Renowned resurrection scholar Gary Habermas addresses attendees at NOBTS’s Defend conference. “While other questions, such as genocide or the problem of evil, are important to answer, the Christian faith hinges on the resurrection,” Habermas asserts.“If the resurrection is true, Christianity follows.”
Defend, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s (NOBTS) annual, week-long apologetics conference, featured top apologetics speakers on crucial questions raised by those inside and outside the church, Jan. 3-7.
“Christians desperately need apologetics in a culture like ours, a post-Christian culture that is rapidly becoming an anti-Christian culture,” said Robert Stewart, director of Defend and the NOBTS apologetics program.
Stewart pointed to a shifting culture that now questions the integrity and goodness of the Christian faith.
“When I was in college, the operative question was ‘Is Christianity true?’ When I was in graduate school, the question was ‘Is Christianity relevant?’ That question reflected a post-Christian perspective,” Stewart said. “Today, the preeminent question is this: ‘Is Christianity good?’ This question reveals an increasingly anti-Christian mood. Today’s apologist must be able to defend the truthfulness, relevance and goodness of the gospel.”
Plenary speakers included renowned resurrection scholar Gary Habermas; Lisa Fields, founder and director of Jude 3 Project; Michael Strauss, University of Oklahoma particle physicist and CERN laboratory physicist, Geneva, Switzerland; David Calhoun, Gonzaga University philosophy professor; Tim McGrew, author, speaker and University of Michigan philosophy professor; Craig Hazen, Biola University’s apologetics program founder and director; James Walker, president of Watchman Fellowship, a ministry to counter-Christian groups; Jamie Dew, NOBTS and Leavell College president and others.
The 17 plenary sessions and more than 100 breakout sessions focused on the interaction of science and faith, responding to objections to the faith, biblical responses to hot-topic social issues, worldview questions and engaging world religions, arguments for God’s existence and other philosophy topics, biblical responses to gender and sexuality questions and other issues.
The conference drew attendees from all walks of life and church and collegiate groups from as far away as California, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“Defend helps me to articulate my faith to both believers and non-believers, especially in the public square,” said Jay McCallum, associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court and member of First Baptist, Farmerville, La.
“Christianity is based on faith and supported by reason. My Christian faith is the most logical part of my existence. I am so thankful that Louisiana Baptists support programs such as this that strengthen and enrich my faith.”
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(EDITOR’S NOTE – Marilyn Stewart is the assistant director of communications at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College.)
