GSI Seminar Sample:
"Apologetic Answers"
© Sid Galloway BS, M.Div.
Just an old sheepdog of the Good Shepherd
Genesis 1:1
Communicating conclusions from 100's of PhD scholars
Supporting the authority of His Word & the consistency of His character
Human Rights? Slavery? - Animal Rights? Cruelty?
What about God's right to command compassion for all of His creatures?
* Biblical Biology Course & Scores of Biology Notes/Lessons available online
Throughout the history of the church, the LORD has called upon His people to "give a defense for the hope" (defencio fidei) that is in us (2 Pet 3:15). From Peter to Paul to Justin Martyr, Van Til, James Warwick Montgomery, McDowell, Geisler, et al, the church has proclaimed the divine authority and trustworthiness of the Scripture and its gospel.
However, there is a growing conflict brewing among modern apologists that I believe is unnecessary because both sides are right. Remember that Lucifer's strategy is often an effort to divide and conquer by causing misunderstanding and encouraging extremes. The conflict to which I refer here is between evidential apologists and presuppositional apologists. Conflict, however, if handled well can be constructive - at least it gets people thinking.
Each group believes that their method of defending their hope in the Bible and the good news of Jesus is better. Some are even convinced that their method is the only valid way of apologetics. I believe that Scripture not only supports both methods, but in fact shows that each is inseparably interdependent upon the other.
All evidential apologists are in essence standing on presuppositional (a priori truths / assumptions, such as laws of logic, etc.). Likewise, all presuppositional apologists are using their laws of logic and reasoning evidentially. God through the prophet Isaiah (see chapters 41-45) repeatedly promised to provide predictive proofs of the Divine authorship of His Word. Jesus through many "convincing proofs" demonstrated who He was and the apostles based their early sermons on the historical, evidential facts to "persuade" others to believe.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, many liberal theologians and evolutionary scientists hold to their "theory" with blind faith in spite of the evidence.
Genuine belief in the Bible as God's Word is rational faith (Prov 14:15; Heb 11:1) based on the "evidence of things not seen", never blind faith. Smoke is evidence leading to belief in a fire not yet seen. Similarly, the logical, historical, legal, scientific, and subjective evidences for the supernatural authorship of the Bible are what God uses to lead a person to faith that it is uniquely God breathed and that its central character, Jesus the living Word, is the Lord and Savior of rebellious man.
Once a person embraces the living and written Word of God as the Truth, the Bible then becomes the presuppositional standard, the perceptual filter (worldview) through which all else is examined. Therefore, a truly biblical apologetic is evidentially-presuppositional.
It is a common human problem to elevate one side of an antinomy to the near or actual exclusion of the other. Once that occurs, we then are tempted in human pride to dig in and become more and more unbalanced when questioned. Remember the historical debates regarding the humanity and deity of our Lord Jesus, and the heretical extremes to which so many swung.
The cornerstone of Christianity is the character of our Creator, inseparably linking Christ and His cross to the historical necessity of a real Adam in the paradise of Eden. If Adam's rebellion did not cause death, then Jesus, the second Adam (Romans 5) died for nothing.
Past articles, ppts, and seminars on this subject are being reworked ...
Two Decades writing - 100's of articles - 1,000's of files -Not gone
- The OLD resources are not gone, just retired (archived).
* As I upgrade the site piece by piece, trying to teach myself Dreamweaver CSS :-), some pages could temporarily not work well . .