Defending Your Faith - R.C. Sproul - Ligonier Ministries
32 Episodes
In Defending Your Faith: An Overview of Classical Apologetics with R.C. Sproul, Dr. Sproul surveys the history of apologetics and demonstrates that reason and science are your allies in defending the existence of God and the historical truth claims of Jesus Christ. He affirms four logical premises that are necessary for all reasonable discourse, and teaches you how to defend your faith in a faithless world. Furthermore, he points out that there are many levels on which to defend your faith, and shows how apologetics brings comfort and confidence to Christians of all ages.
This series is designed for individual study, senior high school classes, homeschoolers, small study groups, and adult Sunday school classes.
-
Introduction to Apologetics - E.1 - Defending Your Faith
Episode 1
There is one thing all unbelievers have in common—unbelief. But there are many types of unbelievers. There are those unbelievers who cling to a false religious system. Yet while others have no well thought out reasons, there are many who are quite confident in their unbelief appealing to certain ...
-
Why Apologetics? - E.2 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 2
Is it necessary to defend your faith? First Peter 3:15 tells us that it is. But is defending the faith a matter of giving historical and archaeological evidences for the dependability of the Bible, or giving rational arguments using the tools of philosophy? Supposing you had all of your evidences...
-
Pre-Evangelism - E.3 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 3
Dr. Sproul, explains that, even though only the Holy Spirit can change a person’s heart and mind (bring them to repentance), we see the very important dimension of apologetics in what he calls “pre-evangelism” and also what he calls “post-evangelism.”
-
Four Steps Backward - E.4 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 4
How do you know whether something is true? Do you test it by observation? Think through it logically? In this lesson, Dr. Sproul considers important questions from epistemology, the study of knowledge. As he sets forth four logical premises that are necessary for all reasonable discourse, he show...
-
Law of Contradiction - E.5 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 5
The truth is rational. So is God’s Word. Nevertheless, some people go to great lengths to undermine the truth claims of Christianity, even denying the existence of absolute truth altogether in order to escape the authority of the Bible. In this lesson, Dr. Sproul explains a fundamental principle ...
-
Law of Causality - E.6 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 6
Throughout history, the law of causality has been used to argue for the existence of God by reasoning from the appearance of this world back to an adequate or sufficient cause that would explain this world or this universe. The law itself states, "Every effect must have an antecedent cause." So w...
-
Reliability of Sense Perception - E.7 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 7
This message takes a look at the critical analysis of causality that was offered by the eighteenth century Scot's philosopher, David Hume. Under his analysis, he said this: that what we observe when we see things happening around us are what he calls relationships that are customary—customary rel...
-
Analogical Language (Part 1) - E.8 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 8
Since God is transcendent, is it even possible for us finite creatures to say anything meaningful about Him? Can we describe the Lord with our words, or are our attempts merely descriptions of our own subjective feelings? In this lesson, Dr. Sproul introduces the fourth basic building block for k...
-
Analogical Language (Part 2) - E.9 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 9
The theologian Karl Barth claimed that God is “wholly other” from us. Indeed, if God truly were completely different from us, it would be impossible for us to describe Him. But since the Lord has created us in His image, we share a common ground with Him that enables us to speak meaningful about ...
-
Contradiction and Paradox - E. 10 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 10
How do you answer a person who says that the Trinity is an illogical concept? Does the Bible teach contradictions? Before answering that, it is best to make sure we mean the same thing when we say contradiction. In this message, Dr. Sproul reminds us of the fine, but often misunderstood distincti...
-
Mystery - E.11 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 11
Can we penetrate the depths of the concept of the Trinity? What about the incarnation of Jesus, where there is one person with two complete natures? We are now introducing a category about which Dr. Sproul would say that it’s safe to say the Scripture has many mysteries. In “Mystery”, we find th...
-
Natural Theology (Part 1) - E.12 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 12
Can God be known in any sense apart from Scripture? As the Apostle Paul teaches in his epistle to the Romans, the Lord clearly demonstrates His existence and His character in all that He has made. In other words, no one can justly claim ignorance of God’s existence. In this lesson, Dr. Sproul def...
-
Natural Theology (Part 2) - E.13 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 13
Although the idea of natural theology is confirmed in Scripture, numerous theologians and apologists reject the notion of natural theology to this day. Several are even willing to claim that something that is true in the sphere of science can simultaneously be false in the realm of religion. In t...
-
Aquinas vs. Kant - E.14 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 14
In Kant’s critique he touches on the concept of classical synthesis and gives a comprehensive critique of the traditional arguments for the existence of God. His was an attack against Thomas Aquinas’ view of natural theology. Here Dr. Sproul outlines Kant’s critique in detail and further shows th...
-
The Case for God - E.15 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 15
Does God exist? If your answer is yes, then, can you prove it? Many Christians don’t know where to even begin to do this. Continuing the series “Defending Your Faith,” Dr. Sproul looks at some of the different approaches to apologetics and how each of them attempts to show God’s existence as he e...
-
Four Possibilities - E.16 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 16
Dr. Sproul spends this lecture giving us a presentation on how the classical method would proceed to try to establish proof for the existence of God. To do so he follows a method that, in its basic form, was first established by St. Augustine. Using this method, Dr. Sproul looks at “Four Possibil...
-
The Illusion of Descartes - E.17 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 17
Dr. Sproul takes the time to repeat the four principles from the previous lecture and look at each one in greater detail. The first is that it is an illusion, the second one is that it is self-created, the third is that it is self-existent, and the fourth is that it was created by something ultim...
-
Self-Creation (Part 1) - E.18 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 18
How do you prove to unbelievers the reality of Genesis 1:1? One way to do so is by showing them the irrational alternatives. In this message, Dr. Sproul exposes some of these irrational alternatives people resort to when denying the Creator as he explains the nonsense of "Self-Creation."
-
Self-Creation (Part 2) - E.19 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 19
What are the chances that something other than God created the universe? Many people in the field of science have reduced the idea of creation to religious fable. And there are many in the church who are intimidated by seemingly powerful scientific arguments. But, as we see in this message, these...
-
Self-Existence - E.20 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 20
How can God always be? Is the idea of a God who always was a nonsensical notion? When the finite mind collides with infinite categories and questions like this, wonder can turn to struggle, struggle to doubt, and then finally to unbelief—unbelief because of the seemingly impossible nature of the ...
-
Necessary Being - E.21 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 21
If you ask an atheist how the universe came into being, the most likely answer will have something to do with a Big Bang a long, long time ago. However, Dr. Sproul exposes that the atheist has more homework to do before settling with naturalistic explanations of existence, as he continues his tho...
-
God of the Bible vs. God of Philosophy - E.22 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 22
There is so much about God that is beyond our comprehension. But does this make God unknowable? If not, is it possible that some of the philosophers caught a glimpse of our Creator? Continuing this series of “Defending Your Faith,” Dr. Sproul explores the possibility of there being any resemblanc...
-
Kant's Moral Argument - E.23 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 23
Here we look at some of the considerations that we find in the New Testament with respect to the moral argument. Kant gave his famous moral argument for the existence of God, saying that every single person in the world has an inherent sense of right and wrong. We find that people don't want God ...
-
Vanity of Vanity - E.24 - Defending Your Faith - RC Sproul
Episode 24
"Without Christ, without hope," this statement is one that we draw from the writer of Ecclesiastes' verse, "Vanity of vanity—all is vanity." In this portion of the series Dr. Sproul talks about the meaning behind this Old Testament verse, mainly—that if there is no God, then, of course, what we e...