From Godless to the Gospel 11-16-19 I spoke at Colson Fellows district meeting today, sharing a systematic framework for understanding the logical progression of evidences for the Christian Faith which starts with providing evidence for the existence of objective Truth, for the existence of God and for the truth that Jesus is God, culminating in the gospel message. The Colson Fellowship offers training in worldview, apologetics, and cultural impact from a Christian perspective. If you are interested in becoming a student with the Colson Fellows, please email me at triciaspeaks@yahoo.com and I will connect you!
Category Archives: LifeGivers Apologetics
You Were Made for This: Sharing Reasons That Christianity Makes the Most Sense of Reality
Well, the National Conference on Christian Apologetics is already behind us. What a weekend it was! Renewed friendships, exciting new sessions and getting to know folks who are passionate about sharing their faith. Good stuff. I enjoyed so much teaching this session that provides a 30,000 foot view of the major arguments and evidences for the Christian Faith. I also loved getting to meet like-minded Christians at my book table. And, oh, it was great to feature my fresh-off-the press study guide to enable readers to interact with my LifeGivers Apologetics book on which the session was based.
Enjoy this PDF deck of the powerpoint presentation!
What About Those Who’ve Never Heard?
The question of what happens to those who have never heard the gospel message after they die is a question that concerns both Christians and non-Christians alike. If they go to hell, it seems as though God is unfair. After all, they never had the opportunity to respond to the truth. If they go to heaven, then why do scriptures such as Acts 4:12 say that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation? Further, why would Jesus have had to die on the cross if it were possible to make peace with God and receive eternal life apart from faith in Christ? This seminar discusses various views on the question such as pluralism, inclusivism, implicitism, exclusivism and explicitism.
The powerpoint presentation contains all slides presented at Lee Park Baptist Church 9-7-19, plus three extra slides presented during the Q and A! The slides are in PDF format so no media is available, but the clips of Oprah, Only One Way and Billy Graham are accessible on youtube.
Women Doing Apologetics: Why Women and Why Now?
I just returned from speaking in the Women in Apologetics Conference at Biola in La Mirada, California. What I enjoyed most was interacting with several hundred women who were passionate about learning and sharing the rational reasons for our hope in Jesus Christ. This passion is spreading among Christian women across the nation, and I am so excited to be a part of a this groundbreaking movement.
Even ten years ago the landscape looked quite different. Our first women’s apologetics conference at Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, about seven years ago was among the first apologetics conferences just for women. Since that time, we’re seeing women flooding into seminary apologetics programs and about half of our PhD student body at SES is comprised of women.
Some may wonder why we need apologetics conferences just for women. I think it is a legitimate question. The content of apologetics forms a single body of knowledge, so there is no distinct “women’s version of apologetics.” This body of knowledge is comprised of evidences for objective truth, existence of the theistic God, miracles, biblical reliability, and the deity and atoning work of Jesus Christ, in terms of general categories.
But, here’s the point. While the content of apologetics is the same for men and women, the way that women learn this content and deliver it is distinctive. For example, many Christian women avoid apologetics because they see it as a argumentative and academic, with very little connection to their daily lives. Some also believe that the content is just too hard to learn or they cannot bear the thought of adding one more to-do to their already overloaded plate of commitments.
But as more and more women are entering this field of study in seminary and are fulfilling their calling to teach other women, Christian women whose expertise lies in other areas, from homemaking to banking, are hearing these vital apologetics truths in women’s voices, with women’s relational concerns at the forefront. Because of this, Christian women as a whole are now seeing apologetics as a vital tool they can use to build their own faith as well as to provide somewhere to go in a conversation when their co-worker or college-aged kid asks a question or raises an objection to the claims of Christianity.
It’s a long time coming. Our brothers in Christ have paved the way for us. It’s not a competition. It’s time for us to move alongside them and to encourage each other as women, fulfilling our Titus 2 commission to mentor other women, and specifically to mentor them in understanding and embracing the rational basis for our faith.
