Ahh. Finally. Now lets get down to business.
Apologia: A formal written defense of something you believe in strongly
Apologetics: The defense of Christianity (via non faith methods)
I need to make it clear that this is my personal view on apologetics, and it may not necessarily reflect the views of everyone, but im sure many will agree that I take a fair stand on this matter.
So I have been talking with ZR about stuff related to creationism, and while sometimes I may not respond that much, I do see the importance behind it and I wanna discuss it a little. What we mostly discuss is more closely related to the issues of the big bang, new earth, evolution, and the likes of it, today I would like to focus more on apologetics in general.
I saved a word document of some questions a friend of mine asked me in the past in regards to my faith. It was really a challenge for me at that point in time, questions about my faith that I didn't know how to answer and it seemed like I could only respond 'well I dont know the answer but I know its out there' which is really pathetic. Its interesting I guess, because that really fueled my desire to read up on apologetics, and that was when I began reading C S Lewis and Lee Strobel.
Now when I look back, I realise that I can answer every single question he had posed to me in the past. One of them was “Don’t you think blind faith is an ironic gift to give to the Creator of human intelligence?"
I remember in a TOK class earlier this year, something similar was mentioned. It seems that some Christians and non Christians alike may have misunderstood something. God never meant for us to have blind faith. A childlike faith does not in any way equate to blind faith. In fact, seeking for answers is a biblical principle.
A pastor who once came to speak to the primers mentioned that apologetics can never give us absolute certainty about whatever we believe in. After all, Christianity is not about evidence and solid facts, faith is held in high regard, though not in the blind faith sense. Apologetics is meant to give us enough certainty. Enough to know that Christianity is not complete unsubstantiated bollocks that fails to measure up when under scrutiny. As he had put it, it should even present a strong enough case to tilt it in favour of God and Jesus Christ.
I will not go into apologetics itself in this post, but I must show that it is something that is important. Far too often, Christians may think of it as an unimportant aspect, where all we ought to do is to live our lives well as Christians. Here I say to you however, that sometimes, you really do need apologetics.
As ZR put it, apologetics give us the certain knowledge of mind keeps us holding on when the rest fails. We all know those periods of time where sometimes God feels distant and all. Left unattended, it may slip even more and thats how people backslide. A solid backing of apologetics may help in this, for when your feelings aren't so strong, by logic and reason, you know that Christianity is true, and that keeps you holding on through those difficult times. For we love the Lord with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength. Our mind is indeed merely one component, but it is one part of it and cannot be rejected.
We surely have experienced times where we received some piece of infomation, and attack on our faith, and it makes us doubt a little. What do we do with this doubt? Some Christians may say we ought to ignore it and trust that God holds the answer. Yet how much can we ignore something that seems so real and pressing into our hearts and minds? It is through doubt, that we are challenged, and we ought to address our doubts, seek answers, we will find ourselves refined, made stronger.
One point we discussed about was regarding evolution and the shaking of faith. Put it simply, if evolution (macro evolution at least) is true, Christianity is false. There is no way of reconciling them. Everything about evolution is just against God. To begin with, evolution was an idea that originally was meant to discredit God, to remove Him from the picture.
I won't go into details of the many ways in which evolution contradicts the Word of God, however I would like to highlight the fact that evolution is taught as fact in schools around the world. The reality of the matter however is that evolution is NOT a fact. Just as how people used to think the sun revolved around the earth. Everyone believed it. Yet just because everyone believes it doesn't mean its true. There isnt as much scientific evidence for evolution as many people would actually believe (and even some of these 'evidence' are so grossly incorrect), and there are significant amounts of evidence that does not agree with evolution. Its not enough to disprove evolution sure, evolution by the layman's stand point still can stand as the most possible valid theory. But it is not fact, and it will be proven false.
Now, why do I mention this? Simply because this 'fact' of evolution has shaken the faith of many. ZR linked the rise of evolution directly to the decline of the Church in some countries. Im sure that there are many other reasons for the decline, but I do believe that it can easily be one of the reasons. Certainly many people can see what evolution really means for Christianity. The whole concept of sin just gets warped up. Genesis becomes a regular creation story that is actually metaphorical. Adam and eve were non-existent. There is no fall of Man. There is no need for a redemption of Man. Jesus Christ upon the cross at Calvary is of no worth. Since people are taught that evolution is true, what are they to make of this?
I believe that it is of absolute necessity to understand some basics of our faith, for this tells us whether our belief actually stands up to scrutiny. Its quite silly to hold on to a believe if everything really does disprove it. If all the facts are against Christianity, I would suppose its time to abandon it, that atheists have been right all along. How can we then not know what is it that makes our faith stand up to the fire from others?
Picture this scenario:
Christian: Hey wanna come my Church this sunday?
Friend: Nah, Christianity is bullshit.
Christian: What, no its not, I know it from my experiences in life!
Friend: I don't know about your experiences, I only know about mine. As far as I'm concerned, the bible is just a storybook written by people.
Christian: No its not!
Friend: Prove it! You can't prove it can you? Its just what you feel.
Christian: Well according to the Bible, all Scripture is God breathed.
Friend: Excellent. You're using the bible to prove the bible. That doesn't work you know.
Christian: I don't know, but im sure there are others who can give you a good answer.
Friend: Face it, there aren't any answers. Christianity is a lie you have been brought up from young with. I know you're nice and all, thinking that you're saving my soul or something, but im sorry to say that you are deluded.
This is of course but one of the hypothetical situations that can occur, and hence I do believe firmly in the need for Christians to have some fundamental grasp of apologetics. Attempt to answer the eight questions below, these are eight common questions that may surface in our lives, that may strike at the faith, and yet at the same time are questions that have been answered by apologists.
1) How do we know the Bible is reliable? Maybe its fiction, Jesus didnt exist.
2) How do we know that Scripture is really God breathed? After all you cant claim scripture back to itself thats circular.
3) So a man named Jesus comes along and declares He is God, how do we know hes not mad or a liar?
4) How do we know Jesus really died/resurrected? There are so many other possible scenarios that could have occurred. Maybe the disciples stole his body.
5) How do we know that the disciples did not spread a lie after finding out that their cause was hopeless?
6) Evolution, fossils and scientific progress in general has disproved God. Years ago, many natural phenomena we do not understand we attribute to God. The greeks thought Zeus showered lightning bolts. As science continues to advance, the need for God to explain things will no longer be necessary. In the face of growing evidence against God, how can Christianity be true?
7) Why would a loving God allow for pain in this world? Death of innocent young infants? Why would a loving God create hell?
8) If an all powerful God knows everything, then wouldn't everything we do be useless? We have no free will. What does it matter what we do? So for some of us, God created us knowing that we would go to hell?
These are the eight main ones I can think of now. Interesting questions I must say, and questions of which every Christian should be able to answer, after all these are rather cornerstone to our faith.
Note that there are some questions however that we may not have a clear answer to. For me, I personally will only be interested in questions that are concerned with the very existence of my faith. Questions like that of Cain's wife and all are interesting, but I do not propose spending too much time on them because ultimately these questions do not affect our beliefs and in addition they are not grounded upon hard evidence or the Word of God but instead mere speculation. When it starts going to speculation, it becomes less and less of a defence and more of just trying to prove a point. We don't know if what we speculate is true anyway, so why do it?
With all that said and done however, we must remember that ultimately apologetics is meant for defense. It is not an offensive weapon to be swung around at people to bring them to Christ. Apologetics can win the mind but not the heart. At worst, it may make people feel defeated in a battle of words and shun even further away. I used to read alot of apologetics and eventually gathered much head knowledge but little heart knowledge. Too much apologetics honestly is just a waste of time, as I have said earlier.
At the end of the day, our lives still remain as the ultimate testimony to Jesus Christ.
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