In Defense of our Faith

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In Defense of our Faith
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(No Transcript)
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Overview

• Apologetics Defined
• Is the New Testament Historically Accurate?
• Jesus ChristMore that a Carpenter?
• The Empty Tomb
• Is the Old Testament Historically Accurate?

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Overview

• The Bible a guideline or Thus saith the Lord?
• The Canon how do I know we have the right
  books?
• Bible Prophecy Coincidence?
• What about all those inaccuracies and
  contradictions?
• Bible Criticism

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Overview

• World Religions Arent there many paths?
• Did God need Evolution to help him with
  Creation?
• Changed Lives

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Apologetics Defined

• Systematic argumentative discourse in defense
  (as of a doctrine)
• A branch of theology devoted to the defense of
  the divine origin and authority of Christianity
• Greek Word Apologia verbal defense, a speech
  in defense, is sometimes translated answer

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Apologia used in the Bible

• Acts 211
• Acts 2516
• 1 Corinthians 91-3
• II Corinthians 7 9-11
• Philippians 13-7
• Philippians 1 14-17
• II Timothy 4 7-17
• 1 Peter 312-15

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Cautions for Witnessing

• Our purpose is to win soulsnot arguments
• Apologetics can sometimes remove intellectual
  road blocks, but it is the Holy Spirit that
  saves
• Intellectual doubt is often not the main reason
  why people reject Christ

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The Almost Christian

• Ignorance Romans 1 18-23, Matthew 2229
• Pride John 540-44
• Moral Issues John 319-20

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Aldous Huxley

• I had motives for not wanting the world to
  have a meaning consequently assumed that it had
  none, and was able without any difficulty to find
  satisfying reasons for this assumptionThe
  philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is
  not concerned exclusively with a problem in
  metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that
  there is no valid reason why he personally should
  not do, or why his friends should not seize
  political power and govern in the way that they
  find most advantageous to themselves.

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How the world views religion

• Worlds view of religion It is not important
  what you believe, as long as you believe
• Worlds view of religion what is true for you is
  not necessarily true for me
• And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall
  make you free John 829

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• How do we prove the events recorded in the
  Bible?
• What about Science?

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The Scientific Method

• Define the question
• Gather information and resources
• Form hypothesis
• Perform experiment and collect data
• Analyze data
• Interpret data and draw conclusions
• Publish Results

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• How do you prove historical events?

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Legal Historical proof

• Oral Testimony
• Written Testimony
• Exhibits (gun, bullet, tube of toothpaste)

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Military Historian C. SandersIntroduction to
Research in English Literary History

• Bibliographical Test
• Internal Evidence Test
• External Evidence Test

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Bibliographical Test

• Examination of the process in which the documents
  reach us
• How many early manuscripts exist that we can use
  to compare

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Internal Evidence Test

• Intent Test
• Ability Test
• Consistency Test
• Bias Test

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External Evidence Test

• Other historical material that confirms or denies
  the story indicated in the text.
• Archeology verifying the existence of people,
  places, or events indicated in the text

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Historical Evidence

• We have a tendency to discount evidence of events
  that we dont understand
• Matthew 2745 Now from the sixth hour there was
  darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour
• Luke 2345 And the sun was darkened

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Discount the unknown?

• Phelgon (Greek Author in a chronology regarding
  the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad) it became
  night in the sixth hour of the day so that the
  stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a
  great earthquake in Bithynia and many things were
  overturned in Nicea.

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Discount the Unknown?

• Julius Africanus (Quoting Thallus)On the whole
  world there pressed a most fearful darkness, and
  the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many
  places in Judea and other districts were thrown
  down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book
  of his History, calls as appears to me without
  reason, an eclipse of the sun.

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• What distinguishes the Bible from all other
  books?

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The best selling book in History

• The Bible6 Billion
• Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung
  .900 million
• Harry Potter series400 million
• Lord of the Rings..100 million
• The Chronicles of Narnia..100 million
• The American Spelling Book100 million
• Guinness Book of World Records...90 million

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What makes the Bible Distinct?

• In 2005 Over 372.6 million Scriptures distributed
  by the UBS alone.
• Translated in over 2200 different languages
  representing 90 of the worlds population
• Written by diverse authors during different times
  yet unites with a common theme

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Diverse Authors Times

• Written over a 1500 year time span
• Written by over 40 authors with various walks of
  life
• Written in various places on three Continents
• Written in times of war and times of peace
• Written 3 different languages
• Written in a variety of literary styles

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Diverse Authors and Times

• In spite of its diversity, the Bible presents
  a common unfolding theme of Gods redemption.
  The leading character is the all knowing
  omnipresent God made know to us through Jesus
  Christ. The Old Testament points toward the
  coming of Christ and the New Testament lays out
  instructions for bringing our lives in alignment
  with Christ.

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The Bibles extraordinary Survivability Rate

• Isaiah 4015 The grass withereth, the flowers
  fadeth but the word of our God shall stand
  forever.
• Mark 1331 Heaven and Earth shall pass away
  but my words shall not pass away.

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The Bibles extraordinary Survivability Rate

• Survival through History The Bible had to be
  copied and recopied for hundreds of years before
  the invention of the printing press and it has
  never diminished in style or correctness.
• Survival through Persecution From the days of
  Roman rule to our time, authorities have
  attempted to burn it, ban it, and outlaw it.

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The Bibles extraordinary Survivability Rate

• A.D. 303 Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered the
  burning of churches and Bibles. Twenty five
  years after Diocletians edict the Emperor
  Constantine issued an edict ordering the 50
  copies of the Bible be ordered at the
  Governments expense

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The Bibles extraordinary Survivability Rate

• In the 18th century French philosopher
  Voltaire stated that Christianity would be swept
  from existence in 100 years. 50 years later the
  Geneva Bible Society was using Voltaires
  printing press to produce stacks of Bibles and
  using his house to store them.

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The Bibles extraordinary Survivability Rate

• The Communist Dictionary issued by the Soviet
  State Publishing House defined the Bible as a
  collection of fantastic legends without
  scientific support. Lenin declared, I expect to
  live long enough to attend the funeral of all
  religion. Today Lenin is dead, the Soviet Union
  is dead, and the Bible lives on.

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Distinct in Influence on Civilization

• Art
• Music
• Literature

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Influence in Western Law

• European civil law system and Ango-American
  common LawFirst, it is an empirical fact that
  biblical morality has been well enough understood
  and effectively enough applied to constitute
  perhaps the most important single influence on
  modern Western legal systems John Warwick
  Montgomery (Professor of law University of
  Bedfordshire)

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Influence in American Govt

• Connecticut Code of 1650
• John Davenport of New Haven declared the Bible as
  the primary legal foundation of the colony
• We hold these truths to be self evident that all
  men are created equal, that they are endowed by
  their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
  that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit
  of happiness.

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The Distinctiveness of the Bible

• Jean Jacques Rousseau (18th Century
  Philosopher)Behold the works of our
  philosophers with all their pompous diction, how
  mean and contemptible they are by comparison with
  the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book at
  once so simple and sublime should be merely the
  work of man?