Beloved Kinney,
Do you know what “apologetics” is? It’s a fancy word that means to “give a
defense.” When we speak of apologetics as it pertains to the Christian faith,
we mean that we are using arguments from Scripture and sound reason to
defend the Christian faith.
In yesterday’s sermon, I quoted C.S. Lewis from his book Mere Christianity
who gives one of the most important and useful defenses of the Christian
faith. Here’s the quote:
“I want to prevent anyone [from] saying the really foolish thing that people
often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,
but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not
say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said
would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the
level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the
Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the
Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up
for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his
feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing
nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open
to us. He did not intend to.” (Lewis, Mere Christianity, 52)
Lewis’ argument can be summarized like this: Given the outlandish claims
Jesus made about himself, there are only three logical conclusions you can
draw regarding his identity: 1) He is a liar, 2) He is a lunatic, or 3) He is
Lord. You must pick one.
Let me encourage you to consider using this argument in your
conversations with non-Christians as you seek to talk to them about Christ.
Press on Kinney! Jesus is, indeed, Lord!
Love,
Pastor Josh
Do you know what “apologetics” is? It’s a fancy word that means to “give a
defense.” When we speak of apologetics as it pertains to the Christian faith,
we mean that we are using arguments from Scripture and sound reason to
defend the Christian faith.
In yesterday’s sermon, I quoted C.S. Lewis from his book Mere Christianity
who gives one of the most important and useful defenses of the Christian
faith. Here’s the quote:
“I want to prevent anyone [from] saying the really foolish thing that people
often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,
but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not
say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said
would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the
level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the
Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the
Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up
for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his
feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing
nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open
to us. He did not intend to.” (Lewis, Mere Christianity, 52)
Lewis’ argument can be summarized like this: Given the outlandish claims
Jesus made about himself, there are only three logical conclusions you can
draw regarding his identity: 1) He is a liar, 2) He is a lunatic, or 3) He is
Lord. You must pick one.
Let me encourage you to consider using this argument in your
conversations with non-Christians as you seek to talk to them about Christ.
Press on Kinney! Jesus is, indeed, Lord!
Love,
Pastor Josh
Recent
Archive
2025
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
Categories
no categories
Tags
no tags