On Sunday, July 31st, the Cogitations radio show, which airs at 9 AM every Sunday morning on 106.1 Flip-FM, was joined by a guest from Apologetics Press. The entirety of the thirty-minute program was filled with discussion about all the outstanding material that they produce in the form of books, tracks, VBS and Class curriculum, free online resources, monthly publications, and video content. The amount of material they have produced over the past few decades is abundant, and thirty minutes of a single episode of the radio program could but provide a brief overview.
The driving factor behind inviting this guest to the show was to highlight the vast number of resources that just this one producer and distributor of Christian material has available to aid in equipping each of us for the fight. Jude verse three reads, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” There are forces in this world that, through numerous agents, seek to destroy Christianity by sowing the seeds of doubt and disbelief. Their primary tool is teaching what is false as if it is truth. Paul provides a warning to this end in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12:
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, will all power, signs, and counterfeit wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
In 1 Peter 3:15, Peter instructs the reader to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you…” Are you? If you were challenged today by a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, or a stranger, would you be ready to contend for the faith, vanquish the lies with the truth, to give a defense? That is what apologetics is…apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, “speaking in defense”) is the discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. In order to do this successfully on must not only have an intimate knowledge of God’s Word, but also of language arts, history, archeology, anthropology, geography, and science across its multiple disciplines. The Holy Scriptures themselves speak to this; read the following verse just as a sample Psalm 19:1-2 and Romans 1:18-20 (Creation itself without the Bible testifies of God.); Acts 17:22-28 (Throughout Paul’s recorded public teaching and writings, he quotes Aratus, Menander, Epimenides, and other philosophers.); Job 38:1-40:2 (God Himself giving a science lesson.)
The sad truth is that not everyone believes there is a God, or simply not the God spoken of in the Bible; and if these individuals don’t believe in God, then they also do not believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, thus robbing it of its authority. I have found throughout the years that no amount of reasoning from the Scriptures will convince them as, in their eyes, it is no more authoritative than reading Shakespeare. You need to be thoroughly equipped to begin where the individual currently is, and if that is total disbelief in a divine eternal beginning, you need to be able to persuade them of such through a method other than the Bible, say scientifically, and it can and has been done. After all, science is simply the study of the created Universe…the one God created, and His creative fingerprints are everywhere, as pointed out in the verses I encouraged you to read that are listed earlier in this article.
Earlier this year, on the Cogitations radio show, I did a series on ‘How Can I Know,’ presenting an argument for a divine all-knowing, eternal creator using the scientific method. If you missed that show or did not recall it, you can find the series on the Cogitations YouTube channel…or go to www.cogitations.net and click the link to the YouTube channel. Sometime in the future, I will most likely circle back to this topic on the radio as well as in either class or sermons where I preach and teach at the Main Street Church of Christ in Lockney.
But my best advice to be prepared to give a defense is twofold. First, know the Word of God inside and out, forward and backward. Know it in broad strokes and in its finite details. Pay close attention to every word, to the tense used, to the immediate audience. Know the culture of the time it was written, the people, the places, and the surrounding events…all of which inform the contexts of what is written. While it would be best to learn it in its original languages, at least collect for yourselves a Strongs and a Vines in concordance to the original words in their original languages, noted that the Strongs is keyed to the English words used in the King James Version, so have one of those to at least be able to seek out the correct word in the Strongs. The second radio program I did and one of the first classes at Main Street Church of Christ in Lockney was on the tools for Bible study, which goes into detail on the resources and how to use them. The Cogitations YouTube channel has two different episodes covering this; I would recommend the longer one as it has visuals that the radio program’s autograph lacks.
The second is to accumulate resources that educate and equip you to be a potent warrior and defender of God’s truth with the ability to hold your own even in a room full of atheists with degrees in every scientific and historical discipline. Eric from Apologetics Press and I discussed many of these on the radio (and if you missed) the show on July 31st, it will eventually be on the YouTube channel), and you can explore them for yourself at www.apologeticspress.org or call them at 1-800-234-8558.
As I close out this article, consider the encouragement regarding growing our knowledge that the following verses provide.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
(Proverbs 1:7)
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18)
“But also, for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge…”
(2 Peter 1:5)
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…” (Colossians 1:9)
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment…” (Philippians 1:9)
(Carl Hartman is the Minister at Main Street Church of Christ in Lockney)
