Is Apologetics Biblical?

apologetics

What is “Christian apologetics”? It’s the activity of providing a rational basis for belief in the Christian faith.When we seek to demonstrate that God exists, that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened, or that the Bible is historically reliable, we are doing the work of Christian apologetics. Is Christian apologetics a good thing for Christians […]

Should Apologists Quote the Bible When Trying to Prove it?

There’s a common objection apologists hear from skeptics: “You can’t quote the Bible to prove the Bible.”  The answer to that? Yes and no. Sometimes people try to prove the Bible is true by using what the Bible says concerning itself. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, for example, says that all Scripture is breathed out by God. […]

Should Christians Practice Apologetics?

At Josh McDowell Ministry, we focus a great deal on Christian Apologetics. In other words, we work hard to defend Christianity, providing reasons to help people confidently believe in Jesus and the Christian message. In another article we sought to defend the biblical case for apologetics. Peter, Apollos, Paul and Jesus all modeled or spoke […]

Christians: Dialogue With Skeptics Part 2

skeptics

“Prove Your God Exists!” Last week, in Part 1 of this topic, we talked about the importance of our having the right attitude when interacting with skeptics. We reminded you to let go of the “fight” mentality when challenged on your beliefs; to instead view these encounters as God-ordained opportunities to demonstrate the truth and […]

Christians: Dialogue With Skeptics Part 1

skeptics

“God Doesn’t Exist!” When we Christians hear that, most of us start sweating. As if the entire weight of proving the truth of Christianity rests on our puny shoulders! But we also start sweating because we feel our egos to be on the line. To be a Christian, we’re told by skeptics, is to be […]

Book Review: The End of Faith

A few years ago, I worked through The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, a popular atheist thinker who argued against a theistic worldview. I chose to read the book because I believe that it is important for Christians (and anyone, for that matter) to engage with viewpoints other than our own. Although I did not find the […]

The Work of Textual Criticism

If you have engaged with Christian apologetics, you probably understand that a common objection to the Bible is that it has been changed or corrupted over time. My response is to point out the number of manuscripts we have of the Bible, the early date of many of the manuscripts, and to give a brief […]

Ancient Manuscripts That Validate the Bible’s Old Testament

manuscripts

Modern Christians don’t have to defend the validity of the Bible. In last week’s blog post we answered the question, “Did ancient scribes faithfully transcribe biblical texts?” Resoundingly, research shouts, “YES!” One truth we hope you’re learning, as we travel this series together, is that the Bible is the most vetted document in the history […]

Did Scribes Faithfully Transmit Old Testament Manuscripts?

scribes

Historical Documentation Resoundingly Says, “Yes!” In a previous blog post in this series, we saw that the New Testament can rightly claim to be more reliable and accurate than another other ancient document in history. Can we also trust the authenticity of the Old Testament? Fortunately, we have really old biblical manuscripts to help us […]

8 Ancient Manuscripts Validate New Testament

manuscripts

Important early New Testament manuscripts validate the reliability of the Bible. The Bible we use today originates from early historical documents. Scholars are able to assess the importance of a manuscript by how much of the Bible it includes, and by the date assigned to it. What helps them to determine the age of a […]

Testing the Historical Reliability of the New Testament

reliability

Vetted for Historical Reliability, the Bible Stands Strong. Welcome to our ninth blog post in this series. If you’d like to catch up from the start, here’s the link to the first blog we posted: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?. Apologetics — the defense of Christianity — is not about our apologizing for our […]

Materials Scribes Used to Write the Bible

scribes

How did scribes record the ancient scriptures? Before the invention of the printing press, the only way to duplicate a manuscript was to spend hours (weeks? months? years?) laboriously copying it by hand. Note: It took one modern scribe four years, of writing up to 14 hours a day with fine-tipped markers, to handwrite a copy […]

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