Notes to accompany Apologetics Without Apologies Apologetics: Explaining and defending the reasons for belief in God and in the Bible. Jonathan Swift: ??It is impossible to reason a person out of a thing which they were not reasoned into in the first place.?? Epistemology: How do we know. William of Ockham: Nothing is assumed as evident unless it is known per se, is evident by experience, or is proved by authority of scripture.

1. Apologetics Without Apologies
• Apologetics: Explaining and defending the
reasons for belief in God and in the Bible.
John Oakes, PhD

2. Jonathan Swift:
“It is impossible to reason a person out of a
thing which they were not reasoned into in
the first place.”
William of Ockham:
Nothing is assumed as evident unless it is
known per se, is evident by experience, or
is proved by authority of scripture.
Epistomology

3. Michael Faraday;
“The man who is certain he is right is
almost sure to be wrong; and he has
the additional misfortune of inevitably
remaining so.”

4. Medical Evidence

5. Papyrus Ebers

6. The Ebers Papyrus:
“To prevent hair from turning gray, anoint
it with the blood of a calf which has been
boiled in oil or with the fat of a
rattlesnake.”
“A mixture of six fats, namely those of the
horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile,
the cat, the snake and the ibex.... to
prevent hair loss.”

7. “For the generations to come
every male among you who is
eight days old must be
circumcised.”
(Genesis 17: 12)
Why on the eighth day?

8. Here is How it Works
1. Blood Clotting Proteins (Prothrombin) are
continually produced in the liver.
2. The Liver needs Vitamin K to make clotting
proteins.
3. Vitamin K is produced in our intestinal tract.
4. When a baby is born the Vitamin K levels
are similar to that of the mother.

9. 5. Infants are born without the required
bacteria in their intestines to produce
Vitamin K
6. It takes about five days for the bacteria
to build up in order for the baby to start
producing its own Vitamin K
7. As a result Prothrombin drops to 30
percent of normal

10. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
days
%ofnormal
Clotting Protein Peaks on Day Eight
Available Prothrombin

11. Day
Circumcised
Number of Hebrew
Boys
Number of Deaths
1 823 4
3 759 6
5 693 8
7 855 3
9 770 2
11 698 4
Abraham’s Experiment

12. A Jewish medical text:
“The snail trailing a moist streak after it as
it crawls, and so using up its vitality serves
as a remedy for boils.”
“The sting of a hornet is healed by the
house-fly, crushed and applied to the
wound.”
“The gnat, feeble creature, taking in food
but never secreting it is a specific against
the poison of the viper.”
An ancient Hebrew medical manuscript.

13. “Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will
be unclean for seven days. He must purify
himself with the water on the third and
seventh day...take some hyssop, dip it in the
water and sprinkle the tent and furnishings
and the people who were there.”
Numbers 19

14. Semmelweiss

15. Death Rate falls
from 18% to 1%

16. Thymol

17. Archaeological Evidence

18. The five-city league with Abraham:
Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah,
Zeboiim, and Zoar (Genesis 14:2).

19. One of the Tel El Amarna Letters

20. From a Tel el Amarna Letter:
“The Habiru plunder all lands of the
king. If archers are here this year,
then the lands of the king, the lord, will
remain; but if the archers are not here,
then the lands of the king, my lord, are
lost.”

21. The Tel Dan Inscription
Mentions “The House of David”

22. Messianic Prophecies
Psalms 22
I can count all my bones
They have pierced my hands and my feet
Divided and cast lots

23. Zech 11:12,13
30 pieces of silver
The potter
Daniel 9:24-27
seventy sevens
458 – 490 = - 32

24. Typology:
Prefigures
Foreshadows
Types and antitypes

25. Parallels Between Moses and Jesus
Moses
Jesus
Pharaoh tried to kill him
Herod tried to kill him
Called by God to leave Egypt Carried out of Egypt
Forty years in the wilderness to
prepare for his ministry
Forty days in the wilderness to
prepare for his ministry
Left his position with the king
of Egypt to dwell with the Jews
Left the right hand of the
Father to life with the Jews
Led Israel out of slavery in Egypt Leads Spiritual Israel out of sin
Aaron prepared the way
John the Baptist prepared the
way
Baptized Israel in the Red Sea
in order to free them
Commands baptism in water
for freedom from sin
Gave manna in the wilderness
(sort of)
Gives spiritual bread to all who
hunger
Gave water to the people in the
desert
Gives spiritual water: the
Holy Spirit
Spoke to God on Mt. Sinai Spoke to God on Mt. Hermon