WEBVTT 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:16.019 Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:20.039 or to give online go to connect .hcv .church 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.879 or give .hcv .church. If at any point during 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:26.019 this message you feel called to make a change 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:30.920 in your life, text CHANGEME to 9700. Thank you 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:32.840 and enjoy the message. Welcome to the Teaching 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:36.039 Tuesday session for April 2025. Today we're doing 00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:37.960 an introduction to apologetics, and I do mean 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:40.299 introduction because we are just barely scratching 00:00:40.299 --> 00:00:42.880 the surface of a huge field to which many people 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.479 dedicate their entire lives. We'll start with 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:47.679 some basics, like what apologetics means and 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:49.420 why it's relevant for you and the people in your 00:00:49.420 --> 00:00:51.439 life. Then we'll look at an example argument 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:53.939 or two from several of the big apologetic categories, 00:00:54.259 --> 00:00:57.240 like why we think God exists or how we can square 00:00:57.240 --> 00:00:59.829 up a good God with the existence of evil. One 00:00:59.829 --> 00:01:01.590 big difference between this session and other 00:01:01.590 --> 00:01:03.890 sessions is that instead of a single recommended 00:01:03.890 --> 00:01:06.290 resource, I'll be recommending a book for each 00:01:06.290 --> 00:01:08.489 of the categories. Speaking of which, I'm going 00:01:08.489 --> 00:01:10.409 to start with the definition of apologetics from 00:01:10.409 --> 00:01:13.489 the book Stand Firm by Paul Gould, Travis Dickinson, 00:01:13.590 --> 00:01:16.049 and Keith Lofton. This is a fantastic general 00:01:16.049 --> 00:01:17.890 introduction to apologetics that does something 00:01:17.890 --> 00:01:20.250 very similar to what I'm doing today. It's a 00:01:20.250 --> 00:01:22.829 survey of many common questions about and objections 00:01:22.829 --> 00:01:26.189 to Christianity. They define apologetics as an 00:01:26.189 --> 00:01:28.750 attempt to remove obstacles or doubts to, as 00:01:28.750 --> 00:01:30.870 well as offer positive reasons for, believing 00:01:30.870 --> 00:01:34.510 that Christianity is true and satisfying. I really 00:01:34.510 --> 00:01:36.549 like their definition because it touches on an 00:01:36.549 --> 00:01:38.909 important point. People like to think of themselves 00:01:38.909 --> 00:01:41.069 as rational, so we should be able to believe 00:01:41.069 --> 00:01:43.549 something if we know it to be true. Unfortunately, 00:01:43.609 --> 00:01:45.250 people are less rational than they'd like to 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:48.069 think. Something needs to be both true and mentally, 00:01:48.250 --> 00:01:50.650 emotionally, and spiritually satisfying for most 00:01:50.650 --> 00:01:53.340 people to embrace it. Jesus knew this, which 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:55.120 is why he told people that the most important 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:57.379 commitment was to love God with their entire 00:01:57.379 --> 00:02:01.099 soul, entire mind, and entire heart in Matthew 00:02:01.099 --> 00:02:04.640 22 -37. If we want to do apologetics correctly, 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:07.819 we don't just prevent facts. We have to appeal 00:02:07.819 --> 00:02:10.340 to the person mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:12.419 And I want to address a popular misconception 00:02:12.419 --> 00:02:15.490 about apologetics. If you ask the average person 00:02:15.490 --> 00:02:17.330 what they see when they picture apologetics in 00:02:17.330 --> 00:02:19.530 their mind, it's probably two old guys in suits 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:21.490 on a stage having a debate about stuff that's 00:02:21.490 --> 00:02:23.849 so far out there, you'd need an entire library 00:02:23.849 --> 00:02:26.610 to understand any of it. Now, being a giant nerd, 00:02:26.729 --> 00:02:28.750 I do enjoy watching these sorts of debates in 00:02:28.750 --> 00:02:31.550 my free time, but that is one tiny piece of the 00:02:31.550 --> 00:02:34.229 giant apologetics pie. So if you take one thing 00:02:34.229 --> 00:02:36.270 away from this talk, it's that apologetics belongs 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:39.509 in every Christian's toolbox. Let's say you read 00:02:39.509 --> 00:02:41.150 something in the Old Testament that doesn't sit 00:02:41.150 --> 00:02:43.180 right with you. Like God ordering the Israelites 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:45.680 to wipe out the Canaanites. If you don't deal 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.580 with the nagging problem in the back of your 00:02:47.580 --> 00:02:50.060 mind, it could kill your faith over time. We're 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:52.280 going to talk about that one tonight. Or maybe 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:53.900 you've got a friend that doesn't believe that 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:55.800 God exists or a relative that doesn't think the 00:02:55.800 --> 00:02:58.419 Bible is trustworthy. Maybe a co -worker calls 00:02:58.419 --> 00:03:00.199 you out on your faith in front of a crowd because 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:02.120 they don't like what the Bible says about sex 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:04.379 or marriage. We're going to talk about all of 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:06.659 these things tonight because apologetics gives 00:03:06.659 --> 00:03:08.979 you the tools to research and answer those questions 00:03:08.979 --> 00:03:11.729 and the confidence to do so. And finally, before 00:03:11.729 --> 00:03:14.349 we look at the objections, we want to ask a question 00:03:14.349 --> 00:03:16.530 that you should always ask when someone prescribes 00:03:16.530 --> 00:03:18.530 a certain action or interpretation regarding 00:03:18.530 --> 00:03:21.629 our faith. Is it biblical? A friend of mine used 00:03:21.629 --> 00:03:23.629 to attend a church that took bus rides out into 00:03:23.629 --> 00:03:25.210 the mountains where they would ring bells to 00:03:25.210 --> 00:03:27.949 attract angels. I probably don't need to tell 00:03:27.949 --> 00:03:30.550 you that not one bit of that is biblical. But 00:03:30.550 --> 00:03:32.569 in the case of apologetics, we are building from 00:03:32.569 --> 00:03:35.169 a solid foundation. We've got an explicit command 00:03:35.169 --> 00:03:38.370 to do apologetics in 1 Peter 3 .15, which reads, 00:03:38.909 --> 00:03:40.909 If someone asks about your hope as a believer, 00:03:41.169 --> 00:03:43.990 always be ready to explain it. We've also got 00:03:43.990 --> 00:03:46.069 great examples in the way Jesus and the apostles 00:03:46.069 --> 00:03:48.389 dealt with people and answered questions. It 00:03:48.389 --> 00:03:50.669 turns out that the way we carry ourselves is 00:03:50.669 --> 00:03:52.849 just as important as the information we're providing, 00:03:53.030 --> 00:03:54.909 and we'll come back to that at the very end. 00:03:55.710 --> 00:03:57.930 Let's jump right in with objection number one, 00:03:57.990 --> 00:04:01.050 that truth doesn't exist. Ironically, the type 00:04:01.050 --> 00:04:02.849 of person attending this session or listening 00:04:02.849 --> 00:04:05.469 to it later online is the least likely to think 00:04:05.469 --> 00:04:07.409 this way. So you might find this perspective 00:04:07.409 --> 00:04:10.370 truly strange, but you're in good company because 00:04:10.370 --> 00:04:12.990 until the 1960s, very few people would have expressed 00:04:12.990 --> 00:04:15.870 that sentiment. However, since then, two schools 00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:18.110 of thought promoting just the idea have become 00:04:18.110 --> 00:04:21.170 very popular. They're called postmodernism and 00:04:21.170 --> 00:04:25.009 relativism. Now, as interesting as going deep 00:04:25.009 --> 00:04:27.910 on postmodernism and relativism can be, it's 00:04:27.910 --> 00:04:30.069 a bit outside the scope of this session. Instead, 00:04:30.189 --> 00:04:32.310 let me give you some examples of postmodern or 00:04:32.310 --> 00:04:35.500 relativist thought. You may hear people say things 00:04:35.500 --> 00:04:38.120 like, there's no such thing as objective truth. 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:41.899 Or, if there is objective truth, we can't know 00:04:41.899 --> 00:04:45.019 what it is. They may say, everyone has their 00:04:45.019 --> 00:04:47.959 own truth, which is correct to them. You may 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:49.819 have heard the term lived experience before. 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:52.240 People will say things like, someone's lived 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.699 experience matters more than objective truth. 00:04:55.060 --> 00:04:57.639 You may even hear the claim, although most people 00:04:57.639 --> 00:05:00.500 who have these views are atheists, sometimes 00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:02.879 you will hear people say that all religions lead 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:06.360 to God. This is incredibly common in non -Christian 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:08.920 colleges and schools, and it's leading to serious 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:11.620 problems in our society. One example is the debate 00:05:11.620 --> 00:05:13.879 about transgenderism that seems to have popped 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:16.240 out of nowhere over the past couple years. But 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.379 think about it. If there's no such thing as objective 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:20.920 truth, then no one could be objectively male 00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:24.439 or female. And so if some 40 -year -old guy says 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:26.839 that his truth is that he's an 8 -year -old girl, 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:29.379 well, then his truth is that he should get to 00:05:29.379 --> 00:05:31.699 share a changing room or a bathroom with your 00:05:31.699 --> 00:05:34.689 8 -year -old daughter. Obviously, we know that's 00:05:34.689 --> 00:05:37.009 not true because we recognize that there is objective 00:05:37.009 --> 00:05:40.509 truth. Now, we're also trying to establish Christianity 00:05:40.509 --> 00:05:42.889 as true. So if someone doesn't believe in truth, 00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:44.829 that's going to preempt every other piece of 00:05:44.829 --> 00:05:47.529 information we have to share. Furthermore, Christianity, 00:05:47.889 --> 00:05:50.670 in Judaism up to Jesus, is the only religion 00:05:50.670 --> 00:05:52.589 that makes provable real -world and historical 00:05:52.589 --> 00:05:55.470 claims. But if I was finding archaeological evidence 00:05:55.470 --> 00:05:58.149 that supports the Bible, And there is a ton of 00:05:58.149 --> 00:05:59.670 it out there and more being discovered every 00:05:59.670 --> 00:06:02.329 year. If that's just our truth to someone instead 00:06:02.329 --> 00:06:04.689 of the objective truth, that's a huge roadblock. 00:06:04.850 --> 00:06:06.930 They could just completely ignore it and that's 00:06:06.930 --> 00:06:10.129 fine in their mind. Now the good news is this 00:06:10.129 --> 00:06:12.329 type of thought is self -defeating. Most people 00:06:12.329 --> 00:06:14.069 grow out of it once they get out of college and 00:06:14.069 --> 00:06:16.310 into the real world because it just doesn't survive 00:06:16.310 --> 00:06:18.970 being in the real world. You know, if someone 00:06:18.970 --> 00:06:20.750 tells you that there's no such thing as objective 00:06:20.750 --> 00:06:23.819 truth, ask them if that's true. If they say yes, 00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:26.500 they just contradicted themselves. If they say 00:06:26.500 --> 00:06:28.720 no, why would they believe that in the first 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:32.319 place? Or if someone works, ask them what might 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:34.439 happen if they tell the IRS that their truth 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:36.819 is that they don't have to pay taxes. The IRS 00:06:36.819 --> 00:06:38.600 agent is probably going to laugh and respond 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:41.139 that his truth is wage garnishment and property 00:06:41.139 --> 00:06:45.259 seizure. Now that we can state things as true, 00:06:45.420 --> 00:06:48.149 let's do that response to objection to. that 00:06:48.149 --> 00:06:50.470 God doesn't exist. You might hear it expressed 00:06:50.470 --> 00:06:52.829 like that, God doesn't exist, or someone might 00:06:52.829 --> 00:06:55.269 say that God doesn't need to exist. They might 00:06:55.269 --> 00:06:57.730 argue that we can't prove God exists, or that 00:06:57.730 --> 00:07:00.329 there's no evidence God exists. Well, if we're 00:07:00.329 --> 00:07:02.050 defending Christianity, then God existing is 00:07:02.050 --> 00:07:04.129 a pretty big deal. It's probably the first question 00:07:04.129 --> 00:07:06.750 we need to answer after proving that objective 00:07:06.750 --> 00:07:09.889 truth exists. Fortunately, there are dozens of 00:07:09.889 --> 00:07:11.769 good arguments for God's existence that span 00:07:11.769 --> 00:07:13.910 many different fields and will appeal to different 00:07:13.910 --> 00:07:16.350 people. I'd like you to experience just how different 00:07:16.350 --> 00:07:18.389 these approaches are, so we're going to argue 00:07:18.389 --> 00:07:20.730 for God's existence first from philosophy and 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:23.750 then from science. We're going to turn to another 00:07:23.750 --> 00:07:26.329 general purpose apologetics book called I Don't 00:07:26.329 --> 00:07:28.389 Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Frank Turek 00:07:28.389 --> 00:07:31.209 and Norman Geisler to help us in this. You know, 00:07:31.209 --> 00:07:32.930 this book is full of great information, and once 00:07:32.930 --> 00:07:34.970 you start reading, it's hard to stop. It's one 00:07:34.970 --> 00:07:37.110 you'll probably polish off in an entire afternoon. 00:07:37.569 --> 00:07:39.949 Plus, Frank Church goes around to college campuses 00:07:39.949 --> 00:07:42.389 giving presentations on Christianity, so he's 00:07:42.389 --> 00:07:44.430 heard every question and objection anyone could 00:07:44.430 --> 00:07:46.990 possibly raise, and he's a great resource and 00:07:46.990 --> 00:07:49.529 model for how you should conduct yourself when 00:07:49.529 --> 00:07:51.389 you're really under fire from somebody. We'll 00:07:51.389 --> 00:07:53.449 start with that philosophical argument. Now, 00:07:53.470 --> 00:07:55.569 philosophy is the study of knowledge. Philosophers 00:07:55.569 --> 00:07:57.509 try to understand what we know and how we know 00:07:57.509 --> 00:07:59.879 these things. One of the ways they do this is 00:07:59.879 --> 00:08:02.180 through thought experiments, and Christian philosophers 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:04.019 have devised a thought experiment that points 00:08:04.019 --> 00:08:06.579 to God's existence. It's called the moral argument, 00:08:06.779 --> 00:08:10.100 and it goes like this. First, if objective morality 00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:14.279 exists, an objective moral lawgiver, God, exists. 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:18.060 Second point, objective morality does exist. 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:22.139 Third point, therefore, God exists. To really 00:08:22.139 --> 00:08:24.639 drive the point home, apologists will often pick 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:26.779 an extreme example, like, is it ever morally 00:08:26.779 --> 00:08:29.899 justifiable to torture babies for fun? That's 00:08:29.899 --> 00:08:32.299 not a claim that atheists can't be good people 00:08:32.299 --> 00:08:34.259 or that atheists can't know right from wrong. 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:36.259 It's simply an acknowledgment that there are 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:38.679 some things that are objectively wrong, no matter 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:41.539 what any society says. For instance, the Allies 00:08:41.539 --> 00:08:43.679 were justified in stopping the Axis in World 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:46.299 War II because of the atrocities they committed. 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:49.409 even if those atrocities were legal and accepted 00:08:49.409 --> 00:08:52.690 in those societies. Now, these philosophical 00:08:52.690 --> 00:08:55.350 arguments are very polarizing. Some people find 00:08:55.350 --> 00:08:57.549 them to be the most convincing, whereas others 00:08:57.549 --> 00:09:00.450 see them as total nonsense. I'm curious what 00:09:00.450 --> 00:09:02.490 your response is to hearing the moral argument. 00:09:02.769 --> 00:09:05.330 If you're in that latter category, perhaps the 00:09:05.330 --> 00:09:07.750 next argument will be more helpful. Our science 00:09:07.750 --> 00:09:09.690 -based argument for God's existence is called 00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:12.309 the fine -tuning of the universe. Put simply, 00:09:12.409 --> 00:09:14.210 the universe appears to be precisely designed 00:09:14.210 --> 00:09:16.870 for life to such a low degree of probability 00:09:16.870 --> 00:09:19.309 that it is essentially impossible that it happened 00:09:19.309 --> 00:09:22.669 by chance. To simplify this and give you just 00:09:22.669 --> 00:09:25.549 a few examples, we can look at gravity. You know, 00:09:25.549 --> 00:09:28.870 if gravity was higher or lower by 1 over 10 to 00:09:28.870 --> 00:09:32.210 the 38th of a percent in either direction, we 00:09:32.210 --> 00:09:34.860 couldn't have stars, planets, or life. If the 00:09:34.860 --> 00:09:37.019 expansion rate of space was 1 over 10 to the 00:09:37.019 --> 00:09:39.639 5th of a percent faster, we wouldn't have galaxies. 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:42.080 If it was slower by the same amount, the entire 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:44.820 universe would have collapsed in on itself. There 00:09:44.820 --> 00:09:46.879 are similar probabilities and consequences for 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.399 the strength of the strong and weak nuclear forces 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:51.600 inside atoms, the strength of the electromagnetic 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:54.320 force, the temperatures chemical reactions happen 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:57.470 at, and many other things. And it also turns 00:09:57.470 --> 00:09:59.990 out that Earth itself seems precisely designed. 00:10:00.309 --> 00:10:02.610 If the chemical composition of the atmosphere, 00:10:02.950 --> 00:10:05.049 the amount of water, the rotational period, the 00:10:05.049 --> 00:10:07.909 axial tilt, or even Jupiter's size and orbit 00:10:07.909 --> 00:10:10.570 differed by minuscule amounts, life would be 00:10:10.570 --> 00:10:13.570 impossible. When we put together the probabilities 00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:16.669 that we know about, and we discover new ones 00:10:16.669 --> 00:10:19.649 constantly, we can calculate that the chance 00:10:19.649 --> 00:10:22.110 of life naturally occurring on a single planet 00:10:22.110 --> 00:10:25.210 in the entire universe is less than 1 over 10 00:10:25.210 --> 00:10:29.549 to the 138th. For context, there are 10 to the 00:10:29.549 --> 00:10:32.970 70th atoms in the universe. That means the chance 00:10:32.970 --> 00:10:35.309 of life occurring naturally on a single planet 00:10:35.309 --> 00:10:39.590 in the entire universe is the same as finding 00:10:39.590 --> 00:10:43.629 one particular atom in one universe, and that 00:10:43.629 --> 00:10:48.340 atom contains an entire universe in itself, one 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:50.899 particular atom in that universe. That is an 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:55.100 unimaginably small probability. You know, Geisler 00:10:55.100 --> 00:10:57.220 and Turek named their book the way they did because 00:10:57.220 --> 00:10:59.860 it takes more faith to believe all of this happened 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:02.059 by chance than through an intelligent designer. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:04.200 And in a few months, we're also going to do a 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:06.320 full session on the arguments for God's existence. 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:08.320 So let me give you a sneak preview of another 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:10.919 fine -tuning argument. When we look inside our 00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:13.539 bodies, the probabilities of the molecular machines 00:11:13.539 --> 00:11:15.659 and processes we observe occurring naturally 00:11:15.659 --> 00:11:18.379 are even lower than those properties of the universe. 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:20.580 In fact, there are a number of these structures 00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:23.620 and processes that are impossible to evolve naturally. 00:11:23.980 --> 00:11:27.399 When you add these to the low probabilities about 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:29.919 the fine -tuning of the universe, it is essentially 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.440 impossible that there wasn't a mind behind it 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:35.980 all. Our answers to the first two objections 00:11:35.980 --> 00:11:38.679 weren't specific to Christianity. But now it's 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:40.980 time that we get specific to Christianity. And 00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:43.179 that brings us to objection three, which says 00:11:43.179 --> 00:11:46.340 that the Bible isn't trustworthy. Now, we're 00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:48.659 not talking about the information in the Bible 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:50.419 not being trustworthy. That's objection number 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:52.840 four. We're talking about the book itself. The 00:11:52.840 --> 00:11:56.220 collection of writings that we have that claim 00:11:56.220 --> 00:11:59.159 that they are not trustworthy. For instance, 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:01.320 people might say that we don't have the original 00:12:01.320 --> 00:12:03.879 text. That what we are reading are things that 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:07.620 people wrote later or changed. They might say 00:12:07.620 --> 00:12:10.120 that even if we do have the original text, we're 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:12.019 reading a translation of a translation of a translation 00:12:12.019 --> 00:12:12.980 of a translation of a translation of a translation 00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:16.600 of a translation, and that we can't trust a chain 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:19.940 of 50 or 100 translations. And then finally, 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:22.220 some people might say, even if the translation 00:12:22.220 --> 00:12:25.039 is good, It was all made up in the first place. 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:27.539 Fortunately for us, we've got a book called The 00:12:27.539 --> 00:12:30.279 Word, How We Translate the Bible and Why It Matters 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:33.139 by a guy named John Barton. He also wrote a book 00:12:33.139 --> 00:12:35.179 called The History of the Bible, which I would 00:12:35.179 --> 00:12:37.840 recommend is another resource in the same category. 00:12:38.539 --> 00:12:40.980 Essentially, what this book does is it looks 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:43.620 at the entire process of how the original manuscripts 00:12:43.620 --> 00:12:46.539 were copied and saved, how they were passed down 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:50.220 and preserved over time, how current Bible experts 00:12:50.220 --> 00:12:53.299 will take those manuscripts and use certain computer 00:12:53.299 --> 00:12:55.460 techniques on them to figure out which is most 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:57.840 likely, how to deal with disagreements, things 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.179 like spelling mistakes, and then how to piece 00:13:00.179 --> 00:13:02.720 together the most accurate copies of manuscripts. 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.559 And then finally, how people who translate those 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:08.320 manuscripts get them to us. And what's really 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:10.539 cool is we find out that using computer modeling 00:13:10.539 --> 00:13:13.120 and other advanced techniques, we have the best 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.659 and most accurate copy of the Bible that has 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:19.179 ever existed in history. And the people who translate 00:13:19.179 --> 00:13:22.279 the Bible do so with the utmost care. Now, this 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:24.899 is such a huge field that we could spend hours, 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.700 if not days, covering every single part of it. 00:13:27.820 --> 00:13:29.299 We don't have time to do that, unfortunately, 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:31.279 as much fun as it would be. So we're going to 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:33.860 zoom way in on one tiny little piece, which is 00:13:33.860 --> 00:13:37.279 just the New Testament manuscript evidence. Now, 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:39.220 it used to be that people thought that the New 00:13:39.220 --> 00:13:41.460 Testament was written long after Jesus died. 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:43.620 Some people used to throw around numbers like 00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:46.320 two or three hundred years after Jesus' life. 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:49.860 We know that's not true. Our evidence shows us 00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:52.139 that the New Testament was written within 20 00:13:52.139 --> 00:13:55.100 to 30 years of Jesus' life. We do this with historical 00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:58.919 references in the books, references to government 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:01.100 officials, or certain conditions in the area. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:03.919 The great part about this is that means that 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:06.159 the people who are mentioned in those books were 00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:08.159 still alive. Not all of them, but a lot of them. 00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:10.320 And so if the authors were making things up, 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:12.340 there were hundreds of people who people could 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:14.820 go to and say, hey, the book says you saw this. 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:18.059 Is this true? Now, we also have a ton of manuscripts 00:14:18.059 --> 00:14:21.460 left over. We have 5 ,600 in Greek alone, 26 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:25.720 ,000 pieces in total. We have within 50 years 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:28.539 of Jesus's death. fragments of manuscripts within 00:14:28.539 --> 00:14:31.399 150 years of Jesus' death, pieces that fit together 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:34.899 to make the entire New Testament. Now, we are 00:14:34.899 --> 00:14:38.220 pretty sure, well, we're almost 100 % sure that 00:14:38.220 --> 00:14:40.659 we don't have any of the original pieces. But 00:14:40.659 --> 00:14:42.899 that's okay, because we're pretty sure, like 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:46.659 99 % sure, that we have the second copies. And 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:48.700 that's pretty good. That's better than any other 00:14:48.700 --> 00:14:51.669 ancient book. And what's really cool is a lot 00:14:51.669 --> 00:14:53.490 of critics will point to the number of variations 00:14:53.490 --> 00:14:55.909 and will say that there are 500 ,000 variations. 00:14:56.169 --> 00:14:58.309 How could you possibly trust what's on these 00:14:58.309 --> 00:15:02.049 manuscripts? But 99 .9 % of these are spelling, 00:15:02.230 --> 00:15:04.750 punctuation, and copying errors. Little things 00:15:04.750 --> 00:15:08.230 like they spell John instead of J -O -H -N, J 00:15:08.230 --> 00:15:10.450 -H -O -N, or whatever that would be in Greek. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:13.980 You know, the 1 % or the less than 1 % are meaningful. 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:17.120 They're changed names or words, but we have multiple 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:19.519 sources to find the most accurate. And this isn't 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:22.519 just people sliding pieces of paper around like 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:24.200 they're putting a puzzle together. They're using 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:26.840 advanced computer modeling and AI to compare 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:31.240 26 ,000 pieces all at once and get the most accurate 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:34.740 ones. Now, we are 100 % certain about almost 00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:37.799 every word in the New Testament and 99 % certain 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:40.360 on the ones we learn. But none of the uncertain 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:42.679 words have any impact on Christian doctrine. 00:15:42.899 --> 00:15:45.360 Put simply, the New Testament is the most well 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:47.779 -preserved and accurate book before the digital 00:15:47.779 --> 00:15:51.480 age, and we can trust that we have what was originally 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:55.279 written. And that brings us to objection four, 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:57.659 which is that the information in the Bible isn't 00:15:57.659 --> 00:15:59.720 trustworthy. People will say, all right, well, 00:15:59.740 --> 00:16:02.549 you've got manuscripts that... have been preserved 00:16:02.549 --> 00:16:05.070 over the past 2 ,000 years, but what if what 00:16:05.070 --> 00:16:08.029 was originally written down was just made up? 00:16:08.129 --> 00:16:10.230 Or what if the people were lying? How could we 00:16:10.230 --> 00:16:12.409 possibly trust something that happened 2 ,000 00:16:12.409 --> 00:16:13.909 years ago? Well, it turns out that we have a 00:16:13.909 --> 00:16:15.990 lot of good reasons to trust what's in the Bible. 00:16:16.289 --> 00:16:18.350 The resource for this objection is called The 00:16:18.350 --> 00:16:21.629 Fate of the Apostles by Sean McDowell. This is 00:16:21.629 --> 00:16:24.070 the most up -to -date modern look at what happened 00:16:24.070 --> 00:16:26.210 to the apostles, and that's one of the pieces 00:16:26.210 --> 00:16:28.710 we're going to use. to prove that what's written 00:16:28.710 --> 00:16:30.789 in the Bible is true. You see, it's tradition 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:33.730 in the church that Jesus' disciples, except for 00:16:33.730 --> 00:16:36.830 John, all died horrible deaths in maintaining 00:16:36.830 --> 00:16:39.659 the truth of the gospel. Basically, they were 00:16:39.659 --> 00:16:41.940 all threatened. They were told to stop preaching 00:16:41.940 --> 00:16:45.360 about Jesus. They declined. They were threatened 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:47.779 with death. They kept on preaching and they got 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:50.360 killed, some of them in really bad ways. So what 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:52.679 Sean McDowell did is he went through all the 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.259 best historical records and he looks at the probability 00:16:55.259 --> 00:16:58.139 that each of the apostles was martyred. And he 00:16:58.139 --> 00:17:01.679 finds that six of the 12 were definitely martyred 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:04.400 and the others, except for John, may have been 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:06.119 martyred. There's historical evidence in either 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.519 way. But what we don't have and what he makes 00:17:08.519 --> 00:17:11.420 a big point out of is that there are no records 00:17:11.420 --> 00:17:14.039 of them recanting. And that would have been something 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:16.079 that was a huge deal to the Roman and Jewish 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:19.220 authorities. If any of them had recanted, that 00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:20.619 would have been a big deal and it would have 00:17:20.619 --> 00:17:22.529 gotten written down and spread out. everywhere. 00:17:22.789 --> 00:17:25.589 So one of the reasons that we can trust the information 00:17:25.589 --> 00:17:28.609 in the Bible is that it's backed up by the deaths 00:17:28.609 --> 00:17:30.910 of people who maintain the truth of that information, 00:17:31.190 --> 00:17:33.750 and they are the exact ones who would know whether 00:17:33.750 --> 00:17:36.269 it was true or false. And nobody dies for something 00:17:36.269 --> 00:17:39.289 that they know to be false. Another reason we 00:17:39.289 --> 00:17:40.990 can trust what's written in the Bible are the 00:17:40.990 --> 00:17:44.279 embarrassing stories. Think about it. If Jesus' 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:47.299 disciples had made up all of that stuff, they 00:17:47.299 --> 00:17:49.220 probably wouldn't have included so many embarrassing 00:17:49.220 --> 00:17:51.740 stories about themselves. I'm thinking of James 00:17:51.740 --> 00:17:54.500 and John basically throwing a tantrum and talking 00:17:54.500 --> 00:17:56.700 about calling down thunder from heaven to fry 00:17:56.700 --> 00:17:58.880 people, and Jesus gives them the embarrassing 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:01.279 nickname, the sons of thunder. Think about Peter 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:04.119 walking out on the water, and then he gets distracted, 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:06.660 and he falls into the water. Think about Peter 00:18:06.660 --> 00:18:09.819 denying Jesus three times. If these guys were 00:18:09.819 --> 00:18:12.319 making up these stories, they probably wouldn't 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:14.240 have put that information in there because it's 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:16.200 really, really embarrassing, even 2 ,000 years 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:19.200 later. And speaking of embarrassing stuff, it's 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:21.880 not a big deal to us now, but the fact that there 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.359 are so many women in key roles in the Bible would 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:27.180 have been a huge deal back then. Women were not 00:18:27.180 --> 00:18:29.960 treated well back in ancient Jewish society. 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:32.599 They were basically treated like property. It 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:35.200 took multiple women to testify against a man, 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:38.119 you know, and a woman basically had no rights 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:41.400 in that society. And so the fact that Jesus had 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:43.640 female disciples and, you know, following him 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:46.799 around was a big deal. And then the fact that 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.339 women were the first ones to find the empty tomb, 00:18:49.500 --> 00:18:52.440 if these guys were making it up, having women 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:55.119 discover the empty tomb actually worked against 00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:57.069 them and people believing it. they would have 00:18:57.069 --> 00:18:59.329 written down that men discovered an empty tomb 00:18:59.329 --> 00:19:02.089 because a man's word was trusted. There's also 00:19:02.089 --> 00:19:05.250 some recent work on an idea called a disambiguator 00:19:05.250 --> 00:19:08.369 that absolutely blows my mind. Basically, they 00:19:08.369 --> 00:19:11.150 didn't have last names back then, and so authors 00:19:11.150 --> 00:19:13.650 had to use disambiguators to distinguish people. 00:19:14.140 --> 00:19:16.460 We have Mary, the mother of Jesus. We have Mary 00:19:16.460 --> 00:19:18.940 Magdalene. Those things, mother of Jesus and 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:21.319 Magdalene, are disambiguated. Scientists and 00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:23.779 statisticians can feed all sorts of ancient literature, 00:19:23.980 --> 00:19:26.380 government records, censuses, things like that, 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:29.099 into computer models. And the models can calculate 00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:31.380 what names are most popular in certain regions 00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:34.210 in certain years. And what is amazing is that 00:19:34.210 --> 00:19:37.750 it turns out that the biblical authors used disambiguators 00:19:37.750 --> 00:19:40.670 at the same frequency as names were popular in 00:19:40.670 --> 00:19:43.430 those areas. This would be impossible for us 00:19:43.430 --> 00:19:45.849 to do without these computer models, let alone 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:48.170 somebody trying to do this thousands or hundreds 00:19:48.170 --> 00:19:50.809 of years ago. It is simply impossible that the 00:19:50.809 --> 00:19:55.730 authors got this that right. We now come to two 00:19:55.730 --> 00:19:58.109 objections where critics of Christianity can 00:19:58.109 --> 00:20:00.789 even admit that what we have is what was originally 00:20:00.789 --> 00:20:02.950 written down and that the information recorded 00:20:02.950 --> 00:20:05.769 in the Bible is true, but they still won't be 00:20:05.769 --> 00:20:07.829 Christian because they object to God in a moral 00:20:07.829 --> 00:20:10.849 sense. The first of these objections is considered 00:20:10.849 --> 00:20:14.049 the number one toughest argument against Christianity, 00:20:14.230 --> 00:20:17.150 and it's called the problem of evil. Put simply, 00:20:17.170 --> 00:20:20.450 it says that if there is a God who is omnipresent, 00:20:20.549 --> 00:20:22.869 which means he's everywhere, omniscient, which 00:20:22.869 --> 00:20:25.779 means he knows everything, Omnipotent, which 00:20:25.779 --> 00:20:28.819 means he is all -powerful, and omnibenevolent, 00:20:28.819 --> 00:20:31.380 which means all -good, it shouldn't be possible 00:20:31.380 --> 00:20:35.240 for evil to exist. But evil does exist, so either 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:37.740 God doesn't exist or God doesn't have one of 00:20:37.740 --> 00:20:39.960 those four properties. The resource we're going 00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:41.980 to use for this objection is called Rational 00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:44.119 Faith, A Philosopher's Defense of Christianity 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:47.140 by Stephen T. Davis. And the defense against 00:20:47.140 --> 00:20:50.339 the problem of evil is called a theodicy. This 00:20:50.339 --> 00:20:52.819 is an explanation that tries to get inside God's 00:20:52.819 --> 00:20:56.359 mind. We're not coming up with excuses for God's 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:58.859 decisions. We're actually trying to provide positive 00:20:58.859 --> 00:21:01.359 reasons why God may have made things the way 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:04.380 that he did. Now, theodicies come in all different 00:21:04.380 --> 00:21:07.539 kinds of forms. They also address different types 00:21:07.539 --> 00:21:10.539 of evil. For instance, moral evil is evil that 00:21:10.539 --> 00:21:13.400 comes from human decisions. If I pick up a gun 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:16.509 and shoot somebody, that is moral evil. And the 00:21:16.509 --> 00:21:18.690 defense against moral evil is called the free 00:21:18.690 --> 00:21:21.769 will defense. The idea is that it is so important 00:21:21.769 --> 00:21:24.630 to God that we freely choose to follow him that 00:21:24.630 --> 00:21:27.470 he has given us the free will to say yes or say 00:21:27.470 --> 00:21:30.029 no. But this free will is not limited to just 00:21:30.029 --> 00:21:33.529 our option to follow God or not follow God. It 00:21:33.529 --> 00:21:35.490 applies to all the choices we make in life. We 00:21:35.490 --> 00:21:37.630 can choose what is moral or we can choose what 00:21:37.630 --> 00:21:41.329 is evil. And so moral evil exists as a consequence 00:21:41.329 --> 00:21:44.210 of us having free will. On the other hand, natural 00:21:44.210 --> 00:21:46.630 evil is any kind of evil that doesn't come from 00:21:46.630 --> 00:21:49.230 human and free will. For instance, natural disasters 00:21:49.230 --> 00:21:51.930 like hurricanes and earthquakes, or even things 00:21:51.930 --> 00:21:55.190 like injury and disease. There are many different 00:21:55.190 --> 00:21:57.809 answers to natural evil, but the one that I really 00:21:57.809 --> 00:22:00.950 like is called accountability. Essentially, God 00:22:00.950 --> 00:22:03.529 has made a predictable universe to give us moral 00:22:03.529 --> 00:22:06.990 accountability. Consider gravity. If I walk over 00:22:06.990 --> 00:22:10.329 to Bob and I drop a book on Bob's head, I know 00:22:10.329 --> 00:22:12.349 because of gravity that that book is always going 00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:14.210 to fall and it's always going to hit Bob on the 00:22:14.210 --> 00:22:17.109 head. So if I walk over to Bob and I drop a book 00:22:17.109 --> 00:22:20.769 on Bob, I'm accountable for that action. However, 00:22:21.029 --> 00:22:23.609 what if it wasn't predictable? For instance, 00:22:23.690 --> 00:22:26.369 what if gravity 50 % of the time caused a book 00:22:26.369 --> 00:22:28.630 to fall straight down, but 50 % of the time caused 00:22:28.630 --> 00:22:31.410 it to go straight up? So if I walk over to Bob 00:22:31.410 --> 00:22:33.910 and I drop the book on his head, there's a 50 00:22:33.910 --> 00:22:36.329 % chance it'll go up, 50 % chance it'll go down. 00:22:36.730 --> 00:22:40.029 And so if the book does fall and hit Bob, I can 00:22:40.029 --> 00:22:42.009 say, well, that wasn't my intention. I thought 00:22:42.009 --> 00:22:43.869 it was going to go up. Now, the side effect of 00:22:43.869 --> 00:22:46.269 this is that because we have predictable moral 00:22:46.269 --> 00:22:48.950 laws, there are all different kinds of bad things 00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:51.190 that can happen from it. For instance, earthquakes 00:22:51.190 --> 00:22:53.829 are caused by plate tectonics, and gravity plays 00:22:53.829 --> 00:22:56.490 a big role in the plates moving over each other 00:22:56.490 --> 00:22:59.509 or going under each other. And so because God 00:22:59.509 --> 00:23:01.930 has given us this world where we can be accountable 00:23:01.930 --> 00:23:04.450 for our choices by having predictable natural 00:23:04.450 --> 00:23:06.869 forces, things like earthquakes are going to 00:23:06.869 --> 00:23:09.970 happen as a side effect of that. There are also 00:23:09.970 --> 00:23:12.390 theodicies that look at evil in a general sense. 00:23:12.670 --> 00:23:14.829 For instance, there's the greater good argument 00:23:14.829 --> 00:23:17.930 that God has to allow a certain amount of evil 00:23:17.930 --> 00:23:20.109 in the world or he chooses to allow a certain 00:23:20.109 --> 00:23:21.970 amount of evil in the world because it leads 00:23:21.970 --> 00:23:24.670 to greater good. We could look at hypotheticals 00:23:24.670 --> 00:23:27.349 like, let's say a person has a child and that 00:23:27.349 --> 00:23:30.130 child gets sick and dies. And the person's reaction 00:23:30.130 --> 00:23:32.710 to that is to become a great Christian evangelist. 00:23:32.730 --> 00:23:35.569 And they go on to lead hundreds of millions of 00:23:35.569 --> 00:23:38.630 people to Jesus. Now we know that that child 00:23:38.630 --> 00:23:41.990 goes straight to heaven to be with God. The person 00:23:41.990 --> 00:23:43.589 is certainly going to be sad, they're going to 00:23:43.589 --> 00:23:45.450 miss their child, but they will get to see that 00:23:45.450 --> 00:23:48.910 child again someday. And God allowing that small 00:23:48.910 --> 00:23:51.789 amount of evil brings hundreds of millions of 00:23:51.789 --> 00:23:55.450 people to Jesus. There's also the philosophical 00:23:55.450 --> 00:23:58.589 school of Molinism, which holds that God doesn't 00:23:58.589 --> 00:24:01.190 just know everything, he also has the power of 00:24:01.190 --> 00:24:03.599 perfect prediction. This is based on a number 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:06.279 of scripture verses where God says, if X had 00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:09.440 happened, Y would have happened. And so they 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:11.920 expand this to look at the entire existence of 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:14.880 the universe. And what they suggest is that when 00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:17.000 God decided to create the universe, he had an 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:19.099 infinite number of possible universes he could 00:24:19.099 --> 00:24:21.700 have created. And he chose the universe with 00:24:21.700 --> 00:24:24.640 the best possible outcome for free will creatures. 00:24:25.019 --> 00:24:27.920 So there is always going to be some evil with 00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:30.119 free will creatures, but God picked the absolute 00:24:30.119 --> 00:24:34.849 best case universe. Some critics take the problem 00:24:34.849 --> 00:24:37.190 of evil even farther. That gives us objection 00:24:37.190 --> 00:24:40.890 six. God does bad things. They say that God doesn't 00:24:40.890 --> 00:24:45.490 just allow evil, God does evil, or God is evil. 00:24:45.690 --> 00:24:48.329 So they may admit that God exists, they may say 00:24:48.329 --> 00:24:50.690 that Christianity is true, but they say, I'm 00:24:50.690 --> 00:24:53.730 not going to follow an evil God. Well, we have 00:24:53.730 --> 00:24:56.250 a great answer to that in the book, Is God a 00:24:56.250 --> 00:24:59.720 Moral Monster? by Paul Copan. This book is incredible, 00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:02.079 and it examines a lot of the toughest cases in 00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:04.420 the Bible that really cause people to question 00:25:04.420 --> 00:25:07.980 God's goodness. One of these is the Israelite 00:25:07.980 --> 00:25:10.559 invasion of Canaan. To give you a little bit 00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:14.539 of context in this, basically, as God got ready 00:25:14.539 --> 00:25:16.980 to send the people into the Promised Land, it 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:19.319 was already occupied by the Canaanites. And so 00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:21.319 God ordered the Israelites to wipe them out. 00:25:21.500 --> 00:25:23.700 This is a real sticking point for a lot of people 00:25:23.700 --> 00:25:26.319 who would say, how could a good God order genocide? 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:31.500 Paul Copan investigates this situation and provides 00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:34.500 three really good explanations that change our 00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:36.900 interpretation of the story significantly. The 00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:39.400 first is this. The Canaanites were doing some 00:25:39.400 --> 00:25:42.220 horrible things. One of these is their propensity 00:25:42.220 --> 00:25:45.480 for child sacrifice. As archaeologists dig up 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:48.359 Canaanite structures, they find that live children 00:25:48.359 --> 00:25:50.400 were buried in the cornerstones of buildings, 00:25:50.599 --> 00:25:52.779 and sometimes, for really important buildings, 00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:55.490 multiple live children. They believed that their 00:25:55.490 --> 00:25:58.710 bloodthirsty gods loved that sacrifice so much 00:25:58.710 --> 00:26:01.029 that if there were live children buried in the 00:26:01.029 --> 00:26:03.029 foundation of the building and they died inside 00:26:03.029 --> 00:26:05.230 of it, that their god would bless that building. 00:26:05.849 --> 00:26:09.529 Now, it gets even worse what they did with sacrifices 00:26:09.529 --> 00:26:13.650 for crops. They believed their god Baal would 00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:16.630 bless their crops if there is a painful child 00:26:16.630 --> 00:26:19.509 sacrifice involved. So they would build these 00:26:19.509 --> 00:26:22.910 statues made out of bronze. The stomach of it 00:26:22.910 --> 00:26:25.690 was an oven, and the arms were outstretched, 00:26:25.789 --> 00:26:27.349 and they were set up so that they could hold 00:26:27.349 --> 00:26:31.470 a baby. And so one quote -unquote lucky couple 00:26:31.470 --> 00:26:33.710 would have their baby chosen and placed on his 00:26:33.710 --> 00:26:36.369 outstretched hands. Then the priest's bill would 00:26:36.369 --> 00:26:38.289 light a fire inside the belly of the statue. 00:26:38.470 --> 00:26:41.390 As the statue would heat up slowly, the baby 00:26:41.390 --> 00:26:43.710 would be cooked alive, and there were drummers 00:26:43.710 --> 00:26:46.730 surrounding the statue beating on the drums louder 00:26:46.730 --> 00:26:48.950 and louder to drown out the child's screams. 00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:52.960 That is absolutely horrendous. Now, the second 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:55.240 thing that Paul Copan points out was that God 00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:57.660 gave them hundreds of years of warnings to knock 00:26:57.660 --> 00:27:00.559 it off. They had at least 400 years of warnings 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:03.319 to stop sacrificing their children. Not only 00:27:03.319 --> 00:27:05.720 did they not stop, their practices kept getting 00:27:05.720 --> 00:27:09.980 more and more barbaric. Now, even if you say 00:27:09.980 --> 00:27:12.380 that that doesn't excuse God's command to wipe 00:27:12.380 --> 00:27:14.819 them out, there's a third thing to consider. 00:27:15.099 --> 00:27:17.960 It's called ancient Near East hyperbole rhetoric. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:21.299 Basically, back then, it was accepted that people 00:27:21.299 --> 00:27:24.440 would exaggerate in their speech. We do this 00:27:24.440 --> 00:27:27.779 now with our football teams. We might say that 00:27:27.779 --> 00:27:31.680 the Steelers dominated the Ravens, or the Ravens 00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:34.779 destroyed the Steelers. We don't mean that the 00:27:34.779 --> 00:27:37.039 Ravens or the Steelers... actually killed anybody 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:39.779 or destroyed anything. It's just hyperbole to 00:27:39.779 --> 00:27:42.220 express how the teams played. Well, they did 00:27:42.220 --> 00:27:44.920 that back then too. And God knows this. So when 00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:47.579 God is communicating with his people and he tells 00:27:47.579 --> 00:27:49.440 Joshua, hey, you're going to go in and you're 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:51.460 going to decimate, you're going to eradicate, 00:27:51.579 --> 00:27:53.059 you're going to wipe out the Canaanites, you're 00:27:53.059 --> 00:27:55.259 going to kill every man, woman, child, even the 00:27:55.259 --> 00:27:59.119 sheep. He understood that Joshua knew what he 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:01.259 really meant, which was to kill the military 00:28:01.259 --> 00:28:04.319 age males and to keep the women and the children 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:07.440 alive. And that is exactly what Joshua did because 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:10.519 we read just a couple of verses later after God 00:28:10.519 --> 00:28:12.339 gives that command. And then after Joshua says, 00:28:12.420 --> 00:28:14.720 yes, I wiped out the Canaanites, there's still 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:17.440 Canaanites around. So we know that Joshua understood 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:20.299 exactly what God meant. And God communicated 00:28:20.299 --> 00:28:22.380 in the language that Joshua would understand. 00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:24.900 And we could acknowledge that although God's 00:28:24.900 --> 00:28:27.180 actions may have been harsh, he was dealing with 00:28:27.180 --> 00:28:31.079 a very harsh situation. Now, that may wrap up 00:28:31.079 --> 00:28:32.980 the last objection, but we're not done because 00:28:32.980 --> 00:28:34.990 there's one more thing to talk about. And that's 00:28:34.990 --> 00:28:37.369 the fact that in apologetics, your attitude and 00:28:37.369 --> 00:28:40.130 tactics are just as important as the facts. You 00:28:40.130 --> 00:28:42.369 can have an answer to every single question somebody 00:28:42.369 --> 00:28:43.970 asks. You can have all the information in the 00:28:43.970 --> 00:28:46.109 world. You can have the entire Bible and a thousand 00:28:46.109 --> 00:28:48.269 different books memorized. But if you're a jerk, 00:28:48.410 --> 00:28:51.160 they're not going to listen to you. And so a 00:28:51.160 --> 00:28:53.579 great resource on how to be the best apologist 00:28:53.579 --> 00:28:56.880 possible is the book Tactics by Greg Kogel. He 00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:59.480 tells you how to talk, what questions to ask, 00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:01.440 gives you advice on dealing with all sorts of 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:04.700 tricky situations. If you only buy one book from 00:29:04.700 --> 00:29:07.039 all the resources tonight, make it this one. 00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:09.539 You can learn everything else later, but you've 00:29:09.539 --> 00:29:12.380 got to learn how to talk to people first. Let 00:29:12.380 --> 00:29:15.380 me summarize four points from his book. The first 00:29:15.380 --> 00:29:17.960 is this. Ask a lot of questions. You should be 00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:20.319 asking way more questions than you're answering, 00:29:20.420 --> 00:29:23.640 including Greg Kokel's big three questions. And 00:29:23.640 --> 00:29:26.579 they are, what do you mean by that? How did you 00:29:26.579 --> 00:29:29.039 come to that conclusion? And have you considered? 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:31.480 For instance, if somebody tells you that Christianity 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:35.079 is just a prank by alien teenagers who came here 00:29:35.079 --> 00:29:37.079 and planted all sorts of evidence, and they're 00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:39.500 all up in space laughing at us, well, first you've 00:29:39.500 --> 00:29:41.500 got to ask the question, what do you mean by 00:29:41.500 --> 00:29:43.779 that? ask the person to explain their entire 00:29:43.779 --> 00:29:46.880 worldview, and then you ask, how did you come 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:49.180 to that conclusion? What evidence do you have 00:29:49.180 --> 00:29:51.779 that any of that is true over the more common 00:29:51.779 --> 00:29:55.000 sense answer that it actually happened? And then 00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:57.539 finally, you would say to them, have you considered, 00:29:57.680 --> 00:29:59.960 and then you might present some of the evidence 00:29:59.960 --> 00:30:02.940 that we've talked about tonight. Now, we're not 00:30:02.940 --> 00:30:05.599 just asking a lot of questions. We want to, in 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:07.440 general, be listening more than we're speaking. 00:30:08.029 --> 00:30:11.089 If you had an hour to share the gospel with somebody, 00:30:11.190 --> 00:30:14.450 a famous Christian pastor once said, you should 00:30:14.450 --> 00:30:17.769 spend 55 of those minutes asking them questions 00:30:17.769 --> 00:30:20.089 and listening to their life story, and then spend 00:30:20.089 --> 00:30:22.529 the last five minutes explaining how the gospel 00:30:22.529 --> 00:30:26.569 applies to them. Third, you've got to show compassion 00:30:26.569 --> 00:30:29.109 while being committed to the truth. You know, 00:30:29.109 --> 00:30:31.410 some people love arguing, they love debating, 00:30:31.650 --> 00:30:34.349 but 99 % of people don't. People are going to 00:30:34.349 --> 00:30:36.349 come to you with legitimate questions and concerns. 00:30:36.490 --> 00:30:38.329 They may be talking to you about deeply held 00:30:38.329 --> 00:30:40.690 beliefs that they have had for decades. They 00:30:40.690 --> 00:30:42.650 might get angry. They might get confused. They 00:30:42.650 --> 00:30:44.170 might yell. They might cuss at you. They may 00:30:44.170 --> 00:30:47.470 call you bad names. You don't have to lie. You 00:30:47.470 --> 00:30:50.089 don't have to soften the truth. But use tact. 00:30:50.309 --> 00:30:53.250 Use compassion. Be gentle in your words, just 00:30:53.250 --> 00:30:56.750 like Jesus was. And finally, just like Jesus 00:30:56.750 --> 00:30:58.769 did, know when it's time to end the conversation. 00:30:59.369 --> 00:31:01.250 Jesus told the disciples when he sent them out, 00:31:01.309 --> 00:31:03.549 if a town doesn't welcome you, knock the dust 00:31:03.549 --> 00:31:05.490 off your sandals and move on to the next town. 00:31:06.309 --> 00:31:08.950 If someone gets angry about a certain fact and 00:31:08.950 --> 00:31:10.450 then you can talk to them and the conversation 00:31:10.450 --> 00:31:12.809 continues, that's one thing. But if somebody 00:31:12.809 --> 00:31:15.150 is yelling at you and screaming at you and cussing 00:31:15.150 --> 00:31:17.089 at you, and no matter what you say or do, it 00:31:17.089 --> 00:31:19.269 just keeps on going. Or if you can tell that 00:31:19.269 --> 00:31:22.450 somebody is not in the conversation in good faith, 00:31:22.529 --> 00:31:24.609 if they're just trolling you or trying to make 00:31:24.609 --> 00:31:26.690 you upset and they have no intention to actually 00:31:26.690 --> 00:31:29.220 learn about Christianity. Maybe it's time to 00:31:29.220 --> 00:31:32.079 leave. Frank Turek has a great question. When 00:31:32.079 --> 00:31:34.059 he thinks that somebody isn't being sincere, 00:31:34.279 --> 00:31:37.140 he stops the conversation and he says, let me 00:31:37.140 --> 00:31:40.039 ask you one question. If Christianity was true, 00:31:40.259 --> 00:31:43.059 would you be a Christian? If the person says 00:31:43.059 --> 00:31:45.460 yes, he continues with them, no matter how difficult 00:31:45.460 --> 00:31:48.339 they are. But if the person says no, he ends 00:31:48.339 --> 00:31:50.960 the conversation. Because the person is not ready 00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:53.319 to change their mind, there's no point beating 00:31:53.319 --> 00:31:55.559 your head against a wall. And finally, speaking 00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:57.799 to Frank Turk, I want to give you one final resource 00:31:57.799 --> 00:32:00.099 recommendation, but this one is free. It's the 00:32:00.099 --> 00:32:02.980 Cross -Examined app. Frank runs an organization 00:32:02.980 --> 00:32:05.500 called Cross -Examined, which trains apologists. 00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:08.599 The Cross -Examined app has all of the questions 00:32:08.599 --> 00:32:10.480 and answers that he commonly answers. It has 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:12.200 training videos. It has all sorts of different 00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:15.319 resources. It has conversation starters. It's 00:32:15.319 --> 00:32:17.579 one of the most... Amazing resources you can 00:32:17.579 --> 00:32:19.940 keep on your phone or your tablet anytime you're 00:32:19.940 --> 00:32:22.500 engaging with other people. And it's great. If 00:32:22.500 --> 00:32:23.819 you're in a conversation with somebody and they 00:32:23.819 --> 00:32:26.319 ask you a really tough question, you can ask 00:32:26.319 --> 00:32:28.279 them to hold on just a second. Like, hey, my 00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:30.259 cat is texting me because I'm late giving him 00:32:30.259 --> 00:32:32.019 dinner. Give me just a second to text him back. 00:32:32.180 --> 00:32:33.960 And then you can pop up the Cross -Examine app, 00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:36.059 look up the answer, and then be like, all right, 00:32:36.079 --> 00:32:38.180 the cat's happy. Hey, do you know about the fine 00:32:38.180 --> 00:32:40.079 -tuning of the universe? You could probably be 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:42.619 a little smoother than I was there, but you get 00:32:42.619 --> 00:32:46.299 the point. Anyway. Thank you guys for coming 00:32:46.299 --> 00:32:48.039 out tonight. I hope you enjoyed learning about 00:32:48.039 --> 00:32:50.099 apologetics. We're going to dig more into a lot 00:32:50.099 --> 00:32:52.099 of the different areas in the future. But for 00:32:52.099 --> 00:32:53.339 tonight, have a great night.