Christian Apologetics

The Defense of the Faith

Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith,
by Greg L. Bahnsen, ed. by Robert R. Booth

This book is a compilation of several of Dr. Bahnsen's published works on Christian apologetics, including his Apologetics syllabus, articles on practical apologetic problems (like the problem of evil, the problem of miracles, etc.), and an exposition of Acts 17.  (paper)

Pushing the Antithesis

270 pages, hardback

Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen believed that to deal with the academics of the day and their arguments against the Christian faith, it is necessary to do battle with them at the highest levels of scholarship using their intellectual tools against them. He could quickly analyze and give direct and compelling answers to all their objections. Prior to his untimely death in 1995, Dr. Bahnsen delivered a series of lectures on apologetics at American Vision’s Life Preparation Conference. These lectures are rare in that they are some of the only video presentations of Dr. Bahnsen’s teachings. The week-long sessions, presented before high school and college students, set forth the basics of the Christian worldview and the biblical approach to defending the faith. These lessons have been distilled and turned into a one-of-a kind handbook on apologetics.

Pushing the Antithesis consists of twelve chapters that include study questions, an answer key, a glossary of terms, and a comprehensive bibliography. If you want to be equipped to present the truth of the gospel in a compelling way, then Pushing the Antithesis is required reading.

Table of Contents Foreword Introduction Chapter 1: The Myth of Neutrality Chapter 2: Destroying Philosophical Fortresses Chapter 3: Defining Worldviews Chapter 4: Worldview Features Chapter 5: Alternative Worldviews Chapter 6: Worldviews in Collision Chapter 7: Overcoming Metaphysical Bias Chapter 8: Approaching the Unbeliever Chapter 9: The Problem of Moral Absolutes Chapter 10: The Uniformity of Nature Chapter 11: The Problem of Universals Chapter 12: Personal Freedom and Dignity Answer Key Glossary of Terms and Phrases Index

The Defense of the Faith

Cornelius Van Til
299 pages, softcover

As attacks on Christianity become more numerous and pronounced, Cornelius Van Til's classic treatment on apologetics endures as crucial reading for our time. Designed to stop secularists in their tracks, it is the kind of seminal work that serious defenders of the faith cannot afford to ignore.

After laying a foundation in the Christian views of God, man, salvation, the world, and knowledge, Van Til explores the roles of authority, reason, and   theistic proof, while contrasting Roman Catholic, Arminian, and Reformed methods of defending the faith. "Nothing short of the Christ of the Scriptures, as presented in historic Reformed theology, can challenge men to forsake their sin and establish them in truth and life," writes Van Til. "The natural man must be shown that on his presupposition or assumption of man's autonomy human predication has no meaning at all."

Christian Apologetics

Cornelius Van Til
99 pages, softcover

This book presents concisely the makings of a thoroughly biblical defense of the faith. Van Til shows how Christian apologetics is rooted in a unified system of scriptural truth, a world view encompassing all of theology and the sciences. Noting the conflict between Christian and non-Christian systems, Van Til  sets forth a method of defending the faith in terms of a biblically defined point of contact with the unbeliever.

"The conception of man as entertained by modem thought in general cannot be assumed to be the same as that set forth in Scripture. It is therefore   imperative that the Christian apologist be alert to the fact that the average person to whom he must present the Christian religion for acceptance is a   quite different sort of being than he himself thinks he is. A good doctor will not prescribe medicines according to the diagnosis that his patient has made of himself. . . .   Christianity then must present itself as the light that makes the facts of human experience, and above all the nature of man himself, to appear   for what they really are."

Why I Believe in God

Cornelius Van Til
16 pages, softcover

This dialogue with an imaginary unbeliever is the very personal witness of a scholar and teacher who through his writings and students has changed the pattern of the defense of the Christian faith in our time. Worshiping the   Sovereign Creator and Redeemer, Dr. Cornelius Van Til has pressed the demands of the Word of God upon all human thought and action. He has shown the disastrous implications of accepting the assumptions of unbelief and then trying to prove to the unbeliever that Christianity is possibly or even probably true. Instead, he lays claim in the name of the living God to alt truth. Apart   from God the Creator, there can be neither meaning nor existence for man the creature. God is the fountain of life and light, the Alpha and Omega in whose light we see light.

Pursuasions

Douglas Wilson
95 pages, softcover

They all walked toward the Abyss for different reasons, each of them with varying persuasions. Along the road they met Evangelist. Some of the conversations are recorded in this book.  This book offers very practical examples of how presuppositional apologetics works as it answers common challenges to the Christian faith.

The Return of the Village Atheist

Joel McDurmon
103 pages, softcover

"This is a book all undergraduates need to read, whether liberal arts, science, or engineering majors. It's a brilliantly insightful, precise, and humorous expose' of the ridiculously sloppy, slanderous, and arrogant claims of Harris' tirade against the Christian faith, and of modern atheism in general". Dr. Dewey Hodges  Professor, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.

"Many Christians have replied to philosophically sophisticated forms of atheism (Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Michael Martin, Kai Nielsen, et al), but today there is also a growing literature of atheism geared to the popular level, the realm of the so-called "village atheist." Joel McDurmon tackles popular atheism in a popular but cogent way. A fine apologetic work." Dr. John Frame  Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, FL.

Letter From a Christian Citizen

Douglas Wilson
110 pages, softcover

Last year, Sam Harris made headlines and topped bestseller lists with his angry and honest Letter to a Christian Nation. At its heart, this little book was an atheist complaint against Christians: Harris pointed an accusing finger at the church, telling Christians that they weren’t as nice as they thought they were and warning fellow agnostics that the Christians were out to get them. Prominent intellectuals and anti-Christians were quick to praise this little book; as one Harvard professor wrote, “Reading Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation was like sitting ring side, cheering the champion, yelling.”

In response, Douglas Wilson has written his own little book: Letter From a Christian Citizen. As Gary DeMar writes in the foreword, “Douglas Wilson has taken the operating assumptions of Sam Harris seriously and has shown what life would be like if the world were consistent with atheistic assumptions.”� Walking through Harris’ claims step-by-step, Wilson dismantles his arguments and demonstrates that honesty lies on the side of the Christians, not the atheists.

The Deluded Atheist

Douglas Wilson
86 pages, softcover

Noted pastor, theologian, and apologist Rev. Doug Wilson responds to atheist Richard Dawkins in this compact, hard-hitting, and insightful book. Among the many responses that the recent “new atheism” has aroused The Deluded Atheist stands out in its unparalleled precision and wit, reducing Dawkins' atheistic criticism to groundless complaints and tail-chasing unreason.

God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything

Douglas Wilson
105 pages, softcover

The most hard-hitting response to atheist Christopher Hitchens available! Continuing his series of responses to the recent atheists, Doug Wilson reaches a level of wit and insight rarely found among even the best of apologetic literature. Doug easily demonstrates the fallacies, prejudice, and irrationality of perhaps the most talented of the atheistic writers today, and shows how Christianity is the only reasonable, solid, and in fact, necessary, alternative.

The Destruction of Jerusalem:
An Absolute and Irresistible Proof of the Divine Origin of Christianity

George Peter Holford
69 pages, softcover

Reprinting of the 1814, 6th American edition 

There could never be a more dramatic event than the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD., along with its magnificent temple.

The historian Josephus describes Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, writing that much of the outside was covered with "plates of gold of great weight."  When the sun rose it would reflect back "a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun's own rays." At a distance it appeared like "a mountain covered   with snow; for, as to those parts of it that were not gilt (with gold), they were exceeding white."

But Jesus was not impressed with either the beauty or the magnitude of the temple. It was, as some of His disciples "spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, 'These things which you   see--the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down'" (Luke 21:5, 6). After predicting the destruction of   Jerusalem and her temple, along with His coming judgment, Jesus then told His disciples:  "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass   away till all these things take   place" (Matthew 24:34).

 Many Christians of the modern era have imagined that Jesus was speaking of events 2000 years or more in the future.  Some non-Christians have concluded that Jesus was simply mistaken in His predications. But forgotten history leads men to false assumptions and foolish speculations. It took 83 years to complete Herod's Temple, but only four years later, and less than 40 years after Jesus predicted its downfall, in A.D. 70 it would be utterly destroyed by the Romans.

While the final return of Christ for His triumphant Church, and the execution of His final judgment on the disobedient, remains ahead of us, much of what has been sensationalized as yet to come turns out to be history.  The Destruction of Jerusalem, by Peter Holford, offers the reader an opportunity to return to the old path, and provides a new hope and confidence about the future and   the integrity of our faith.