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Contemporary Apologetics 2:
Electric Boogaloo
About Me
I am a cautiously charismatic (third-wave) Southern
Baptist.
Elder-led congregationalist in ecclesiology.
Traditionalist in Soteriology.
Tentatively Old Earth Creationist is protology.
Tentatively Amillennial in eschatology.
Hold to a “Baptist plus” view with respect to baptism and
the Lord's Supper.
B.S. From Liberty, M.A. From Biola, and Ph.D candidate
here at Trinity.
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Textbook Information (Bachelors)
Barzun, Jaques. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present. New York: HarperCollins. 2001.
Reynolds, John Mark. When Athens Met Jerusalem: An Introduction to Classical and Christian Thought. Downers Grove: InterVarsity. 2009.
Textbook Information (Masters)
Barzun, Jaques. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present. New York: HarperCollins. 2001.
Pearcey, Nancy. Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From It's Cultural Captivity. Wheaton: Crossway. 2008.
Reynolds, John Mark, Ed. The Great Books Reader: Excerpts and Essays on the Most Influential Books of Western Civilization. Bloomington: Bethany. 2011.
Textbook Information (Doctoral)
Doctoral Students:
Please contact me directly after the lecture
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Participation Assignment (20%)
PROVIDE A RESPONSE TO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING THREE
QUESTIONS: (Each response should be 300-400 words in length.
1. Pick one non-Christian thing (music, movie, TV show, website, book) in pop
culture, and find connections to Christian truth, goodness, and/or beauty in order
to initiate an evangelistic conversation
2. In what ways and in what areas is Contemporary Apologetics moving the
culture.
3. In what ways and in what areas is Contemporary Apologetics failing to move
the culture.
A good blog post should have a title, be self-contained, and appeal to general
readers not having taken this class. They should not reference the professor, the
lecture, or other classmates. All blog posts and comments are private and open
to other enrolled students in the classroom only. Exceptionally good blog
articles may be selected to be included in the Trinity Blog.
Lecture Summaries (10%)
During the lecture, you will be asked to write summaries of the material presented in that section of
the lecture, along with a class assignment.
No more than a full page of double-spaced text for the
summaries.
Please have all your lecture summaries as a single
document file and post the summaries in the assignment link in the TOLC.
Bachelors Precis Assignment (35%)
A precis is just a summary of the contents of the material Do not engage or critique the material,
simply summarize the main points. 1,500 +/-50 word
count. Use chapter and/or section numbers as subject headers in this paper. The easiest way to write a
precis is take it piecemeal. Read a section, and then
write the summary as soon as you finish it. Do a section or two each day, and it is more manageable
than trying to do it all in a few multiple hour long
sittings.
For the Bachelors Precis assignment: Reynolds text.
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Masters Precis Assignment (35%)
A precis is just a summary of the contents of the material Do
not engage or critique the material, simply summarize the main points. 3,000 +/-50 word count. Use chapter and/or
section numbers as subject headers in this paper. The easiest
way to write a precis is take it piecemeal. Read a section, and then write the summary as soon as you finish it. Do a
section or two each day, and it is more manageable than
trying to do it all in a few multiple hour long sittings.
For the Masters Precis assignment: Pearcey text and
Johnson text.
Doctoral Precis Assignment (35%)
A precis is just a summary of the contents of the material Do not engage or critique the material, simply summarize the main points. 3,000 +/-50 word count. Use chapter
and/or section numbers as subject headers in this paper. The easiest way to write a
precis is take it piecemeal. Read a section, and then write the summary as soon as you
finish it. Do a section or two each day, and it is more manageable than trying to do it all in a few multiple hour long sittings.
Contact me after the lecture to discuss Precis assignment if we have not
done so already.
Bachelors Research or Argumentative
Paper (35%)
This paper can either be a research paper or an
argumentative paper related to culture and
Contemporary Apologetics. It needs to have a minimum of 4 scholarly sources cited, two of
which must be the required textbooks, and have a 1,500 +/- 50 word count. All topics
must be approved no later than March 19th, so
select a topic quickly in order to have time to devote to the paper.
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Masters and Doctoral Exegetical,
Research or Argumentative Paper (35%)
This paper can either be a research paper or an
argumentative paper related to culture and
Contemporary Apologetics. It needs to have a minimum of 10 scholarly sources cited, two of
which must be the required textbooks, and have a 3000 +/- 50 word count. All topics must
be approved no later than March 19th, so select
a topic quickly in order to have time to devote to the paper.
Due Dates for Assignments
Lecture summaries – Day after lecture
The Participation Blog Article is due in one week All
responses to other articles are due by last day of class.
Doctoral Precis and all Paper topics must be approved in the next two weeks.
The Precis is due by the last day of the course.
The Research or Argumentative Paper is due by the last day of the course.
OR!!!
You can listen to the first part of the lecture, and instead of writing the first lecture summary, you
can quit listening to this lecture, do the blog assignment, and instead of doing all the other assignments, you can write a 20 page opinion paper on: 1. Why I am wrong, and 2. Why and
how Contemporary Apologetics as it done today by many apologists is going to win the world for
Christ.
Good luck!
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Contact Information
My e-mail is [email protected]
I will check the “Ask the Professor” forum on the TOLC.
Please allow 24-48 hours for response.
Important Slide!!!
Questions or Comments?
Class Objectives
Learn why Contemporary Apologetics as practiced basically stinks.
Learn how Contemporary Apologetics can be better and more effective.
Understand the role of the Apologist with respect to the Church.
Understand the role of the Apologist with respect to culture.
Learn to think like an Apologist should think.
Learn the approach and gain understanding of cultural history
and analysis.
Gain a greater understanding of the foundational ideas of
Christian thought and Western Culture (The readings).
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Break
Answers and Responses
Part 1
Why Contemporary
Apologetics Basically Stinks
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The Dr. Braxton Hunter Syllogism
(Evangelistic Apologetics, p. xxii)
1. If apologetics is biblically-based and effective in the modern wold, then evangelical denominations should
include apologetics in their evangelistic ministries.
2. Apologetics is biblically-based and effetive in the
modern world, therefore:
3. Evangelical denominations should include
apologetics in their evangelistic ministries.
I agree, so where is the problem?
First, what doesn't stink.
The arguments don't stink.
The various kinds of apologetic methods don't stink
in and of themselves.
Some Apologists don't stink even though most do.
Christianity doesn't stink.
The Biblical worldview doesn't stink
The Biblical mandate to do apologetics doesn't stink.
So what does stink?
Most Apologists stink at practicing the methods.
Most Apologists have too narrow focus.
Most Apologists ignore culture and history.
Most Apologists ignore Scripture or throw Scripture under the bus.
Most Apologists want to lecture in the churches while ignoring the needs of the people in the churches.
Most Apologists don't know how to communicate.
Most Apologists don't know how to analyze and diagnose real
problems that face lost people.
Most Apologists don't bother to do evangelism and are content with
Apologetics being labeled “per-evangelism,” which doesn't actually
mean anything.
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Apologists spend too much time preparing
to address these people...
...but Apologists end up spending too much
time debating these people (especially on the
internet)...
...and too often ignore these people.
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What isn't working...
The lofty “Take Back Harvard” strategy.
Imitating culture.
Constantly consuming culture.
Catering to culture.
Ignoring Culture.
“Take Back Harvard!!!”
Pfft...
Claim: Philosophy departments have seen an increase in
Christian philosophers.
Response: Not too much worthy of note, except that any
increase at all is noticeable.
Response: Most other departments such as science and other
humanities dislike philosophy, and don't give philosophers much credence.
Response: Christianity is still on the outs in most other departments.
Response: Philosophers and ideas generally don't move culture, except in cheap-knockoffs.
Response: Why is “Harvard” worth taking back?
How's this working for us?
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Epic Fail!
How's this working for us?
Really???
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This always fails.
Apologetics for most people...because of
Apologists. Vocabulary matters.
It is not all stinky...it is just complicated
Just because certain things are failing to move the culture for Christ, that doesn't certain things should
be scrapped.
Things that may not move the culture may still meets
the needs of those whose needs are being met by
these things.
We don't need new strategies to replace the old strategies, we need new strategies in order to have
more strategies.
The more strategies we have, the more likely some
thing or things will work.
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Important Slide!!!
Questions or Comments?
Not too many memes like this one...
Break
Break/Lecture Summary 1
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Answers and Responses
Part 2
Thinking like Apologists
Apologetic Bedrock Verses
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15 ESV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh
but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ESV)
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the
saints. (Jude 3 ESV)
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Important Keys to Bedrock Verses
Honoring Christ in our hearts is the precondition for giving a defense. Without the former part of the
verse, the latter part is irrelevant.
We don't wage war according to the flesh, and the
demolition of strongholds and arguments
presupposes that such things can be destroyed through God's power.
We are to contend for the faith. Apologists gain nothing
if they are just contending for Apologetic arguments.
Where the Apologist should begin:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think
about these things. (Philippians 4:8 ESV)
Truth is objective.
Psalm 119:160 The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the
only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 8:31-32 … So Jesus said to the Jews who had
believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and
the truth will set you free.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me.”
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is
truth.
James 1:18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the
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The Pilate Question (John 18:38)
“What is truth?”
The very notion of absolute, objective truth is
illogically questioned.
Truth has been artificially separated from “facts.”
Correspondence theory of truth: That which
corresponds to reality is truth.
Objective Goodness
Psalm 100:5 “For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
God is good by definition (Luke 18:9), and is the ground of goodness.
Psalm 19:7 “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;”
See Romans 7:12, 1 Timothy 1:8
Moral Argument:
1. If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist.
2. Objective moral values do exist.
3. Therefore, God exists.
Important Slide!!!
Questions or Comments?
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This is beautiful: Fact or Opinion?
Break
Answers and Responses
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The Objectivity
of Beauty
Are these verses true?
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4 ESV)
Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
(Psalm 96:6)
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's
heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV)
And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. Exodus 28:2 ESV)
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the
glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (Revelation 21:10-11)
Objective Beauty and Christendom
Until around 150 years ago, every
Christian believed and was taught
that beauty was objective.
Affirming objective beauty is
central, just as objective goodness
and truth.
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Objective Beauty does not mean:
1. People can't have subjective preferences. What is beautiful objectively may not be personally attractive
to a person.
2. That a person must like everything that is beautiful,
it only means that people should recognize and
acknowledge it.
3. That people may differ in preferences negates the existence of objective beauty or is an argument
against it. Same with objective truth and goodness.
4. That ugly things can not teach us anything.
Objective Beauty Does Mean:
1. It must be defended by Christian Apologists just as objective truth and goodness are defended.
2. That if denying objective truth, and doing that which is objectively bad, is harmful to a person, so is
consuming lots of ugly things.
3. It is itself a powerful signpost to the existence of
God.
4. That we should avoid ugly things or avoid learning
from them.
Beauty Grounded in God's Nature
Just like objective truth and goodness, objective beauty is grounded in the very nature of God.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” comes from the same pit of hell where relativism in goodness and
truth come from.
When objective beauty was discarded, then objective
goodness followed, and now objective truth is under attack.
Subjectivity in truth and goodness are symptoms of the disease. Cure the disease, the symptoms disappear.
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This is ugly: Fact or Opinion?
The Apologist and the Church
The Apologist and the Church
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also
descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the
one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no
longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by
every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful
schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body,
joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when
each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds
itself up in love. (Epesians 4:9-16 ESV)
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The Apologist and the Church
1. An Evangelist
2. A Teacher
3. A Mentor
4. A Resident Scholar
5. An Encourager
6. A Troubleshooter
7. A Gentle Contrarian
8. A Loving Doctrine Enforcer
Why It Matters
Too many Apologists are busying themselves building a ministry rather than building up their brothers and
sisters in their churches and communities.
Pastors, regardless of the size of the local church they
shepherd, need the help of Apologists.
Apologists are uniquely equipped to do the mentoring
in the church that fits the needs of of Christians facing modern culture.
Apologists need to be ahead of the game, have a vocal presence in the church, and stop being deployed after
it is too late.
A verse often overlooked.
So on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear
found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son
had them. (1 Samuel 13:22 ESV)
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What can we learn from 1 Sam. 13:16-
14:23
1. The enemy has all the blacksmith shops.
2. Only Jonathan and Saul had weapons.
3. Jonathan and his armor-bearer leave.
4. They form a new strategy for warfare.
5. Chaos and confusion breaks out among the Philistines.
6. The Lord saved His people that day.
What we can learn for Apologetics
1. If the enemy has all the blacksmith shops, don't just make your own. Do something else and count on
God to save you.
2. If you can't win a fight with conventional warfare,
fight differently, and win while the enemy destroys
itself.
3. Don't be afraid to lose and be slandered in the short term in order to win in the long term. You can't lose
when you don't surrender and allow the Lord to fight
your battles to win the war.
Important Slide!!!
Questions or Comments?
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Class Assignment
Based on the discussion of 1 Sam. 13:16-
14:23 to apologetics, write a strategy for your local church to make apologetics more effective in evangelism and discipleship.
Class Assignment/Bre
ak/Lecture Summary 2
Answers and Responses
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Apologetics and Culture Analysis
Questions
What decade in recent history is responsible for the moral decline in the United States?
Which decade in recent history do most Christians point to as being the “beginning” of the demoralization of the United States?
Foundational Passage for
Cultural AnalysisFor the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or
give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in
the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men
likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness,
malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things
deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32 ESV)
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For the Apologist:
There is more here than a couple of proof-texts to preface for giving a teleological argument for God's
existence.
It clearly defines the condition of the unregenerate.
It always serves as an explanation for the basis of the unregenerate people's activities and behaviors in all
cultures.
This informs us that there was never a single “Golden
Age” in history for which we should long to return.
Cultural Thesis
“The sixties were no fouler a decade that the Fifties- they merely reaped the Fifties’ foul
harvest- but they were the years when millions of people grew all too aware that the industrial society had become paradoxically unlivable,
incalculaby immoral, and ultimately deadly.” Peter S. Beagle (Introduction to The Hobbit, 1973)
A Golden Age?
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Rise in Secular Humanism
and Scientism.
A Vision of the Future Without Faith
The Invention of Cool, Consumerism,
and Image Self-Consciousness.
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Cool has Zero Content
The Foul Harvest
Increase in popularized secular humanism originated in 1950's. School prayer and Bible readings banned in
public schools in the early 1960's.
Beginning of the popular notion of scientism rooted in
1950's futurism.
Increase is image self-consciousness, consumerism,
and keeping up with “cool” trends, fashions, and products.
Papering over problems.
Important Slide!!!
Questions or Comments?
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What exactly is the Christian response to
the future and/or life on other planets?
Lecture Summary 3
Break
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Answers and Responses
Signs of the
Decline
Signs of Decline
1. Misusing the Law of Large Numbers.
2. Taking false comfort in particulars.
3. HR-ism over character.
4. Desperate need for charismatic leaders.
5. Cynicism and disbelief.
6. Libertine behaviors rather than human flourishing.
7. Consume rather than create.
8. Idle-try and Idolatry.
9. Dumb relativism.
10. Christ-less.
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Apologists Versus Bad Education
Decline in Education
The public education program has been in decline for over 40 years.
College Education, after the influx from the G.I. Bill and compounded by financial aid offerings,
attendance increased (good), but virtue training and
mentoring was replaced with increased secularism, “Gentleman's C” education, and empty credentialing
in public universities (bad).
Result: Most people are badly educated, but since they
are credentialed, they believe themselves to be smart.
Postmodernism or bad education?
Are many people in the church really postmodern?
Are many people in culture really postmodern?
Given that the 15 minutes of the Emergent Church are
already up, and that most people are closet
objectivists after all, isn't it more likely that people are badly educated than postmodern?
Relativism, subjective truth, goodness, and beauty, are
basically modern cover for libertine hedonism and
justification for sinful lifestyles, both inside and outside the Church.
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Bumperstickerism
Bumersticker Relativism, Bumpersticker Atheism, Bumbersticker Spirituality, Bumpersticker Religious
Nominalism.
Bumpersticker Christianity can not defeat them, and
we should hope it wouldn't.
What's more likely, these people actually know what
they are talking about, or they are simply rebellious
sinners?
What's more likely, that these people need lecture after lecture on
arguments and evidence, or need to be encouraged to see God's truth,
goodness, and beauty all around them, especially the Gospel?
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Diagnosis
Most people think more about how they look, what they are doing, how they can meet their perceived
needs, and so forth a lot more than they think about
arguments for or against the truth of Christianity.
Many people are ignorant but think they are smart, or
pretend to be since they use Google and they play geniuses on the Internet.
Apologists spend too much time fighting symptoms
and not addressing root problems.
Final Questions and Comments
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
Apologists need to foster communities of faith that emphasize objective truth, goodness, and beauty.
Apologists need to foster communities of faith where the “cult of the amateur” is encouraged in
sports, sciences, and the arts.
Apologists need to reinstate virtue training and
mentoring in churches, and promote it in the homes.
Apologists need to stand against HR-ism, gluttonous
consumerism, empty spiritualism, bogus secularism, wimpy doctrine, and the culture of cool.
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Final Answers and Responses
Lecture Summary 4/End
