Apologetics 099

Apologetics is defined as “reasoned arguments that justify something, typically a theory or religious doctrine.” 

Often our interest in apologetics springs from a desire to square Christianity with our human logic. A common and rather simplistic starting place is with the Bible itself; consider the following top level facts:

The Bible contains sixty-six books …They were written by forty different authors over a period spanning 1500 years …

Most of these authors never met the others, allowing almost no collaboration …

The biblical authors were spread across three different continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe) …

The Bible was written in three different languages (Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic) …

The authors completed works, when placed together, tell an integrated and coherent story of man’s creation, his initial relationship with God, his fall, and God’s carefully designed rescue mission, intended to return man to fellowship with Him …

This introductory exercise in apologetics quite often stops here. There is, however, another example … an instance where proven fact authenticates the Bible.  Many Biblical authors also wrote “history in advance”, something we call prophecy.  To date a great number of biblical prophecies have come to pass and, when they have, they have always been fulfilled exactly as predicted. An example from our own time is the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948. This event fulfilled a 2,500-year-old Bible prophecy …

This is a very quick look at apologetic thought.  The fact is, the more you know about the Bible, the easier it is to find logical reasons to believe that it is true.