Posts Tagged ‘Easter’

Practical Apologetics GraphicIn this part we will finish our survey of biblical reliability with a look at the books that are a part of the New Testament and why it is those books that are included.  One of common criticism is that the New Testament is made up of the books chosen by a bunch of old white men in the 4th Century to push a competing agenda.  As a result, other perfectly good books such as the Gospel of Thomas were excluded.  In having this discussion, we are going to tie tightly into the last article on dating and authorship and go a bit further from there.

First of all, these extra-biblical ancient texts are known collectively as the “Apocryphal New Testament.”  Do not confuse this with what is known simply as the Apocrypha, which are the several extra books added to the Old Testament in the Roman Catholic Bible.  While there are several groupings of the Apocryphal New Testament that includes a variety of acts, gospels, letters, etc., I generally divide it into two groups: the Gnostic gospels and everything else.  The reasons for this will become clear as we proceed. (more…)

Practical Apologetics GraphicLast time we focused on the authorship of the Old Testament.  We looked at three primary areas where the Old Testament is challenged.  This article will address questions regarding the authorship of the New Testament and particularly the Gospels.

Like the OT discussions, this is an overview of key areas targeted towards the layman.  As before, I’d suggest Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ at a more introductory level or Geisler and Turek’s I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist at the intermediate level.  If you want to get advanced, look for William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith.

In my opinion, defending the historicity of the New Testament is actually far easier than the Old Testament.  The attacks are frequently focused on (more…)

Practical Apologetics GraphicFor the second part on the reliability of the Bible, we are going to take a look another favorite subject that skeptics like to bring up; the authorship of the books in the Bible.  The idea of this type of attack is that if the skeptic can make win the question who wrote a particular book of the Bible then the text cannot be reliable.  Again, please keep in mind I am keeping these arguments at a layman’s level of someone who has had little prior exposure to these type of challenges.  This is a primer to give reason to one’s faith and to answer basic challenges.  It will not equip you to debate an experienced or hard-core skeptic. (more…)

Practical Apologetics GraphicWelcome to the first topic of what I hope will be a series of articles on “Practical Apologetics.”  This series is not intended to be any sort of a scholarly work.  Its goal is to be a source of practical application for the layman in simple articles that can be easily digested.  To prepare against the hit pieces making their way through the various documentary channels (especially since it is Christmas season as I write), this first article addresses a favorite attack made against Christians; the reliability of the Bible. (more…)

Practical Apologetics GraphicI have written in the past about the dangers of abandoning apologetics in the Church (see: Apologetics: Never Having to Say You’re Sorry).  In that article I had taken issue with the number of believers who rely on a blind faith rather than being able to “give an account for the hope that is within you,” as Peter put it (1 Peter 3:15).  Another part of the problem is the mental connection that apologetics has with academia.  Not only does this connection tend to relegate apologetics to higher education or the clergy, it also compartmentalizes apologetics into an intellectual or theoretical endeavor that does not have real and practical use for the layman.  I have the highest respect for the professional apologist, and indeed, rely on their knowledge and research.  I also think that without a practical application for all Christians, the field would be nothing more than knowledge for knowledge’s sake.  Unfortunately, far too few laymen know enough about was apologetics is – much less the actual arguments themselves – to make practical use of it.  As I write this, we are coming into the Christmas season.  This is one of the two times of year that we begin seeing special after special on channels like Discovery or History about the holiday.  These shows speak much to the historical events of Christmas or Easter and devote a great deal of effort to show us the “historical Jesus.”

Sounds good, right? (more…)