Hammer on Anvil '

"What if we were just living as if the Bible were the truth, and Jesus is exactly who He says He is? What if we stop using apologetics on ourselves and simply lived like we believed what the Bible tells us?" Brian Hardin, Daily Audio Bible, August 23 (paraphrased)

The human race has been on a quest for knowledge since time began. God created us with an innate curiosity that has allowed us to develop medicines and technologies that have changed the course of history. Our curiosity becomes dangerous, though, when we allow fear into the mix. God never promised to give us all the answers, and the unknown frightens us.

In response to fear, we begin to search for comfort. We adopt a spiritual position that doesn't change, and we spend all our efforts poring over the Bible for reassurances that it actually contains truth, and that God really is on our side. Prayers become rote, and contain pleas for personal success and safety. In other words, our Christian lives become all about us.

Let me say that I don't believe there is anything wrong with wanting to know we are loved. In order to grasp the power God wants to give us, we must be convinced He wants to give it to us. Nor is crying out to God in our anguish to be considered selfish; King David gave us a large number of Psalms to prove that.

When we let the world into our hearts, we become insecure. In the face of ridicule, we begin to doubt. When we hear of some new scientific discovery that potentially hurts the credibility of the creation theory, we believe it. Advertisements that tell us we need a certain something to make our lives complete give us a sense of urgency to fulfill a perceived need. The world is no place for a Christian without the armor of God!

What would change in your life if you were living like you believed what the Bible says? 

When I started the series on apologetics a few weeks ago, I recommended two authorities on the subject. One of those was Lee Strobel. If you’ve never heard of Mr. Strobel, let me tell you a little about him. He was a hot-shot investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune for 14 years and he was also a self-proclaimed atheist. He was content with that until his wife became a Christian. When he saw the changes she was making in her life, he wanted to look into it, so he “launched an all-out investigation into the facts surrounding the case for Christianity.” He did his best to remain objective as he examined the facts, interviewed experts, looked into archeological evidence- the works. What he found astonished him. Everything he found pointed to Jesus Christ.

It would be impossible for me to share everything that Mr. Strobel found, so all I’d like to do for today is to recommend that you take a look at his book for yourself. It’s called The Case for Christ. It may not be your type of book, but it’s still very useful to have around.

A little over a month ago, Red Beard wrote a post called Be a Fool in which he said (among other things) that we need to be willing to say “I don’t know” when faced with a question about Christianity that we legitimately don’t know the answer to. When that situation occurs, though, we also need to be ready to find the answer. Having a book like The Case for Christ on hand is a great way to be prepared for questions that will likely come your way if you are following Christ.

Here’s just a preview of the book with the chapters listed:

Part 1: Examining the Record
1. The Eyewitness Evidence
Can the Biographies of Jesus be trusted?
2. Testing the Eyewitness Evidence
Do the Biographies of Jesus stand up to scrutiny?
3. The Documentary Evidence
Were Jesus’ Biographies Reliably Preserved for us?
4. The Corroborating Evidence
Is There Credible Evidence for Jesus Outside His Biographies?
5. The Scientific Evidence
Does Archaeology Confirm or Contradict Jesus’ Biographies?
6. The Rebuttal Evidence
Is the Jesus of History the Same As the Jesus of Faith?

Part 2: Analyzing Jesus
7. The Identity Evidence
Was Jesus Really Convinced That He Was the Son of God?
8. The Psychological Evidence
Was Jesus Crazy When He Claimed to Be the Son of God?
9. The Profile Evidence
Did Jesus Fulfill the Attributes of God?
10. The Fingerprint Evidence
Did Jesus – and Jesus Alone – Match the Identity of the Messiah?

Part 3: Researching the Resurrection
11. The Medical Evidence
Was Jesus’ Death a Sham and His Resurrection a Hoax?
12. The Evidence of the Missing Body
Was Jesus’ Body Really Absent from His Tomb?
13. The Evidence of Appearances
Was Jesus Seen Alive After His Death on the Cross?
14. The Circumstantial Evidence
Are There Any Supporting Facts That Point to the Resurrection?

If you’ve been following my series on apologetics, then you may recall that in the first week, I recommended a couple of highly educated authorities on the subject. One of those was Ken Ham. Today I’d like to share a highly condensed version of what Mr. Ham has to say on the theory of evolution. If you are interested in Mr. Ham’s ideas, you should check out one of his books or a video of him speaking, because his ideas are much more clearly conveyed in those. Plus, he has a great sense of humor. :)

Mr. Ham tells about when he and his wife went to an evolution museum in London. They saw an exhibit on dogs and how dogs have changed over the ages. Then they saw an exhibit on horses and how horses have changed over the ages. This continued until they got to the end and they saw something that said that now they have seen the proof of evolution. How could that be, though, they thought? They must’ve missed it.

But no. They didn’t miss anything. What they saw was the same thing that is being taught in colleges and universities across the world. We are being indoctrinated to believe that changes within a species are somehow proof of evolution from molecules to man. This is, quite simply, not true.

The foundations of evolution rest on the presumption that organisms get more information in their DNA as they become more “evolved.” This, too, is false. It’s actually quite the opposite.

Mr. Ham uses dogs to illustrate his point. In the beginning, there were two dogs, and they had all of the genetic possibilities of every dog today. On down the line, a group of them migrated north, where the short-haired dogs died out because they couldn’t handle the cold. At that point, the only dogs left were the ones who only had the genetic information for long hair. So, the remaining dogs LOST information from their DNA instead of gaining it. It was still survival of the fittest, but the remaining dogs have less genetic possibilities than their ancestors, because they no longer have the ability to re-introduce short hair into their population.

In light of this, most evolutionists point at mutations as the “curve ball” that adds information to the DNA. However, Mr. Ham points out that even mutations result in a lack of information.

For example, there was a bacteria that became resistant to a medicine because of a genetic mutation. Evolutionists point at that as proof that mutations add information. The truth, though, is hidden in the details. The way that medicine worked was this. It was absorbed into the bacteria. The bacteria would then break it down and convert it into an enzyme. The resulting enzyme was poisonous to the bacteria and would kill it. But then the mutation came about. The mutation removed the information that allowed the bacteria to create the enzyme. Since the enzyme was not produced, the bacteria would not die. So, while the end result was that the bacteria became resistant to the medicine, the reason for it was a LOSS of information as a result of a mutation.

Ultimately, a gain of DNA information is necessary in order for molecule to man evolution to be possible. After all, we have WAY more DNA information than single celled organisms. A gain of DNA information is also the only thing that evolutionists cannot produce evidence for. They can’t produce evidence because the evidence just isn’t there. We refuse to accept this because of the implications.

In Dan Story’s book The Christian Combat Manual, he introduces an apologetics technique that he calls the Socratic Method. He asserts that most people trained in apologetics have a tendency to rely primarily on defensive tactics. However, as Story says, “Rather than presenting evidences designed primarily to defend the Christian position on an issue, we can lovingly and sensitively challenge unbelievers to defend what they believe, analyze and justify their positions, and face the logical conclusions of their assumptions.” This places the burden of proof on their shoulders and allows them to see the weaknesses in their own assertions.

The Socratic Method is named after the Greek philosopher Socrates, who used a similar technique. The idea behind it is to ask questions. You should be prepared with a few answers for when you’re asked questions in return, but often a simple, well-placed question is all that is needed for a person to realize that their beliefs are founded in opinion rather than fact. Mr. Story came up with seven types of questions for the Socratic Method. I’m going to share those with you as well as an example for each.

1) What do you mean by that?
Ex. What do you mean Christians are intolerant? Aren’t you being a bit intolerant when you say I can’t share my faith? Why is it intolerant to explain the Christian plan of salvation which has changed my life?

2) How do you know that’s true?
Ex. How do you know that Jesus, who claimed to be God and demonstrated divinity, isn’t God?

3) Why should I believe that?
Ex. Why should I believe in evolution when the fossil evidence doesn’t support it?

4) Where did you learn that?
Ex. Where did you learn that evolution is a scientific fact? Have you examined the data supporting creation? Is your view of evolution based on high school or college classes?

5) What is your solution to…?
Ex. What is your solution to the moral depravity so widespread in our culture if there is no God to tell us how to behave and hold us accountable?

6) What difference does that make?
Ex. Even if the Bible does contain a few minor errors (and I’m not saying it does), what difference do they make? Please show me an alleged error affecting the Bible’s overall historical reliability and essential doctrine, such as the deity and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

7) If…is true, can you explain…?
Ex. If the universe suddenly exploded into existence out of nothing, can you explain how something can come from nothing?

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect." -- 1 Peter 3:15

This verse is one of the basic tenets of apologetics. Simply stated, apologetics is evidence and reasoning that supports the truth of the Bible. Ever had a tough question from a friend that you couldn’t answer? Apologetics is where you could turn. Apologetics is also a method of sharing your faith. For some people, hearing the Gospel will be enough, but for others, apologetics can provide the evidence and reasoning they need to begin to actually listen to the Gospel with open ears.

There is tons and tons of material on the subject of apologetics. As Christians, we should make an effort to be familiar with at least the basics and we should definitely know where to find an answer to the hard questions that stump us. For the next few weeks, I’m going to share some bits and pieces of some basic info from apologetics. If you are interested and want to find out more, I highly recommend two authors: Ken Ham and Lee Strobel. Both are highly educated individuals and have written several books on the topic. I also recommend Josh McDowell’s book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

This week, I’m just going to share something from McDowell’s book. As a piece of evidence in proving the Bible’s supernatural authorship, McDowell shares these facts about the Bible’s unity and consistency:

1) Written over a 1,500 year span.

2) Written over 40 generations.

3) Written by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.:
Moses, a political leader, trained in the universities of Egypt
Peter, a fisherman
Amos, a herdsman
Joshua, a military general
Nehemiah, a cupbearer
Daniel, a prime minister
Luke, a doctor
Solomon, a king
Matthew, a tax collector
Paul, a rabbi

4) Written in different places:
Moses in the wilderness
Jeremiah in a dungeon
Daniel on a hillside and in a palace
Paul inside prison walls
Luke while traveling
John on the isle of Patmos
Others in the rigors of a military campaign

5) Written at different times:
David in times of war
Solomon in times of peace

6) Written during different moods:
Some writing from the heights of joy and others writing from the depths of sorrow and despair

7) Written on three continents:
Asia, Africa, and Europe

8) Written in three languages:
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek

9) Biblical authors spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects with harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation. There is one unfolding story; “God’s redemption of man.”