Apologetics Sermon Illustration #65: Three Little Pigs and Apologetics’ Methodology

GO TO PART 64

Point: Presuppositional apologetics is really a worldview apologetics that among other things, analyzes the foundational beliefs of those who challenge the Christian worldview.  In other words, Presuppositionalists engages in an internal critique against an opponent’s presuppositions to show how they cannot provide the “solid foundation” to make human experiences intelligible and meaningful.  Sometimes people might not understand what the presuppositionalists is doing so an illustration is in order.

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration # 64: False assumptions, Composition Fallacy and Malaysian flag mistaken for American flag with ISIS symbols

GO TO PART 63

Point: Sometimes during evangelistic conversations I notice various forms of the composition logical fallacies being committed.  I thought this would be a good illustration to convey the point of how composition fallacies

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration # 63: Why we warn against false teachers and a registered sex offender in a retreat for sex assault survivors

GO TO PART 62

Point: Contrary to the spirit of our age, the New Testament has a lot to say about false teaching and false teachers.  Believers are to be on the alert for them, to resist false doctrines , refute them, warn others about it and not to fellowship with false teachers.  Sometimes Christians today lack discernment and often will just let false teachers go because they use Christian vocabulary with different meanings; that is, false teachers have a pass among some Christians because their false teachings are “sprinkled” with a little bit of Christianese even though the true meaning of their contents are not Christian at all.  It might be appropriate to get the idea across that Christians must be aware of false teachers (be it in the form of a cult leader, compromiser, Liberal or secularists) with the following illustration.

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #62: Does a Fake Police Officer disprove real Officers Exist and Disproof of Christianity

GO TO PART 61

Point: How often do you hear people say that Christianity can’t be true because they have already tried religion and their old religion has been disproven so therefore Christianity can’t be true.  We must realize that this type of argument against Christianity though one hear it often during evangelism nevertheless it does not have that much weight as it might seem initially.

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #61: Water Connect Puzzle and Harmonization of Doctrines and Bible Contradictions

GO TO PART 60

Point: A few days ago I wrote Quick Thoughts on the Inter-relationship of Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology in which I mentioned there is a place for Systematic Theology in terms of looking at the inter-relationship of a biblical doctrine with other biblical doctrines.  How does various doctrines which are clearly taught in Scripture inter-relate with one another?  That’s the place of systematic theology.  Also when we look at the Bible and an apologist works on harmonizing alleged Bible contradictions it involves seeing how various passages “fit” with one another.  How can we illustrate the endeavor of harmonizing biblical doctrines and biblical passages?

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Collection of 60 Apologetics’ Illustrations

 

Over some years I’ve been slowly writing down illustrations that I thought might be helpful for sermons or evangelism that has apologetics’ thrusts.

Here’s 60 of them arranged topically.  Which one was your favorite?

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #60: Bible Contradiction and the Word with the Most Definitions

GO TO PART 59

Point: Sometimes when one engage in apologetics the issue of alleged Bible contradiction comes up.  There are times when those who assert that there are contradictory verses in the Bible fail to acknowledge that words can have more than one meaning and thus a word used in one context does not mean the same thing in another context.  But if one fail to recognize there are differences of meaning of the word being used in two separate contexts, a skeptic can easily assume there’s a Bible contradiction when there are none.  Are there any examples of this error to get the point across to a skeptic of their foolish methodology and mistake?

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #58: Man breaks into home with signs “beware of dog” and unbelief

GO TO PART 57

 

Point: Presuppositional apologetics as founded by Cornelius Van Til make the point that the evidence for Christianity is plentiful but the reason for the unbelief is because of man’s sinfulness that suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  Sometimes people would object to the apologist and say that that is not true.  As a Christian apologist we say that the reality is there’s times when people can have so much evidence before them and still don’t live it out though the signs of its truth is all around them.  Can we think of an example outside the area of apologetics’ discussion where people chose not to believe the truth even though its obvious all around them but they chose instead to go ahead to live their life a certain way?

Picture: Here is a news story that illustrate the point of Presuppositional apologetics:

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #57: Man blows up part of house while chasing fly

GO TO PART 56

 

Point: Presuppositional apologetics as founded by Cornelius Van Til make the point that to attack Christianity ends up being self-destructive to one’s worldview, making things unintelligible and meaningless.  The bigger problem isn’t the “gadfly” of a Christian doctrine; but rather to try to remove it results in more serious problems.

Picture: Here is a news story that illustrate the point of Presuppositional apologetics:

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #56: Bible Contradiction and Contronyms

GO TO PART 55

Point: Sometimes when one engage in apologetics the issue of alleged Bible contradiction comes up.  There are times when those who assert that there are contradictory verses in the Bible fail to acknowledge that words can have more than one meaning and thus a word used in one context does not mean the same thing in another context.  But if one fail to recognize there are differences of meaning of the word being used in two separate contexts, a skeptic can easily assume there’s a Bible contradiction when there are none.  Are there any examples of this error to get the point across to a skeptic of their foolish methodology and mistake?

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Free Master’s Thesis: A Defense of Presuppositional Apologetics and Its Practical Application to the Public University Campus

Today I want to share a thesis that was completed for a Masters of Religion that was completed over at Reformed Theological Seminary.  It was completed last year in 2018.  It is titled “A Defense of Presuppositional Apologetics and Its Practical Application to the Public University Campus” and written by R. Shane Hartley.  I have found Presuppositional apologetics when properly understood and properly employed to be a very helpful and powerful apologetic.  I am also involved with college campus evangelism in which I will start back again next Lord willing (pray for me!).  So this thesis obviously caught my attention.

What is this thesis specifically about?  In his introductory paragraph to his thesis Mr. Hartley wrote the following summary:

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #52: Defining Contradiction and Dalmatian

GO TO PART 51

 

Point: I had to write down this analogy that I discussed in a podcast at Biblical Beginnings that is going to come out next week.  Sometimes when one engage in evangelism and apologetics the issue of alleged Bible contradiction comes up and the example given of a Bible contradiction really isn’t a Bible contradiction.   What I found helpful is to ask the skeptic to define what is a contradiction as the foundation for the direction of any further discussion of whether or not there’s a Bible contradiction.  Here’s the definition I give for “contradiction:”

A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.

 Are there illustrations to help us think more critically and accurately of when there’s a contradiction and when there’s an apparent contradiction (that is, they really are not a contradiction)?

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #51: The Person who denied the Sun

GO TO PART 50

 

Point: An argument in the arsenal of Presuppositional apologetics is the Transcendental argument.  John Frame describes apologist Cornelius Van Til’s transcendental argument in the following matter with one of Van Til’s famous illustration:

The non-Christian, then, in Van Til’s famous illustration, is like a child sitting on her father’s lap, slapping his face. She could not slap him unless he supported her. Similarly, the non-Christian cannot carry out his rebellion against God unless God makes that rebellion possible. Contradicting God assumes an intelligible universe and therefore a theistic one.

(Source)

I think what follows below is another illustration in explaining Presuppositional apologetics.

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Collection of 50 Apologetics’ Illustrations

Over some years I’ve been slowly writing down illustrations that I thought might be helpful for sermons or evangelism that has apologetics’ thrusts.

Here’s 50 of them arranged topically.  Which one was your favorite?

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #50: Messianic Prophecy And A Red Carpet Premiere

GO TO PART 49

Point: Predictive prophecies are important in God’s attestation from His Word that Jesus is the Messiah. How could we further illustrate the importance of Messianic prophecies?

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