# Apologetical methods



## Me Died Blue (Aug 29, 2004)

This isn't intended as a debate on methods per se as much as it is a reference to see where everyone stands and briefly why or how they got there.


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## Craig (Aug 29, 2004)

I guess I can't really outline how I've come to my conclusion...but I think a combo of these methods are good...I do find presup overall to be the most helpful.

Having said that, I think Ravi Zacharias asks and answers questions very meaningfully...you can't escape the truth of Christianity when considering one's experiences...that may be my existential leanings speaking, though.


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## JohnV (Aug 29, 2004)

Four events set the pattern for me:
1. Seeing my Dad confront a JW when I was about ten,
- I wondered, "How does he know?" It was more than study, for he never had a good education, but was well grounded in faith;
2. Defending the Bible in front of my Grades 10 -12 classes 
- they all being science and history whizzes, while I was barely passing, and all they could do was poke fun at me, bully me, and everything else but answer the questions. They knew it, and I knew it;
3. Stumbling across a portion of Anselm's Proslogium, when I was in my twenties; 
4. Reading Francis. A. Schaeffer; going to L'Abri, brief as it was; and applying his lifestyle of faith in God and in truth (not just method, for then he would not have approved. )


If there is a method, then I say it is one of trust in truth. God is real, He is a person in the original sense, and the source of all truth. No real truth can contradict the Maker of all truth. One must have confidence in that. So the method, I would say, is covered in the first Q&A of the Westminster Catechism: the chief end of man; and in the first Q&A of the Heidelberg Catechism: the only comfort in life and death.

As far as the apologetic approaches, well that depends entirely upon the person I would be addressing, upon what kind of doubts or questions he may have, or upon the challenge he raises up against the faith. There are times when "discretion is the better part of valour", and there are times when "a word fitly spoken' is better than a speach. If he's looking for a fight, I would rarely oblige him.


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