Apologetics Keynote I presented at Encounter Youth Conference. I began with this quote: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein This powerpoint is not my endeavor to expound upon Apologetical or theological thought; rather it is an attempt to birth an interest in the topic at hand for further discovery.

1. WHAT IS APOLOGETICS?

2. I PETER 3:15
• But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be
ready to make your defense to anyone who demands
from you an accounting for the hope that is in you…

3. APOLIGIA
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
the kategoria (κατηγορία), and the defendant replied with an
apologia. To deliver an apologia meant making a formal speech
or giving an explanation to reply and rebut the charges, as in the
case of Socrates' defense.

4. HOW TO RESPOND TO SOMEONE WHO IS DEBATING YOU
1 PETER 3:16
• Yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your
conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned,
those who abuse you for your good conduct in
Christ may be put to shame.

5. WHY IS APOLOGETICS NECESSARY?
• 1 John 4:1-3
• Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God; for many false prophets have
gone out into the world.
• By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
• And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard
that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.

6. WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

8. WILLIAM LANE CRAIG
COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

10. IS THIS ARGUMENT WITHOUT FLAW?
One of the weaknesses of the argument is that if all things
need a cause to exist, then God Himself must also, by
definition, need a cause to exist. But this only pushes
causation back and implies that there must be an infinite
number of causes, which cannot be.
Also, by definition, God is uncaused.

11. HOW APOLOGETICS AFFECTS CHURCH
• 2 Timothy 2:15
• Do your best to present yourself to God as one
approved by him, a worker who has no need to be
ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.

12. HOW APOLOGETICS AFFECTS CHURCH
• Educate the unified body of believers
• Emulate Jesus Christ in word and deed
• Elevate the Church to a higher standard in Christ

14. QUOTE FROM THE CASE FOR CHRIST
I’LL ADMIT IT: I WAS AMBUSHED BY THE AMOUNT AND QUALITY OF
THE EVIDENCE THAT JESUS IS THE UNIQUE SON OF GOD. AS I SAT AT
MY DESK THAT SUNDAY AFTERNOON, I SHOOK MY HEAD IN
AMAZEMENT. I HAD SEEN DEFENDANTS CARTED OFF TO THE DEATH
CHAMBER ON MUCH LESS CONVINCING PROOF! THE CUMULATIVE
FACTS AND DATA POINTED UNMISTAKABLY TOWARD A
CONCLUSION THAT I WASN’T ENTIRELY COMFORTABLE IN
REACHING.

16. QUOTE FROM THE GOD DELUSION
THE TAKE-HOME MESSAGE IS THAT WE SHOULD BLAME RELIGION ITSELF,
NOT RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM - AS THOUGH THAT WERE SOME KIND OF
TERRIBLE PERVERSION OF REAL, DECENT RELIGION. VOLTAIRE GOT IT RIGHT
LONG AGO: 'THOSE WHO CAN MAKE YOU BELIEVE ABSURDITIES CAN MAKE
YOU COMMIT ATROCITIES.' SO DID BERTRAND RUSSELL: 'MANY PEOPLE
WOULD SOONER DIE THAN THINK. IN FACT THEY DO.

17. ATHEISTIC MOVEMENT OF TODAY
• The New Athiests
• A social and political movement in favour of atheism and
secularism promoted by a collection of modern atheist
writers who have advocated the view that “religion
should not simply be tolerated but should be countered,
criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever
its influence arises.” -Simon Cooper, CNN

19. C.S. LEWIS
“I BELIEVE IN CHRISTIANITY AS I BELIEVE THAT THE
SUN HAS RISEN: NOT ONLY BECAUSE I SEE IT, BUT
BECAUSE BY IT I SEE EVERYTHING ELSE.”