Apologetics

^{Note: This article is reprinted with permission from As I See It, a monthly electronic magazine compiled and edited by Doug Kutilek. AISI is sent free to all who request it by writing to the editor at dkutilek@juno.com.}

Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson, He Walked Among Us: Evidence for the Historical Jesus. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993. 366 pp., paperback.

Josh McDowell is well-known for the numerous books on various aspects of Christian apologetics, which he has penned over the past several decades. Those volumes are generally quite useful in deflecting, defusing, and discrediting various attacks on the credibility of the Bible. This present volume, co-authored by Bill Wilson (who is otherwise unknown to me) and originally published in 1988, is comparable to McDowell’s other volumes. Herein, the authors present, with numerous documented quotes from a variety of recognized scholars and experts, strong evidence from extra-biblical sources for the historicity of Jesus, evidence from textual criticism, secular history, archaeology, geography, and other areas for the accuracy and credibility of the New Testament accounts of Jesus. They also provide an excellent apologetic (defense) for the reality of New Testament miracles, including and especially the resurrection, and for the deity of the Messiah. read more

Within the Book of Acts is an anthology of apostolic preaching. Among those sermons is Paul’s address to the pagans and philosophers of Athens, what has been called his Areopagitica. [1] Here Paul proclaimed the gospel, not to biblically informed, monotheistic Jews, but to pagans and philosophers of thoroughly unbiblical presuppositions. Here if anywhere we would expect to find insights on how to do apologetics today among secularists with their various isms or among modern pagans. Should apologetics be presuppositional, classical, evidential, cumulative case? Where is the point of contact between belief and unbelief? How should the argument be structured?

Before we attempt a full textbook on apologetics from this single passage, a few preliminary observations are in order. First, the passage obviously summarizes Paul’s message; it does not elaborate on his outline. Second, this preaching like all preaching suits a particular occasion, and some of Paul’s statements may be rhetoric based on details that the passage does not disclose (e.g., audience reactions during the sermon). Third, the message is not so much an argument or back-and-forth debate as a proclamation, Paul answering their question, “What’s this Jesus and resurrection deal all about?” For these reasons and for the basic hermeneutical caution not to make any narrative absolutely normative for today, we should be careful not to decide in favor of any one apologetic methodology based on this one passage alone.
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In Part One, I discussed Paul’s view of logic and its relation to the Word and doctrine. Paul viewed logical conclusions as fallible and submissive to the Word. Even so, Paul greatly respected logical thought. In Parts Two and Three, I want to look at a few ways Paul actually used logic.

Paul made great use of logic in his epistles. His logical thought is seen in his constant use of connecting words like “for,” “because,” “therefore,” etc.

Paul used “gar” 433 times. Gar is usually translated “for.” It is usually a conclusive term which introduces the reason for the statement that precedes it. He ate the bread for (because) he was hungry.

Paul used “oun” 116 times. Oun is usually translated “therefore.”

The second Scripture source in Part One involved Paul’s view of logizomai/logismos. Paul used logizomai 42 times (out of a total 49 in the NT), logismos (reasonable) twice (no one else uses this word).

Logizomai:

In class[ical] literature, logizomai means to “deliberate, to conclude.” Esp. in Plato it is the typical term for the non-emotional thinking of the philosopher seeking suprapersonal knowledge, in this case, the receptive apprehension of something objectively present. (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Kittel.)

Hence, logizomai means: (a) reckon, credit, rank with, calculate; (b) consider, deliberate, grasp, draw a logical conclusion, decide. (J. Eichler, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.)

This word was used in both accounting and philosophy. That mix of ideas suggests reasoning viewed as a logical-mathematical endeavor.
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