College Ready Be competent like Christ

Christ is God incarnate. He is omniscient. He limited His earthly ministry to salvation on the cross and to address the problems of Israel. y Christ did not deal with the Greco Roman world, He left it for His disciples, especially to the Apostle Paul. y On the other hand, He perfectly knew the Old Testament, defeating His opponents with sound arguments.
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Be competent like Christ

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money. So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, Whose image and inscription is this? They said to Him, Caesar s. And He said to them, Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar s, and to God the things that are God s. When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way. (Matthew 22:15-22)

Be competent like Christ

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At other times, He answered a question with another question. This is a great way to fend off unwarranted, stupid inquiry. Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. He answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
(Matthew 15: 1-3)

Be competent like the apostle Paul

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:20-25)

Be competent like the apostle Paul

In few verses above, the apostle Paul proves to be abreast with the intellectual achievements of his era. He addresses the issues of human wisdom. He also deals with highly specialized people in rhetoric and philosophy such as sophists and philosophers. The apostle also criticizes the Jewish scribes, who today would be doctors of theology. y He dismisses their claims showing the insolvency of the philosophical enterprise as being in opposition to the cross of Christ.
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Be competent in the matters of your critics

Humanists, atheists, and anti-God people usually have a certain level of education in philosophy. y Therefore you should have some basic knowledge about Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, J.P. Sartre. y In the following slides we will briefly explore these philosophers.
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Fundamentals of philosophy
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We have to remember philosophy is a flawed system of thought. It requires devotion to a religious level. It is highly speculative. It is anti-Biblical It is deceptive It leads people astray It takes captive the minds of the people. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5)

Key philosophers
Socrates (470 - 399 B.C.) y He is the father of the Greek school of philosophy. His pupil was Plato. Socrates was a homosexual. He corrupted young lads. He died poisoned by powerful men of Athens. He is known for his Socratic method. y The Socratic method is usually useless because it avoids a firm conclusion on issues. This method leads to skepticism and different forms of post modernism.

Key philosophers
Plato (427 - 347 B.C.) y He was the pupil of Socrates. He was involved with mystery religions. He denied physical reality. He asserted that the world of ideas are true reality. This is why he is called an idealist philosopher. y He called ideas, forms . His views are very similar to the Hindu religion. Plato ignored God totally. y He despised the physical creation. His bad influence extended to all philosophers to this day. Platonism evolved into Neo-Platonism, which in turn is occult in nature.

Key philosophers
Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) y Aristotle was the pupil of Plato. He disagreed with his teacher saying that the world around us is so vast and so complex and that we should not busy ourselves with the world of ideas. y He was the only philosopher of antiquity that changed into a scientist. As a result, his writings contain a lot of logic constructs. y He could be called the father of logic.

Key philosophers
Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) y Kant grew up in a godly family. After high school, when he went to university in his city (Knigsberg), he rebelled against Christianity. He was very crafty. y He was in love with humanistic ideas and wholeheartedly supported the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. y He undermined Christianity through his main work called The Critique of Pure Reason . He tried to reduce Christianity to a set of ethical standards disconnected from the historicity of Israel and Christ. Kant denied the importance of reason in Christian faith, proving to be a hard core Platonist.

Key philosophers
G. W. F. Hegel (1770 - 1831) y Hegel brought to the forefront of philosophical ideas the old concept of thesis-antithesis and synthesis . This notion, coined by Heraclitus a preSocratic philosopher, was expanded by Socrates and Plato. Hegel did not use exactly the same words for this theory. y The thesis-antithesis and synthesis principle put in a very simple way goes like this: something positive (thesis) is opposed by something negative (antithesis) then the positive and negative collide, resulting in something different (synthesis) but containing elements from both thesis and antithesis.

Key philosophers
Hegel s theory of thesis-antithesis and synthesis later was picked up by K. Marx and applied in his communist ideology which had devastating consequences for humanity. y Hegel s philosophy is branching off in many directions. It is difficult to pin it down in one coherent system of thought. y Hegel was responsible for promoting the idea of worshiping the State: It must further be understood that all the worth which the human being possesses all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State. That theory inspired the communists and other totalitarian regimes to suppress individual rights.
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Key philosophers
Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) y Marx s father, Heinrich Marx was interested in the philosophy of Kant and Voltaire. He also took part in protests for social reforms in Prussia. y K. Marx attended Trier High School, which was then run by Hugo Wyttenbach, a friend of his fathers. Wyttenbach had employed many liberal humanists as teachers, something which angered the government, and so the police raided the school in 1832, discovering what they labeled seditious literature espousing political liberalism being distributed amongst the students.

Key philosophers
Marx rebelled against his Lutheran upbringing when he entered college. He wrote to his father: A curtain had fallen. My holy of holies was rent asunder and new gods had to be installed. y Marx was the leader of a drinking club at University of Berlin. He was an alcoholic and a heavy smoker. He was a great rebel full of arrogance. y He also was involved in the occult. When he was old, he supported his daughter Eleanor in her desire to commit suicide. Later his other daughter Laura committed suicide along with her husband. They were both socialists.
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Key philosophers
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Marx applied Hegel s theory of thesis-antithesis and synthesis in the following way: the thesis was the wealthy class, the antithesis was the working poor class, and the synthesis was the murder of the rich in conjunction with the power taken by the proletariat. Hegel said that ideas shape institutions. Marx formulated the reverse: that institutions shape ideas. This is known as the materialistic interpretation of history. Marx's second notion, that of historical evolution, is connected with his concept of dialectics. He saw in history a continuing dialectical process, each stage of development being the product of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Marx s materialistic interpretation is reductionist. The Communist Manifesto is the work of both K. Marx and F. Engels. The C. Manifesto is a piece of rabid writing instigating mass murder in the name of class equality.

Key philosophers
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Here is a quote from the Communist Manifesto: The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution.
http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/marx/works/download/manifest.pdf

K. Marx and communism are responsible for the death of tens of millions of people, both in Europe and Asia. y Still there are many Marxists among professors and students in the University campuses.
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Key philosophers
F.W. Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) y Nietzsche was the embodiment of hubris. He was a prototype of Antichrist, although he descended from a Lutheran family; his father was a pastor. y Anton Szandor LaVey the founder of the Satanic cult, drew immensely from Nietzsche. y Nietzsche was the prophet of the Nazis; they quoted him extensively. y Nietzsche coined the term Superman which is a portrayal of Antichrist.

Key philosophers
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Nietzsche s work is a collection of inflammatory declarations and invectives against Judaism, and especially Christianity. He spewed hate like one demon possessed. Titles of some of his books: The Genealogy of Morals : alleges that morality was the invention of the weak. "Ecce Homo is pseudo-autobiographical, shameless, self laudatory work. In The Twilight of the Idols he asserted the death of God in order to call for the abolition of objective values, laws and morality, reason, and order, which he calls idols.

Key philosophers
Thus spoke Zarathustra is a book in which Nietzsche promotes the Superman, inviting the whole world to get rid of all other books and stick with his demonically inspired work. This particular book destroyed the lives of countless young people. y Nietzsche died insane. He died of syphilis. God granted him a shameful, cruel end of his life.
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Key philosophers
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) y He was a psychologist, but dabbled with philosophy too. y Sigmund Freud is directly responsible for the downfall of the American society in the 1920s. He can be called the father of the sexual revolution. y Freud was obsessed with sex, and he came up with psychological constructs that encouraged immorality. His views were widely accepted because the world was waiting for a scientific excuse to openly commit sexual sins.

Key philosophers
He was an ardent Darwinist. y His inspiration came from an avid study of false religions, although he was an atheist. His desk was full of amulets and idols collected from all over the world. y His perversions such as: all people have incestuous desires, or controlling sexual drives is detrimental for your psyche, gained wide acceptance first in Europe and then in America.
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Key philosophers
J.P. Sartre 1905 1980 y When he was six he had an experience that marked his whole life. He was in a park with his mother in Paris and tried to communicate with different groups of people. He didn t fit in. He returned home and devoted his entire life from that moment on, to reading and writing in revolt against everything around him, as a way to avenge himself. y He studied philosophy in the 1920 s and then taught in Lyon, Paris and Berlin. y He was an atheist existentialist philosopher. He also was a novelist and a play writer. y He was an outspoken enemy of Christianity. He declared that the existence of God is an impossibility, but towards the end of his life he acknowledged that his denial of God was not philosophical but sociological. The Marxist analysis of the role of religion was what convinced him.

Key philosophers
He was very reductionistic claiming that the universe, things, and people just exist purposelessly. y He said man is totally free and will define himself and forge his own destiny. y Sartre was at conflict with himself to the degree that his freedom was a burden for him. y For a while, he was an outspoken admirer of the Soviet Union.
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Key philosophers
J. Derrida (1930 2004) y He claimed that texts/words do not refer or represent reality and the world y He is famous for this phrase nothing outside the text meaning when we reference we don t reference to external reality, but to another text. This is called intertextuality by him. y Derrida's deconstructive strategy has implications for the study of literature and philosophy. His contention was that the search for meaning, ideas, the author's intention, or truth in a text are misguided. What must be explored is the meanings that words have because of linguistic relations in the text. This opens up an infinite play of meanings possible with any text. Put differently, there is no one meaning to a text, its meaning is always open and strictly un-decidable.

Key philosophers
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1. 2.

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It is very simple to deconstruct Derrida s deconstructionism by asking a few questions If words don t represent reality then his words fall under the same rule, so his reasoning is false. By what authority does Derrida decide that authors are misguided in their search for meaning, truth, or ideas? He doesn t live in a different realm to allow him a vantage point of view to allow him to correct the errors of the rest of humanity The only book written by someone from another realm is the Bible. Only the Bible has a vantage point of view. The Word of God has ultimate authority and denies philosophy. If texts have infinite play of meanings then what Derrida says has an infinite play of meaning too. So he basically doesn t communicate anything. Derrida is the father of recent post modernism which denies absolute truth or absolute morals.

Resources for philosophy

For now, the only safe source for studying foundations of philosophy is: Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman L. Geisler. y His book provides Christians with a comprehensive reference volume covering every key issue, person, and concept related to Christian apologetics. This work offers extensive coverage of apologetics with articles on key individuals, philosophical systems and concepts, biblical controversies, contemporary issues, and perennial apologetic arguments.
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Resources for creationism

Institute for Creation Research: http://www.icr.org/ y Free subscription for ICR Magazine: Acts and Facts
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http://www.icr.org/subscriptions/index/?option_old=signup&f_country=US

Discovery Institute: Center for Science and Culture http://www.discovery.org/csc/ y Discovery Institute: A scientific dissent from Darwinism y http://www.dissentfromdarwin.org/ y The list with the dissenters from Darwinism:
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http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDBdownload.php?command=download&id=660

Resources on homosexual issues

The University Campuses are constantly exposed to pro-homosexual activities and conferences. y Only if you need some documentation on the issue, you can go to this website. Exodus International: http://exodusinternational.org/findy
help/leaving-homosexuality/

You can also direct homosexuals to this website.

A final word
Gauge your response to your opponents according to the what the Holy Spirit will tell you. y But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 14:26) y But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)
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Bibliography
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Search of a method, J.P. Sartre, Knopf, New York A hundred year of philosophy, John Passmore, Basic Books, Inc Publishers, New York The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, W.L. Shirer, Simon and Schuster, Inc, New York, 1960 The Making of the Modern Mind, J. H. Randall Jr. Columbia University Press, New York, 1976 The Portable Nietzsche, Edited and translated by Walter Kaufman, Penguin Group, New York, 1982 Plato, The Republic, W.W. Norton & Company, New York Life/ Situations, J.P. Sartre, Pantheon Books, New York The Greek Poets- Homer to Present, W.W. Norton & Company Inc, New York

Bibliography
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Philosophy in the twentieth Century, A.J. Ayer, Random House, New York The Ten Philosophical Mistakes, Morphemes J. Alden, MacMilcan Publisher Company, New York Introduction to Philosophy, J.B. Rogers and Forest E. Baird, Harper, San Francisco The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, Edited by A.A Long, Cambridge University Press, N.Y. 1999 Six Secular Philosophers, L.W. Beck, Harper & Brothers Publishing, N.Y. The Philosophers of Greece, Robert S. Brambaugh, State University of NY Press, Albany Final Entries 1945, The diaries of J. Goebbels, G.P. Putnam s Sons, N.Y.

Bibliography
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Basic Writings of Kant, edited and with introduction by Allen W. Wood, The Modern Library, N.Y. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, translated and edited by Dr. AA Brill, The Modern Library, N.Y. The Career of Philosophy, J.H. Randall Jr. , Columbia University Press, N.Y. The Story of Philosophy, Bryan Magee, London A History of Philosophy (vol. IV-VI), Frederick Copleston, S.J. Image Books, N.Y. A History of Philosophy (vol. VII-IX), Frederick Copleston, S.J. Image Books, N.Y. Recent Philosophy, Hegel to the Present, Etienne Gilson, Random House, N.Y.