Definitions of Apologetics

By Jamin Hubner (http://aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=4132)

Here is a list of definitions of the word "apologetics" from both presuppositional and classical/evidential apologists:

Presuppositional Apologists

“Christian apologetics is, at root, a biblical discipline.” Richard Gaffin Jr. in K. Scott Oliphint and Lane G. Tipton, eds. Revelation and Reason: New Essays in Reformed Apologetics (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2007), 1.

“Apologetics is about inviting people to look into the face of this absolute, personal God. It dares them to see him for who he is and what he means for the world.” Thom E. Notaro in Revelation and Reason, 157.

“We may define it as the discipline that teaches Christians how to give a reason for their hope.” John Frame. Apologetics to the Glory of God (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 1994), 1.

“Apologetics is the vindication of the presence of Christ as his church against the various forms of the non-Christian philosophy of life that constantly attempt to invade and intrude that presence.” William D. Dennison in Revelation and Reason, 203.

“Apologetics is a way of doing theology, a way of doing evangelism, a way of doing philosophy.” Greg Bahnsen in Van Til’s Apologetic (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1998), 44-45.

“Apologetics may be defined as persuading people to think through their worldviews, abandon their false beliefs, and embrace Jesus, all while defending the truths of the gospel.” Jamin Hubner, Light Up the Darkness (BookSurge, 2008), 119.

Classical/Evidential Apologists

“Apologetics is the reasoned defense of the Christian religion.” R.C. Sproul, John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsley. Classical Apologetics (Zondervan, 1984), 13.

“Apologetics…is that branch of Christian theology which seeks to provide a rational justification for the truth claims of the Christian faith.” William Lane Craig. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Crossway, 2008), 15.

"Apologetics is the discipline of defending Christianity as true, rational, and pertinent to life." William Lane Craig. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision (Colorado Springs:David C. Cook, 2010)

“Apologetics is directed primarily for those who do not believe so that they may have a reason to believe.” Norman Geisler. “An Apologetic for Apologetics.” http://www.normangeisler.net/apologetic.html

“At its essence, apologetics is the art and science of Christian persuasion: communicating the relevance, coherence, and reasonableness of the Christian Gospel to skeptics, cultural influencers, and critical thinkers across the globe.” Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. http://www.rzim.org/initiatives.aspx 

“Apologetics is the attempt to ally reason to faith, to defend faith with reason’s weapon.” Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli.Handbook of Catholic Apologetics: Reasoned Answers to Questions of Faith (Ignatius Press, 2009), 32.

Please remember me

He wondered why she remembered him not

Answering back none of his calls

Was it for wrong that he had done

Was it because she’s had enough.

Sleep evaded his thinking mind

Worry eroded his peace at night.

For such a care he thought of her

For such a dear tender heart.

Often he ramped his memories apart

Perhaps a time may come to him

When a silly thing he had done to she

All was vain but all was pain

For himself he could but blame!

Could he see her face again

Humility would fill his ways.

A gift in his bag he would bring

A peace offering for offending thee.

But nigh; yet, she remained afar

One night he wished away their time

For friends they were, friends they are

Friends then go with no goodbye!

This person is bewildered to why a friend will not answer them back and because of their friend’s character which is inconsistent to their behaviour now, he could but blame himself that he had wronged his friend in some way.  But his friend replied to none of his calls and its obvious that is friend is avoiding him for a reason. And because of his worrying nature he could but remained worried. But time went on and on and he couldn’t hold on much longer so he stopped but yet waited and hoped that perhaps one day, his friend may remember him once again.

K.Oni

Mr Wilberforce's Halo Slips

The reputation of evangelicalism’s greatest hero – William Wilberforce – took a dent last week.

Steven Tomkins, author of a new book on the Clapham Sect, has dug up Colonial Office papers from Sierra Leone (the colony of freed slaves set up by the Clapham Sect) which revealed that a form of unwaged labour called ‘apprenticeships’ – effectively a form a slavery – persisted in the colony with the support of Wilberforce for years after the abolition of the trade.

After the 1807 Slave Trade Act, the Royal Navy started intercepting slaving ships and rescuing slaves. According to Tomkins, the rescued slaves would be taken to Freetown , where the authorities either kept them for unpaid labour or sold them on to landowners. The only difference between the ‘apprentices’ and slaves was that the apprentices could only be kept for 14 years.

The apprenticeship system is not news – the fact the Wilberforce directly supported it is. An idealistic young governor of Sierra Leone and future parliamentarian, Thomas Perronet Thompson, wrote to Wilberforce protesting the system. Wilberforce responded by saying, ’I wish I had time to go into particulars respecting the difficulties which forced us into acquiescing in the system of apprenticing’. Thompson apparently continued to object and began to free the slaves. He was sacked by the managers of the colony – the group we call the Clapham Sect.

Tomkins argues that we should not claim that Wilberforce was corrupt, or think that this places a question mark over his sincerity in abolitionism. Rather, Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect took the view that the 1807 Act would not have passed without the apprenticeship clause, and that once passed they felt duty bound to stick to it. They acceded to the retention of slavery in Freetown in exchange for the abolition of the Atlantic wide trade.

Evangelicals have been in the habit of seeing a model for political action in the Clapham Sect, and particularly in Wilberforce: his patient lifelong commitment to a just cause, grounded in Scripture, his refusal to be bowed by vested interests, his sheer commitment in the face of his own physical weakness. But in Tomkins’ research, we see a new side of this great man – one which we may not be wholly comfortable with. If Tomkins is right, Wilberforce’s support of Freetown slavery was a political and utilitarian calculation. Faced with Thompson’s idealism, Wilberforce coolly suppressed it.  

We did not need to know this to know that evangelicals have lionised him too much. His views on many other issues were dubious: he opposed trade unions through his support of the Combination Act (‘never have you done one single act, in favour of the labourers of this country’, wrote William Cobbet), opposed an inquiry into the Peterloo massacre, and thought that women should not engage in the anti–slavery campaign (a view which he also grounded in Scripture). Diehard Wilberforcians will of course argue that this is all understandable given his political and social context. That’s an entirely legitimate argument, if one which would be more persuasive if he were not at the same time feted for a humanitarianism years ahead of his time and very much against the prevailing public consensus.

We did need to know this in order that we might be reminded that we should not displace the task of understanding what a biblical and theological practice of politics looks like onto historical heroes. How are we to become faithful disciples in our own contexts? We can learn from them, but we would be wise to learn as much from their mistakes as from their successes. And though we may learn, we should not follow. Evangelicals have no business being disciples of anyone but Jesus. 

Paul Bickley, Senior Researcher, Theos - the public theology think tank

The soothing tenderness of amazing grace

The soothing tenderness of amazing grace

brought me near to thy throne of Love

there I could but fall

with tears unintended

You showed me your pierced hands

I could but touch and weep

And kiss thy feet

And wonder why such a God should die for me

 K.Oni

Despair

He feels in his soul where the devil himself must dwell, the wretchedness of his sin and his unableness to rid himself of the power of it. He often sits alone in the darken dungeon satiated with a thirst for sin that he had not desired, but his flesh craved and longed for it. His mouth was dry of prayer for he feared the wrath of an angry God which would tumble upon him fiercer than the brimstone which wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah.

 He could not lift his eyes to the heavens for the lamb had become a lion who spits out sinners like him and treads upon their blood.

 He longed and yearned for death that the mountains may fall upon him but it never came. His guilt tortured him; and night after night the thorn in his faded flesh became the more agonizing. He could no longer cry but despair was his constant company.

No more a miserable soul have visited this earth than him, his pain of eternity having to dwell with those devils forced him to eagerly pray that there would be no eternity at least for the wicked, that after the sweet death of this life, annihilation may be true. But he knew his scriptures well and therein was the solemn distress of eternal hell for the wicked.

He covered himself with ashes and sackcloth and pondered about that righteous man Job and how the devil could not accuse him of any iniquity but God could only boast of him.

'How terrible is my case if I should be afflicted for I already am. Like a searing iron to my chest so is my pain and no one can alleviate', he often thought.

The doctors have diagnosed him with severe depression but they lack understanding of those things which are spiritual. The medicines he drank like water, but the ache lingers. The smiles which once delighted his soul have become death to him. Her warm touch he could feel no more and his pain doubled because his condition was killing her.

This was his prison and no one could be let in; he was locked in the cell of sin, and death has had its victory.

The whole party of hell, though they burn eternally, yet conjure up a smirky smile at the imminent arrival of his company. For a seat of torture had been prepared for him and the fixed barrier that separated that bliss from this hell was right above him, that his pain should be double measured for he had tasted and departed.

 That unpardonable sin he felt his soul had committed made the hardening of his state irrevocable.

K.Oni 

The Rumour

The coldness of the blackness ahead laid deep within his bitter eyes; for the unprecedented rumour had collapsed unexpectedly upon him, leaving him to walk with a swagger of uncertainty and unparalleled despair. He was now ten minutes away and the roughness of the wind could not awaken him to the brutal rain that fell upon his uncovered head. The sun covered by the greyness of the dead sky yielded no path of facile trifles which besotted his dejected mind; but he walked and continued till his eyes lifted from the fixed trajectory of anxious conversation to the blue bell that stood motionless and dead. His shaken hands found courage to lift itself to press the motionless blue bell and in an instant the black maid dressed in her usual attire received him with a heart-rending welcome that now confirmed the truthfulness of the rumour.

“Where is she”.

“In the room my Lord”, she affectionately cried……


K.Oni

The reality of the flames of hell

Praying earnestly today, I prayed that the lord may open our eyes once again to the reality of the eternal flames of hell, that he might awaken the church from its slumber from the wrath of God and tremble once again at that cup of which our Lord prayed may pass from him. For we have become dull of the awful things of eternity and have succumbed to the niceties of the eternal mansion and in doing so have forgotten the earnestness of the believers of old, who through fire and nails penetrated the places in which they would be persecuted with the message of hope and salvation. It is a sad thing that our eyes although can pierce through the depths of space remains in the material and have forgotten or rather neglected the vital spiritual need of our perishing neighbours. Oh I pray that the reality of hell may once again terrify our hearts that as well as taking cups of water we may also take with us that eternal God-man who died on that cross to save and satisfy the eternal thirst of man and put aside the wrath of a Loving Holy God. 

K.Oni