Gary Habermas was set to debate a well-known religious skeptic. As they worked to decide on the debate topic, the skeptic told Habermas, “Whatever we do, we’re not doing the resurrection.”
If the resurrection were a myth, Habermas said, wouldn’t skeptics want to debate it? If something that incredible were really a myth, wouldn’t it be easy to explode it?
“The argument for the resurrection has moved so much in the last few decades,” said Habermas, a Christian apologist who specializes in research on the resurrection of Christ. “We can trace the eyewitness accounts to a year or two after the cross. That is incredible — we have almost nothing like it in ancient history.”
Even if you take only the facts the critics themselves accept, you have an incredible and compelling argument, Habermas told those present at the SALT (Strategic Answers to Life’s Thoughts) apologetics conference Jan. 19.
“One critic says in his book that, based on the evidence, ‘I am sure that the risen Jesus appeared to His followers after the resurrection,’” he said. “That tells us how the criticism has moved based on this kind of evidence.”
And what would you want to be at the center of your faith more than something that is well evidenced, Habermas asked.
“Folks, we have the most fantastic data. We have the most fantastic foundation. Critics have to go to extremes to build cases,” he said. “We have the best message in the world. You can be excited about life now and the best news is still to come. Can you beat that message?”
Learning how to talk about the message of Christ was the goal of the SALT apologetics conference, sponsored by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), Tactical Faith and The Alabama Baptist at First Baptist Church, Montgomery, Jan. 19–20.
More than 350 people came to the Saturday session to hear seven presentations on topics from science to objective beauty to abortion (see stories, pages 4–5). About 250 more were watching the live stream online. A youth track went on simultaneously, and the conference wrapped with a talk on the Quran during the Sunday evening service at First, Montgomery.
“The event exceeded everyone’s expectations,” said Matt Burford of Tactical Faith, a group that aims to connect local churches in Alabama with quality apologetics training. “Our mission … is to help ‘start the conversation’ in terms of apologetics. Listening to the dialogue in, around and after the conference I believe we achieved our goal.”
The event was simple and powerful, he said.
Sammy Gilbreath, SBOM director of evangelism, said it met a need for a lot of people.
“We’ve heard glowing comments from laymen, pastors and church staff, and after what we’ve heard, I believe we will have to add this to our conference schedule (for the future),” he said.
The conference is “so different” from the SBOM’s annual evangelism conference, he said. “Where that conference is inspirational, this one provides very specific training on how to share your faith with atheists, agnostics, Muslims and others who may never [enter] a Baptist church. It teaches folks how to defend their faith in a loving, Christian way.”
And every speaker on the program, which was put together by Tactical Faith, “hit a home run,” Gilbreath said. “It was a huge success.”
For more resources about the resurrection debate, visit www.garyhabermas.com. For more information about Tactical Faith or to watch videos from the conference, visit www.tacticalfaith.com.
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