Sample Summary M002A1

SUMMARY M002A1: Pre-suppositions and Classification of Christian Apologetics
Submitted By: Bruce Wade

Presuppositions are like the foundation of a building—they are the starting point upon which different fields of knowledge and investigations are built. Presuppositions are the starting point for the assumptions used in any field. While some presuppositions are axiomatic (self-proven) other must be tested and analyzed to be shown if they prove or disprove their veracity.

Once a subject is developed to a reasonable degree it may be tested by a Consistency Test.” If shown congruent then this presupposition can be use to test others. The Consistency Test is a good way to test the Theory of Evolution. This is clearly seen in the presupposition of “chance event.” This is saying that randomness and blind chance have produced a net INCREASE in the order and complexity in the Universe. “In the light of irrefutable evidence, today the presupposition about blind chance and evolution can be shown to be a gross error.”

Developments in the Theory Of Probability, Information Sciences, Computer Technology, Thermodynamics, and the study of biological mutations have shown conclusively that the net result of randomness and blind chance is DECREASE and DESTRUCTION of order and NOT the other way round. This is a serious blow to the false theory of evolution.

The analysis of presuppositions by established presuppositions can also help the apologists by showing the opposing school of thought is in error. This is helpful in dealing with radical scholars non-conservative Christians in matters like the Genesis creation and God’s miracles. This is important because different schools of thought often use much of the same vocabulary but arrive at different conclusion because of their presuppositions. Therefore the apologists much focus on exposing false presuppositions and not false conclusions.

It was noted that radicals base their arguments with at least the following:

1. The existence of a personal God is doubtful.
2. The Bible is an ordinary book, no different from any other ancient book.
3. All historical phenomena must be explained naturalistically, and therefore miracles and
supernatural events are not possible.

False presuppositions can often be exposed by asking questions like their belief in miracles, or, salvation by faith in Christ only? This makes it very important for the apologist to know the major presuppositions of orthodox Christianity.

Major Pre-suppositions of Some Groups Prominent Today:

1-FUNDAMENTALISTS (Theological Conservatives): Here “fundamentalists” refers only to those Christians who are devoted to the fundamentals of the Bible. Their presuppositions are:

Sola Scriptura: The Bible alone is the Holy Spirit-inspired word of God, and is the source of all revelation, doctrine, and authority. Human experience or traditions have no authority in the above matters.

Sola Gratia: Grace alone is the basis of salvation. Grace is unmerited favor from God. No man however saintly can obtain salvation through his own meritorious works.

Sola Fide: Faith is the only means through which one can attain the free gift of justification. Faith is a non-meritorious activity. Meritorious human works play no part in receiving the gift of justification.

Solus Christus: Christ is the only Saviour and the only mediator between God and man. There is no other Saviour or mediator.

“The writers of Calvin Research Group Textbooks are unashamedly committed to the above fundamentals. No theological compromise is permitted. The actual presuppositions of the writers include additional points, and are mentioned at the end of this chapter.”

2-EVANGELICALS: Although Evangelical had been a synonym for Fundamentalist, today it implies a more liberal view. Although they tend to be conservative and even hold to the four presuppositions above they also tend to be more liberal in areas like abortion and/or gay marriages. “One of their biggest faults is that they believe that once saved always saved.”

3-NEO EVANGELICALS: Neo (New) Evangelicals want to be called Evangelicals but are not willing to believe in the Biblical record of creation, the flood of Noah, and miracles. They may defined as having taken a “lower view” of Scripture. Their presuppositions show”

A Somewhat Fallible Bible
Probable Theistic Evolution
Probability Of Salvation Without An Explicit Knowledge Of Christ
Doubt About The Veracity Of Miracles Recorded In The Bible

Other things to note are:

• They deny that the Scripture is complete through their attempts to Christianize pagan ideas and systems founded upon personal beliefs and/or influences such as psychology/psychiatry, numerology, astrology, personality theory, etc

• Because of their weak views on Scripture they have a tendency to shift from objective Biblical doctrine to subjective experience which allows for the possible validity of apostolic sign-gifts for our own day (prophecy, tongues, miracles of healing through special persons, etc.).

4-RADICALS (Wrongly Termed, LIBERALS): There are extreme radicals and there are Christian radical. The ladder are in two forms; the extreme religious right and that should be called liberals who completely reject the orthodox position of structured religious organizations.

Extreme Radicals come in many forms: Anti-government, The Lunatic Fringes, Conspiracy Theorists, Militia Groups , and Identity Christianity.

5-NEO ORTHODOX: Neo Orthodox is neither new nor orthodox. Carl Barth is the most noted leader of this thinking.

Proponents of Neo Orthodoxy liberally use terms like heaven, hell, sin, salvation,
revelation, Christ, and resurrection, but define the terms differently from
conservative definitions. For example when a Neo Orthodox writer talks about the
Word of God, he is not talking about the actual Biblical record; when he talks of
Christ, he is not talking of the Jesus Christ of history! Differing meaning of terms
creates deception.

Some of their presuppositions are:

• There is a possibility of Salvation to all without Christ: Due to humankind’s sinful ways, there is a vast chasm between God and humanity. That humankind cannot bridge that chasm and all of mankind’s efforts to follow religious doctrine, moral and ethical thoughts and actions are a waste of time. The only possible way for the chasm to be crossed is by God, and this he has done in Christ.

• Their view of Scripture, “The Bible is God’s Word so far as God lets it be his Word” (Barth, Church Dogmatics, I / 2, 123), has been seen as a rejection of the infallible sola Scriptura of conservative Protestantism.

• Neo-Orthodoxy relies on human reason and stress the reliability and validity of human reason to critique revelation.

6-CHRISTIAN MYSTICS: This group is found among Roman Catholics and Protestants who seek one or more mystical encounters for spiritual joy and assurance. They have different paths they seek, but these can be characterized as purgative, illuminative, and unitive which corresponds to what is considered the whole person body, mind and spirit.

Do not confuse Christian Mystics with Christian Spiritism as many do.

Christian Mystic presuppositions are:

Rejection Of “Bible Alone”
Rejection Of Doctrine And Theology
Elevation Of Mystical Experience To The Level Of Revelation
Salvation Through Mystical Experience
Spiritual Joy Through Mystical Experience

7-CHRISTIAN SPIRITISM: While many items may seem “normal” with this group the change is that they use trances and psychic readings and try to communicate with the dead; which makes it a sacrilege. In Deut. 18:12, we see that spiritism in any form is condemned in the Bible. Some of their presuppositions are:

• God: is an infinite spiritual intelligence, an impersonal power controlling the universe.
• Jesus: was a man, not God, and during His time on earth, He was a prophet or an advanced medium who communicate with the spirit world.
• Jesus: is now a primary spirit that one communicates with in the spirit world.
• No Virgin Birth
• No redeeming cross: yet many will have a crucifix displayed above the pulpit.
• No resurrection
• No Second Coming
• Heaven and Hell do not exist, they are states of mind.
• People continue to live in the spirit world after their physical body dies.
• Rejection Of Bible Alone: they also use their Spiritualistic Manual, Aquarium Gospel of Jesus the Christ, and Oashpe.

8-CHRISTIAN CULTS: These groups hide within the structure of Christianity and are experts in beguiling unsuspecting believers. Not every cults holds all of the following presuppositions but most accept many of them:

Rejection Of Sola Scriptura And Elevation Of Their Own Books To The Level Of the Bible
Rejection Of Salvation By Grace Through Faith
Rejecting The Uniqueness Of Jesus Christ
Rejection Of Normal Hermeneutics
Claim That Only They Are True Children Of God
Rejection Of One Or More Of The Biblical Doctrines Related To Sin, Salvation, Grace, Justification, Hell, etc.

The following are a few of the Christian cults: Mormons: The Church of Jesus Christ of the of Latter-day Saints; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Moonies: Unification of Christianity; Christian Science Church; Church of Scientology; Children of God: Family of Love; Worldwide Church of God, of Armstrong; Spiritualism; Church Universal and Triumphant; Unitarianism/Universalism; Gnosticism/Neo-Gnosticism.; Way International; Holy Order of MANS; Church of the Living God

Other Christian Cults: Central London Church of Christ; Rev. Ike Penitents: Snake Handlers; Churches for Homosexuals: Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches; Branch Dravidians: “Waco”, David Koresh; People’s Temple: Jim Jones, Jonestown

9-CHRISTIAN OCCULTISTS: The authors first point out that to the Occultist they are actually studying hidden wisdom, or a truth that lies beyond the surface.

Christian Occultists are in reality, advanced students of Occultism and use their
gained knowledge of magic, astrology, numerology, or other training to produce
what seams like miracles. They have produce mass-hypnotism, mass-hysteria, and
many other delusions. Reportedly, they have also produced individual as well as
mass-healings. These Christians believe God gives them their occultic skills not
the power of evil spirits. Because of the power, they feel while practicing their
skills:

There presuppositions are:

Rejection Of Sola Scriptura
They Believe That Occult Techniques Are Approved By God
They Believe That The Spirit Beings That Help Them Are From God
They Reject Most Of What the Bible Says About the Devil And His Angles
They Believe That Occult Phenomena Can Bring People Close To God

10-NON CHISTIAN CULTS: These groups pretend to have a similarity or relationship with the Christian faith. While their leaders will quote from the Bible their different beliefs can be seen as follows:

Nature of man:
Christian: Believe man made in God’s image and separated from by sin
Occultist: Believe man is like God, only most people do not realize it

Heaven and Hell:
Christian: Believe they are actual places
Occultist: Believe that Heaven and Hell is a condition that conformed to the will of God or not. Some occultists actually believe in the Christian version of afterlife.

The devil:
Christian: Believe to be an actual being
Occultist: Believe to be those that perverse the use of their abilities through wrong thinking.

Magic and Ritual:
Christian: Believed to be Satanic activities
Occultist: Believe in making changes through natural forces that they believe is a function of the spirit world
Their general presuppositions are:

Rejection Of Sola Scriptura
Rejection Of Salvation By Grace Through Faith
Rejection Of Jesus Christ As The Only Saviour
Rejection Of All Major Christian Doctrines

11-NEW AGE GROUPS: There is nothing Christian in this group founded by Alice Bailey in the 1930s. It is actually free-flowing spiritual movement that will often use some mutually exclusive Christian-sounding terms. “The members are classified into seven groups. The largest, being Cultural (Christmas & Easter) Christianity followed by Conventional Christianity, New Age Practitioner, Biblical (Fundamentalist, Evangelical) Christianity, Atheist/Agnostic, Other, and Jewish.”

Some of their common beliefs are:

Monism: All that exists is derived from a single source of divine energy.

Pantheism: All that exists is God; God is all that exists. This leads naturally to the concept of the divinity of the individual, that we are all Gods.

Panentheism: God is all that exists. God is at once the entire universe, and transcends the universe as well.

Reincarnation: After death, we are reborn and live another life as a human.

Karma: The good and bad deeds that we do add and subtracts from our accumulated record, our karma.

Personal Transformation A profoundly intense mystical experience will lead to the acceptance and use of New Age beliefs and practices.

Ecological Responsibility: A belief in the importance of uniting to preserve the health of the earth, which is often looked upon as Gaia, (Mother Earth) a living entity.

Universal Religion: Since all is God, then only one reality exists, and all religions are simply different paths to that ultimate reality.

General New Age presuppositions are:

Rejection Of Sola Scriptura
Rejection Of Salvation By Grace Through Faith
Rejection Of Jesus Christ As The Only Saviour
Rejection Of All Major Christian Doctrines
Salvation Through All Religions/Universalism

12-THE NEW PRAJAPATI MOVEMENT: This movement began in the 1930 with a tract titled “Sacrifice,” which has now been published in many major Indian languages. Prajapati in Hindu mythology is the primordial lord of creatures. One of their major teaching is that Prajapati, who is one of the 33 gods of the Vedas, is Jesus Christ Himself! They have worked very hard to develop a theology which would prove this point with a mixture of Christian stories, portions of the Vedas, or Upanishads, and other writings. “Prajapati movement gained momentum in the late eighties and in the nineties primarily through the work of Mr. Koshy Abraham, Dr. Jospeh Padinjarekkera, and Arvindaksha Menon.”

Their presuppositions are:

Outright Rejection of Sola Scriptura
Rejection of the Uniqueness of Jesus Christ
Rejection of all Major Christian Doctrines
Elevation of Non Christian Scriptures to the Level of the Bible

13-OCCULTIC CULTS: These groups affirm the ideas deriving from Satanism, e.g., Satan Worship, Sorcery, and Demon-assisted healings. In areas where there is religious freedom these types of cults have flourished with unbridled speed. “The group Order Templi Satanis distributes volumes of satanic information through the use of the Internet is actually makes them more dangerous to the Christian world because most of their work is in a covert environment.”

Satanic beliefs are as diverse as the groups they represent however most of them follow the following beliefs or presuppositions:

Satan liberates the believer from religious, moral, and cultural conditioning
Satanism is a religion of the flesh
Satanist must find happiness here and now
There is no heaven or hell to go to after death
Satan a real being prince of darkness and a friend of Mankind
It is possible to obtain favors from Satan through magical rituals
Satan is Lucifer, a positive figure opposed to God who is seen in a negative light
Rejection Of Sola Scriptura
Rejection Of Jesus Christ As The Only Savior
Rejection Of Salvation By Grace Through Faith
Rejection Of All Major Christian Doctrines
Elevation Of Non Christian Scriptures To The Level Of the Bible

14-SECULAR CULTS: While not new, secular cults have gained in popularity and varieties since the end of WWII. After the horrors of war and the terrible loss of life many were ready to hear that orthodox Christianity was just a delusional nonsense created to control the masses. They asked hard questions like, “If there is a God, then why would He allow for so much destruction and loss of life and property?” and “Why would He allow for genocides to be committed against the Jews?” The reality that since the out break of WWII, there have been more than 150 million people killed due to war. These realities have given room for the Secular Cults to spin their web that God doesn’t exist. A fallacy with this group is that their actions do not coincide with their doctrine that there is only the hear and now.

15-RATIONALIST GROUPS: Here we find a belief that truth is found through reasoning and analysis and no by faith, or religious teaching. Although rationalism is similar to humanism and atheism, it differs from them in these areas:

* Humanism: Rationalism is found in humanism however, rationalism does not need the
strong ethical component found in humanism.
* Atheism: Reject the belief in God for any or no reason at all and there is no requirement
for rationalism.

Most rationalist groups don’t believe in God, Deism is an exception to that truth. They rationalize that God made the world perfect in the beginning and to make changes would be to state that He is not perfect.

16-HUMANISTS: The following is a list of the various forms of humanism:

Christian Humanism:
Christian beliefs about the nature of God
Advocate people’s fulfillment by personal effort
Cultural Humanism:
Knowledge can be obtained through rational thought and experimentation
Roots in ancient Greece and Rome
Scientific method and underpinning of all sciences today
Literary Humanism:
Pursuit of the humanities
Modern Humanism:
Encompasses both Religious and Secular Humanism
Philosophical Humanism:
Centered upon the needs and interests of people
Renaissance Humanism:
Started at the end of the Middle Ages
Renewed an interest in classical studies
Promoted the concept that truth found through human effort
Religious Humanism:
Similar to secular humanism
Practiced in a religious setting with fellowship and rituals
Associated with the Society for Humanistic Judaism and some groups affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Secular Humanism:
Non-religiously based philosophy
Promotes humanity as the measure of all things

An in-depth look at the Humanist show that their beliefs and practices are:

They promote their roots to the philosophies of ancient Greece and regard Socrates as the first Humanist.
They accept knowledge through reasoning and/or hard evidence and not on faith
The belief that historical progress conflict between organized religion and secular society beliefs and practices have gradually replaced with secular beliefs
That religious groups promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful
Acceptance of democracy and rejection of both theocracy and secular dictatorships as dangerous to individual freedoms
Combating bigotry, hatred, discrimination, intolerance and censorship
Support the separation of church and state
Liberal beliefs about topics, like abortion, corporal punishment of children, death penalty, enforced prayer in schools, homosexuality, physician assisted suicide, etc.

The authors state that this course will focus on Secular Humanists (which have the same presuppositions as atheists). Generally speaking, their beliefs are:

They do not believe in:
A personal God, a Goddess or a combination of Goddesses and Gods
Supernatural beings such as angels, demons, Satan, Holy Spirit, etc
Heaven or hell or life after death
The separation of a person into body, soul and spirit
Survival of an individual in any form after death
The existence of a deity, or they don’t really care about the topic
The concept of a personal God, and regard humans as supreme

They do believe:
Excellent codes of behavior and morality can be created through reason
About human rights and equal opportunities for all
Humans created the Gods and Goddesses in their own image
There is no God in heaven to intervene and save us from a disaster
That full responsibility for the future of the world, its political systems, its ecology, etc. rests with humans
A universe that was not created
In the theory of evolution and a universe that obeys natural laws
Rejection of divinely inspired ethical and moral codes in favor of codes derived by reason from the human condition

And they tend to be at the liberal end of the spectrum on such controversial topics as abortion access; equal rights for gays, lesbians and bisexuals; same-sex marriage, physician assisted suicide, separation of church and state, etc.

Pre-suppositions of CRG Texbooks:

The writers of the Calvin Research Group set forth their theological conservative stance with their MINIMUM presuppositions; which are:
Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone)
Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)
Sola Fide (Faith Alone)
Solus Christus (Christ Alone)

The following presuppositions more fully describe their positions:

Inspiration: Each word of the Bible is recorded there by God’s inspiration (verbal inspiration). This inspiration extends not only to the words, but also to ideas and historical/scientific facts.
Inerrancy: The Bible is totally and completely free of moral, spiritual, historical, and scientific errors.
Infallibility: The Bible is infallible in all matters of doctrine, practice, morals, and every subject on which it makes an authoritative pronouncement.
Canonicity: The 66 books of the Old and New Testament, and they alone, are the Word of God. The Apocrypha are not part of the Bible.
Revelation: Christ and the Bible are the only divine revelations given to mankind through the Holy Spirit. Mankind can know God only through Christ and the Bible.
The Biblical record makes no sense without the above presuppositions. The Bible demands that we approach it with the above presuppositions in mind. Anything less would force a person to explain away significant portions of Bible and theology.

Summary: A good apologist certainly knows the major presuppositions of his opponents as well as his own. Leading questions will help expose the anti-biblical presuppositions and errors of one’s opponent.

Christian Apologetics is a vast subject which deals with more than just the Bible and science, but includes several branches which deal with various opposing views against the Christian faith. The task of the Apologist continues to widen as opponents present an every widening array of question against the Bible. Christian Apologetics can be classified by four broad categories, each with several sub categories:

Philosophical/Theological Apologetics
Historical/Legal Apologetics
Rational/Scientific Apologetics
Interdisciplinary Apologetics
Philosophical/Theological Apologetics

Erroneous philosophy needs to be met with right philosophy, thus the need for philosophical apologetics. The major groups that bring erroneous philosophies against the Bible are as follows:

THEISTIC PHILOSOPHIES: Groups holding theistic philosophies include Hinduism (made up of at least six different philosophies), Islam, Jainism (some branches), Buddhism (some branches), Taoism, Shintoism, Sikkhism, Bahai, Zoroastrianism, Christian Cults, Non-Christian Religious Cults, and many Occult Cults.

ATHEISTIC PHILOSOPHIES: Groups holding atheistic philosophies include Hinduism (the materialistic philosophy), Jainism, Buddhism, Rationalism, Atheism, Secular Humanism, Nihilism, Marxism, and Existentialism.

OCCULTIC PHILOSOPHIES: Groups holding occultic philosophies include Animism, Tantric Philosophies, Ancestor Worship, New Age Movement, Rosicrucianism, many of the Holistic Healing Systems, Satanism, Spiritism, Devil’s Church, etc.

NON-THEISTIC PHILOSOPHIES: Non-theistic philosophies neither affirm nor deny the existence of God. However, many non-theistic philosophies tend to be atheistic. The notable ones are Theosophy, Agnosticism, and Nihilism.

Philosophy is not a tangible subject like physical science and hence can lead to prolonged arguments. Yet this area is easier in discussion than science and technology-based subjects. The revival of philosophical religion of the Orient demands that a Christian apologists not overlook training in philosophical apologetics.

Historical/Legal Apologetics: Historical information has greatly increased from the rise of modern archeology. Today archeology has provided a vast amount of evidence in support of the Bible.

Bible and history, Bible and archeology, Bible and prophecies, Bible and linguistics, all fall into the area of historical/ legal apologetics. Dozens of volumes have now been written addressing historical/legal apologetics. For persons who do not have a science background but still want to work in a field of more tangible apologetics, the study of historical apologetics is a good area of training.

Rational/Scientific Apologetics: This discipline deals with attacks that seek to use modern science against the Bible and the Christian faith. Creationism is a major subject in this field in opposition to the Theory of Evolution. Although there is a vast amount of information in this area the tangible nature of scientific information lends itself to the apologist seeking to help an inquirer.
Interdisciplinary Apologetics

The apologist may have to gather for presentation evidence from more than one area, thus the name “Interdisciplinary Apologetics.”

CHRISTIAN ETHICS: In defending God’s actions or God’s ethical requirements might well require several subjects as: history, jurisprudence, legal science, and theology. Thus Christian Ethics falls into the field of Interdisciplinary Apologetics.

THE PROBLME OF EVIL AND SUFFERING: In seeking to answer the atheists and critics who argue evil and suffering cannot exist where there is an all-power and loving God the apologist may have to call on such subjects as: philosophy, theology, biography, and others.

LEGAL APOLOGETICS: Here too the legal apologist will often have to use several different subjects for their legal and logical argument.

RELATIONAL APOLOGETICS: Most things in life are learned by entering into a relationship with them. For example, a person can recognize a table anywhere in the world their exposure to information about other tables. Here the Christian apologist can demonstrate to the seeker that the object of his inquiry can be discovered by entering into a personal relationship.

GOD’S EXISTENCE: Physical sciences can’t prove if God exist because they only deal with energy or matter. Yet a combination of reasoning based upon several subjects can point to the existence of God.

MIRACLES AND RESURRECTION: Likewise information from several subjects will be needed to defend the truth of the resurrection and miracles in the Bible.

BIBLE TEXT/LANGUAGE/CANON: Here too it may take several different subjects to answer the questions being raised. Subjects like: history, geography, and linguistics.

Summary: When opposition to Christianity was simple so was Christian Apologetics. In the last two centuries the attacks on the Bible and Christian faith have become highly sophisticated. This has caused Christian Apologetics to become an advanced subject with numerous branches.

Everyone who tries to use anything other than the Conservative Presuppositions is  trying to synthesize two opposites into one harmonious entity. However, opposites can be synthesized only at the cost of truth, and that is an alarming possibility for any apologist.

The authors close with: Tens of thousands of Protestant Reformers have sacrificed their lives to defend the truth expressed in the following statements:

Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone)
Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)
Sola Fide (Faith Alone)
Solus Christus (Christ Alone)
Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be Glory)

Critique: Pre-suppositions and Classification of Christian Apologetics

Chapter – 1: Presuppositions of Christian Apologetics: To my joy I found this article very difficult to summarize. By this I mean the materials were packed with so much quality information I clearly had trouble condensing it down into a summary. I had some awareness of the importance of presuppositions but appreciated the teaching on a Consistency Test. The analysis of presuppositions by established presuppositions was filled with deep insight for me. It was like a vein of gold for me to read the Major Pre-suppositions of Some Prominent Groups. I was very comfortable with the Fundamentalists teaching but was somewhat taken back by the description of Evangelicals, as I would have likely used this title of myself—at least before I read this article. I do see what the writers are saying, and I agree with that.

Most of the other prominent groups I was familiar with the materials. I appreciated the writings on Radicals and the clarity on what would constitute a radical. The insights on Non-Christian Cults were also some new information for me and I really liked the way this whole section was laid out. The authors are giving a great deal of information but it is really brought down to a very powerful package. Previously in graduate school we were forced to cull to a great deal of information to find a few nuggets. Here we are given a whole vein of gold and jewels to dig through. The New Prajapati Movement was entirely new to me. While this was new information for me I found it very interesting to learn. Further more I personally thought the section on Humanists was the best developed of these important sections. Again, there was an enormous amount of material in a very concise format. The use of what they “do” or what they “don’t” believe in was a good comparison and contrast.

It is worth noting that the acceptance or rejection of the following pre-suppositions is the dividing line:

The writers of the Calvin Research Group set forth their theological conservative stance with their MINIMUM presuppositions; which are:
Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone)
Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)
Sola Fide (Faith Alone)
Solus Christus (Christ Alone)

Chapter – 2: Branches of Christian Apologetics: This section was very helpful to me in answering some of my questions about Integrated Christian Apologetics from our first lesson. It was helpful for me to see the different roads of apologetics and the reasons for the need to study in various areas. Although it became obvious when reading the article I wouldn’t have been able to guess several of the areas discussed. This was very good and challenged my thinking. For me the Philosophical/Theological Apologetics was a good reminder of these various groups, I found the Historical/Legal Apologetics to be very helpful in my understanding of the depth of Christian Apologetics. Certainly Rational/Scientific Apologetics is on the forefront in many people’s thinking. I definitely look forward to more studies in this valuable area of study.

Although the section on Interdisciplinary Apologetics was comfortable ground, it was also very good in the continual building of a solid foundation by the authors. I will say that the Relational Apologetics information was totally new to me and has me pondering its simplistic truths. The authors have well made their case for the Pre-suppositions and Classification of Christian Apologetics.

Personal Benefits

I have found the information in this article to be very beneficial to me personally and in directing further studies and development of teaching materials. I see how these materials will help me as mentioned and also in areas of witnessing and open discussion.

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