APOLOGETICS

• Introduction
• Proving Gods Existence
• The Bible
• The Creation
• Hard Questions
• Other Worldviews
  

BASIC CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

• Introduction
• God
• The Holy Spirit
• Jesus
• The Trinity
• Mankind
• Salvation
• The Church
• Common Errors
• Good Questions

christian maturity

• New Christian
• The Spirit Filled Life
  
• Mentoring
• Inspirational Heroes

fOR GROUP STUDY

Each of the following resources include individual study curriculum and a Leader's Powerpoint presentation: 

Apologetics 101

Basic Christian Doctrine

fOR IN-DEPTH INDIVIDUAL STUDY

COMING SOON! Master's Level Studies of Apologetics Topics - In Depth!

Master Level Certificate in Apologetics Studies

book of the month

Here's what I'm reading right now and a nice outline for you!

how does the creation declare a creator?

          

Mankind has struggled for ages with the source and purpose of the things in the cosmos.   So how can we know?  We MUST use all our facilities available, if we want to get a complete answer.  We can observe the evidence that surrounds us, actually considering the creation itself utilizing our (physical) senses to study.  To that we must add our innate and metaphysical abilities (reasoning, logic, instinct, and desire) to separate the facts from the rhetoric and see what survives the inquiry and provides the most likely and complete answer. 

We must consider the origin of the creation with our pre-supposed ideas exposed.  If we don't want to believe in God, we will look for ways to answer our questions without including the possibility of a God.  If we believe we must only use our physical senses, we will get an incomplete answers as well.  But a careful analysis some of the 'physical only' theories will show gaping holes, big enough that to believe in them actually requires more faith than simply believing in a Creator! 

Now if one considers that there could be a Creator, we could easily expect Him to display evidence for Himself, and  information about Him within His creation. In fact, it would be the most obvious fact of His existence, wouldn't it!  For how could there be a creation without a creator?  God in fact has described to us that this is precisely what He has done:

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."   Romans 1:20

So lets take a cursory look at all the 'answers' provided to us, and determine which one makes more sense...

 
Can Science Provide The Answer?

Science steps in and attempts to describe where the universe came from with theories based upon natural perspectives. These theories are just that – theories – and by definition center only on things that ‘are natural,’ not things that may be super-natural (or metaphysical.)  Science, then, has no ability or authority in explaining the supernatural, and therefore MUST only speak of natural items.  Anything beyond the natural is outside the scope of their explanation, although sometimes it  does attempt them.  This naturally prejudices science against the confirmation of a Creator...so all the answers science proclaim must be carefully considered, with this in mind.  The end result is, that while ignoring the supernatural, science avoids the questions of creation, or worse, in apparently desperate attempts to explain creation without the possibility of a Creator, comes up with ideas like self-creating universes, or random chance producing order, or life coming from non-life. 

Science does however provide us with a glimpse of how the creation was put together, and in fact provide evidence of design, not random chance (random chance being the only alternative to a creation created by God.)  This means that science, as the means of pursuit of truth, is a good thing.  It is only when science limits the possibilities to be considered, that it is un-trustworthy.  In fact, when this limiting position is taken to an extreme, it becomes what some consider a religion in and of itself! (Naturalism is the belief that all that exists is nature - nothing super-natural could exist - a very dogmatic statement!.  Naturalism uses the limited scope of this 'prejudicial science' - sometimes called Scientism - to 'prove' its theories.)

Can Christianity Provide The Answer?

Surprisingly few of the world religions have their own creation story, and all of them (except Christianity / Judaism / Islam - which incidentally all developed from a single view of a Creator) center around a natural development and evolution theory that just cannot hold water (we’ll get into that later!)  So in effect, only two options exist for the creation of the universe - either it emerged on its own out of nothing (Naturalism), or via a Creator (as described by Christianity.)

Therefore intuitively, a Creator could be 'proven philosophically' by using positive proofs (necessarily philosophical, due to the super-natural nature of God,) or by disproving (scientifically OR philosophically) the Naturalistic position.  We have already considered several philosophical arguments for the existence of a Creator.  And further below on this page, we will expose the inadequacy of the Naturalistic models of creation.  We will distinguish the Creator's intentions, via Christ, Muhammad, or another prophet later.  But for now, we can be assured that the Christian faith provides both scientific and philosophical answers for a Creator.