What is Apologetics?
"...sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear..." (1st Peter 3:15).
The term "apologetics" comes from the Greek "apologia" and refers to a courtroom defense. Thus, Christian apologetics is not apologizing for, but a defense of, the Christian faith.
Below we present some succinct thoughts on apologetics and provide links to free online videos, audio, ministries and many wonderful books.
Mariano's Online Apologetics
- Life and Doctrine
- Various topics
- Maryology
- Essays about the Catholic view of Mary
- Eucharist
- Essays about Catholicism's Eucharist - the Real Presence
- Purgatory
- Essays about Catholicism's belief in Purgatory
- Atheism is Dead
- Multi-author site discusses atheism from various perspectives.
Is Doctrine Relevant?
But what is a doctrine? It is generally a formulaic description of a biblical teaching. For example, "the doctrine of the Trinity" succinctly defines what the Bible teaches about God's nature. What is interesting about doctrinal formulations is that they are supposed to be just what they are formulaic and succinct. And, yet the problem that one runs into is that, for instance, someone might say that the Bible does not teach that God is a triune being and ask about the Trinity to which we may respond, "God is one in essence, or nature, but three in person," or "One what and three whos," or "God is one being that is made up of three persons who are co-equal, co-eternal and co-distinct." The skeptic may respond stating, "That's not in the Bible." The problem is that they are asking you to point them to a text of the Bible where they can find the formulation but there is none because by definition the doctrine is a formulaic and succinct form of that which is found in the Bible. The doctrine of the Trinity is in the Bible but the formulation is not, which is the very reason that the formula was derived in the first place. Yet, once we look at the actual words of the Bible and everything that it has to say about God's nature, we can look again at the doctrine and find that it was an accurate and succinct formula.
Therefore, doctrine is relevant and important since it defines what the Bible is telling us since the Bible does not necessarily state, "Ok now you are going to learn about the Trinity," rather the information is dispersed throughout (which is actually the best way to secure information retention-if you had one Bible on a desert island and part of it was damaged beyond use, you would not loose any essential information that could not be discerned from elsewhere within its pages).
Take for instance a creed, or formulaic-succinct form of doctrines, Roman Catholics, Protestants, and the Eastern Church all agree on the Nicene Creed, this covers the overwhelming majority of Christendom. The topic of doctrine also brings us to theology.
Online Apologetics
These Sources Cover a Very Wide Variety of Topics
- C.H. Spurgeon
- The Largest Collection of Spurgeon Resources on the World Wide Web
- C.S. Lewis
- Lewis' apologetics
- Robert Morey
- Faith Defenders Christian Ministry
- Ron Carlson
- Christian Ministries International
- Greg Koukl
- Stand to Reason-Equipping Christian Ambassadors in the Areas of Knowledge, Wisdom & Character
- Francis Beckwith
- Personal Home Page of Dr. Francis J. Beckwith
- James White
- Alpha and Omega Ministries-Christian Apologetics and Theology
- Dr. William Lane Craig
- Welcome to the Virtual Office
- Gary Habermas
- History, Philosophy, and Christian Apologetics: Specializing in Resurrection-of-Jesus Research
- Josh McDowel
- McDowel's apologetics
- Watchman Fellowship
- A Ministry of Christian Discernment
- Ron Rhodes
- A Worldwide Resource Center to Help You Grow Strong in the Word of God
- MacGregor Ministries
- A Christian Outreach to Those in Cult Groups
- John Ankerberg
- Ankerberg Theological Research Institute
- Steven Tsoukalas, M. Div., Th.M
- Sound Doctrine Ministries
- Lee Strobel
- Investigating Faith
- D. James Kenedy
- Glorifying God Proclaiming Truth Reclaiming America
- Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
- To Reach and Challenge Those Who Shape the Ideas of Culture with the Credibility of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - radio program, "Let My People Think," and, "Just Thinking."
- Walter Martin's Religious InfoNet
- ...be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2
- Norm Geisler
- Geisler's apologetics
- A.W. Tozer
- Tozer's apologetics
- G.K. Chesterton
- Chesterton's apologetics
- G.K. Chesterton
- More of Chesterton's apologetics
- Apologetics Index
- Apologetics Research Resources on Religious Movements, Cults, Sects, World Religions and Related Issues
- Bishop Booyah's Blog
- The Bishop is in the hizouse of apologetics (and then some)
- Jim Zilonka
- Cultivate Ministries (provides apologetics resources)
- Test All Things
- "Test all things and hold fast to that which is good" 1 Thessalonians 5:21
- The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
- Their purpose is to equip Christians and refute error - learn about false teachings such as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, the New Age, evolution, atheism, relativism, abortion...and much more
- The Christian Research Institute
- Home of the Bible Answer Man
- Answers In Action
- Training individuals to think logically and reasonably about all things
- Meekness and Truth Ministries
- Equipping Others to Reach Many
- Apologetics Press
- Publishers of materials for self study, group study, or evangelistic purposes
- Christian Colligation of Apologetics Debate Research & Evangelism
- The Christian CADRE is an ecumenical group of apologists who are interested in defending Christianity
- David Cox's Library of Religious Works
- This page is a religious online library main bibliographic page. Free pdf reference works are arranged by topic. Everything is 100% free
- Chuck and Nancy Missler
- Koinonia House - bringing the world into focus through the lens of Scripture
- Life and Doctrine
- Covers a wide variety of topics and offers links to many more
- Welcome to the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society
- Apologetics - provides various links and a Journal
Theology
In Christianity we generally deal with the following "ologies":
Theology - the study of God.
Angelology - the study of angels.
Soteriology - the study of salvation.
Pneumatology - the study of the Holy Spirit.
Christology - the study of Jesus the Christ.
Eschatology - the study of the end times, or end days, or last days-the eschaton.
Bibliology - the study of the Bible.
Anthropology - the study of man kind.
Ecclesiology - the study of the church.
On Disagreements, Naming Names and Judging
Another way is to find the person who point out the problem and get them to shut up, if they stop pointing out the problem then we can pretend that the problem does not exist. Sometimes apologists are told to be quiet and stop causing problems when they are really just pointing them out. In a manner of speaking, this forces the apologist to engage in disagreements and in naming names which, again, is often labeled divisive and unloving, unforgiving, etc. For example, if someone claims that the Bible teaches that there is more than one God (as Mormonism does) the apologist must state that they are incorrect since the Bible clearly teaches monotheism.
If, for example, Benny Hinn states that the Holy Spirit is showing him revelation about future events and these things do not come to pass it is our responsibility to name him by name and rightly label him a false prophet. Clearly, it was Hinn's own actions and words that necessitated the label of false prophet. Moreover, there is biblical precedent for naming names, "Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them" (Romans 16:17). "And their messages will spread like cancer. Hymenaus and Philetus are of this sort" (2nd Timothy 2:17). "Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works" (2nd Timothy 4:14).
This brings us to the issue of passing judgment. Just who is the apologist to pass judgment? After all doesn't the Bible teach us that we cannot judge anyone about anything-"judge not..."? This is actually a very common misconception.
The Bible teaches us to not judge someone's intentions, since we cannot know the inner workings of their minds and heart but does teach us to judge righteously. Also, if someone accuses you of being judgmental they have just made two judgments: one, they just judged you of being judgmental and two, they judged judgmentalism as being wrong.
Apologetics Online Audio
- Apologetics.com
- You can hear their radio show online for free.
Some of their recent shows were:
Age of the Earth: Young
Age of the Earth: Old
Bob the Atheist
How Will It All End?
Is There Life on Mars?
The Christian Foundation of Constitutional Law
God, Person & The Trinity
The Other Heroes of the Reformation
Study Tools
- Commentary
- A commentary is meant to help us understand what the Bible is telling us and generally includes information such as historical backgrounds, the meanings of root words, doctrinal content, etc. Commentaries come in various forms-some are various volumes and some are compact and cover the whole Bible in one book. Some commentaries are based on liberal scholarship and some on conservative. Some, such as those written by cult groups have one purpose in mind-to read the cults particular, and peculiar beliefs into the text of scripture rather than allowing the scripture to speak its own mind.
- Dictionary
- Bible dictionaries can be very useful in that they will define words and concepts often offering all sorts of background information, more than just "this word means this and that one means that."
- Lexicon
- A lexicon is basically a dictionary plus. Lexicons are etymological and deal with word meanings, root words, tenses, forms, and all kinds of information about words, their origins and their uses. Keep in mind that words change meanings sometimes, such as the word "suffer" which used to mean "to allow" but now means something to the likes of "to experience unpleasantness."
- Concordance
- A concordance lists every word in the Bible and where the word is found within the text. It is useful to keep in mind that, for example, the Bible has been translated into various forms of English-old English, modern English, formal translations and dynamic translations. Thus, what it a sword with two edges called? A dual edge sword? A double edge? A two edged sword? The answer is yes and so keep this in mind when using a concordance, you may have to look under "dual, double" or "two."
- Study Aids
- There are various study aids commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons and concordances are some of them. Some study aids are specifically geared towards one of the Bible's books, other to specific subjects.
Bible's Reliability
This issue generally breaks down into the following questions (questions that are asked of any text of antiquity):
1-Was the event reliably recorded in the first place?
2-Are there other texts that cover the same events?
3-How do the various accounts compare?
4-How much time elapsed from the time of the event to the time of the reporting of the event?
5-How much time elapsed from the time of the reporting of the event to the earliest manuscript of the text?
6-How many manuscripts do we have of the particular text?
7-How do the manuscripts compare with each other?
Apologetics Online Videos
- Lee Strobel
- See Lee's "Video Channels" which include
his interview with Anthony Flew and many more such as:
Investigating Jesus (71 videos)
Investigating the Bible (13 videos)
Investigating God (39 videos)
Investigating Christianity (63 videos)
Helping Others Investigate Faith (175 videos)
Investigating The Da Vinci Code
Hermeneutics
Hermenwhat? Remember Herman Munster? Well, this has nothing to do with him.Hermeneutics is a system by which we apply appropriate methods of interpretation in order to ascertain the correct understanding of a text.
For instance do we read a text with a preconceived notion in mind? Do we read it in order to simply ascertain what the text is telling us? Do we seek to symbolize the text and concoct our own ideas of what the text might mean? Do we contemporize the meaning of the text? Etc., etc.
Apologetics With Regards to Messianic Judaism
- Mark Robinson
- Shalom Outreach Ministries-Proclaiming the Messiah, Preaching the Word, Praying for Israel
- Jews for Jesus
- We exist to make the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide
- Dr. Michael Brown
- ICN Ministries-Taking the Message of Repentance and Revival to Israel, the Church, and the Nations
- Risto Santala
- He's a goy but nobody is perfect. Excellent scholarship with regards to elucidating the New Testament by making reference to the ancient Rabbinic writtings
Apologetics With Regards to Roman Catholicism
- Mariano's Maryology Blog
- Discusses Catholic doctrines about Mary
- Mariano's Eucharist Blog
- Discusses Catholic doctrines about the Eucharist
- Mariano's Purgatory Blog
- Discusses Catholic doctrines about Purgatory
- J. D. Martinez
- Roman Catholic Bible Study Personal Notes-Using the Roman Catholic Bible to study Salvation, Tradition, Mass, Mary, Purgatory, Celibacy, Popes, Confession and many other topics
- Mike Gendron
- Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries
- James McCarthy
- GNFC (Good News for Catholic)
- Richard Bennett
- The Berean Beacon - apologetics from a former Roman Catholic priest
- Bishop Booyah's Blog
- The Bishop's witnessing tips, etc.
Apologetics With Regards to Mormonism
The LDS Church
- Mariano's Mormonism Blog
- Discusses Mormonism
- Bill McKeever
- Mormonism Research Ministry
- Jerald and Sandra Tanner
- Utah Lighthouse Ministry
- Through the Maze Ministry
- Outreach to Mormonism
- Impact Apologetics
- Outreach to Mormonism
- Bishop Booyah's Blog
- "Was Joseph Smith a Martyr?" & "Why Mormon Prophets?"
Creation Science and Intelligent Design
- Conservapedia's on the theory of evolution
- Excellent article on Darwin's theory of evolution
- Institute for Creation Research
- Revealing the Truth of Creation
- Answers in Genesis
- Upholding the Authority of the Bible from the Very First Verse
- Dr. A. E. Wilder-Smith
- One of the original modern day creation scientists
- Dr. Mark Eastman
- Come Let Us Reason Together. Isaiah 1:18
- Phillip Johnson
- Good resources
- Jonathan Wells
- Good resources
- Ralph Muncaster
- Evidence of God
- Eden Communications
- Good resources
- Discovery Institute
- Making a Positive Vision of the Future Practical
- William Dembski
- Design Inference Website
- Michael Behe
- An Introduction to Molecular Machines and Irreducible Complexity
- Dr. Kent Hovind
- Creation Science Evangelism
- Bishop Booyah's Blog
- No missing links here
- Reasons to Believe
- The Premiere Science-Faith Think Tank
- Creation Super Library
- Provides answers, articles, special features and more
- "Do You Believe In Evolution?"
- How would you answer the question, "Do you believe in evolution?"
- Access Research Network
- Providing accessible information on science, technology and society
- Origins & Design Journal
- Published by Access Research Network, featuring the work of Phil Johnson, Michael Behe and others promoting the "Intelligent Design" position
Bible Studies
- One Place
- Various sermons by various teachers
- Paul Scozzafava
- Calvary Santa Fe (Paul can also be heard at "One Place")
- Robert Furrow
- Calvary Tucson
- Sermon Audio
- The Largest Library of FREE mp3 Audio Sermons on the Web
- J. Vernon McGee
- Through the Bible
- Pancho Juarez
- Calvary Chapel Montebello
- Ray Stedman
- Discovery Papers, Expository Studies, and Books
- Chuck Smith
- The Word for Today
- John Macarthur
- Grace to You
- Firefighters for Christ
- Various sermons by various teachers
Miscellaneous Apologetics
- Islamicus
- Discusses Islam
- Answering Islam
- A Christian-Muslim Dialogue
- 7th Day Adventist Outreach
- "and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
- JW Files
- Research on Jehovah's Witnesses
- The Eschaton Strikes Again
- Mariano's Jehovah's Witnesses essay
- Operation Clambake
- Undressing the Church of Scientology Since 1996
- Exodus International, North America
- Outreach to homosexuals
- Bishop Booyah's Blog
- Witnessing Tip: Bible and Homosexuals
Featured Christian Musician
Succinctly stated Christian music involves praise and worship. Praise means that we are praising, thanking, God for various reasons; it means that we sing about what God has done, is doing, and will do for and with us. Worship means that we are singing right to God; it means that we are communicating to Him expressing the awe we feel in honoring Him, in exalting His holy name. There is also some pretty generic Christian music, meaning that the lyrics are so generalized that they could be songs about God, about a tree, about a puppy or about anything for that matter. It is up to the individual to decide what a song's message is and whether it is doing anything of us.
When you walk into a secular music store you will find the following categories: "Rock," "Pop," "Rap," "Classical," "Jazz," "Christian," etc. Do you notice something odd? The music is categorized according to musical style but Christian music is categorized according to lyrical content. Understand that Christian music comes in all musical styles. Also, all non-Christian musical styles have very varied lyrical content. Why isn't Christian music categorized according to musical style like all the others. Or, why isn't all music categorized according to lyrical content, such as "Christian," "Songs about getting drunk," "Songs about fornication," "Songs about violence," etc. Apparently, if Christian music was categorized according to musical style some one who, for example, likes rock music might accidentally buy an rock album that contains lyrics about love, repentance and forgiveness and not about drugs, drunkenness and fornication-and we just could not have any of that sort of confusion could we!?!?
- Nichole Nordeman
- Nichole's lyrics are at once simple and profound. "How can I approach deity with informality and still protect the sacred."
- Apologetix
- "Apologetix" is the name of a Christian parody band. They play cover tunes of popular songs but they rewrite the lyrics to give them a Christian theme. They cover a wide ranne of musical styles from Carlos Santana to Metallica, from Pink Floyd to Cool and the Gang, from Kid Rock to La Bamba, etc.
Bible Study Software
- E-Sword
- The Sword of the LORD with an electronic edge
- Logos Bible Software
- Advanced Technology for Eternal Truth
- Blue Letter Bible
- For You Have Magnified Your Word Above Your Name. Psa 138:2
Charities
- Samaritans Purse
- International Relief (including "Operation Christmas Child")
- Prison Fellowship
- A Nonprofit Volunteer Reliant Ministry Focused on the Mission of Transformation Through the Grace and Power of Jesus Christ
- Gospel for Asia
- Planting Churches Among the Most Unreached






