Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Now that we know we can use classical elements to persuade people, not just heaping facts upon facts on them, Oliphint grounds the way in which we can respond and prepare to give an answer for our hope to outsiders. A look at just how the Holy Spirit helps and guides us in those answers, and we also look at a criticism of being too prepared...by Jesus?

What two horns of apologetics does Oliphint want Christians to consider - the shield & sword of apologetics. That is one that is negative apologetics and the other of apologetics. Obviously, we are not viewing these types as good and bad, but in regard as to what they do. We look at the problem of evil and see how a consistent Christian does not feign neutrality but also keeps the type of critique in focus consistently.

We briefly introduce the two horns of apologetics in which Oliphint says that Christians can engage in. The idea is that we don't have to wait for objections but our apologetic system can be in place to confront them when they arise. However, one must remember that we don't pull our methodology from the ether but we have a scriptural mandate to be apologists and not to pretend we're atheists when we do so. A quick ending to this episode occurs that will be continued next week.

We finish up this chapter taking the second and third trivium road of persuasion with that of the pathos and the logic of persuasion. We ascend to Mars Hill again and see how Paul used arguments of the heart as well as logic to do his apologetics. This becomes our model in our covenantal apologetics.

Now that we have introduced the Trivium of classical learning, we walk down the path and come to another trivium - one of persuasion. Here we cover the ethos of persuasion and turn once again to Paul on Mars Hill to see that we must remember there is another Person in the audience we have to impress when we engage in our apologetics.

The cry for evidence, evidence, evidence is the usual driving factor of apologetic conversations. However, people are more than complex machines that take in just brute facts and out spits the right answer. Here, Oliphint argues for Christians to embrace the theology of persuasion and uses the classical model trivium as building blocks to promote a robust and a full "to-the-man" apologetic.

At the start of this chapter Oliphint takes us down the trivium path as he lays the foundation to talk about persuasion. Classical education has seen a resurgence in homeschool communities and private schools alike. The molding students for a career is finally using up all the investment that classical education made before World War II. Now with a resurgence of the liberal arts, classical education, and the trivium we look at how best to persuade people to believe in the God of The Bible.

We conclude our chapter by talking about proving God by looking at how Christians can have the theological grounding to present proof to all people and how that's possible if we are corrupted by sin. We also look at the issues with the idea that one needs to provide proof for every aspect to know things and that the idea of burden of proof isn't as clear-cut as some people want to make it out to be.

Now that the terms are defined and we understand what covenantal apologetics means, we turn to understanding what offering proof entails. Oliphint centers his giving of proofs on top of Mars Hill in Acts 17 and point to two areas of how all people can be given proof. In this episode, we talk about how the fact that the Imo Dei reflected in humanity is the primary reason we can offer proof and also be in the fickle state we find ourselves.

How that Oliphint has made his case for why we need to hang our apologetic entirely on Christ as Lord, we apply that to two different critiques. An internal one levied at Dawkins and rationality alone and an internal one made by an atheist against Christianity. Which side is about to survive critique?