UNPACKED – Apologetics

WHAT IS APOLOGETICS?
Apologetics literally means a defence of the faith.
The Greek word apologia means “defence,” just as a lawyer gives at a trial — in other words, reasoned arguments.

1 Peter 3:15
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.”

Sharing your faith can be scary.
You can lose face and friends when you communicate this so-called “narrow-minded” message of the Gospel, even when you do so in love and compassion. 

Because of this, many Christians choose silence over sharing the Good News.
The biggest culprit? Fear — fear of man, rejection, and ridicule.

Remember: Jesus Himself was rejected by some but received by others.
It is for those “some” that we need to be equipped to reach.

“Fear not!” is the most repeated command in the Bible — 365 times — one for every day of the year!

2 Timothy 4:2
“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season.”

Apologetics is to equip you and give you confidence to share your faith.
So you know in whom you believe that your faith has substance, not just emotion.

2 Timothy 1:12
“For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. ”When Paul gave a defence of his faith before king Agrippa and  – the King said – you have almost persuaded me.

When Paul gave a defence of his faith before King Agrippa: 

Acts 26:24–28
Festus said, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!”
Paul replied, “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason… King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.”
Then Agrippa said, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”

Many, like Agrippa, miss heaven by eight inches. The distance from head to heart.
Christianity is a heart faith, not just a head faith, but it is also reasonable and substantial.

The heart cannot rejoice when the mind is full of doubt.

Plato said: “The one who holds a true belief or faith without understanding is like a blind man who happens to take a blind road.”

“There really is nobody intelligent enough to be an atheist.”

Only 4–7% of the world’s population identify as atheists — a small minority.

Madelyn O’Hair
Founder of the American Atheist Society, she said:
“There is no God, no heaven, no hell, no angels. When you die, you go into the ground and the worms eat you.”

 A sad and hopeless outlook.

Her son, William J. Murray, became a Christian and later a Baptist minister.

Tragically, Madelyn and her son Jon were murdered and dismembered by a former employee, David Waters.

The Potter and the Clay
Without God, man’s significance in the vast universe is minimal.
But the Christian perspective introduces the Potter, giving life purpose and design.

Atheism in Modern Thought

Richard Dawkins said:
“The fact that life evolved out of literally nothing… is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.”

Psalm 14:1
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Even Dawkins’ brother became a Christian.

Antony Flew – Former Leading Atheist 
In 2004, he renounced atheism, saying:
“The integrated complexity of life can only be explained in terms of an intelligent source… Christianity is the most persuasive argument.”

Common Beliefs and Contradictions

• Agnostics say God is unknowable — yet how can one know that if they do not know God exists?
• Relativists say there are no absolutes — ask them, “Are you absolutely sure?”
• Moralists say, “If it feels good, do it” — until their life is threatened.

Proving God’s Existence
To prove God exists is easier than proving He does not.
“If I said there is no insect life in this building, to prove there is, I’d only need to find one.
But to prove there are none, I’d have to search every inch.”

Likewise, to prove there is no God, you would have to search every planet and galaxy.

Science and Faith
Science and faith can work together. Truth will never contradict truth.

Science works with limited facts, limited time, and limited knowledge.
As more data unfolds, conclusions change.

Examples:

• Once they said the world was flat — the Bible said it was round (Job, Psalms).
• Once they said you’d suffocate going over 50 mph!
• One rocket trip in 1990 disproved 28 beliefs about Saturn.

“If science had all facts, it would never contradict faith.”

Evolution

• No fossil evidence of one species evolving into another.
• Millions of fossils with and without backbones, but no transitional fossils.
• Darwin himself said: “I think this is what happened.”
• Evolution is an outdated theory, still taught as fact.
• It takes more faith to believe everything came from nothing than “In the beginning, God.”

Thousands of scientists have signed statements dissenting from Darwinian evolution.

Christian Scientists & Thinkers

• Sir Isaac Newton – wrote more about God than science
• Pascal – “Everyone has a God-shaped vacuum that only Christ can fill.”
• Francis Bacon, Louis Pasteur, James Simpson, Lord Kelvin

Former Atheists Turned Believers

• C.S. Lewis
• Lee Strobel
• Sir William Ramsay
• Dr. Simon Greenleaf (Harvard Law founder)
• Malcolm Muggeridge

Sir Lionel Luckhoo
World’s most successful lawyer (245 murder acquittals):
“The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.”

Science Changes with Knowledge
Illustration:
“I” could mean numeral one, lowercase “L”, or a capital “I”.
As more data appears, understanding changes — truth doesn’t change, knowledge does.

DNA and Intelligent Design
DNA — the building blocks of life — proves a Designer.

Originally, scientists thought we came from chimps because of DNA similarity.
Yet bananas share 60% of our DNA — similarity doesn’t prove origin.
Now, DNA shows all humanity came from one man and one woman.

The Nature of God
Asking “Who made God?” is illogical.

It’s like asking:

• What’s the taste of blue?
• Is the bachelor married?

God’s essence = uncreated, eternal.
“He who was, and who is, and who is to come.”
“I Am who I Am.”

We live in time — God does not.
He created time so we could have a yesterday.

Seven Great Explanations

1. God is the best explanation for the origin of the universe.

 There are only two options:

 Option 1:
In the beginning, there was nothing.
Out of nothing came everything.

Option 2:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

The Big Bang Theory suggests everything came from “nothing heating up rapidly.”
But even gases, atoms, and energy must come from something.

“Dust to brains, atoms to Adam, particles to people.”

How Small is an Atom
By the way, I love to talk about atoms and cells. We will get there, but first, how small is an atom?

The Earth compared to an orange is like the orange compared to an atom.

The Scale of Stars
You can fit 1.3 million Earths inside our Sun.

UY Scuti is the biggest star found so far. It is in our galaxy. It is so big, you could fit 5 billion Suns inside it. Its radius is 1,700 times larger than the Sun.

Kanges Mogeros, known as the Big Dog in the Canis Majoris constellation, is enormous. If the Earth were the size of a golf ball, this star would be six miles high, the height of Mt Everest.

This is beyond comprehension. Darwin did not know this. Huxley did not know this.

The Big Question
There are options:

• Option 1 – In the beginning, out of nothing, Bang, and you have everything.
• Option 2 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Which takes more faith? Which requires more imagination? Which seems possible and which does not?

Genesis 1 v 1-2
Just in the first two verses, you have the five elements of science: Time, Space, Matter, Power, Motion.

In the beginning (time), God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter). The Spirit of God (power) moved on the face of the water (motion).

All of that in just two verses.

Order of Creation
In Genesis 1, there are five divisions: man, beasts, birds, reptiles, and fish.

Comparative anatomy shows the proportion of brain weight to spinal cord:

• Man 33 to 1
• Beast 4 to 1
• Birds 3 to 1
• Reptiles 2.5 to 1
• Fish 2 to 1

The Impossibility of Chance
A Big Bang makes a big mess.

Can you blow up a Volkswagen and get a Rolls Royce?

The whole solar system is one giant clock.

If I blew up a shoebox, would I get a Rolex? Even if I put all the ingredients of a watch in a shoebox and shook it, would it ever assemble into a ticking watch?

A watch does not exist without a watchmaker. A painting does not exist without a painter. A building does not exist without a builder.

Design cannot happen without a designer.

Would you ever find a wristwatch lying under a rock and think, wow, it just happened? No. You would know someone put it there.

The Universe is a million times more complex than a watch.

The hallmark of the Universe is in its design. There is order, systems, laws.

A watch is designed for a purpose. It only keeps time because of a higher authority. You cannot carry around the Greenwich clock.

Atoms and the Universe
The Universe and planets are all made of atoms.

Once, the atom was thought to be the smallest thing. Now we know of quarks. Now the theory of strings suggests strings are so small they exist in a 10-dimensional world. We live in a 3-dimensional world. At that scale, size as we know it no longer exists.

To put it in perspective: The Universe compared to the Earth is like the Earth compared to an atom, as an atom is compared to a string.

Counting Atoms
How small is an atom? Imagine this:

To count the number of atoms in one drop of water, it would take every human on the planet counting one per second for 20,000 years.

An atom is made of neutrons, protons, and electrons. It is a mini-universe.

Ernest Rutherford split the atom in 1919. In 1932, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split the lithium atom, causing the first artificial nuclear reaction.

Molecules are made of two or more atoms combined.

The Cell
In Darwin and Huxley’s day, they believed in the simple cell, the amoeba, a single-cell organism from which all life flowed.

Today we know the cell is not simple. There are trillions of atoms in one cell.

Earlier estimates suggested 50 billion atoms per cell. Today, the estimate is around 100 trillion atoms per cell.

There are more atoms in a single human cell than there are cells in the human body, which has 37.2 trillion cells.

The cell has a plasma membrane, a nucleus with genetic material, and cytoplasm.

Just one part of a cell, the Flagella, has a motor, cogs, rods, bearings, and rotors, just like an outboard motor.

This is one of tens of thousands of structures in a single cell.

Motor and Flagella
The human cell is incredibly complex. It has a motor, cogs, rods, bearings, a U pipe, rollers, and rotors, much like an outboard motor. The flagella alone defies evolutionary explanation because its working parts cannot operate independently.

Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells, each containing roughly 100 trillion atoms. As the Bible says, not only do the heavens display the glory of God, but we too are fearfully and wonderfully made.

While Darwin and Huxley laid the foundations of evolutionary theory, modern science now shows that logic and observation challenge it. Out of nothing comes nothing, and there has never been observed a single instance of one species evolving into another. In every sense, the complexity of life points to a designer rather than chance.

 God is the best explanation for the fine-tuning of the universe

 The earth has over 200 elements, each precisely tuned like a dial. Everything must be exact:

• Helium levels
• Carbon levels
• Density of the earth
• Gravitational pull

One planet is so dense that a teaspoon full weighs one trillion tons.

Here on earth:

• Oxygen 21% perfect
• Tilt of the earth 23.5 degrees perfect for day and night
• Earth moves at 67,000 mph through space while spinning at 1,000 mph
• Our galaxy moves at 1.3 million mph
• The sun is 93 million miles away; 10 million closer or further would make life impossible

If just one of the 200 dials were altered slightly, life as we know it would cease.

Electromagnetism describes the interaction between electrically charged particles and their fields. One tweak of a single electron and life could not exist.

God is the best explanation of objective moral values
Who says stealing is wrong? Animals act without guilt, but humans have a sense of right and wrong because we are made in God’s image.
The Bible says God has written His law on our hearts.

Humans are designed for love, generosity, and soberness. Misuse leads to broken lives.
Acts of altruism defy evolutionary survival-of-the-fittest logic.
God demonstrated this selflessness through Jesus.

Mankind reflects God’s character. Animals do not.
Despite evil in the world, humans still act on moral values, showing God’s imprint on us.

God is the best explanation for historical facts of Jesus Christ
Jesus has more historical evidence than any other figure of His time.

• 24,634 early writings on Jesus exist
• CS Lewis highlighted three possibilities: good man, crazy man, or who He claimed to be – the Son of God

Evidence supports the resurrection:

• Execution
• Empty tomb
• Eyewitness accounts
• Early records
• Emergence of the Church

Jesus’ life and actions demand a response. Prophecies about His birth and life were fulfilled.
He is not an illusion; He is living history.

God is the best explanation for the Bible
66 books, over 40 authors, written over centuries, yet one consistent story: God’s love letter to the world.

• Over 100 million Bibles sold annually
• Most translated book of all time

The Bible contains accurate scientific insights:

• Earth is a globe, hung in space, revolving
• Lightning can carry messages
• The complexity of DNA far exceeds human coding capabilities

Humans are fearfully and wonderfully made, from one million nerve endings in the womb to trillions of blood cells and circuits in the brain.

God is the best explanation for life, death, and human emotions
Every person wonders about life after death.
God has placed eternity in the human heart.

We are given a heart to love, a mind to know God, and a will to serve.
Human problems like emptiness, guilt, and moral struggle reflect this.

Life without God leads to seeking meaning in anything, not everything.

God can be known and experienced
Smith Wigglesworth said a person with experience will surpass one with theory.

Colossians 1:13–20 explains how God created and sustains all things, including the human body. Laminin, a cell adhesion protein, is the “glue” that holds trillions of cells together.

Humans are spiritual beings with a body, soul, and spirit.
Belief is not optional; it is unavoidable.

Jesus Christ

• Born in a stable in Bethlehem
• Public ministry lasted 3.5 years
• Travelled only 200 miles, wrote nothing, started no armies

Yet His impact surpasses kings, generals, artists, and philosophers.
He inspired Michelangelo, da Vinci, Dante, Milton, Beethoven, Bach, and countless others.

He is the Alpha and Omega, the rose of Sharon, the living water, the bread of life, the resurrection and the life.

He is everything for everybody, everywhere, every time, and in every way.

 Summary of God’s explanations

1. God is the best explanation for the origin of the universe
2. God is the best explanation for the fine-tuning of the universe
3. God is the best explanation of objective moral values
4. God is the best explanation for the historical facts of Jesus Christ
5. God is the best explanation for the Bible
6. God is the best explanation for life, death, and human emotions
7. God can be known and experienced

God is God.

He can be known but not fully understood. His thoughts and ways are higher than ours.

Trust in Him with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Trusting the Potter
But can the clay say to the potter, “Why have you made me like this?”
We are called to trust in Him with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.

Everybody believes something.

It is the fool who says, “There is no God.”
When people do away with God, they do not believe in nothing, they believe in anything.

There are no unbelievers in hell, only people who believed too late.

If there is no God, then when we die, Christians and atheists go to the same place.
But if there is a God, Christians go to heaven. They cannot lose.
Atheists go to hell. They cannot win.

Some people joke about hell, saying, “All our mates will be there.”
But Jesus said it was no joke.

Everything is evidence of the existence of God.
There is not one bit of evidence disproving His existence.

The Only Way
Some say all roads lead to Rome, but there is no other leader who claimed to be what Christ claimed to be.
Buddha said, “I do not know the way.”
Mohammad said, “Isa knows the way.”
Confucius was confused.

If all roads lead to Rome, Christ did not need to come and die on the cross.

There is a sin virus, like an AIDS virus, running through our veins.
Only Jesus, through His sinless blood, can redeem us.

What Christianity Offers

1. Your search for truth is satisfied
2. Your sins are forgiven
3. Your guilt is removed
4. Your security and identity are complete
5. Your faith is grounded in a personal God
6. Your fear of death is destroyed
7. Your life is based on a new hope

Evidence from Science and Faith
Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and one of the founders of string theory, caused a stir in 2016 when he claimed to have found evidence that God exists.

He said most physicists today believe in a God because the universe is designed with order, beauty, elegance, and simplicity.

“If it was just a bang,” he said, “it would have been ugly and chaotic.”

“I have concluded that we are living in a world made by rules created by intelligence.
Everything that we call chance does not make any sense anymore.
We exist in a plan that is governed by rules created and shaped by a universal intelligence, not by chance.”

Kaku said God is like a mathematician, a view similar to Einstein’s.
In his article for Think Big, he wrote that string theory is based on the idea that we are reading the mind of God.

Transformed by Truth
In Lagos, a noted Islamic apologist, the chief scribe for Nigeria’s top Islamic scholar, became a Christian after reading the Bible.

He had often debated Christians in public, but one pastor refused to debate him until he read the entire Bible.

He accepted the challenge, and as he read, he realized that Christ was God and that Mohammed was not God’s prophet.

Finally, crying out to God, he confessed Christ as Saviour.

Creation Confirms the Bible
Photos of Neptune support Genesis.
If the solar system were billions of years old, natural forces would have destroyed the last traces of planetary rings.
Yet each of the four outer planets has rings.

When small moonlets were discovered within Saturn’s rings, scientists theorized they were “shepherds” holding the rings together for millions of years.
But Voyager 2 found no such moonlets around Neptune.
As one scientist said, “The problem needs further study.”
If the rings are no older than the rest of creation, there is no need for shepherd moons at all.

Evidence From History
In 1995, The New Zealand Herald reported that the “Peking Man,” once dated at 700,000 years old, was found to be 100,000 years younger than previously believed.

Science continues to adjust its dates, but the Word of God has never changed.

Read the Bible, and books like:
Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

A leading French atheist once boasted that he would destroy Christianity in his lifetime.
On his deathbed, he had to be restrained by six strong men as he screamed, “I am abandoned by God and by man.”

In contrast, John Wesley, a man who served God and led many to Jesus, died peacefully, proclaiming, “The best of all, God is with me.”

 Jesus Christ
Born in a stable in Bethlehem, His public ministry lasted only three and a half years.
He never travelled more than 200 miles, never wrote a book, never penned a song, never painted a picture, never wrote a poem, never started a school, and never raised an army.
He never had an earthly throne.

Artists have come and gone.
Authors, teachers, and philosophers have passed away.
Generals and kings lie in their tombs.
Kingdoms have come and gone, but His name lives on.

Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Dante, Milton, Beethoven, and Bach all drew inspiration from this carpenter. Yet there is not one photograph of Him.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica uses 20,000 words to describe Jesus Christ, more than Alexander the Great or Napoleon Bonaparte, and never once suggests that He did not exist.

He is not just written into history, He is ploughed into it.
He is the only person the world universally celebrates with public holidays: Christmas and Easter.

He is the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
He is the Lily of the Valley and the Rose of Sharon.
He is the keeper of creation and the Creator of all things.
He is the architect of the universe and the manager of all time.
He holds the keys of hell and death.
He always was, He always is, and He always will be.
He is unmoved, unchanged, undefeated, and never undone.

He was bruised and brought healing.
He was pierced and eased pain.
He was persecuted and brought freedom.
He was dead and brought life.
He is risen and brings power.
He reigns and brings peace, for He is the resurrection and the life.

The world cannot understand Him.
The armies cannot defeat Him.
The schools cannot explain Him.
Leaders cannot ignore Him.
Herod could not kill Him.
The Pharisees could not confuse Him.
The people could not intimidate Him.
Nero could not crush Him.
Hitler could not silence Him.
The new age cannot replace Him.
Oprah cannot explain Him away.
The devil could not and cannot defeat Him.

He is light, love, mercy, and truth.
He is goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness.
He is holy, righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.
His ways are right and His word eternal.
His will is unchanging, and His thoughts are higher.

His mind is on me, for He cares for me.
He is my Saviour, my Redeemer, my Sanctification.
He is my guide, my peace, my joy, my comfort, my Lord.
He rules my life.

I serve Him because our bond is love.
His burden is light and His goal for me is life abundant.

I follow Him because He is the wisdom of the wise, the power of the powerful, the ancient of days, the ruler of rulers, the leader of leaders, the overseer of the overcomers, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

His heart’s desire is a relationship with me.
He will never leave me nor forsake me.
He will never mislead, forget, or overlook me.
When I fall, He lifts me up.
When I fail, He forgives.
When I am weak, He is strong.
When I am lost, He is the way.
When I am afraid, He is my courage.
When I stumble, He steadies me.
When I am hurt, He heals me.
When I am broken, He mends me.
When I am blind, He leads me.
When I am hungry, He feeds me.
When I face trials, He is with me.
When I face persecution, He shields me.
When I face problems, He comforts me.
When I face loss, He provides for me.
When I face death, He carries me home.

He is everything for everybody, everywhere, every time, and in every way.
He is the way, the truth, and the life.
He is the right door, the great shepherd, the true vine, the living water, and the bread of life.
He is the bridegroom.
His name is Jesus.
He is God. I am His, and He is mine.