writing this book was to expose the discrepancies of the modern naturalist philosophy, compared to the truths of Christianity. The first chapter, which is entitled “The Worldview of the Advancement,” which basically talks about the worldview that is most dominant...
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...billion adherents, known as Christians. Most Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human, and the saviour of humanity whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament. Consequently, Christians refer to Jesus as Christ or the Messiah. The foundations of Christian theology are expressed in ecumenical creeds. These professions of faith state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and was resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trust in him for the remission of their sins. The creeds further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven, where he reigns with God the Father. Most Christian denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge everybody, living and dead, and to grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life. His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as "the gospel", meaning "good news" (a loan translation of the Greek: εὐαγγέλιον euangélion). The term gospel also refers to written accounts of Jesus's life and teaching, four of which – the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – are considered canonical and included in Christian Bibles. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Jewish sect in the mid-1st century. Originating in the Levant region of the Middle East, it quickly spread to Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Egypt. It grew in size and influence over a few centuries, and by the end of the 4th...
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...Interestingly, Viroli’s earlier monograph on Machiavelli held very different opinions on Machiavelli’s God. Machiavelli, Viroli stated, wanted to draw society back to its original principles and urged a reinterpretation of the moral content of the Christian religion in accordance with virtue. Viroli approaches the book with an apologetic mind and he manages to pull the reader to his side in his confirmation of Machiavelli as a Christian. His use of Machiavelli’s letters supports his argument, enlarges the thesis, and enriches the field. Although his background aligns within political history circles, this book focuses on the literary aspects of Machiavelli and his contemporaries. Viroli persuasively argues that the predecessors, contemporaries, and Machiavelli, himself, believed in Christianity as an indispensible precondition for a Republican...
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...University Apologetics An apology, as the term is used here, is not saying "I'm sorry." Rather, it means a ready defense; "offered in defense or vindication, especially of the divine origin and authority of Christianity." Thus an apology is a defense of what you believe to be true. An apologist is a person who makes the defense. And apologetics is a "systematic argumentative discourse in defense." (All quotes in this paragraph taken from Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. The reason I should defend my faith as First Peter 3:15 says, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." When non-Christians ask tough questions about the Christian faith, I will be able to give a solid and logical response. If not, there is an opportunity lost to spread God's Word. Worse, the Christian who has a weak foundation for his faith can be easily shaken by the doubts of non-believers. Though not everything in the Bible can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, there is far more proof than most people Christian or non-Christian are aware of. As apologists for my faith, it is my job to line up the available evidence, base my decisions upon it, and present the evidence to others to help give them an intelligent foundation for their decisions. "An intelligent Christian ought to be able to point up the flaws in a non-Christian position and to present facts and arguments which tell in favor of the gospel. If our apologetic prevents...
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...Quiz 1 Question 1 0 out of 3 points The following cannot be said of the Bible. Selected Answer: All of the above Question 2 3 out of 3 points Paul speaking on Mars Hill, as found in Acts 17, is an example of cultural apologetics. Selected Answer: True Question 3 3 out of 3 points In the 20th century most evangelicals spoke of culture from a “Christ above culture” perspective. Selected Answer: False Question 4 0 out of 3 points When Jesus healed the crazed man who lived in a graveyard near Decapolis the people of the city: Selected Answer: Refused to believe and did not go out to meet Him Question 5 3 out of 3 points Christianity is unique in its belief that humanity is hopeless and spiritual dead unable to save themselves through human effort. Selected Answer: True Question 6 3 out of 3 points Selected Answer: True All copies of the biblical manuscript are inspired just like the original manuscripts. Selected Answer: False Question 7 3 out of 3 points Because of the respect that people had for the Apostle Paul his message of Jesus Christ was accepted by almost everyone who heard him. Selected Answer: False Question 8 3 out of 3 points...
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...Quiz 1 Question 1 0 out of 3 points The following cannot be said of the Bible. Selected Answer: All of the above Question 2 3 out of 3 points Paul speaking on Mars Hill, as found in Acts 17, is an example of cultural apologetics. Selected Answer: True Question 3 3 out of 3 points In the 20th century most evangelicals spoke of culture from a “Christ above culture” perspective. Selected Answer: False Question 4 0 out of 3 points When Jesus healed the crazed man who lived in a graveyard near Decapolis the people of the city: Selected Answer: Refused to believe and did not go out to meet Him Question 5 3 out of 3 points Christianity is unique in its belief that humanity is hopeless and spiritual dead unable to save themselves through human effort. Selected Answer: True Question 6 3 out of 3 points Selected Answer: True All copies of the biblical manuscript are inspired just like the original manuscripts. Selected Answer: False Question 7 3 out of 3 points Because of the respect that people had for the Apostle Paul his message of Jesus Christ was accepted by almost everyone who heard him. Selected Answer: False Question 8 ...
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...In the seventeenth century, European intellectuals developed a new understanding of scientific endeavor, namely to discern natural causes through quantitative measurement. Galileo first challenged the Scholastic supposition that mathematical astronomy was merely ancillary to natural philosophy, and by the middle of the century, both the Cartesian and Newtonian mechanical systems had placed mathematics at center stage, disdaining qualitative physics as irrelevant, unknowable, and misleading. Consistent with their methodology, the mechanists tended to reduce the ontological reality of the natural world to its quantitative aspects, implicitly or explicitly eliminating all categories other than extension, time, space, and motion. In this interpretation, Descartes’ treatment of matter as extension merely formalized an intellectual aesthetic that even his adversaries held in practice. We can easily see this penchant for quantification in Newton’s belief that all physics is mechanical, but we might not expect to find a mania for quantity among those who held a more poetic view of reality. Such an enigma is precisely what we discover in Blaise Pascal, a man who intensely contemplated the ineffable qualitative aspects of human and divine reality, yet remained as thoroughly mechanistic in his treatment of the natural world as Descartes himself. By exploring this dual reality of Pascal’s intellectual life, we can examine how his brand of fideism synthesized the enchanted world of his...
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...that, they appear to be very much alive and spiritually in active in the way they act in those churches. But in reality they are spiritually dead by the circumstance when we get to know more about those churches. This is the same situation that we see with the church in Sardis. Sardis was a wealthy city full of gold taken from the nearby Pactolus River. The city was located on a high hill at the intersection of the five roads. Like the other cities addressed in revelation 2-3, the church of Sardis was probably founded through Paul’s ministry in Ephesus.Revelation 3:1-6 deals with the writings to the angel of the church in Sardis. Well we can see how amazing the writings to the letters of John are for the churches today and for the past 20 centuries and it seems like the problem still exists even now. To welcome at an understanding of this passage briefly, this paper will offer an exegetical analysis by identifying and examining the historical context, offering word studies of significant terms and analyze the text verse by verse and will also demonstrate clearly how God let people of Sardis know that reward is waiting for them if they turn back and repent and complete the works of God and be alert. All this analysis comes under the doctrine of eschatology. Context Well if we...
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...Jessica Owens Life & Teachings January 27, 2013 Evidence for Jesus Unexplainable things and/or occurrences are usually dismissed because it is easier to deny them than to believe in the idea of a miraculous event. Most deny them out of fear and others deny them because they don’t understand, but whatever their reasons have been none have ever proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ did not exist. Our history books are filled with facts that most people in this life time cannot confirm as fact or deny, but we believe in them and teach our children about them without hesitation. Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laënnec invented the stethoscope in 1816, Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawn mower in 1830, Jacob Perkins invented the refrigerator in 1834, and a host of other inventions have occurred since the beginning of time. Who can actually prove that the data provided in relation to these inventions was accurately recorded? So why is it so hard to believe that Jesus Christ, the son of God existed? One explanation could be that people fear what they don’t understand? The acts performed by Jesus Christ were “divine” this concept is something that non-believers do not understand. Although Christianity is the only religion that is historically based, there are several forms of evidence that prove Jesus was indeed a real historical person (Hewer). Based on the Eyewitness Evidence, the documentary Evidence, the Corroborating Evidence, and the Circumstantial Evidence...
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...Biblical theology is a Christian approach in which the theologian studies the Bible from the perspective of understanding the progressive history of God revealing Himself to humanity and following the fall and throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. Biblical theology is an attempt to articulate the theology that the Bible contains as its writers addressed their particular settings. It particularly focuses on the epochs of the Old Testament in order to understand how each part of it ultimately points forward to fulfillment in the life mission of Jesus Christ. Because scholars have tended to use the term in different ways, biblical theology has been notoriously difficult to define. Biblical theology is also study of the Bible that seeks to discover what the biblical writers, under divine guidance, believed, described, and taught in the context of their own times. Biblical theology is an attempt to understand God as He is revealed in the Bible. It seeks to discover what the biblical writers understand, believe and what they are taught. It’s based on the Bible first and then it takes scriptures from the word of God. Biblical theology pays attention to the soil of history. It studies revelation in the progressive sequence in which it was given. Also biblical theology finds its source in the Bible. Relation to Other Disciplines Biblical theology is related to but different from three other major branches of theological inquiry. Practical theology focuses on pastoral application...
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...OF RICHARD BAXTER Introduction It is often described that the 20th century, and consequently the 21st century, theologians “stand on the shoulders of giants.” By that we mean that we have great treasures of literary works by theologians and scholars from the past whose ministry and legacy are just as influential and relative today. What really is new under the sun? We turn to the newest “literary genius” and the New York Time’s Best Seller list and find that the content is no doubt a translation—a re-print of material and genius from ages past in colloquial ear-tickling. One of my personal favorite authors of the 20th century was C. S. Lewis. He was an apologetic for non-apologetics and in many ways, was unlike any other...
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...Holy Spirit. 5. Angelology: The study of angels. 6. Satanology: Yelp, the study of Satan. There are more, but you get the idea of how much theology is in Scripture. The last study of systematic theology is Eschatology, which means the study of last things. The study of eschatology is the study of last things, however, like the underlying theme of all theology is Jesus Christ. The first verse of the book of Revelation sets the tone. “1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants…” Eschatology is not a study of just prophecy, although it includes that. Biblical eschatology deals with end things in two specific areas. First, it involves the future of the physical world and all that includes the second...
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