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Home , Norman Geisler, Ravi Zacharias

How Can We Love With All of Our Mind?

Lesson #7 Resources for a Powerful Witness

I. Introduction – Important Apologists Note: There are several different types of . A particular apologist may use a particular one or a mixture of two or three different types. The basic types are: • Biblical – Based on the text, languages, and manuscripts of the Scriptures • Theological – Based on theological doctrine and principles • Historical – Based on historical accounts and records. • Classical (philosophical) Based on logical arguments and consistency. • Evidential – Legal Based on legal rules for evidence. • Evidential – Scientific Based on scientific evidence. • Presuppositional Based on Scripture in the hands of the redeemed. • Anti – other views Based on demonstrating that other religious world views don’t match reality.

A. Early – Historical (prior to the 20th century) These were selected from Robert M. Bowman’s Thinkers; 30 Christian Apologists You Should Know; Part One:

Apologist Born-Died Book Title Published Page in book

1. Justin Martyr (100-165) First Apology (155) 19 “In order that we may follow those things which please Him, choosing them by means of the rational faculties He has Himself endowed us with, He both persuades us and leads us to faith.” First Apology; 10 Apologetic Type: Anti-Other Views (Pagan are inconsistent with reality!)

2. (354-430) The City of God (413-426) 25 “But if they do not believe that these were wrought by Christ’s apostles to gain credence to their preaching of His resurrection and ascension, this one grand suffices for us, that the whole world has believed without any miracles.” The City of God; 22.5. Apologetic Type: Biblical

3. (1033-1109) Proslogion (Address) (1078) 29 “For I do not seek to understand in order to believe but I believe in order to understand.” Proslogion; 1. Apologetic Type: Classical – (Philosophical)

4. John Calvin (1509-1564) Institutes of the Christian (1536) 37 “Just as old bleary-eyed men and those with weak vision, if you thrust before them a most beautiful volume, even if they recognize it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispersed our darkness, clearly shows us the true God.” Institutes of the Christian Religion; 1.6.1 Apologetic Type: Biblical

5. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) On the of the Christian Religion (1627) 43 “I am persuaded, that truth is no other way to be defended but by truth, and tat such as the mind is fully satisfied with; it being in vain to attempt to persuade others to that which you yourself are not convinced of.” On the Truth of the Christian Religion; 1.1. Apologetic Type: Classical – (Philosophical)

6. (1623-1662) Pensees (Thoughts) (1669) 46

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“We must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is ve4nerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true.” Pensees; no. 187 Apologetic Type: Biblical

7. William Paley (1743-1805) Natural (1802) 53 “Were there no example in the world of contrivance, except that of the eye, it would be alone sufficient to support the conclusion which we draw from it, as t the necessity of an intelligent Creator.” Natural Theology; p. 45 Apologetic Type: Evidentiary - Scientific

8. Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) The Testimony of the Evangelists (1846) 61 “We proceed to examine and compare the testimony of the Four Evangelists, as witnesses to the life and doctrines of Christ; in order to determine the degree of credit, to which by the rules of evidence applied in human tribunals, they are justly entitled.” The Testimony of the Evangelists; p. 10 Apologetic Type: Evidentiary Legal

9. James Orr 1844-1913 The Christian View of God and the World (1897) 65 “The reason why cannot be waved out of the world at bidding of the sceptics is. That the facts are too strong for the attempt. The theories which would explain Christianity way make shipwreck on the facts.” The Christian View of God and the World; p. 234 Apologetic Type: Evidentiary - Legal

B. Modern – 20th Century These were selected from Robert M. Bowman’s Faith Thinkers; 30 Christian Apologists You Should Know* Part Two:

Apologist Born-Died Book Title Published Page in book*

1. C. S. Lewis 1898-1963 Mere Christianity 1944 71 “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” Mere Christianity; p. 56 Apologetic Type: Literary argumentation

2. Cornelius Van Til 1895-1987 The Defense of the Faith 1955 80 “We do not first defend philosophically by an appeal to reason and experience in order, after that, to turn to Scripture for our knowledge and defense of Christianity. We get our theism as well as our Christianity from the .” The Defense of the Faith; p. 24 Apologetic Type: Presuppositional - Anti-Other Views - Reformed

3. Francis Schaeffer 1912-1984 The God Who is There 1968 92 “Christianity begins with “In the beginning God created the heavens (the total of the cosmos) and the earth. That is the answer to the twentieth century and its lostness. At this point we are then ready to explain the second lostness (the original cause of all lostness) and the answer in the death of Christ.” The God Who is There; p. 181 Apologetic Type: Integrated with classical, evidential, and presuppositional

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4. 1931- History and Christianity 1971 96 “To be skeptical of the resultant text of the books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity; for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.” History and Christianity; p. 29 Apologetic Type: Historical Manuscript Evidentiary

5. 1932-2019 1976 101 “We offer the claim the theism is the only adequate world view. All others are self-defeating or actually unaffirmable. Only theism is actually undeniable. It offers an argument with undeniable premises that leads inescapably to the existence of an infinitely perfect and powerful Being beyond this world who is the current sustaining cause of all finite, changing, and contingent beings.” Christian Apologetics; p. 258 Apologetic Type: Classical (philosophical) - Evidential

6. 1932- 1983 109 “Perhaps the main function of apologetics is to show that from a philosophical point of view, and other theists have nothing whatever for which to apologize.” Faith and Reaionality; p. 33 Apologetic Type: Classical (philosophical)

7. 1949- Apologetics: an Introduction 1984 113 “We know Christianity is true primarily by the self-authenticating witness of the Holy . We show Christianity is true by demonstrating that it is systematically consistent.” Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics; p. 48 Apologetic Type: Classical (philosophical) - Evidentiary

8. J. P. Moreland 1948- Scaling the Secular City 1987 117 “Some people cannot see God at work in the world or understand and appropriate certain features of the Bible because they have not been trained to see those patterns. Instead, they view the world through secular glasses. Their subconscious structures cause them to interpret events and statements in ways which stifle growth. Apologetics can focus attention on some of those secular structures, call them into question, and release the self to view the world in a way more compatible with a Christian . Scaling the Secular City; p. 12 Apologetic Type: Theological and Evidentiary - science

9. Phillip E. Johnson 1940- Darwin on Trial 1991 121 “I approach the creation-evolution dispute not as a scientist but as a professor of law, which means among other things that I know something about the ways that words are used in arguments. What first drew my attention to the question was the way the rules of argument seemed to be structured to make it impossible to question whether what we are being told about evolution is really true.” Darwin on Trial; p. 8 Apologetic Type: Evidential – Science and Law

A Few Other Important Apologists of Today: R. C. Sproul; ; Stephen Meyer; Michael Denton; Hugh Ross; William Dembski; Michael Behe; J. Warner Wallace; Kenneth Boa; Ron Rhodes; ; Alister McGrath; Nancy Pearcey; Jonathan Wells; ; Chip Ingram; Os Guinness; Mark Noll; Gene Edward Veith; James Sire; etc. etc.

II. Some Important Modern Books on Apologetics The following books are generally listed in order from easy, strait forward to more erudite and academic. All are within the range of the average Christian.

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A. The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask (with answers); Mark Mittelberg; Tyndale; 327 pp. 10 chapters

B. When Skeptics Ask, a handbook on Christian evidences; Norman Geisler & Ron Brooks; Victor books; 348 pp. 13 topical chapters w 3 – 10 sub headings

C. Handbook of Christian Apologetics, hundreds of answers to crucial questions; Peter Kreeft & Ron Tacelli; IVP Academic; 406 pp. 6 parts with 16 chapters

D. Christian Apologetics; Norman Geisler; Prince Press; 393 pp. 3 parts with 18 chapters

E. Reasonable Faith, Christian truth and apologetics; William Lane Craig; Crossway; 415 pp. 5 parts with 8 essays

F. Tough-Minded Christianity; Edited by William Dembski & Thomas Schirrmacher; B&H Academic: 768 pp. 6 parts w 43 Essays

G. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics; Norman Geisler; Baker Books; 841 pp. Alphabetical listing

There are many hundreds of other excellent apologetics books that tend to be more focused in particular areas of interest such as cosmology, evolution, theology, scriptural integrity, cultural, etc.

III. Principles of

A. Basic Rules of Logic – The Three Laws of Thought 1. The Law of Non-contradiction: “Something cannot be A and not A simultaneously. In other words, two mutually exclusive things cannot exist simultaneously. For example, you cannot have a circular triangle, because a circle, by definition, has no straight lines and no corners, and a triangle, by definition, has three straight lines and three corners. An object cannot simultaneously have zero corners and zero lines and three corners and three lines. That’s not an opinion, it’s an immutable property.”

2. Law of Identity: Each thing is identical with itself.

3. The law of excluded middle: For any proposition, either that proposition is true or its negation is true.

B. Five More Examples of False Arguments – from Logically Fallacious; by Bo Bennett 1. Equivocation p.104 Using an ambiguous term in more than one sense, thus making an argument misleading.

2. Hasty Generalization p. 127 Drawing a conclusion based on a small sample size, rather than looking at a statistically legitimate population size.

3. Moving the Goalposts p. 160 Demanding of an opponent that he address more and more points after the initial counter argument has been satisfied.

4. Reductio Ad Hitlerum p. 188 An attempt to make an argument analogous with Hitler or the Nazi party.

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5. Slippery Slope p. 199 Using a relatively insignificant first event to proceed to another future event that is much worse, etc. until some ultimate significant event is reached without explaining the likelihood of this series proceeding from one another.

IV. Erroneous Arguments Used Against Christianity A. Immoral Prosecution of Galileo – An honest scientist just seeking the truth from the evidence. The Galileo Affair was not as has depicted by secularists. A detailed description of the event and many issues is contained at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair in the section called Dialogue and following sections.

Note: Additionally “The Thirty Years' War was a war fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history,[14] it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague. Casualties were overwhelmingly and disproportionately inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire, most of the rest being battle deaths from various foreign armies.[10] The deadly clashes ravaged Europe; 20 percent of the total population of Germany died during the conflict and there were losses up to 50 percent in a corridor between Pomerania and the Black Forest.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War

B. The Medieval Church Believed and Taught that the Earth was Flat. The Medieval Church academically followed Greek teaching and understood that the world was a sphere. The Greek scientist/philosopher Eratosthenes (276 BC – 195 BC) calculated the circumference of the earth accurate to within 15% of the circumference that we now know. The Church never officially believed the earth was flat!

Look at “Measurement of the Earth’s Circumference” at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

Extra Credit: Would anyone like to try to find an apologetic answer for either one of these two other arguments used against Christianity??? Start with an internet search. Give it a try. The answers are out there!

C. Requirements of the Church that Christians Must Have “Blind Faith”.

D. Internal Biblical Contradictions Disprove “Inerrancy”.

Next Week: Lesson #8: Having Strong Evidence to Defend the Faith!

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