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Advanced Apologetics and World Views

                                                      Dr. Kris Bjorgen

                                        Chapter 1: What is Apologetics?

                          Connect …


               There is a high percentage of students who graduate from high school and go on to a state operated
               university or college.   According to Ratio Christi, 75% of Christian teens leave their faith when they
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               attend a secular college.   College students are bombarded with competing worldviews.  Professors are
               challenging their faith.  Most students entering college have never had to defend the faith of their
               parents or what faith they have.  They really don’t know why they believe something to be true or false,
               and when challenged, they have no defense.

               This course is all about apologetics.  It is designed to teach you a Biblical worldview and how to defend
               that worldview against skeptics who may challenge you.  A Biblical worldview is reasonable and
               defendable.  You need to be able to learn why it is so.  So, let’s begin our course by defining an apologist
               and seeing how we can defend the existence of God.



                        Objectives …



               1.  The student should be able to give the definition of what an apologist is.

               2.  The student should be able to site the verse in Scripture that demand that they become an apologist,
               along with its cautions.


               3.  The student should be able to give the theological argument for the existence of God.


                          The Lesson …



               What is an Apologist?

               The Scripture demand that every believer become an apologist.  There is a great difference between the
               word, “apologize” and an “apologist”.  An apologist does not apologize to others for his faith; he rather
               defends why He believes what He believes with gentleness and respect.  The Greek word apologia
               means “defense” and is a legal term which relates to the defense of a person who is being prosecuted in
               a court of law.   The defense attorney declares the truth of the case before the judge.

               The very first apologists in the Christian faith were the disciples and Apostle Paul, along with others in
               the first century who were spreading the Gospel in the Roman world.  Here is what is said of them:


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