"Good" Protestant Apologists

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Being a protestant, I agree with a coupel of these in partiuclar.

Ravi Zacharias is an excellent speaker and not a Ctholic basher in my opinion. You can listen to some of his clips at rzim.org He is a philosopher. He is a philosopher and does a great job of refuting the the anti-religion “intellectuals” of the day. He has a staff of apologists that he trains and works with.

I also agree on RC Sproul that can be heard at ligonier.org Again, not a virulent anti-Catholic. Our local AM radio station is running a series of his on the Apostles/Nicean Creed which is excellent. As a life long Protestant, I had never even heard of the creed until I started going to church with my wife. Sproul uses it a guide to Christian life. I have also heard him teach that Protestants should not have a problem with Sacramental confession, perhaps one of the top three most villfied (wrongly) sacraments by Protestants. On the other hand, I have heard him say that he would not in good conscience attend a Catholic mass as he considers bowing to the eucharist as idolatry.

To these I woudl add Allistair Begg. See him at truthforlife.com He is to Protestant teaching what I think Fr. John Corapi is to Catholic teraching. The most unapologetic of the Apologists to the extent that he pulls no punches. He is not afraid to call sin what it is. Perhaps because of this or in spite of it, he is one of the most sought after speakers in conservatiove evangelicalism today. He is the Pastor of a mega church here in the CLeveland area that I have always intended to go and visit, but never heave.

Chuck Swindoll, Irwin Lutzer, Tony Evans, are good as well. There is also another guy who preaches heavily on marriage whose name I am forgetting. Something liek Tommy Johns or soemthing.

Thanks,

Tim
 
There is no such thing as a good Protestant apologist.

Anyone that leads anyone away from the Catholic faith is by definition bad!
 
Tim_Cleveland said:
Being a protestant, I agree with a coupel of these in partiuclar.

Ravi Zacharias is an excellent speaker and not a Ctholic basher in my opinion. You can listen to some of his clips at rzim.org He is a philosopher. He is a philosopher and does a great job of refuting the the anti-religion “intellectuals” of the day. He has a staff of apologists that he trains and works with.
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He is one of my favourites. I caught his program today. He was talkiing about New Age and how to debunk it. I will probably listen to his program next Sunday.
I also agree on RC Sproul that can be heard at ligonier.org Again, not a virulent anti-Catholic. Our local AM radio station is running a series of his on the Apostles/Nicean Creed which is excellent. As a life long Protestant, I had never even heard of the creed until I started going to church with my wife. Sproul uses it a guide to Christian life. I have also heard him teach that Protestants should not have a problem with Sacramental confession, perhaps one of the top three most villfied (wrongly) sacraments by Protestants. On the other hand, I have heard him say that he would not in good conscience attend a Catholic mass as he considers bowing to the eucharist as idolatry.
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I do not consider Sproul to be virulently anti-Catholic either. I have heard some of his talks. He is very intelligent and knows more about the Early Church Fathers than any other Protestant that I have heard on the radio.
 
Tim_Cleveland said:
To these I woudl add Allistair Begg. See him at truthforlife.com He is to Protestant teaching what I think Fr. John Corapi is to Catholic teraching. The most unapologetic of the Apologists to the extent that he pulls no punches. He is not afraid to call sin what it is. Perhaps because of this or in spite of it, he is one of the most sought after speakers in conservatiove evangelicalism today. He is the Pastor of a mega church here in the CLeveland area that I have always intended to go and visit, but never heave.
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I used to listen to him all the time - love the Scottish brogue - until I heard him bashing the RCC. 😦
 
Jerry-Jet said:
There is no such thing as a good Protestant apologist.

Anyone that leads anyone away from the Catholic faith is by definition bad!
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Ever read anything by C.S. Lewis? Mere Christianity? Screwtape Letters? The Abolition of Man? The Great Divorce? Go ahead, it will be good for you.
 
rr1213 said:
Ever read anything by C.S. Lewis? Mere Christianity? Screwtape Letters? The Abolition of Man? The Great Divorce? Go ahead, it will be good for you.
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Lewis was great. I read Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity back when I was in the 10th grade in Catholic high school for a report. I will probably read those books again and more of his books in the near future.
 
I think Alister McGrath is a very good evangelical protestant apologist. My favourite is probably C.S. Lewis, and T.S. Eliot was very good as well.
 
All-Stars of Apologetics. 👍

RC Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, Walter Martin, Josh McDowell, John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, Allistair Begg, Lee Strobel, Greg Bahnsen, James White, James Kennedy, Hank Hanegraaff, …:clapping:
 
kaycee said:
All-Stars of Apologetics. 👍

RC Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, Walter Martin, Josh McDowell, John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, Allistair Begg, Lee Strobel, Greg Bahnsen, James White, James Kennedy, Hank Hanegraaff, …:clapping:
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Removing the anti-Catholic element:

RC Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, Walter Martin, Josh McDowell, Albert Mohler, Lee Strobel, Greg Bahnsen, Hank Hanegraaff, …:clapping:
 
Pixie_Dust said:
I used to listen to him all the time - love the Scottish brogue - until I heard him bashing the RCC. 😦
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Hey Pixie:

To be sure, Allistair is a Protestant. I have heard him come down against the Catholic view of Baptism and Communion. But these are some of the main differences between Catholics and Protestants. But I have never heard him trash Catholics or any other religion. That said, he does not pull punches with his view of the truth.

Tim
 
Tim_Cleveland said:
Hey Pixie:

To be sure, Allistair is a Protestant. I have heard him come down against the Catholic view of Baptism and Communion. But these are some of the main differences between Catholics and Protestants. But I have never heard him trash Catholics or any other religion. That said, he does not pull punches with his view of the truth.

Tim
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I wish I could remember what the sermon was that I heard on Moody radio (it’s been over a month since I heard it) so I could listen to it again, but it sounded very much to me like he was trashing the RCC so I changed the station. I was so shocked to hear a man I previously admired and listened to regularly say such uncharitable things. 😦
 
Pixie_Dust said:
I wish I could remember what the sermon was that I heard on Moody radio (it’s been over a month since I heard it) so I could listen to it again, but it sounded very much to me like he was trashing the RCC so I changed the station. I was so shocked to hear a man I previously admired and listened to regularly say such uncharitable things. 😦
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If you are looking for a particular broadcast, you can find them on his website. truthforlife.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lst_daily.
 
Pixie_Dust said:
That would be great if I could remember when I heard it! 😊 Thanks for the link, though. 🙂 I am going to try to email them and ask about it - I believe the sermon mentioned the reformation so I’ll try that and see what happens.
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That would be interesting to find out. I would like to know because I have listened to his program a few times in the past and never heard anything overtly hostile toward the Catholic Church. But I probably only heard about 5 different episodes.
 
Contarini said:
I think you’re wrong. Most Catholics I have talked to would consider C.S. Lewis a great apologist. He’s certainly in a league far above any of the “Catholic apologists” currently active in the U.S. of whom I’m aware.

Most apologists are propagandistic hacks. It’s an intrinsically demoralizing pursuit. It wasn’t even very good for Lewis, as he recognized in his great poem “The Apologist’s Evening Prayer.” An apologist is like a lawyer in the U.S. adversarial system–he (or she) sets out to make the best case possible for one side. That means that it’s possible for an apologist or a lawyer to be honest, but it’s very, very difficult, and in practice almost none are.

Edwin
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👍​

Why is it not possible for there to be an apologetic “temper” which allows people to make a strong case for their “side”, and for the “side” they reject ?

C.S. Lewis is attractively free of the aggressive temper that seems to be one of the temptations of the apologist. He is very gracious in temper - & that may be one reason why Christians of very different churchmanships have been drawn to his writings. ##
 
I agree with Contarini.

In a sense, I think what defines any ‘good’ apologist of any denomination or religion is a good knowledge of what they believe, a sincere belief in it, graciousness of expression and a genuine love for all people (or at least the desire for it).

Bad apologetics resort to inaccuracies, misrepresenting people, resorting to over-simplification and generalisation, a desire to attack rather than critique and resorting to name-calling and mocking of individuals and beliefs.

Saying ‘I understand your position but I have concerns of the accuracy of what you say and this is why’ is very different in tone from saying ‘only an idiot with no knowledge of the world or the Bible, and motivated out of pride rather than love of God, would believe what you believe’. And I know which is more likely to persuade someone.

Frankly, I dislike apologetics. I don’t read them if I can help it. I am somehow much more convinced by a writer who writes out of the good of what they believe, rather than defining themselves against what they don’t believe. What I liked about what CS Lewis I have read is that he’s not attacking other people, most of the time, he’s simply writing persuasively of the truth that he believes. So, if you’re looking for some good Protestant writers, try Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Alistair McGrath, John Stott and Rowan Williams.
 
These guys are theologians, but are pretty strong from a reformed perspective:

Dr. Norm Geisler
Dr. Robert Raymond

Dr. Raymond is fairly anti-Catholic, but he is a strong reformed theologian. I believe he’s a professor at Knox Theological Seminary
 
J.R said:
Beware of Dr. Kennedy I have listened to him for years. Yes, he’s a great orator but I have heard him misrepresent the Catholic faith a couple of times (St. Patrick not being a Catholic or a saint and his explaination of our belief in the Communion of Saints). I have come to the conclusion that he is either ignorant or prejudice of Catholics. You decide. If you think he is ignorant on certain Catholic issues then even more shame on him for not doing proper research before passing it on to his many listeners.
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Your’e absolutely right. I almost drove off the road when listening to the special on St. Patrick. In fact, since that time, it’s hard for me to have much respect for him at all. He wasn’t just a little off; he was way off!
 
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