Faith Needs No Defense.
I was rather surprised to see a discussion on apologetics on a prophecy site, must be a slow news day...,That alone warned me the article writers would miss the point of prophecy and get side tracked into religion and traditions...like arguing.
Faith does not need apologetics anymore than God needs Man to prove he exists.
Jesus eliminated the need and the "debate" over religion and man made ideas.
God wrote Prophecy to tell us the end from the beginning so when we see it come to pass we know it is God speaking. Not a Pastor or teacher, or would be apologist but God.
God you can count on.
God who said it, and did it.
God who says Yes and No.
God who can be understood and sought out and known.
Oddly, men want to get inbetween.
Why I don't know...., I stand back when they do and frankly, THD's PHD's, scholars and frankly modern teachers make fools of themselves when they get away from letting God be God.
You see, the reason is they make God less personal so YOU don't have the responsibility to Seek the Lord and find out the Bible is True and Man is not.
The Bile says about God: I will be found of them who seek me with all their heart.
Simple,
then some fool interpreter comes along and says we need to prove why God said what he did, they way he did, and make a long drawn out excuse for what he said and pretend we know why he said it and in the end we wind up: SPEAKING AS IF WE WERE GOD.
Helloooo,
My God is real, he is alive. I would not follow Christianity in a heartbeat and reject it outright if it were not for the fact, Jesus is real.
If He is not for you, quit wherever you are and go find the answer. You are being decieved.
Apologetics tries to do the same thing...it says you have to PROVE GOD and PROVE FAITH....,
ahhhhh WHY?????.....
God is........, and I know it........., so?
Do I have to prove hell exists? Should I become satanic to prove satan exists? No.
And I sure don't have to apologize for the fact My Lord and My God, confounds the snot out of scholars who want to read me the riot act for telling simple people they don't need scholars to tell them about God or how to witness.
They only Need to Ask Jesus...He will do the rest.
Your Faith is as the Bible you read. It says what it means and means what it says and if God can use a Jackass to save a man from running into an invisible angel with a flaming sword, I don't need a Prophecy Site which should prepare me to see Jesus, tell me I should know the in's and out's of what others want.
I have Jesus, I have taken people one by one alone and introduced them to Jesus by a simple foolish means, I sat with them prayed, opened a Bible and let God do the rest.
Whatever that person read came true between that person and God. I never asked what it was, never wanted to know, never beleived it would work, and felt like an idiot doing it...,
But you know what?
I stand as a Witness to every person I shared with, they Know God is real, they Know that part, they have no dount at all.....,
What they did after that was between them and God, I just introduced them.
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You have the same gift, the same ability. Whatever you know, however you are, if you are introducing someone to Jesus, you just need to do it and the rest God will do.
If you use a Bible Far out, if not, who cares, God made the Universe and he made a donkey talk, you just start...,
Leave religion to religious, they like Pride and miss the mark more than they make it and think they are learning something new, when God said rejoice in that you know him, not about him.
Michael James Stone
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By the way, my hermaneutic and homiletic is secure and eat scholars for lunch because I will admit the reality is Jesus and relationship tot he Father, the rest is commnetary and they always want to comment, not commit you into God's safe hands..., You will do fine if you Trust in the Lord and not apologetical linguistics...., MjS
What Apologetics Is
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For the average Christian, the word "apologetics" is a very strange and sometimes scary word. Does it mean the act of one who goes around and apologizes for the Christian faith? Can one be an expert in apologetics? So, just what is apologetics, anyway?
Lamb & Lion Ministries interviewed one of today's foremost defenders of the faith, Eric Barger, the founder and director of Take a Stand! Ministries headquartered in the Dallas area. Dr. James Kennedy once told his congregation everyone needs to read Eric Barger's insights. And, the late national radio host Marlene Maddox called Eric one of the utmost authorities on the cults, the New Age, and rock music today. From his past as a former drug addict and rock n' roll musician who was deeply involved in the New Age movement, Eric has emerged since he gave his life to Jesus Christ to become one of today's greatest defenders of Christianity in America.Eric was asked a number of question related to that curious word "apologetics."
What Does "Apologetics" Mean?
Well, I try to explain that every time I speak or mention that word, because there is always someone out there who doesn't understand. "Apologetics" is the Bible school term for the defense of the faith. In fact, the word that we get the English word "apologetics" from is found eight times in the New Testament and it is apologia. Maybe the most famous reference to apologia is 1 Peter 3:15, which says we are to be ready to give every man an answer. And, that's the word "apologetics," from apologia.
We are to be able to defend the faith, and that is what apologetics is — the defense of the faith.
What Do You Do in Apologetics?
I am going to throw out another term to you — "polemics." Polemics is often times exposing other religions for being worthless in order to save someone. So, polemics and apologetics move together. Apologetics is understanding Christianity and being able to defend that, and to explain it to the culture in such a way that people will understand orthodox biblical Christianity. Polemics then is the exposé about false cults. And that is a lot of what I do, dealing with cults, the New Age Movement, and the occult.
I have written about all of those things and, of course, speak about them full-time. This is our 25th anniversary in the full-time traveling ministry, so I have been out there doing it quite awhile.
What aspect of Christianity do you find needs the most defense?
Sound doctrine.
We see a church today with many people who believe, and they go to church every week, but I think there is a void in preaching and teaching the sound understanding of the elements of Christianity that make up Christianity, such as the virgin birth, blood atonement, salvation by grace, the inerrancy of the Scripture, who God is, who Jesus is, etc. I mean, we don't have a lot of teaching like that today. There is some and, of course, a lot of pastors are preaching that all the time. But, I think that in evangelical circles there is a void on these things, and I am concerned about that.
Doctrine is important. The word "doctrine" is used 50 times in the Scriptures. We ought to understand that if we don't have that, if we don't understand good sound Biblical doctrine, then we're really game for the cults, and we are game to become cultist ourselves.
Most people do not realize that most of the people that joined a cult over the years were Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterians and so forth. They are people who just grew up as cultural Christians, but really didn't know anything about the faith and could not defend anything. They just inherited the faith and that was it.
If we don't know what we believe, when the storms hit us or when other religions are before us and confronting us saying that they are "the way," then we won't know what to say. Not only will we not be any good to get through to them to present the real Jesus who can save them eternally, but we will fall prey to it, too.
The Mormon church has a huge promotional campaign going on to try to appear like a more enlightened Christian denomination today. They are preying on Christians who don't know their doctrine.
When people tell me that doctrine is really not all that important, one of the things that immediately comes to mind is the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus. It is amazing how many Christian leaders there are today who would even deny the resurrection of Jesus. And you know, if He wasn't resurrected, we don't have a faith. We better find another religion, because He could have fulfilled all the other prophecies in the Scriptures about the Messiah, but if He didn't raise from the grave He wasn't the Messiah.
Also, perhaps the doctrine that has been dismissed the most as just being completely irrelevant is the doctrine of the virgin birth, but that is an important doctrine. I mean, Jesus was God in the flesh.
How Can Pastors Teach Doctrine if They Also Consider the Bible Isn't Inerrant?
If the Bible is filled with errors then you just can't teach doctrine. You will fall back on what many preachers today seem to be falling back to, and that is the self help type of study that it's all about you and not about God. Every sermon ends up being about you and what God can do for you. Too much of the preaching today is all about the here and now and not about eternity.
Again, the virgin birth and the resurrection in my opinion are the two most attacked doctrines and the ones most marginalized. The virgin birth, for example, if Jesus wasn't born of a virgin then we've got errors in the Scripture because Matthew 1 is very clear that He was born of a virgin. Isaiah talks about the virgin birth as one of the prerequisites for the Messiah. And so, Jesus either was, or He wasn't. And, the same is true with the Resurrection, either Jesus was or He wasn't. These are two things that I talk in detail about.
For instance, we have a major Christian University in the Dallas area and a few years ago the Professor Emeritus of New Testament at that University gave an Easter sermon and it was so revolutionary. The Dallas Morning News posted the whole sermon. It went like this: after Jesus died the disciples sat around the table and they just remembered things Jesus said and it was kind of like the followers of Martin Luther King after he died. They sat around and drank coffee and said, "You remember when Martin said this, you remember when Martin said that." And, as they talked about Martin, he came alive in their hearts. And, that is all there was to the Resurrection — Jesus just came alive in their hearts. Sounding just like Oprah, this example shows a feeling experience and not a believing experience, with no literal interpretation.
Without a belief in the inerrancy of the Scriptures, you can teach doctrine, but it won't be right doctrine.
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Apologetics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2008) |
Apologetics is the whole of the consensus of the views of those who defend a position in an argument of long standing. The term comes from the Greek word apologia (απολογία), meaning a speaking in defense.
Early Christian writers (c 120-220) who defended their faith against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called apologists[1]
In modern times, apologists refers to authors, writers, editors of scientific logs or academic journals, and leaders known for defending the points in arguments, conflicts or positions that receive great popular scrutinies and/or are minority views.
[edit]Notable apologists
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian, (ca.155–230) was a church leader and was a notable early Christian apologist. He was born, lived and died in Carthage. He was the first great writer of Latin Christianity, thus sometimes known as the "Father of the Latin Church". He introduced the term Trinity (Latin trinitas) to the Christian vocabulary[2] and also probably[citation needed] the formula "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae, una Substantia" (itself from the Koine Greek "treis Hypostases, Homoousios"), and also the termsvetus testamentum ("old testament") and novum testamentum ("new testament").
In his Apologeticus, he was the first who qualified Christianity as the 'vera religio' ("true religion"), and symmetrically relegated the classical Empire religion and other accepted cults to the position of mere 'superstitions'.
Early uses of the term (in the first sense) include Plato's Apology (the defense speech of Socrates from his trial) and some works of early Christian apologists, such as St. Justin Martyr's twoApologies addressed to the emperor Marcus Aurelius.
An additional early use of the term, is Augustus Caesar's apologia or defense of his accomplishments as Roman Emperor inscribed outside of his tomb, at his death in 14 A.D. on pillars of bronze, called the The Deeds of the Divine Augustus (in Latin: Res Gestae Divi Augusti). They were widely copied and distributed throughout the Roman Empire. It is regarded as one of the more important apologias of the ancient world.[3]
Arngrímur Jónsson was an Icelandic scholar who wrote the book Brevis commentarius de Islandia in Latin as a "defense of Iceland" where he criticized the works of numerous authors who had written about the people and the country of Iceland.
John Henry Cardinal Newman (February 21, 1801 – August 11, 1890) was an English convert to Roman Catholicism, later made a cardinal, and in 1991 proclaimed 'Venerable'. In early life he was a major figure in the Oxford Movement to bring the Church of England back to its Catholic roots. Eventually his studies in history persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic. When John Henry Newman entitled his spiritual autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua in 1864, he was playing upon both this connotation, and the more commonly understood meaning of an expression of contrition or regret.
[edit]Technical usages
The term apologetics etymologically derives from the Classical Greek word apologia. In the Classical Greek legal system two key technical terms were employed: the prosecution delivered thekategoria (κατηγορία), and the defendant replied with an apologia. To deliver an apologia then meant making a formal speech to reply and rebut the charges, as in the case of Socrates' defense.
This Classical Greek term appears in the Koine (i.e. common) Greek of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul employs the term apologia in his trial speech to Festus and Agrippa when he says "I make my defense" (Acts 26:2). A cognate term appears in Paul's Letter to the Philippians as he is "defending the gospel" (Philippians 1:7 & 16), and in 1 Peter 3:15 believers must be ready to give an "answer" for their faith. The word also appears in the negative in Romans 1:20: unbelievers are αναπολόγητοι (anapologētoi) (without excuse, defense, or apology) for rejecting the revelation of God in creation.
The legal nuance of apologetics was reframed in a more specific sense to refer to the study of the defense of a doctrine or belief. In this context it most commonly refers to philosophical reconciliation. Religious apologetics is the effort to show that the preferred faith is not irrational, that believing in it is not against human reason, and that in fact the religion contains values and promotes ways of life more in accord with human nature than other faiths or beliefs.
In the English language, the word apology is derived from the Greek word apologia, but its use has changed; its primary sense now refers to a plea for forgiveness for a wrong act. Implicit in this is an admission of guilt, thus turning on its head the "speaking in defense" aspect of the original concept. An uncommon secondary sense refers to a speech or writing that defends the speaker or author's position.
[edit]Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views.[4] Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul of Tarsus, including writers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, and continuing currently with the modern Christian community, through the efforts of many authors in various Christian traditions such as C.S. Lewis and speakers such as Josh McDowell or Dr. Frank Turek. Apologists have based their defense of Christianity on favoring interpretations of historical evidence, philosophical arguments, scientific investigation, and other disciplines.
[edit]Mormon apologetics
There are apologists who specialize in Mormonism, including several well-known Mormon apologetic Organizations, such as the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (a group of scholars at Brigham Young University) and Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (an independent, not-for-profit group), which have formed to defend the doctrines and history of the Latter Day Saint movement in general and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular).
[edit]Apologetics in other religions
As the world's religions have encountered one another, apologetics and apologists from within their respective faiths have emerged. Some of these apologetics respond to or fight back against the arguments of both Christianity and secularism; some do not.
Apologists for Islam have defended the Koran using rationalist and empiricist arguments, and using cosmological arguments to prove God's existence. Muslims have actually developed their own form of creationism, Islamic creationism. Islamic apologists have also challenged both Jewish and Christian beliefs. The late South African Islamic scholar, Ahmed Deedat, was a prolific popular writer who debated Christian evangelists by arguing over discrepancies in the Bible, and claiming the Gospel of Barnabas is the only authentic record of Jesus' life.
One of the earliest Buddhist apologetic texts is The Questions of King Milinda, which deals with ethical and intellectual problems. In the British colonial era, Buddhists in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) wrote tracts that challenged and rejected Christianity. In the mid-nineteenth century, encounters between Buddhists and Christians in Japan prompted the formation of a Buddhist Propagation Society. In recent times A. L. De Silva, an Australian convert to Buddhism, has written a text designed to refute the arguments of Christian evangelists. At a sophisticated academic level, Gunapala Dharmasiri has challenged the Christian concept of God from a Theravadan Buddhist perspective.
Hindu apologetics designed to counter Christian missions developed in the British colonial era. Richard Fox Young has collated examples of these early apologetic tracts.[citation needed]
In a famous speech called Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red[5] in 1805, Seneca chief Red Jacket gave an apologist argument for American Indian religion.
Some pantheists have formed organizations such as the World Pantheist Movement and Universal Pantheist Society to promote and logically defend belief in pantheism.
[edit]The American Apologists
At the end of the 19th and the beginning 20th Century a group of arch conservative American economists and social scientists appeared who have been called the American Apologists. In spite of their different theoretical orientations they were apologists for the status quo and rose to defend the new industrial age and condemn the unions and populist causes. [6]
They included Simon Newcomb at Johns Hopkins, John Bates Clark at Columbia, James Laurence Laughlin at Chicago, Charles F Dunbar and Frank William Taussig at Harvard, Arthur T. Hadley andWilliam Graham Sumner at Yale, and controlled the American university system in the East. This was backed by the cleansing of American higher education from “socialist” reformers after theHaymarket affair, an 1886 incident in Chicago.
[edit]See also
- ApologetiX
- Christian countercult movement
- Existence of God
- Fideism
- List of apologetic works
- A Mathematician's Apology by G. H. Hardy
- Polemic
- Presuppositional apologetics
- Problem of evil
- Spin (public relations)
- Theodicy
[edit]References
- ^ "Apologists." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ A History of Christian Thought, Paul Tillich, Touchstone Books, 1972. ISBN 0-671-21426-8 (p. 43)
- ^ Lewis N. & Reinhold M., Roman Civilization, vol ii, pp. 9-19, New York: Columbia University Press (1955)
- ^ John M. Frame (1994). Apologetics to the Glory of God. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed. ISBN 978-0875522432.
- ^ Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red
- ^ The American Apologists History of Economic Thought Website at The Schwartz Center for Economic and Policy Research , New School University. Accessed January 2009
Polemics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | Look up polemics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Polemics (pronounced /pɵˈlɛmɪks/) is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical,political, or scientific matters. As such, a polemic text on a topic is often written specifically to dispute or refute a position or theory that is widely viewed to be beyond reproach.
The antonym of a polemic source is an apologia.
Polemic journalism was common in continental Europe when libel laws were not as stringent.[1] The Research Support Libraries Programme "Pamphlet and polemic: pamphlets as a guide to the controversies of the 17th-19th centuries", co-managed by the University of St. Andrews, the University of Aberdeen, and University of Wales Lampeter, collected and placed thousands of pamphlets on-line as a study of polemic rhetoric of that era.[2] There are other meanings of the word as well. Polemic is also a branch of theology, pertaining to the history or conduct of ecclesiastical controversy.[3]
The word is derived from the Greek word polemikos (πολεμικος), which means "warlike," "hostile".[4] Plato uses a character named Polemarchus in his dialogue Republic as a vehicle to drive forward an ethical debate.
[edit]Forensic Medicine
A common polemic in Forensic Medicine is whether diatoms are useful in the diagnosis of antemortem drowning or not.
[edit]Sexual medicine
In sexual medicine, a common polemic is whether clinical or actuarial methods of assessment of sex offenders are better predictors of recidivism.[5]
[edit]See also
[edit]References
- ^ "polemic, or polemical literature, or polemics (rhetoric)". polemic, or polemical literature, or polemics (rhetoric). britannica.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ "Pamphlet and polemic: pamphlets as a guide to the controversies of the 17th-19th centuries". specialcollections.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ Nicole, Roger R. (Summer 1998). "Polemic Theology: How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us". The Founders Journal (33). Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (Merriam-Webster Incorporated, Springfied, MA, 2005), s.v. "polemic"
- ^ Dvoskin JA, Heilbrun K. "Risk assessment and release decision-making: toward resolving the great debate." J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2001;29(1):6-10. PMID 11302389
