Summary of Greg Koukl's Tactics and discussion of defending a loving God with the seemingly violent God of the OT.

1. Introduction to
Apologetics
Text

2. BE PREPARED
content
approach

6. ONE Reasons I believe
in a supreme being

10. Religious
Experience
Causal
Direct Perception

11. Religious
Experience

14. TWO Reasons I believe
in the God of
Christianity

21. THREE How, then, to
choose a religion

24. the cause of the universe is...
•powerful
•intelligent
•willful / personal
•necessary
•immaterial
•timeless
•spaceless
• MORAL
ONE

25. TWO

26. THREE

27. FOUR

28. Buddhism
Jesus is an incarnation
of the Buddha

29. Hinduism
Jesus is an avatar ofVishnu

30. Islam
Jesus is a great prophet, second
only to Mohammed

31. Judaism
Jesus is an astute rabbi

32. New-Age
Jesus is the perfectly evolved
person that came to show us
how to gain this state

35. FIVE

36. BE PREPARED
content
approach

37. TACTICSby Greg Koukl

38. Becoming an Ambassador
http://ca.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/2013122/reg_1024.Argo.ms.022213_copy.jpg

41. Temper the often
combative and acerbic
nature of apologetic
discourse with a humble,
generous, open and loving
approach, wisely realizing
that apologetic arguments
“will all be wasted unless
the allure of gentleness
pervades all that we do.”
DALLAS WILLARD

43. GOAL
http://arweddindevon.blogspot.ca/2012/07/like-pebbles-on-beach_31.html

44. Tactics
http://leopoldmethod.com.au/a-league-general-tactical-themes-for-201314/

45. The Columbo Tactic
http://www.ibtimes.com/columbo-detective-peter-falk-dies-83-photos-707424

47. “What did you mean by that?”

48. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

49. 3 Questions
Ask yourself

50. Direct the
conversation
through
questions

51. http://store.gospeltract.org/assets/images/images/Tolerance-Front-Proof.jpg

52. 3 Great Questions
Have you considered...?
Can you clear this up for me?
Can you help me understand this?

53. Nicolas Poussin, Joshua’s Victory over the Amorites
VIOLENCE
IN THE OT
Ethnic Cleansing
Bloodthirsty God

54. “Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your
God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave
alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly
destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite
and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord
your God has commanded you, so that they may not
teach you to do according to all their detestable things
which they have done for their gods, so that you would
sin against the Lord your God.”Deuteronomy 20:16–18, NASB

55. Preliminaries
all the ites; crossroads in Canaan
• Jesus / NT writers never
complained about this
• Gen.12-50: Israelites had
inhabited Canaan for
centuries before their
time in Egypt
• Victory depended on the
gods
• Canaan was suffering
under Egypt’s harsh rule
to which Israel brought
order, justice & peace
• Israel was outgunned
• A violent world of
professional armies

56. Issue
Why would a good
God divinely sanction
or command violence?

57. Holy War
Joshua
God is the main combatant; everything is devoted to God

58. 7 FACTS
1. divinely commanded
2.miraculous victory

59. 3. mercy & warnings
4. response to aggression

60. 5. against network of city kings, not Canaanites
6. genre uses extreme language to give all tribute to the victor

61. 7. calls the Israelites to be faithful to God, to love and obey him only

62. Hero War
Judges
Anthony van Dyck
In defense of themselves and God’s lordship

63. 7 FACTS
1. ancient genre
2.Israel’s apostasy
“The Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

64. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the
sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they
abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who
had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They
went after other gods, from among the gods of the
peoples who were around them, and bowed down to
them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. Judges 2:11-12

65. 3. sequence starts with most heroic
4. hero becomes the weakest link

66. "Samson and Delilah"
Peter Paul Rubens - 1609
5. trail of tragedy
6. Israel descends into chaos and pagan practices
7. Israel abandons their call to embody character of God

67. Nicolas Poussin, Joshua’s Victory over the Amorites
VIOLENCE
IN THE OT
Ethnic Cleansing
Bloodthirsty God

68. “Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your
God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave
alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly
destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite
and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord
your God has commanded you, so that they may not
teach you to do according to all their detestable things
which they have done for their gods, so that you would
sin against the Lord your God.”Deuteronomy 20:16–18, NASB