Top 30 Apologetics Books (#2): Justin Martyr, First Apology
Dear Readers,
We hope you enjoy this week’s collection of useful resources, and the second installment of Dr. Rob Bowman’s series on the most important apologetics books in church history. This week Dr. Bowman surveys Justin Martyr’s First Apology.
Also, be sure to check out Kerby Anderson’s interview of our own Paul Copan and Paul Gould on his Point of View radio show. Some good discussion of current issues in apologetics, along with info on The Worldview Bulletin newsletter.
We welcome your feedback. Feel free to drop us a line at worldviewbulletin@gmail.com.
Blessings on your week,
Managing Editor
Quotable
“God usually exerts [his regenerative] power in connection with certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favourable conditions for the reception of the gospel. False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion.”
J. Gresham Machen, What Is Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951), 162, quoted in James K. Dew Jr. and Paul M. Gould, Philosophy: A Christian Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 8.
#2: Justin Martyr, First Apology (ca. 155)
The apologists of the second century modeled their arguments after contemporary philosophical refutations of polytheism and the critiques of pagan philosophy by Hellenistic Jews. Of the many apologists from this period, the most important by far was Justin Martyr (ca. 100-165), a convert to Christianity from Platonism. Justin wrote three important works of apologetics, but perhaps the most notable is his First Apology. In this book, addressed to the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, he appealed for the civil toleration of Christianity and argued that it was in fact the true philosophy. About ten years after writing the book, during the reign of Antoninus’s successor Marcus Aurelius, Justin and six other Christians were beheaded in Rome for refusing to perform sacrifices to the Roman gods.
Justin began his defense of Christianity by arguing that Christians were not atheists. They rejected false gods and idolatry, but they worshiped the true God, his Son (the Logos, who had become a man, Jesus Christ), and the Spirit. Christ taught a noble, ethical way of life, including obedience to Caesar as long as it did not compromise their exclusive religious devotion to God. Justin drew some analogies between Christian beliefs and elements of pagan religion while insisting that pagan religion was the creation of demons. Christ was not a magician but was in truth the Son of God. The Hebrew prophets had predicted his birth, miraculous ministry, rejection, crucifixion, resurrection, and heavenly rule. (Justin was a pioneer of the argument from fulfilled prophecy, which he also advanced in more detail in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.) According to Justin, any truth or semblance of truth in pagan mythology or in Plato’s philosophy derived from Moses, whose writings predated them all. (Moses did predate Plato by centuries, but the idea that Plato was in any way dependent on Moses is now universally rejected.) Justin finishes with a description of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, explaining their origins and refuting the scandalous claim that in the Eucharist believers were literally eating human flesh and drinking human blood. His conclusion includes, ironically, a supposed letter (commonly regarded as spurious) from Marcus Aurelius pleading for tolerance of the Christians.
It is easy for modern readers to find fault with various aspects of Justin’s apologetic. However, his efforts were commendable given his place in Christian history (even before the process of collecting the New Testament canon was completed) and in view of his role as a pioneer in Christian theologizing and apologetics.
*Note: See the first post in this series, on the Book of Acts, in last week’s edition.
—Rob Bowman Jr. is an evangelical Christian apologist, biblical scholar, author, editor, and lecturer. He is the author of over sixty articles and author or co-author of thirteen books, including Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ, co-authored with J. Ed Komoszewski. He leads the Apologetics Book Club on Facebook.
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(*The views and opinions expressed in the articles, videos, podcasts, and books linked to do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of The Worldview Bulletin.)
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Videos
God On Trial Conference - Q&A: John Lennox, Mark Mittelberg, Paul Copan, & Bobby Conway
Dr Sean George : 'I was raised from the dead'. Medical evidence for a miracle?
CRAIG EVANS: FABRICATING JESUS. FROM THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS TO THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
Oliver Crisp - Is God Self-Existent?
Gary Habermas: The Minimal Facts Approach to the Resurrection
Richard Swinburne—Humans Consist of Two Parts: Body and Soul
Discussing "Tactics" with Greg Koukl: How to Talk to People About Christianity
God and The Universe: Modern Physics, Ancient Faith | Dr. Stephen Barr
DNA Is Code: Who Coded It? (Science Uprising 03)
Audio
Kerby Anderson-Point of View Radio Show: Interview with Paul Copan and Paul Gould
The Doctrine of Creation from Nothing (Part One) (Reasonable Faith)
The Doctrine of Creation from Nothing (Part Two) (Reasonable Faith)
Is Science Our Only Source of Knowledge? (Jonathan Morrow)
Answer Like Jesus (Stand to Reason/Alan Shlemon)
Four Views of Evil: An Interview with W. Paul Franks (Apologetics Canada)
The Myth of the Dying Church (with Glenn Stanton) (Sean McDowell)
Helpful Resources
Theology for Life is a free, quarterly online magazine that exists to equip Christians on a variety of issues through a biblical-theological framework. Check out their Equipping You in Grace podcast for interviews with notable Christian authors.
If you’re interested in the original languages of the Bible—especially Greek—check out the Exegetical Tools website and blog, as well as their Tool Talk podcast. If you’ve already taken some Greek, their Greek Reading Videos are a great resource for developing your exegetical skills.
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