Intro to Apologetics, Issues 1 to 4

1. This one involves a fairly lengthy historical research process, but essentially almost no scholars contend that the person of Jesus never existed. Many say He never rose from the dead, or He never performed miracles, never claimed to be God, etc etc, but most agree that He did, at one point, exist. For some articles detailing the historical evidence for His existence see here, here and here. The reader with a little more time to spare on this issue is directed to Lee Strobel’s excellent books The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith which deal with this exact question.

2. This is a common objection voiced by many but is actually one of the apologist’s strongest proofs. Over 24,000 manuscripts exist containing parts of the scripture. The nearest any secular work can come is: only eight copies of Herodotus's historical works, whose originals were written in 480-425 BC. Likewise, only 5 copies of Aristotle's writings have found their way to the 20th century, while only 10 copies of the writings of Caesar, along with another 20 copies of the historian Tacitus, and 7 copies from the historian Pliny, who all originally wrote in the first century, are available today (McDowell 1972:42). Do people call into question the reliability of the modern versions of these ancient works? Certainly not! Such a wealth of evidence can give us absolute faith that the Bible we enjoy today is the same as the one that the Church fathers used almost 2000 years ago! For more on the textual proofs see here, here, here and (again) Strobel.

3. Ah, the old missing gospels canard. People never tire of it. Again, this one is pretty easy to deal with. Firstly, most of the so-called missing books were actually written after the Bible as we know it was compiled by the Church Fathers in the first or second centuries. Books written after the Bible was put together can’t really said to have been ‘missing’ or ‘excluded’, can they? Secondly, as Koukl says, the Bible is either two things: firstly, the inspired word of God, superintended by Him, or, secondly, a statement of beliefs of the early church. In the first instance, if God is superintending it, how could any books get ‘lost’? And in the second case, if it is a statement of belief by the early Church, then they have every right to disregard those writings that don’t espouse their beliefs.

As he says: “It's like writing a book of your personal beliefs from a stack of ideas you've collected over the years and then have someone rummage through your trash to find other beliefs you didn't include and then claim that these were your secret or lost beliefs. You say, ‘No, they're not my beliefs; that's why they're in the trash. If they were really mine, they'd be in the book.’ ”

4. The Da Vinci Code. Where do I start? SO EASY! I can’t believe scores of people left the church of this pile of drivel! Just go here and read for yourself. The best 2 minutes you’ll ever spend.

More to come...