United with Christ
Session 1
When I got saved, I was in the Navy. In order to keep from sinning with my shipmates, I basically had to witness! That’s how I became interested in evangelism and apologetics. It was a matter of spiritual self-defense!
The truth is though, that we are all called to be witnesses and to be ready to give an answer to people. These scriptures teach this: Acts 1:8, Mat. 28:18-20, Mar. 1:17 and 16:15, Lu. 24:46 – 49, Jn. 20:21, 1 Pet. 3:15. But besides it being a command, all of us want our loved ones, family members, people we live and work with to be saved. We have to learn apologetics to facilitate that! We have to learn to think! Let me share some thoughts from my apologetics notes on this:
- Many scriptures teach the importance of using our minds:
- Mar.12:30, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength.
- Meditate, think about who God is, Ps.63:6, what He says, Ps.1:2, what He does, Ps.77:12.
- “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” Ro.12:1, 2.
- “Think on these things,” Phil.4:8.
- “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” (Jn. 8:32)
- All human beings think, and our lives are influenced by what we think and believe.
- The people of the world think, they search for answers, they want explanations, and there are multitudes of “thought systems” for them to choose from. Prov.11:30 says we must be wise to win souls. We must use our minds to discover ways to reach them, to show the errors of their ways of thought, to convince them of the truth in Christ. We are responsible to win our generation.
- But also, if we do not think through what we believe and why, we ourselves become susceptible to confusion, doubts and deception.
Let’s face it – Real faith involves thinking!
1. The Greek word for faith in the N.T., pistis, (pistiV) means “persuasion, conviction, reliance upon an object or person.” It comes from the word peitho, (peiqw) which means, “to be convinced by argument”.
2. This means that real, biblical faith obviously requires that we understand what we’re believing. We must be convinced that the object of our faith is reliable.
3. Mat. 13:19 – if a person hears the Word and doesn’t understand it, the devil snatches away what was sown in them. Understanding is essential!
Having said this, however, we have to also recognize that when we witness to people and share the gospel with them, many will have excuses or doubts and questions. They won’t accept the gospel at first. They will have other views they’ve accepted and lived by over the years, and these other views run contrary to the Gospel, so they’ll argue with you. Don’t be surprised by this. Get used to it, and learn to do it skillfully!
If you carefully read the Book of Acts, you’ll see this is normal. The early apostles, especially Paul, were constantly arguing, persuading, reasoning and debating with people. Many don’t understand that. They think it’s bad or wrong to debate. But that’s just not true. A careful study of Acts will help you see this.
I’ve already told you that the word for faith is “pistis,” which means “persuasion, conviction, reliance upon an object or person.” Wow, the word itself indicates we have to be persuaded or convinced to believe!
I said pistis comes from peitho (peiqw), which means – “to persuade, to convince by argumentation.” Peitho appears in Acts 13:43, where Paul and Barnabas were persuading or arguing with people about Jesus. It appears in lots of other places as well.
Another common word in Acts is “dialegomai” – which means “to reason, to dialogue, discuss in argumentation, dispute, debate, speak, address, to preach unto.” This is the word we find in places like Acts 17:17 where Paul reasoned and dialogues with the Athenians.
A third important word is suzeteo – which means “argue, discuss, question,” and a similar word from the same root, suzetates – meaning “a skillful debater, reasoner.”
These words occur over and over in Acts, as we see Paul and the other early believers debating, arguing, persuading, and just dialoguing with non-Christians. You see, debate, argument, persuasion, all sorts of verbal conflict, these things are just inevitable! To think otherwise is to be totally idealistic, and unrealistic, as well as un-biblical!
Now there is a verse, 2 Tim. 2:24, which says we must be careful not to quarrel or strive, but the word there is “machesthai” (macesqai – which means “quarrel or fight,” and is related to the word for sword).
This is not saying we cannot argue or reason, dispute, etc. because Paul, who wrote these words to Timothy, is the same man obviously did those things, as seen in Acts (above). It means we must guard our spirits, and not allow wrong attitudes such as pride, anger, the desire to win some kind competition to overtake us. “Keep your head in all things!” 2Tim. 4:5 “Guard your heart.” Prov. 4:23
Now I want to be clear; we don’t argue people into relationship with God, but people do need to know the Christian faith is reasonable, and they do need to know we have answers that can remove obstacles to their faith. 1 Pet. 3:15, as well as the many verses I just mentioned in Acts show this to be true. Also, I’m not saying that our mental skills bring people to Christ. I was saved by a supernatural encounter with God. It’s the Holy Spirit who softens and touches our hearts. But the mind also plays a role, especially when we have doubts.
How do we get prepared? How can we get to the place of being ready to give an answer?
First of all, we learn by reading scripture every day, getting a biblical worldview, and understanding basic Christian doctrine. You should go to church, take notes, always be learning. You should read scripture every day. Nothing will prepare you, nothing will strengthen you like the habit of reading the Bible every day!
We also prepare by reading and studying other books, the teachings of recognized leaders. Now over the next few weeks, I’m going to be pointing out some books and other sources that can help in this regard.
I will be telling you about some books and authors and websites that are good sources for this kind of information. I’m going to start with a book by Drs. Norm Geisler and Frank Turek called “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.” I taught this book recently at my church, and then we had Frank Turek come and wrap up the class and bring a message to us as well.
Some other books/authors are Ravi Zacharias, Vishal Mangalwadi, Dinesh D’Souza, Pastor Timothy Keller, and Robert Spencer.
I want to point you toward two websites in particular, equip.org, the website of Hank Hanegraaf and CRI, and crossexamined.org, Frank Turek’s website. You can also really learn a lot by watching debates on YouTube. Let me mention a few of those today. Is Islam a Religion of Peace, an ABC intelligence2 debate, and debates featuring Dr. John Lennox, Dr. William Lane Craig, Frank Turek, David Wood. You can also learn a lot about Islam by watching David Wood’s talks on YouTube.
It matters to me that you are equipped in your faith. I am here and available to help you learn and grow. Please contact me if you have questions. My email address is: hwarrenhoyt@gmail.com Also, you can see this program again. Contact KSCE for that information.