|
There have always been those who attack the Christian faith. In recent years, Christians have had to contend with the Gospel of Thomas [a heretical Gnostic work promoted by the Jesus Seminar, a group of skeptics who promote the idea that the Bible must be stripped of miraculous references like the Resurrection so that we can find the "true, historical" Jesus], the Gospel of Judas [another heretical apocryphal work which promoted the idea that Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ at Jesus' request and that the Gospels twisted this], the Da Vinci Code [a fictional novel by Dan Brown which promotes a Gnostic view of Christianity and the heretical idea that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene] and the so-called Tomb of Jesus [promoted in a documentary by a noted Hollywood film producer, conveying the heretical view that Christ married Mary Magdalene, that they had a son together, and that they were buried together, an idea which would rule out the Ascension].
Interestingly enough, these attacks and arguments are not new.
To answer such heresies, the Church has always had its apologists. Apologetics is a branch of theology dedicated to providing reasons to believe and to the defense of the Gospel. The word ‘apologetics’ comes from the Greek work apologia, denoting a reasoned defense. This is the word used in 1 Peter 3:15, which commands us to:
“Be ready always to give an answer [apologia] to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
The resurrection of Christ Jesus is the very lynchpin of Christianity and of the Gospel itself. This is not overstatement. The Apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, noted that:
“If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, ye are yet in your sins. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. …what doth it profit me if the dead rise not?
Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.
(I Corinthians 15:14, 16, 19 & 29b
To help you answer the questions of skeptics and to help you share the Gospel, defGen.org has added a new page dealing with these issues. The Everlasting Gospel series cannot cover all of the Apologetic Arguments concerning the Resurrection and the Gospel, but will certainly give one a good overview and amply demonstrate that Christianity is a reasonable faith.
Ultimately, our hope is that the Christian’s faith will be strengthened and that those outside the faith might come to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus through consideration of the evidences put forth and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Check out our articles on The Everlasting Gospel today, and God bless you in your search for faith and truth.
Your servant, Tony Breeden
|
DefGen.org
CreationLetter.com
CreationSundays.com
Noah’s Ark: Beyond Flannelgraph
The Bookwyrm’s Lair
How To Fall Down
Johnny Came Home.
Operation: Wittenberg
Bogus sentiment: It is not an attack on the Christian Church to embrace the Enlightenment. It is a small period of Christendom you defend, and a small pocket of that time at that.
Enlarge your world. See yourself in perspective beginning about page 622 of Diarmaid McCulloch’s magisterial History of Christianity.
And have a group reading and discussion of Rachel Held EVans Evolving in Monkeytown; and Giberson and Stephens The Anointed.
Stephen Fox,
Thanks for referring me to resources I am already quite familiar with. I intend on writing a review of Evans’ book in the near future. I’ve refuted Giberson on this site more than once for his contradictory views. McCullough’s History of Christianity is a biased account by a man at odds with the Bible’s teachings on human sexuality.
Here’s the rub: While I was raised to be a Biblical Creationist, I rejected it in favor of millions of years of evolution. After spending nearly a decade as an agnostic, I returned to the faith but initially insisted that God could have used evolution and that we must allow for long ages in the days of the Creation Week. I am painfully aware of the arguments from both sides of the fence… and from those still on it.
You should give the following article some consideration: Underminers: The Self-Defeating Proposition of Compromising Scripture With Millions of Years of Evolution
Regards,
Tony, DefGen.org