Another passage used to support the task of apologetics is Jude 1:3, “…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 (ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι) for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” In context, the way in which we contend for the faith is by a Scriptural defense of the faith, and not an exhortation to make a scientific defense of the Christian faith by natural knowledge and human reason.
There has been “an incredible attack on the Bible” (p. 107) as atheistic evolution(naturalism) attempts “to explain life without God” (p.64-65). We are told that the Holy Scriptures are only fairy tales (p.22) about morality and salvation, while science presents the “real” history. The church’s response has been pitiful. Some within the church have added evolution to Genesis one and called it theistic evolution. Some have given up on the historicity of the Biblical accounts of creation and the flood, only to limit themselves to teaching morality and “spiritual” things (salvation). Even of those who disagree with evolution, many do not contend and defend the teaching of the Christian faith but resign themselves to fatalism (p.84) and do not speak up.
The right use of apologetics and the proper limits for apologetics are be a bit more complex than simply citing 1 Peter 3:15 and Jude 1:3. Next week we will begin a positive argument for apologetics by looking at the “Four Points Raised in John Warwick Montgomery’s article, ‘Christian Apologetics in the Light of the Lutheran Confessions.’”
Handout from last week: Apologetics-Definition-a.pdf
Outline for today’s lesson: Apologetics-Part-2a.pdf
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