Apologetics Lectures 05

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS
Lecture No. 1:
Definition and Use of Christian Apologetics
Objectives:
1. To introduce to students the subject
2. To learn different definitions and the use of Christian apologetics.
A.
Etymology
• The word, apologetics comes from the Greek word, apologia which means defence. The
word, defence indicates a defence of conduct and procedure.
• The basic English translation of apologia is apology.
• It was used predominantly in early times, especially, in the legal courts of Athens.
• If one was accused before the court he had the right of making a reply to the accusations.
• The reply of the defendant to the accusation is called apologia.
• The verb, apologestai means to make reply, to give an answer, or to legally defend one’s
self.
• The word, apologetics is not found in the Bible, but the noun apologia translated by the
English word, ‘defence’ and the verb, apologestai translated by such expression as ‘to
make reply,’ to give answer,’ or ‘to make one’s defence,’ are used in the New Testament
(Acts 22:1; 25:16; 1Cor. 9:3; 2Cor. 7:11; Phil. 1:7,16; 2Tim. 4:16; 1Pet. 3:15).
• As an example we will look into 1 Pet. 3:15.
Memory Verse: 1 Peter 3:15:
B.
1 Pet. 3:15 “But in your hearts set apart Christ as
Lord. Always be prepared to give an
• This verse talks about 3 things: answer to everyone who asks you to give
1. Sanctify Christ in your heart. the reason for the hope that you have.”
• It indicates the personal commitment on the part of the Christian.
2. Always be ready to make a defence.
• It is a command to every believer to be ready upon every occasion to give to every one
who asks the reason for his faith commitment.
3. Do it with gentleness and reverence.
• It points out the proper attitude with which the defence is to be made.
• It is not with intellectual pride but with meekness, fear, and a good conscience.
• We need to have respect to the person to whom we talk.
• It is because of the fact that he is also a person who is created in the image of God like us
and in need of a personal Saviour.
• Here is a direct exhortation by an apostle for Christians to engage in apologetics.
C.
An apologia may be of 2 types
1. It may be a formal court of defence as it was in Paul’s case as we see in 2
Timothy 4:16 where Paul speaks of his ‘first defence.’
2. It may mean an informal defence of one’s faith, which is perhaps the
meaning of Peter.
D.
Definitions
Ramm Bernard :
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Christian apologetics may be defined as the strategy of setting forth

truthfulness of the Christian faith and its right to the claim of the knowledge
of God.
• Apologetics is defending the truthfulness of the Christian faith as well as the knowledge of
God.
Robert L. Raymond :
Christian apologetics is the discipline wherein an intelligent effort is made
to defend before and unbelieving world the truth claims of the Christian
faith, specifically its claim of exclusive true knowledge of the living and
true God, in a manner consistent with the teaching of Scripture.
• Theology defines the contents of revealed truth.
• But apologetics defends or presents compelling reasons to the mind to receive this revealed
truth.
• It does not imply that the Christian is obliged to reason men and women into the Kingdom
of God.
• The objective of apologetics is not to convince a man unwillingly, contrary to his will, to
become a Christian.
• It is to enable Christians to articulate the rational ground for their hope, which answer will
include a clear statement of God’s redemptive activity in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
J.P. Moreland:
Apologetics can be defined as that New Testament ministry which seeks to
provide rational grounds for believing Christianity in whole or in part and to
respond to objections raised against Christianity in whole or in part.
• Hence Apologetics is a ministry designed to help unbelievers to overcome intellectual
obstacles to conversion and believers to remove doubts that hinder spiritual growth.
• According to Moreland, apologetics is an absolutely essential ingredient to biblical
evangelism.
Readings:
1. Raymond, Robert L. The Justification of Knowledge: An Introductory Study in
Christian Apologetics Methodology. New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed
Publishing Co. 1976. pp. 1-4.
2. Ramm, Bernard. Protestant Christian Evidences. Chicago: Moody Press. 1953. pp.
1-44.
3. Ramm, Bernard. Varieties of Christian Apologetics. Michigan: Baker Book House.
1961. pp. 11-15.
4. Philip, Mathew. The Unique Christ-Dialogue in Missions. Bangalore: CFCC, 2006.
Study Questions:
1. Give a detailed exposition of the passage 1 Peter 3:15 and bring out biblical principles
of apologetics.
2. Make a definition of your own and find the use of Christian apologetics.
Lecture No. 2
The Necessity of Apologetics
Objectives:
1. To help students understand the necessity of defending the gospel truth.
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2. To make them aware of the danger of present day Christianity.
A.
Is it really necessary to defend Christianity?
• Apologetics is essential in a day when the foundations of our Christian faith are being
challenged by both Christians and non-Christians. There are challengers to our faith on
every hand.
• Modern communications have made the world a global village.
• We are likely to be challenged by Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other religious groups.
All of them claim valid religious experience that may approximate ours.
• From within Christendom we are now being told God is dead.
• Since we make unique claim about Christ, we need to defend the truth.
• Since Christianity is misunderstood as western religion, superior, intolerant, arrogant, etc.,
we need to give an answer to these challenges.
• Many non-Christians fail to consider the Gospel seriously because no one has ever
presented the facts to them cogently. They associate faith with superstition based
primarily on emotional considerations, and therefore they reject it out of hand. But there
is an intellectual factor in the Gospel. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit no man will
believe. But one of the instruments the Holy Spirit uses to bring enlightenment is a
reasonable explanation of the Gospel and of God’s dealings with men.
• There is a biblical command to Christians to be intelligent in their faith (1 Pet. 3:15). If
we are unable to give reasons for our faith, and if we allow the same questions to defeat us
in conversation time after time, we are being disobedient. By our own ignorance, we are
confirming unbelievers in their unbelief.
B. What do we have for our defence?

• For our defence,
1. We have the objective, external, historical facts of the Resurrection, and
2. We have the subjective, internal, personal experience of Christ.
• We don’t have full answers to every question because the Lord has not fully revealed His
mind to us on everything (Duet. 29:29; 1 Cor. 13:12).
• We possess enough information, however, to have a solid foundation under our faith.
• Faith in Christianity is based on evidence.
• It is reasonable faith.
• Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it.
• For the strengthening of our own faith and for the help of others, we must be ready to give
an answer to everyone who asks us a reason for the hope that is within us.
• According to Cornelius Van Til, preaching is the best apologetics.
• Others say that reason plays an important role, but it does not play a primary role.
• Reason is not sufficient cause for faith, but a necessary condition for it.
• No one becoming a Christian without any reasoning.
C. What Does Christian Defend?
• Not all things done in the name of Christ are defensible.

• It is the truth given in the Scripture that we have to express or defend (Jude v.3).
D. Who Needs Apologetics?
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• Apologetics is needed for both non-Christians and believers.

1. NON-CHRISTIANS:
• For some, the Gospel is foolishness.
• For others, it is a myth.
• To some others, it is the social conditions of the people.
• The problem of evil and suffering may be the issue of some.
• We must find some reasons for these problems.
• Apologetics has a role to play in removing obstacles and clearing the grounds for belief.
• Christian apologetics must stimulate the non-Christians.
2. BELIEVERS:
• There can be doubt in the faith of Christians.
• Apologetics will help them to clear their doubts and will make them ready to give a
reason for the faith that lies within.
• Apologetics will help believers not to fall into the snare of certain charismatic
preachers and miracle workers who do a lot of magic and mimics in their ministry and
lead people follow them. They look for large gathering and following and not for
teaching truth of the Bible as it is.
Readings:
1. Geisler, Norman. Christian Apologetics. Michigan: Baker Book House. 1976.pp.
237-259.
2. Ramm, Bernard. Protestant Christian Evidences. Chicago: Moody Press. 1953.
pp. 14-16.
3. Hanegraaff, Hank. Christianity in Crisis. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House
Publishers. 1993. pp. 9-40.
4. Ramm, Bernard. Varieties of Christian Apologetics. Michigan: Baker Book
House. 1961. pp. 11-15.
Study Questions:
1. We have the objective, external, historical facts of the Resurrection, and we have
the subjective, internal, personal experience of Christ. Discuss in detail the above
statement.
2. What makes apologetics necessary today?
Lecture No. 3
Elements of Apologetics
Objectives:
1. To help students to be aware of the context in which they engage in apologetics.
2. They will also learn where to start and how to respond to different people.
• What are the elements involved in developing apologetic perspective to the challenges
faced by Christianity?
• There are 3 Elements.

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A.
Context:
• This is the context of the challenge.
• This varies from culture to culture and sometimes person to person.
• The answer that we give must be according to the context of the person who asks.
• Evidence has to be chosen to suit the particular cultural context and felt needs.
• For example, in Western countries abstract ideas are important.
• In non-Western countries concrete ideas are important which means we can give
scripture evidence for God’s power.
• For Africans genealogies are very important.
• Christianity is based on facts but which facts should be chosen as evidence depends on
the context.
           
B.

• What point of view is there in the mind and heart of the unbeliever to which the believer
may appeal when he presents to him the Christian view of life?
• Is there an area known by both or a common ground on which we can present the
gospel?
• According to Cornelius Van Til, it will be quite impossible to find a common area of
knowledge between believers and unbelievers unless there is agreement between them as
to the nature of man himself.
• But there is no such agreement. Deferent people approach the problem from their own
viewpoints.
• To combine or unify all these particular aspects and perspectives is impossible.
• It is therefore imperative that the Christian apologists be alert to the fact that the average
person to whom he must present the Christian gospel for acceptance is a quite different
sort of being than he himself thinks he/she is.
• The Christian apologists must see things and present them from God’s perspective and
not from man’s perspectives.
• A good doctor will not prescribe medicines according to the diagnosis that his patient has
made of himself or herself.
• The patient may think that he needs nothing more than a bottle of medicine while the
doctor knows that an immediate operation is required.
• Apologists then must present the facts in a way that must fit in well (consistency).
• The Christian gospel makes sense only in the light of God’s character and purposes.
• So the implications of a theistic viewpoint must be understood, that, a perspective in
which God is the Creator, sustainer, and redeemer.
• From Christian perspective creation expresses God’s good purposes.
• The person reflects God’s own character and thus infinite value.
• History tells the story of God’s active intervention to restore the fallen human order.
What the Christian apologist offers is not so much a challenge to listen to our reason, but
an invitation to look at the world as it is and to respond to the gospel.
C.
The Starting Point
• Does apologetics seek faith or reason (understanding of faith)?
• What do we look for?
• Which comes the first? Faith or Reason?
• It is impossible to separate the two.
• A genuine response (faith) involves some understanding (Rom. 10:14).
• There are people who say, “I understand and I believe (Intelligo et Credo).
• There are others who say, “I believe in order that I may understand” (Credo ut
intelligam).
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• People who belong to the first group are Justin Martyr who talked about logos; Thomas
Aquinas who gave the basic foundation of Roman Catholic theology; and Joseph Butler
who said that the principles of morality (right and wrong) are intuitively (conscious)
evident.
• Benjamin B. Warfield who was the professor of didactic and polemic theology at
Princeton Theological Seminary(1887-1921) said that the Holy Spirit is necessary to
produce saving faith, but reason can produce the grounds(basis) of such faith.
• For faith involves mental assent (agreement with mind) and assent is conviction
produced by evidence. Holy Spirit never bypasses the mind.
• Those who belong to the second group are Augustince, John Anselm, Calvin, Pascal and
other reformed theologians.
• They say that the witness of the Holy Spirit is and ever will be the only power, which
can carry into our consciousness the certainty concerning the Scripture.
• Does this mean that the Holy Spirit bypasses the mind?
• God requires a total response of mind and will.
• The relationship that comes because of emotion does not last.
• But apologetics is not just a work of reason.
• It can be seen as a tool of evangelism as part of the process of persuading people to
accept Christ as God.
Readings:
Publishers. 1993. pp. 217-231.
2. Chapman, Colin. Christianity on Trial. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House
Publishers. Inc., 1975. pp. vii – xiii.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss in detail the role of faith and reason in apologetics.
2. How do the context and view point help a Christian to engage in apologetics?
Lecture No. 4/5/6

Major Problems Confronting Christian Apologetics
Objectives:
1. To help students tackle with the major issues that Christian apologetics faces.
2. To equip them to understand well of different concepts of God and Christianity.
• The following are some of the problems facing Christian Apologetics.

A. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIANITY?
• In confrontation with this question early church fathers gave differing answers.
• Some church fathers believed that philosophy was inspired by demons.
• The most eloquent spokesman of this idea was Tertullian.
• He asked, “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” He demanded, “What concord is
there between the Academy and the Church?”
• Faith needs no help from philosophy. Why should a Christian try to be reasonable?
• Just opposite to this, Alexandrians like Origen, Clement and others argued that Greek
philosophy was inspired by Logos.
• Just as the Old Testament was the introduction to Christ the Word for the Jews, so the Logos in
Greek philosophy was the introduction to Christ for the Greeks.
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• These men affirmed that the noble Greek philosophers were Christians.
• Augustine saw a role in philosophy of servant or help to theology.
• He did not bestow any divine status upon philosophy.
• Thomas Aquinas gave philosophy an independent status and considered philosophy a unique
tool for the writing of Christian apologetics and theology.
• Blaise Pascal suggested that philosophy has a right of its own but outside of the Christian
faith.
• It can be pursued like physics or geography and so exist in its own right and integrity.
• According to Karl Barth Christian theology has no permanent alliance with any particular
philosophy, because no philosophy corresponds exactly with the divine revelation.
• Theologians can use philosophical methods or principles or categories, but he must be prepared
to alter them or correct them as light is thrown upon them from his study of the Scripture.
B.WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THEISTIC PROOFS (PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD)?
There are 5 positions:
1. Theistic proofs are valuable and show that God is.
• It attempts to demonstrate the existence of God by human reason without the help of the special
revelation and of the Holy Spirit.
• Thomas Acquinas is the proponant of this position.
2. Theistic proofs are not absolutely convincing. But they are reasonable and to be
supplemented by moral conviction or religious insight.
• Charles Hodge (Princeton Theologian) and E.Y. Mullins (Southern Baptist Apologists) are the
proponents of this position.
3. Theistic proofs are logically invalid and cannot be supplemented by moral insight or
religious conviction.
• It says that there is a violation of a principle of logic, or the vague use of some terms.
• Thus “fire causes heat” is not the same order of meaning as “God causes the universe.”
• If we believe in God then it must be on some other grounds than the theistic proofs.
4. Mere theistic proof is inconsequential.
• The real issue is whether we possess a knowledge of God or not which leads us to the love,
worship, and service of God.
• A proof just does not say enough.
• Calvin is the representative of this position.
5. Theistic proofs are irreligious.
• According to them theistic proofs is just a mental exercise.
• These are man’s method of keeping God’s truth.
• According to it theistic proofs Consider completely with a philosophical abstraction, but never
with the living God of biblical revelation or the gospel of Jesus Christ.
C. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF SIN FOR APOLOGETICS?

• What significance do the effects of sin carry for man’s ability to know God?
• Is the reason of a depraved man reliable?
• According to Palagius there is no depravity in man. So theoretically the human mind is not
sinful.
• According to Roman Catholic theology human nature is still complete even though deprived of
original righteousness.
• Man is depraved to the extent that he needs God’s revelation to learn the way of salvation, and
God’s grace to trust the Saviour.
• As human mind is competent it can create a true philosophy and thus may prove the existence of
God.
• According to Reformers man does not think abstractly. The total man thinks.
• If the total man suffers depravity, then, his reason is also depraved.
D. WHAT IS THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF GENERAL AND SPECIAL REVELATION?

• There are 2 types of revelation.
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• They are the general revelation and special revelation.

• What is the relationship of these two revelations?
• According to Roman Catholic position man can prove the existence of God and know some of
his attributes through general revelation apart from Christ and apart from grace.
• Reformers like Luther and Calvin agreed that there is a general revelation, but it is not sufficient
to lead a man to God.
• Only in special revelation, is the sinner purified so that he or she can recover the truth of God in
General revelation.
E. WHAT KIND OF CERTAINTY DOES CHRISTIANITY OFFER?

• Some say that man’s life is guided by principles graced with a high degree of probability.
• Even if Christianity were absolute in its truth-status, we as imperfect creatures would only
probably know this.
• So there is no certainty in Christianity!
• On the other hand some apologists say that along with the sense of surety of our salvation, God
gives the Christian an additional gift of the certainty of the Christian faith as true.
• According to Cornelius Van Til, it is the very nature of the Christian faith to impart a sense of
real certainty, and not merely probability.
F. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE COMMON GROUND BETWEEN BELIEVER AND UNBELIEVER THAT AFFORDS A POINT
OF CONTACT FOR INTELLIGIBLE CONVERSION?
• Some argue that there is no such common ground on which both the believer and unbeliever can
stand to discuss truth.
• If such a neutral or common ground exists the sinner will use it as a fulcrum against revelation.
• He will not properly use it, but abuse it.
• There are others who believe that general revelation forms the point of contact.
• Others would say that common grace overcomes our depravity so that we may see the truth of
general revelation, which in turn leads us to special revelation.
G. WHAT IS THE CHARACTER OF FAITH?
• If we say the entire man believes, it might be asked which part of man believes the most?
• To some it is the mind that believes.
• To others faith is fundamentally an act of the will under moral guidance.
• To some others faith is located in the emotions.
• Faith is fundamentally an act of the will, mind, emotion, and the body.
• In other words we can say that faith is an act of the whole being or the entire man.
H. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE?

• In order to argue for the divine origin of Christian faith we have all of those reasons from the
nature of Scripture, from the person of Christ, and from the history of the Church
• In other words we can say that it is reasonable, experiential, and historical faith.
• The basic elements are the fulfilment of prophecy, miracles, and the resurrection of Christ.
• The evidentialists accept Christian evidences as the God-given means of affirming the Christian
faith to ordinary people.
• According to them any person graced with common sense and free from prejudice can
ascertain that Jesus rose from the dead and can understand in this the divinity of the Christian
faith.
• According to Calvin, man cannot be free from prejudice for sin is a deep, permanent prejudice
against the truth of God.
• Only the Holy Spirit can prevail in the heart and then we may appeal to Christian evidences.
• Neither the Holy Spirit nor the Christian evidences replace each other.
Readings:
1. Ramm, Bernard. Varieties of Christian Apologetics. Michigan: Baker Book House. 1961.
pp. 17-27.
2. Ramm, Bernard. Protestant Christian Evidences. Chicago: Moody Press. 1953. pp. 16-44.
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Christian Apologetics Methodology. New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing
Co. 1976. pp. 7-8.
4. Hanegraaff, Hank. Christianity in Crisis. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers.
1993. pp. 217-231.
Study Questions:
1. “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” He demanded, “What concord
is there between the Academy and the Church?” Discuss this quotation in detail.
2. Critically evaluate different proofs for the existence of God.
3. According to Cornelius Van Til, it is the very nature of the Christian faith to
impart a sense of real certainty, and not merely probability. Analyse and substantiate this
statement with Biblical proof.
Lecture No. 7
The Task of Christian Apologetics
Objectives:
1. To help students understand the importance of knowing the content of the gospel
before they defend it.
2. To prepare them with the several aspects of the task confronting Christian
apologetics.
• Apologetics should follow upon the disciplines determining the content of the Christian
faith.
• One has to know what he is defending before he defends it.
• As a defence of the faith there are several aspects of the task confronting Christian
apologetics.
• They are the following:
A. TO ANSWER PARTICULAR OBJECTIONS
• The Christian apologists will often find him confronted with specific objections against
the Christian faith, such as, alleged contradictions between Scriptural statements.
• The apologist needs to answer such objections on the basis of scholarly research and
accurate exegesis.
B. TO GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
• Here the apologists will have to deal with such questions as the following:
• Does God exist?
• Has He revealed Himself?
• If so, how and where?
• Why do I believe?
• And most fundamental of all, how do I know that what I
believe is true?
C. TO CHALLENGE NON-CHRISTIAN SYSTEMS
• The earliest theologians of the church after the age of the apostles were called apologists
as they had to address defences of Christianity to the emperor or to the educated public
generally.
• They had to explain, for instance, that Christian references to eating flesh and blood did
not mean they practiced cannibalism and their talk of love did not mean they had
immorality.
• It gradually became apparent that any defence of the faith must be built upon the positive
affirmation of the Christian faith and its implications for non-Christian systems.
• In recent years certain Christian apologists have not only attempted to expose the
irrationality inherent within non-Christian systems of thought but have also challenged
these systems to justify epistemologically their very existence.
• For example, Cornelius Van Til and Gorden H. Clark.
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D. TO PERSUADE MEN OF THE TRUTH

• The ultimate goal of Christian apologetics is to persuade men of the truth of the Christian
position.
• It means that Christian apologetics is not only concerned with correct epistemological
theory but at bottom is also evangelistic and kerygmatic.
• The task of Christian apologists is a part of evangelism.
• For example, Paul’s activity in this regard is described in Acts 18:4, 28 and 19:8. He
was dialoguing (dialegeto). He was trying to persuade (epeithen). He was reasoning
(dialogomenos) and persuading (peithon).
Readings:
Christian Apologetics Methodology. New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing
Co. 1976. pp. 3-7
2. Little, Paul E. Know What You Believe. Illinois: Victor Books. 1970.
3. Little, Paul E. Know Why You Believe. Illinois: Victor Books. 1978.
4. McDowell, Josh. Evidence that Demands a Verdict. California: Here’s Life Publishers,
Inc. 1979.
Study Questions:
1. What is the ultimate task of Christian apologetics?
Lecture No. 8
Apologetics in the New Testament Times
Objectives:
• Students will study a brief survey of the history of Christian apologetics that is done
from lecture No. 8 – 13.
• It will help one understand the development of Christian apologetics from New
Testament time to the present.
• We will study in brief the apologetic work in the New Testament times.
We see mainly 4 things during the time of New Testament:

A. Each Gospel is an apologetic writing
• Matthew defended both the identity and teaching of Jesus.
• He shows Jesus as the Messiah and Jewish Saviour.
• Jesus is revealed not as just another prophet or teacher but as the very Son of God who
will one day sit on His throne in heavenly glory and judge all nations.
• Matthew also emphasise the Kingship and the Kingdom of Jesus.
• Mark is a defence of the ministry of Christ (Mk. 2:10.11,28).

• He appealed to the Roman mind emphasizing Jesus’ active service as the Son of God.
• It shows us how Jesus was the obedient, faithful and willing servant of God.
• Mark also emphasized the fact that Christ carried out His mission with zeal and
purpose.
• Luke defended the humanity of Jesus.

• In his account of the life of Jesus, Luke emphasized its human, historical, and
theological aspects.
• He stressed the historical nature of the life of Christ.
• He also defended Jesus’ work of Salvation and His role as Redeemer.
• John defended the divinity and uniqueness of Christ.

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• John’s purpose was to lead people to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
B. Confrontation with Judaism

• It begins from the time of Christ. On the road to Emmaus He spoke to the two (Luke
24:13-35). He defended the new faith.
• Apostles defended this new faith and experience. For example, Peter stood on the Day
of Pentecost and addressed the Jews the defence of Christian faith (Acts 2:14-40).
• The book of Acts is a defence of Christian faith to the educated Romans.
C. Confrontation with Greek thoughts and paganism

• The cross was foolishness to the Greek mind (1 Cor. 1:18).
• Apostles had to defend the Christian faith, as they were not able to grasp the special
revelation.
• Apostle Paul used natural revelation in his sermons in Lystra (Acts 14:15-17) and in
Athens (Acts 17:16-34).
D. Confrontation with the Roman Empire

• This arose out of the conflict between Jews and the secular rulers (Mk. 12:14-17; 1 Pet.
2:13-17; Rom. 13).
Readings:
• Mk. 2:10.11,28; Acts 2:14-40;; Mk. 12:14-17; 1 Pet. 2:13-17; Rom. 13.
• Acts 14:15-17 & Acts 17:16-34.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss in detail the apologetic writings in the Gospels.
2. Explain in detail different apologia of apostles in the Book of Acts.
3. Do an exegesis of the Paul’s Sermons in Athens and Lystra.
Lecture No. 9
Apologetics in the Early Church - Apologists
Objectives:
1. To study the role of the apologists in defending Christian faith
2. To learn their practice and methods of defending Christian truth.
• Both Apologists and Polemics began their activity during this time.
• We will briefly look into the work of apologists in this lecture.
Apologists
• These writers turned their attention to the defence of Christianity against the hostile
criticism of those outside the church both pagans and Jews.
• They tried to present Christianity to emperors and to the public as politically harmless, and
to defend Christian morality, which was under attack.
• Their writings, known as apologies, made a rational appeal to the pagan leaders and aimed
to create an intelligent understanding of Christianity and to remove legal disabilities from
it.
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• These men were philosophers rather than theologians, and used the general framework of
Greek philosophy in their defence.
• These writers looked upon Greek philosophy as a means to lead people to Christ.
• They used the New Testament more than the apostolic fathers did.
• The apologists were divided into two:
Eastern Apologists & Western Apologists.
• Justin Martyr was the chief representative of the Eastern apologists with others like
Aristides, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Theophilus of Antioch.
• The Western apologetic writers laid a greater emphasis on the distinctiveness and finality
of Christianity than they did on the similarities between the Christian faith and the pagan
religions.
• Tertullian was the outstanding apologist of the Western church.
a. Justin Martyr (100-165)

• Justin Martyr was born of pagan parents, came from Palestine, settled in Rome, and was
killed under persecution about 165.
• He presented Christianity as the best of philosophies.
• He sought to reconcile the claims of faith and reason.
• He wrote his First Apology to Emperor Antoninus Pius, urging the emperors to examine
the charges against the Christians and to free them from legal disabilities if they were
innocent.
• He proved that Christians were not atheists or idolaters.
• Then he wrote his Second Apology as an appendix to the First Apology.
• In it Justin cited illustrations of cruelty and injustice to Christians and, after a comparison
of Christ and Socrates, pointed out that the good in men is due to Christ.
• In his Dialogue With Trypho, Justine tried to convince the Jews of the messiahship of
Jesus Christ.
• In it he developed the idea of the temporary nature of the old covenant, the linking of the
Logos - Christ - with God, and the calling of the Gentiles as the people of God.
• To him Christ was the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies.
• He emphasised philosophy’s continuity with Christianity and its Jewish roots.
• According to him philosophers teach us that the reason in every human being participates
in the universal logos, and we learn from the Gospel of John that in Jesus Christ the logos
became flesh. Therefore, whenever people use their reason, Christ, the Logos is already at
work.
• Christ is the Word of whom all mankind partake.
• Those who lived by reason are Christians, even though they have been considered atheists.
• Thus he considered Socrates a Christian.
• He attacked Greek and Roman myths, which he described as the work of demons.
• He found some common ground between Christianity and philosophy and built superiority
of the Christian faith.
• Like most people who try to find a compromise, Justin was accused of modifying
Christian faith to suit philosophy.
• Whatever the case may be, it is true that he tried to think about Christianity in terms of the
best ideas of his time.
b. Aristides
• About 140, Aristides, a Christian philosopher of the city of Athens, directed an apology to
the Emperor Antoninus Pius.
• He tried to show that the Christians had a fuller understanding of God than the Barbarians,
the Greeks, and the Jews.
• He talked about the superiority of Christian worship over others and the nature of
Christian love is a sign of the superiority of Christians.
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c. Tatian (110-172)
• Tatian, the Assyrian, a disciple of Justine Martyr, wrote a Discourse to the Greek around
170 AD in which he vindicates Christianity by comparison with paganism.
• He argued that since Christianity is superior to Greek religion and thought, Christians
should be given fair treatment.
d. Athenagoras
• He was a professor of Athens who had been converted by reading the Scriptures.
• About 177 he wrote a work called Supplication for the Christians to Marcus Auralius.
• He refuted the charge of atheism made against the Christians by showing that the pagan
gods are merely human creations and the pagan gods are guilty of the same immoralities as
their human followers.
e. Theophilus of Antioch
• He was also converted by the reading of the Scriptures.
• He wrote his Apology to Autolycus.
• Autolycus was apparently a learned pagan magistrate whom Theophilus hoped to win to
Christianity by rational arguments.
• He discussed the nature and superiority of God.
• He was probably the first to give the philosophical defence of the Christian doctrine of
God as three-in-one.
f. Tertullian (160-220)
• He was a North African Christian and a lawyer who became Christian in Rome about 195
AD.
• He returned to Carthage and joined the Montanist for a while and later formed his own
party.
• He wrote many apologetic, theological and ascetic works in Latin and Greek.
• He prepared his apologies against paganism, Judaism, and even the Roman Government on
behalf of Christianity.
• He refuted the old charges against the Christians and argued that they were loyal citizens
of the empire.
• He pointed out that persecution is a failure anyway because the Christians multiply every
time the authorities try to down them by persecution.
• Like other apologists, Tertullian insisted that Christians would be peaceful citizens, but he
saw them as observers, not participant in the society.
• He opposed any kind of compromise of the Christian faith.
• He had a low view of philosophy.
• He fought for a faith that did not bend to the winds of the society around it.
• He warned of the dangers of compromising faith to make it socially acceptable.
In brief, the method of the apologists was to find a common ground between Christianity and
philosophy and to build the superiority of the Christian faith.
The truth of philosophy is thus affirmed and used in the task of apologetics.
This became a model for future apology.
Readings:
1. Cairns, Earle Edwin. Christianity Through the Centuries. Michigan: Zondervan. 1954. pp. 105-113.
2. Jones, Willian. Church History . Montana: Triangle Press. 1993.
3. Baker, Robert. A Summary of Christian History. Tennessee: Broadman Press. 1959.
Study Questions:
Discuss in detail the work of apologists and how it shaped the early Christian theology.
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Lecture No. 10
Apologetics in the Early Church Period - Polemicists
Objectives:
1. To introduce to students various works of early church fathers who fought against the
heresies within the Church.
2. To learn how polemicists defended Christian faith against heresies of the first century.
• The Polemicists of the late second century and the early third century wrote to meet the
challenges of heresies and errors within the church.
• The also condemned the false teachings by their arguments and use of the New Testament.
a. Iranaeus (130-200)
• He was born in Smyrna, and had been influenced by Polycarp’s preaching while Polycarp
was bishop of Smyrna.
• From there Iranaeus went to Gaul, and later he became bishop of Lyons.
• He is called the Anti-Gnostic Polemicist because he wrote against Gnosticism.
• He wrote his great work, Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies) in 185.
• It is a philosophical polemic against Valentinian, the leader of the Roman school of
Gnosticism.
• He insisted the unity of God in opposition to the Gnostic idea of the demiurge as distinct
from God.
• The Scriptures and the church tradition refute Gnosticism.
• He defended the doctrine of the Resurrection.
b. Clement of Alexandria
• Clement was born about 160 A.D.
• He was one of the first systematizers of Christen doctrine.
• He was trained in a Christian school formed by Pantaenus at Alexandria and succeeded his
teacher as the head of the school.
• He prepared an elementary book of Christian instruction for children and new convert.
• He addressed an eloquent work to the Greeks in an effort to win them to the gospel.
• He also prepared some speculative discussions of the profound truths of Christianity as a
challenge for philosophers to accept the Christian faith.
c. Origen (185-254)
• Origen is called one of the greatest minds in the history of Christianity.
• He was the disciple of Clement and succeeded him as the head of the same school.
• Origen gathered texts of the Scriptures in various languages, wrote commentaries on
almost the whole Bible, fought literary battles with paganism, set forth devotional and
practical exhortations on many aspects of Christian life, and prepared the first systematic
theology.
• His principal works are,
(I) Hexapla in which several Hebrew and Greek versions of the Old Testament are
arranged in parallel columns.
(II) Against Celsus, which is a statement of and an answer to the charges that the
Platonist Celsus had made against the Christians in his True Discourse.
(III) De Principiis which has come down to us only in Latin version. This work is the
first Christian treatise of systematic theology.
• Origen is the one who developed the allegorical system of interpretation at great length.
• He was a great writer and gave philosophical defence of the Christian doctrine of God.
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• Unfortunately he believed the subordination of Christ to the Father and held the ideas of
the pre-existence of the soul.
• He was criticised because of his teaching that all souls would achieve salvation in the end.
• He propagated the teaching of Christ’s death as a ransom to Satan and denied a physical
resurrection.
• He was condemned in the first and second council of Constantinople (543 & 553).
d. Augustine (354-430)
• More than any one else, Aurelius Augustine shaped Western theology.
• For the Western half of the Church throughout the middle ages his authority stood second
only to that of the Scripture.
• He is the greatest Christian theologian since apostle Paul.
• He is the Father of the Western Church. Many Medieval theologians like Acquinas,
Luther, Calvin, Pascal and the more modern ones like Kant, Hegel, Whitehead, and Marx
were influenced by his ideas.
• He was a great administrator, pastor, philosopher and theologian.
• He was born in 354 at Thagaste, in modern Algeria, of a pagan father and a Catholic
Christian mother, Monica.
• He learned Latin and went to Carthage to study rhetoric.
• He turned to philosophy and Manicheism.
• Then he became a professor in Milan in 384.
• He had a crisis conversion in 386 - When he was in a garden he heard a voice, “take up
and read.” Augustine opened his copy of Paul’s letter to Romans 13: 13-14. Soon after
this a light of confidence flooded into his heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished.
• This was in August 386 and Augustine was baptised by Ambrose the following Easter.
• He returned to Carthage and ordained as a priest in 391.
• He became the bishop of Hippo about five years later.
• He wrote his Confession, which is a spiritual autobiography still very widely read.
• He wrote in this, “Our hearts are restless until we find rest indeed.”
• He said that the knowledge of God is the immediate experience of the soul.
• He said, “Believe that you may know”.
• Betweeen 399 and 419 he wrote his greatest dogmatic work, The Trinity.
• In it he draws together the achievements of the early Fathers before his time and presents a
systematic account of the doctrine of the Trinity.
• Between 413 and 427 Augustine wrote his longest work, The City of God -
The barbarian invaders destroyed Rome in 410. The Romans blamed it on
Christians for forsaking the pagan religion and gods. Augustine responded to
this crisis with the greatest apologetic work of the early church. In the first
part he argues that the pagan gods had not in fact provided either earthly or
heavenly fortune. He said that the gospel offers inner peace and an eternal
destiny. In the second part, Augustine traces the course, from creation to
eternity, of two different cities or societies: the city of God and the city of
Satan; the heavenly and the earthly city; Jerusalem and Babylon. These are
not two rival nations, not two organisations but two groups of people. They
are marked by two different loves: the love of God versus the love of self; the
love of the eternal versus the love of temporal things. The Christian has a dual
citizenship. So the Christian would say both, “dear city of Rome and dear city
of God.” The authority of the State is from God. History had its beginning in
creation, its culmination in the coming of Christ and its conclusion in the final
judgment. Citizens are born into the earthly city by a nature spoiled by sin, but
they are born into the heavenly city by grace freeing nature from sin.
• His apology against Donatists (A schism which broke out in North Africa under the
leadership of a man named Donatus), Pelagians (An ascetic movement in the West in the
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5th century under the leadership of Pelagius which emphasised adequacy of created human
nature and perfect holiness), and pagans are notable.
• In addition to several letters, commentaries, sermons, etc his theological writings include
doctrines of original sin, salvation by faith through grace, and pre-destination.
Readings:
1. Cairns, Earle Edwin. Christianity Through the Centuries. Michigan: Zondervan.
1954. pp. 105-113.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss further on Origen’s belief about the subordination of Christ to the Father and
the ideas of the pre-existence of the soul.
2. Discuss Origen’s teachings on universal salvation.
3. Write a critique on Augustine’s City of God.
Lecture No. 11
Apologetics in the Middle Ages
Objectives:
1. To study about two notable figures in the Middle Ages.
2. To see how natural theology impact the thinking of the people.
• Many notable figures defended the Christian faith during this period. Among them were
Anselm and Thomas Aquinas.
a. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1103)

• Anselm was an Italian by birth eventually became the Archbishop of Canterbury.
• But in the history of thought Anselm is largely remembered for two things:
(1) His important work on the atonement, Why God Became Man (Cur Deus Homo), in
which he tried to set out the logic of the atonement. Here he gives reasons for
incarnation.
(2) His ontological argument (the term ontology denotes that branch of philosophy, which is
concerned with ‘being’). But the term ontological argument is usually used of this
argument for the necessity of God’s being, which depends not upon observable facts but
upon the implications of certain ideas.
Anselm’s statement of it appears in his proslogion.
• He used the phrase, ‘believing reason’ (faith seeking understanding).
• He sought to understand what he already believed.
• According to him reason should be able to show by logic what faith has accepted as true.
• In this Anselm presents his famous ontological argument for the existence of God.
• God is defined as ‘that, than which nothing greater can be conceived’.
• It means God is the greatest conceivable being.
• He stressed the importance of commitment and faith as a prior condition to understanding
the central truths of the Christian faith.
b. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74)

• Like Anselm, Aquinas was an Italian.
• His two main works are two massive Summae or compends of theology and philosophy.
• The Summa Theologica is the accepted basis of modern Roman Catholic theology.
• It talks about the five ways of trying to prove the existence of God.
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• He believed that God’s existence could be proved to any rational man who would face the
facts of nature and be willing to draw the right conclusions.
• His second work, Summa Contra Gentiles is basically in defence of natural theology. This
is designed as a textbook for missionaries.
• In the Middle Ages two basic types of theology began to crystallise.
• On the one hand, there was natural theology according to which a genuine knowledge of
God and of his relationship with the world could be attained by rational reflection on the
nature of things without having to appeal to Christian teaching.
• On the other hand, there was revealed theology, which was concerned with what was
disclosed to man by God through the revelation recorded in the Scriptures.
Readings:
1954.
3. Baker, Robert. A Summary of Christian History. Tennessee: Broadman Press.
1959.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss on natural theology and revealed theology
Lecture No. 12
Apologetics in the Reformation Period
Objectives:
1. To study about the work of Martin Luther and Calvin
2. To learn from their thinking and writing how they impacted the faith of the Church
• We will briefly analyse the thoughts of Martin Luther and John Calvin in this section.
a. Martin Luther (1483-1546)

• The first major figure of the continental reformation was Martin Luther.
• His doctrine of Justification by faith and Ninety-five Theses of 1517 are famous.
• Luther never condemned reason.
• The real target of his attacks was the abuse of reason, that is, the situation where
philosophy had crowded out of the truth of the Christian faith.
• According to him reason had its legitimate place in science and everyday life.
• It had its true function in grasping and evaluating what was set before it, but it was not the
sole criterion of truth.
For Luther there were three lights which illuminated human existence.
i. There was the light of nature: Here the reason and common sense
sufficed to solve many of the questions of everyday life.
ii. There was the light of grace: By this the revelation in Scripture gave
man knowledge of God which was otherwise unattainable.
iii. There was the light of glory: It belonged to the future. There are many
questions which Scripture left unresolved. For example, there are
apparent contradictions, such as, the sovereignty of God and the
responsibility of man for his actions which neither Scripture nor reason
resolved. So the right approach is not to leave this antinomies, but to
hold both in tension and leave it to the light of glory to resolve them.
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• According to Luther, in matters which concerns faith, reason can be useful only when it is
enlightened by faith.
b. John Calvin (1509-64)

• Calvin led reformation at Geneva in Switzerland.
• He summarised the whole teachings of reformation in his Institutes of the Christian
Religion.
• According to Calvin, it is through the work of the Holy Spirit that one can have true
knowledge of God.
• He spoke of two-fold knowledge of God:
i. A general awareness of God that all men have.
ii. God’s revelation through Scripture not only as the creator but also as the redeemer
in Christ.
Readings:
1954.
1959.
Study Questions:
Discuss further on Luther’s idea of three lights that illuminated human existence
Lecture No. 13
Apologetics in the Age of Rationalism & Modern Period
Objectives:
To see how rationalism affected the theological thinking and its defence.
To study how modern liberation theologies help defending the gospel.
A. THE AGE OF RATIONALISM

• Rationalism attempts to judge everything in the light of reason.
• There is no place for supernaturalism, but nature and hard facts are completely accepted.
• The reformers of the sixteenth century were dominated by a concern for God.
• They took their starting-point God’s action in Christ, as witnessed to by the Scriptures.
• From there they proceeded to think about the world.
• But the rationalists of the seventeenth century were absorbed not so much by God but by
the world.
a. John Locke (1632-1704)

• He is chiefly remembered for pioneering the empiricist approach to knowledge.
• Empiricists stressed the part played by experience in knowledge.
• They argued that we have no ideas at all other than those derived from experience that
comes to us via our senses.
• According to him, all knowledge must come through sensation and reflection.
• He rejected the rationalist idea that the mind had stamped on it from birth certain primary,
self-evident notions.
• He said that our knowledge is founded on experience.
• Faith is useful only to learn things that we cannot be discovered by reason.
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B. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

• He was a scientist, mathematician and a Catholic.
• He was profoundly aware of the real nature of religion.
• His God was not the God of rationalist argument.
• According to him, God is not known by reason.
• It is the heart that is aware of God and not reason.
• His most famous writing was Pensees or Thoughts in which he has written ‘Pascal’s
Wager.’
Pascal’s Wager: In this he challenged men to wager or gamble their lives on the possibility
that Christianity might be true. We cannot see God. We cannot prove the truth of the gospel
to exclude every possible doubt. We can only find out the truth of Christianity by risking our
whole lives to it. So he said, “Let us weigh the gain and loss in wagering that God is. If you
gain you gain all; if you loose, you loose nothing. Wager then without hesitation. Then He
is.”
c. Joseph Butler (1692-1752)

• He was among those who really felt that a philosophical reply should be given to Deism.
• Deism is a sort of thinking which believes in a God but which treats him as an absentee
landlord. In the beginning God made the world and set it in motion. But he has now left it
to its own devices, running of its own accord rather likes a watchmaker).
• Butler is famous for his Analogy of Religions (1736) in which he made an analogy
between natural phenomena and revealed truth.
• He said that there was a real likeness between the beliefs of Christianity and the workings
of nature and providence, and that therefore there was but one single Author of both.
• According to him, reason must discern God’s plan in the world and the revelation.
B. MODERN PERIOD
• During this time there was reaction to the rationalism and sometimes minimising the
reason.
a. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

• He was a Danish philosopher.
• His view of truth is often discussed under the heading of ‘subjectivity’ where he contrasted
the objective approach with the subjective.
• He said that the truth is a matter of passionate inwardness apprehended only by faith, an
internal decision for Christ.
• The results of historical research are uncertain and that in any case they do not really help.
• According to him, proof is the enemy.
b. A.J. Ayer
• His basic assusmption is that all meaningful assertions are either matters of fact subject to
scientific verification or a tautology (a mere pseudo-proposition).
• The sentence expressing it may be emotionally significant to a person, but it is not literally
significant to him.
• People who hold this idea are called positivists.
c. Kosuke Koyama & a host of liberation theologians

• He developed his famous theology called, Water Buffalo Theology.
• He is a Japanese missionary in Thailand.
• His central concern is to present the Christian faith to the people who have no tradition of
abstract thinking.
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• He said, “The water buffaloes tell me that I must preach to these farmers in the simple
sentence structure and thought development. They remind me to discard all abstract ideas
and to use exclusively objects that are immediately tangible.
• Then there developed various liberation theologies that are formulated in their particular
context in defence of Christianity.
Readings:
1954.
1959.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss on Pascal’s Wager.
2. Write a critique on modern liberation theologies.
Lecture No. 14
Major Apologetic Systems
Objectives:
1. To learn major apologetic systems that prevalent.
2. Students will be able to understand how different line of thinking impact apologetics.
• Apologetic systems have tended to fall into 3 distinguishable groups.
• They are the following:
1. Experientialism
• Systems stressing subjective immediacy (something which we experience inside) are
called experientialism, or Credo quia absurdum est (“I believe because it is absurd”).
• People who come under this group stress the uniqueness of Christian experience of
grace.
• They stress the inward religious experience as the foundation of the theological
structure.
• It is the apologetics of one’s personal testimony.
• According to them, Christianity is in the heart.
• Those who give experience a profound apologetical and theological grounding, reason
that the experience of religion is so profound or so unique or self-validating that the
experience itself is its own proof.
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• Examples of the representatives of these systems are Blaise Pascal, Soren

Kierkegaard, and Emil Brunner.
The Group characteristics are the following:

1. great stress is laid up on the inward and subjective experience of the gospel.
2. It is usually against traditional philosophy, but sympathetic towards existentialism.
3. The conviction that Christian truth is not capable of rational analysis.
4. Rejection of natural theology and theistic proofs.
5. Emphasis upon the “otherness,” the transcendence, and hiddenness of God.
6. There is a strong doctrine of blinding effects of sin.
2. Evidentialism
• Systems stressing natural theology are called Evidentialism, or intelligo et credo (“I
understand and I believe”)
• These are systems stressing some form of natural theology as the point at which
apologetics begins.
• This group has deep trust in the rational powers of humankind in the area of
religious knowledge.
• Thomas Aquinas, Joseph Butler and F.R. Tennant are the representatives of this
group.
Their main characteristics are the following:

1. A genuine belief in the rational powers of the mind in its search for religious
knowledge.
2. The effect to ground faith upon empirical and/or historically verifiable facts.
3. A belief that the imago Dei (image of God in man) was weakened but not seriously
damaged by the fall and sin.
4. The conviction that religious propositions enjoy the same kind of verification that
scientific assertions do. So faith in God is just as rational and credible as faith in
confirmed scientific law.
3. Presuppositionalism
• Systems stressing revelation are called Presuppositionalism, or credo ut intelligam (“I
believe in order that I may understand”).
• These are systems presupposing the primacy of special revelation as the foundation
upon which apologetics must be built.
• This group believes that the first type is too subjectivistic.
• Apologetics must have its principle anchorage in God’s truth and not in man’s
experience.
• It criticizes the second type for not seriously evaluating man’s depravity.
• If sin prevents general revelation from speaking the truth of God then no natural
theology is possible.
• Apologetics must commence with God’s redemption and God’s Word of special
revelation.
• Spokemen of these type of apologetic systems are Augustine, john Calvin, and
Abraham Kuyper.
Characteristics of this type of apologetics are the following:

1. Faith in God precedes understanding.
2. Belief is to be followed by a search for understanding.
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3. Religious experience must be grounded in the objective Word of

God and the objective work of Christ.
4. A special act of the Holy Spirit is indispensable for Christian
faith and enlightenment.
5. Human depravity had made human reason untrustworthy.
6. Truth in religion should never be diluted.
Readings:
1. Raymond, Robert L. The Justification of Knowledge: An
Introductory Study in Christian Apologetics Methodology. New Jersey:
Presbyterian and Reformed, 1976. pp. 8-10.
2. Geisler, Norman. Christian Apologetics. Michigan: Baker Book
House. 1976.pp. 65-99.
Study Questions:
1. How would you evaluate Evidentialism, Experiencialism and Pre-
suppositionalism? Which one you support and why? Or do you propose a different
approach?
2. How Holy Spirit is indispensable for Christian faith and
enlightenment?
CHAPTER IV
THE FAITH THAT WE DEFEND
This chapter is basically prepared to equip students in the area of systematic theology .
This section is mainly reading and discussion in the class. Students are required to
read different books on the following topics:
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
 



       
           
  
       
          
            
          
             
After reading each one will present a paper in the class on the purticular
topic. The copies of the paper will be made availabe to the rest of
students. There will be group discussion on each topic after its
presentation in the class. Topics will be selected by students only with
the consultation of the instructor.
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Lecture No. 15
An Apologia Essential for Salvation in Asia:
Biblical Concept of Salvation -1
Objectives:
1. To learn what the Bible teaches about salvation.
2. to develop an apologia essential for salvation.
Introduction
• The lectures on Salvation contrast the Biblical doctrine of salvation against the concept of
salvation in the other great religions of Asia, especially in India, such as, Hinduism, Islam,
Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.
• The purpose is to develop an apologia essential for salvation in Asia with special reference to
India.
• One may ask the question as to why does one need an apologia essential for salvation in India.
• It is because there are challengers to Christian faith on every hand.
• We live in an increasingly sophisticated and educated world.
• Paul E. Little says that it is essential to know what we believe and why we believe it.
• Modern communications and transport systems have made the world a global village.
• Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and all claim valid religious experience.
• Indian Christians have a long history of living with the people of other living faiths.
• Even today we rub shoulders with them in every street and village.
• We also have a history of living harmoniously with people of other faiths.
• But, today the challenges are more from outside of Christianity.
• Even from within Christendom challenges are more vicious.
• Therefore, it is not only important to know what and why we believe but also it is equally
important to defend what we believe.
• An apologetic for salvation today is essential in Christian mission and evangelism.
• Regarding salvation Jude writes, “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered
to the saints” (Jude v. 3).
• In the following pages we will consider what the Bible says about salvation and what some of
other faiths say about salvation.
Biblical Concept of Salvation
• Much has been said and written about the Biblical concept of salvation.
• Therefore we are just highlighting some important points which are essential in developing our
apologia for salvation.
• Dr. Saphir F. Athyal in his paper presented at inaugural meeting of the Asia Theological
Association held in Hongkong in January 1974 said,
The Christian Faith has a historical basis and character, unlike
most other religions. And the Bible is the only written witness to
this specific history of God’s salvation deeds.
A. Meaning
• In non-religious usage it means ‘to save from acute danger to life.’
• In religious usage it means a moral or spiritual deliverance.
• In biblical usage it is the deliverance from the bondage of punishment of sin.
• All the secrets of the Gospel are centred in this word ‘salvation.’
• It touches the whole being of a person, namely, body, soul and spirit.
B. Necessity of Salvation
• The word salvation implies that something is wrong with the world and with man, something has
occurred, which endangers the life of man.
• This is nothing else but sin.
• Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, all are lost.
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• Therefore the condition of man is deplorable and he is completely lost worthy of punishment and
without any hope.
• Therefore salvation or deliverance from the bondage and punishment of sin is needed for all.
• E.F. Kevan in his masterly book, Salvation, writes, “No formulation of a doctrine of salvation can
be considered adequate which does not take into consideration all the terrible realities of man’s
lost condition.”
C. God’s Plan of Salvation
• There are 3 areas of intuitive knowledge of man’s salvation.
• Firstly it is the knowledge of God. People everywhere have belief in some kind of gods.
• The Scriptures declare that men have this knowledge also on the testimony of the voice of
creation.
• The purpose of God to provide salvation for man is thus indicated in remnant of the knowledge of
God which he allowed man to retain.
• Secondly, it is the knowledge of sin.
• This is as universal as the knowledge of God (Rom. 1:32).
• Men everywhere normally have some consciousness of sin - what is right and what is wrong.
• Thirdly, it is the knowledge of the need of salvation.
• Because people have the knowledge of sin then universally have the knowledge of the need for
sacrifice and mediator.
• All these bring man to the necessity of salvation.
D. The Method of God in Salvation

• God has only one plan for salvation (Acts 4:12).
• Although He has but one plan of salvation, He has had various ways of dealing with man in
regard to it, and these over a long period of time.
• In the past, that is, in the Old Testament time God dealt with people 5 times in regards to
salvation according to Thiessen.
• In the Adenic Period there was no sense of right and wrong.
• In the Ante deluvian period people live according to their conscience. This was failed because
people did what they thought best.
• In the post deluvian period the rulers of the nation as the representative of God led people.
• This too appears to be failed because the leaders led people away from God.
• In the patriarchal period we see the promise of blessings.
• This was also failed for the promises were conditional and people could not obey them fully.
• In Mosaic period Law was the detailed revelation of God.
• This method was also failed because people kept the Law but their heart was not changed.
• In the present, that is, the Messianic period we are in the age of grace.
• Human destiny was the wrath of God.
• But God changed the destiny of mankind by sending his own Son.
• Thus He demonstrated His grace.
• God provided the salvation through the sacrifice of Christ.
• John R. Stott says that God has taken the initiative to do for man what man could not do for
himself.
• In the future which is the period of eternity Christ will come at the end and save his people
completely (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
• Only the grace of God working in a person’s life can change him (Jn. 3:18-19) and since all will
not receive the grace of God, all will not be saved.
Readings:
Christian Apologetics Methodology. New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed,
1976. p. 36
2. Berkof, L. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1941, pp. 415-540.
Study Questions:
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1. What does salvation mean in biblical sense?

2. Discuss further on 3 areas of intuitive knowledge of man’s salvation
3. How did God deal with people of different times regarding their salvation?
Lecture No. 16
Biblical Concept of Salvation - 2
Objectives:
1. To learn the aspects and different process involved in salavation
2. To study how God works in the lives a person in salvation.
A. Aspects of Salvation
• There are 3 aspects of salvation, namely, past, present, and future.
• Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer who was the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary states in
his classic work on the subject of salvation:
Salvation, then, in the present dispensation, may be considered in three
tenses as it is revealed in the Scriptures: the past, or that part of the
work which already is wholly accomplished in and for the one who has
believed; the present, or that which is now being accomplished in and
for the one who has believed; and the future, or that which will be
accomplished to complete the work of God in and for the one who has
believed.
B. Process Involved in Salvation
• A person is saved when the moment one accepts Jesus Christ as his or her personal
saviour, it salvation is a process.
• In salvation God ELECTS and calls a sinner upon his or her faith by His GRACE which
is begun in REGENERATION; completed in CONVERSION; declared in
JUSTIFICATION; placed in ADOPTION proved in SANCTIFICATION; and ended
in GLORIFICATION.
 ELECTION: There are 2 types teaching regarding this.
• They are Calvinism and Armanianism.
• Calvinism exalts the grace of God as the only source of salvation.
• Armanianism emphasises man’s free will and responsibility.
• These two are extreme teachings.
• God elects people on the basis of His foreknowledge (Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:2) and
predestination.
• Foreknowledge means God knows in advance what will happen.
• Predestination means God in His mercy decided (planned) in advance (even before the
foundation of this world) that everyone who calls upon His name should be saved and not
certain ones because God is a God of justice and holiness.
 GRACE: it is God’s active love that finds man in his need and supplies that need through
the riches of Christ (2 Cor. 8:9; Jn. 1:16).
• But this saving work of Christ will avail us nothing until it has been applied to our hearts
and lives by the Holy Spirit.
• There are two kinds of grace.
• First one is the Prevenient Grace, which is the grace that which comes before, to
prepare us for being saved (Titus 2:11; Jn. 6:44).
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• It is also called Common Grace.

• Second one is the Saving Grace that is God’s gracious activity, which applies the
work of Christ on the Cross of Calvary to the needs of sinful men. Once we receive
prevenient Grace we will obtain saving grace.
 REGENERATION: It implies to the giving of life, making a person a new creation

through washing and renewing by Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
• This is a spiritual birth. Peter Cotterell states,
The Picture of being born again indicates that this new life, the life of
eternity which God has given to us, starts with a new birth, but is
intended to lead into a process of growth, a growth in Christian
character rather than a growth in abstract philosophies.
 CONVERSION: Literally means turning or a change over.

• It is man turning to God (Matt. 18:3)).
• There are two elements in conversion. They are repentance and faith.
• Repentance means a change of attitude towards God resulting in a change of conduct.
Faith is a part of Christian life.
• A man’s life is completely controlled what he believes.
• Faith is knowing what God says, trusting or having confidence in what He says and
acting upon what He says (Rom. 4:20-21).
 JUSTIFICATION: literally means to declare righteous.

• it is the act of God by which He declares righteous the sinner who believes in Christ.
• Justification is necessary because of man’s condemnation (Rom. 3:10-12).
• The Means of justification is faith (Rom. 3:26,30; 5:1; Gal.2:16.).
• The source of justification is grace (Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:7).
• The Basis of justification is the atonement of Christ (Heb.9:22; Rom. 4:24; 5:9)
• The result of justification is the forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38-39.
 ADOPTION: It means sonship (Eph. 1:4-5).

• It is the act of God by which He places the converted sinner as an adult son in His family.
 SANCTIFICATION: It means to purify or to consecrate.

• It is the act of God by which He frees the sinner from the power of sin.
• So it is a separation from sin and dedication for God and growing into the image of Christ
(Heb. 10:14).
• It is a supernatural work of God.
• There are 2 aspects of sanctification.
• They are Positional Sanctification and Practical Sanctification.
• Positional Sanctification refers to our standing before God at the moment of salvation.
• Practical sanctification refers to our moral and spiritual life. This is a continuous
process.
• This is a process, which begins when one is converted and continues till death.
 GLORIFICATION: It is the renewal of the believers’ body by resurrection or by

rapture.
• This is the final stage of our salvation.
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Readings:
1. Theissen, Henry Clarence. Lectures in Systematic Theology.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1979, pp. 257-287.
Study Questions:
1. How do the three aspects of salvation apply in one’s life?
2. Discuss how does God work in the life of a person through
different process of salvation.
Lecture No. 17
Salvation in other Religions
Objectives
1. Not to compare, but to study what other religions teach about salvation
2. To make a defence of salvation that Christ offers
• It is characteristic of all religions that one chief aim of their adherents is deliverance from
some kind or other of evil.
• But they differ widely in regard to what is felt as the evil from which deliverance is
sought.
• There are some similarities in world religions. But they differ from each other basically.
• This section is neither a comparison of Asia’s religion, as it will not help us to develop an
apologia nor is it an attempt to show differences as it always ends up in controversy, but
to see what other religions say about salvation.
• What salvation is, and what we are pointing toward, is quite different in the world’s
religions from what it is in Christianity.
• Let’s look at some of them briefly.
A. Hinduism
• The idea of God is mixed up.
• Hindus are pantheistic: pan means “all” and theistic means “God”
• Hindus believe that God and the universe are identical.
• The concept of maya is central to their thinking.
• As far as salvation is concerned the ultimate goal is Nirvana.
• It is ultimate reunion with Brahma, the all-pervading force of the universe, which is the
Hindu’s god.
• Nirvana is achieved through a continuous cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.
• As soon as any animal, insect, or human being dies, it or he is immediately reborn in
another form.
• Whether one moves up or down the scale of life depends on the quality of moral life one
has lived.
• If it has been a good life, one moves up the scale with more comfort and less suffering.
• If one has lived a bad life, he moves down the scale into suffering and poverty.
• If he has been bad enough he is not reborn as a human being at all, but as an animal or
insect.
• That law of repeating in the next life, the harvest of one’s present life, is called the law of
karma.
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• Moksha is the release from these endless cycles of birth and rebirth and loosing of one’s
self in ultimate reality.
• The method of salvation is human efforts - personal devotion and good works.
POINT OF CONTACT:
3
• There can be specific points where contact can be made.
i. The concept of God as presents everywhere and dwelling in human spirits is familiar to the
Hindu.
• Hence John’s gospel with its teaching of the indwelling Christ (15:1-7) and of the
indwelling Spirit (14:17) is especially attractive to him; not that Hindu and Christian
concepts are identical, but that there is a real point of contact here, as also with Paul’s
concept of being in Christ.
ii. The idea of renunciation and self-giving is dear to Hinduism with its rather world-denying
outlook.
• We can present the picture of Christ’s self-emptying and self-humbling.
• But we must remember the fact that Hindus will always look for Christ-likeness in
Christians.
iii. Their bhakti or loving devotion and personal commitment is also a point of referene.
B. Islam
• To a Muslim salvation means escape from future punishment in hell.
• Muslim theologians explain what may be termed ‘the way of salvation’ as consisting in
submission to the orders concerning the due performance of the five duties of Islam.
• The Quran never teaches the regeneration of the sinner.
• Great sins, like murder, adultery, disobedience to God or parents, drunkenness, usury,
etc., may sink the sinner to hell after death, but if he is a believer he is sure to be released
in due course.
• Thus the Islamic conception of salvation is entirely legalistic.
• It is not a moral change in the heart, leading a man to victory over sin, but a release in the
next world from punishment of hell.
• Here also we see that the method of salvation is by human effort - follow the five pillars
of Islam, namely, repeating the creed, making a pilgrimage to Mecca, giving alms to the
poor, praying five times daily, and keeping the fast of the month of Ramadan.
In the development of a dialogue with Muslim friends Michael Nazir-Ali says that our
foundation must be biblical, our disposition must be loving and our intellectual position must
be honest.
3
He gives us basic assumptions. They are:
i. The Christian and the Muslim are talking about the same God.
• Their standpoint is different, their emphasis is different and their understanding of God’s
attributes is different.
• Nevertheless it is quite clear historically that the Muslim concept of God is continuous
with the Judo-Christian concept.
ii. ii. In addition to the Bible the Christian must use the Quran and other Islamic
literature to press home his argument.
iii. We should treat belief in the one God as a preparation for the Gospel, that is, the
Muslim belief is to be considered one advance on mere paganism and polytheism.
• Moreover we must rely on the Supernatural to convict the Muslim of his sin and need of
its forgiveness.
C. Buddhism
• Here again we meet a faith that is remote from orthodox Christianity, one that is even
agnostic about the existence of God.
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• In Buddhism the ultimate goal is nirvana.

• According to the teaching of Buddha all pain and suffering come from desire.
• If this desire can be overcome by following the eight-fold path to Enlightenment, one can
achieve nirvana, which is total nothingness.
• It is likened to the snuffing out of a candle.
• This is what is supposed to happen to life and consciousness when nirvana has been
achieved.
• Buddha, contrary to popular belief, never claimed to be deity.
• In fact, he was agnostic about the whole question taught emphatically, he could not help
an individual achieve enlightenment.
• Each person must work this out for himself.
• Here also we see salvation is utterly human effort.
• Buddhists have a keen sense of the frustrating and impermanent character of human life
and the need to pass through many lives in striving after a state of blessedness.
• To this Christians may well say that everything has been changed by God’s entry into
human life in Jesus, so that a new force is at work in the world by which man may come
now into the presence of God through him.
D. Sikhism
• In Sikhism God is viewed as the true Guru.
• God is one, the ultimate and eternal Guru (Satguru) who provides enlightenment and
understanding for the disciples who sets his heart on finding and serving him.
• Man and world are under the power of Maya.
• Man is also under the self-centred pride.
• Salvation is the release from this power of delusion and pride.
• It is the love-union with God.
• Method of salvation is here also human efforts.
• It is obtained through meditation, praising the name of the Lord, and selfless service
(seva).
• Service is important for Sikhs.
Point of Contact:
• The Christian may well find himself more at home with the Sikh, with his conviction of
the oneness of God, his sense of history, his reverence for his sacred book and his stress
on practical goodness.
• While holding to karma and transmigration, he believes in a sense in divine grace, for
Guru Nanak said, ‘By our deeds (karma) we get our bodies, but by God’s grace the door
of salvation is opened to us.’
• From this the Christian may seek to point his Sikh friend to the one who is himself the
incarnation of grace.
• Further the grace of Christ may well strike a responsive note in the Sikh’s mind; many of
them, including three of the ten Gurus, have given their lives for their faith, and this helps
them to appreciate Christ’s death as a voluntary sacrifice for suffering humanity.
• Sikhs have a conviction of the divine spirit inspiring writers of the Granth (the Sikh holy
book), enlightening the Gurus and working in some measure in the lives of all faithful
Sikhs.
• From this concept they may be led on to seek the Holy Spirit, the gift of the risen Christ
to his people, manifested in the practical goodness and service for others which the Sikh
greatly admires.
E. Jainism
• The idea of God is fundamentally Hindu.
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• Salvation is liberation from Samsara, eternal and dull cycle of birth, death and rebirth and
becoming the keva (perfect soul).
• The method of salvation is possibly in human birth and hence every effort is made to
acquire salvation in this life though the observance of the right knowledge, right faith and
right conduct through knowing, believing and practising the Jain Creeds.
• All these are different from salvation as a Christian experience and understand it.
• Salvation in the sense of the new Testament is salvation from sin.
• The concept of sin, as we have seen, is found in other religions also, but it does not play
any prominent role in the context of salvation.
• In the Christian doctrine of salvation it stands in the centre.
• Only when we in faith accept the salvation wrought by Christ and live in communion with
Him do we begin to comprehend the depth and the real nature of sin, from which we have
been redeemed.
Readings:
1. Read Encyclopaedia of Religions on different religions.
2. Read books of Major world religions.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss how salvation in different religions differs from that of Christianity.
2. What are the points of contact in our approach to major world religions?
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Lecture No. 18
An Apologia Essential for Christian Missions in Asia:
An Introduction
Objectives:
1. To discuss different attitude developed recently in the theology of religions
2. To show how those development affect Christian mission
A. Mission, Evangelism and Salvation
• The mandate of the World Mission and Evangelism (WME) of the World Council of
Churches (WCC) on ‘Salvation’ is to further the proclamation to the whole world of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ to the end that all men may believe in Him and be saved.
• The Ecumenical affirmation of Mission and Evangelism was
The Church is sent into the world to all people and nations to repentance,
to announce forgiveness of sin and a new beginning in relations with God
and with neighbors through Jesus Christ. This evangelistic calling has a
new urgency today.
• But it rapidly seemed to have lost sight of the pre-eminent goal of Christ’s great
commission.
• At this point, what evangelicals have to say about salvation?
• James A. Scherer who was a professor of World Mission in the Lutheran School of
Theology says,
My starting point is the observation that salvation in the biblical sense is
God’s own saving activity in the corporate life of his people, Israel, and
through them-uniquely through the work of Jesus Christ-it is directed
toward the people of mankind.
• Salvation is God’s own free act, and comes to men and women as a sign of unmerited
grace.
• He further says, “Through divine in its origin and source, salvation manifests itself
comprehensively as an event with social and political, as well as psychic and personal
dimensions.”
• He affirms that since the coming of Christ salvation is found in Him alone.
• Therefore the witness to His name and power could not be stilled.
• With this conviction how can we witness to the people of other living faiths, in Asia,
especially in a society like India which so much talk and debate going on about Pluralism,
liberation and humanisation?
• I believe that only as men and women are brought into dialogue with the living Christ and
under the influence of His gracious healing and enlightening presence will liberation and
humanisation follow.
• Thrust of salvation in the modern world must be conveyed by action, service and
involvement, leaving decreasing scope for clear witness to the gospel.
• Then our evangelism should be comprehensive in character.
• It is exactly grounded in Jesus’ idea and work.
• Jesus Christ came proclaiming the good news and announcing that the Kingdom had
drawn near in himself - while healing the sick, casting out demons, feeding the hungry,
and commanding his followers to clothe the naked, visit the prisoners etc.
B. Christian Mission Under Fire!

• It has been a question of many people as to whether or not Christianity is unique among
world religions.
• Or is it only a variation on a basic theme running through all religions?
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• Some others say that any liberating experience at all can be called salvation.
• In this sense it can be said, for example, that salvation is the peace of the people in
Vietnam, independence in Angola, justice and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, and
release from the captivity of power in the North Atlantic Community or personal
conversion in the release of a submerged society into hope, or of new life styles amidst
corporate self-interest and lovelessness.
• Accordingly any participation in liberating efforts would be called “Mission”.
C. Some New Attitude to Other Faiths

• Just because of the above and other objections some new approaches have been formulated
in their relation to other non-Christian religions in Christian circles.
i. Christianity is unique, but salvation may be achieved through other religions

as well.
• Proponents of this view say that Jesus Christi is the Saviour of the world, but his
salvation is experienced even beyond the boundaries of Christian religion.
• Non-Christians receive salvation through the rites of their own religion though it is
Christ who saves them.
• Karl Rahner, one of the most famous Roman Catholic theologian, calls these saved people
of other faiths “anonymous Christian” because even though they don’t call themselves
Christians, they are recipient of Christ’s salvation.
• The most famous representative of this view is Raymundo Panickar.
• He explains it very clearly in his book, The Unknown Christ of Hinduism.
• Another Catholic theologian, Hanskung calls non-Christian faiths the ordinary way of
salvation and Christianity a very special and extra-ordinary way of salvation.
ii. Christianity is equal with other religions

• Proponents of this view state that all religions are equal though they have different
emphasis and Christianity is not superior at all. Proponents of this view are called
pluralists. Famous among them are John Hick, Paul Knitter, and S.J. Samartha. John hick
in his book, God Has Many Names, affirms:
• The supreme being is referred to as God in a Christian Church, as Adonai in a Jewish
Synagogue, as Allah in a Muslim Mosque, as Ek omkar in a Sikh gurudwara, as Rama or
Krishna in a Hindu temple, And yet there is an important sense in which what is being
done in the several forms of worship is essentially the same.
• Paul Knitter also in his book, No Other name?, affirms that all religions are fundamentally
the same.
• The so-called religious pluralists advocate a Theo-centric model for a theology of
religions. This is a paradigm shift from Christo-centrism.
• According to them the evangelistic task is to make Buddhist to be a better Buddhist,
Muslim to be a better Muslim and Hindu to be a better Hindu.
iii. Our Lord’s Attitude to the People of Other Living Faiths

• Jesus was a Jew.
• We see in Him a Jewish attitude to others (Matt. 10:5; 15:21).
• Jews were not supposed to have any contact with gentiles.
• Yet Jesus put an end to the exclusiveness and laid foundations of his single new humanity.
• Jesus broke the taboos of society and went beyond the boundaries or Judea.
• He had a sympathetic attitude to the people who were outside of Judaism.
• His messianic signs of deeds and words would confirm that the Kingdom of God was in
their midst. His own life style was to be their pattern. His kingdom was not in words
only, but in power. As he preached he served and reconciled. James A Scherer says,
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“Christian mission is always a witness from faith to faith.” Jesus Christ is the perfect
example for us today in our mission and evangelism to the people of other living religions.
Readings:
1. Fernando, Ajith. The Christian Attitude Toward World Religions. Bombay: GLS.,
1990, pp. 29-86.
Study Questions:
1. What are the challenges Christian missions face today?
2. How do those new attitudes in the theology of religion affect Christian mission?
3. Discuss further on Jesus’ attitude toward the people of other living faiths.
Lecture No. 19
An Apologia Essential for Christian Mission in Asia:
Paul’s Athenian address
Objectives:
1. To study the principles from Paul’s proclamation in Athens which will be a guide for
our approach.
2. To motivate students to have an intellectual approach in mission and evangelism.
Guiding principles from Paul’s Athenian address (acts 17:16-34)

• The ideology of intellectuals in India differs according to each person’s religion, culture,
and practices.
• We have to be very careful and re-evaluate our whole system of approach today.
• They will have always questions and aspirations.
• They use to bring many parallel things that are found in their religions.
• We must be able to recognize their questions and aspirations.
• We must make use of those so-called parallel and good things and the spark of truth in
their religion as an airstrip where we can land in their territory, an opening in their lives
through which we can win their attention.
• At the same time we must remember the fact that we are not communicating parallel
things but we communicate a person-Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
• That person will not be found in their ideology.
• Paul’s Athenian address is a model for us in the contextualization of the communication
of gospel to the people of other faiths in India, especially to the Hindu minds.
• Let’s look at some of the implications that can be applied in Christian mission and
evangelism in the context of India.
A. Paul's Attitude (v. 16):

• The very first verse of this passage clearly tells us that he had a provoked spirit.
• The temple and idols were the beautiful work of arts reflecting the great achievement of
Greek culture.
• Paul was rather impressed by the wrongness of idol worship.
• Secondly he had a restrained spirit.
• He did not show his provocation outwardly.
• Paul was flexible in his method, but uncompromising in his message.
B. Evangelistic Dialogue (vv. 17, 18) :
• Paul reasoned with them.
• Here it means that he had dialogue with them.
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• There is a place of dialogue in communicating Gospel.

• It is because our hearers may not be interested in mere preaching.
• Dialogue or discussion draws them into active involvement in the gospel communication.
• Also meanings are in the receiver and they are not passive listeners, but active.
• They can bring their will into action.
• Paul was seen in the market places where it was most crowded.
• His method is a beautiful example of contextualization, but it should be distinguished
from syncretism.
• Paul used no direct quotations from the Old Testament because the audience were
gentiles and they did not accept the authority of the Old Testament.
• Paul’s dialogue was clearly a part of his proclamation.
C Religiousness of Athenians (v. 22):
• “In every way you are very religious.” Paul is telling a fact and not sarcasm.
• He appreciated their religiousness to win their attention.
• He used this as a point of contact to present Christ.
• “To and Unknown God” (v. 23) - this was an evidence of their deep unsatisfied yearning
to know the supernatural.
• Paul used this inscription to show that their thirst for God is satisfied only in Christ.
• Then Paul moved from questions to answers (vv. 24-31).
• His message was biblical, but his style was philosophical.
• We must have an intellectual approach in this context.
D. Establish the Fact of God:
• In order to establish the fact of God we need to remove the misconception about God.
Paul did so.
• Athenians’ idea of God was idolatry.
• But Paul showed the futility of idols (v. 29).
• We must work with people’s misconceptions of God.
• For example, Hindus’ idea of God is that God is mixed up as we have seen earlier.
• Then we have to explain that god is the creator and Lord (v. 24a).
• We must teach them about the self-sufficiency of God (vv. 24-25).
• Then Paul explained that all races came from a common stock (v. 26a).
• We should not pander the prejudice and bigotry of our audience in order to win their
favour.
• Paul, then proclaimed the sovereignty of God (v. 26b).
E. Quoting other scriptures (v. 28) :
• Paul uses two quotations from their own poets.
• We can assume that Paul used to read other Scriptures apart from the Old Testament.
• This is a good method to win their attention and communicate the Gospel.
F. Futility of Idolatry (vv.29-30) :
• Here Paul talks about the futility of idolatry.
• Paul acknowledged their religiousness, but did not accept the form.
G. A Call to Repentance (v. 30):
• Paul urged his hearers to turn from idolatry.
• Truth gives the basis upon which one can act.
• Here we see a gospel command to repent.
• Also we find a warning about judgment (v. 31).
• One who repents escapes punishment.
H. Uniqueness of Christ (v. 31):
• ‘A Man appointed’-Paul emphasized the uniqueness of Christ.
• Christ is the irreducible minimum in our mission and evangelism.
• We should never compromise on the person of Christ.
• He is unique and He alone makes the difference.
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Readings:
1. Acts 17
1990, pp. 29-86.
Study Questions:
1. Analyse the progressive steps of Paul’s presentation of the
gospel in Athens and see how they are applicable in your
situation.
Lecture No. 20
The uniqueness of Christ
Objectives:
1. To study and how Christ is unique from other so-called savour figures.
2. To encourage students to defend the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ
• Many theologians, especially, the Pluralists, interpret uniqueness is terms of

mythological language and consider that Christians can claim uniqueness of Christ as the
incarnate Son of God in a mythical sense.
• Thus, the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ is at stake.
• But the biblical incarnation is supremely the unique sign and demonstration of divine
vulnerability in history.
• In this section the uniqueness of Christ is taken to mean that Jesus Christ is the unique
revelation of God, the Father, that is, epistemological; He is the one and only Saviour of
all humankind, that is, sotereological; and He is the unique Son or Word of God
incarnate, that is, ontological.
• The epistemological and the soteriological uniqueness of Jesus Christ imply his relation
to the Father and the Spirit.
• But with regard to the ontological uniqueness of Jesus Christ the Christological
Trinitarian approach focuses attention especially on His divinity.
A. Epistemological Uniqueness
• In the Christian faith Jesus Christ is described as the unique mediator to make known
the Father.
• There may be a perception of God in other religions.
• But one can know God as the biblical God, the Father, only through Jesus Christ.
• According to Stanley Jones, “If you think of God in terms other than Jesus Christ, you
do not think of God, you think of something other than God.”
• He asserted,
Through Vedanta one may come to Brahma and get from it all that the
Impersonal can reveal and give. One may come to Allah through Mohammed
and the Koran and get from it all that this conception can give and reveal. One
may come to Nirvana through Buddha and get from it all that Nirvana can give
and reveal. But if one comes to the Father who is the Ultimate Reality and the
Truth, then one must come through Christ...He is unique. men and women in
Christ do find God.
• Jesus Christ is the self-revelation of God.
• God is a Jesus-like God.
• Apart from Jesus our ideas of God become strange and uncertain.
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• Karl Barth stated the fact that God is knowable for human beings only in Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.
• The so-called theocentric theologians have some other God in mind than the God of the
Bible.
• By speaking of God apart from Christ so as not to scandalize people of other religions,
none of these theocentric theologians appears to have any use for the doctrine of the
Trinity.
• The claim that God, the Father is not known independently of Jesus Christ as the Son has
important consequences for the Christian claim to uniqueness.
• It will help us to avoid pneumatocentricism.
• As Jones pointed out, one knows what God is like; He is a Christlike God. And one
knows what man can be like; he can be Christlike. There is nothing higher for God or
man than to be Christlike.
• Jesus Christ is unique as the ultimate and decisive source of the knowledge of God.
• As Pinnok asserted, “God is not a generic deity, but is defined by Jesus and normatively
grounded in the person and work of Christ.”
B. Soteriological Uniqueness
• While Christians see the benevolence of God toward sincere folk of other religions, the
Scriptures nevertheless insist on only one way of salvation.
• Thus, biblical Christians confess Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the Word of God as
salvifically unique, decisive, and universally significant.
• Christian theology defines salvation on the model of what God has accomplished for the
world and humanity in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.
• God is a Christlike God. Jones substantiated, “If God should give himself all out to
some approach other than Christ, then it would fix in the mind of the recipient that God
is other than Christlike. That would fix an untruth about God.”
• Jesus alone saved mankind by self-giving.
• He alone forgives, recovers and saves.
• The forgiveness that God offers in Christ is not a cheap forgiveness.
• The Cross is the price that God pays that the forgiveness may not be cheap.
• The salvation offered by the triune God is inevitably related to the name of Jesus Christ.
• Only through him human beings are saved from their sins and reconciled with the Father.
• The teaching that there is salvation in other religions is spreading in the churches.
• Soteriology wise, the Catholic Church seems to have become too inclusive.
• But one cannot see valid biblical justification for the broad soteriological inclusiveness
which asserts, among other things, that all humans, without exception are reckoned
already, in Christ.
• Since all the major religions are concerned in some sense with the theme of salvation
there is a move to base our preaching and dialogue on salvation.
• That means our talk should not revolve around Christ or Buddha or Krishna or around
God or Brahman or Nirvana, but around salvation, that is a shared concern about the
effort to remove the sufferings that rack the human family today.
• Lesslie Newbigin qualified this move as a move from the objective to the subjective.
• He affirmed that there is certainly a common search for salvation; it is that search that
tears the world to pieces when it is directed to that which is not God.
• Today theologians are debating the question whether or not there is salvation in other
religions, and taking sides on the issue, without first making clear the model of salvation
they have in mind.
• According to Braaten, if one is told there is salvation in the other religions, there is no
wonder, because it depends on what is meant by salvation.
If salvation is the experience of illumination, then Buddha can save. If Salvation is
the experience of union with God, then Hinduism can save. If salvation is being true
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to the ancestors, then Shintoism can save. If salvation is revolution against the
overlords and equality for the people, then Maoism can save. If salvation is
liberation from poverty and oppression, then Marxism can save. If salvation is
psychological health, there is salvation not only outside the Church but outside the
religions as well. If salvation is striving for humanization, for development, for
wholeness, for justice, for peace, salvation in other religions, and secular
ideologies.
• Salvation in the New Testament is what God has done to death in the resurrection of
Jesus.
• Since death is what separates the person from God in the end, only that power which
transcends death can liberate the person for eternal life with God.
• The soteriological uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the only Saviour implies that the so-
called saviour figures in other religions are ineffective for human salvation in biblical
sense.
• It implies that there are no other saviours.
• Outside of Christ apart from the preaching of the gospel there are no known historical
alternatives that may be theologically accepted as divinely authorized means of salvation.
• As Braaten pointed out, ‘Many ways of salvation are not needed, because the one way
God has revealed in Jesus Christ is sufficient for all.”
C. Ontological Uniqueness
• This claim focuses the attention to the divinity of Jesus Christ.
• The theological basis for the uniqueness of Christ is expressed in the confession of Him
as the incarnation of God the Son.
• The pluralist theologians say that the claims made about Jesus as Saviour are not
ontological but confessional.
• For this they abandon the once-for-allness of the incarnation.
• Still they go on speaking of Jesus Christ as if he were God for Christians.
• According to Samartha, “The ontological equation of Jesus Christ with God would
scarcely allow any serious discussion with neighbours of other faiths or with secular
humanists.”
• But the biblical Christians cannot abandon the ontological equation of Jesus Christ with
God.
• Jones said, “The touch of Jesus upon life was the touch of God...Jesus was doing things
that only God could do.”
• He further pointed out that Jesus did not prove God or argue about Him, but he brought
God.
• In the prologue of John’s gospel Jesus Christ is described as the logos who is equal to
God, while having distinct personality.
• He is also described as the fully incarnate and only begotten Son of God and possessor
with the Father of the divine attribute of glory, grace and truth.
• Jesus was Emmanuel, “God with us.” “In him,” claims Paul, “the whole fullness of deity
dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9. R.S.V.).
• Michael Green Said, “If you want to see God, look at Jesus...For he is ‘God in us,’ and
brings about in the community of believers the power and love and healing of God
almighty.”
• The Christian claim to the uniqueness of Christ rests on his divinity, which in turn rests
on the doctrine of the Trinity.
• The doctrine of the Trinity ontologically grounds his divinity and his uniqueness.
• Therefore, only with the framework of the Trinity can the uniqueness of Christ be
understood.
• While Christology brings out the identity of God as triune, the doctrine of the Trinity
points out the essential identification of Jesus Christ with God.
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• The Christian conviction regarding the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of
the Son of God is inseparable from the claim to his universality.
• According to Pinnok, the universality of God’s love is known through the particular
event of the Incarnation.
• It is the ontological uniqueness of Christ that grounds His soteriological universality.
• Christians need to affirm the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ.
• As Braaten asserted, “In the strength of the Christian belief in the uniqueness and
universality of Jesus Christ, it is imperative that Christians cheerfully enter into every
arena of witness and dialogue with people of other faiths.”
• According to John Stott, “To deny the uniqueness of Christ is to cut the nerve of mission
and make it superfluous. To affirm his uniqueness, on the other hand, is to acknowledge
the urgency of making him universally known.”
Readings:
1. Baskin, Joseph R. I believe in Jesus Christ. Tennessee: Broadman press, 1979, pp. 7-
50.
1990, pp. 29-86.
pp. 134-146.
Study Questions:
1. What is the uniqueness you find in the Christian understanding of salvation?
2. How will you uphold the uniqueness of Christ in the midst of religious pluralism?
Lecture No. 21
Other Related Issues - 1
Objectives:
1. To see whether there is something good that one can learn from other faiths.
2. To understand the revelation of God in other religions and different sources of truth.
Introduction
We will consider a few theological challenges faced by Christian mission today in the
following few lectures. As students of Christian apologetics we must be ready to give an
answer to these problems. We will study the following two issues in this lecture.
A. Knowledge of Other Faiths

• Is it necessary to know other religions?
• Is there anything wrong if we learn about other religions?
• Is there anything good in other religions?
• In Paul’s Athenian address we see apostle was familiar with the writings of non-
Christian philosophers.
• He even quoted two of them.
• F.F. Bruce says that we too can quote appropriately from a well-known writer or
speaker, without committing ourselves to their total context or background of thinking.
• We must be willing to learn from other faiths.
• It is only possible when we have a sympathetic, respectful and humble attitude towards
India’s religions.
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• Christians are called not to condemn other Faiths, but rather to love them and give them
the message of Christ.
• Stephen Niell says that we should preach against the destruction of sin and not the
religion of sinners.
• We should never try to compare religions after learning them.
• There are similarities and parallel teachings in all other religions.
• If we try to speak any teaching they will bring up parallels.
• So the method of comparative religions, studying which idea in which religion is beside
the point.
• It is comparing incomparable things-Jesus and His message.
• We also should never try to show the differences between faiths.
• It will always end up in controversy.
• Today we need to accept the fact that there are truths in other religions.
• But their highest is not enough to save them.
• A scientific study of the various religions shows that they are not the same.
• Stanley Jones said, “To hold all religions the same is to practice mental abdication.
• This is not mental liberty; it is nonsense-and unscientific.
• It is a false tolerance, which compels people to accept all religions as same.
• We must respect the people of other living faiths and accept the truth and morals of their
religions.
• We must have a sympathetic attitude and good understanding with our neighbours.
• Christians must thank God in sincerity for all the good and true things in others’ culture
and thinking.
• However Christianity is unique, not so much in its doctrine or ethic, but unique because
of a unique person-Jesus Christ.
• He will not be found in any other religion. He alone makes the big difference.
B. Source of Truth
• In the last section we saw that there are truths in other faiths.
• But these truths are not sufficient to lead a person to Salvation.
• The question arises here is, can truth in other religions be described as God’s revelation
in the same way that the Bible is?
• Ajith Fernando clearly states in his persuasive book, Jesus and the World Religions, that
there are three sources of truth.
i. Reminiscent Knowledge
• This is God’s original Revelation to Adam.
• The first source is God’s original revelation to Adam, the first man (Acts 17:26 cf. Rom.
5:12-21).
• After the fall man’s religion was deteriorated and untruth entered the mind (Rom. 1:25).
• Yet that original revelation given to Adam was not entirely lost by the human race.
• A reminiscent knowledge remains in man. There is found truth about God in this
reminiscent knowledge.
ii. Intuitional Knowledge

• This is The Image of God in Man. Man is religious by nature. Religiosity of man is a
vestige of the image of God (Gen. 1:26,27). Eccl. 3:1 says God has set eternity in man’s
heart. God gave ability to man - reasonableness, sense of truth, sense of goodness,
beauty, art, music, etc.
iii. Inferential Knowledge

• This is God’s plan of the universe.
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• Looking at the universe, man is able to make inferences about the One who created it
(Ps. 19:1).
• This reminiscent knowledge, intuitional knowledge and inferential knowledge are
described under the heading of general revelation.
• But the special revelation is the truth communicated by God infallible in the form of
language in the Bible. This special revelation is needed, as the general revelation is not
sufficient to save a person. But general revelation can lead a person to the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, the only Saviour.
Readings:
1990, pp. 29-86.
2. Ramm, Bernard. Protestant Christian Evidences. Chicago: Moody Press. 1953. pp.
163-183.
pp. 127-128.
Study Questions:
1. What good things can one learn from other faiths?
2. How far the general knowledge will help one to come to salvation?
Lecture No. 22
Objectives:
1. To study what the Bible says about those who have never heard the gospel.
2. To see whether there is salvation in any other religion.
A. Those Who Have Not Heard

• The Bible very clearly enunciates the fact that Christ is the only way to salvation (Acts
4:12; John 14:6; Acts 2:21; 16:30-31; Rom. 10:13).
• If so what about those who have never heard the gospel?
• Bible does not teach that they are lost because of they reject the gospel.
• Rather, it says that people will be judged according to their response to the light they
have received.
• First of all they have light through creation (Rom. 1:19-25).
• God will judge them according to the light they have received through creation (John
1:9; Acts 17: 23,30; Rom1: 18-20; 2:6-11).
• Secondly they have light through their conscience (Rom. 2:12-16).
• God will judge them according to the light they have received through their conscience.
• Thirdly, we believe that all are under sin and without excuse (Rom. 1:18ff; 3:9,10-
12,23) and God will not send anybody to hell only by his or her ignorance.
• Finally, as the ruler of the universe He will ultimately deal righteously.
• But it is necessary that they must hear the gospel (Jn. 5:24; Rom. 10:13-14,17).
• The degree of punishment depends on the degree of light they received.
• One will be judged by two criteria:
i. The light one has received (Mtt. 11:20-24; Lk. 12:47-48; Rom. 2:11-12; Heb. 10:26-28)
ii. The works one has done (Gal. 6:7; Rev. 20:12-17; Eccl. 12:14).
• Knowing that those who have not heard the gospel will have severe judgment we must
hasten our evangelistic task.
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• Otherwise the responsibility is on us (Jude v.23) and we are accountable before God.
B. Is There No Other Way?

• There are people who say that there are other ways of salvation. Others bring out some
exceptions.
1. Sincere Seeker
• Some propose that a sincere seeker will be saved ultimately.
• God accepts their sincere search for Him.
• They talk about the example of Cornelius (Acts 10:35).
• When we study the case of Cornelius we see that he was a sincere seeker.
• Though he was a sincere seeker he was not saved, but he had to hear the gospel.
• Seeker may come to the way of salvation like Cornelius.
• There are no sincere seekers as such who have died.
• It is because if a person is a sincere seeker while he is alive God will surely honour his
search and will give him a chance to here the gospel and accept Him.
2. Salvation in the Old Testament

• Some asks the question as to be the Jews not saved without Jesus Christ?
• We must understand the fact that two things were necessary for salvation in the Old
Testament:
i. A special revelation of God was needed. It was covenant relationship between God and
man.
ii. Divinely appointed sacrifices which was a substitutionary mediation, which focused
upon Messiah, was necessary.
• So we can say that salvation in the Old Testament foreshadowed the salvation in the New
Testament in every fundamental area.
3. Opportunity after death
• Is there an opportunity after death?
• Bible says that there is no passing from one state to other in heaven (Luke. 16: 26).
• Also death is appointed once for all (Heb. 9:27).
• There are people who propose the idea that there is an opportunity after death by quoting
two Bible verses.
• Ajith Fernando gives an exposition of these two verses and argues that these verses are
not expressing the idea of the opportunity after death.
(1) 1 Peter 3:19-20: Here we see, “Preached to the spirits in prison.”
• The word used here for ‘preaching’ is not euangelizo (to proclaim good news), but
Kerusso (to announce).
• The ‘spirit’ may be referred to the angels, the fallen angels kept in hell (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude.
v.6).
• What he says is that it was the announcement of Christ’s victory and of their doom
that has come through his death on the cross and his resurrection.
(2)1 Peter 4:6: We see, “Gospel preached to the dead.”
• The context of the verse is the unjust suffering of Christians.
• It is not the gospel preached to non-Christians after they died.
• It is Christians who are now dead and that the preaching mentioned was done while they
were still alive.
• In other words, they are people who heard the gospel now dead.
• Ajith Fernando concludes by saying that God is serious about sin; We don’t realize what
an awesome and serious act of rebellion against God our independence of him is. No
one deserves to be saved. It is absolute mercy that causes at least some to be saved at
all.
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Readings:
1. Read Acts 4:12; John 14:6; Acts 2:21; 16:30-31; Rom. 10:13; Rom. 1:19-25; John
1:9; Acts 17: 23,30; Rom1: 18-20; 2:6-11; Jn. 5:24; Rom. 10:13-14,17; Mtt. 11:20-24;
Lk. 12:47-48; Rom. 2:11-12; Heb. 10:26-28; Gal. 6:7; Rev. 20:12-17; Eccl. 12:14.
2. Luke. 16: 26; Heb. 9:27; 1 Peter 3:19-20; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude. v.6; 1
Peter 4:6.
3. Fernando, Ajith. The Christian Attitude Toward World Religions.
Bombay: GLS., 1990, pp. 29-86.
Study Questions
1. How is God going to judge people who have never heard the
Gospel?
2. What do you think about salvation of people after their death?
Lecture No. 23
Objectives:
1. To study what it means to be persuasion in Christian mission
2. To see how to harmonize both humility and authority in Christian ministry.
3. To understand how conversion is different from proselytism.
A. Persuasion or Intolerance
• Once Indira Gandhi said, “We are a democracy. We have to persuade people rather than
compel them. We have to bring about a change in the outlook of people through
education and persuasion.”
• We need to persuade people with the gospel to bring about a change in their lives, but
never compel them.
• Does persuasion reflect intolerance?
• Uniqueness is intrinsic to Christianity because of Christ who claimed to be truth.
• Truth is intolerant to untruth.
• When we know that there is no other way for salvation how can we be tolerant of
untruth?
• All other religions started before Christ.
• If there were any way for salvation God would not have sent Jesus to save people out of
their sins.
• Also all religions including Christianity in religious sense are man’s search for God.
• But the salvation provided through Jesus Christ is God’s way to man.
• The issue is whether what we do is imposition or manipulation or mind bending like
some modern cult do.
• Imposition is the crusading attempt to coerce people by legislation to accept the Christian
faith.
• We are not here to impose and manipulate, but to persuade.
• 1 Peter 3: 15 talks about the harmony between persuasion and respect.
B. Uniqueness, Arrogance, and Superiority

• The objection to the uniqueness of Christianity is the attitude of arrogance.
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• Bible clearly teaches that we must preach with authority.

• How do we reconcile the one side of authority and other side of humility?
• But when we take the example of Jesus we see that He demonstrated that authority and
humility could harmoniously co-exist.
• Our Christ given authority is not superiority.
• Christians cannot be proud of himself or herself that his or her salvation is a work of
God’s grace and not an achievement of his or her own unlike all other religions.
• But we may be proud of our Salvation because of its uniqueness.
• Our ministry is a gift from God (2 Cor. 4:1).
• Our competence comes from God.
• There should be boldness, but not pride.
• Whatever success we have is from the Lord.
• So we cannot have arrogance.
• God has supremely and completely spoken in Christ.
• Gospel does not contain truths, but it is the Truth.
• Other sacred writings may contain truths, but Bible is the Truth.
• When we think of the way God dealt with us we cannot be arrogant and claim
superiority.
• Rather, we must humble ourselves and must have a great burden for the people around us
so that they may also come to accept this unique way to God.
• The real arrogance is for created human beings who refuse to accept humbly what God
the creator has stated about the absolute and unique gospel.
C. Conversion or Confusion
• Are we converting people or confusing them?
• Are we converting or proselytizing?
• We must view evangelism with conversion as a goal.
• At the same time we must differentiate conversion from proselytism.
• Conversion is an inner change of life, but proselytism is an outer change of label.
• Jesus condemned proselytism (Mtt. 23:15) and commanded conversion.
• Stanley Jones said, “Conversion is not a change from one religion to another or one
group to another without any necessary change in character and life.”
• But it is a change in character and life followed by an outer change of allegiance
corresponding to that inner change.”
• A spiritual conversion is needed to all people.
• J.T. Seamands says that we do not single our Buddhist, Muslims, Hindus and Atheists as
the only candidates for conversion.
• It is not Christians who say to non-Christians “You must be converted.”
• It is Christ who says to all men, “You must be converted; you must be born again.”
• Christian mission and evangelism must have a goal.
• It is not proselytism, but conversion of the heart.
Readings:
1990, pp. 86-182.
2. J.T. Seamands, Tell It Well.
Study Questions:
1. Are Christians using forced conversion or other religious fanatic groups? Discuss in the
light of recent incidents of reconversion by Hindu militant group in Gujarat and Orissa.
2. What do you think is the real arrogance of the created human beings?
3. What is your understanding of conversion in the light of the Bible and the present
context of India.
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Lecture No. 24
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
Objectives:
1. To see how God works for His people in this evil world.
2. To prepare students to help people who face the issue of evil and suffering.
Introduction
• Evil and suffering is a common problem frequently faced by all people.
• Therefore it is a common question: why does God allow innocent people to suffer?
• How can a God of love permit such things in His world as war, sickness, pain and death?
• Either he is not a God of love and is indifferent to human suffering, or else He is not a
God of power and is therefore helpless to do anything about.
• Is it rational to believe that a God of love could create a universe as full of pain as ours?
• There are people who say, “When I look at suffering in the world I can’t believe in a
God of love. To me God is cruel.”
• Epicures, a Greek philosopher in the 4th century BC asked the same question like this.
• He said, “God, if he is good, able and willing there should not be any evil suffering.
• If he is not good he is not God. If he is not able he is not God. So, if he is both good
and able where does evil come from? Or may be there is no God.”
• When we look at some of the non-Christian attitude towards the problem of evil and
suffering we find that Hinduism responds with the low of karma or they say that evil is
an illusion or Maya resulting from man’s faulty perspective.
• Islam responds with the emphasis on the sovereignty of Allah and says, “submit to the
will of Allah without questioning.”
• The Dualists talk about the basic reality of good and evil. According to them, God is
finite and he himself is struggling against the reality of evil.
• Christian scientists like Marry Baker Eddy say that evil has no reality. It is only a
belief and illusion of material sense.
• One can find out that all these are unacceptable solutions to the problems of evil and
suffering.
• Bible considers evil as real and God as love, just and righteous.
• If God is love, just and righteous, how can he permit evil, injustice and unrighteousness
in His world?
• We must understand the fact that God has permitted evil in some way that is ultimately
compatible with his goodness.
How does one know this?
First of all we must know the origin of evil.

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• One aspect of problem is the inception of evil, that is, how did evil happen?
• It happened by the free will of man.
• We believe that God is love.
• He wanted to create a person with whom he could enter into a reciprocal love
relationship.
• Without freedom of choice, however, love would be a meaningless thing.
• One may have a love-relationship with a person who has free will but not with a robot
operating at one’s own command.
• God created man not as a robot, but as a person having complete choice.
• If you and I possess a free will, then the possibility of our rejecting God and going our
own way must be real in every sense.
• Thus the possibility of evil is inherent in the very existence of freedom.
• God is the ultimate goodness and created a good world, but evil resulted from the wrong
choices of free and finite moral being.
• You and I are the causes of all these and we have to suffer the consequences of our
wrong actions and choices.
Secondly, we must know that it is a mystery.

• Though we believe that God has a reason for permitting evil, we don’t fully understand it
because of the limitation of human intellect.
• You may not know how a radio works.
• That does not mean that you should not hear a radio.
• So many events in life which puzzle us, we accept them as incapable of explanation.
• Bible raises the question: “who has understood the mind of the Lord, Or instructed him
as his counsellor” (Is. 40:13).
Thirdly, we must know that God has some larger plans.

• While there is much evil in this world, there is even more that is good.
• This is very clear by the fact that people normally try to hang on to life as long as they
can.
• Furthermore, everyone instinctively recognizes that “good” is a higher order of truth than
“bad.”
• People continue to believe in their deepest hearts that some how, ultimately, “right” will
prevail over “wrong.”
• God could be justified in creating a world in which evil is possible if He could achieve a
greater good in such a world than in a world where evil is impossible.
Fourthly, we must understand that God has a present purpose.

• One can think positively that suffering and evil can be constructive in a person’s life.
• Bible says that the experience of hardship produces character and discipline in our lives.
• There are people who ask, “Why does not God stop war and terrorism in the world?
• If God stopped all the trouble and all the evil in the world, then he would be compelled
to eradicate you and me, for in us too there is evil which is a source of suffering for
others and ourselves.
• Let one imagine a world where there is no evil and suffering.
• What will happen?
• Then there would be no need of work and helping others, right and wrong would not
have any meaning.
• Creativity and science would be impossible.
• There, we believe suffering as constructive.
Fifthly, we must know that God has a final purpose.
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• With our full faith in God’s goodness and in Christ’s redemption, we can recognize that
our present sufferings can be turned to His glory and our good.
• Paul said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not work comparing with the glory
that will be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).
• Paul is talking about the future glory that is to be revealed.
• He has no doubt about the hardness for following Christ.
• This future glory or ultimate manifestation of God in Christ will be no mere objective
vision alone, but a subjective transformation of the believers’ character.
• Whether or not we feel in agreement with apostle Paul, we should at least be prepared to
admit that, in our present inevitably limited perspective this kind of questions of
suffering and evil need not deter us from considering the claims of the One who himself
suffered on the Cross of Calvary.
• When we see all these pains, loses of families and friends, much sorrow and sufferings in
this world, the Lord is teaching us one thing, that is, Jesus Christ did not come to take
away our pain and suffering, but to share in it.
• Often we will think of ourselves as more reasonable than God and more compassionate.
• But God was not mourning for his people from a distance.
• His own son, Jesus, had suffered the defeat of physical pain and death, and is still
suffering with the suffering of his children.
• We do not weep alone. Jesus Christ weeps with us.
• Our sadness is only for a season.
• He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of
joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
• The sufferings of a person who has not yet believed in Jesus Christ is often used by the
Holy Spirit to cause him to realize his need of salvation and to turn to Christ in
repentance and faith.
• The sufferings of Christians should always be the means of developing a stronger
dependence on God and a more Christ-like character.
• Therefore, God is loving and merciful even when ‘for the present’ he allowed trials and
sufferings to come in our lives.
• Apostle Paul again comforts us saying, “For we know that in all things Go works for the
good of those who love him” (Rom. 8:28a).
Readings:
1. Dyrness, William. Christian Apologetics In a World Community. Illinois: Inter-varsity
Press. 1983. p.152-164
Questions:
1. How do you explain God’s plan and purpose for a person’s life?
2. “Jesus Christ did not come to take away our pain and suffering, but to share in it.”
Explain this statement further in the light of the problem of evil and suffering.
Lecture No. 25
47 © MP/MDiv/2005

The Creation/Evolution Issue
General Introduction
• There are few major questions that all Christians must be ready to give answer in
defending the Christian Faith.
• Hank Hanegraaf who is the President of the Christian Research Institute, California, in
his landmark book, Christianity in Crisis, talks bout the necessity of defending Christian
faith, otherwise the consequences for Christianity will be catastrophic.
• According to him there are three major questions all Christians must be prepared to
answer in defending the Christian faith.
• They are The Creation/Evolution Issue, The Resurrection of Jesus, and the Reliability of
The Bible.
Objectives
1. To prepare students to give answer to the issue of evolution
2. To generate faith in the original creation of the heaven and earth by God
Introduction
• Creation or evolution issue is an age old question that still demands an answer.
• We must consider the following facts when we deal with the issue of creation/evolution:
a. Fossils:
• In dealing with the creation/evolution issue, the first thing one must know is that the
fossil record is an embarrassment to the evolutionist.
• Darwin said that the fossil record would bear him out, yet 100 or more years after his
death there is no evidence for transitions from one species to another (macroevolution).
• As Harvard evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould says, the fossil record is an “embarrassment”
because of “the extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the
trade secret of palaeontology.
b. Ape-man:
• Next, one must know that ape-men frauds abound.
• Not only is Pithecanthropus erectus (the Java man: This is the ape-man you may
remember staring at you from the pages of your science textbook. His slightly perplexed
and preoccupied gaze was no doubt designed to give the illusion of intelligence in the
making. It is an imagination of an artist) a gross mistake, but so are such notable ape-
men as Piltdown man and Peking man.
• Nebraska man was based on a single tooth found in 1922 by Harold Cook on a farm in
Nebraska.
• With a little creativity, the tooth was imagined to belong to a human skull (it was later
proven to belong to a rare pig), the skull was imagined to belong to a skeleton, and the
skeleton was drawn to perfection with flesh and features.
• By the time he hit the London newspapers, Nebraska man was being pictured with
Nebraska mom.
• Imagine that: two people from just one tooth!
• At the time of the famous Scopes monkey trial in 1925, Nebraska man was presented as
evidence to prove that evolution was a fact.
• But to say that man evolved from apes because they both have bones is as ridiculous as
supposing that a bird and a plane are closely related because they both have wings.
• The chasm between the smartest ape and the dumbest man simply cannot be bridged.
c. Chance:
48 © MP/MDiv/2005
• The idea that the complexity of our universe came about through chance is a statistical
impossibility.
• Even forming something as basic as a protein molecule by random processes is
unthinkable.
• Despite the evidence, many people seem convinced that, given enough time, even
improbable events become probable.
• This argument, however, only seems reasonable when specifics are not considered.
d. Entropy:
• The second law of thermodynamics-entropy-militates against the theory of evolution.
• Evolution postulates that everything goes from randomness to complexity and from
disorder to order.
• Entropy demonstrates that everything is going in exactly the opposite direction-toward
randomness and disorder.
• It should also be noted that evolution is a low-grade hypothesis, while entropy is a well-
documented law of science.
• Entropy will serve to remind you of many other scientific laws that could be cited to
refute the theory of evolution.
• Among the others are the law of conservation and the law of cause-and-effect.
Summary
• This brief overview will motivate one to become equipped to defend the faith when it
comes to the issue of origins.
• If Adam did not eat the forbidden fruit, if he did not fall into a life of constant sin
terminating in death, what need is there for redemption?
• What all this means is that if you cannot defend your faith when it comes to the Genesis
account of creation, the rest of the Bible becomes irrelevant.
Study Questions:
1. How will you defend the fact of creation in the Genesis account?
2. What are the archaeological evidences against the theory of evolution?
Readings:
1. Dyrness, William. Christian Apologetics In a World Community. Illinois:
Inter-varsity Press. 1983. P. 129.
Publishers. 1993.
3. McDowell, Josh, The Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
Lecture No. 26
The Resurrection of Jesus
Objectives:
1. To give various evidences for the fact of resurrection of Jesus Christ
2. To prepare students to make a defence of biblical evidence for the fact of resurrection.
Introduction
• The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest tour de force in the annals of history.
49 © MP/MDiv/2005
• Through the resurrection, Jesus demonstrated that He does not stand in a line of peers
with Buddha, Mohammed, or many other founders of a world religion.
• They died and are still dead, but Christ is risen.
• The resurrection is the very capstone in the arch of Christianity.
• If it is removed, all else crumbles.
• It is the singular doctrine, which elevated Christianity above all the pagan religions of
the ancient Mediterranean world.
• As Paul put it, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your
sins...If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men”
(1 Cor. 15:17,19).
• It is precisely because of the resurrection’s strategic importance that each Christian must
be prepared to defend its historicity.
a. Fact:
• The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an undeniable fact of history.
• And that’s not just anyone’s opinion.
• That was the opinion of Dr. Simon Greenleaf, the greatest authority on legal evidence of
the nineteenth century.
• In fact, he was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard and was directly
responsible for the school’s rise to eminence among American law schools.
• After being prompted by his students into examining the evidence for the resurrection,
Greenleaf suggested that any cross-examination of the eyewitness testimonies recorded
in Scripture would result in “an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability and
truth.”
• Dr. Greenleaf not only became a Christian, but in 1846 wrote a defence for the
resurrection titled: An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules
of Evidence Administered in the Court of Justice.
b. Empty Tomb:
• The first major fact supporting the resurrection of Christ is the empty tomb.
• Even the enemies of Christ admitted that the tomb was empty.
• The record shows that they even attempted to bribe the guards to say the body had been
stolen (Mtt. 28:11-15).
• If the Jewish leaders had stolen the body, they could have later openly displayed it to
prove that Jesus had not risen from the dead.
• Although many flawed theories have been formulated over the years, the fact of the
empty tomb has never been refuted.
c. Appearances:
• The second major fact supporting the resurrection is the appearances of Christ after the
resurrection.
• He appeared to over 500 eyewitnesses at a single time (1 Cor. 15:6).
• He also appeared to many other people as well, providing “many convincing proofs” of
His resurrection (Acts 1:3).
• Christ in His resurrection body was even touched on two occasions (Mtt. 28:9; Jn.
20:17), and challenged the disciples (Lk. 24:39) and Thomas (Jn. 20:27) to feel His
wounds.
d. Transformation:
• The third great apologetic for the resurrection is the radical transformation, which took
place in the lives of Christ’s disciples.
• Before the resurrection, they might best have been characterized as cowards.
50 © MP/MDiv/2005
• After the resurrection, they were transformed into lion of the faith.
• Despite intense persecution and even cruel deaths they testified to the truth of the
resurrection.
• While it is conceivable that some people might die for what they believed to be the truth,
it is inconceivable that so many would die for what they knew to be false.
• Not only did the resurrection of Christ transform the disciples from cowards to lions of
the faith, but also His resurrection continues to transform lives today.
• Because Christ lives, the Scripture says, we will live also.
• In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, our bodies shall be transformed into resurrected
bodies like unto His resurrected body.
• Indeed, the evidence for Christ’s resurrection is so overwhelming that no one can
examine it with an open mind without becoming convinced of its truth.
Study Questions:
How will you make your defence for the resurrection of Christ?
Readings:
1. Dyrness, William. Christian Apologetics In a World Community. Illinois:
Inter-varsity Press. 1983. p. 128
2. Ramm, Bernard. Protestant Christian Evidences. Chicago: Moody Press.
1953. pp. 184 - 207.
Publishers. 1993.
4. Geisler, Norman. Christian Apologetics. Michigan: Baker Book House.
1976.pp.329-352
Lecture No. 27
Reliability of the Bible
Objectives:
1. To equip students to demonstrate that the Bible is divine rather than human origin.
2. To help them make a defence of the inspiration and authority of the Bible.
• If we can successfully accomplish defending the fact that the Bible is divine, we can
answer a host of other objections simply by appealing to Scripture.
a. Manuscripts:
51 © MP/MDiv/2005
Since we don’t have the original biblical manuscripts, the question is, “How good are the
copies?
• The answer is that the Bible has stronger manuscript support than any other work of
classical literature-including Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, and Tacitus.
• The reliability of Scripture is also confirmed through the eyewitness credentials of the
authors.
• Moses, for example, participated in and was an eyewitness to the remarkable events of
the Egyptian captivity, the Exodus, the forty years in the desert, and Israel’s final
encampment before entering the Canaan, all of which are accurately chronicled in the
Old Testament.
• The New Testament has the same kind of eyewitness authenticity.
• Luke says that he gathered the eyewitness testimony and “carefully investigated
everything” (Lk. 1:1-3).
• Peter reminded his readers that the disciples “did not follow cleverly invented stories”
but were eyewitness of Majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16).
• Secular historians confirm the many events, people, places, and customs chronicled in
the New Testament.
• Secular historians like Josephus (before A.D. 100), the Roman Tacitus (around A.D.
120), the Roman Suetonius (A.D. 110), and the Roman Governor Pliny the Younger
(A.D. 110), all affirm historical New Testament references.
• Early church leaders such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, and Clement of
Rome-all writing before A.D. 250-also shed light on New Testament historical accuracy.
• Even sceptical historians agree that the New Testament is a remarkable historical
document.
b. Archaeology:
• Over and over again, comprehensive field work (archaeology) and careful biblical
interpretation affirms the reliability of the Bible.
• It is telling when a secular scholar must revise his biblical criticism in light of solid
archaeological evidence.
• For years, critics dismissed the book of Daniel, partly because there was no evidence that
a king named Belshazzar ruled in Babylon during that period. Later archaeological
research, however, confirmed that the reigning monarch, Nabonidus, appointed
Belshazzar as his coregent while he was waging war away from Babylon.
• One of the most well known New Testament examples concerns the books of Luke and
Acts. A biblical septic, Sir William Ramsay, was trained as an archaeologist and then set
out to disprove the historical reliability of this portion of the New Testament.
• But through his painstaking Mediterranean archaeological trips, he became converted as,
one after another, the historical allusions of Luke were proved accurate.
• Truly, with every turn of the archaeologist’s spade we continue to see evidence for the
trustworthiness of Scripture.
c. Prophecy:
• The Bible records predictions of events that could not be known or predicted by chance
or common sense.
• Surprisingly, the predictive nature of many Bible passages was once a popular argument
(by liberals) against the reliability of the Bible.
• Critics argued that various passages were written later than the biblical texts indicated,
because they recounted events that happened sometimes hundreds of years later than
when they supposedly were written.
• They concluded that, subsequent to the events, literary editors went back and “doctored”
the original, non-predictive texts.
• But this is simply wrong. Careful research affirms the predictive accuracy of the Bible.
52 © MP/MDiv/2005
• For example, the book of Daniel(Written before 530 B.C.) accurately predicts the
progression of kingdoms from Babylon through the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek
Empire, and then the Roman Empire, culminating in the persecution and suffering of the
Jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, his desecration of the temple, his untimely death,
and freedom for the Jews under Judas Maccabeus(165 B.C.)
• Old Testament prophecies concerning the Phoenician city of Tyre were fulfilled in
ancient times, including prophecies that the city would be opposed by many nations
(Ezek.26:3); its walls would be destroyed and towers broken down (26:4); and its stones,
timbers, and debris would be thrown into the water (26:12).
• Similar prophecies wee fulfilled concerning Sidon (Ezek.28:23; Is. 23; Jer. 27:3-6; 47:4)
and Babylon (Jer. 50:13,39; 51:26,42,43,58; Is. 13:20,21).
• Since Christ is the culminating theme of the Old Testament and the Living Word of the
New Testament, it should not surprise us that prophecies regarding Him outnumber all
others.
• Many of these prophecies would have been impossible for Jesus to deliberately conspire
to fulfill-such as His descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 12:3; 17:19); His
birth In Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); His crucifixion with criminals (Is. 53:12); the piercing
of His hands and feet on the cross (Ps. 22:16); the soldiers’ gambling for His clothes (Ps.
22:18); the piercing of His side and the fact that His bones were not broken at His death
(Zech. 12:10; Ps. 34:20); and His burial among the rich (Is. 53:9).
• Jesus also predicted His own death and resurrection (Jn. 2:19-22).
• Predictive prophecy is a principle of Bible reliability that often reaches even the hard-
boiled sceptic!
d. Statistics:
• It is statistically preposterous that any or all of the Bible’s specific, detailed prophecies
could have been fulfilled through chance, good guessing, or deliberate deceit.
• When you look at some of the improbable prophecies of the Old and New Testament, It
seems incredible that sceptics-knowing the authenticity and historicity of the texts-could
reject the statistical verdict: The Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus Christ is the divine
Messiah, just as Scripture predicted many times and in many ways.
• The Bible was written over a span of 1600 years by 40 authors in three languages
(Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), on hundreds of subjects.
• And yet there is one consistent, non-contradictory theme that runs through it all: God’s
redemption of humankind. Clearly, statistical probability concerning biblical prophecy
is a powerful indicator of the trustworthiness of Scripture.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss further on the inspiration and finality of the Bible.

2. Why Bible can be acceptable in all cultures?
Readings:
1. Ramm, Bernard. Protestant Christian Evidences. Chicago: Moody Press. 1953.

pp. 224 - 252.
2. Geisler, Norman. Christian Apologetics. Michigan: Baker Book House. 1976.pp.
353-377.
3. McDowell, Josh, The Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
Publishers. 1993.
53 © MP/MDiv/2005
Lecture No. 28
A Christo-centric Trinitarian Approach in Theology of Religion
Philip, Mathew. The Unique Christ-Dialogue in Missions. Bangalore: CFCC, 2006. pp.
147-157.
54 © MP/MDiv/2005

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CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS

Christian apologetics may be defined as the strategy of setting forth

2. To make them aware of the danger of present day Christianity.

B. What do we have for our defence?

• Not all things done in the name of Christ are defensible.

• Apologetics is needed for both non-Christians and believers.

• There are 3 Elements.

Lecture No. 4/5/6

• The following are some of the problems facing Christian Apologetics.

C. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF SIN FOR APOLOGETICS?

D. WHAT IS THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF GENERAL AND SPECIAL REVELATION?

• They are the general revelation and special revelation.

E. WHAT KIND OF CERTAINTY DOES CHRISTIANITY OFFER?

H. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE?

3. Raymond, Robert L. The Justification of Knowledge: An Introductory Study in

D. TO PERSUADE MEN OF THE TRUTH

We see mainly 4 things during the time of New Testament:

• Mark is a defence of the ministry of Christ (Mk. 2:10.11,28).

• Luke defended the humanity of Jesus.

• John defended the divinity and uniqueness of Christ.

B. Confrontation with Judaism

C. Confrontation with Greek thoughts and paganism

D. Confrontation with the Roman Empire

a. Justin Martyr (100-165)

a. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1103)

b. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74)

a. Martin Luther (1483-1546)

b. John Calvin (1509-64)

A. THE AGE OF RATIONALISM

a. John Locke (1632-1704)

B. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

c. Joseph Butler (1692-1752)

a. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

c. Kosuke Koyama & a host of liberation theologians

• Examples of the representatives of these systems are Blaise Pascal, Soren

The Group characteristics are the following:

Their main characteristics are the following:

Characteristics of this type of apologetics are the following:

3. Religious experience must be grounded in the objective Word of

D. The Method of God in Salvation

1. What does salvation mean in biblical sense?

• It is also called Common Grace.

 REGENERATION: It implies to the giving of life, making a person a new creation

 CONVERSION: Literally means turning or a change over.

 JUSTIFICATION: literally means to declare righteous.

 ADOPTION: It means sonship (Eph. 1:4-5).

 SANCTIFICATION: It means to purify or to consecrate.

 GLORIFICATION: It is the renewal of the believers’ body by resurrection or by

• In Buddhism the ultimate goal is nirvana.

B. Christian Mission Under Fire!

C. Some New Attitude to Other Faiths

i. Christianity is unique, but salvation may be achieved through other religions

ii. Christianity is equal with other religions

iii. Our Lord’s Attitude to the People of Other Living Faiths

Guiding principles from Paul’s Athenian address (acts 17:16-34)

A. Paul's Attitude (v. 16):

• There is a place of dialogue in communicating Gospel.

• Many theologians, especially, the Pluralists, interpret uniqueness is terms of

A. Knowledge of Other Faiths

ii. Intuitional Knowledge

iii. Inferential Knowledge

A. Those Who Have Not Heard

B. Is There No Other Way?