Power Point: Apologetics Without Apology 951.00 Kb
 

Notes to accompany Apologetics Without Apologies

 

Apologetics:  Explaining and defending the reasons for belief in God and in
the Bible.

 

Jonathan Swift:  ??It is impossible to reason a person out of a thing which they were
not reasoned into in the first place.??

 

Epistemology:  How do we know.

 

William of Ockham:

 

Nothing is assumed as evident unless it is known per se, is evident by experience,
or is proved by authority of scripture.

 

Deduction, induction, revelation

 

Reasoning:  Inductive and Deductive

 

Evidence  ??   Faith

 

1 Peter 3:15     Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you
to give the reason for the hope that you have.

 

There is that word REASON.

 

Who do we most often have to give an answer to?   Ourselves.

 

For some people, this is not a major issue, but you came, so by definition,
it is a big deal to you.

 

As time passes, our faith must mature.  Ducking questions will not cut it.

 

A common problem:

 

Separating what we know by faith from what we know by reason/evidence

 

Ex:   creationism      begging the question

 

Michael Faraday;

 

??The man who is certain he is right is almost sure to be wrong; and he has
the additional misfortune of inevitably remaining so.??

 

As disciples we have the duty of remaining intellectually honest.

 

Ex:  things I am absolutely sure of :

 

1.     The universe was created.

2.     Life was created.

3.     Jesus rose from the dead.

4.     The Bible, in a general sense is inspired by God.

 

Things I believe to be true, but which I will admit are not proved:

 

1.     Every single word of the Bible is inspired by God.

2.     There are no mistakes in the Bible.

3.     Adam and Eve were real people who actually lived.

 

Ex:  Do evolutionists have the intellectual right to say evolution is a good
theory?     Absolutely yes!!

 

          Do they have the intellectual right to say ??evolution is a fact??
?  NO!!!

 

Ex:  Do atheists have a right to say that life began as a chemical accident
through chemical evolution?

 

NO!!!!     There is not a shred of evidence to support this belief.  It is based on
a philosophical presupposition.

 

Reasons why I believe:

 

1.  Medical evidence.

 

a.      circumcision on the 8th day

b.     don??t touch dead bodies, wash with hyssop.

 

(As opposed to the Egyptian medical documents)

 

2.  Archaeological evidence.

 

a.      five cities in the plains of Soddom and Gomorrah.

Soddom and Gomorrah. 

 

Genesis 18 and 19. 

 

??purely mythical tale.???  

 

a league of five cities around the Dead Sea. 

 

Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (Genesis 14:2).

 

a fairly well-watered and fertile land in a region which is now desolate wasteland. 

 

seeds and pollen

four thousand years ago, the Dead Searegion was much wetter than it is now.  The D
ead Seawas about twice its present size, and was not nearly as salty as it is today. 

 

half a dozen wadis

 

  In five of those wadis, the ruins of ancient cities have been discovered. 

 

all five cities were abandoned and never reoccupied some time around 2000 BC. 

 

The largest of these is almost certainly the ancient Sodom. 

 

 walls twenty-three feet thick!  

 

ashes, as much as seven feet deep. 

 

a graveyard which is located a considerable distance from the city

 

the grave structures discovered there had been burned from the outside in, suggesting
burning material was dropped on them. 

 

a ??purely mythical tale??? 

 

 

 

b.     Tel el Amarna tablets.

 

The Tel el-Amarna tablets

 

Pharaoh Akhnaton, ruler of Egyptfrom 1387 to 1366 BC. 

 

near anarchy in the outlying reaches of the Egyptian realms. 

 

Gezer, Ashkelon and Lachish.  All three of these cities are mentioned in the
list of conquered cities in Joshua. 

.  Megiddoand Jerusalemwere notable hold-outs. 

 

a certain Abdi-Hiba, governor of Jebus (later known as Jerusalem).  The letter
is addressed to Akhnaton, which implies it was written somewhere between 1387
and 1366 BC.  This fits well with an approximate date of the exodus of 1420 BC. 

 

??The Habiru plunder all lands of the king.  If archers

are here this year, then the lands of the king, the

lord, will remain; but if the archers are not here,

then the lands of the king, my lord, are lost.??

 

c.     Tel Dan inscription.

 

The Tel Dan Inscription.  This inscription from about 820 BC was already discussed because
it mentions the House of David.  In this inscription, Hazael, King of Aram also boasts
??I killed Jehoram, son of Ahab, King of Israel, and I killed Ahaziah, son of
Jehoram, king of the House of David.??  It is interesting that 2 Kings 8:28,29
records Jehoram being injured in battle against Hazael, but later actually slain
by Jehu.  Presumably the Arameans knew he was injured and mistakenly assumed when
he died soon thereafter, that he had died of his wounds.

 

Also:

 

Shishak inscription    920 BC

 

Moabite Stone   850 BC

 

Taylor Prism:  Obelisk of Shalmanezer  840 BC

 

Sennacherib Cyllinder   686 BC

 

Babylonian Chronicles   597 BC

 

Lacish Letters

 

Cyrus Cyllinder

 

Pilate Inscription

 

3.  Evidence from prophecy

 

a.      Psalms 22

b.     Zechariah 11

c.     Daniel 9

 

4.  Evidence from types and antitypes.

 

Ex:    Prefigures of the Messiah

 

 

1.  Jonah.   Lessons for the Jews.   God loves Gentiles, You cannot escape God??s
calling, 

 

But??. When Christ came, more on  Jonah was revealed.

 

Matthew 12:39,40

 

Miraculously delivered from death on 3rd day.

 

Born in Galilee, in a town right next to Nazareth.

 

They gambled over Jonah??s fate   (gambling over Jesus?? clothes)

 

Offered repentance to gentiles  (Luke 11:30-32)  

 

Evidence:  Remember how prejudiced the authors were.

 

 

 

2.  Melchizedek

 

 

3.  Joseph     King  (actually prince)

 

a.  favorite son if Jacob/Israel       Jesus the only son

 

b.  tended sheep (a recurring theme as Jesus is the good shepherd)

 

c.  brothers conceived a plan to kill him.    (brother Israelites)

 

d. betrayed by his brothers for 20 pieces of silver

 

e.  God brought him to Egyptto protect from jealous brothers  (Jesus from Herod)

 

f.  God in a dream:   you will rule over your brothers as king    Jesus a king

 

g.  raised by God to king from very humble situation.

 

h.  most importantly to be a figure of the Messiah:  saved Israel!!

 

 

3.  Moses.   Prophet,  priest (sort of)  and prince (sort of)

 

a.  Deut 18:17-19.   God told Moses he was a prefigure of Christ.  I will raise up a prophet
like you??.

 

b.  death sentence as a baby.  God protected him.

 

c.  raised from poverty to be prince in King??s house.  Right hand of Pharoah.

 

d. Hosea 11:1 and Matt 2:13-15  Out of Israel I called my son.  True of both Jesus and
Moses.

 

e. gave up right hand position with Pharoah to be with God??s people.  Stepped down
from exalted position to save Israel.

 

f. led Israelout of physical slavery.    (led spiritual Israelout of spiritual slavery)

 

g.  Forty years in the wilderness preparing  (only forty days in the wilderness preparing,
but what the heck??.  He was God!)

 

h.  God gave Moses Aaron to prepare the way/speak for him   (John the Baptist)

 

i.  Israelbaptized into Moses in Red Sea.      (Jesus followers baptized.)

 

j.  Produced bread (manna)   So did Jesus  (Jn 6:1-13,  Jesus is the bread of life John 6:32)

 

k.  Produced water from a rock.   (John 4:13,14)     Coincidence????

 

l.  Spoke to God on Sinai     (on Hermon)

 

 

4.  Joshua. 

5.  Samson.   

 

6.  Samuel 

 

7.  David.    Jews considered him the most obvious prefigure of the Messiah.

                   (Mathew 12:23  Could this be the son of David?)

                   (Ezekiel 37:24,25)  David my servant

 

a. A shepherd    Note how David killed a lion and a bear when they attacked the sheep.  M
esianic prefigure!!    (I am the good shepherd.  I lay down my life for my sheep) 

 

b.  Born in Bethlehem

 

c.  a. Anointed as king   (Messiah = masah = anointed) at a very young age.

          1 Sam 16:13  The Spirit descended on David.  Coincidence?

 

d.  Saved Israelfrom slavery to Philistia.   Killed Goliath

 

e.  Saved Israelagain in 2 Sam 24   I will not sacrifice to the Lord burnt offering
that cost me nothing.

 

f.  This was on Mt.Moriah, the same hill as Abraham and Jesus!!!

 

g.  Physical king of Jerusalem.  Jesus spiritual king of Jerusalem.

 

h.  Brought the ark (brought God) to Jerusalem.  So did Jesus!!!

 

i.  Persecuted by God??s people.  Very similar to Jesus (Psalms 2:1,2  Psalms 22

 

 

8.  Solomon, Daniel, Cyrus, Ezra, Joshua the priest,

 

 

 

5.  The miracles of Jesus:  The resurrection of Christ.

 

 

Not believing is unreasonable!!!

 

Gather together a list of unanswered questions.

 

Seek answers over time.  Be stubborn.

 

Watch your list grow, then eventually begin to shrink.