Why Should Christians Study Apologetics?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: 1 Peter 3:15, Hebrews 6

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--why-should-christians-study-apologetics
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
this book takes a different approach than the the others because I'm writing first of all for an audience that may not believe the Bible may not believe in God and I'm trying to give a reasonable explanation why it would it may not completely convince them but at least explain that our world view is quite reasonable has a lot to support it and then second of all more realistically I'm writing to our own people but helping them describe the Faith In terms that an unbeliever or someone who's questioning could understand in fact it's based on First Peter chapter 3 verse 15 which says that we should be able to give an answer or the new King James says a defense the Greek word is actually from the uh the word we get apologetics and so when I say apologetics you might think that means apologizing but no from the Greek what it means is defending or answering and so first Peter 3 15 says every one of us should be able to give an answer or a defense for a reason of the hope that we have so all of us should be equipped to explain to unbelievers or secular people why we believe what we believe and why that is a good thing why that gives us hope and so that's why I wrote the book is is to address the unbeliever directly of why they ought to consider the claims of Christianity and specifically the apostolic faith and to our own Apostolic Believers how can you talk to your secular friend a co-worker or a fellow student and answer objections and of course along with that especially young people young adults teenagers college students they're going to be bombarded with questions from the world in favor of atheism or agnosticism uh or relativism post-modern thinking and so I want to be able to give them good solid answers obviously at the end of the day you must have faith nothing can replace Faith but I believe it's it doesn't have to be a blind faith it can be a reasonable faith and so what I do in the book the first part of the book discusses seven anchor points and from there I use Hebrews 6 that we need an anchor of the soul and I describe seven essential beliefs and experiences that match those beliefs that will be anchors for us that will establish our faith so that we do have questions or doubts or when people ask us things that we don't have answers for we can go back to these core doctrines and core experiences and say well I know I may not know everything but what I do know is secure because of these Essentials and so I write the first those first seven chapters uh to try to explain what we believe as far as belief in God why we believe the Bible is the word of God why we believe Jesus is the revelation of God the New Birth the life of Holiness life in the spirit the life to come eternal life why it's reasonable to believe those things and certainly I base it on the Bible but I also bring in some points of science or sociology or psychology that match or reinforce what the Bible has already taught us the second half of the book goes more into detail of uh key questions that cause people not to believe in Christianity or to walk away from Christianity and I I start with the foundation of how do we know what we know how can we know what's true is it just our own opinion or is there some objective basis that we can distinguish between right and wrong even if we're not completely convinced there is a God or if the Bible is true is there some guidance so I try to start there and then once people are willing willing to believe the Bible I discuss principles for interpreting the Bible and then we talk about why we should believe in God and what are some of the problems of atheism so atheists like to talk to us about well why is there suffering why why this why that what about Evolution well I turn it back on them to say well if you're an atheist you have no explanation for suffering if you haven't if you're an atheist you you have no um explanation for why we think morally good and evil good and bad without God there's no justice and if we as Christians have to we have to explain why is there suffering and so I have a chapter on that but the atheist has to explain why is there Joy why should if we're all just random evolved animals why should there be a sense of beauty or a sense of Truth or a sense of joy and I do talk about creation versus Evolution um and in in those topics I'm not just trying to come completely give a hundred percent this is the way it has to be I'm trying to show that whatever secularist or atheist or agnostics whatever their questions are they can be answered um whatever their objections to the Bible we have good explanations and so I I also talk about uh human sexuality and some of the issues of transgenderism homosexuality because today the biggest reason why young adults walk away from any form of religion is because they buy into the culture of sexual promiscuity and they don't think it's compatible so I show of course I give a scriptural basis but my main point is to show that if you all the studies in as I already mentioned sociology psychology biology actually support the biblical position it's reasonable it's best humans are best suited for the guidance that the Bible gives us and then perhaps one of the unique features of this book after every chapter I give a list of resources for further study books and I've read every single one of them most of them are not Apostolic so I wouldn't necessarily agree with everything in them but for the purposes that that we have you know the point points I'm trying to make I'm I'm pointing towards secular resources or other Christian resources in some cases very scholarly resources that will support the various points that I give so I give a brief overview or a relatively brief answer but if someone wants a whole book delving Into You know a particular point then I usually give them three or four choices and so if someone is particularly wanting to drill down any one of these topics like why do we believe in the Bible why do we believe there is a God what are the problems of atheism biblical morality how does it fit with human nature creation Evolution so forth and you know then then I give them plenty of resources that will help them

well of course it's it's for anyone that that has these questions or is wanting to answer these questions to their secular friends and family but I particularly focused on college students because and of course I was the founding president of ocean Graduate School of Theology and aversion college so I combined total of 18 years as president and I would say almost all these questions uh came from students so not exclusively from students but I begin to realize our our young adults our teenagers and our young adults are at The Cutting Edge of all these questions from their peers from their high schools and colleges and so I really hope it's good for every all teenagers and all young adults and we have a number of Bible colleges which are doing a great job and so I certainly value all of our upci endorsed Bible colleges so in in fact I even thought about maybe I should just say to all but I wanted to recognize ocean College nursing Graduate School of Theology because they are our only upci owned and operated schools and uh ugst even today is the only uh graduate school or seminary that we have and because these I I realize the need for this book because I've guest lectured over the years in various classes and even today even this very day I taught over at urson college so I wanted to give credit because it's these students in this institution that made me realized foremost the need for this book

and you know the younger demographic especially likes the podcast uh and so a lot of the questions we are answering in brief form but I can only give 10 minutes or 15 minutes I can maybe refer to a couple sources but always you see the comments both pro and con well what about this well what about that well I do have an answer for that but in 10 minutes I can't give you all the answers to all your questions on the subject but in the book I do give a more thorough answer on each point and I give resources that are pretty exhaustive if you want to read the five books that I recommend or the 10 books that I recommend I'm I'm you'll definitely get your answer