Introduction to Integrated Christian Apologetics Essay

Over the past centuries, many religious beliefs have been criticized by many philosophers and critics. Christian faith has never been saved from these criticisms. In fact it has received one of the major blows of disparagement. This criticism of the Christian faith has caused damage to the Christian believers. Due to the criticism of Christianity, Christian believers were also criticized and were questioned by their fellow human beings. And because of these, Christian believers were caught unaware and did not know what to do. Furthermore, this also caused believers to have weak faith in Christianity. There were even others who lost their faith because of these attacks. Due to a lot of criticisms, it was seen by many school of thought in Christian Theology that a solution must be provided to the arising problem. According to the scholars, apologetics is the solution to the dilemma. Christian Apologetics is a branch in Christian Theology that defends the Christian faith. It tries to answer the question â€Å"is Christianity believable? †. It originated from the Greek word â€Å"apologia† which means ‘making a defense†. Attacks of the Christian faith coming from the outside of the church are mean dealt with apologetics (Philip and Cherian). Presently an integrated approach in apologetics has been developed which sees apologetics in a holistic perspective. A person who is studying or has background on Apologetics is called a Christian Apologist and can help inquirers about their question in Christianity. A Christian Apologist can teach and help the person having doubts on Christian beliefs to see and find the answers to the problems and questions that he is facing. The Apologist can also teach the inquirer the humanistic philosophy which can help them overcome their doubts and will help them find the root causes of the problem. These also give the inquirer capability to deal effectively with the questions being raised to them. The basis of Christian Apologetics could be traced back to the bible. According to Philip and Cherian, Apologetics is a biblical activity which has been advised and demonstrated in the Bible at various places. One of the example is the verse from 1 Peter 3:15 which goes â€Å"always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls your account for that hope is in you†. Many verses in the bible give a good definition of the character of Apologetics. According to Philip and Cherian, almost all of the books of Jobs are an Apologetic to justify to God’s dealings with mean. Furthermore, they also mentioned that verses in Psalms 14 and 19are apologetic in character. Romans 1:20 is also another verse in the bible that describes the character of Apologetics. With this few examples it can be said that all activities in Apologetics is referred from the Bible. An important role of Apologetics towards the Bible is that it answers inquiry of people who have been attacked by nonbelievers. Base on the module written by Philip and Cherian entitled â€Å"Introduction to Integrated Christian Apologetics†, the Bible places a great deal on faith and belief, though I condemns deliberate skepticism and unbelief, it does not speak against reason and investigation. The Bible encourages the use of reason and investigation when they are done sincerely and is an aid to honest inquiry. This is where Apologists play an important role, providing answers to honest inquirers. Furthermore, Apologetics is also related to Polemics which deals with attacks originating from within the church (Philip and Cherian) which is a bit unusual. Attackers from within the church includes everyone who teach perverted doctrines which could take in two forms. The first form is in the form of distorted bible and the second is through those of false cults who claim that they are a true Christian group. Apologetics and Polemics have the same purpose, which is to refute error and to establish truth in Christianity (Philip and Cherian) though they are two different activities. However, with the various forms of attacks that the Christian Church has undergone and undergoing, both polemics and apologetics has to know hw counter all the forms of attack which means that if you’re an Apologetic you should have knowledge on Polemics and vice versa. In this way, the person is well prepared for the things that will come his way. Attacks of the word of God are no just recent. Apologetics has its roots in the Bible. The Old and New Testament gives enough evidence of this (Philip and Cherian). The attacks can be rooted back to the Old Testament. It can be noticed that during the old times many people have already questioned the existence of God which had form doubts on the Christian Church and has never ceased up to the present date. Thus, from then on Apologetics has been part of history. During those days, it is the Jewish Fathers and leaders that have to face so much opposition from non-believers. The non-believers published a lot of written works to question and discard the Christian faith. At this point also, the Jewish fathers and Leader also wrote some books to counter the attacks and one famous apologetic works is Contro Apion which was written by the first century army officer and historian name Flavious Josephus (Philip and Cherian). During the rise of the New Testament, the attacks to Christian faith were a little different compared to the Old Testament. The attacks to the Christian faith were a lot faster because of the new technological advancements on this time. Aside from the advancements, Philip and Cherian stated that during this time the availability of the New Testament itself cause the rise of many critics, heretics and heretical movements. However, this was countered by the authors of the New Testament. Majority of the readings in the New Testament is an opposition to scornful people and heretics that distrust biblical truths. To make the truth heard, the writers of the New Testament wrote extensively to expose errors abut the attacks that has been made (Philip and Cherian). The existence of the New Testament has caused more damage to the Christian faith since the teaching found in the New Testament were in contrary to the beliefs of the heretics, criticizers and rebel Christians (Philip and Cherian). In addition, the New Testament insists of Bible alone, Christ Alone, Grace Alone, and faith alone which further provoked the doubtful believers. These non believers were also afraid that Christianity would spread very fast that they tried to stop it by destroying or saying things against the Bible, Jesus Christ and Christianity. However, this has not shaken Christian Apologist at that time, instead of giving in, they fought the non-believers of Christian faith by producing volumes of Christian Apologetics and Polemics. However, during the recent years, the fight of Christian Apologist became dormant when the Roman Catholic Church ruled the Christian world stiffly. The roman Catholic Chruch at this time (fourth century to the 14th century) indulged in a great struggle for ecclesiastical as well as temporal power that they tend to silenced, torture, and killed millions of dissenting people (Philip and Cherian). So instead of fighting back, Christian Apologists tend not to speak because of the life threatening situation. When the dictatorial rule of the Catholic Church was over, Christianity was rejected by many people since the didn’t understand the difference between Roman Catholic Church, the true church of Christ, and the Christ of the Bible. This was coupled with the rise of a lot of anti-Christian thinkers, philosophies and movements. A lot of anti-Christianity group arise during the 19th century and there common goal is to oppose to the Bible and to Christianity as well. They also believed that Christianity could be challenged but they haven’t got sufficient information to do so (Philip and Cherian). During this time, Charles Darwin, a scientist who proposed the Theory of Evolution for the first time in a theory of science united all the dissenting movements. This Theory of Evolution had greatly affected Theology by the end of the 19th century. Many theologians from Europe and America accepted the Theory of Evolution and convinced other theologians especially German Theologians. However, these German Theologians began to act as mercenaries and destroyed the belief in the Bible. And one of their major goals is to destroy Christianity. They published lots of books that were spread worldwide. But despite the eagerness of German Theologian to destroy Christianity, many still don’t agree with them. Many were interested in keeping both beliefs together. However, this did not give Christianity a positive light. Instead, it created more conflict especially on the creation. Defenders then of the doctrine became so few. Belief on Christianity and the Bible, was risen during the fifties were in a group started writing aggressively on themes defending the historical and scientific reliability of the Bible which gave birth to the modern interest in Apologetics and Creation (Philip and Cherian). In India, the theological situation is the same with the West. Thus, it was expected that is would turn out the same with what had happened in the West. However, there were few people who stood up against these teachings. One of the first was Prof. H. Enoch, during the 60’s he published a book entitled â€Å"Evolution or Creation† which has influenced a lot of young Indians (Philip and Cherian). During the 60’s and 70’s in India it was only Cross and Crown, a Pentecostal Magazine that publishes articles defending the history of the Bible and creation. This magazine was edited by Dr. Thomas Mathews from Udapair, Rajasthan (Philip and Cherian). In the 70’s A. K. Skariah, a secretary of the fellowship of scientist known as FOCMOS or Fellowship of Christian Men of Science, which was later called Creation Scientist Fellowship (CSFI), became a tireless campaigner for creation and Apologetics even if their organization is not functioning anymore (Philip and Cherian). Another important person in India who studied apologetics is Dr. Johnson Philip who founded a project namely Creation Research in 1970’s. The objective of his research is to publish articles about apologetics and creation. Currently, the book has more than 1500 articles and is publish in six different languages. This movement is now known as Calvin School of Apologetics and Theology (Philip and Cherian). This man also, Johnson George, born in Kerala is another person who palyed a significant role in Christian Apologetics. He has contributed writing on apologetical themes in several languages. Other people such as Dr. Ezhamkulam Samkutty, J. C. Dev, E. S. Thomas and Paul K. Ramakrishan also played a role in apologetics. Recently an apologetics organization entered India known as RZIM which was founded by Dr. Ravi Zacharias from the U. S. A. (Philip and Cherian). Through the years, apologetics has been very important in the everyday living of many people. Together with the constant change that humanty is facing, approaches used by Christian Apologetics has also been changing with time. However, certain puposes of Apologetics has never changed with time which includes: a) to refute all the accusations that are brought against the Bible and the Christian faith; b) to demonstrate that only the Bible and the Christian way of life work in the actual life and that only the Bible and Christian faith provide permanent peace and happiness; c) to remove the sincer doubts in the hearts of believers and unbelievers, so that the hindrances to the growth and establishing their faith are eliminated and; d) to provide sufficient evidence for achieving the above goals. Thus, t is necessary for the apologist to understand the difference between sufficient and total proof (Philip and Cherian). In Christian apologetics, everything is decided on the basis of proof. However, there are still people who think of it differently. There are many people who views Christian Apologetics through skepticism, Christian Rationalism, Local Christianity and through faith (Philip and Cherian). Apologetics is a fast changing and fast growing field in Christian Theology. Thus, people who want to study this field should not misunderstand its role, purpose and contributions. It should be noted that Apologetics is a â€Å"manward operations† (Philip and Cherian) which means that its main purpose is to help those who are confused and in anguished due to doubts. It does not defend the bible a though it were a helpless book. In apologetics, the bible is defended to those who have doubts about it so that they will have a clear belief about the bible. Apologetics is not there to preserve the Bible but it there to preserve the faith of the doubting believer. For this to take effect, the apologist should b able to briefly understand the aim and goals of apologetics because only a person with proper understanding of apologetics can do his job properly. It should also be taken into consideration, that though the main purpose of apologetics is to defend the Christian faith, it also has limits. One of its limit which is crucial is that it should never be use to prove that the Bible is the word of God. It can only point to the unusual character of the Bible in matters of unity, accuracy, consistency, historicity and life-changing power. At this point an apologist should take note that it’s purpose is to aid a person to see that the attacks bought up against the bible are not valid (Philip and Cherian). Another purpose of apologetics is to remove the barrier that hinders faith (Philip and Cherian). The removal of these barriers helps accepts Christian faith whole heartedly. It also helps them make deeper commitments to the church. With this, the Christian faith and church becomes stronger with believers that have a complete trust to it. In addition to the purpose of apologetics is to inform honest inquirers on how reliable the rational content of the Bible is and that the Bible is not for rationalist. However, the demands of rationalists have been a benefit to Christian apologist because it formed an excellent standard to evaluate the statements of apologists (Philip and Cherian). To help a person who wants to abandon his unbelief that has been there due to his lingering but sincere and honest doubts is another purpose of apologetics (Philip and Cherian). It is not a treatment for deliberate unbelief but it is meant to serve as a cure for sincere doubts. Apologetics is not there to prove the divinity of the Bible instead it is there to point to the uniqueness of the scriptures which places the scriptures in proper sequence (Philip and Cherian). It should also be noted that apologetics is not scientism. They are of two different schools. Scientism is the belief that ultimately everything has to be explained with the help of science which is a false belief (Philip and Cherian). It should be taken into consideration that not all things happening in this world can be explained by science. There are certain things that happen what cannot be explained by science and it in manner faith is strongly given emphasis. Moreover, studying Christian apologetics has many practical values. Studying apologetics conserves the faith of an individual which means that he is ready to face the questions that will bombard him in his everyday living. Individual who is ready for such will not be able to loose his faith because he already knows what to do to the attackers. Ability to combat a foe is also improved when one is studying or has a background in Christian apologetics. He becomes better in answering the questions of unbelievers. Aside from this he can provide believable answers to the inquirers and wile main composed in circumstances. In addition, apologetics can also aid the youth in there sincere queries about Christian faith. In this manner apologists serves as a guide to the young minds. It should also be taken into account that there are also people who are not interested in Christian apologetics. This people became uninterested in apologetics due to their misconceptions and misunderstandings of the study. These people are categorized by Philip and Cherian into six categories which are: a) those people who never had any doubts in Christian faith; b) people who never had to face questions and attacks from scornful people; c) people who have indeed faced personal doubts and external attacks but who have been running away from facing the challenge; d) people who have lost sensitivity towards the pains and problems of other and pseudo-apologists who love prestige, but who have never mastered the subject. These six categories of people do not have any sufficient evidence to object or question Christian apologetics. Most of their objections are base on their personal views on how they view the subject. They are not sincere inquirers but rather they only want to impose what they believe and think is right. They believe that the bible contains errors and are insensitive to other people. Aside from non-believers, there are also people who oppose to Christian apologetics. These people who oppose to apologetics do not agree that reason and faith should be placed in the same dominion. They believe that the human understanding is not capable in the spiritual realm. This belief is highly in contrast with the Christian approach to truth wherein one has to accept that faith and reason do mix with each other in many realms of spiritual truth (Philip and Cherian). In addition to distrust, fear of being attack or questioned about faith is another reason why people oppose to apologetics (Philip and Cherian). They are afraid to face attacks because they feel that they aer capable of doing such things. So instead of facing the problem, these people tend to run away from the problem. Ignorance is also another reason why people are opposing to Christian apologetics (Philip and Cherian). They are completely ignorant about the things that are happening that when they are faced in certain problem or situation they tend to react to things because of their ignorance. Due to the much opposition of apologetics, an apologist should be very careful in handling situations. A debate is a big no in apologetics except when the crowd is mature enough and is made up of small number of seekers (Philip and Cherian). If engage in a debate, the apologists should still be very careful and should bot deliver the debate in a form such as speaker-to-audience. Apologists should bear in mind that they should always take control of the situation they are in. Apologetics is such a very complicated topic and because of it’s complexity, many apologists tend to make compromises to patch some things that cannot be resolved. However, this kind of act is not advised by Christian apologists as it can cause more damage to the truth. Compromise is like a slow poison that attacks the Christian faith which can be more destructive than the fiercest direct attack in the Christian faith. When opposing systems are synthesized into one, it is the truth that always suffers (Philip and Cherian). In the integrated approach to Christian apologetics, the following statements are the benchmark: Bible alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, Christ alone, to God alone be Glory. Christian apologetics shall always stand in favour of truth, total truth and truth alone (Philip and Cherian). The truth will always be the truth and should always be separated from error. Reference Philip, Johnson and Cherian, Saneesh. Introduction to Integrated Christian Apologetics. A Calvin Research Group Academic Resource, Module 001A1. Retrieved on 22 January 2007.