TTUF TOPIC # 6: What About Proving The Bible as Really GOD’s Word? PART 1 of 2

Do You Know What Apologetics Is (No, it isn’t the art of apologizing!)?

Equipment providing able defense in contending for the faith as a tool in evangelism.

Check out the TTUF Apologetics Page here!

1 PETER 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

The Greek word for “defense” or “reason” or “answer” is apologia, from which we get the word apologetics. Apologetics means, “to give a defense’.

Apologetics, then, is the science of giving a defense of the Christian faith. There are many skeptics who doubt the existence of God and/or attack belief in the God of the Bible. But there is legitimate evidence to prove God’s existence!

The same goes for the Person of Jesus Christ, as to His actual existence and His claims for Deity.

There are many critics who attack the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible.

The infamous French deist and chief opponent of the Christian faith, Voltaire:

“In his pamphlet, The Sermon on the Fifty (1762) he attacked viciously the Old Testament, biblical miracles, biblical contradictions, the Jewish religion, the Christian God, the virgin birth, and Christ’s death on the cross. Of the Four Gospels he wrote, “What folly, what misery, what puerile and odious things they contain [and the Bible is filled] with contradictions, follies, and horrors”

Voltaire regarded most of the doctrines of the Christin faith – the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Trinity, Communion – as folly and irrational. And finally, “To invent all those things [in the Bible], the last degree of rascality. To believe them, the extreme of brutal stupidity!”

Not sixty years after Voltaire’s death, his house was purchased by the Evangelical Society of Geneva as a storehouse for Bibles! Tell me GOD doesn’t have a sense of humor!

There are many false teachers who promote false doctrines and deny the key truths of the Christian faith. The mission of Christian apologetics is to combat these movements and instead promote the Christian God and Christian truth.

Probably the key verse for Christian apologetics is (rendered differently here): 

1 PETER 3:15,
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...”

We see apostle Paul doing this here:

ACTS 17:2-3
 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ."

There is no excuse for a Christian to be completely unable to defend their faith. Every Christian should be able to give a reasonable presentation of their faith in Christ. No, not every Christian needs to be an expert in apologetics; though, they should know what he believes, why he believes it, how to share it, and defend it.

A second aspect of Christian apologetics that is often ignored is the second half of 1 PETER 3:15, “but do this with gentleness and respect...” Defending the Christian faith with apologetics should never involve being rude, angry, or disrespectful. While practicing Christian apologetics, we should strive to be strong in our defense and at the same time Christ-like in our presentation. If we win a debate but turn a person even further away from Christ by our attitude, we have lost the true purpose of Christian apologetics.

Watch apologist Frank Turek explaining: 

The Moral Argument which proves the existence of God

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