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In Defense of the Faith: Biblical Answers to Challenging Questions
Drawing from the most-asked questions of his years in ministry, noted cult and prophecy expert Dave Hunt addresses the toughest questions that Christians and non-Christians ask.
348 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1996
31 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Dave Hunt
192 books59 followersLibrarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Dave Hunt was an American Christian apologist, speaker, radio commentator and author. He was in full-time ministry from 1973 until his death. A prolific best-selling author, international lecturer, and Bible teacher, his writings have been translated into at least 50 languages. More than four million copies of Dave’s books have been sold. For nearly a decade, Dave also co-hosted a weekly radio program, Search the Scriptures Daily, broadcast on over 400 stations in the U.S. and worldwide.
Dave Hunt was an American Christian apologist, speaker, radio commentator and author. He was in full-time ministry from 1973 until his death. A prolific best-selling author, international lecturer, and Bible teacher, his writings have been translated into at least 50 languages. More than four million copies of Dave’s books have been sold. For nearly a decade, Dave also co-hosted a weekly radio program, Search the Scriptures Daily, broadcast on over 400 stations in the U.S. and worldwide.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 3, 2024
THE POPULAR WRITER ANSWERS MANY COMMON QUESTIONS POSED BY SKEPTICS, ETC.
Dave Hunt (1926-2013) operated (with T.A. McMahon) an "anti-cult"/apologetics ministry, "The Berean Call."
He wrote in the introductory section of this 1996 book, “As we shall see in the following pages, any ‘faith’ which is not based upon reason supported by irrefutable evidence is the utmost folly. The Bible presents the record of what it calls ‘THE faith,’ that body of truth which provides the only reliable answers to all of life’s ultimate questions. We want to face those questions honestly and openly and at the same time take the greatest care to be certain that the answers we arrive at are valid. We will allow the critics to challenge the Bible from every angle, and we will discover that the evidence in support of ‘THE faith’ is absolutely overwhelming… This book, then, is simply a series of questions which sincere seekers (and many critics, skeptics, and atheists) have asked, together with a reasoned response for each.”
He states, “The major proof of God’s existence which the Bible offers is the fulfillment of hundreds of specific prophecies… Because of the many prophecies God made concerning Israel that have come to pass: that the Jews would be scattered to every nation on earth; that they would be hated and persecuted and killed as no other people (anti-Semitism); that they would be preserved in spite of a thousand Hitlers trying to exterminate them; that they would be brought back to their land in the last days… and many other prophecies which have clearly been fulfilled and are in the process of being fulfilled before our very eyes.” (Pg. 23-24)
He says, “It was, of course, a complete waste of time to attempt to prove that Daniel had been written after the rise and fall of the four world empires which it foretold. Even the most critical skeptics had to admit that this book had been part of the canon of the Old Testament at least before the coming of Christ and that events subsequent to Christ’s birth were presented accurately. The book of Daniel… foretold the very day (April 6, 32 AD) that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey… and be hailed as the Messiah… Daniel foretold the splitting of the Roman Empire into two parts (East and West) centuries before it occurred. Politically and militarily that split between East and West came in A.D. 330, when Constantine moved his capital to Constantinople. Religiously it came in A.D. 1054, when Pope Leo IX excommunicated Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople.” (Pg. 75-76)
Of the resurrection accounts, he points out, “Obviously the soldiers had already gone and the angel who rolled the stone away must have been inside by the time the women arrived… Could anyone imagine … these women having the courage to walk through a platoon of terrified soldiers and right up to the awesome angel to ask him where Jesus was?.... That one Gospel refers specifically to one angel in a certain position (and is silent about the other angel in a different position) while the other mentions BOTH angels is no contradiction at all but is simply the normal variation one would expect from two true accounts of the same event given from two different perspectives.” (Pg. 98-99)
He continues, “As for the action taken by the women, no Gospel says they saw Jesus before they went to call the disciples. Nor is there any contradiction in the fact that some women fled to their homes and others went to tell the disciples of the empty tomb… Some of the women returned to their homes, frightened and bewildered, and said nothing. Others of them went to tell the disciples. There is no conflict here at all, but simply the normal differences in action which one would expect among a number of women. Nor is there any conflict between the instructions to go to Galilee and the fact that the disciples didn’t immediately pack up and go, but were in an inner room in Jerusalem that evening when Christ appeared to them. Their reluctance to obey further commands from the One they had THOUGHT was the Messiah, but no longer appeared to be in spite of rumors of resurrection, was understandable. There is no conflict whatsoever in the accounts.” (Pg. 99-100)
About the date of Jesus’ crucifixion, he argues, “In this case the critics are correct: Christ could not have been crucified on Friday afternoon, nor does the Bible say that He was. Those who defend this position do it something like this: ‘The Jewish day began and ended with sunset. A partial day counts as a whole…’ That calculation accounts for three DAYS but for only two NIGHTS (Friday and Saturday)… Therefore He had to have been dead and in the grave Thursday night as well as Friday and Saturday nights… In fact, it is quite clear from the Gospels that Christ WAS crucified on Thursday… It is a mistake, however, to conclude that because the day after His crucifixion was a Sabbath, He MUST have been crucified on Friday. Saturday was not the only Sabbath. There were other special Sabbaths which would fall on any day of the week…” (Pg. 100-101)
Of contradictions such as 2 Sam 8:4/1 Chr 18:4 and 2 Sam 10:18/1 Chr 19:18, he explains, “The Bible is inerrant in its original manuscripts, not in every copy that someone has produced since then… These errors you point out were made by someone in centuries past when the documents were copied by hand.” (Pg. 104)
Of differences in the Gospel accounts, he suggests, “There are several reasonable possibilities. Jesus surely gave similar teachings on certain subjects a number of times in different settings to different people. In such cases the wording would not and should not be exactly the same… There are, however, instances when such an explanation would not apply [Mt 9:12-13/Mk 2:17/Lk 5:31-32]… While these three statements by Christ vary slightly in wording, they all have the same meaning… The only difference is that two of the three don’t tell us ALL that Jesus said. In fact, perhaps none of them does. We don’t really know.” (Pg. 131-132)
About Satan being in God’s presence in the book of Job, he notes, “Before his fall Satan had been given a position of power and authority, and he will retain some residue of that until the battle for the soul and destiny of man has been fought to its finish… and Satan fully defeated by the redemption of mankind through the blood of Christ. Until that time, the relationship of God to evil is one of hatred and rejection, not of complete separation… Satan’s continuing appearance before God’s throne do not implicate God in evil…” (Pg. 219-220)
Of the Lake of Fire, he observes, “Physical fire has no effect upon spirit beings… That kind of physical torment hardly seems to be a proper punishment. It makes more sense both logically and biblically for the torment to arise from the burning thirst for God that separation from Him would create, together with the exquisite pain of remorse. The physical torment of incredibly hot fire … would be so terrible that it would allow for no contemplation of past wrongs, for no remorse, for no regret for having rejected the salvation God offered… That hardly seems to fit the crime of rebellion and rejection.” (Pg. 241)
About the Rapture and the Second Coming, he asks, “Where does it specifically say in the Old Testament that there would be TWO comings of the Messiah? In fact it doesn’t. Yet every premillennial Christian … admits that Christ came once and will come again… Though the Old Testament didn’t state it in so many words, that the Messiah would come twice was clearly implied… Isaiah 53 expresses a seeming contradiction that could be reconciled in no other way than by two comings… There HAD to be two comings. Yet that fact was never stated explicitly, but only implied.” (Pg. 271-272)
This is a thought-provoking (occasionally surprising!) book of apologetics, that will be of great interest to those seriously studying Apologetics.
Dave Hunt (1926-2013) operated (with T.A. McMahon) an "anti-cult"/apologetics ministry, "The Berean Call."
He wrote in the introductory section of this 1996 book, “As we shall see in the following pages, any ‘faith’ which is not based upon reason supported by irrefutable evidence is the utmost folly. The Bible presents the record of what it calls ‘THE faith,’ that body of truth which provides the only reliable answers to all of life’s ultimate questions. We want to face those questions honestly and openly and at the same time take the greatest care to be certain that the answers we arrive at are valid. We will allow the critics to challenge the Bible from every angle, and we will discover that the evidence in support of ‘THE faith’ is absolutely overwhelming… This book, then, is simply a series of questions which sincere seekers (and many critics, skeptics, and atheists) have asked, together with a reasoned response for each.”
He states, “The major proof of God’s existence which the Bible offers is the fulfillment of hundreds of specific prophecies… Because of the many prophecies God made concerning Israel that have come to pass: that the Jews would be scattered to every nation on earth; that they would be hated and persecuted and killed as no other people (anti-Semitism); that they would be preserved in spite of a thousand Hitlers trying to exterminate them; that they would be brought back to their land in the last days… and many other prophecies which have clearly been fulfilled and are in the process of being fulfilled before our very eyes.” (Pg. 23-24)
He says, “It was, of course, a complete waste of time to attempt to prove that Daniel had been written after the rise and fall of the four world empires which it foretold. Even the most critical skeptics had to admit that this book had been part of the canon of the Old Testament at least before the coming of Christ and that events subsequent to Christ’s birth were presented accurately. The book of Daniel… foretold the very day (April 6, 32 AD) that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey… and be hailed as the Messiah… Daniel foretold the splitting of the Roman Empire into two parts (East and West) centuries before it occurred. Politically and militarily that split between East and West came in A.D. 330, when Constantine moved his capital to Constantinople. Religiously it came in A.D. 1054, when Pope Leo IX excommunicated Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople.” (Pg. 75-76)
Of the resurrection accounts, he points out, “Obviously the soldiers had already gone and the angel who rolled the stone away must have been inside by the time the women arrived… Could anyone imagine … these women having the courage to walk through a platoon of terrified soldiers and right up to the awesome angel to ask him where Jesus was?.... That one Gospel refers specifically to one angel in a certain position (and is silent about the other angel in a different position) while the other mentions BOTH angels is no contradiction at all but is simply the normal variation one would expect from two true accounts of the same event given from two different perspectives.” (Pg. 98-99)
He continues, “As for the action taken by the women, no Gospel says they saw Jesus before they went to call the disciples. Nor is there any contradiction in the fact that some women fled to their homes and others went to tell the disciples of the empty tomb… Some of the women returned to their homes, frightened and bewildered, and said nothing. Others of them went to tell the disciples. There is no conflict here at all, but simply the normal differences in action which one would expect among a number of women. Nor is there any conflict between the instructions to go to Galilee and the fact that the disciples didn’t immediately pack up and go, but were in an inner room in Jerusalem that evening when Christ appeared to them. Their reluctance to obey further commands from the One they had THOUGHT was the Messiah, but no longer appeared to be in spite of rumors of resurrection, was understandable. There is no conflict whatsoever in the accounts.” (Pg. 99-100)
About the date of Jesus’ crucifixion, he argues, “In this case the critics are correct: Christ could not have been crucified on Friday afternoon, nor does the Bible say that He was. Those who defend this position do it something like this: ‘The Jewish day began and ended with sunset. A partial day counts as a whole…’ That calculation accounts for three DAYS but for only two NIGHTS (Friday and Saturday)… Therefore He had to have been dead and in the grave Thursday night as well as Friday and Saturday nights… In fact, it is quite clear from the Gospels that Christ WAS crucified on Thursday… It is a mistake, however, to conclude that because the day after His crucifixion was a Sabbath, He MUST have been crucified on Friday. Saturday was not the only Sabbath. There were other special Sabbaths which would fall on any day of the week…” (Pg. 100-101)
Of contradictions such as 2 Sam 8:4/1 Chr 18:4 and 2 Sam 10:18/1 Chr 19:18, he explains, “The Bible is inerrant in its original manuscripts, not in every copy that someone has produced since then… These errors you point out were made by someone in centuries past when the documents were copied by hand.” (Pg. 104)
Of differences in the Gospel accounts, he suggests, “There are several reasonable possibilities. Jesus surely gave similar teachings on certain subjects a number of times in different settings to different people. In such cases the wording would not and should not be exactly the same… There are, however, instances when such an explanation would not apply [Mt 9:12-13/Mk 2:17/Lk 5:31-32]… While these three statements by Christ vary slightly in wording, they all have the same meaning… The only difference is that two of the three don’t tell us ALL that Jesus said. In fact, perhaps none of them does. We don’t really know.” (Pg. 131-132)
About Satan being in God’s presence in the book of Job, he notes, “Before his fall Satan had been given a position of power and authority, and he will retain some residue of that until the battle for the soul and destiny of man has been fought to its finish… and Satan fully defeated by the redemption of mankind through the blood of Christ. Until that time, the relationship of God to evil is one of hatred and rejection, not of complete separation… Satan’s continuing appearance before God’s throne do not implicate God in evil…” (Pg. 219-220)
Of the Lake of Fire, he observes, “Physical fire has no effect upon spirit beings… That kind of physical torment hardly seems to be a proper punishment. It makes more sense both logically and biblically for the torment to arise from the burning thirst for God that separation from Him would create, together with the exquisite pain of remorse. The physical torment of incredibly hot fire … would be so terrible that it would allow for no contemplation of past wrongs, for no remorse, for no regret for having rejected the salvation God offered… That hardly seems to fit the crime of rebellion and rejection.” (Pg. 241)
About the Rapture and the Second Coming, he asks, “Where does it specifically say in the Old Testament that there would be TWO comings of the Messiah? In fact it doesn’t. Yet every premillennial Christian … admits that Christ came once and will come again… Though the Old Testament didn’t state it in so many words, that the Messiah would come twice was clearly implied… Isaiah 53 expresses a seeming contradiction that could be reconciled in no other way than by two comings… There HAD to be two comings. Yet that fact was never stated explicitly, but only implied.” (Pg. 271-272)
This is a thought-provoking (occasionally surprising!) book of apologetics, that will be of great interest to those seriously studying Apologetics.
December 31, 2008
The book is clear and fairly well written. Most of the arguments and positions presented can be applied to everyday life, whether by word or in thought, which adds to the benefit of the book.
June 25, 2021
A book every christian should consider reading
If you are interested in christian apologetics, if you’ve ever been asked “why do you believe what you believe” and not sure what to say, then this book can help you with that.
If you are interested in christian apologetics, if you’ve ever been asked “why do you believe what you believe” and not sure what to say, then this book can help you with that.
January 5, 2019
MUST read for anyone who calls themself a Christian.
September 29, 2024
This book is solid in Biblical knowledge and explanation. It is easy to understand yet is full of information.
June 15, 2015
This is an excellent all around apologetics book. Dave chose a question and answer format and broke the questions he received down into categories, which became chapters. Many of the chapters cover issues still on people's minds and often contested, so you will find those areas applicable.
What makes this book stand out to me was the fact Dave ventured into areas of the Bible, addressing Bible questions not necessarily in the normal apologetics categories, but still applicable and needed. These ranges from payers, to the rapture, to the gospel and salvation. The questions asked are all good ones, and his answers will give all readers a firm, Biblically based response to help with their own questions or to help others.
I would recommend this for both newer Christians and for more mature Christians wanting a good refresher on things they should know.
What makes this book stand out to me was the fact Dave ventured into areas of the Bible, addressing Bible questions not necessarily in the normal apologetics categories, but still applicable and needed. These ranges from payers, to the rapture, to the gospel and salvation. The questions asked are all good ones, and his answers will give all readers a firm, Biblically based response to help with their own questions or to help others.
I would recommend this for both newer Christians and for more mature Christians wanting a good refresher on things they should know.
June 13, 2014
Dave Hunt answers so many vital questions about the Christian faith in this book. He takes on the hard questions and supplies clear, concise and logical answers that are well supported with scriptural references.
June 11, 2007
Can't remember if I finished this whole book. Some helpful things, some unhelpful. More important to me early on than it is now.
June 12, 2010
I really loved this book. Not only did it help me find answers for questions people may approach me with, it also answered a lot of my questions that I didn,t even know I had.
January 6, 2016
An excellent antidote to the wave of apostate teaching!
January 6, 2018
I've read this book at LEAST twice. I wish Dave would write a second edition, but he's got his plate full right now.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews