I am borrowing this title from Dan Kimball’s book by the same title. Dan Kimball is arguing that especially the younger generation has been turned off by what they call “the organized church.”[1] For example, I know a young Christian adult who reads his Bible each night with his family and prays with them. This he said was better than going and sitting in a building on Sunday morning for an hour. What he does is great and more than some who only go to church.
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In chapter six, Frame states that the main task is to isolate the Bible’s own argument, rationale, for the truth of the gospel message. Frame argues that only the Christian worldview presents God as an absolute person. Earlier chapters prove this. Also, this absolute personality is found mainly in God’s Word not the Quran and other religious books which though dependent on the Bible distort it.
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In chapter 5, Apologetics as Proof: Theistic arguments, John Frame presents traditional arguments for the existence of God with a Van Tillian conclusion: nothing is intelligible unless God exists, and God must be nothing less than the Trinitarian, sovereign, transcendent, and immanent absolute personality of the Scripture.
Read moreReview of Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief by John M. Frame
In chapter four, Apologetics as Proof: Transcendental Argument, Frame states that the transcendental argument for God’s existence (hereafter TAG), a form of argumentation that has become something of the bread and butter of presuppositionalists. Cornelius Van Til sometimes referred this view as transcendental and sometimes presuppostional.
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In chapter three, Apologetics as Proof: Some Methodological Considerations, and the next three chapters, John M. Frame discusses one, proof, of the three aspects of apologetics that he discusses in chapter one:
1. Apologetics as proof: presenting a rational basis for faith or “proving Christianity to be true.”
2. Apologetics as defense: answering the objections of unbelief.
3. Apologetics as offense: attacking the foolishness of unbelieving thought.
Read moreReview of Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief by John M. Frame
In chapter two, The Message of the Apologist, Frame states that “the apologist’s message, ultimately, is nothing less than the whole of Scripture, applied to the need of his hearers.” Frame summarizes the message of Scripture from two perspectives. The first is Christianity as a philosophy, and second, Christianity as good news.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis.
Antony Flew spoke with Gary Habermas about his abandonment of atheism for a minimal form of theism (or deism), Flew, while not a believer in the resurrection, made this telling point about Christianity’s claim of resurrection with respect to other miracle claims: The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity, I think, from the evidence offered for the occurrence of most other supposedly miraculous events” (My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: A Discussion Between Antony Flew and Gary Habermas, p. 209).
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis.
In the kenoticism, Jesus did not forfeit any attributes, he temporarily suspended the employment of some of his divine attributes, but without ontologically losing these attributes. For example, Michael Jordan might play a pickup basketball game with some junior high children in Chicago. In order to have fun with the lesser players, he would voluntarily suspend the use of some of his exemplary basketball skills. He would continue to possess those powers, but they would be held in check in order to play basketball with the children. However, at time Jordan might decide to dazzle the kids by showing this true stuff. Similarly, Jesus would sometimes declare that he had forgiven a person’s sins (Mark 2:1-10) or would receive worship from his followers (John 20:24-28). These are both uniquely divine prerogatives.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis.
In chapter 20, The Claims, Credentials and Achievements of Jesus Christ, Groothuis proposes to focus on the story of Jesus and his unique and unparalleled identity as revealed in the New Testament as a whole.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
Craig L. Blomberg in discussing apparent contradictions comes close to denying inerrancy: “But if Matthew does not satisfy modern, scientific standards of precision, it is unfair to impose those standards on a first-century world that had not yet invented them. None of the differences affects the point of the story, which is the miraculous resurrection of the girl” (page 454). To this Blomberg adds, “No historian on any ancient document operates this way. A document that has proved generally reliable is not suddenly discounted because of just one demonstrable mistake.” So, Blomberg sounds like if the Bible has only “one demonstrable mistake” it is not out of step with other historical documents.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis.
In chapter 18, Deposed Royalty: Pascal’s Anthropological Argument Groothuis puts forth Blaise Pascal anthropological argument to answer man’s deepest question, as expressed in Shakespeare’s King Lear, “Who is it who can tell me who I am?”
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
In chapter 17, The Uniqueness of Humanity, Groothuis argues that Biblical anthropology teaches that man is a unity of body and soul. Philosophically, this is called substance dualism. Groothuis distinguishes between substance and property.
Biblically, man is both physical and mental. Jesus understood man as dualistic heard in His statement to the dying thief in Luke 23:43. Paul also taught this in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. Materialism as in Darwinianism denies dualism.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
In chapter 16, The Argument from Religious Experience, Groothuis argues that because man is made in the image of God makes concourse with God possible. Groothuis also notes that the Bible and Christians have claimed that God reveals himself through various kinds of human experiences.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
In chapter 15, The Moral Argument for God, Groothuis offers a moral argument for the existence of God by establishing the existence of objective moral reality and showing that a personal and moral God is the best explanation for the existence and knowledge of objective moral reality.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
In chapter fourteen, Evidence for Intelligent Design, Groothuis, explains that advocates of Darwinism believes it is invincible because there is no replacement for it. The Intelligent Design, however, is an alternative to Darwinism.
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In chapter thirteen, Origins, Design, and Darwinism, Groothuis makes two arguments: (1) Belief in Darwinism as a comprehensive explanation for the biosphere has become a deterrent to Christian faith; thus, a cogent refutation is in order (2) Darwinism suffers from fatal flaws both logically and evidentially.
Read moreReview of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothius
In chapter eleven, Cosmological Arguments: A Cause for The Cosmos, Groothius states that the question to be answered is “Why is there anything at all, rather than nothing?” This is the question asked by Christian theist Gottfried Leibniz and atheist Martin Heidegger.
Read moreReview of Christians Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothius
In chapter ten, The Ontological Argument, Groothius states that the ontological argument claims that proper reasoning about the idea of a Perfect Being generates the conclusion that God exists. St. Anselm (c. 1033-1109) created this argument to convince the fool or atheist in Psalm 14:1 as to the existence of God and to lead believers in the worship of the greatest possible being in the following prayer:
Read moreReview of Christians Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothius
In chapter nine, In Defense of Theistic Arguments, Groothius states that natural theology consists of theistic arguments (sometimes called theistic proofs). They are rational arguments for the existence of a monotheistic God that do not appeal to sacred scriptures for their cogency.
Read moreReview of Christians Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothius
In chapter eight, Faith, Risk, and Rationality: The Prudential Incentives to Christian Faith, Groothius defines Prudence as that which concerns personal benefit and detriment in matters of belief concerning Christianity. Therefore, Groothius argues, Christian apologetics should commend Christianity on a prudential basis. Groothius uses some of the insights from Blaise Pascal’s famous and much debated wager argument.
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