Prerequisites: None
Credits: 2
Course Description:
As students it is commanded of us to always be prepared when anyone asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (I Peter 3:15). This course is designed to help students always be prepared. To fail to offer young followers of Christ the opportunity to know and understand the rational reasons for Christianity is to prepare them for a life of shallow faith or to set them up for disillusionment over what they grew up believing. Apologetics will open students’ minds to the logic of Christianity and the rationality of the Christian worldview.
Both Apologetics 1 and 2 will emphasize Scripture memorization and personal devotional time as important aspects of a whole apologist. Apologetics 1 will introduce the rationale for studying apologetics and provide a basic understanding of the study of rational arguments. The course will define and identify worldviews helping the student to see the distinctions of a Christian worldview. In the context of evangelism the course will prepare students to present arguments for the existence of God and the validity of Scripture. Apologetics 2, the second course in apologetics, the relationship between evangelism and apologetics will be studied. Then we will work our way through the Creation-Fall-Redemption story of the Bible. We will start with creation in Genesis and end with the new creation brought about the by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Much time will be devoted to understanding the present debate of origins scientifically and theologically. In this course the problem of pain why bad things happen to good people will be responded to. Most importantly, reasons for belief in the resurrection will be studied and responses to common objections to the resurrection will be addressed.
Course Objectives:
The student should be able to:
- Explain what it means to apologize and Biblical reasons for learning how to apologize
- Use and understand the use of rational arguments in Christian apologetics.
- State the purpose for and necessity of rationally defending Christian doctrines.
- Define worldviews and identify some of the characteristics of a Christian Worldview.
- Effectively communicate arguments for the existence of God.
- Provide evidence for the validity and inspiration of the Bible.
- Defend both biblically and scientifically the creation account as recorded in Genesis.
- Explain sufficiently the simultaneous existence of a good and loving God with the existence of evil and suffering in the world.
- Argue persuasively for the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- Use Scripture study to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
- Memorize Scripture pertaining to each area of the Christian teaching studied.
Course Book Selections:
For each Apologetics course for some assignments you will need to obtain a book. Both books can be purchased on Amazon.com for about $11.00 each. In the first course the required text is Ishbane Conspiracy by Randy Alcorn. This book will be used to demonstrate worldview thinking. In the second course the required text is Case for Christ: Student Edition, which will be used to defend the resurrection of Jesus Christ.