For day 4 of our blog anniversary celebration, I’m taking us on back to a series from a couple years ago.
1 Peter 3:15 is often a go-to verse about apologetics. But what does it have to say about apologetics in context, and what do we learn from it? Join us to explore.
1 Peter 3:15 and a Loving Apologetic
Part 1: Examining the entire verse
Part 2: The verse in context of the chapter
Part 3: The verse in context of the entire letter
Part 4: Applications I could have used in my youth
Previously I wrote about how 1 Peter 3:15 “call to apologetics” should be read in context of its immediate passage to inform us about what apologetics is. In a passage that anticipates persecution from without, making a defense is seen as a holy necessity that must be done with gentleness and reverence.
I decided to read through the entire letter of 1 Peter, trying to imagine myself as his audience, and allowing the entirety of the letter to inform my understanding of “defending the faith.” Continue reading
Previously I wrote about how 1 Peter 3:15, often the flagship Bible verse about Christian apologetics, should be read closely to inform us about what apologetics is about, particularly the end of the passage, “yet with gentleness and reverence.”
In this post, we will examine the verse as part of a broader passage on hope. Let us consider 1 singular verse, 1 Peter 3:15, in the context of the broader passage (chapter 3). Continue reading
Christian apologetics is as old as Christianity itself. While the word apologetics may sound funny, it doesn’t mean to apologize, but rather, “to give an explanation or justification.”
This is where we get our word apologize, the basic meaning to explain we now take to mean expressing contrition. While apologetics is not about being sorry, it is also not about being rash or reckless. For Christians, it just so happens that the humility it takes to be sorry is the same humility it takes to defend our faith in Christ, because our faith begins with the repentance of our sin and the confession of Christ as savior. Continue reading
Oh East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth.”
-Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”
Is Christianity a Western religion? 
That may not strike us as a significant question, may not register as something necessary to establish as true or false. But there are two reasons why it is important to dispel the illusion that Christianity is a “Western” religion.
Oh East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth.”
-Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”
Continue reading
Is Christianity a Western religion? Is Judaism a Western religion?
Sometimes the phrase “Judeo-Christian” comes up, sometimes as a phrase meant to represent, in some way, Western religious values.
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Is Christianity a Western Religion?
Such a view fails to take into account how the East has signifigantly influenced the West over the years and, conversely, how much the “East” and “West” overlap one another. Much in the West that has come to be known as Western actually has an Eastern origin.
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Is Christianity a Western religion? What does it mean to have a “Western” and “Eastern” world?
Ironically, The very notion of a “Western” and “Eastern” world is itself a Western invention, a relic of colonialism, and a potentially oppressive ideology. At best, it’s a shallow and arbitrary view of the world.
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“How Could Both Statements Be True?” by Eric Lyons
“How Could Both Statements Be True?” by Eric Lyons
As they say in MacBeth, “the battle is lost and won.”
Eric Lyons of Apologetics Press on the myth of contradiction:
“Why is it that in the 21st century we can use words and expressions in so many different ways and have little trouble understanding each other, but when Jesus or the Bible writers used words in different senses, so many people want to cry “foul”? Could it be because modern-day skeptics refuse to allow Jesus and the inspired writers the same freedoms to use words and phrases in different ways? Could it be due to unfair bias on the part of Bible critics?”
CALEB COY 