Apologiaway: The Truth Project: Veritology Session 1

Veritology: the study of TRUTH. This will involve epistemology, the study of knowledge, and questions about:

How do we know what we know?

Is knowing the same as believing?

The Truth Project will involve Christian biblical apologetics.

1 Peter 3:15 (ESV) but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

1. According to the video what is the goal of the Truth Project?

Our goal is: Transformation

μεταμορφόω metamorphoo (met-am-or-foh’-o) to transform

To change in form, appearance, or structure; metamorphos

A caterpillar changing into a butterfly is metamorphosis or transformation.

2. According to the bible how can we be transformed?

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, Romans 12:2

The unregenerate unbeliever has no ability to understand or accept the truth claims of God. The believer who now has the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, has the ability to have his changed mind made new, so that they are able to “discern” God’s will. Testing you may discern translates Greek dokimazō, which has the sense of finding out the worth of something by putting it to use or testing it in actual practice. Before salvation we have no desire to know or do the will of God. Now we have the ability to be transformed and taught by the Spirit of Truth. Even though we are instantaneously regenerated the microsecond we accept the gospel, we don’t instantaneously have a Christian worldview. That has to be developed.

3. Specifically, where do we begin to renew our minds.

We will have to ask and answer many Presuppositional questions and re-examine our worldview.

Presuppose: to suppose or assume beforehand; take for granted in advance.

Presuppositions are the most foundational assumptions.

These questions are designed to make us think and test what we believe and why we believe it to see if it is true.

Do I wake up in the morning and have to reestablish my identity and all my beliefs. No I have a set of assumption which do not have to be tested daily?

How do you know you are not a disembodied brain, suspended in a vat of chemicals, vat

being manipulated by a mad scientist electrically into believing you are sitting here in this class.

There are some things we just have to assume. We assume our senses, identity and memory is reliable.

4. What is a worldview?

A worldview is the framework from which we view reality and make sense of life and the world. “It’s any ideology, philosophy, theology, movement or religion that provides an overarching approach to understanding God, the world and man’s relations to God and the world,”

A recent nationwide survey completed by the Barna Research Group determined that only 4 percent of Americans had a “biblical” worldview. Of “born- again” believers in America, the results were a dismal 9 percent. This means over 90% of church going Christians have a complete 360 degree worldview.

Barna’s survey also connected an individual’s worldview with his or her moral beliefs and actions. Barna says, “Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, our research found that most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and opportunities of life.”

5. According to the video, why did Jesus come into the world??

For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. John 18:37

Testify : To make a declaration of truth or fact under oath.

6.How is Jesus Christ linked with the concept of truth?

Jesus uses the expression, “I tell you the truth” 75 times.
He uses “truly, truly” “amen, amen” 25 times in the book of John.
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
John 1:17

John 1:17 (ESV) For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24
And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. John 8:32
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life” John 14:6

7. What takes us captive?

Lies take us captive and Truth will set us free.

Declaration: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This idea of liberty and freedom being a God endowed right was revolutionary……..literally.

Marxism as an economic system is a foolish lie created by an German academic who had never worked a day in his life and had no clue how the real world economy works. His false distorted worldview runs contrary to human nature and anybody who has held a job or owned a business knows this. The only way it could be imposed on Russian was to take away freedom. Those who resisted the lie were murdered. When the farmers refused to give their farms to the state they were imprisoned and murdered in massive purges where millions died. All because of a lie. Same thing Nazism and the whole aryan race lie, slavery in the South (slaves do not work as hard and efficiently as free men). Wherever people buy into the lies of the world their are catastrophic consequences.

8. Is there a link between truth and salvation?

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Eph 1:13 (NKJV)

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim 2:3-4

In the midst of my atheist existentialist worldview the Holy Spirit began to trouble me, but it took a man speaking the truth of the gospel to me that allowed me to be spiritually reborn or regenerated. Salvation is dependent on us speaking the truth to others.

There is a movement on college campuses and within academia to suppress free speech. Safe spaces and protection from microaggressions is now important to many who are afraid of hearing contrary opinions to the propaganda which their professors spew out.

We take for granted the freedom to have and read a bible.

9. How does the natural man react to the truth of God?

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1:18 (NKJV)

Suppress: to put down by authority or force, to keep from public knowledge, to keep secret, to stop or prohibit, to exclude from consciousness.

After I posted a piece in the Modesto Bee on the evidence for the existence of God, this was one of the printable responses.

“christianity; The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.”

After challenging an advocate of Darwinian evolution and asking his to cite one “scientific fact” of “common descent” , this was his response.

“There is nothing for me to prove, I have already won, I am invited to speak at our public schools and I could have you arrested for doing so.”

10. So, can’t we just all believe what we want and just all get along?

Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather

division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. Luke 12:51-53

Jesus is BIFURCATING the world. Bifurcate: to divide into two branches or parts.

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:6

In presuppositional apologetics the first principle is that there is no neutral. No fence sitting. When dealing with the unbeliever never abandon your worldview and try to compromise.

In the beginning God…………..or In the beginning no God. The choice is clear.

11. How does this difference in worldviews play out?

The result is a COSMIC BATTLE.

The Truth (reality) in one corner vs The Lie (illusion) in the other corner.

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 2 Thess 2:9-13

God chose you….to be saved and to know the truth.

The lies of the world deceive us.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Romans 7:11 (NKJV) grim

And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2 Thess 2:10 (NKJV)

Genesis 3:15 (NASB) And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed

The antithetical nature of Christianity goes back to the garden.

Antithetical: directly opposed or contrasted; mutually incompatible.

Enmity: the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.

Your seed: the unbelieving world. Jesus called the children of the Devil (John 8:44)

Her seed: the believers, the children of God (John 1:12)

12. How should we view the unsaved?

All sin is belief in a LIE.

If God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and thatthey may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. 2 Tim 2:25-26 (NKJV)

When we speak to those who are of the world we must envision them in CHAINS.

Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Col 3:6-7 (NKJV)

This prevents us from becoming arrogant

Scripture References

You may look up these verses at Bible Gateway.*

Isaiah 6:1-8	John 18:33-38	Matt 5:18	Matt 10:15
Matt 13:17	Matt 16:28	Matt 17:20	Matt 18:3, 18
Matt 19:23	Matt 21:21	Matt 23:36	Matt 24:2
Matt 25:40	Matt 26:21	Matt 26:34	John 3:3
John 3:5	John 3:11	John 5:19, 24, 25	John 1:17
John 14:6	John 6:26, 32, 47, 53	John 8:34, 51, 58	John 17:17
John 4:24	John 8:32	John 14:16-17	John 16:13
1 Tim 2:3-4	Eph 6:14	Isaiah 59:4	Jer 7:28
Isaiah 59:15	1 Tim 6:13	2 Tim 4:3-4	Rom 1:18
Acts 20:30	Rom 2:8	Rom 1:25	1 John 4:6
Job 1 & 2	2 Thess 2:9-13	John 8:34-47	Rom 7:11
2 Thess 2:10	Eph 4:22	Heb 3:13	1 John 3:10
2 Tim 2:24-26	Col 4:5-6	Isaiah 44:18-20	Isaiah 44:17
Matt 6:25-34	Col 2:2-4

The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute and exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video taped or video discs, without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use”, and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody. This articles is written, and any image and video (includes music used in the video) in this article are used, in compliance with this law: Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107..

Christian News Service – Worthy News

Link to worldwide Christian news organization

Link to