Introduction I. What is Christian Doctrine? II. Why Study Doctrine? III. What is Christian Apologetics? IV. Why study Christian Apologetics? Introduction to Apologetics 1. Definition - A branch of Christian theology which seeks to provide a rational justification of Christianities truth claims. 2. Offensive Apologetics - Put forward a positive case for why you think Christianity is true A. Natural Theology (associated with General Revelation) - Arguments and evidences for the existence of God which do not appeal to Special Revelation. Some prominent arguments are: (1) The Cosmological Argument A family of arguments that argue that there must be a first cause, or a sufficient reason for the existence of the world. Two examples are: (a) The Contingency argument (b) The Temporal argument (2) The Teleological Argument - The argument from design (3) The Moral Arguments - A family of arguments that try to show that God exists based on our moral experience. E.g. If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist (4) The Ontological Argument - This argument tries to demonstrate that the being of God or the existence of God from the concept of God alone. B. Christian Evidences (1) Fulfilled prophecy (2) The radical claims of Jesus of Nazareth (3) The evidence of Jesus miracles and resurrection 3. Defensive Apologetics - This is the attempt to rebut the objections A. Objection to the existence of God (1) The problem of evil (2) The hiddeness of God B. Objections to Christianity (1) The challenge of Biblical criticism (2) The problem of religious diversity
