5. Recommended Resources – Apologetics

Studying apologetics together makes the heart grow fonder

What is Apologetics? It’s a word that’s thrown around a lot in Christian circles, but exactly what does it mean?

Apologetics doesn’t mean being sorry for something. Rather it comes from the Greek word apologia meaning defense. Apologetics is the defense of Christianity using evidence, reason, and logic.

The Apostle Peter commands Christians to be prepared and ready to defend their faith:
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. (1 Peter 3:14-15)

Check out the Apologetics resource sites described below to learn more about how to intelligently defend faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of the universe.

This is the 5th article in a series covering these six categories of
Recommended Resources:
1. Creation Science
2. Creation Science For Kids
3. Creation Museums
4. Intelligent Design
5. Apologetics
6. Christianity, Culture, & Vocation

Each resource is accompanied by a brief description of what it provides. Listing of a resource simply means the resource has significant value. It does not mean that I endorse everything in it.

Pondering apologetics

5. Apologetics Resources

Warning: These resources are recommended for their apologetic value, not necessarily for their creationist value. Many below do not hold to the main tenets of Biblical Creationism recorded in Genesis, which are creation of the universe by God in 6 regular days about 6,000 years ago and a worldwide flood about 4500 years ago.
Eat the meat and spit out the bones.

Apologetics 315
This is a world-class apologetics reference site (named for 1 Peter 3:15) run by Brian Auten from Belfast, Ireland. Vast apologetics resources are available (articles, videos, audios, debates, podcasts, book reviews, etc.) from beginning to advanced. Novice apologists will find the Apologetics Reading Plan for Beginners invaluable. The Christian Apologetics Blog Directory is a top-notch collection of apologetics blogs. The Ultimate Apologetics MP3 Audio Page is a huge collection of quality lectures on apologetics. The Debates Page has complete audio files for many apologetics debates.

Lee Strobel
Strobel is a best-selling author, journalist, and former atheist. His books The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus and The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God are excellent, easy-to-read introductions.

Please Convince Me
Founded by homicide detective and former atheist J. Warner Wallace, PCM‘s goal is to raise up Christian Case Makers who stand firm in their faith, ready to defend Christianity in a world hostile to the Biblical worldview. Wallace is the author of the superb book Cold Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels and writes the very interesting blog Cold Case Christianity on evidence for Christianity. The PCM Academy offers six apologetics training courses for free.

CrossExamined.org – Frank Turek
CrossExamined exists to address the problem that 75% of Christian youth leave the church while in college, mainly because they are not equipped to examine the skepticism and atheism they encounter from their college professors. Frank Turek and the CrossExamined team help young people understand why the Christian faith is true and reasonable and train them to defend that view. I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Norman Geisler & Frank Turek is an excellent introductory apologetics book.

Stand to Reason (STR)
STR‘s focus is to train Christians to think clearly and to make public defenses of the Christian faith in an intellectually fair, gracious, and incisive manner. Founder Greg Koukl’s book Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions is the best I’ve seen on the topic.

Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (CARM)
CARM is dedicated to the promotion and defense of the Christian Gospel, doctrine, and theology. CARM analyzes religious and non-religious movements and compares them to the Bible as the final standard of truth. They examine abortion, atheism, evolution, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, relativism, Roman Catholicism, Wicca, universalism, and more, along with Christian preachers and teachers.

Confident Christians (CC)
CC offers help to those seeking the truth amidst the many worldviews that lead people astray. CC supports believers looking for help to better explain these issues to family, friends, and colleagues. CC believes in the strong evidences of the Christian faith and that God gets to each person’s heart through their mind. CC believes it is wrong to run from the questions of skeptics or those who have doubts about areas of the Christian faith. God is big enough to stand up under thoughtful and intellectual inquiries aimed at Him. Founder Robin Schumacher’s excellent blog on topics in apologetics is Caleb’s Path. It’s also available at The Confident Christian.

Associates for Biblical Research (ABR)
Archaeology has revolutionized knowledge of the Biblical world with many discoveries that relate directly to Scripture and confirm the historicity of the Biblical record. ABR reports on the latest discoveries in Biblical archaeology and related creation/evolution issues and provides a Biblical perspective on the significance of each discovery. ABR works to demonstrate the historical reliability of the Bible through archaeological research and related apologetic investigation. ABR resolves apparent conflicts between the findings of archaeology and science and the Bible; it illuminates and enhances understanding of the Biblical text through knowledge and correct interpretation of the findings from archaeology and science. The BIBLE and SPADE is ABR‘s non-technical quarterly magazine that shows how archaeological evidence, properly interpreted, upholds the history of the Bible.

Reasons for Hope
This is the apologetics ministry of Carl Kerby, formerly of Answers in Genesis. Reasons for Hope presents Biblical reasons for true hope to those who are lost and endlessly seeking false hope. It encourages those who already know True Hope to give Biblical answers to real-world questions and inspires them to lead people to Jesus. The strategy to globally communicate reasons for hope includes: sending out sound, Biblical speakers, providing thoughtful and creative printed and online resources, and developing an easy-to-understand apologetics curriculum utilizing the latest technology.

Ratio Christi
Ratio Christi (Latin for ‘The Reason of Christ’) is a global movement that equips university students and faculty to give historical, philosophical, and scientific reasons for following Jesus Christ. Bringing together faith and reason in order to establish the intellectual voice of Christ in the University, Ratio Christi is placing Christian apologetics clubs at universities around the world that unashamedly defend the veracity of God, the Bible, and Christ’s resurrection and engage in the battle for the mind.

Answers for Hope
This site seeks to demonstrate that Christianity is the only rational worldview that a person can hold. It aims to give an answer for the Christian’s hope (1 Peter 3:15), to respond to objections from unbelievers, and to teach Christians how to become effective apologists.

Reformed Apologetics
Online apologetics articles from the perspective of Reformed Theology.

Apologetics Press
AP has published materials for self study, group study, and evangelism for over 30 years. Subjects range from evidences supporting the Christian Faith to highly controversial areas that challenge that Faith. The site has many good online articles on a vast array of topics.

Apologetics Guy
Accessible Apologetics lessons, tips, and training with Mikel Del Rosario. He teaches Christians how to defend the faith with confidence.

What Do I Say to That?
An InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staffer offers tips on conversational evangelism in an attempt to bridge the gap between stuffy “for super philosophical people only” apologetics and the actual conversations people have daily.

Think Christianly
Jonathan Morrow’s blog aims to help Christians understand what they believe, why they believe it, and why it matters. Its goal is to train and encourage a new generation to think Christianly about all of life.

The Poached Egg
Greg West’s Poached Egg is where Christian apologetics, history, philosophy, science, theology, and pop culture collide. The goal is to help guide believers, seekers, and skeptics alike to the Ultimate Source of Truth and a better understanding of the Christian worldview. Many excellent resources.

Grace with Salt (GwS)
GwS is an apologetics ministry combating modern secularism that pulls people away from the Biblical message. Hot topics covered include creation vs. evolution, homosexuality, abortion, politics, separation of church and state, supposed inaccuracies in Scripture, end times. Posts are informative, researched from both sides, and considerate of opposing views (grace) but firm in stance (salt).

Flatland Apologetics
This is the blog of Shelby Cade, a certified apologetics instructor, science teacher, and pastor.

Gary Habermas
Dr. Gary R. Habermas is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Dept. of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University. He specializes in defense of the Resurrection of Jesus, as he has dedicated his professional life to the examination of the relevant historical, philosophical, and theological issues surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus. His book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus co-authored with Michael Licona is the definitive treatment of the subject.

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
RZIM is a global team of speakers led by Ravi Zacharias. RZIM seeks to reach and challenge those who shape cultural ideas with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Distinctive in its strong evangelistic and apologetic foundation, RZIM intends to touch both hearts and the intellects of society’s thinkers and influencers. Many excellent resources.

J.P. Moreland
Moreland is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. Moreland’s Love Your God With All Your Mind:The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul is a classic challenging you to intellectually engage with your Christian faith.

Reasonable Faith
This site features the work of philosopher, theologian, Christian apologist, and debater William Lane Craig. Reasonable Faith aims to provide in the public arena an intelligent, articulate, and uncompromising yet gracious Christian perspective on the most important issues concerning the truth of the Christian faith. It seeks to challenge unbelievers with the truth of Biblical Christianity and to train Christians to state and defend Christian truth claims with greater effectiveness. Many valuable resources.

Confident Christianity
This is Mary Jo Sharp’s Apologetics ministry that addresses the hard questions of Christianity through research, writing, training, and debate. A former atheist and now Assistant Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, she is one of only a few women professionally engaged in Apologetics. Her book Defending the Faith: Apologetics in Women’s Ministry challenges women to approach their faith on an intellectual level and calls for women’s ministries to incorporate apologetics to help women love God with their minds.

Christian Research Institute
CRI exists to provide Christians worldwide with carefully researched information and well-reasoned answers that encourage them in their faith and equip them to intelligently represent it to people influenced by ideas and teachings that assault or undermine orthodox, Biblical Christianity.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the fifth of a series of six blog posts on Recommended Resources.
Read the prequels:
1. Recommended Resources – Creation Science
2. Recommended Resources – Creation Science for Kids
3. Recommended Resources – Creation Museums
4. Recommended Resources – Intelligent Design

Read the sequel:
6. Recommended Resources – Christianity, Culture, & Vocation

Subscribe – Don’t miss future blog posts!
Click the sidebar’s “SUBSCRIBE” button to follow the
Bible-Science Guy Blog. You’ll automatically receive
new posts free by email. Click SUBSCRIBE NOW!

©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday September 3, 2014 A.D.

For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods, in whose hand are the depths of the earth. The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. (Psalm 95:3-6)