Apologetics Class 11-22-2015

Currently, we are reading the book Unsilenced: How to Voice the Gospel by James Boccardo.  It is a great book about evangelism that also includes some information about Apologetics.

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Hi All,

Thanks for attending the class today.  We had a full(er) house today 🙂  I was glad to see and talk to y’all!  We continued reading chapter 8 today. We also watched and discussed the following witnessing clip from Living Waters:

How you were raised determines your faith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpgnYX2Xp-4

In our chapter 8 reading we covered pages 152-157.  Here are the questions we covered after the reading:

1. (pg. 152) Why worry about people who say, “Don’t worry about me, I’m good with the Lord”?  Well, they might ___   ___________.
2. (pg. 152) How does Matthew 7:21-23 speak about the issue?  Jesus is talking about people who ________  ________  ________  Him.
3. (pg. 153) What is a question that you can ask a self-proclaimed “Christian” that will tell you a lot in less than 10 seconds?
4. (pg. 154) If the person says yes to the above question, but sounds shaky, what follow-up question can you ask them?
5. (pg. 152-154) Should we just assume that every person attending church is saved? One of my favorite lines is “Tell me about ________  ____________  _________.”
6. (pg. 156) Do you have to be knowledgeable about other religions before you can talk with someone of another religion?

Since we were talking about other religions, I was going to show you this following video, but didn’t have time:

Living Waters University: a Catholic, a Muslim, & a Hindu girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBZtTwOk1iQ

Also during our discussions a point came up related to Roman Catholic theology – the idea of inclusivism.  Here are a few articles that speak about the issue:

When Catholicism Hinders the Gospel: http://www.str.org/articles/when-catholicism-hinders-the-gospel#.VlJOhr9HSMI The following is a quote from the article:

“I first started doing public advocacy of Christianity on a secular program called “Religion on the Line” on the ABC affiliate here in Los Angeles (two hours on religious topics with a rabbi, a priest, a minister, and a host).  I was stunned when the first time a Protestant called in to share Christ with the rabbi he was opposed not by the rabbi, but rather by the Roman Catholic priest (“Rabbi, I’ll handle this one.”) 

The Jews have their own covenant, the priest argued.  They have their own way to God which does not require belief in Jesus.  That is also true for every other faith.  God can be found through virtually any religions.  The blood of Christ—which is necessary to forgive sins (this is the only sense in which Christ is the only way)—is not just for Christians, but is applied to anyone who sincerely and obediently pursues his own religion.  He is forgiven through Jesus, though he never believes in Jesus.  Put simply, the good Buddhist is saved by the blood of Christ.  This is called inclusivism.

I almost fell off my chair the first time I heard this.  Yet, every single Roman Catholic priest on that program since then—a show I’d done more than twenty times—held the same thing, even a bishop. ”

And Salvation: Truth, Not Just Sincerity: http://www.str.org/articles/salvation-truth-not-just-sincerity#.VlJPB79HSMI Here is quote from the article:

This difference of opinion is a historically new development in Roman Catholicism that stunned me when I first encountered it in the early days of being on Religion on the Line in the late eighties, a radio panel Dennis Prager hosted for many years. The priests on the panel uniformly held the conviction, informed by Vatican II, that Jews don’t have to believe in Jesus in order to receive the benefits of Jesus’ salvation. This is a view called “inclusivism.” It’s not the same as pluralism, but in my view, it seems to have the same impact: “Yes, Jesus is necessary for salvation, but you don’t have to believe in Jesus to benefit from Jesus.”

Finally, here is an article from catholic.org entitled “Pope Francis says atheists can do good and go to heaven too!”.  It is very hard to figure out what he’s really saying, but it certainly doesn’t sound like an orthodox, biblical view on soteriology (study of the doctrine of salvation):  http://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=51077

Next week, we should finish chapter 8, which covers evolution.

Have a great week and a great Thanksgiving celebration!