 Okay, recording is started. Good morning everyone. Welcome. Nice to see all of you back for our classes. Let's just pray together and then we will get started. I'd like to request anyone just to please lead us in prayer. Okay, go ahead. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this beautiful day, for the beautiful class we're about to have. God, we welcome you, Holy Spirit, to teach us. We bless each and every student and our pastor, our church over here, given the understanding, wisdom, and help us to open our hearts and open our mind and listen to your words. Our seeds that we plant in our hearts. We don't just listen to it, but plant it in our heart and not just plant it, but do it in our life. Help us to be more like you, Jesus. Everything else in your hands, lead us and guide us in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, thank you. Alright, good morning once again. Welcome to BC 212, our course on Christian apologetics. So today, I'm just going to introduce the course. What we're going to cover, what's the purpose or the objective behind this course is, and then we will get started with the very first lesson. Now, I will keep putting the lessons out as we go along. Now, because usually what I do is I keep updating the content based on our discussions and the needs of the students. So although I do have the full course material, I kind of modify the chapters as we go along and also maybe there will be new information I may need to include based on the questions that come up in the class. So I'll keep updating and giving you to your lesson by lesson as we go along. Let me just introduce the course before we, as we get started. I'm going to share my PDF. Alright, so I think you should see the course over here. So this is our course on Christian apologetics. What is this course about and what are we going to cover in this course? You see there are a lot of people and us that includes us believers as well as non-believers who have questions about the Christian faith. And these are very sincere questions and we need to be able to provide answers as far as possible. Based on what we know, based on the word of God and based on other general information that we need to be able to provide answers to the questions they have. Because they are genuinely seeking answers. They're not doing this just for argument sake. They genuinely have questions. And so our goal in this course is to learn how to provide answers the best we can. Now when we provide answers, we look at four different areas or, you know, four different streams or areas or directions that we can bring answers. One is philosophical. Philosophical means they're just thinking about things and it's more of a life type, life situation, life matters type of answers. Scientific is obviously has to do with research and, you know, whether the chemistry or the physics or the astronomy. So from that angle, and it's more evidence based. So we may, we would also include archaeology and other things here under scientific. The third area is scriptural or theological, meaning this is what the Bible says. And this is the reasons given to us in the scriptures. And the fourth would be spiritual or supernatural. So this would be look and we be bringing information from spiritual experiences or supernatural experiences. When people experience supernatural healing or a deliverance and so on. So what we're doing is when we respond to these questions, which we may have and other people may have, we try to bring blend all these four. Points of view in providing answers. Now, some of the topics that we will address and could, you know, one is, of course, we'll start out and explain what our approach to apologetics is. What is apologetics and how are we going to go about it? We will talk about in existence of God. How do we know God exists? Talk about creation. How do we know God created everything? What about science and faith or faith and science? I mean, are these opposite to the contradict? You look at a little bit on Darwin's theory. We look at a little bit on Big Bang theory. So these initial sections, existence of God, these have to do with, you know, existential type questions, you know, who we are, where did we come from? How did it happen? Kind of questions. Then we go into another piece, we change and we go into a different aspect, which is about the Bible itself. How do we know the Bible is authentic and accurate? You know, why do we say the Bible is God's word? And why do we, you know, why do we rely so much on the Bible? How can we rely so much on the Bible? So we'll spend some time on that. Then we will go into Christology or the aspect of Jesus himself. You know, why do we say Jesus is unique? Then a major question would be on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then why do we say salvation is only in Jesus Christ? And then in connection to that, we want to talk a little bit about Christ and other worldviews. That means how do we communicate what we know about Jesus to people who come from a different worldview or a different religion? You know, there could be Hindu, Muslim, there could be a Buddhist, there could be a Sikh, there could be a Jew. And then there are what we refer to as cults, meaning these are not just religions, but they are some sort of a mindset that controls people. So how do we deal with some of those situations? You know, how do we communicate Jesus to people from these backgrounds? So we talk about that. And then we also, the last section would be on, you know, common questions. So these would have to do with social challenges. That means questions that are being asked in society about daily life, you know, about marriage, divorce, abortion, gay men, you know, homosexuals and gay lifestyles and then other questions like climate change and protecting the environment and, you know, all those kinds of things that seem to be questions being raised in society. How do we provide biblical answers to that? Okay, somebody needs to turn off their mic, please. Then we will look at another area, which is a big area of question, which is suffering. Why is there suffering? Why is there evil in this world? Why are bad things happening if there is a good God? So we will look at that in depth. And then we will leave time for some other common questions, you know, if there are any questions and so on. So this is kind of the journey that we're going to try to make. We start off with some, you know, questions on, you know, who we are, where did we come from? How did it happen? Two questions that are more connected to our faith in the Bible and in the person of Christ. Then how do we communicate this faith to people from a different mindset or worldview or religion? And how do we answer some of the common questions being asked in people, in society and communities around us when they, you know, are dealing with day-to-day challenges? So it's a vast journey that we're trying to make, but our goal is to show that, you know, we are not afraid of questions and that we can provide answers coming from, you know, one or more of these four areas that we said. It could be a philosophical answer. It could be a scientific evidence-based answer. It could be a biblical, scriptural answer or it could be a spiritual, supernatural demonstration that comes in in response to something. Right? So that's what we are going to cover. Now, of course, the assessment and grading will happen as, you know, we always do three, three, break it down into three parts and have some questions on that. Now, I would encourage you, if you're interested, you could, you know, read a lot of... There are a lot of apologetics websites, Christian websites that provide a lot of these information. So I'd encourage you to visit some of these websites online. There are a lot of books by different Christian authors, meaning Christians who are researchers, who are archaeologists, who are journalists in a lot of good books. I will share copies of these books by Lee Strobel, PDFs. I will put it up. I know, you know, you will not be able... I don't think you'll be able to read everything. I guess you could over the next four months. You can try. I'm not forcing you to read it. I'm just giving it to you as a reference. I'll put these up as a reference, as well as at least one book by Josh McDowell. And then you can try to go through these, right? I'm not... You know, I'm not going to test you on this. I'm not going to ask questions from these books, but they are just for your reference to, you know, look at it and see how these topics have been addressed by different authors. And these are only a few. There are a lot of Christian authors who bring in different perspectives. They've done research. They have done their work and they share that information with us. Now, I have to admit that this course will be a little heavy in the sense that it is... When you read the books, when you read the research itself, it is very heavy, you know, because if a physicist is writing about this or, you know, research or an archaeologist, the language and their understanding is very heavy. But I'm going to try to simplify it for us so much so that we can understand it and we'll be able to explain it to somebody else, right? So when you go back and look at the books or the websites and so on, it may be the content may be heavy, the material may be heavy, but I'll try to simplify it, explain it in a very simple way so that we can understand it and we will be able to provide answers to people who are asking us questions. And it's also for our own benefit that we need to have answers for our own cells, you know, to convince our own cells now about what we believe. Okay. So that's kind of an introduction to this course. Let me pause and see if there's any questions so far. Is everybody okay with what we're going to cover? Do you have any questions about the course before we get started? Everyone's okay? Now, if you, you know, if any of these things, as we start going to the course, please feel free to, you know, ask questions. Okay, that's the main purpose of this course for you to ask questions. And as we are explaining things, if you don't understand it, just tell me to repeat. Okay. I don't mind repeating two times three times. It's okay. Just so that it's clear in your mind so that you should be able to explain it to somebody else. Right. If they ask a question, you know, why do you believe there is a God? You should be able to explain. You know, this is why I believe there is a God or why do you believe the Bible is true? Well, you should be able to explain a very simple language. This is what these are the reasons why I believe the Bible is true. Right. So feel free to ask questions and don't hesitate. Okay. So let's get started. We're going to go into our first lesson, which is now an introduction or the, the rest, the approach to this. So biblical apologetics. Now the word apologetics is a technical word. Right. It comes basically that word apologetics. It comes from a Greek word that's used in the New Testament called apologia. Right. And you find the word apologia that is used many times in the New Testament. We will read all of these verses just to see how that word is used. And the word apologia is translated in different ways in the, in the New Testament. And it's kind of interesting for us to study, look at it. And it's used also in different contexts and look through these scriptures. So let's take a few moments. Let's look at a few of these scriptures here. Can we, can somebody read acts 22 was fun. So we want to understand the meaning of that word and the different ways in which the word apologia is used in the Bible. So let's go to acts 22 and was one. Somebody could read that acts 21 this one act 22 was one. My fellow Jews listen to me as I make my defense before you. Okay. So Paul, you know, he is standing before a group of people who he's been, you know, brought before the people. They are against him and he has to defend himself, meaning explain himself, give a reason for his actions. You know, so he had come to Jerusalem and he had gone into the temple to worship and the people had caught him. And they are accusing him of, you know, disrupting the Jewish religion. And they're actually accusing him of being against them. You see, but now he's actually a Jew. And so, so people are really confused about Paul at that time. So they have arrested him and he has to explain himself. And so there in acts 22 was one as he begins to, you know, go into his defense, meaning he's now explaining himself that he's a Jew. He's, you know, he studied under the Jews, callers and all that. He uses the word. I'm ready to give a apologia before you. I'm ready to give a defense. It's translated here in the English Bible. Basically, he's explaining himself, you know, who I am, why am I doing this? What has happened to me and so on. So that's the word apologia, right? Act 25 was 16. Somebody could read that for us, please. Act 25 was 16. To them, I answered, it is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face and has opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him. So now look at that. Here, the word apology has been translated as to answer for himself. So if somebody is accused of something or is questioned about something, he needs to be given the opportunity to answer for himself about what he's being questioned. So again, this is Paul. He's being questioned by both not only the Jewish scholars, religious leaders, but now he's being questioned by the authorities, the government authorities. They're Roman authorities. Why is he doing what he's doing? And so he says, you know, I must be given the opportunity to offer an apology to offer an answer for myself about what I am being questioned. So you get an idea of what is apologia. It is you answering, giving an answer about something that you're being questioned. You're giving an explanation again. Let's go into chapter nine verse three. Just look at a few and just to give ourselves an idea of what this means. Let's go into nine verse three. This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Yeah. Thank you. So here. Paul is being. No, so this is the Corinthian church. There are people in the church who are questioning his apostleship. Is Paul really an apostle? You know, and so on. So in verse three, he says, I'm giving my apologia to those who are examining me. Those are questioning me, questioning my calling, questioning me as an apostle. I'm giving my defense. I'm giving my answer. I'm giving my explanation. So what we're seeing is, and if we look at all the others, people are asking questions. People are examining something. Then you're giving an answer. So that is an apology. You're answering. You are explaining. You're clarifying something when people are questioning. So you'll find this similar view in other scriptures. But I want to just jump to first Peter three verse 15 because this is like the main reference for this whole area of ministry that's called apology. Somebody could let's go to first Peter. Chapter three. And of course, you can take time to look up the other scriptures. I'm just quickly moving forward. First Peter three and verse 15 place somebody could read this for us. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. With meekness and feel. Thank you. So first Peter three 15 is the classic verse or it's the main verse upon which this, this, this ministry of apologetics is built, you know. So you would find some people, not some actually many people who call themselves as an apologist or they specialize in this area of ministry that is as an apologist. And many of them would, you know, often quote this verse. Where it says, Peter is saying, you know, you hold the Lord in a very special in your heart and be ready to give a defense. To everyone who asks about a reason who asks why, you know, asks questions about the hope that you have. And do it. Notice how he says do it with meekness and fear. So let's think about this. So here the word apologia is translated defense. So what is apologia? It's to give a defense. When and where, when is somebody is asking you a reason. They're asking you reason why you believe in Jesus. Why do you say Jesus is the only way? Why do you believe there is a God? Why do you believe in the resurrection? You know, they ask you about the reason for the hope you have. When you are answering that, you are basically giving an apology. You're giving a defense. You're giving a response to it, to that question. And notice he says in this verse, do it with meekness and fear. So don't do it with arrogance, pride, or I know everything. I know better than you. That's not the attitude we have. So when people ask us questions, we do it humbly. We do it with meekness and in the fear of God. Knowing that, look, I am actually speaking for God. You know, God doesn't need any defense. God is our defender, not that we are trying to defend God. God actually is our defender. But when people ask genuine questions and they ask for a reason why we have this hope, then the Bible, God has told us in his word that we must give an answer to them. God has told us, you know, so we in one way are actually speaking for God. When people ask us questions, God said, you give a reason for the hope you have in your heart, but do it with meekness and with fear. Right. So, and I just put a little question here. So when we look at all these verses, you know, we can come to a conclusion about the word apology. And we can say that really it is giving a defense or it is giving an explanation to our audience who's asking us questions. So to sum it up, we explain with reason what we believe. We point to evidence for what we believe. We also respond to ideas. That means whether it's presuppositions, sometimes people have wrong understanding misconceptions. They may have genuine questions or arguments and objections to what we believe, but we respond to that. Now, if you look at the life of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus did not avoid questions. People came to Jesus with questions. You know, we know that the Lord Jesus ministered in the supernatural. He proclaimed the kingdom of God with the word and power. That means he did mighty miracles, signs and wonders, but he didn't shy away from questions. Sometimes people came to him with genuine questions. Sometimes people came to him with questions in order to try to trap him. They tried to ask him what we would call as trick questions. Let's see if he can give him a question which he cannot answer and then we will prove that he's not God. Or let's give him a question where whatever answer he gives, he will fall into a trap. Sometimes people came with the questions that were just basically arguments or they were just trying to trap him. But Jesus always responded. He responded to the questions. Some people came to him with questions like the Samaritan said, you know, who is my brother? And Jesus gave a parable. He gave a story to explain who is your brother, who is your neighbor or the woman at the well of Samaria. She tried to kind of hide behind her questions. He said, you know, on which mountain must we go and worship? On this mountain or that mountain? Jesus didn't scold them. I was called her for asking questions. He just spoke the truth. And then of course there were the Pharisees and religious leaders who tried to trap him more than one occasion. They came and asked him, you know, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? And he responded to that question. They came and asked him, what do you say about John the Baptist? Is he of God? Is he not from God? So questions like that, they tried to trap him. And Jesus responded to these questions that people came to him with. And the Bible says in John 746 that when Jesus spoke, even his enemies, you know, people who came to try to trap him, they were amazed at his words, at his answers. You know, they said that where did this man get this wisdom and this mighty works? You know, Matthew 13, 54, they were amazed like where did this man get this wisdom? We know he is a carpenter. We know that, you know, he's not a highly educated man. But where did he get this wisdom and this mighty works? And of course we know that came from the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But he answered the questions with the wisdom of God. And to the sincere people, he gave them stories, parables to help them understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God. He put it in a way that they could understand. So parables are stories. He put it in stories for the sincere people, you know, let them understand. At least if they understand the story, they can understand something about the kingdom of God. So what we could say is that the Lord Jesus is the greatest, the master apologist. That means he did not shy away from questions. We know that some of these questions were sincere and some of these questions were just people trying to trap him. But he responded with the wisdom of God. And nobody, you know, could say he's not answering questions, but his answers amazed the people. So I'm just pointing to this because while Jesus did the mighty works, healings and miracles, he also took time to answer the questions that people had. And he did not shy away from answering questions. And so we also, while we believe in the supernatural part of God, while we believe in the miracle, science and wonders and the works of the Spirit, we should also be willing to do our best by the Spirit of God to answer the questions, especially when people are genuine and sincere in the questions they ask. You know, we do our best to answer those questions. Now think about the Apostle Peter. And again, I'm just challenging you with a slightly different angle now. Think of the Apostle Peter. We read in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15, the verse that we just read, where Peter said, be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's in you. Be ready to give a defense. So when people are asking you questions, be ready to explain to them why you have this hope. Give them reasons. And yet what is interesting is that Peter was not a very educated man. The Apostle Peter was actually a fisherman. So he's not, he's not somebody who went to, you know, like in those days they would be trained under some great scholars. He was not one of those. He was just a regular fisherman. And yet Peter is telling, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Peter is telling us, you must give a defense. You must give an apology for the reason and the reason for, for a good defense for the, and reasons for the hope that you have. So an uneducated man, Peter, is telling us, you must give an apology. You must give a reason. What I want to bring to our attention here is that in Peter's ministry, his biggest defense, if you look at Peter's ministry, his biggest defense was the miracles. In Acts chapter four, let's go to Acts four, please. Acts four, 13 and 14. Somebody can read that. Acts chapter four, 13 and 14. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that, that they went, that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had, seeing the man who had been standing with them, they could do nothing against it. I could say nothing. So what we have here is Peter and John, both were fishermen. They were arrested or they were just brought before the religious leaders, the Sanhedrin. And these religious leaders who of course were already educated people and all of that, they looked at Peter and John and they realized, you know, Peter and John are just fishermen. They're not educated. They're not trained. And yet they were amazed. It says they marveled. They were amazed at these people, at Peter and John. And they could not say anything because verse 14 says, they saw this man who had been healed. He was a man who was lame by from birth. He had never walked 40 years and this man is healed. And they could not argue against Peter and John. So I'm putting these two pastures side by side purposely. On one hand, Peter is saying, you give a defense and explain the reason for the hope you have. On the other hand, practically in his life in ministry, Peter has experienced that the biggest defense was the healing and the miracle. That people saw. And I'm putting these side by side. Peter has experienced, you know, the miracle, but he's still telling us you must give a reason. So while Peter's apology is the healing in this particular case in Acts 4, Peter's defense is the healing of the lame man. No arguments. You can't argue against this. The highest educated people cannot argue against a genuine miracle that they see on the experience. That becomes a defense for the preaching or what we preach and teach. So that's very important. And yet the same Peter is telling us, give an explanation, explain to people why you believe it. Okay. So the thought I want to leave us with from, you know, from this two verses here to pass the scripture is while we will do our best to try and answer questions, there will be questions we cannot answer. And of course we don't want to get into arguments with people. We don't want to fight with people. And in such situations, the best defense is a miracle that somebody experiences in their life or somebody sees. When they see a miracle, they cannot question any further. Or when they experience a miracle, they cannot question any further. So in this particular situation, Acts 4, Peter's apology was simply, hey, he has a man who was lame from birth. He is healed. Can you question this? Yeah, he didn't have a big argument or a big explanation. He just, it was this, this. So while in this course, we are going to learn to give answers the best we can, I want you to always remember in your mind that there will be some questions we cannot answer. Don't feel bad about it. In those situations, see what kind of miracle can God work for this person who's asking the question. You know, for example, if a person who has lost a baby, okay, think about a couple. They've lost a baby, a baby, you know, died and it's so painful. And they come and ask, if you say there is a good God, why did a good God allow this thing to happen to me? You know, so that's a very difficult question. How can you answer that question? They are going through so much pain and they're going through so much grief. And then we go and tell them God is a good God. Hallelujah. Then say, hey, if you say there is a good God, God is a good God. Why did a good God allow this thing to happen to me? Why did he allow my child to die, a baby to die? It's very, we can't say anything. We can't answer. I mean, of course, theologically, we can give answers theologically. But at that moment, you can't say anything to that couple to ease their pain. And in fact, you shouldn't even try to answer. It's very painful. You pray for God's comfort and pray for a miracle in their life. Something that, something, some way that they would know that God is real. You know, a miracle that can happen in their life to know that God is real. And when they experience that miracle, either at that season of the life or in the next season or some later season of the life, when they experience a miracle, that would be something they cannot question. Even though there is an unanswered question, the miracle before their eyes will point to the living God. Okay. So I'm just giving one scenario, but like this, there are many scenarios where we may not be able to give a reason, an answer, but we can point to a miracle. Okay, so keep these two together. Now, I want to bring the same thought out from the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Let me just say a few things and then we'll take a break and come back on this. You see, the Apostle Paul was a very highly educated man. So Peter, the Apostle Peter was an uneducated man. He was a fisherman. But on the other hand, the Apostle Paul was very educated. He had studied under Gameliel, who was, you know, a very renowned scholar, Hebrew scholar, teacher in those days. And Paul had learned from him. He was trained by Gameliel. So Paul, on the other hand, was very educated. And so you see, God uses all kinds of people. He used Peter and John. He used Paul and Luke. Luke was a physician. Paul was a scholar. So he used all kinds of people. Now, Paul, when you look at his ministry, as you've already seen, there were times he stood before people and he made his apology. That means he gave a reason for the hope. There were times he had to defend himself for his preaching. You know, when he stood before the King, he said, Paul, you are mad. So, but Paul was making his defense. When Paul, in Acts 17, when he went into Athens, Athens was the world educational capital, or I would say an educational center, a highly renowned educational center in the world at that time. In Acts 17, Paul comes to Athens and he presents Jesus to the Aeropagus. The Aeropagus was a select group of people, highly educated, scholarly people in the city of Athens. Like a council, a select group of people and they would listen to the latest ideas and philosophies to see if that is valid or not. So Paul was brought before the Aeropagus, before this council of about 20 some people to say what he had to say. Basically, he preached the gospel to them. So he was standing before a highly educated crowd and he spoke to them. So Paul was somebody who was very educated and who spoke in a very intellectual way to intellectuals. He reasoned people about the gospel of Christ. And you see this in the writings of the Apostle Paul. The book of Romans is a classic example of Paul's in-depth understanding and reasoning of spiritual truth. He draws from the Old Testament and he explains about faith in Jesus Christ and what Jesus did for us on the cross and salvation by faith. It's just amazing, the book of Romans. It shows Paul was a very intellectual man, scholarly man. He understood very deep. But in his own ministry, Paul also depended on the supernatural demonstrations of the power of God. He depended on signs, wonders and miracles for his ministry. So Paul blended the two very nicely. He blended an intellectual understanding with demonstration of the power of God. And that is what I want to encourage us that we should strive for, that we should in our ministries be able to explain, but also be able to demonstrate the power of God. Let's pause here. We'll come back to this point after the break and we will take this forward. And if you have any questions, we will take it up right after the break. Let's go for a break and we'll come back in 10 minutes, okay? Thank you.