Debaters in the Bible

Prophets, the apostles and Jesus used reasoned arguments and evidence to defend and proclaim God’s revelation through nature, fulfilled prophesies, miracles and, in the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus.

For example, in Acts 3:15 the apostle Peter, in his first sermon at Pentecost, appealed to the testimony of those who had been eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.

“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.” (Acts 2:32 NIV)

Think about that. The death of Jesus was a public event, and his burial site were known by everyone.

At the third day, the tomb was found empty. People started to see appearances of Jesus.

Not just his family and disciples, but also to agnostics (his half-brother James), and enemies (Like Saul of Tarsus, better known later as Paul) and to more than 500 peoples at the same time.

Hallucinations? Could have been for some family members, but not for his enemies and agnostics. And to 500 at the same time? And for 40 days (Acts 1.3)? You must be tripping!

“His disciples stole the body” said the pharisees.

That was a possibility but doesn’t stand to reason.

First, the tomb was guarded by roman’s soldiers.
Second, the tomb was sealed by a stone that weighed approximately 2 tons. Third, not even the disciples knew that he was going to resurrect.
Fourth, they all run away through different directions from the crucifixion. Fifth, they have no motivation to steal a body. They were not expecting someone to resurrect before the day of resurrection.

If everything was a lie, the whole community would investigate and show they were charlatans. Specially their enemies.

Peter again appealed to the same evidence when later persecuted (Acts 5:30–32).

There were no gains in the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus. Only a horrible death.

Anyone can die for something they think is true, but no one will die for something they know it’s a lie.

Saul, early after his conversion, used apologetics against the Jews arguing that Jesus was the promised Christ “Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.” (Acts 9.22).

He accustomed to go to synagogues and reason with the Jews from the Scripture (Act 17.22). “Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 18:4)

Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. (Acts 19:8–10 NIV)

Paul saw himself as an apologist of the Gospel frequently in the book of Acts. He told the Philippians: “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” (Acts 1.7).

Paul was an expert and seasoned debater not only against the Jews but also against Greek polytheists, Epicurean and Stoics philosophers… at the same time… every day!

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the Godfearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (Acts 17:16–20 NIV)

Paul used the creation as evidence of the existence of the true God and our creator (vv. 24–27), cited their own pagan poets as support of this argument (vv. 28–29) and proclaim that this God resurrected Jesus from the dead and calls them to repentance (vv. 30–31).

Many laughed at him, others ignored him with sarcasm, but few believed.

Not much have changed since then.

Apollos was another intelligent apologist to the Jews.

“…he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.” (Acts 18:28 NIV)

This is a battle of ideas. Paul says,

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10.4–5. NIV)

Many books of the New Testament were created for an apologetic purpose.

Check why John wrote his gospel,

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30,31 NIV)

John documented the miracles he saw as witness to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

Read the purpose of Luke, the physician, for writing his gospel,

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1–4 NIV. Emphasis added)

Jude also had an apologetic origin.

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. (Jude 3)

Jude’s letter is a defense against certain individuals trying to slip in false teachings into the church. He called the church to “[b]e merciful to those who doubt;” (v. 22)

Today, like in Biblical times, apologist makes use of a multidisciplinary knowledge like cosmology, philosophy, ethics, biology, history and more.

Some of those popular classical arguments are:

• The Kalam Cosmological Argument: Seeks to show that the universe is not eternal, that necessarily had to have a beginning.
• The Fine Tune Argument: Seeks to show that the universe fine tuning of its constants isn’t do by physical necessity nor chance and that it is by design.
• The Moral Argument: Seeks to show that if objective moral values and duties exist, then God exist.
• The Ontological Argument: Seeks to show that God exist in basis of what it means to be God as the maximally great being.
• The Resurrection Argument: Seeks to show that the best explanation of the historical facts of an empty tomb, the postmortem appearances of Jesus and the sudden disciple’s belief that Jesus rose are better explain by the hypothesis that Jesus rose from the dead.

These are some of the arguments and evidence used to defend the contention that Christianity is true.

I invite you to look into each one these arguments and others if you’re not a believer or have doubts about the faith rationality.