1. <Basic Beliefs & Apologetics>

2. Why apologetics?

3. Discuss!
1. Why did you become a Christian? ―I
became a Christian because _______.‖
2. What are 1-2 of the most difficult
questions you have heard about
Christianity?

4. Principles
 Distinguish between tough questions and
tough problems
 ―I don‘t know‖ is fine! Unanswered
questions don‘t mean Christianity is false!
 Love is more important than logic
 What can YOU learn?
 The ―seeker‖ issue (or why ‗proof‘ is almost
never sufficient); psychological certainty vs.
epistemic certainty

5. Session #1
God is Real

9. There are more than
1.5 million galaxies!

10. Two questions
• Did all this come about by chance or did
someone have to create all this?
• Why is Earth the only planet where life (let
alone intelligent life!) exists?

11. The Cosmological Argument

12. The
Teleological
Argument

13. The Anthropic Principle

14. The challenge of evolution

15. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made
that has been made.‖ (John 1:1-3)

16. Other ‗hot‘ problems
• ―There is no truth‖, ―The world is an
illusion‖, ―Truth is determined by _____‖
• How do I know I exist?
• Why doesn‘t God do ‗sky-writing‘?
(Rejection of Cognitive Violence)
• Nature is all there is…you are being fooled
by your brain (Argument from Conditions
for Knowledge)

17. Session #2
God is Love

18. Pop Quiz: Are you a heretic?!

19. What is
the Trinity?

21. 1x1x1=1

22. The best model I can
think of thus far…

24. The Problem of Evil

25. The problem of pain

26. Why do bad things
happen to good people?

27. The FreeWill / Love Defense
1. God‘s top priority is love
2. Love requires freedom for the beloved
3. True freedom means accepting the
possibility or risk of evil
4. Freedom must be irrevocable

28. Natural Evil

29. Responding to Natural Evil
• Many people (especially children) die
‗before their time‘
• There are too many deaths
• Innocent people suffer
• God should be able to control the
hurricane, earthquake, etc.

31. Do tragedies mean that
God is judging us?!

33. The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,
he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon— to
do his work, his strange work, and perform his task,
his alien task. (Isaiah 28:21)

37. The Pattern of God‘s Judgment
• Clearly and specifically fore-warned
• Characterised by patience and reluctance
• Happens only after repeated warnings and
chances to repent! (e.g. Noah‘s time,
Pharoah, etc.)
• Involves rescuing / preserving a righteous
remnant

38. What about hell?

39. But there is a question we
seldom reflect on…

40. Why do good things
happen at all?
(The scandal of grace)

41. Yet by far the best ‗answer‘ to
the problem of evil…

43. What happened on the Cross
theologically?
(GROUP EXERCISE)

49. Session #3
Jesus is God

50. What questions do you have
about Jesus?

51. Key Questions
• Who did Jesus‘ contemporaries
understand Jesus to be?
• What was the ‗Jewish problem‘ Jesus was
addressing?
• What is the ‗kingdom of God‘? (Session 4)
• Why all the miracles?
• Why does Jesus talk in parables?
• Why did He die?

52. There were (at least)
Jewish groups during Jesus‘ time

54. #1 The Withdrawers

55. Qumran Community / Essenes
• Focus: Purity, separation, complete
withdrawal
• Victims: Leave the country! Forget politics!
• Good: Holy and set apart
• Bad: Totally disengaged and thus irrelevant
to the world
• Not a threat to the status quo

56. #2 The Assimilators

57. Sadducees
• Focus: assimilation and accommodation
• Victims: Join the government, profit from
those in power
• Good: Works well with the world and
within the system
• Bad: Selfish and helps perpetuate injustice
• Not a threat to the status quo

59. #3 The Fault-Finders

60. Pharisees
• Focus: other people‘s faults(!), distinguishing
between ‗good guys‘ and ‗bad guys‘,
• Victims: ―I-told-you-so‖, ―You-should-have-…‖,
―Your-mistake-was…‖
• Good: Well-informed and very critical of all
parties (except themselves!)
• Bad: Creates burdens for people, de-
contextualised ‗solutions‘,
• Not a threat to the status quo

61. ―Life is like a
forensic lab…‖

62. Modern-day
Pharisees?

63. #4 The
Revolutionaries

64. Zealots
• Focus: revolution, violence
• Victims: Overthrow the government by
force (other means are a waste of time!)
• Strongly opposed to injustice, courageous
and action-oriented
• Bad: Perpetuates ‗violence‘ and ‗hatred‘,
equates worldly justice with divine justice
• Threatens status quo

67. Into the midst of these four
worldviews…

69. WITHDRAWERS ASSIMILATORS
“Behold I make all things new”
(Rev 21)
REVOLUTIONARIES FAULT-FINDERS

70. Jesus
• Focus: aggressive kindness and love (for
all), self-sacrifice, all-out giving,
• Victims: Liberation of the heart, really good
news, compassion, hope, peace, joy,
promise of resurrection
• Oppressors: Sacrifice, radical listening /
friendship, forgiveness
• Everyone: A New Way of Being Human
• A quiet but real threat to the status quo!

72. Miracle Type Mark Matt Luke John
In all four gospels
1. Feeding of 5,000 nature 6.35f 14.15f 9.12f 6.5f
In three gospels
2. Walking on water nature 6.48f 14.25f 6.19f
3. Peter's mother-in-law healing 1.30f 8.14f 4.38f
4. Man with leprosy healing 1.40f 8.24f 5.12f
5. Paralyzed man healing 2.3f 9.2f 5.18f
6. Man with shriveled hand healing 3.1f 12.10f 6.6f
7. Calming the storm nature 4.37f 8.23f 8.22f
8. Gadarene Demoniac(s) exorcism 5.1f 8.28f 8.27f
9. Raising Jairus' daughter revivification 5.22f 9.18f 8.41f
10. Hemorrhaging woman healing 5.25f 9.20f 8.43f
11. Demon-possessed boy exorcism 9.17f 17.14f 9.38f
12. Two blind men healing 10.46f 20.29f 18.35f
In two gospels (Mark, Matt)
13. Canaanite woman's daughter exorcism@distance 7.24f 15.21f
14. Feeding of 4,000 nature 8.1f 15.32f
15. Fig tree withered nature 11.12f 21.18f
In two gospels (Mark, Luke)
16. Possessed man in synagogue exorcism 1.23f 4.33f
In two gospels (Matt, Luke=Q?)
17. Roman Centurion's servant healing@distance 8.5f 7.1f
18. Blind, Mute, and Possessed man exorcism 12.22 11.14
Only in one gospel (Mark)
19. Deaf mute healing 7.31f
20. Blind man at Bethsaida healing 8.22f
Only in one gospel (Matt)
21. Two blind men healing 9.27f
22. Mute and possessed man exorcism 9.32f
23. Coin in fish's mouth precognition/nature? 17.24f
Only in one gospel (Luke)
24. First catch of fish precognition/nature? 5.1f
25. Raising Widow's son at Nain revivification 7.11f
26. Exorcism of Mary Magdalene exorcism 8.2
27. Crippled woman healing 13.11f
28. Man with dropsy healing 14.1f
29. Ten men with leprosy healing@distance 17.11f
30. High Priest's servant healing 22.50f
Only in one gospel (John)
31. Wine miracle at Cana nature 2.1f
32. Official's son at Capernaum healing@distance 4.46f
33. Sick man at Pool of Bethesda healing 5.1f
34. Healing of the Blind Man healing 9.1f
35. Raising Lazarus revivification 11.1f
36. Second catch of fish precognition/nature? 21.1f

74. Did it really
happen?
<Did it really happen?>

75. Consider…
• All evidence suggests that Jesus really died
(water from body, unbroken legs, burial)
• Jewish leaders claimed the disciples stole the
body but tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers
(whose lives were at stake)
• More than 500 people saw Jesus resurrected,
and who was present for days (hallucination
cannot explain this!), see Acts 1
• The first witnesses were women! (not good for
credibility or conspiracy!)
• What motives did disciples have for lying? So
they could ‗look good‘? So they could be
persecuted and die as martyrs?!

76. More ‗hot‘ questions
• What about those who didn‘t get to hear
the Gospel through no fault of their own?
• How do we even know Jesus existed?
• What about Da Vinci Code?!
• Why does God create all people sin-less?
Won‘t that be the case in Heaven?
• Was Jesus gay?

77. The Temptations of Christ in
the Wilderness:
A Study of Sin, Truth,
Man & Politics

78. ―I will allure her and bring her into the
wilderness and speak to her heart‖
(Hosea 2:14)

79. Why do Christians still sin?

82. 5 Views
• Lutheran – fall on the grace of God (we
can‘t help but sin)
• Reformed – keep obeying (new creation
overcomes sin)
• Keswick – encounter the Spirit (sin
requires a crisis)
• Wesleyan – why still sin? (sin entails non-
surrender to Christ)
• Joseph Prince – no more sin? (radical
grace)

83. The 1
st Temptation

84. "If you are the Son of God,
tell this stone to become
bread." (Luke 4:3)

86. The Devil doesn‟t
appear like this

88. ―Man shalt not live
by bread alone…‖

89. Sin is the „Cutting
Short‟ of a
kingdom process!

90. Biblical Inerrancy
• Does the Bible need to be 100% error-
free? (A theo-philosophical question)
• Is the Bible actually error-free? How do the
OT and NT compare historiographically
with other ancient documents?
• What about 2Timothy 3:16?

91. The ‗miracle‘ of NT Preservation

92. The 2
nd Temptation

93. "If you are the Son of God…throw
yourself down. For it is written:
'He will command his angels concerning
you, and they will lift you up in their
hands, so that you will not strike your
foot against a stone‖
(Luke 4:3)

96. 'He will
command his
angels
concerning
you…‖

97. Sin = „Circus
Stunts‟ to gain
kingdom peace /
protection!

98. Thou shalt not
BLACK-MAIL the
Lord your God!

99. Temptation is often a distortion of true vocation

100. Who / What is Man?

101. Rich?
Successful?
Popular?
Good-looking?
Hot body?
―Cultured‖?
Educated?

102. Man
• A creature who lives and works by every
word that comes from God
(Ephesians 2:10)
• A derivative being who finds life and
meaning in trusting God, refusing to rely
on the world‘s power and tricks and looks
to God‘s power in all things
(Psalms 20:7)
• A worshipful agent who finds purpose in
God alone

103. The 3
rd Temptation

105. "All this I will give you," he
said, "if you will bow down
and worship me."
(Luke 4:9)

106. “All this I will
give you!”

107. What about faith
and politics?

108. Sin is a Short
Cut towards a
kingdom goal!

109. Idolatrous „victories‟ are
the worst defeats

110. What’s the Common Thread?

111. The absence of the “sensational”…

112. Q&A?

113. Final Session
We are Jesus

114. In 165 AD, a devastating epidemic swept
through the Roman empire, killing 1/3 of the
population, incl. Emperor Marcus Aurelius…

115. In 251 AD,
another
plague hit the
empire, this
time both rural
and urban
areas were
affected…

116. “Most of our brothers showed unbounded
love…never sparing themselves and
thinking only of one another…Heedless of
danger, they took charge of the sick,
attending to their every need and ministering
to them in Christ…drawing on themselves
the sickness of their neighbors and
cheerfully accepting their pains…”
Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, AD260

117. “The heathen behaved in the very opposite
way. At the first onset of the disease, they
pushed the sufferers away and fled from
their dearest, throwing them into the roads
before they were dead and treated unburied
corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the
spread and contagion of the disease; but do
what they might, they found it difficult to
escape.”
Bishop Dionysius

118. Result?
„Miraculous‟ healing
Huge Conversions
Growth of Christian population
Spread of Christian love/principles
throughout empire!

121. The kingdom of God
is like a team of
resistance fighters...

122. If a country starts mobilizing its
troops, preparing its airplanes,
testing its weapons, sending
spies to other countries, etc. –
what does that tell you?

123. The kingdom of God is
like flying jet-planes of
love into towers of hate

124. The kingdom of God
is like a cigarette
smoker…

125. The kingdom of God is
living in Wonderland…

126. Jesus‘ strange kingdom…
• It‘s ―weak‖ and ―foolish‖ (1Cor 1) – relevant
to apologetics?
• It‘s lowly and despised…it‘s something
that is NOT (1Cor 1)
• It‘s not of this world (John 8)
• It‘s perfected in our weakness i.e. we need
to be very ‗teruk‘ before New Creation
becomes very ‗terror!‘ (2Cor 12)

127. <thank you>
GOD BLESS YOU!!