2. Defining Apologetics:
(The Long Definition)
Apologetics - learning practical, biblical, and
logical ways to answer the questions that the
religiously deceived, the philosophically
confused, and the self-indulgent lost face
about issues of faith and eternity (including
God, Jesus, the work of the Spirit, salvation,
heaven & hell, sin, good, evil, the Bible, &
spiritual truth.)
4. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
Presuppositions
Truth is Truth – The Bible is solidly the unchanging Word of
God.
Culture is always changing – think moving river or stream.
Each Culture move at its own speed – for America, think Level
Four White Water.
We are responsible for knowing our culture – we exegete our
times.
The Church is the connection point between Truth and
Culture.
5. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
Presuppositions
We choose to take one of three postures.
We stand in the shallows.
Slow moving waters, removed from the cultural current.
We find a rock in the middle of the stream.
Fast moving around, we toss tracts & life preservers at people.
We launch into the stream.
Maintain movement alongside people, engage where they are, offer
a place of life, hope, and safety.
6. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
Observations
The Current can overwhelm and be dangerous waters.
Navigating astutely by Truth is essential (divide it well.)
The Raft can only be so big.
Hull drag slows it; launch new navigators and rafts.
The analogy, like all analogies, breaks down.
Metaphors of “solid rock,” “fishers of men,” etc. maintained
For Apologetics, our ”posture” matters.
How we say what we say, how we are perceived.
7. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
In-Person to On-line
While we talk, he or she is considering options.
He or she is likely a “pluralist” and is certain of options.
Before he or she steps into a relationship, you’ve been
“checked out.”
He or she ”pre-approves” church & “post-approves you.
They are smart and assume all they need is within a swipe of a
finger.
Ours is a culture of “thin-slicers.”
8. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
Corporate to Circle
Invite to join a “corpus,” not a “corporation.”
The Good News brings into relationships.
People long to belong to something bigger than “me.”
Trust in organizations is at a low; same for positional leaders.
The mission is about Jesus first – keep it clear in the words.
Church isn’t a board room, it’s a circle of changed people with
Jesus in the middle
9. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
Monologue to Dialog
People need to be heard – who knows, we might learn!
To deny their voice is to shortchange the call to make disciples.
(2 Tim 2:2)
Our Apologetics is a dialog, not a diatribe.
Listening, asking, describing, and relating are involved.
It’s The Story and our story.
The Good News is consistently the Kerygma.
The Good News is how the Kerygma has intersected your story.
10. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
A lot to A Little
Our Culture has Completed a Cycle
Township (17th C), Telegraph (18th C) Telephone (19th C) TV (20th),
Twitter (21st).
People Need New Data
Great for Apologetics – especially if it scans well.
For Some, horizons are set, others ready for change.
We can know early whether a person is ready to explore or just
wants to argue.
11. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
One to Many
We aren’t a culture of shared views anymore.
20 people in a city
Half would be unlike us culturally
Several would speak a different first language
Half would have a basic grid for religious conversation
Two would be devoutly religious to a different belief system.
For some, the swift movement toward “multi-ness” outstrips
our abilities to assimilate and relate.
Still, the Apologist’s call is to give answers to those seeking truth.
12. Apologetics and Cultural Shifts:
Summary
We are a “Sent” People – sent to our culture.
Our culture’s “multi-ness” calls for different
kinds of engagement.
Look for the ”remnant” – those who are
looking for Truth.
Look in the “margins” – those who are looking
for Hope.
13. Incommunicable Nature of God – those aspects of
God that make Him wholly other than us, above
and beyond what He has passed on to us.
Communicable Nature of God – those aspects of
God that, when He breathed into us, we got. These
aspects are transferred to us.
14. Incommunicable/ Transcendent
God is eternal
God is omniscient
God is savior
God is all powerful (omnipotent) He can do whatever he wills that is congruent with his nature (he cannot
lie. Cannot not show love. He cannot fail. He cannot violate his own volition.) Luke 1:37
God is omnipresent (He is everywhere at every moment. Entirely unbound by space and town. He is near at
every moment. He does not stand off at a distance after “winding up the gears”. Emmanuel (God with us)
Acts 17:24-28
God is Holy
God is triune (One God revealed. Not three God. Not polytheistic. ) II Cor. 13:14
God is boundless
God is spirit (He walks, holds, speaks, embraces, only when He chooses to). Not bound by space and time
as a body is. When He is seen it is because He has chosen to be seen. He is not an all devouring black hole.
John 4:24
God is immutable. Completely unchangeable. Not wishy washy. James 1:17
God is imminent. He is near His creation. He cannot be excluded. His acts are within the created order.
Hebrews 1:1-4
God is transcendent. Near his creation but He exists outside the created order Eph. 4:4-6
15. Communicable/ His image attributes
Love Gal 5:22
Holy, righteous, Godly II Peter 1:3-7, Rm 3:21 His nature is completely
right. Isaiah 6
Relational in his person. Seeks relationships with his created order. We are
driven to be in community and to matter to others. I John 1:1-4
Merciful (Mercy and grace)
Just
Fruit of the Spirit
Knowable
Good. In His nature and action.
Faithful (unwaivering in his fidelity)
Wrath (He acts because of His righteous and just nature)
