Welcome to The Evidence for the Truth of Christianity in Light of World Religions podcast. This is episode #13
I am your host, Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International.
Today’s passage of Scripture is Hebrews 11:6 which reads: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Today’s quote is from Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He said: “Faith is this extraordinary principle which links man to God; faith is this thing that keeps a man from hell and puts him in heaven; it is the connection between this world and the world to come; faith is this mystic astounding thing that can take a man dead in trespasses and sins and make him live as a new being, a new man in Christ Jesus.”
Our topic for today is titled “Biblical Apologetics” from “The Encyclopedia of Apologetics”
William Edgar observes:
The theologians of the first generation after the close of the apostolic age are known as the Church Fathers, and they functioned primarily as apologists…Understandably, apologetics in this period aimed to prove the legitimacy of the Christian faith and had to respond to two major threats: persecution and heresy. In addition, the early church had to define itself in relation to Judaism, showing both continuity with the faith of the Old Testament and discontinuity with the hardened Judaism which had rejected Christ as Messiah.
Any legitimate understanding of biblical apologetics must take these matters seriously if we are to understand how the biblical writers used apologetics themselves. In addition to the challenges facing New Testament Christians (persecution and heresy), the Old Testament authors faced their own set of apologetic challenges as they defended their unique view of monotheism against the prevailing polytheism, paganism, and hostility of their neighbors. In a very real sense, both Christians and Jews were involved in more than a theological debate. They often were in a fight for their very lives. Therefore, we would do well to examine how they defended their beliefs within the parameters of the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
Lord willing, we will continue this topic in our next podcast.
Today, dear friend, we will continue reading “Book 1, Chapter 1” of “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis:
Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be called the Law of Nature. Nowadays, when we talk of the “laws of nature” we usually mean things like gravitation, or heredity, or the laws of chemistry. But when the older thinkers called the Law of Right and Wrong “the Law of Nature,” they really meant the Law of Human Nature. The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law—with this great difference, that a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature or to disobey it.
We may put this in another way. Each man is at every moment subjected to several different sets of law but there is only one of these which he is free to disobey. As a body, he is subjected to gravitation and cannot disobey it; if you leave him unsupported in mid-air, he has no more choice about falling than a stone has. As an organism, he is subjected to various biological laws which he cannot disobey any more than an animal can. That is, he cannot disobey those laws which he shares with other things; but the law which is peculiar to his human nature, the law he does not share with animals or vegetables or inorganic things, is the one he can disobey if he chooses.
This law was called the Law of Nature because people thought that every one knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it. They did not mean, of course, that you might not find an odd individual here and there who did not know it, just as you find a few people who are colour-blind or have no ear for a tune. But taking the race as a whole, they thought that the human idea of decent behaviour was obvious to every one. And I believe they were right. If they were not, then all the things we said about the war were nonsense. What was the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong unless Right is a real thing which the Nazis at bottom knew as well as we did and ought to have practised? If they had had no notion of what we mean by right, then, though we might still have had to fight them, we could no more have blamed them for that than for the colour of their hair.
Lord willing, we will continue reading “Book 1, Chapter 1” of “Mere Christianity” in our next podcast.
Let’s Pray —
Before we close, dear friend, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you want to get to know Him today here’s how.
First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”
Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Now this is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.
Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Pray and ask Him to come into your heart and He will.
May God bless you and keep you until we meet again.
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