Number One – the Bible
One of the first challenges to my faith as a new believer, over thirty years ago, is still one of the most common challenges that Christians face. It’s packaged in a variety of ways, but I remember one of my best friends stating it like this: “You don’t take the Bible literally, do you?”
This question reflects a typical skeptic’s view of Scripture. To many unbelievers, the Bible is not an accurate record of divine revelation. It is myth and allegory mixed with historically unsubstantiated, scientifically erroneous, and often fraudulent claims. However, if my friend were to ask this question today, I would respond with a challenging Socratic question, such as: “Why wouldn’t God say what He intended to mean?” I would challenge him to explain why he thought God wouldn’t communicate literally, especially since the Bible purports to be divine revelation. If God wishes to speak to us through the Bible, why would He give us incorrect and confusing information?
The Foundational Apologetic Issue
The continental divide that separates Christians and non-Christians is whether or not the Bible is true. To us, the Bible is divine revelation from God and about God, which we can obtain from no other source. Without it, all supposed knowledge about God is merely human speculation. If the Bible does not contain divinely inspired factual (literal) information, we have no objective truth basis for any Christian belief. All Biblical doctrines and principles we hold dear become questionable if the Bible’s veracity is in doubt.
If the Bible is true, one the other hand, it contains the very words of God. What it says about Jesus, salvation, the Holy Spirit, creation, heaven, hell, and every other subject it addresses has to be true. So, the foundational issue of all apologetics is providing a compelling defense for the Bible’s truth and reliability. This can be summarized as an apologetic principle:
If we can demonstrate that the Bible is truthful, always reliable, and can be validated by objective, non-Biblical evidences, we are justified in concluding that it will be equally truthful and reliable in its non-testable, spiritual truth claims. This conclusion is confirmed subjectively when the Bible’s spiritual truth claims are accepted and applied. Through the power of God, they transform people’s lives. We can legitimately conclude from objective and subjective evidences that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God.
In application, this principle states that eyewitness testimony, archaeological discoveries, fulfilled prophecies, and the other evidences (which I examine in The Christian Combat Manual) demonstrate that the Bible is truthful in its historical, scientific, geographical, cultural, and other testable data. Since these verifiable facts are true, we can legitimately conclude that the Bible is equally true in its non-testable, more subjective spiritual claims, such as salvation through Jesus Christ, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, divine judgment, the existence of angels and demons, and so on.
This is not to imply, however, that we can only trust the Bible so far as we can prove it’s true. Christians are justified in accepting the Bible’s truth and authority on its own merits. Moreover, it is always the work of the Holy Spirit when an individual ultimately accepts the authority of holy Scripture and Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (See Acts 16:14, Romans 8:16, 1 Corinthians 2:10-14.). In other words, apologetics demonstrates the truth of Scriptures, but it is the Holy Spirit that confirms it.
In sum, the first and most important of the five apologetic issues Christians frequently confront, and which we must be prepared to defend, is the integrity and truthfulness of the Bible. All other apologetic issues, ultimately, rests on the veracity of Scripture. ©
* This blog article is adapted from the Introduction to Part One in my book The Christian Combat Manual; Helps for Defending Your Faith: A Handbook for Practical Apologetics, which is available in most outlets.
I continue to read your posts and am impressed with your reasoning and your deductions based on the evidence provided. I find myself concluding in much of the same manner as you have. I believe that a major component of an effective apologetic is to provide a proper foundation of reason to expound from so that one point leads to the next. Our biggest challenge is to provide a balance between providing enough pertinent information and determining what will draw and keep their keep their attention. That is a balance that is hard to strike. Even Josh McDowell’s first offering in apologetics was to strike a balance that favored more information to keeping the attention of the reader. You will remember his Evidence That Demands A Verdict was contained in two 1″ thick volumes, a meal that most could not masticate, including myself. As a sophomore in high school involved with Campus Crusade and three sports, I listened to his tapes instead.
It was four years later after attending Biola University that God would speak to me and tell me that I will travel with Josh, which I did a year later. After getting to know Josh for many months, I can tell you that he truly lives what he preaches. That was 1979.
Fast forward to now and the reason I hope you’ll respond. My sons are learning about evolution in eighth grade. My offer to speak about creation has been rebuffed, so my next best shot is to lead his teacher to the Lord, initially through apologetics. As I asked in two previous letters, I’m hoping you can provide links to each of the five portions of your apologetic or however many you choose to make as single “meals” that I can hand out to my Facebook friends, my son’s teacher or whoever. I could use this single post that provides all of them together, if necessary. This may be too daunting of a task for some who may may pass on finishing the information. Also, your posts are listed in reverse order, from 6 to 1, if you haven’t noticed. For my application, I find what you put together here is better than Josh’s information, since you have summarized your books well.
Your providing these links in a professional manner, as you have done thus far, would not only be beneficial to me, but for countless others who follow you. Keep up the great work you’ve been putting out!
For His pleasure,
Dave Williamson
Dave.W@USA.com
P.S. — I’ll continue to post this letter until I know I have caught your attention.
I thought I posted a reply, but I don’t see it recorded. So I’ll try again. I do appreciate your kind endorsement. And I would be pleased to have you post links to any or all of my blog articles. And I don’t mind if you copy and distribute them in your speaking or other public engagements. However, they are copyrighted material and you must give credit to me and to the books from which I derive much of my blog material (when I mention them in individual blog articles). I would not want you to copy the articles themselves and post them on your own website or any other, as, again, they are copyrighted material. I would rather have readers link to my own web and blog sites (for obvious reasons). If you start a Facebook group, I would also be happy to post my weekly blog notices as well, which do have links to the articles themselves.