Summary Sessions 1-3 Apologetics

Friday, March 07, 2008

8:11 PM

Apologetics - defending the Faith - reasonableness/logic behind our beliefs

Theistic -defending in the reasonableness in one defending Holy loving God who created all things

Christian Apologetics - Jesus is son of God and saved us

Catholic - defend doctrine of Catholic Church - result of poor catechesis - leave Church because they do not understand the faith.

Faith - is an attitude of absolute trust, a fundamental confidence in the power and goodness of God.. Faith inspires a renewal of heart and brings about conversion and commitment.

We must have this to give to others - can't give away something you don't have.

Faith is not static -active not passive always moving

Main Theistic Philosophies

Agnostic - can not know that God exists -

Atheist - we can know and do know that God does not exist

Theist - as Christians we are theist. God wants to have special relationship with his creation

Pantheist - attributes of God are attributed to something or someone in creation - Hinduism, New Age, Medium, Crystals

Polytheist- belief in many gods

Monotheisms - one God

Deist - Thomas Jefferson - does not believe that God relationship with creation - created and watched what would happen (Movie Oh God)

How do we know God?

Knowledge of God is inherent in man (Romans 1:19) Paul talks about God's wrath against idolatry - natural to man to seek God

Known from creation - Rom 1:20 ff -

Revealed thru His Word (John 1:1-4, Rom 10:17)

Knowledge is a gift of Faith - (Matthew 16:17)- Who do you say I am? …flesh and blood did not reveal to you"

Climax is revealed in Jesus (John 1:18) - God as a human walking this earth - knows us because He is one of us - do anything to bring salvation to us - revealed to the maximum in Jesus. Know attributes of God thru Jesus

Revealed thru the Church - (John 16:13, 1Tim 3:15) and our Christian Spirituality -

Five Pillars of Christian Spirituality

Prayer-communication with God - no prayer no spirituality- successful relationships depend on communication-core of Christian spirituality

Study- We can not love God if you do not know God -scripture, teaching of church, lives of Saints, etc

Community- Jesus knew that community was important-part of salvation history- Jesus gathered community together to begin His ministry-Christian spirituality is not individual-it is about others

Service- imitators of Christ are about service "not to be served but to serve"

Sacrament-

Covenant Relationship - God with Man

Adam- covenant with couple

Noah - covenant with a family

Abraham -covenant with tribe

Moses - covenant with Nation

David - covenant with Kingdom -

New Covenant - covenant with the whole world - Catholic Church

Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,

• God's creative power is the origin of all that exists

• God reveals Himself to us in a continuous act of self-giving

• God invites us into relationship

• God loves with deep and abiding love of a parent

• We discover God in all the goodness of God's world.

Proof the God exist

The first-cause arguments

Argument from design

Augment from Conscience

Argument from History

Argument from Pascal's wager

Pascal's Wager -

• If God does not exist and I believe he does in error, I loose nothing

• If God does exist, and I continue to refuse to seek and follow him, I could loose everything

Argument from History -

Starts in OT - Judges - sin to slavery to supplication to salvation - cycle of "S"s

New Testament - NT seen in OT , miracles of Jesus

Historically verifiable miracles

The lives of the Saints -

Argument from Design - Fundamentals p 25

All design implies a designer

The universe is very complex

Life is infinitely more complex

Anthropic Principal - all known scientific data indicated that our universe was in fact very carefully engineered and created by God for life on earth The latest discoveries only confirm our beliefs

What the Church teaches about Jesus

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages. (God of God) light of light, true God of true God. Begotten not made, consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made.

Result of Aryanism Heresy -

Son of God

Co-equal with Father and Holy Spirit

Eternal

Of one being with the Father and Holy Spirit

He shares creative power with the Fathe

Jesus suffered and died for us

Salvation only thru Him

We can not earn our salvation

Jesus rose bodily from the dead

Reigns in heaven with the Father

Jesus will return again

Judge living and dead

Kingdom will never end - transcends time

The Trilemma of Christ

Lord?

Liar?

Lunatic?

Opposite psyc profile

Don't react to Jesus as we would be a lunatic

Resurrection - differs from founders of other religions

Testimony of history

Resurrection foretold

Basis for Christianity

Eyewitness account

Intelligent faith

Written by eyewitnesses

Style was not the style of myth

Early date

Show knowledge of Jerusalem

Gospels are consistent

Eyewitnesses still alive

Extra-biblical testimony

Test of Credibility

Intention test

Character test

Consistency test

Bias test

Cover-up test

Corroboration test

Disciples invented the lie?

No pys trait of liar

No motive

Could nt be successful if lie