DEFINITION OF APOLOGETICS AND THE MESSAGE OF APOLOGISTS -John Azie Kaivin T. Pascual
The Brief Historical Background of Apologetics was
discussed by our professor, Sir Ruel Chavez. His blog discussed about how
apologetics exist, as well as the problems and issues encountered by the
apologists. The content of the material was from Bernard Ramm’s Varieties of
Christian Apologetics. In Bernard Ramm’s book especially from pages 11-27, he
provided us the three various groups of apologetics wherein he called it
Systems of Apologetics.
According to Ramm, the apologetics originated from
Ancient Greek during the legal proceedings where the accused was defending
himself against the accusers. The same term is used in the New Testament both
in the ministry of Christ and the ministry of the apostles. We can see it in
Matthew, Acts, Galatians, Corinthians, 1Peter and Timothy. This practice of apologetics
continued in the early church. There were different books of apologetics
namely: Origen’s Against Celsus, Augustine’s The City of God and The
Confessions, and Church Dogmatics.
There are 10 issues in apologetics as stated by
Bernard Ramm. The first is the relationship between philosophy and
Christianity, second is the value of theistic proofs where many people
disregarded, third is the place of some theory of truth, fourth is the doctrine
of sin where it is mostly taken for granted, fifth is revelation, sixth is
certainty, point of contract which is very critical discussion in apologetics,
faith, evidences, and lastly relationship between faith and reason. The author
found the 7th issue interesting. There are three point of contact
from Van Til, Barth and Carnell.
After
knowing the historical background and issues of Apologetics, what should be the
next? I remember what Socrates had said, “It is better to change an
opinion than to persist in a wrong one.” Let’s pause at this moment before we continue,
and reflect “Do I really know much about
apologetics? Do I really understand what is it?” Everything must start with
a right perspective that’s why we need to define the term apologetics. Knowing
its definition will help us to understand it clearly.
John Frame defined apologetics as the
discipline that teaches Christians to give a reason for their hope. Now the
question is “as Christians, what is our hope?” It is important that we have
a proof or a rational basis for our faith. We must have the confidence and
courage to defend the Truth against unbelief. Our goal for apologetics is to
attack the foolishness and destroy the blindness of every people. We don’t use
our mind in apologetics, once we use our own perspective we will lose and
everything will be meaningless. We don’t do apologetics for non-sense
philosophy. The philosophy that we must have must always be based on the
Scriptures. Having the mind and wisdom of God can never make us lost.
What
is the Message of Christian Apologists?
We could never get the message unless
we have a clear understanding of the principles. Christian theism is the term
we used in understanding Christian philosophy. The message is Christianity
itself but John Frame presented it in two ways: as a philosophy and good news. Many
don’t like the term philosophy because it reminds them of atheism. But it is a
philosophy or a matter of understanding the components of a philosophy. What are the components of the philosophy? We
can know that it is a philosophy when we are dealing with evidence, reason or
logic – epistemology. It also
includes methaphysics, the theory of
reality. Whatever is our theory of reality will affect our belief. Some had
taken for granted the theory of reality which is the most important to begin
with philosophy that’s why it is called the
foundation. Metaphysics and ontology is the strength of theology. After
theory of knowing, there must be axiology:
ethics and aesthetics. Ethics talks about morality – right and wrong. Many argues about morality but the
question is “where do you get your
philosophy of morality?” Not everything that we think is right is really
right. Many people are not epistemologically conscious, they just have
assumptions of what is right. We need rational basis for saying something is
wrong and something is right.
Many believed that there is only one
view and when it comes to education there is no distinction between the Islamic
view, Atheistic view and Christian view. But according to John Frame there is
always a distinct view of all things as well as religions and philosophies. As
Christians we must not compromise with the world’s standards and beliefs. We
cannot perceive things the same as atheist. We cannot conform to the pattern
of this world. We see things using the information from the Bible and with the guidance
of the Holy Spirit.
Christianity as Good News - we must not neglect the sins like most worldly people do. We must bear in mind that it is part of the message of apologist to let people know that all of us have sinned against God and it is only through Jesus Christ that we can come to the Father. It is because of His sacrifice that we found life.
For me, the message of Apologetics is very clear. It is simply to stand for the Truth and to follow God's command which is to spread the Good News anywhere and everywhere we are. Unfortunately because our society is ignorant with these facts, many tried to use apologetics in order to defend their distorted views. Many people are conducted debates on different problems in our society not knowing that no matter how they try harder to win their points they are more on losing it because none of them are getting the exact solutions. It just become unending arguments leading to strife, anger and selfishness. I could only imagine if people learn and truly understand apologetics, there would be love and peace, compassion and forgiveness, unity and success in one's nation. The only solution is the Truth - Jesus Christ, Himself. He is the reason and the message of Apologetics.
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