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An intelligent faith
Are faith and
reason in
conflict?
Can Christianity
stand up to
rigorous
scrutiny?
Is there an
intellectual
basis for faith inJesus Christ as
the Son of God?
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Oxford University
Oriel College, 07
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In a relativistic world,
how do we attempt to
clarify truth?
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An Intelligent Faith - LHCi
Responding to cultural assumptions:
April 2: Christian faith is a blind act of the will
April 9: There is no such thing as absolute truthApril 16: All religions are basically equal
April 23: The Bible as we know it has been altered
April 30: Was the Resurrection literal or symbolic?
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Christian Worldview
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Apologetics
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Apologetics
A reasoned defense [apologia] ofChristianity
Peter 3:15 (Amplified Bible)
But in your hearts set Christ apart asholy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord.Always be ready to give a logical
defense to anyone who asks you toaccount for the hope that is in you, butdo it courteously and respectfully.
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Prerequisites
Know what you believe in
Know why you believe it
Love others
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Tasks of Apologetics
Begin to neutralize objections to faith
Strengthen the believers confidence to
engage
Understand and appropriate the grace and
love of God.
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Why it Matters
A gospel that does not deal with the issues
of the day is not the Gospel at all.--
Martin Luther
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Worldview
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All worldviews must answer:
Origin:
Meaning: Morality:
Destiny:
Elements of World Views
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All world views must answer:
Origin: Where did I come from?
Meaning: Why am I here? Morality: How should I live?
Destiny: Where am I going?
Elements of World Views
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Postmodern World View
Not that there are new answers to lifes bigquestions, but there are no answers tolifes big questions.
General disillusionment
with our materialisticculture
Deconstructionist mentality Seen most clearly in
student revolt in Paris in60s
Backlash againstConsumerism of the Westand communism of theEast which both failed todeliver
Rejection of Biblical
Christianity
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True or False?
Christian faith involves a blind act of the will
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What do these 3 people
have in common? 1# Set of parents who take
their son who is dying ofcancer to a shaman faith
healer
#2 An atheist who believes inonly what he can empirically
prove
#3 Christian tries to makehimself believe in the gospel
despite a lack of evidence
They all take a
giant leap of
Faith
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Is this faith?
Faith means blind trust, in the absence ofevidence, even in the teeth of evidence
(Dawkins, the Selfish Gene)
Faith is about evading thinking, running awayfrom evidence(Hitchens)
"Faith is believing what you know ain't so.(Mark Twain)
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Michael Ramsden
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Richard Dawkins
Zoologist and former Director of the HumanGenome Project Voted to be Britain's #1 public intellectual One of most widely read popularizing
scientists (most take negative view ofreligion)
One of the Brights
Authored:
The God Delusion (2007)
The Selfish Gene (1976)
The Extended Phenotype (1981)The Blind Watchmaker(1986)
River out of Eden (1995)
Climbing Mount Improbable (1996)
Unweaving the Rainbow(1998)
A Devils Chaplain (2003)
The Ancestors Tale (2004)
What he is stating is:
Truth = explicit proof; empiricalstudy
Faith = mysticism, a belief despite
the evidence
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Despite the Evidence?
Early Scientists were committed Christians
Historic Galileo Galilei
John Newton Blaise Pascal
Current Francis Collins
John Polkinghorne John Lennox
Alistair McGrath
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The real relationship between Faith
and Evidence
Atheism is a faith
We cannot prove with 100% absolute certainty that
there is a God
Our atheist friends cannot prove with 100% absolutecertainty that there is not a God
Both are positions that go beyond the available
evidence I am an atheist who has lost his faith.
Boris Pastenack, Dr. Chivago, after Russian revolution
S i d t t ll l d t
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Science doesnt naturally lead to
Atheism
Science simply cannot (by its
legitimate methods) adjudicate the
issue of Gods possible
superintendence of nature. We
neither affirm nor deny it; we simplycant comment on it as scientists.
Either half my colleagues are
enormously stupid, or else the
science of Darwinism is fully
compatible with conventional
religious beliefs and equally
compatible with atheism.
The most science can do is lead
you to agnosticismThe scientific method cannot
determine whether there is a God,
or whether there is not a God
Stephen Jay Gould:
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Stephen Jay Gould
Science doesnt prove or disprove God Reviews all the big names he can think of, list, its
about half and half Christian
Nothing about science compels you to anyconclusion, but it is consistent to either a Christian
view, or Atheism
Significant writer and worth quoting when someone
claims that Sciences lead to atheism
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Are science & religion in conflict?
Science seeks to answer the questions of
How and What
Faith seeks to answer the questions ofWhy
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The Reasonableness of Faith
Faith is a response to a God who is real Grounded in converging lines of evidence
(historical, eye witness, testimony, etc.)
[Faith] affects the whole of mans nature. Itcommences with the conviction of the mind basedon adequate evidence; it continues in theconfidence of the heart or emotions based on
conviction, and it is crowned in the consent of thewill, by means of which the conviction andconfidence are expressed in conduct.
W. H. Griffith-Thomas on Faith
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God has put enough into the world to
make faith in him a most reasonable thing,
and he has left enough out to make it
impossible to live by sheer reason orobservation alone. Ravi Z.
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True or False?
Christianity is an ideology, not a Gospel
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Finality of Christ
I am the way, and the truth
And the life,
No one comes to
the Father unless
Through me.
- Jesus of NazarethJohn 14
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Scriptures are remarkably clear
1. 'Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no othername under heaven given to men, by which we mustbe saved' ( Acts 4:12).
2. 'For there is one God and one mediator between Godand men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as aransom for all men' (I Timothy 2:5).
3. 'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -
and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - notby works so that no one can boast' (Eph.2:8-9).
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Postmodern Agenda
Just different paths up
the same mountain Religious pluralism &
relativism is not new:Jews, Greeks, Romans all
inhabited Jerusaleum
Implication: Christians are arrogant,
intolerant, exclusive
What is the Christian response?
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Maybe we need a new
approach?.
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Reframe the way we think
Ask questions first
Jesus sets the example Opens up the questioner within their own assumptions
Clarifies truth claims
Exposes faulty logic, contradictions
Understand their worldview How do they define truth? Faith?
Intentbefore content
Giving the right answer to the wrong question is always wrong Christianity raises the level of every individual
Every human being is of essential worth & dignity
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Lead with love:Conviction that is not ungirded by love makes the
possessor of that conviction obnoxious and the dogma ofthat conviction repulsive.
Ravi Zacharias
Do the work: Study to show thyself approved
If we dont know Gods truth claims, then well take on thetruth claims of the world
Dont pretend to know things we dont
Only 2 rules in Apologetics
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Religious Pluralism
too Confusing?
Reframe our
thinking
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Epistomologically in thinking
Existentially in feeling
Pragmatically in doing
Most religious and philosophical
systems are rooted or grounded in
1 of 3 distinct ways
C
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Christianity: Rooted and
grounded in.?
Christs very being
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Words are tools of thought
John 1: The Word has become flesh,
and has dwelt among us A revelation of God and everything
He knows and who He is
1. Thinking (system of thought)
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Seeking experiences that transform
But experiences in life are temporary
John 3:36 Jesus defines life in terms ofknowing Him
Coming to know him is not so much a momentin life, but is the moment of life itself.
2. Feeling (set of experiences)
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John 6: What must we do to do the works
God requires?
Answer: The work (singular) of God is this:
to believe in the One He has sent
I AM
You cannot take Christ out of Christianity
3. Doing (Way of Life)
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Rooted in being
Incarnation: Jesus didnt come simply to give us amessage about God, but he came as God himself
John 14:9 If you have seen me, youve seen the Father. Jesus claimed to be in very nature, God
John 1: In the beginning was the Word Anyone can claim to be God, but how can you meaningfully
sustain it? Salvation: Christ himself came into this world to save us
II Cor. 5: God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, sothat in him we may have the righteousness of God.
He bore our sins and conquered the grave
Transformation John 3: Jesus said that if anyone wants to enter the kingdom ofheaven they must be born again
II Cor 5:17 Paul says that if anyone is in Christ they are a newcreation, the old is gone and the new has come
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Uniqueness of Jesus
But Dont All Religions Lead To God?(2002). Dr. Michael Green argues:
No other teacher than Jesus ever claimed
to bring God to us No other teacher dealt radically with the
problem of human wickedness
No other teacher broke the barrier ofdeath
No other teacher offered to actually live"within" his followers
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The end points in apologetics is
not to ask someone to accept a
system of thought, to have somekind of strange new experience,
or to do something differently,
but its to accept who Christ is.
Why is this important?
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Intelligent Faith
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The problem with Christianity
is not that it has been tried
and found wanting, but that it
has been found
difficult, and left
untriedG.K. Chesterton
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