~6 min read
Scripture passages especially relevant to Apologetics
by Jay Wegter
Gen 1:27 – Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God and not in the image of an animal. Judges 21:25 – When men set aside God’s transcendent moral code, anarchy, and oppression result. Job 38:36; Jn 1:9 – God placed in man the faculties of reason, wisdom, and understanding.
Ps 1:1 – Those who possess a worldview of skepticism seek the company of other scoffers.
Ps 2:1-6; Rom 5:10; Col 1:21 – Fallen mankind has a deep hostile resentment of God’s rightful rule.
Ps 8:1-9 – As God’s image humans have value and purpose as stewards over the works of His hands. Ps 10:10-13 – Conscience speaks but sinners suppress the truth of God’s omniscience and judgment. Ps 19:1-6 – Men are without excuse, for the heavens themselves declare the glory of God.
Ps 36:9 – To know God, the creation, and man truthfully, we must think God’s thoughts after Him.
Ps 104; 78:1-8 – God is constantly involved in works of providence and in the care of His creation. Ps 119:91 – “All things are Thy servants,” creation reveals God’s wisdom, power, and divine nature.
Ps 138:2 – God’s immutable character stands behind the entirety of His Word, the Holy Scriptures.
Prov 1:7 – True knowledge, wisdom, and instruction are only accessed by the fear of God. Prov 4:23 – As God’s moral image, the thoughts, and commitments of the heart shape our lives.
Prov 23:7 – As a man thinks in his heart which is the seat of his affections, loyalties, and will, so is he. Prov 26:4-5 – Answer a fool in keeping with his folly, avoid attempting to reason on his fallacious turf. Eccles 3:11 – As God’s image, He has placed eternity in our hearts; finite integration points will not do. Is 5:18-23 – In departing from God, societies reach a point wherein good is called evil, and evil good.
Mt 4:19 – Genuine followers of Christ will be fishers of men.
Mt 7:16-20 – A bad tree by nature can only produce bad fruit, by its fruit a tree’s nature is revealed. Mt 12:30 – If you are not gathering souls with Christ, you are scattering people from Him. Mt 15:17-20 – Mankind’s problem is not his environment but an evil heart producing evil deeds.
Lu 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-3 – Rather than tales, records of Christ’s life are based on eyewitness accounts.
Jn 1:8-10; 8:12; 12:35-36 – Christ is God’s ‘light’ to mankind, the only source of absolute truth.
Jn 1:12-13; Jn 3:3-15 – Born again is a new faculty needed to believe, repent, and enter the Kingdom. Jn 3:19-21 – The human condition is the love of darkness chosen to conceal sin from exposure. Jn 5:44; 12:43 – Living for the praise of men makes it impossible to live for the approval of God.
Jn 6:37-40 – God’s plan of salvation means that all who come to Christ have been chosen by God first. Jn 7:7 – Christ was hated because He told the truth about man’s sin.
Jn 7:17 – Christ said knowing with certainty is an ethical matter; one must be willing to do God’s will.
Jn 8:31-36 – In spite of what a man may say about his freedom, all outside of Christ are slaves of sin. Jn 14:6 – Truth is a divine Person; you must know Him personally to have the truth. Jn 15:18-21; 16:3 – Christ’s followers will be hated by the world because the world is ignorant of God.
Jn 17:3 – Salvation with its gift of eternal life, belongs only to those who know God through Christ.
Jn 18:37 – Truth is not relative or unknowable; Christ came to bear witness of the truth. Acts 17:22-31 – All men everywhere are to repent; proof of judgment day is the resurrection of Christ. Rom 1:18-23 – All men know God is Almighty Creator, yet they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Rom 2:1-9 – All men judge the ethical failures of others yet fail to repent of their own sin.
Rom 2:12-16 – All men have God’s moral standard written upon the conscience. Rom 3:10-18 – No one is righteous in God’s sight, not even one person.
Rom 3:19-20 – No one will be saved by law-keeping; the law of God reveals the universal guilt of sin.
Rom 3:23 – All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, having forfeited the desire for His glory.
Rom 4:3-8 – God only justifies those who abandon all hope in their own righteousness.
Rom 5:12; Heb 9:27 – Sin entered through one man, and death through sin; judgment follows death. Rom 5:8 – In His great love and grace, Christ died for the helpless and the ungodly. Rom 6:23 – Sinners deserve death and condemnation; eternal life is a gift to those who believe.
Rom 10:9-10 – Faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ results in righteousness and salvation from sin.
1 Cor 1:21-25 – God states that by human means and wisdom no one will come to know Him.
1 Cor 1:24 – Those called of God have come to know the gospel is the wisdom and the power of God. 1 Cor 2:14 – Those who are not regenerated are unable to receive the things of the Spirit of God.
1 Cor 2:15 – Though not appraised by the world, the believer appraises, or discerns all things.
1 Cor 6:9-20 – Though trivialized by culture, the sexual deeds of the body have spiritual ramifications.
1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:23-24 – There is no sacred-secular split, the Lord is to be honored in all activities.
2 Cor 4:2 – In a work of correspondence, the truth of God is manifested to every man’s conscience.
2 Cor 5:11 – True believers fear God; they persuade men speaking the truth of God to the conscience.
2 Cor 5:19-21 – Believers are ambassadors of God preaching reconciliation to God through Christ.
2 Cor 10:3-6 – Believers are armed to destroy the fortresses raised up against the knowledge of God. Eph 1:9-10; Col 1:15-20 – All of God’s purposes terminate upon His Son, for Christ unites all reality.
Eph 4:17-19 – Sinners choose futile darkened thinking to give permission to their lusts. Phil 2:9-11 -- Christ is the exalted Lord of the cosmos; every knee will bow to Him.
Col 1:17-17 – In Christ all reality is unified, material and immaterial, temporal and eternal. Col 2:3 – All the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge reside in Christ.
Col 2:8 – Outside of Christ, all men are captives of false worldviews and philosophies. Titus 2:13 – Hope is a divine Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, without Him there is no hope.
Heb 1:1-3 – God spoke infallibly and authoritatively through His Son who created and upholds all. Heb 4:12-13 – God’s character empowers His supernatural word, it examines thoughts, heart motives. Heb 9:14 – Guilt is real legal culpability before God; Christ’s blood alone can cleanse the conscience.
Heb 11:3 – God called creation into existence He did not form the cosmos out of preexistent matter. Heb 11:6 – Without faith one cannot please God; we seek Him as He is, as He is revealed in His Word.
1 Pet 3:15 – Every believer is to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks about his hope. 2 Pet 1:12-21 – The Scriptures are not the work of well-meaning men but are the work of God’s Spirit.
1 Jn 3:4 – The practice of sin is the practice of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
1 Jn 5:9-12 – To receive man’s witness but not God’s witness concerning His Son, is to make God a liar. Rev 21:7-8 – Hell is the second death, the destiny of all who are not overcomers through Christ.
Rev 22:18-19 – Anyone who adds or takes away from the Holy Scriptures shall receive its judgments.