Sunday School Synopsis [11.07.10]

Today in Sunday School Peyton taught about the importance of the study of apologetics, which is basically the defense of the faith. We had a lot of good conversation of the importance of being able to explain our reasons for our faith.

Then we covered some "deeper" stuff. Here is the outline he used for that part of the lesson:

Areas of Apologetics
- Offensive- Put forward our case; we aren't answering questions/problems
- Natural Theology- how we know of God in nature without the help of miracles,
scripture, ect.
- Cosmological Argument- argue that there is some first cause or reason for this
world. Things in our universe don't exist without reason.
- Teleological Argument- the universe is extremely complex and this cannot be
explained by pure chance. There must be some designer.
- Moral Argument- If God doesn't exist, then morals don't exist objectively. We can
decide what is moral if there is no God.
- Ontological Argument- Once the concept of God is understood to exist then it's not
possible for Him not to exist.
- Special Revelation (Christian Evidences)- Shows that God is the God we know as
Christians
- Fulfilled Prophesy- OT prophesies were fulfilled in Christ
- Jesus' Radical Claims- Liar/Lunatic/ Lord
- Jesus' Miracles and Resurrection- These validate the above claims
- Defensive- Rebuttal to objections to faith by others
- Objections to God's existence
- Problem of Pain- Why is there so much pain in the world?
- Hiddeness of God- He could be more evident to us than He is, why isn't He?
- Objections to Christianity
- Biblical Critics- The Bible isn't accurate as we have it now
- Religious Pluralism- Give all the forms of faith, no one faith can be THE ONLY way
Resources:
Stand to Reason (Greg Koukl)
Reasonable Faith (William Lane Craig)
Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Josh McDowell)
www.apolgetics.org
Let My People Think/Just Thinking (Ravi Zacharias)
The Veritas Forum
Norm Geisler
Alvin Plantinga


After the lesson, we discussed the possibility of doing a Wednesday night class on Apologetics next semester if the interest is there. Let Peyton or Daniel know if you would be interested!