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Starting My Journey Through Religion: Theology, Apologetics, & New Testament

I have recently started attending religion courses at Liberty University. Its amazing, I have been a Christian my whole life and never have I understood and realized some of the things that I have been learning over the last few months. With that, I have decided to record my journey, process, ideas and information obtained as I journey through these religious courses. To obtain the knowledge of God is an infinite quest, reserved for all of humanity and I am excited to dive into the absolute truths regarding the matter. This semester I am taking Apologetics, Theology, and a New Testament Survey class. Over the next 8 weeks I will be sharing these subjects with you and try to my best to interpret the information as God would like it to be interpreted. 


Week 1 of Theology :

The word Theology is derived from two latin words: Theous (meaning God) and Logos (meaning
word.) So simply put, theology is the study of God, His work, and His world. Theology is "faith
 seeking understanding" and attempts to answer some of life's biggest questions such as: Who am I? What is wrong with me? How can I become better? Where do I go? etc. There are many different topics of Theology, however each one correlates with the other. Theology can be divided into eight categories: Bibliology (the study of the Bible), Theology Proper (the study of nature and work of God), Christology (the study of Jesus), Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit), Anthropology (the study of humanity), Soteriology (the study of sin), Ecclesiology (the study of the church) , and Eschatology (the study of end times). While each one of these divisions are individually important, it is crucial to remember that each topic builds its theology off of another. For example, Your theology regarding humanity directly affects your theology regarding sin, and at the same time your theology regarding sin directly affects your theology regarding Christ and so on. You cannot choose one division without considering the others when properly attempting Theology. Furthermore, practicing theology is only effective when one possesses a right relationship with God, to others, to God's creation, and to oneself.

Week 1 of Apologetics: Essay 1 


While it is true that I have not studied apologetics academically before, I would like to think that apologetics is something that I have practiced throughout the course of my life. Simply put, defending the Christian faith is something that I have and will forever practice regardless of scholarly achievement, or in my case -lack of. I do agree however, that educating and equipping yourself to be better prepared to defend the Christian faith is vital to one’s ministry and relationship with Christ. I believe that the knowledge gained from this course will change and enhance the methods of evangelism that I currently use while equipping me with answers to some of life’s greatest questions.

After reading the first couple chapters of Apologetics at the Cross, I quickly realized the necessity that apologetics has on everyday evangelism and effective ministry. While there are many different approaches to apologetics, all have the same goal -to defend and appeal to  the Christian faith.  In some cases, it can be argued that Christianity does not need defending, and that the Holy Spirit and God’s word is sufficient enough to effectively relay the message and truths of God to his people. That God is like a lion, he does not need defending, just open the gate and let him loose.  However as Norman Geisler points out, “The roar of a lion “speaks for itself” with authority only because we know from previous knowledge what a lion can do.”(The Need For Defending the Christian Faith) Geisler’s point is that, God, and the Bible cannot simply defend their own authority to those who do not already see them as authoritative. Non-believers simply do not know what the lion can do  -they have yet to realize it’s power. This is a great example of why apologetics is still needed to effectively evangelize within our secular culture. 



While there are many reasons to practice apologetics, the Christian Research Center points out four main reasons to do so in their article “ Bible Apologetics: Is it A Need?” The first reason is that the Bible tells us so. (1 Peter 3:15) The second reason is because our biblical role models practiced it. (Particularly Paul and Jesus) Third, is because it provides proof to the non-believer, something that every Christian should desire to share. And finally, because it defends against false teachings, religions, and doctrines. In his article: “Complementary apologetics: An attempt for the integration of apologetic schools“, author Willem van Vlastuin compares three different apologetic schools and points out that there are many different ways one may view any one subject, even from an apologetic stand point. However, the similarities are what stand out the most. Despite many different perspectives regarding things like scripture, science, evil, etc., all apologetics agree that showing the truth of God comes from knowing Him. Simply put, apologetics is only attempted out of  love and conviction for Christ. Different apologetics also agree that no matter how much information, how many facts, or how much knowledge you obtain, faith will always trump reason. The power of belief will always hold a higher position than that of the power of logic.  “Blessed are those who believe without seeing.“ (John 20:29) Mark D. Allen sums up the importance of the subject when he states, “Apologetics is where it’s at.“

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