Reflections on Norman Geisler’s Christian Apologetics

2003-04-26

Geisler’s main work is in three parts. The first part discussed methodologies and tests of truth. The study of each methodology began with a short introduction, followed by many philosophers that hold to each methodology, and then an evaluation as well as positive and negative contributions to philosophy. The first part was agnosticism, which there were two main camps. One is a certain limitation of what we can know of what can be called God. One discusses that we cannot know anything about God. Rationalism states what is rational can be known. Fideism seems to be the flipside in that it deals that religion is something that is not rational, but something that is dependent on faith. Experientialism is that truth is known from experience. Evidentialism is based on fact and event. Pragmatism states that truth must be livable and a hypothesis can only be proven over time. Combinationalism is a synthesis of methodologies, stating that not one can be entirely true.

Closing the first section, Geisler states a main testing of proving a worldview. First, it must not be self-defeating. Atheism will be one of these as Geisler will suggest in the second section. Also, unaffirmability is a test for falsity. Undeniability is a test for truth. There is also a test for schools of thought beneath each world view. For example, in the worldview of theism, there will be Islam and Judaism along with the Gospel. This test is a test of consistency within the worldview. This latter test will be dealt with more in the third portion of the book.

The second part of Geisler’s book dealt with major worldviews concerning God. One is deism, that is, the belief that God created the world, but left the world to be run by reason. This is not a major worldview in modern times, but has a lot history in the earlier years of our American culture. He also spoke about pantheism, which is more opposite of deism, meaning that God is in the world and is the world. There also was panentheism, which was different in the fact that God was more a part of the world as if He were the soul of the world. Atheism is the belief that there is no God within our world or outside the world. The world was not caused by anything, but it was an infinite succession of causes since eternity past. There were many great points that Geisler made that discredited this worldview. If everything had come from a cause, that there had to be an initial cause, and that cause being God. But what caused God? This was an argument that came forth. Leading into the theism section, there were detailed proofs detailing how God as we know Him had to exist. He went through the thought process step by step. This is fantastic to meditate upon how we know that we belong to the God of the Bible by organized, intricate reason, not only by faith and simple reason.

The third part of the book dealt with different aspects of Christian apologetics, arguing for the deity of Christ, the authenticity and historicity of the faith and the New Testament, and sound bibliology based on what Jesus said. Some of these things were more familiar than the former chapters on philosophy and logic. The chapter that dealt with the supernatural and miracles was exceptionally helpful. How can we know that there are miracles, and if they are truly miracles from God, or false miracles from a human or angelic source? The idea of miracles is corollary to the idea of theism. If God is all powerful and all knowing, then He can truly do miracles, and these miracles will be according to His purpose, not promoting falsities, nor promoting the human or the demon that caused it.

The information is helpful because it helps us to think through what we have accepted on faith and reinforces that our faith is not without sound reason. If we are believers in a world that is highly intelligent from the aspect of human reason, we need to be ready to answer some basic arguments. Is man born with innate reason, or is he tabula rasa? What can we truly know about God apart from faith? How do we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the God of the universe that the world is searching for or turning away from? There are some highly technical things that I would like to think through more when I go over the information again, and look forward to the weekend where we can investigate these things further.

There are two major portions I know that will benefit me in ministry. First is the theistic argument for God. I know a lot of people that are from a secular background that hold to some of the views presented in this book. This combined with the other weekends, especially the first two, will be greatly beneficial. This is not necessarily because I can win them over with intellect as much as I can understand where they come from better, and then I can better reach them.

The other part would the arguments of Christian apologetics. There is a growing impact of Islam on the world scene, and it would be good to be able to articulate the simple truth of John 14:6 to everyday people who may have limited knowledge on Jesus Christ. This is indispensable in the 21st century world.

There might be millennia worth of material of worldviews and truth methodologies, and some are more relevant today than others. It is important to know what we believe and why we believe it, and how we can share it with any other person, so that we can be all things to all men so that some can be saved.