Christians must be able to explain their faith - apologists

Hundreds of people congregated in central London over the weekend for Premier Christian Radio’s ‘Unbelievable Conference’.

The conference was held in partnership with Reasons to Believe, a Christian apologetics teaching and research organisation.

Hosted by Justin Brierley, presenter of Premier Christian Radio’s faith discussion programme ‘Unbelievable’, the conference aimed to equip Christians with reasons for the truth of their faith with evidence from Science, Philosophy and Bible scriptures.

Church leader and apologist, Michael Green, opened the evangelical event with a message titled ‘To everyone an answer’ in which he discussed tackling objections to the Christian faith.

"We must be prepared to give everyone an answer," he said.

"Those words come from 1 Peter 3:15, where Peter also faced a hostile intellectual climate and he gives his readers and us a very helpful series of injunctions."

Green described true faith as self commitment on evidence and said that apologetics presented evidence.

"Apologetics is very important. Without it many of our youngsters will fall away as soon as they get to university and we will not be able to win undergraduates for Christ at that critical stage of their lives. The media and universities are hotbeds of anti-Christian influence."

Also present at the conference was founder and President of Reasons to Believe Hugh Ross who put forward cosmic reasons to believe in God.

"At Reasons To Believe, our whole focus is developing apologetics which have the best possibility of bringing non-church adults to faith in Jesus Christ," he said.

A frequent objection to Christianity that Ross is familiar with is the notion that creationism is not science because it is not testable or falsifiable and doesn’t predict future scientific discoveries.

"This is why for over 25 years we have been developing a Biblical, testable creation model that is fully falsifiable. If we’re more successful in predicting future scientific discoveries than competing world views, then rationally and logically we are obligated to become followers of Jesus Christ," he explained.

"Freeman Dyson who at times identifies himself as an atheist physicist, other times as an agnostic wrote in one of his books ‘the more I examine the universe, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming’.

"The universe was designed for human beings."

John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics and philosophy of Science at Oxford University said: "The more science uncovers of the intricacies of the sheer marvel of this universe, the more I worship God for doing it that way.

"When Newton discovered his law of gravity he didn’t say 'Marvellous, I’ve got the law of gravity, I don’t need God'. He wrote the Principia Mathematica, arguably the most famous book in the history of science.

"He put in it’s dedication: ‘in the hope that the thinking person might through it come to believe in God'.

"In other words the more Newton understood how the universe worked the more he admired the God that did it that way."

Another argument that was raised for the existence of God was taken from a philosophical stance. According to Professor Kenneth Samples, human nature is solid proof that God exists.

"Why is it that people are looking for purpose and meaning? Why do we need hope?

"Christianity says if you’re discontented, if you’re restless, if you’re searching, it is because God made you that you would never find rest without him. Scripture reveals that human beings at their core know that there is a God."