Faith & Reason

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Faith & Reason
Existence of God
Authenticity of the Scriptures
Pain and Evil
Miracles
Evolution
The Trinity
Other Religions

  1. This is the defense of the faith by reason (Mere Christianity).
    1. Faith => Mere Christianity, not particular interpretations.
    2. Same apologetics work for Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant.
  2. Why apologetics?
    1. Obedience to God's Word (1 Peter 3:15)
    2. Evangelism (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)
    3. Strengthening the faith
  3. Why apologetics now?
    1. The death of Western civilization
      1. The church will live (Matthew 16:18)
      2. But our civilization has no such guarantee (save the world, not the church.)
      3. Put the soul back into our civilization.  (vs. secularism)
    2. The attack on objective truth ("glad it works for you.")
    3. The lukewarm church, disconnected from the world.
    4. Warning:  apologetics no substitute for love and works (1 Corinthians 13:2)
  4. Faith & Reason:  Definition
    1. Faith:  distinguish the object of faith from the act of faith (verb/noun)
      1. Object:  things revealed by God
      2. Act:  includes
        1. Emotional trust
        2. Intellectual belief
        3. Love - and obedience, and thus an act of will
    2. Reason
      1. Object:  all truth that can be
        1. Understood by reason alone
        2. Discovered by reason alone
        3. Proved by reason alone
      2. Act:  understanding, discovering and proving
  5. Relationship between faith and reason
    1. Rationalism (faith is a subset of reason)
    2. Fide-ism (only certain knowledge is by faith)
      1. Even reason must be grounded in faith that reason works.
    3. Identity of faith and reason
    4. Dualism - no contact between  ("church and state" - secularism)
    5. Partial overlap
  6. Can they contradict each other?
    1. If they are both true, they both come from the God who is truth. 
    2. Every argument against faith must fail for one of three reasons:
      1. Misapprehension or misunderstanding
      2. Ignorance
      3. Logical fallacy
  7. Justin Martyr's three steps
    1. Man seeks the truth only with reason, and is disappointed.
    2. Faith offers him the truth, and he accepts it.
    3. Having accepted, it satisfies his reason.

 

Book for the week:  Handbook of Christian Apologetics,  Kreeft & Tacelli, IVP Academic