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If so, I'd like to ask what did it for you?
Thanks.
Thanks.
If so, I'd like to ask what did it for you?
Thanks.
Yes, I know several personally. The example that I like best is my senior pastor and his family (meaning his dad, his mom, and his brother). His parents, and as a result, both he and his younger brother, were devout atheists, who looked at the Genesis account of Creation with particular enjoyment. However, when it was shown to them by one of their best friends (who happened to be a Christian) that the Creation as recorded in Genesis could actually be true as written, they became open to hearing more. They did not come to saving faith in Jesus on that basis alone, but they will tell you that Creation apologetics played a BIG part in all four of them finally becoming believers, something that all four of them still are today, believers that is, decades later.If so, I'd like to ask what did it for you?
Thanks.
If so, I'd like to ask what did it for you?
Thanks.
It made me stronger in my faith, but then, that isn’t a good thing for Christian Apologetics.
Apologetics isn't intended to convert the skeptic. It is intended to help Christians justify and defend their faith.If so, I'd like to ask what did it for you?
Thanks.
I know of at least one former mormon on this forum who converted to Christianity because of the apologetics discussions.If so, I'd like to ask what did it for you?
Thanks.
Hello TG. Don't give them any ideas LOL.Sssh. They'll close it down and I like it here.
R.I.P.
Shut down permanently. Too many of the faithful were being shown the light of reason (deconverted)
Before I come on board:The deconversion to conversion rate was 7 to 1. Ouch.
Apologetics isn't intended to convert the skeptic. It is intended to help Christians justify and defend their faith.
Defining apologetics as "preaching to the choir" is closer to the truth than "converting the infidel". But for me it doesn't go far enough. I see apologetics as more like "handwaving to the choir". Like "Move along folks, nothing to see here. Just some boring dry academic debate stuff." Ministers generally regard apologetics with veiled distaste, like it's a necessary evil to keep a few doubters' second foot in the door. But mostly the purpose is to discourage, not encourage, the average layperson from trying to defend the faith.
If I'm a church leader, apologetics is for clueless people that miss the obvious. People came here for faith not reason. Worse yet, apologetics caries the seeds of its own destruction. The more you try to defend a faith tradition the more glaring its holes will be. So the less people are interested in apologetics the better.
Defining apologetics as "preaching to the choir" is closer to the truth than "converting the infidel". But for me it doesn't go far enough. I see apologetics as more like "handwaving to the choir". Like "Move along folks, nothing to see here. Just some boring dry academic debate stuff." Ministers generally regard apologetics with veiled distaste, like it's a necessary evil to keep a few doubters' second foot in the door. But mostly the purpose is to discourage, not encourage, the average layperson from trying to defend the faith.
If I'm a church leader, apologetics is for clueless people that miss the obvious. People came here for faith not reason. Worse yet, apologetics caries the seeds of its own destruction. The more you try to defend a faith tradition the more glaring its holes will be. So the less people are interested in apologetics the better.
If we're going to talk about Christian Apologetics here, I think the real question is "did Christian Apologetics help me to maintain my faith after I started with the New Testament message"? And the answer would be a partial 'yes.'
Of course, in my particular case, the maintaining of my faith has also come by way of exploring and vetting atheistic arguments and literature and finding them to be wanting in various ways.
You never cease to amaze and exasperate me.
Apologetics is generally understood to remove impediments and answer objections. For example:
- Unbeliever: If Christianity is true, then the earth is flat; but the earth is not flat, therefore Christianity is not true.
- Believer: Christians do not believe that the earth is flat.
The response does not demonstrate the truth of Christianity, but it removes a reason to disbelieve Christianity.