An Apologetic Reading Plan for Beginners

Via Apologetics315
Are you new to apologetics? Perhaps you're wondering where you should begin your reading. Because there are so many apologetics books out there—many which may be heavy reading for those new to apologetics—it would be helpful to have a sort of "top 10" reading plan for apologetics beginners.

The ten books on the reading plan below are selected specifically for the beginner in apologetics. They are on the list because of their accessibility and their quality of content. The order is provided as a progressive reading plan for those just getting started. Working through this list should give the novice a good foundation before moving on to more advanced titles.

1. The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
All of Lee Strobel's books are required reading for two reasons. First, they are good introductions to the subject and provide a good overview of the material from some of the best scholars in their fields. Second, the writing style is very accessible, taking you alongside a journalist in his investigation of the evidence for Christianity. In this particular title, Strobel focuses on the life and identity of Jesus.

2. The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
This book is just as readable as The Case for Christ, but this one delves into the evidence for the Creator. Another thing that makes this good reading for the beginner is this: whatever areas you find particularly interesting can be pursued further by reading the sources interviewed in the book.

3. The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
In The Case for Faith, Strobel moves from making a positive case for Christ and a Creator to defending Christianity from some common criticisms and objections. This one deals with the hard faith questions such as the problem of pain and suffering and issues of doubt. Again, all three of the Lee Strobel books are a great starting point for the beginner.

**Interlude: Watch the The Lee Strobel Film Collection
At this point, now you can take a break from your reading and actually watch a series of three DVDs that are about an hour each. These excellent documentaries follow the same content as the books, along with interviews with experts and specialists. This is a great refresher for what you have read and also makes for a great small group resource and a DVD to lend to a friend.

4. Holman QuickSource Guide to Christian Apologetics by Doug Powell
Now it's time for something different. This odd-shaped and colorful book (with more graphics than words) will introduce you to the wide landscape of apologetics by outlining, diagramming, and illustrating all of the key arguments for the existence of God, the reliability of the Bible, the beliefs of other world views, and common objections. This is very helpful in providing visual categories for the content you are taking in. If certain things you have read up till this point have been overly academic, then this book will give you a sort of pictorial overview. This is also useful as a "primer" on the key topics and helpful to establish a bird's eye view. Illustrations of the ideas are also great for sharing with others what you have learned.

5. Love Your God With All Your Mind by J.P. Moreland
Ok, so you have taken in some of the key content and ideas that Strobel presents in the "Case for" series. But what does intellectual engagement look like? What does it look like to "love God with all your mind"? In this book you'll be challenged to live a vibrant life of intellectual engagement with your faith. This is a classic book that every apologist should read, and that's why it finds itself firmly in the foundational books recommended here.

6. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl
Information without application results in stagnation when it comes to apologetics. That's why it's time for a good dose of Tactics, which will train you not only to use apologetic content in everyday life, but it will also train you to be a better, more critical thinker. This is another "must read" book, and mastering its contents early in your apologetic studies will put feet to your faith.

7. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Mike Licona & Gary Habermas
The resurrection of Jesus is central to Christianity. This book equips you to understand and defend the resurrection from an historical perspective. Not only does the book have useful diagrams, summaries, and an accessible style, but it also comes with a CD-ROM with interactive software for teaching you the material. This is an essential book for the apologist.

8. Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists by Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow
Now it's time to look at some of the most common objections that have come against Christianity since the rise of the new atheism. There's no better book at dealing with these in a concise yet dense way, while providing additional reading suggestions and introducing some of the key apologists that deal with these questions. If you really want to master this material, consider taking part in the Read Along project for this book.

9. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist by Geisler & Turek
Geisler and Turek have authored a great apologetics book that also takes a step-by-step approach to showing that Christianity is true—and it's filled with lots of information. This gives the growing beginner a ton of good content, while strengthening the framework of a cumulative case for Christianity. This book will help to grow your overall general apologetic knowledge as well.

10. On Guard by William Lane Craig
Finally, it's time to dig deeper into some of the more philosophically rigorous arguments with William Lane Craig. On Guard is, in essence, a shorter, more concise and accessible distillation of his weightier apologetics book Reasonable Faith. On Guard has illustrations, argument maps, and sidebars which aim to make the material easier to grasp and engage with. This book will introduce the newer apologist to Craig's time-tested arguments for the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus. While it is still not light reading, this will serve the reader well before moving on to more advanced material. Highly recommended.

So what's next? If you've worked through this list, well done! You might want to dig a little deeper by going through the great apologetics textbook by Douglas Groothuis: Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. You can study this book in depth with the Read Along program here. After that, then delve into the topics that have interested you most in your reading. Do this by reading books by the experts that Lee Strobel interviewed or the apologists that have been referenced in Is God Just a Human Invention.

Final Note
As stated before, there are a lot of apologetics books out there. However, if you begin with these, you will have a pretty good foundational understanding of the landscape. From here you can (and should) do deeper study in areas of interest. While this is no definitive list (I'm sure those commenting will have their own suggestions), it should be a great place to get started.

New Archeological discovery regarding 2nd Temple of Jerusalem

The Presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church

A small bible study for our church's camp this weekend:

The Presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church
The Holy Spirit is sometimes referred as the “forgotten member of the Trinity”. This may be due not only to the fact that most individuals and churches find it difficult to relate to the third member of the Trinity, but also because we, as human beings, love to as the old saying goes, “pulling your self up by your own bootstraps”. We forget that as a church, we don’t only follow an order or service, good as it may be, but we get things accomplished through and by the Holy Spirit.

Have you asked the Spirit to help you through this day?

God gives us the Holy Spirit so we can be assure of our salvation

We have been given the Holy Spirit to zeal us as God’s chosen people. In Ephesians 1:13-14, we read that the Holy Spirit is the zeal the marks us as part of God’s people. This is the same Holy Spirit that testifies to our spirit that we are children of God, cf. Romans 8:16. Too many Christians question their salvation by measuring how many good works they do. Some even claim that only through an external action the believer, and others will know if they truly have the Holy Spirit! But Paul says that all who believe in God, receive the Holy Spirit at that very moment, cf. Ephesians 1:13. Putting it in simple words, there is no Christian without the Holy Spirit!

How can we doubt that we have the Holy Spirit if the Bible tells us so?

The Church needs the presence of the Holy Spirit at all times

When we go to cathedrals, as tourists of course, we love to admire the beauty and grandeur of the place. We admire its paintings, architecture, and its awesome presence. We try to be quite and conduct ourselves with respect. This is not only polite, but we may feel overwhelmed by the place. But do we as a church, God’s temple, behave the same when we are gathered? A cathedral may be a place of peace, contemplation, but the Spirit of God does not dwell there. We are the true temple of God, I Corinthians 3:16. We are called the household of God, I Timothy 3:15. So we are confronted once again with this reality, just a there can be no Christian without the Spirit, there can be no Church without the Spirit

How do we behave within God’s house?

The fruits/gifts of the Holy Spirit are to be used within the Church and wider world

One of the main problems within the Corinthian congregation is that the manifestations of the Spirit were used to show off their “spirituality”. They didn’t appreciate that by God giving those gifts to such a sinful people, God was showing his mercy rather than his favouritism. The gifts were given to up build one another in love, not to put those who were seen to have lesser gifts, cf. I Corinthians 12. But as mentioned before, we are not going to achieve unity by our own efforts. We may be polite to one another, but that politeness must be because we love one another. Only the Holy Spirit can change our hearts of stone into a heart of flesh, cf. Ezekiel 36:26. Paul warns the Galatians what it is to live a life where the Spirit is not present as a church, cf. Galatians 5:13-21. But after that, he gives us what to live through the Holy Spirit is, 22-26. If we live a life in the Spirit, then, the world will see that we are one, and be a great testimony as to the power of God among us, his church, John 13:35.

Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to take hold of our church?

Prayer.

A biblical exposition of Mission

Doing Mission like Jesus

John 20:21

Intro

Have you ever been confronted around 6 o’clock with a sales person at your door? You want to take your dinner, or just want to rest from work, yet, they want to convince you that you have to listen to them because they can offer you something that will outweigh the importance of your dinnertime, family time, or any other commitment you may have. They give you all the benefits if you join their company, cause, or product, and have the papers ready for you just to sign them off.

These people are on a mission, a mission for you to join them. They tell you a good story, as to how better your life will be if you do what they say. Some of this people may truly mean what they say, while the vast majority, are just doing their jobs, and what a good job they do!!!

We have been sent by Jesus to accomplish a mission as well, and one that has no gimmicks or very small writing that may make us trap in a contract we later on wish we had never entered into. The mission that Jesus gives to us is the same mission that he got from the Father, to proclaim the good news to a needy world. Today we will see how God has always been a God that is interested in mission, and how He has commissioned us, as those before us, with the tools to carry on with such a mission.

Israel, a kingdom of priests and missionaries

The first missionary of good news that we find in the Bible is Moses, who is sent to preach to the people of Israel who were under bondage, freedom, Exodus 3:7-8. This, as we will later see, was very similar to what Jesus proclaimed he was doing during his mission. But Israel, after being delivered from their slavery, was not supposed to stay with their knowledge of God for themselves. They were rather commissioned to be a kingdom of priests, Exodus 19:5-6. Let’s look closely, we see the Levites are not the only ones who are entrusted with serving others, but the whole nation. The Levites who were set apart to learn the Law, were in turn to teach the people of Israel about the Law, who were in turn to teach the other nations about the Lord.

Their status as God’s messenger on earth was confirmed later on as we see in Isaiah 49:6. But later on, the same Isaiah says that they have failed miserably at their commission, Isaiah 52:5.

But God does not give up, and as God, has a greater plan to accomplish his mission on earth.

Jesus, God’s unique missionary

Israel failed; they did not reach the other nations with the knowledge of the Lord. Jesus was to take the mission that Israel could not accomplish. It is interesting to see that Jesus starts his mission with a similar proclamation as to what was told to Moses, Luke 4:18-19. Jesus was tempted in the desert, just as Israel was, yet, did not fall into sin as they did. He goes up to a mountain, and gives the Law by which his kingdom will be carried out, Matt. 5-7, as Moses went up to Sinai to give the Law that Israel was going to proclaim to the nations. Jesus was faithful to all of what the Father commanded, while not only Israel, but also Moses failed to do this, Numbers 20. Jesus submitted totally to the Father’s will, as seen in John 6:38-39; 8:29. Jesus also limited himself to speak only the Father’s words, Jn. 3:34; 8:28; 12:49; 14:24; 17:8.

Just as it was said that the people of Israel was going to be a missionary nation, Jesus also makes his new Israel a missionary people. John 20:21 can be seen as the commissioning of God’s people to do the mission in the world. Yet, this time we can accomplished the task set before us, because we don’t rely only on our knowledge of the message, but also, in the example and accomplishment of Jesus’ mission. Jesus does not only commands us to do mission, he has done it for us!!!!

The Church’s as Jesus’ missionary

Just as Israel was proclaimed as a kingdom of priests to carry out God’s mission on earth, so is the church, I Peter 2:9. We have been entrusted with Jesus’ message of freedom from the oppression of sin, from the bondage of disease, and from the fear of death. We have been given a commission and the tool to go along with it, the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to see that after Jesus commissions his disciples, he also gives them the Holy Spirit in order to carry out the mission. We do not only have God’s Law in our minds, but also in our hearts, Jeremiah 31:33. At Pentecost, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to empower the Church to carry the message to the ends of the earth, Acts 2. We have a message, and the power to proclaim it today!!!

Conclusion

As a church, are we carrying the mission of Jesus today??? Are we being priests to the people around us, or do we keep the good news of freedom and salvation to ourselves???

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to carry on with the mission that Jesus gave to us, so that we may bring all to the knowledge of Jesus, and in turn, to salvation.