CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS: PEOPLE

The Human Enigma

• Blaise Pascal, Pensees• Human beings are a strange and freakish

mixture of greatness and wretchedness, as simultaneously both the glory and refuse of the universe.

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS

• but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)

• We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 2 Cor 10:5 (ESV)

6 Basic Worldview Components

• Prime Reality – One Triune God• Universe – Created by the One Triune God• People• History• Knowledge• Moral Values, Duties, & Aesthetics

5 Arguments That Confirm & Support The Christian Worldview

• Scripture – your foundation• Pragmatic – How you live your life• Experiential – Your personal testimony• Presuppositional – Preconditions for

knowledge

• Evidences - facts

Creator – creature Distinction• For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and

invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Col 1:16-17 (ESV)

• One Triune Creator God– Independent Infinite Authority

• Creation– Dependent & Finite

7 Major Events Effecting HumansRevealed By God

• Creation – Genesis 1-2• Fall – Genesis 3• Worldwide Flood – Genesis 6-9• Dispersion based on language – Genesis 11• Christ’s Incarnation• Christ’s Atonement, Resurrection, Ascension• New Heaven and New Earth

People Before Sin

• Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Gen 1:26-28 (ESV)

Created In God’s Image

• Humans are unique - different in kind and not just degree from other animals.

• Every human from conception is a person and has inherent dignity, moral worth, and eternal value not possessed by any other creature.

• All humans are one race.• Every human has a purpose:– “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy

him forever.”

Human Attributes Because Created In God’s Image

• Physical & Spiritual• Relational – Genesis 2:18• Immortal• Rational, Logical• Reliable senses• Reliable memory• Originally true knowledge – limited, mystery• Originally righteous – no sin before the Fall• Powerful

Originally No Death

• And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Gen 1:29-31 (ESV)

The Fall

• of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Gen 2:17 (ESV)

• But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. Gen 3:4 (ESV)

• So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Gen 3:6 (ESV)

All People After the Fall: Total Depravity & Death

• Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned Romans 5:12 (ESV)

• “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. Romans 3:10-11 (ESV)

• for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 (ESV)

• For the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23 (ESV)

All People After the Fall:Flawed Thinking

• For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Romans 8:7 (ESV)

• The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor 2:14 (ESV)

• in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. Eph 4:17-18 (ESV)

All People After the Fall

• Every human from conception has a sin nature that separates them from the One Triune God.

• Every human from conception is helpless, depraved, lost, and deserves God’s judgment.

• For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Romans 1:18 (ESV)

• If allowed by God to develop, all people add personal sin to their sin nature.

• No human on their own will or can choose to confess, repent, obey, and love God.

• Every human has only one hope: Jesus Christ

Some People After Redemption

• Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 (ESV)

• Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself 2 Cor 5:17-18 (ESV)

• For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:21 (ESV)

Some People After Redemption

• But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph 2:4-9 (ESV)

Some People After Redemption

• “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (ESV)

• but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (ESV)

• if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 (ESV)

Some People After Redemption

• For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son Romans 8:29 (ESV)

• And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Cor 3:18 (ESV)

• he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Phil 1:6 (ESV)

People After RedemptionRedeemed – Not Glorified

• For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Gal 5:17 (ESV)

• walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called Eph 4:1 (ESV)

• So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Romans 6:11-13 (ESV)

• Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind Romans 12:2 (ESV)

Redeemed People After Christ’s Return

• We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 1 Cor 15:51-53 (ESV)

• we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 (ESV)

• He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Rev 21:4 (ESV)

People Summary

• Before the fall– Able to not sin– Able to sin– No death

• After the fall– Not able to not sin– Able to sin– Death

• After redemption– Able to not sin– Able to sin– Death

• After Christ’s return– Able to not sin– Not able to sin– No Death

The Christian Worldview Explains The Human Enigma

• Blaise Pascal:– Human beings are a mixture of greatness and

wretchedness…glory and refuse.• In God’s image by creation – greatness • Fallen by inheritance – wretchedness • Only hope – For the wages of sin is death, but

the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (ESV)

Believer’s Response to God and People

• Let God be true though every one were a liar Romans 3:4 (ESV)

• “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

• 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matt 22:37-39 (ESV)

Why Christian Apologetics?

• How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Romans 10:14 (ESV)

• So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 (ESV)