Last Friday we met at my place for our first meeting as a club. It was great to see the enthusiasm as students planned on ways to challenge the worldviews they encounter at a secular college.
Last Friday we met at my place for our first meeting as a club. It was great to see the enthusiasm as students planned on ways to challenge the worldviews they encounter at a secular college.
I guess the title is redundant, but I'm excited to get the Palomar chapter of Ratio Christi underway this fall. We have some enthusiastic students and someone I trust in apologetics--Steve Bruecker. If you have any questions, stop by my office (I teach English on the San Marcos campus). I'm in P-2F MW from 11-12 and TTh 11-2. Or call me at 760-744--1150 ext. 2710.
Gary Zacharias
by Glenn Smith, Chapter Director at Texas A&M University
Ratio Christi operates differently from how Christian apologetics have traditionally been done. In the past, apologists were alone, doing work that was breaking new ground. Therefore, the only avenue available to them was through teaching, writing books and articles, and debates. So, when Ratio Christi came along, many Christians and apologists simply did not understand how we went about our work. From the perspective campus directors, we are finding that the Christian community needs an explanation of what we are not . . . and what we are.
“We MUST double the number of students getting an M.A. in Apologetics”
Rick Schenker, President of Ratio Christi
Ratio Christi is deploying apologists to grassroots assignments all over the country. They are putting “boots on the ground” at universities throughout the nation. Their biggest need is more trained apologists. Prior to Ratio Christi’s emergence on the scene of the apologetics movement, there was a “white elephant” standing in the room of almost every Masters level apologetics class. No one wanted to mention it, but it was on everyone's mind. The white elephant was the question, “What am I going to do with all this training once I am finished?”
We are all called to carry out the great commission, but who really holds the office of an evangelist?
Many Christians would describe an evangelist as someone that travels from church to church to preach messages. Their messages inspire believers to give to ministries that focus on taking the gospel to the unreached. Perhaps they would mention someone that preaches a message to bring revival to the church and convince people we bring to their meetings to become a follower of Christ. The right answer, however, according to Ephesians chapter 4, is that the evangelist is a person who equips believers to “do the work of the ministry so that they may build up the church.” That means the person who gives us the intellectual ability to answer the questions and objections of family and friends is really acting in the office of the evangelist. By training believers to give a reasonable answer, these people are probably doing more to win people to Christ than many traveling preachers. Apologetics is the branch of Christian theology that seeks to address the intellectual obstacles that keep people from taking faith seriously, and therefore it is the apologist who is the true evangelist.
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