Thank you for having me, and may all Glory be to God that I am able to stand before you and give you this message, and may it be blessed by God, and received by His church in truth and spirit.

Jim Pinkston has given me this time to discuss with you the upcoming class in Christian defenses, or also known as Christian apologetics.

In a couple of weeks you will start seeing posters placed around the prison announcing this new study, to begin April 4th.

This course will present the historical facts that will provide undeniable proof of our faith in several ways.

It will prove the unchanged consistency and accuracy of the word, and we will prove it with evidence and eye witness testimony from sources favorable to Christianity, indifferent to Christianity, and the enemies of Christianity.

I want to share a fact with you, and this is one you need to hear and remember because all truth hangs in the balance.

This is the first fork in the road of knowing the truth that will set you free.

 

We are here by one of two options, either evolution or creation, there is no other option, so we do not have to worry about proving one against many, just one against the other.

 

Once you realize evolution is impossible, and creation is the only option you will then have to make a choice among many…which teaching of God’s word is the absolute truth.

That is the second fork in the road.

There can only be one absolute truth, and this course will prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that Christianity is the absolute truth, and by default will eliminate all other options.

That is what this first course will focus on, we will go with the assumption that creation is the only alternative that makes sense, or is scientifically possible, and prove our faith is grounded upon historical facts, and absolutely provable beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Considering this course will cover the issue concerning which faith is the correct one to follow, tonight we will just talk about a few interesting facts indicating creation is the only option, because our course will not cover much in this area.

First if we are here due to evolution, where over several billion years we merely developed through mutations and natural selections, means there was no Adam and Eve, and no fall of mankind, and therefore no need for a savior… we just developed this way through no fault of our own, we have no personal responsibility for our actions.

OR

We are here due to creation, which means there was a creator, there was an Adam and Eve, there was a garden of Eden, and there was a fall, and we are responsible for our actions, and therefore need a savior who will open up heaven for us, and reunite us with the Creator.

 

Much of the world today believes that evolution is a scientific fact, and that creation is a fairy tale, because that is what their being taught in the public schools today.

Imagine that you are looking at a luxury liner moving through calm waters. To your amazement, about a dozen people jump off the ship and cling to a lifeboat. You watch as the rest of the passengers stand on the ship and laugh at them.

You can understand their reaction. What those few people did was foolish. It made no sense. Suddenly, the ship hits an unseen iceberg and sinks, taking with it all who stayed on board.

Now you see that those who seemed like fools were wise, but those who stayed on the ship and seemed to be wise, were fools. We have in the Bible a command to jump off the luxury liner of this world.

 

Before people criticize Christians, they should ask themselves if there is any proof that its claims are true. That is merely common sense. If the people who stayed on the luxury liner had asked why, rather than just laugh, and had been given compelling evidence the ship was about to sink, they would have joined the others on the life boat.

Many of the people you deal with everyday are like the people on the luxury liner, and it is our job, and should be our passion to convince them to come to the lifeboat called Christianity.

But like those on the luxury liner in the story, they will need compelling evidence to do something that may look foolish to them, but in reality is wise. For it is the wise man that gives his life to Christ, and by doing so accomplishes two things, he gains eternal life in heaven, and avoids eternal life in punishment.

Christ, and the apostles all used apologetics with the Jewish leaders, by giving evidence that Christ fulfilled prophesies about Him, the miracles that were performed for this purpose, and of course His teachings.

And, many of the Jewish leaders believed Him, and followed Him, and many didn’t, they just wanted to cling to the luxury liner they had known and loved all their lives.

The early church leaders were called apologists because this was the focus of their message, proving that Christ was the long awaited messiah the prophesies had spoken about.

So what compelling evidence could we give to a non-believer, or one who belongs to a false faith?

This is what Christian Apologetics is all about, being able to give compelling evidence to anyone who asks us for a reason for our Christian faith, compelling evidence that will cause them to join us on the lifeboat.

Christian apologetics, and Christian evangelism go hand in hand, as you will soon see, and should be a part of all Christians knowledge, but over the past couple of centuries we haven’t had the need to defend the faith in America for the most part, most people were Christians, or respected the Christian faith not giving us the need for defending it.

Times have changed, we are now under attack, and we must learn to defend the faith in a way that makes sense to non-believers, because in short, our faith is not a blind faith, but a faith based up historically reliable facts, and those facts are provable, absolutely provable

1 Peter 3:15 is a command,

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

The word answer in the verse comes from the Greek word apologia, which means to give a defense and some would say a legal defense.

Apologist Paul Coulter defines it this way: The task of developing and sharing arguments for the truth and rationality of Christianity and the falsehood and irrationality of alternatives with the aim of strengthening the faith of believers and provoking non-believers to consider Christ.

Let me put that in my language:

 

1. Proving the truth of Christianity
2. Proving the rationality of Christianity
3. It strengths our own faith
4. It reveals the irrationality in other religions
5. It reveals the falsehood in other religions
6. It gives an atheist reason to look deeper into their convictions.

it’s the job of learning how to defend our faith, and teaching others how to do so as well:

by learning apologetics, and then teaching apologetics we are attempting to strengthen the faith of the believer, and give a good reason to non-believers to consider Christ.

And when you have the opportunity to be confronted with one of the non-believers, even one of those real smart guys that seem to have all the answers, and may be well-informed, and well educated, if you can answer his objections to the faith, not only from your personal conviction of the spirit, but also with solid, provable historical, and scientific facts, you have a chance to turn him into at least a guy who might start considering the Christian faith, and spend a little time himself studying it, and that’s all were looking for, to get some people who profess to be atheist, and those of other faiths believing in false gods to reconsider their position.

They will consider jumping off the luxury ship, and into the life boat.

There is another benefit to knowing the facts of apologetics, along with knowing scripture, it gives you the self-confidence to stay in the battle, and be convinced you can “win” an atheist over to a point where he (the atheist) is willing to take the next step in looking at all the facts, and possibly become a brother or sister in Christ.

Self Confidence is the key to success in almost all fields, but especially in the area of bringing another person to your way of believing.

A salesman with no confidence in his product, or his company, or himself will ultimately fail.

The young man pursuing his love interest without confidence will most likely fail.

Apologetics is best seen as either pre-evangelism or as part of the process of evangelism.

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

Now this is the main issue and I do not want you to miss this or forget this:

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

One more time, just to make sure we get this:

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

You could compare it to the farmer who is plowing his field preparing it for seed. This is apologtices.

Then you see the same farmer planting the seed, after the field has been prepared. This is evangelism.

What comes next is the harvest: New Christians, looking forward to eternal life without pain, without tears, never growing old. It will be one of those Christians who do not fall away as almost 80 to 85 % do.

This is the ground Christ spoke about in his parable: Matthew 13: 1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Will you have a better harvest if you plow the ground before you attempt to plant the seed…..or not?

I want to share one more thing with you concerning apologetics, and then I want to share some extremely interesting facts with you, I call them fun facts, but in reality they are serious, and they can seriously convince people to reconsider the bible as more than just an old book from several millenniums ago.

“Buckethead and Bubba,

by Russell L. Ford is about his apologetical experiences in prison, and his articles appeared in the magazine “This Rock” between 1994 and 1998. This excerpt is from an article which was the cover story for “This Rock” in the November 1992 issue.

And this is where the rubber meets the road:

Russell was an inmate for many years, and his idea of defending the faith was with his fists, Russell stated “I’m over six feet tall, weigh 225 pounds, and had quite a reputation for being less than patient with antagonists.

In those days, my idea of apologetics was to say, “Shut yer face while ya still got one!” “however he later overcame that and spent many of those years as an apologetics Evangelist, and he made the following accurate observation concerning prison apologetics.

Now this is important, and so if the person next to you has successfully fallen asleep, now would be a good time to wake him up.

He (Russel) Stated:

I finally realized I had to become a competent apologist or we would never see Christ’s most forsaken children come to the warm embrace of his Church.

And

Our goal is to systematically strengthen you, the believers, and give you the tools you need for evangelizing other inmates. It would be wonderful if all of you could become Apologetics evangelists as Russell Ford did, but even if you don’t the information, the knowledge you will gain from this course will give you super human faith. You will know both spiritually, and intellectually your faith is well grounded upon solid rock.

Lastly, there is one group I have not mention so far.

Would someone read Revelation 3:16?

So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

17’Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,…

This group needs this maybe more than any other group, and that is the luke warm, those who consider themselves Christians because grandma was, they are passive, apathetic, and spend their time chasing after worldliness and will be spewed out at judgment day. We need to set these folks on fire, and apologetic teaching is one of the best tools we have available for this task.

So on to the fun facts for tonight which concerns evolution vs creation:

Evolutionist hate mathematicians, so I want to share a couple of mathematical facts with you that totally prove evolution is impossible. And I would like to tell you that I could spend hours with you going over facts from mathematics, science, archeology, prophesies that have fulfilled, and historical facts all proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that creation is the only logical answer to why we exist.

Let’s take a look at some mathematics:

Any one in here ever gambled? In gambling, the best game to play is blackjack, the house only has a 1% advantage, and that is only if you know the odds, and how to work them to your advantage.

So with that in mind how many of you would feel comfortable playing a game that has 50 to 1 odds against you. We all know you are not likely to go home with a profit.

Now let’s consider this a 200-component functioning organism requires, at least, 200 successive, successful “mutations,” each of which is highly unlikely. Even evolutionists recognize that true mutations are very rare, and beneficial mutations are extremely rare—not more than one out of a thousand mutations are beneficial, at the very most.

But let us give the evolutionist the benefit of every consideration. And I have really shortened this mathematical equation down to the last sentence out of many.

Assume that, at each mutational step, there is equally as much chance for it to be good as bad. Thus, the probability for the success of each mutation is assumed to be one out of two, or one-half.  Now remember the true odds are 1 out of a thousand, not 1 out of 2. However,

Elementary statistical theory shows that the probability of 200 successive mutations being successful is 1 chance out of the number 1 followed by sixty “0”s

In other words, the chance that a 200-component organism could be formed by mutation and natural selection is less than one chance out of a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion!  And, we thought 1 out 50 was a bad bet. The odds against evolution are getting greater everyday as we discover new evidence against it, which is why they keep increasing the age of the earth, it would take a very very long time for even a hope of evolution to even be possible.

By the way, lest anyone think that a 200-part system is unreasonably complex, it should be noted that even a one-celled plant or animal may have millions of molecular “parts.” Now consider the human body….we don’t have numbers that high!

Now for a little more mathematical fun. Let’s talk about population growth.

Now during certain periods of time the population has doubled for instance, we start with two, and then very soon afterward there was 4, and then 8 and so on until we reached the population of 2 billion people on the earth in 1922.

Now some people will say something like, you have to take the great diseases of time, or the great wars that killed so many people, but when you are simply looking at it in this fashion, it takes into account all of that, because at one time we only had 2 people, and by 1922 we had 2 billion, simple as that.

So you may ask what the point is, and the answer is this.

Science is based upon observable facts, in fact we have two test groups we can observe, test groups that also went through those plagues, and wars, and they are namely the Israelites, and the sons of Ismael who for the most part are all the other middle eastern peoples, and mostly Muslim.

Both of these groups are sons of Abraham, and we know when they began, and today their populations have double app 29 times, and that is an average of 165 years to double until they reached todays population. Remember that is just an average, it could not have taken 165 years to double the first few times, only a few years, and then due to the various wars, diseases, and etc, it slowed down, until we had an average number.

So we have two groups whose populations have double every 165 years. If we take that same number and apply it to world population we go back to the time of Noah…. Hmm interesting isn’t it?

And, if we take that on back another 1,400 years until the time of creation we would have an addition 2 billion people on earth for each one of us. Did you get that? Not just an additional 2 billion people, but 2 billion additional people for each person alive today.

The earth will only support approximately 10 billion people. So it is impossible for mankind to have been around billions of years, in fact it is silly to suggest that.

By the way, since 1922 which is around 90 years ago and from 1922 to 2016 our population has tripled… it is literally exploding, and in another 10 to 30 years we will have surpassed the number of people the earth can feed.

There are many scientific facts that point to the need of a creator, however, I’m not going to discuss all the facts of science that points towards the Creator, but the scientific facts the Creator gave us in His word, long before modern Scientists discovered them. Long, before mankind could have known them proving divine intervention and revelation.

Did you know the bible also has scientific facts in it? And, they were stated many years before scientists discovered them: I could go on for hours, but time doesn’t allow so let’s just hit a few of them.

 

1. there was a time when it was believed that the earth sat on a large animal or a giant (1500 B.C.), the Bible spoke of the earth’s free float in space: “He…hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). Science didn’t discover that the earth hangs upon nothing until 1650.
2. The Scriptures Speak of an Invisible Structure. Only in recent years has science discovered that everything we see is composed of things that we cannot see—invisible atoms. In Hebrews 11:3, written 2,000 years ago, Scripture tells us that the “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
3. The Scriptures tell us that the earth is round: “It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22). The word translated “circle” here is the Hebrew word chuwg, which is also translated “circuit” or “compass” (depending on the context). That is, it indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched—not something that is flat or square. The book of Isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 B.C. This is at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested, in his book On the Heavens, that the earth might be a sphere. It was another 2,000 years later (at a time when science believed that the earth was flat) that the Scriptures inspired Christopher Columbus to sail around the world.
4. Matthew Maury (1806–1873) is considered the father of oceanography. He noticed the expression “paths of the sea” in Psalm 8:8 (written 2,800 years ago) and said, “If God said there are paths in the sea, I am going to find them.” Maury then took God at His word and went looking for these paths, and we are indebted to his discovery of the warm and cold continental currents. His book on oceanography remains a basic text on the subject and is still used in universities.
5. God asked Job a very strange question in 1500 B.C. He asked, “Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, Here we are?” (Job 38:35). This appears to be a scientifically ludicrous statement—that light can be sent, and then manifest itself in speech. But did you know that all electromagnetic radiation —from radio waves to x-rays—travels at the speed of light? This is why you can have instantaneous wireless communication with someone on the other side of the earth. The fact that light could be sent and then manifest itself in speech wasn’t discovered by science until 1864 (3,300 years later), when “British scientist James Clerk Maxwell suggested that electricity and light waves were two forms of the same thing” (Modern Century Illustrated Encyclopedia).
6. In Genesis 6, God gave Noah the dimensions of the 1.5 million cubic foot ark he was to build. In 1609 at Hoorn in Holland, a ship was built after that same pattern (30:5:3), revolutionizing shipbuilding. By 1900 every large ship on the high seas was inclined toward the proportions of the ark (verified by “Lloyd’s Register of Shipping” in the World Almanac).
7. The Scriptures describe a “cycle” of air currents two thousand years before scientists discovered them: “The wind goes toward the south, and turns about unto the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind returns again according to his circuits” (Ecclesiastes 1:6). We now know that air around the earth turns in huge circles, clockwise in one hemisphere and counterclockwise in the other.

The Incredible Book of Job

 

1. Book of Job (1520 B.C.)—Filled with Scientific Facts “The study of the Book of Job and its comparison with the latest scientific discoveries has brought me to the matured conviction that the Bible is an inspired book and was written by the One who made the stars.” Said Charles Burckhalter, Chabot Observatory
2. The Book of Job and Air Mass “Scripture tells us in Job 28:25 that there is ‘a weight for the wind.’ Long before it was recognized that the air had weight (sixteenth century), the Bible said that it did. It also tells us that water has weight. The fact that so much water covers the earth means that the effects of the sun and moon’s gravity are balanced perfectly. The energy is dissipated in the water—the weight of the water is precisely measured.” Richard Gunther
3. This is my favorite from the Book of Job and the Earth’s Rotation: For ages, scientists believed in a geocentric view of the universe. The differences between night and day were believed to be caused by the sun revolving around the earth. Today, we know that the earth’s rotation on its axis is responsible for the sun’s rising and setting. But 4,000 or more years ago, it was written, “Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the day spring [dawn] to know his place?…It [the earth] is turned as clay to the seal” (Job 38:12,14). The picture here is of a clay vessel being turned or rotated upon the potter’s wheel—an accurate analogy of the earth’s rotation.
4. The Book of Job and Springs of the Sea “Modern deep-sea-diving cameras have discovered amazing hot-water vents on the floor of the oceans— ‘the springs of the sea,’ which are mentioned in Job 38:16. These thermal vents release huge amounts of mineral-rich, super-heated water—springs in the darkness.” Richard Gunther
5. The Book of Job and Light “Sir Isaac Newton studied light and discovered that white light is made of seven colors, which can be ‘parted’ from the white (see Job 38:24), and then recombined to make white again. Science discovered this in 1650.” Richard Gunther The Book of Job and the Way of Light The Book of Job 38:19 asks, “Where is the way where light dwells?” Modern man has only recently discovered that light (electromagnetic radiation) has a “way.” In empty space this speed is approximately 186,000 miles per second.
6. The Bible and Laws of Hygiene Encyclopedia Britannica documents that in 1845, a young doctor in Vienna named Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was horrified at the terrible death rate of women who gave birth in hospitals. As many as 30 percent died after child birth. Semmelweis noted that doctors would examine the bodies of patients who died, then, without washing their hands, go straight to the next ward and examine expectant mothers. This was their normal practice, because the presence of microscopic diseases was unknown. Semmelweis insisted that doctors wash their hands before each examination, and the death rate immediately dropped to two percent. Look at the specific instructions God gave thousands of years ago to His people for when they encountered disease: “And when he that has an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean” (Leviticus 15:13). Until recent years, doctors washed their hands in a bowl of water, leaving invisible germs on their hands. However, the Bible says specifically to wash under “running water.”
7. The Bible and the Correlation of Mind and Body Medical science has come to understand that there is a strong relationship between a person’s mental and physical health. The Bible revealed this to us with these statements (and others) written around 950 B.C.: ● “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy is the rottenness of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). ● “The light of the eyes rejoices the heart: and a good report makes the bones fat [healthy]” (Proverbs 15:30). ● “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24). ● “A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
8. The Bible and Bacteria “And…neither shall you eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; you shall cast it to the dogs” (Exodus 22:31). Thousands of years before modern science identified bacteria, God made provision for Israel by banning the eating of meat that may be spoiled by bacteria.” Richard Gunther
9. The Bible and the Immune System The Bible instructs that male babies are to be circumcised on the eighth day (Genesis 17:12). Medical science has now discovered that this is the day that the coagulating factor in the blood, called prothrombin, is the highest. It reaches its peak on the eighth day, then drops. Medical science has also discovered that this is when the human body’s immune system is at its peak.
10. The Bible and Laws of Quarantine Long before medical science discovered the importance of quarantine of persons with infectious diseases, the Bible instigated them. In 1490 B.C. the Scriptures tell the children of Israel what to do if a man has leprosy: “All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be” (Leviticus 13:46). Laws of quarantine were not instigated by modern man until the seventeenth century. “During the devastating Black Death of the fourteenth century, patients who were sick or dead were kept in the same rooms as the rest of the family. People often wondered why the disease was affecting so many people at one time. They attributed these epidemics to ‘bad air’ or ‘evil spirits.’ However, careful attention to the medical commands of God as revealed in Leviticus would have saved untold millions of lives. Arturo Castiglione wrote about the overwhelming importance of this biblical medical law: ‘The laws against leprosy in Leviticus 13 may be regarded as the first model of sanitary legislation’ (A History of Medicine).” Grant R. Jeffery, The Signature of God

Now the bible has many other “proofs” such as prophesy, and it’s fulfillment, it’s history which archeologists have proven to be reliable, and it’s wisdom books, undeniably wisdom at it’s best.

Hopefully all of you will join us in our study of Christian apologetics, which will focus on the historical reliability of the scriptures, and even including proving Christ not only lived, but that He is the son of God, and we can prove His resurrection.

Thank you for having me, and hopefully I will start seeing you every Monday.