Apologetics – What Apologetics is:

Apologia – a greek word used in the New Testament 8 times, we use it to mean a plea, an answer, or a defense. We use the two latter meanings for Apologetics.

Times Used (in the KJV)

1) Acts 22:01 “hear ye my defence.”

2) Acts 25:16 “and have licence to answer for himself.”

3) 1 Corinthians 9:3 “mine answer to thee”

4) 2 Corinthians 7:11 “in all things ye have approved yourselves.”

5) Philippians 1:7 “and in the defence  . . . of the gospel.”

6) Philippians 1:17 “the defence of the gospel”

7) 2 Timothy 4:16 “At my first answer no man stood with me”

1 Peter 3:15 :be ready always to give an answer . . . ”

Apologetics, however, is only a small part of theology.

Theology:

“Theos” is a greek word which menas “God”.

“ology” is a field of study. (Biology, etc)

Therefore, theology is the study of God.

The Divisions of Theology:

1) Exegetica Theology – study of scripture – understanding it

2) Historical Theology – the study of theology and how God relates to his people, history of the Church, Missions history, Doctrinal history, Creedal (ew!) )  and confessional history.

3) Systematic Theology – take and organize a belief system   – Apologetics – defense, Polemics – refutting other’s opinions or Faith or religion, Biblical Ethics – how to live our lives

4) Practical Theology – Homlietics – study of preaching, church organization, church administration, worship, christian education, missions

5) Exegetical Theology includes: Biblical languages – hebrew, greek and arabiac

6) Biblical introduction – who wrote the text, who he wrote it to, the dating of the writing, the culture

7) Biblical Hermeneutics – where to place it

Back to Apologetics . . .

Bibliology – study of the Bible

Theology Proper (great name!) – the study of God

Christology - the study of Christ

Pneumatology – the study of the Holy Spirit

Angelology - the study of Angels

Anthropology – the study of Man

Soteriology – the study of salvation

Ecclesiology – the study of the church

Eschatology – the study of future events

Well wasn’t that fun? . . .