Apologetics – Making Sense of the Christian Faith

The sub-category of Christian theology known as “Apologetics” is based on a Greek word meaning to make a defense. There have been many perspectives that have been offered in order to discredit the Christian faith. Unfortunately, many people unthinkingly accept these false renditions for reasons of their own.

The arguments against Jesus’ resurrection is a good case in point. Many arguments have been offered to try to prove that this never happened. The disciples stole the body is one. It is ridiculous to assume that thy would all be willing to die for a lie. Another idea is that he wasn’t dead when he was laid in the tomb. Are we to believe that a man who went through a crucifixion, beatings, and was pierced by a spear had the strength to roll the stone away? Finally, perhaps the authorities stole the body. Why would they do that? No one argues that the tomb was empty. The only plausible explanation was that he rose from the dead.

Atheism renders life meaningless. It does not address the big questions of life, such as: – Why are we here? – Where did the universe come from? – Why are humans our own worst enemies? – Why are we so attracted to beauty, especially that of the natural world? – Why do we live in social groups?

What Apologetics in general was after is a big picture view that makes sense of our human life in the world as it is. Of all the options for a big picture view of reality as we see and experience it is best explained by the Christian faith. Whether we are considering the nature and behavior of human beings, their longings and aspirations, our desire to love and be loves, our habit of doing things we somehow know is wrong, our need for meaning and purpose, our desire for inner and outer peace; Christianity has the only sensible explanation for all of this.

So how do we explain why people routinely violate both the law of love and justice? What does the Christian faith say about that? In this four part bible study series we will examine how the Christian faith offers a big picture view that enlightens us such that we can better understand why the world and human beings are as they are.