I’m excited to be starting a new apologetics class this evening at Emmanuel Faith Community Church. In the past seven years I have led spring and fall classes lasting twelve weeks each. They have been a lot of fun, and the people have shown a tremendous amount of discipline to keep coming out for that period of time, considering all the unexpected things life can dish out.

But I wanted to offer something for others who can’t commit to a lengthy period of time. Plus, I wanted something for those who felt intimidated by the whole idea of apologetics and might be afraid that the class would be too advanced (which is never true).

So, I set up something I call Apologetics 101, a four-week course that covers the basics of a defense for Christianity. The first night (tonight!) we will cover what apologetics is, some basic tactics to use in conversations with those who don’t share our beliefs, and the nature of truth. The second night we will cover well-known and lesser-known arguments for the existence of God. The third class will be on the reliability of the gospels and the life/death/resurrection of Jesus. The last class will cover key challenges to Christianity. I’m going to let the class decide which of several challenges they want to explore–the problem of evil, the existence of hell, science and evolution, the existence of miracles, the rise of relativism, or terrible deeds in church history.

There is both good and bad news right now when it comes to defending Christianity. For the past one hundred years the church has retreated from being intellectually alive. A huge number of youth have walked away from Christianity because they believe the church has no answers to their questions. Now here’s the good news–apologetics has exploded in popularity over the past ten-twenty years. Never before have there been so many good books, websites, articles, DVDs, or magazines devoted to defending our beliefs.

So I’m looking forward to this evening. It’s good to know people are interested in coming out to hear support for Christianity. Our belief is not based on a blind leap–there are many good reasons to believe there is a God and  that He revealed Himself through Jesus.

If you can’t make the class, I will be posting audio and video of it on this website. I hope you accept the challenge of Peter (1 Peter 3:15) to be ready to have answers for all who ask you about the hope you have in Jesus.