Q & A Apologetics
Biblical Reliability
Reliability – Bibliographical Evidence
Author Date Written Earliest Copy Time Copies
Plato 427-347 B.C. A.D. 900 1,200 yrs 7
Tacitus A.D. 100 A.D. 1100 1,000 yrs 20
Pliny (history) A.D. 61-113 A.D. 850 750 yrs 7
Thucydidies 460-400 B.C. A.D. 900 1,300 yrs 8
Heroditus 480-425 B.C. A.D. 900 1,300 yrs 8
Sophocles 496-406 B.C. A.D. 1000 1,400 yrs 193
Aristotle 384-322 B.C. A.D. 1100 1,400 yrs 49
Homer (Iliad) 900 B.C. 400 B.C. 500 yrs 643
New Testament A.D. 40-100 A.D. 125 25 yrs 24,000
For the NT that is 192 manuscripts per year.
That works out to .52 manuscripts per day.
When one takes into account that this is done by hand, letter to letter, on papyrus with stylus and ink this is amazing.
This tradition of copying the scriptures to preserve them was not done just because. It was done because what was recorded was fact and had to be preserved so that the mission could be accomplished.
Patrick in Ireland had his people copy the text to preserve the text from the Viking invaders and that is why we have the text today.
Variants are minimal and noted very carefully and even printed in your modern bibles as variants so the reader knows what sections have some questions not of validity but when they appear in certain manuscripts and they are not doctrinal in nature but encounters of Jesus with people or what the church began to do when Jesus ascended to the Father (John 7 and Mark 16).
The discovery of the Dead See Scrolls places our earliest manuscripts of the Old Testament 1,000 years closer to the originals and there are no doctrinally significant variations in the text from copying as well. Variations add up to the omission of certain letters in a misspelled word based upon language changes and grammar rules.
The point is clear. The texts are historically reliable!
Reliability – Internal Evidence
On the Dating of the Kings:
Thiele, Edwin (1983). The mysterious numbers of the Hebrew kings. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications (1994 ed.).
Luke 1:1-4
2 Peter 1:16
1 John 1:3
John 19:35
Reliability – External Evidence
Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis (A.D. 130) as Recorded by Eusebius
“The Elder (Apostle John) used to say this also: ‘Mark, having been the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately all that he (Peter) mentioned, whether sayings or doing of Christ, not, however, in order. For he was neither a hearer nor a companion of the Lord; but afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who adapted his teachings as necessity required, not as though he were making compilations of the sayings of the Lord. So then Mark made no mistake, writing down in this way some things as he mentioned them; for he paid attention this one thing, not to omit anything that he had heard, nor to include any false statement among them.
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in A.D. 180, who was a student of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (who had been a Christian for 86 years and was a disciple of John the Apostle), wrote:
“Matthew published his gospel among the Hebrews in their own tongue, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there. After their departure (death around 64 at the hands of the Neronian persecution), Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peter’s preaching. Luke, the follower of Paul, set down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher. Then, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on this breast (reference to John 13:25 and 21:20), himself produced his gospel, while he was living at Ephesus in Asia.”
Dr. Clark H. Pinnock
“There exists no document from the ancient world witnessed by so excellent a set of textual and historical testimonies and offering so superb an array of historical data on which an intelligent decision may be made. An honest person cannot dismiss a source of this kind. Skepticism regarding the historical credentials of Christianity is based upon an irrational (i.e., antisupernatural) bias.
Conclusions
1. The Scriptures are accurate and without error (do not affirm anything contrary to fact)
2. Read them incessantly as if your life depended on it because your vitality in Christ does
3. Read them to lose sight of and affection for our fallen world and to gain sight of and affection for the coming Kingdom
22 Resolved, To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
25 Resolved, To examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.
4. Read them to become the best possible gospel preacher you can be
a. Evangelism informed by the Scriptures disciples while they convince
5. Read them to and teach them to our children
6. The Scriptures are trustworthy and you have not been led astray by believing what they say.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Q & A Apologetics Theology
Theology - [Greek: theos (God) + logos (word)]: The study of the existence (or non-existence), nature, and attributes of God.
1. God is and it is reasonable to conclude that he is
Psalm 14; 53
Cosmological Argument – the fact that every known thing in the universe has a cause is evidence that that the universe itself has a cause and the cause of such a universe can only be God
A. Two Great Questions
1. Why is there something rather than nothing?
Carl Sagan: “The Cosmos is all there ever was, all there is and all there ever will be.”
2. If the second law of thermodynamics is true, and Carl Sagan’s belief
is true, why are we still here and alive?
2nd Law of Thermodynamics – energy is converted to less useful forms (steam engine uses some of the created heat produce motion, but all of it is not harness and is not recycled to continual use, but goes away in other forms)
Teleological Argument – focuses on harmony, order and design in the universe and argues that the order and design of the universe is evidence of an intelligent purpose and intelligent designer (telos – end, goal or purpose)
1. RNA Replication – evidence of irreducible complexity and the fact of
complex information at a level that cannot be broken down to a simple cell.
2. God has revealed himself in Jesus and Jesus claimed to be Yahweh
John 8
“I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’
“That is the thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – a 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 up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
3. God is not hidden, and he can be known and desires to make himself known
John 1:1-3, 14
Consequences
1. Our faith is not some blind belief but a hope constructed on the conviction that what we have heard and seen and tasted is truth
- We don’t have faith in faith or hope in hope. We have our hope constructed
on the historical Jesus as presented in the historical bible who said, and
demonstrated, that he is God.
2. We have a message to tell
3. Our message has global implications that all Jesus’ followers are called to
- Our global punch springs from our local engagement
4. Our hope is sure and we will not be put to shame in our hope!
Psalm 119:116 “Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope!”
1. God is and it is reasonable to conclude that he is
Psalm 14; 53
Cosmological Argument – the fact that every known thing in the universe has a cause is evidence that that the universe itself has a cause and the cause of such a universe can only be God
A. Two Great Questions
1. Why is there something rather than nothing?
Carl Sagan: “The Cosmos is all there ever was, all there is and all there ever will be.”
2. If the second law of thermodynamics is true, and Carl Sagan’s belief
is true, why are we still here and alive?
2nd Law of Thermodynamics – energy is converted to less useful forms (steam engine uses some of the created heat produce motion, but all of it is not harness and is not recycled to continual use, but goes away in other forms)
Teleological Argument – focuses on harmony, order and design in the universe and argues that the order and design of the universe is evidence of an intelligent purpose and intelligent designer (telos – end, goal or purpose)
1. RNA Replication – evidence of irreducible complexity and the fact of
complex information at a level that cannot be broken down to a simple cell.
2. God has revealed himself in Jesus and Jesus claimed to be Yahweh
John 8
“I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’
“That is the thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – a 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 up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
3. God is not hidden, and he can be known and desires to make himself known
John 1:1-3, 14
Consequences
1. Our faith is not some blind belief but a hope constructed on the conviction that what we have heard and seen and tasted is truth
- We don’t have faith in faith or hope in hope. We have our hope constructed
on the historical Jesus as presented in the historical bible who said, and
demonstrated, that he is God.
2. We have a message to tell
3. Our message has global implications that all Jesus’ followers are called to
- Our global punch springs from our local engagement
4. Our hope is sure and we will not be put to shame in our hope!
Psalm 119:116 “Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope!”
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Q & A Apologetics Introduction
Q & A Apologetics
1 Peter 3:15; Colossians 4:5-6
“Apologetics, the teaching of defense (apology) or defensive scholarship, is the thoughtful interaction of Christian faith with contemporary teachings and ideologies that are opposed to the gospel.”
1. Apologetics should be birthed from doctrinal stability, humble submission to Christ Jesus and the text of Scripture v. 15a
2. Apologetics presuppose the engagement of unreached peoples 1 Peter 3:6-13; Colossians 4:5
“The picture is as far as we can imagine from that of the Christian who has no interest in affairs outside those of faith or church and so no “small talk,” no ability to maintain an interesting conversation. In contrast, it envisages opportunities for lively interchanges with non-Christians on topics and in a style which could be expected to find a positive resonance with the conversation partners. It would not be conversation that has “gone bad,” but conversation that reflects the attractiveness of character displayed above all by Christ. Moreover, such advice envisages a group of Christians in a sufficiently positive relation with the surrounding community for such conversations to be natural, a group not fearful or threatened, but open to and in positive relationship with its neighbors.”
3. Apologetics presupposes that there are “outsiders” thus claiming we know truth and they do not Colossians 4:5a
4. Apologetics requires preparation to answer EACH objection and/or equal truth claim v. 15b; Colossians 4:6
a. Apologetics gained and applied is work and requires applying the faculty of
analytical thinking to the doctrines of the faith and understanding the why
and how.
5. Apologetics must be done with gentleness, respect and a gracious attitude v. 15c; Colossians 4:6
a. Apologetics can lend itself to pride in the puffing up of human intellect
because it takes work. And when one works hard enough and achieves some
level of understanding it appeals to pride and that leads to becoming
a Pharisee that can defend the faith rather than a Pharisee that can’t.
6. Apologetics wisely appropriates time to speak the Gospel indigenously Colossians 4:5
a. The suggestion of this text is that one must be among the outsider but must
allow ample time for the Gospel not just interaction
7. Apologetics must be interesting, stimulating and wise Colossians 4:6
a. The use of the metaphor salt echoes Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:13. When
applied to conversation, the metaphor suggests speaking in a way that is
interesting, stimulating and wise.
Application
1. Make sure we are thoroughly Christian!
a. Make sure all of your life’s ends and means are birthed out of the person of
God revealed as Father, Son, Holy Spirit
Illustration: Poston wedding: Brad going to get Rachel and bringing her to the front.
Illustration: Community: Unity: Distinction (not segregation by race or demographic): Peace
2. Make sure you are engaged with (friends with regardless of their response to the Gospel) people who do not believe Jesus to be the only God and the only way man can be saved
a. Engagement with “outsiders” must be intentional because of our nature to
stay among our own kind.
3. Observe the ends (ultimates or goals) of the culture and world around you and be able to articulate them
a. Be able to critique the ends of your world in comparison to the stated ends
of Scripture
Illustration: Ownership: Leviticus 25:8 – 50 years Jubilee land returns to original owner at a price equal to, lower than or greater than based on number of crops: Psalm 24 – the earth is the Lord’s: Luke 16 & 19 – master entrusts his possessions to managers for a season and returns to take account
4. Observe the means (methods of getting to the ends or goals) of the culture and world around you and be able to articulate them
a. Be able to critique the ends of your world in comparison to the stated ends
of Scripture
Illustration: Ownership: Debt (massive) – as a means to getting what we want to own feeding our lust for ownership of property that is not ours unveiling man’s fallen desire to have what is God’s and be as God and be owner not manager
5. Always keep an eye on your own heart’s object of affection to make sure it is Jesus and not apologetics
a. Apologetics can be as ugly as anything else when it becomes an end and
not a means to the end of Jesus exalted, Father glorified and Holy Spirit
unified
7. Make sure you are engaging and interesting as a friend not an evangelistic gunslinger
a. Community as the missing piece of evangelism
1 Peter 3:15; Colossians 4:5-6
“Apologetics, the teaching of defense (apology) or defensive scholarship, is the thoughtful interaction of Christian faith with contemporary teachings and ideologies that are opposed to the gospel.”
1. Apologetics should be birthed from doctrinal stability, humble submission to Christ Jesus and the text of Scripture v. 15a
2. Apologetics presuppose the engagement of unreached peoples 1 Peter 3:6-13; Colossians 4:5
“The picture is as far as we can imagine from that of the Christian who has no interest in affairs outside those of faith or church and so no “small talk,” no ability to maintain an interesting conversation. In contrast, it envisages opportunities for lively interchanges with non-Christians on topics and in a style which could be expected to find a positive resonance with the conversation partners. It would not be conversation that has “gone bad,” but conversation that reflects the attractiveness of character displayed above all by Christ. Moreover, such advice envisages a group of Christians in a sufficiently positive relation with the surrounding community for such conversations to be natural, a group not fearful or threatened, but open to and in positive relationship with its neighbors.”
3. Apologetics presupposes that there are “outsiders” thus claiming we know truth and they do not Colossians 4:5a
4. Apologetics requires preparation to answer EACH objection and/or equal truth claim v. 15b; Colossians 4:6
a. Apologetics gained and applied is work and requires applying the faculty of
analytical thinking to the doctrines of the faith and understanding the why
and how.
5. Apologetics must be done with gentleness, respect and a gracious attitude v. 15c; Colossians 4:6
a. Apologetics can lend itself to pride in the puffing up of human intellect
because it takes work. And when one works hard enough and achieves some
level of understanding it appeals to pride and that leads to becoming
a Pharisee that can defend the faith rather than a Pharisee that can’t.
6. Apologetics wisely appropriates time to speak the Gospel indigenously Colossians 4:5
a. The suggestion of this text is that one must be among the outsider but must
allow ample time for the Gospel not just interaction
7. Apologetics must be interesting, stimulating and wise Colossians 4:6
a. The use of the metaphor salt echoes Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:13. When
applied to conversation, the metaphor suggests speaking in a way that is
interesting, stimulating and wise.
Application
1. Make sure we are thoroughly Christian!
a. Make sure all of your life’s ends and means are birthed out of the person of
God revealed as Father, Son, Holy Spirit
Illustration: Poston wedding: Brad going to get Rachel and bringing her to the front.
Illustration: Community: Unity: Distinction (not segregation by race or demographic): Peace
2. Make sure you are engaged with (friends with regardless of their response to the Gospel) people who do not believe Jesus to be the only God and the only way man can be saved
a. Engagement with “outsiders” must be intentional because of our nature to
stay among our own kind.
3. Observe the ends (ultimates or goals) of the culture and world around you and be able to articulate them
a. Be able to critique the ends of your world in comparison to the stated ends
of Scripture
Illustration: Ownership: Leviticus 25:8 – 50 years Jubilee land returns to original owner at a price equal to, lower than or greater than based on number of crops: Psalm 24 – the earth is the Lord’s: Luke 16 & 19 – master entrusts his possessions to managers for a season and returns to take account
4. Observe the means (methods of getting to the ends or goals) of the culture and world around you and be able to articulate them
a. Be able to critique the ends of your world in comparison to the stated ends
of Scripture
Illustration: Ownership: Debt (massive) – as a means to getting what we want to own feeding our lust for ownership of property that is not ours unveiling man’s fallen desire to have what is God’s and be as God and be owner not manager
5. Always keep an eye on your own heart’s object of affection to make sure it is Jesus and not apologetics
a. Apologetics can be as ugly as anything else when it becomes an end and
not a means to the end of Jesus exalted, Father glorified and Holy Spirit
unified
7. Make sure you are engaging and interesting as a friend not an evangelistic gunslinger
a. Community as the missing piece of evangelism
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Q & A The Teaching Ministry of the Church
Q & A The teaching ministry of the church
Ephesians 4:1-16
Ignorance is never a good thing. Not knowing leads to error in thought. Error in thought leads to error in action. Error in action leads to results that are off target.
Illustration: Beth and Alex’s response to the question “what is the Gospel and how has it affected your life?” The response: “I don’t know what the Gospel is.”
This begs the question: Can one be saved without knowing what the Gospel is? How did the idea of “being saved” become separated from the Gospel?
Without recapping the history of Christianity in North America, the preaching of the cross was replaced with the preaching of salvation for heaven as an escape from hell with Jesus being the means to that end. In other words heaven is preached as the deity and hell is preached as the enemy and Jesus is the tool by which presence to the deity is gained.
That is harsh and, perhaps a bit oversimplified, but the point becomes clear. Even with the best of intentions and the purest motives, a slight departure from the narrow path of truth, no matter how slight, ends up miles off course just a generation into the diversion.
Teaching should obliterate ignorance and replace it with knowledge of the truth, thus leading to right thinking, thus leading to right acting and rightly ending on target, life. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13-14).”
Ephesians 4:1-16
Paul here outlines to the Ephesians the goal of Unity in the church. However, inside of that Unity, God has graciously freed us from our bondage to the enemy and taken us to himself through the work of the cross and given a diversity of gifts to his people for the purpose of growing up into the image of Christ as the restoration of the image of God in us that was marred at the fall.
4:1-6 Paul exhorts the church to Unity
4:7-11 God has graciously given the unified church various gifts
4:12-16 God has given these gifts that the church may grow up into Christ (the image of God restored from the Fall)
1. Gifts are given to build unity in the mission so that the church grows into Christ who is the ground of what it means to be in unity (to grow into Christ is to come into the Kingdom that is here and is continuing to come until the fullness of the Kingdom comes at the completion of the Great Commission). v. 1-11
2. Pastor / Teacher functions to Equip Gifted Saints to do the ministry v. 11, 12a
A. Pastor – shepherd
Teacher – instructor
1. These two are predicate nominatives and both modified by the
“and”
2. This means that the functions of Pastor / Teacher are one and the
same by the same person
- In other words the pastor should be a teacher
- This function of teaching is the substantive difference
between the deacon and the elder
B. A pastor must be a teacher
C. The teaching ministry of the church must equip the church
1. Equip – in Greek there is the purpose clause and an article (for
the...)
- The ESV combines these two into the word “to” to denote
purpose
D. Equipping is for doing the work of ministry
1. There is no room in the church for people doing nothing
2. There is no such thing as learning that leads to doing nothing
3. The church doing the ministry results in the building of the church v. 12b-16
A. Building up the body of Christ v. 12b
1. Preaching the Gospel
2. Encouraging each other
3. Exhorting/motivating each other
4. Church Discipline for unrepentant sin
5. Discipleship in Community
6. Global Engagement
7. Community Development
8. Corporate Worship
B. Unity in Imitating Jesus v. 13
1. Unity
2. Knowledge of Jesus the Son of God
3. Growing into maturity whose standard is Jesus
C. Being Doctrinally Stable (v. 14
1. No longer doctrinal children
2. No longer unclear on truth and waffling about it
3. Not deceived by the cunning of men who “teach”
a. Hagee, Osteen,
D. Joining truth and love v. 15
1. We are to combine truth and love inside the community
E. Collaborating within and without v. 16
1. Collaboration is the functioning of every member
2. Collaboration begins within community
3. Community reveals giftedness
4. Giftedness leads to more ministry
5. Ministry leads to spiritual maturation and the preaching of the
Gospel
6. Maturing Christians preaching the Gospel leads to the advance of
the Great Commission
Ephesians 4:1-16
Ignorance is never a good thing. Not knowing leads to error in thought. Error in thought leads to error in action. Error in action leads to results that are off target.
Illustration: Beth and Alex’s response to the question “what is the Gospel and how has it affected your life?” The response: “I don’t know what the Gospel is.”
This begs the question: Can one be saved without knowing what the Gospel is? How did the idea of “being saved” become separated from the Gospel?
Without recapping the history of Christianity in North America, the preaching of the cross was replaced with the preaching of salvation for heaven as an escape from hell with Jesus being the means to that end. In other words heaven is preached as the deity and hell is preached as the enemy and Jesus is the tool by which presence to the deity is gained.
That is harsh and, perhaps a bit oversimplified, but the point becomes clear. Even with the best of intentions and the purest motives, a slight departure from the narrow path of truth, no matter how slight, ends up miles off course just a generation into the diversion.
Teaching should obliterate ignorance and replace it with knowledge of the truth, thus leading to right thinking, thus leading to right acting and rightly ending on target, life. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13-14).”
Ephesians 4:1-16
Paul here outlines to the Ephesians the goal of Unity in the church. However, inside of that Unity, God has graciously freed us from our bondage to the enemy and taken us to himself through the work of the cross and given a diversity of gifts to his people for the purpose of growing up into the image of Christ as the restoration of the image of God in us that was marred at the fall.
4:1-6 Paul exhorts the church to Unity
4:7-11 God has graciously given the unified church various gifts
4:12-16 God has given these gifts that the church may grow up into Christ (the image of God restored from the Fall)
1. Gifts are given to build unity in the mission so that the church grows into Christ who is the ground of what it means to be in unity (to grow into Christ is to come into the Kingdom that is here and is continuing to come until the fullness of the Kingdom comes at the completion of the Great Commission). v. 1-11
2. Pastor / Teacher functions to Equip Gifted Saints to do the ministry v. 11, 12a
A. Pastor – shepherd
Teacher – instructor
1. These two are predicate nominatives and both modified by the
“and”
2. This means that the functions of Pastor / Teacher are one and the
same by the same person
- In other words the pastor should be a teacher
- This function of teaching is the substantive difference
between the deacon and the elder
B. A pastor must be a teacher
C. The teaching ministry of the church must equip the church
1. Equip – in Greek there is the purpose clause and an article (for
the...)
- The ESV combines these two into the word “to” to denote
purpose
D. Equipping is for doing the work of ministry
1. There is no room in the church for people doing nothing
2. There is no such thing as learning that leads to doing nothing
3. The church doing the ministry results in the building of the church v. 12b-16
A. Building up the body of Christ v. 12b
1. Preaching the Gospel
2. Encouraging each other
3. Exhorting/motivating each other
4. Church Discipline for unrepentant sin
5. Discipleship in Community
6. Global Engagement
7. Community Development
8. Corporate Worship
B. Unity in Imitating Jesus v. 13
1. Unity
2. Knowledge of Jesus the Son of God
3. Growing into maturity whose standard is Jesus
C. Being Doctrinally Stable (v. 14
1. No longer doctrinal children
2. No longer unclear on truth and waffling about it
3. Not deceived by the cunning of men who “teach”
a. Hagee, Osteen,
D. Joining truth and love v. 15
1. We are to combine truth and love inside the community
E. Collaborating within and without v. 16
1. Collaboration is the functioning of every member
2. Collaboration begins within community
3. Community reveals giftedness
4. Giftedness leads to more ministry
5. Ministry leads to spiritual maturation and the preaching of the
Gospel
6. Maturing Christians preaching the Gospel leads to the advance of
the Great Commission
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