Apologetics Session 7: Atheism and the problem of Morality

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Establish the need: Can people have morality without God?

Purpose: We will look at three points concerning the problem of ethics in an atheist worldview.

1. Review
2. What is the nature of morality?
3. What is the origin of morality?

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Apologetics Session 6: Atheism: Empiricism and Materialism

Establish the need: What do you do when someone say they don’t believe in God because they never seen God? There is an assumption of empiricism in that objection and that needs to be dealt with.

Purpose: We will look at four focus to help us think about worldview in apologetics

1. Reminder of how to refute worldviews
2. Definitions with the atheist worldview
3. Problem with Empiricism
4. Problem with Materialism

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Apologetics Session 5: Thinking about Worldview in Apologetics

Establish the need: What is a worldview? And what does it matter?

Purpose: We will look at four focus to help us think about worldview in apologetics

• What is a Worldview
• Everyone has a worldview
• Worldviews are circular
• Refuting and Defending Worldviews

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Apologetics Session 4: Bible’s view of unbelief

Establish the need: What does God think about unbelief?

Purpose: We will look at four truths to have a biblical view of how God sees unbelief.

1. Creation attests that the Biblical God exists
2. The Word of God is self-evidencing
3. Christ is self-evidencing
4. God’s description of unbelievers

Review: Previous Lessons and how it connects with this session

• We have to defend the faith (session 1)
• We can’t be neutral (session 2).
• We have to have a biblical view of faith and reason (session 3)
• We also need to have a right view of unbelief.
  • Since we can’t be neutral we need to listen to God’s Word on this subject.
  • We need to hear God on whether He has given evidence of Himself and from there what is God’s evaluation of unbelief.

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Apologetics Session 3: Relationship of Faith and Reason

Establish the need: What is the relationship of faith and reason?

Purpose: We will look at four truths to have have a biblical view of faith and reason so that we can properly defend the faith.

1. God wants us to have faith
2. God wants us to reason
3. Wrong Views of relationship of faith and reason
4. The Right View of Faith and Reason

Review: Previous Lessons and how it connects with this session

• Session one introduce us to apologetics both with the definition and the duty Christians have to defend the faith–>So this week we want to look at the relationship between faith and reason because we cannot properly defend the faith if we have a wrong view of faith and reason.
• Of course there are different views with faith and reason. How should we proceed? The second session we covered there is no religious neutrality–>Therefore we need to hold to a biblical view of faith and reason.

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Question on Religious Neutrality and Apologetics in Acts 17

A dear brother whom I esteem name Craig last week brought up some thoughts for conversation based upon my Apologetics Session 2: No Neutrality post.  He wrote:

I’ve thought a lot of about non-neutrality–what it might be. I’m not sure what to think about Paul on Mars Hill/the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-31). It seems to me he ‘compromised’ a bit, by engaging them at their level. And I’m not saying that was/is a bad thing.

He took their altar to THE UNKNOWN GOD and explained this as their mistaking this ‘unknown deity’ for the True God. Yet he is careful not to outright denigrate their belief system, though he does in a round-about way in his assertion that God does not dwell in human-made ‘temples’, and His nature cannot be reduced to mere silver or gold. In other words, his explanation for (and to counter their version of) THE UNKNOWN GOD does, by implication, apply to their altars to their other ‘deities’. Yet at the same time, he didn’t explicitly speak against their idols/’deities’.

So, was the Apostle completely ‘neutral’ in his speech/preaching here?

I thought I share my thoughts.

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Apologetics Session 2: No Neutrality

Session 1: Apologetics: What and Why

(Note: What follows below is an improved version from a previous outline)

Establish the need: Is Religious Neutrality Possible?

Purpose: We will look at four truths that in regards to ‘facts’ and all that man think and do, no one can approach any subject with neutrality towards God. This will of course shape our method of apologetics.

1. Characteristics of Religious Neutrality
2. Biblical doctrines does not allow for Religious Neutrality
3. Religious Neutrality is unethical in a biblical worldview
4. Religious Neutralty is philosophically impossible

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The Christian Tupac Apologist: Greg Bahnsen

A light humor post.

If you know know the reference to the rapper rapper name Tupac he has a lot of his songs released after his death.

My favorite apologist Greg Bahnsen is like Tupac as most of his books and audios were published and released after his death.

Bahnsen is like Tupac. Short life. Wrote a lot. Taught nonstop. Like a productive robot. More stuff came out after he got shot. Ok maybe not shot. But after his death, his content were still hot. New contents are still released and bought.

Here’s some of the books I recommend:

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Apologetics Session 1: Apologetics: What and Why

Establish the need: Do you know what is apologetics? And if you do know what it is, why is it important?

Purpose: In this introduction lesson we will answer the question of what is apologetics and why Christians are to engage in apologetics by considering four truths so that we would see the importance of this duty and also see the importance of this series.

• What is Apologetics?
• Why Apologetics?
• Two sides of Apologetics
• What apologetics is not

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Free Audiobook: By What Standard? An Analysis of the Philosophy of Cornelius Van Til

Last year I read and wrote a review of one of the early apologetics books that popularized the method of Presuppositional Apologetics that was taught by Cornelius Van Til here: Review: By What Standard? An Analysis of the Philosophy of Cornelius Van Til

Apparently the book is now available as an audiobook online! And its available for free!

It is divided by chapters too!  That’s helpful for listeners.

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Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2021

I’m especially excited to present our annual Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional apologetics and Van Til’s apologetics.  That is because this is our blog’s twelfth year in which we post our recommendations of books as Christmas gifts on the subject of Presuppositional apologetics or the Christian worldview!

Below are links to the recommendations from previous years, and if you are new to the whole thing with Presuppositional apologetics and want something introductory I highly recommend the first two books we recommend this year along with the listing from 2014 which we highlighted in bold:

• Christmas wish list in Presuppositional Christian Apologetics (2010)
• Christmas Gift Book Lists on Christian Worldview and Apologetics Discipleship 2011 (2011)
• More Christmas Gift Book Lists on Christian Worldview and Apologetics Discipleship (2012)
• More Christmas wish list in Presuppositional Christian Apologetics (2013) (2013)
• Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2014
• Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2015
• Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2016
• Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2017
• Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2018
• Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2019
• Christmas Recommended Books on Presuppositional Apologetics for 2020

This year list’s of recommended books on Presuppositional apologetics is listed below.  Each work will have a link to my fuller review and also links to where one can purchase the book.

Here’s this year’s recommendations:

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Mid-October 2021 Presuppositional apologetics’ links

These are links related to Presuppositional apologetics gathered between October 8th-14th, 2021.  Enjoy!

1.) Cave to the Cross’ Can God Answer Evil? – Ep. 145 – What About Evil? – Justifying The Ways Of God

2.) Bible Contradiction? Who brought evil on Job?

3.) Steve Hays ebooks 1

4.) Presuppositional Apologetics and Hinduism

5.) Brute Facts Revisited: A Discussion on the Principle of Sufficient Reason

6.) Atheism, Mental Health, and God

7.) Quick Thoughts on Jesus saying He won’t drink yet He drank on the Cross

 

Missed the last round up?  Check out the re-blogged post from a friend and another friend here

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Review: The Impossibility of the Contrary by Greg Bahnsen

Greg Bahnsen. Against All Opposition: Defending the Christian Worldview. Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, May 2020. 254 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: American Vision

Looking for a book that teaches how to apply Presuppositional Apologetics?  Greg Bahnsen is one of my favorite Christian apologist and surprisingly most of his books are published after his death than when he was alive.  This latest book is published in 2021 by American Vision that is edited from the audio teachings of the last Greg Bahnsen from an apologetics’ conference during the 1990s sponsored by American Vision.  One might ask why another Bahnsen book on Presuppositional apologetics?  David Bahnsen, the son of Greg Bahnsen in the Foreword said it is his favorite book by his father (vii).  Reading David saying that made me want to read the book even more.  I thought this book is worth reading even if you read older published works by Greg Bahnsen since in this volume he does cover more refutation of false worldviews than some of the other books published pre-2020 and that’s a big plus for Bahnsen fans.  Please don’t think this book is just a repetition of materials in other books (there are of course some things that are constant).  Plus I think its always good to sharpen and be reminded of how Presuppositional Apologetics works and how is it applied; I don’t think this is going to be the only time I read this book especially when it comes to discipling others in apologetics. I also think for those new to Presuppositional Apologetics this book does give readers a good intro.

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Early August 2021 Presuppositional Apologetics’ Links

Here are the links related to Presuppositional Apologetics gathered between August 1st-7th, 2021.

1.) Cave to the Cross’ If Christianity’s True – Ep. 135 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – Defying Death & What Now?

2.) Bible Contradiction? How many of Bigvai’s offspring returned from Babylon?

3.) The Suppression of Biblical Truth

4.) Apologetics Sermon Illustration #66: Riot Glass and a Sure Foundation

5.) What has Aristotle to do with Van Til?

6.) Free Audiobook: Always Ready: Directions For Defending The Faith by Greg L. Bahnsen

7.) Epistemic Circularity: A Van Tilian’s Thoughts

Missed the last round up?  Check out the re-blogged post from a friend OR that of Another REBLOG HERE

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Free Audiobook: Always Ready: Directions For Defending The Faith by Greg L. Bahnsen

As I mentioned recently in my post Greg Bahnsen’s Lectures: Answer to Frame’s Critique of Van Til the late Christian Apologist Greg Bahnsen is someone who impacted me the post in terms of my apologetics’ methodology with something called Presuppositional Apologetics.

Some years ago I wrote a review of his most popular apologetics books here: Review: Always Ready: Directions For Defending The Faith by Greg L. Bahnsen.

Apparently the book is now available as an audiobook! And its available for free!

It is divided by chapters too!  That’s helpful for listeners.

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