Apologetics with Kerby Anderson

Hello Readers of this Bog

I just wanted to start this blog with some scripture before getting into talking about my week.

Ephesians 2:4-8 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, make us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

Romans 8:1-3 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”

This week in class we had the privilege of Kerby Anderson coming to teach us Tuesday - Friday. He is from Probe Ministries and does their radio broadcasting shows. He was an incredible speaker and so knowledgeable. He walked us through a ton of information on a variety of subjects.

On Tuesday our three subjects were Truth Decay, Reliability of the Bible, and the Millennial Generation.

On Wednesday our three subjects were Islam, Hinduism-Buddhism, and Mormonism.

On Thursday our three subjects were Media and Worldviews, Is Jesus the Savior, and The New Atheists.

On Friday our two subjects were Intelligent Design and Bioethics.

I enjoyed listening to him talk about each subject and bring to light so many new things about each that sparked everyone to think more about how they will effect us in ministry, or in our future jobs.

I would love to share with you all some highlights from some of the talks that I really enjoyed.
This information is from Kerby Anderson and His PowerPoints that he gave us

Kerby Anderson explained Pre-Modern, Modern, and Post-Modern in this way and it really made since to me

Three Umpires explaining Pre-Modern, Modern, and Post-Modern =

“There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call ‘em the way they are.”
Pre-modernism – God-centered universe, revelation, truth is absolute.

“There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call ‘em the way I see ‘em.”
Modernism – Enlightenment, science, truth is relative.

“There’s balls and there’s strikes, and they ain’t nothing until I call them.
Postmodernism – loss of hope for truth, truth is created.

We are living in a Post-Modern culture and by knowing more about what the culture believes about truth then you will be able to minister to the people around you better. He then continued to tell more of how our Post-Modern culture sees truth. He says they see truth as no absolute and that Christian Missionaries are destroying culture because of their push for all to believe in their truth. They believe in Religion Pluralism in that all religions have some truth to them. They are skeptical of people you claim to know the full truth. The biggest word for our culture today is Tolerance. Tolerant for all other believes and okay with others believing different things.

When Kerby Anderson talked about the different religions I particular was interested in the Islam religion. Here are some of the stats that Kerby Anderson gave us
Worldwide - 1.5 billion Muslims (~ 25%)
- Middle East: 380 million
- North Africa: 115 million
- Indonesia, Pakistan & Bangladesh: 550 million
That is a huge number of people.
The definition that Kerby Anderson gave us
Islam (“submission”) is the religion of all who believes that Muhammad was God’s prophet.

The 5 Pillars of Islam are these
• Shahada - repetition of the creed: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet.”
• Salat - prayers
• Zakat - almsgiving
• Sawm - fast of Ramadan
• Hajj - “pilgrimage” to Mecca

He talked more about their culture and the 5 Pillars then expressed ways for us to witness if we encounter people from this culture and belief
1. Show them Jesus in the Qur’an (Sura 3:42-55 and Sura 19:19)
2. Show them they can read the Bible (Sura 10:94, Sura 4:136, Sura 5:65-66)
3. One of the main methods at the first is called the Camel Method in which they ask the Muslim believer to read Sura 3:42-55 and ask them questions about the Jesus it is talking about. Then ask them about paradise and if they would like to live in paradise after death.
4. The key verse in Ephesians 4:8-9 because they believe in good works verses bad works to get you into paradise. So if your good works out weight your bad works then you will go to paradise

When Kerby Anderson talked about Millennial Generation it was very interesting. These will be the parents of the youth we would be ministering to, we need to understand their parenting styles so we can partner with them as we minister to their children. Here is some of the most interesting information about the Millennial Generation.

Born between the years of 1980-2000. (Yes that includes me!!) They are the largest population of 78 Million, yes more than the Baby Boomers who were 76 Million.

They have these Psychographics according to Kerby Anderson
Diverse, most Educated generation, Relational (social media), Hopeful, Pragmatic, Narcissistic (self-absorbed), Uninhabited, Safest generation, and a Secular generation.

They have the name of Helicopter Parents or Snowplow Parents because they want to be involved and make the path of protection and everything perfect for their children. They Hover to make sure everything will be great and okay for their children.

One word to describe this generation is Flexibility. They want a job with flex hours and working conditions. They want their world to revolve around a thought of flexibility in everything they do.

These are just a few of the nuggets of thought that Kerby Anderson shared with us this week. I really enjoyed all he had to talk about and I do feel more prepared to defend my faith with different cultures and religions. I also have an interest to know more about certain aspects of his talks.

I hope you had an amazing week and we are headed to Enid for Thanksgiving Break! Remember it is a time to be thankful for all that we have. God has given you something to be grateful for so thank Him for it. Pray for the people struggling to find that one thing and help them see God’s provision in some way!