About this ministry
As atheism and eastern religions continue their rise in America, recent studies indicate that more than half of all Christians will lose their faith in college. This ministry has gone to great lengths to develop a list of common questions and curriculum with the intention of preparing believers to defend their faith. Because we do not believe a good music ministry is sufficient to prepare young believers for the onslaught from secularists, Faith from Evidence was developed. Our goal is to help church groups present an apologetics program and ultimately make better evangelists of your church members. We offer a video or audio program, curriculum, PowerPoints and other material, all free to the user on our Education tab above. Our ministry revolves around the course we've entitled, Introduction to Apologetics, which consists of eleven, two and a half hour sessions and covers every branch of apologetics, such as: What is truth?, The Reliability of the Bible, Evidence for the Resurrection, Understanding Pain and Suffering, Christianity and Public Policy, Intelligent Design, Problems with Evolutionary Theory and What is a Worldview?
The course, which took over five years to develop, went through rigorous testing in one of America’s largest churches. By taking very complex academic arguments and simplifying them for the average high school student, we’ve made apologetics available to all church members. Each video session begins with a list of popular questions, which we then discuss through the session and recap at the end of each session. Examples of some of the questions we address include: Don't all religions lead to God? Isn't truth relative? Isn't evolution a fact? Who made God? Isn't the Bible just a book of myths? Weren't most wars religious wars? Isn't faith illogical? Hasn't science disproved God? Doesn't the Bible support slavery? and If God is love, why is there so much evil in the world? The simplicity of this approach will help believers at any level better overcome popular objections to the Bible and articulate the Gospel message more precisely. None of the curriculum covers any controversial theological or apologetics issue (young/old earth), so despite your denomination, you can have confidence that none of the material will conflict with your church’s doctrine.
How to use the material
Our ministry revolves around the course we've entitled, Introduction to Apologetics, which consists of eleven, two and a half hour sessions. The material can be used in any one of three ways:
Each session is about two and a half hours long. We recommend that they are taught in one week intervals (11 weeks) or split each session in half for 22 one-hour sessions. If eleven weeks is too long, the teacher can delete sessions 2, 10 and 11 for an eight week course. If you are limited to a two hour session per meeting, you can stop the videos at two hours because the last 20 minutes usually consists of a re-cap of the common questions discussed at the beginning of the session.
Participants can download and print the 212 page curriculum booklet or the church can print and bind them for the students. To get started, just go to the Education tab above and start downloading the material and watching the videos. In the end, we hope to strengthen the student's faith and make better disciples by teaching believers the language of our twenty first century secular society and providing answers to some of the toughest questions raised by that society.
Ministry Purpose
Our primary purpose is to equip believers for evangelism by developing their ability to effectively communicate the Gospel message and properly respond to modern objections to the Bible. Ultimately, our goal is to extend the Kingdom of God in the secular world we currently find ourselves in. Everything this ministry does is centered on evangilism and developing those skills in the believer.
Introduction to Apologetics curriculum summary
The curriculum for our course in apologetics took over five years to develop as it went through rigorous testing in one of the largest churches in America. The goal was to cover every branch of apologetics in such a way that the average believer could incorporate it into his or her personal evangelism. In its complete form, the course consists of eleven, two and a half hour sessions, though they can easily be broken up into shorter sessions. Because none of the sessions address any controversial theological issue, they can be taught across a wide range of Christian denominations and organizations. Below is the table of contents and brief description for the course Introduction to Apologetics. Most of the sessions begin by looking at popular questions from skeptics. We then recap those questions and answers at the end of each session, giving the believers responses to these questions with wisdom from some of the greatest Christian minds in history. The entire 212 page curriculum can be downloaded right from our education tab above.
Session 1 Defining God
This is a foundation session in that it lays the groundwork for the apologetic arguments discussed in future sessions. It begins by defining apologetics and its Biblical mandate. Next we discuss seven views of god from various worldviews and religions, followed by a discussion of the attributes of the Christian God and their application in apologetics. We close by discussing some of the classical apologetic arguments for the existence of God.
Session 2 Conversations that Count
We know Jesus asked over 200 questions in the New Testament and yet he knew the answer to all of them. In the second and final foundational session we dig deeper into the need and mandate for knowing apologetics and its practical application in evangelism. We spend some time discussing the Socratic method and the art of asking questions and directing conversation. The session closes with a look at flawed arguments so the the believer can identify them when they come up in conversations. In short, this is a session on how to do evangelism like Jesus did, by asking pointed questions and directing the conversation to lead the skeptic into their own conclusions, which we believe is far more effective than telling people what to think.
Session 3 What is Truth?
This is the first session exclusively dedicated to apologetics. The reason it is the first, is because understanding and identifying truth is essential to any legitimate worldview. We discuss some worldviews that deny the existence of absolute truth, such as post-moderism, pluralism, multi-culturalism and the flaws in those views. The session will help the believer distinguish between an opinion, a factual statement and a statement of truth, something that is clouded in our post-modern society. We close by substantiating Jesus' epic claim that, "I am the truth".
Session 4 Understanding Worldviews
Session four begins by discussing the concept of worldview and the factors that make a worldview legitimate and valid. We then discuss a variety of worldviews, such as Mormonism, Atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism and others and their corresponding flaws. We discuss the Christian worldview, its uniqueness and some of its essential features. We close this session by providing the believer with a list of questions for each worldview that can be used in evangelism to quickly expose the flaws in each or these worldview.
Session 5 Evolution, Naturalism and Creation
This class is unique because rather than introduce new interpretations of science, we use popular science to discredit the evolutionary paradigm. We discuss naturalism and its many flaws, along with Darwinism with all its shortcomings. Finally we discuss the creation model and its support in science.
Session 6 Intelligent Design
Unlike the previous session which is more of a defensive reactionary position, here we give the believer powerful witnessing tools found throughout nature. We cover the validity of the Intelligent Design Movement along with its practical application in evangelism. We take the best scientific evidence for the existence of God found in our universe, biosphere and life systems and present them in an evangilistic framework.
Session 7 Who do Men Say that I Am?
Because so much of our Biblical worldview rests on the historicity of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we dedicated this session to providing the factual evidence for our claims. Much of this session is spent discussing the evidence for the resurrection of Christ which is the pinnacle of the Christian faith. We compare Jesus to other self proclaimed Messiahs and the uniqueness of his claims and life. In the end, we give the believer a solid basis for making the claim that Jesus is the Son of the living God and that a resurrected Jesus is the only plausible explanation for the historical evidence.
Session 8 Can I Trust the Bible?
Our first order of business here is to make a strong argument for the inspiration and uniqueness of the Bible. After briefly discussing hermeneutics and the origins of the New Testament, we spend the rest of the session determining the reliability and trustworthiness of the New and Old Testament documents. Our hope is that the believer has the proper knowledge to defend the accuracy and reliability of the Bible against secular arguments to the contrary.
Session 9 Understanding Evil and Suffering
In this session we address difficult questions head on. We discuss how God who is all loving and powerful still allows people to suffer. We cover tough issues like all the killing in the Old Testament and answer questions such as; Does the Bible support slavery, and How could a loving God kill babies such as in Egypt. Because the problem of suffering is such an big obstacle for non-believers we equip the Christian to answer popular objections with the insight of some of the world's leading theologians.
Session 10 The Christian Legacy
Because secularists have limited Christianity's contribution in history to the Crusades and Inquisitions, we take the time demonstrate how everything good in Western Civilization has its roots in the Christian religion. We discuss the rise of human rights, the scientific method, public education and modern charity by highlighting some of the heroes of these movements. In the end we determine conclusively that Christianity is the only worldview that advances social progress and human dignity, while atheism, Hinduism and Islam has brought us the worst kinds of human suffering.
Session 11 Christianity and Public Policy
In this session we discuss the Christian perspective on public policy from an apologetic stand point, demonstrating decisively that our positions are not just rooted in Biblical revelation but in science and reason. We discuss marriage, same-sex marriage, modern feminism, abortion and separation of Church and State among other topics.
Statement of Faith
We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, sinless in His life, and making atonement for the sin of the world by His shed blood and death on the cross. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His ascension into heaven, and His high priestly intercession for His people. We believe in His personal, visible and triumphant return to the world according to His promise.
We believe in the verbal inspiration and infallibility of the Bible.
We believe that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that faith and repentance is commanded of God for all and necessary for forgiveness of sins. That justification, regeneration, and the new birth are wrought by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ and that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells and gives life to believers, enables them to understand the Scriptures, empowers them for godly living, and equips them for service and witness.
We believe that the Church is the body of Christ commissioned with proclaiming the gospel of God’s redemptive love through our Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth by word and deed; by caring for all of God’s creation and actively seeking the good of everyone, particularly the poor and needy. We believe that worship, prayer, and praise is the outward expression of our love for and submission to God.
Ministry Team
Alex Locay
Dr. Alex Locay has a BA from the University of Miami, an MBA and a doctorate degree from Nova Southeastern University. He has served as vice president of two fortune 500 companies and served as president of his own construction firm before retiring in 2012. He published two books on apologetics, Unveiling the Left: How Christian Conservatism Works Where Liberalism Fails, and How Christianity Built Western Civilization. His studies in apologetics have concentrated on cultural, scientific and historical issues and how they relate to the Biblical worldview. Over the years, Alex has served as director of evangelism, in music and prison ministries and as a youth pastor. Having developed the School of Apologetics at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, he currently teaches the curriculum at churches throughout the East Coast. Alex lives in Florida with his wife Christine and their three daughters.
David Gray
David Gray’s professional career and education are in the construction industry where he has served as Director of Construction for several large Florida construction firms. He has been teaching Christian apologetics for over 25 years in several South Florida churches. Over those years he has held several ministry positions including youth minister, deacon and elder. His studies in apologetics have concentrated on cults, scientific and philosophical issues and how they relate to the Biblical worldview. He served as president of Make Sure, a ministry designed to assist people leaving cults. David lives in Florida with his wife Kelie and his five children.
As atheism and eastern religions continue their rise in America, recent studies indicate that more than half of all Christians will lose their faith in college. This ministry has gone to great lengths to develop a list of common questions and curriculum with the intention of preparing believers to defend their faith. Because we do not believe a good music ministry is sufficient to prepare young believers for the onslaught from secularists, Faith from Evidence was developed. Our goal is to help church groups present an apologetics program and ultimately make better evangelists of your church members. We offer a video or audio program, curriculum, PowerPoints and other material, all free to the user on our Education tab above. Our ministry revolves around the course we've entitled, Introduction to Apologetics, which consists of eleven, two and a half hour sessions and covers every branch of apologetics, such as: What is truth?, The Reliability of the Bible, Evidence for the Resurrection, Understanding Pain and Suffering, Christianity and Public Policy, Intelligent Design, Problems with Evolutionary Theory and What is a Worldview?
The course, which took over five years to develop, went through rigorous testing in one of America’s largest churches. By taking very complex academic arguments and simplifying them for the average high school student, we’ve made apologetics available to all church members. Each video session begins with a list of popular questions, which we then discuss through the session and recap at the end of each session. Examples of some of the questions we address include: Don't all religions lead to God? Isn't truth relative? Isn't evolution a fact? Who made God? Isn't the Bible just a book of myths? Weren't most wars religious wars? Isn't faith illogical? Hasn't science disproved God? Doesn't the Bible support slavery? and If God is love, why is there so much evil in the world? The simplicity of this approach will help believers at any level better overcome popular objections to the Bible and articulate the Gospel message more precisely. None of the curriculum covers any controversial theological or apologetics issue (young/old earth), so despite your denomination, you can have confidence that none of the material will conflict with your church’s doctrine.
How to use the material
Our ministry revolves around the course we've entitled, Introduction to Apologetics, which consists of eleven, two and a half hour sessions. The material can be used in any one of three ways:
- The pastor can designate someone to teach the course, who will then prepare by watching each video session and using the corresponding PowerPoint presentation to teach the course. In this event the teacher can make changes to the presentation as he or she sees fit.
- In the second option the church group can play the videos in class, right from this website and participants can follow along with the curriculum.
- Another option is to have students watch one session video each week at home and then discuss them in class using the PowerPoint presentation.
Each session is about two and a half hours long. We recommend that they are taught in one week intervals (11 weeks) or split each session in half for 22 one-hour sessions. If eleven weeks is too long, the teacher can delete sessions 2, 10 and 11 for an eight week course. If you are limited to a two hour session per meeting, you can stop the videos at two hours because the last 20 minutes usually consists of a re-cap of the common questions discussed at the beginning of the session.
Participants can download and print the 212 page curriculum booklet or the church can print and bind them for the students. To get started, just go to the Education tab above and start downloading the material and watching the videos. In the end, we hope to strengthen the student's faith and make better disciples by teaching believers the language of our twenty first century secular society and providing answers to some of the toughest questions raised by that society.
Ministry Purpose
Our primary purpose is to equip believers for evangelism by developing their ability to effectively communicate the Gospel message and properly respond to modern objections to the Bible. Ultimately, our goal is to extend the Kingdom of God in the secular world we currently find ourselves in. Everything this ministry does is centered on evangilism and developing those skills in the believer.
Introduction to Apologetics curriculum summary
The curriculum for our course in apologetics took over five years to develop as it went through rigorous testing in one of the largest churches in America. The goal was to cover every branch of apologetics in such a way that the average believer could incorporate it into his or her personal evangelism. In its complete form, the course consists of eleven, two and a half hour sessions, though they can easily be broken up into shorter sessions. Because none of the sessions address any controversial theological issue, they can be taught across a wide range of Christian denominations and organizations. Below is the table of contents and brief description for the course Introduction to Apologetics. Most of the sessions begin by looking at popular questions from skeptics. We then recap those questions and answers at the end of each session, giving the believers responses to these questions with wisdom from some of the greatest Christian minds in history. The entire 212 page curriculum can be downloaded right from our education tab above.
Session 1 Defining God
This is a foundation session in that it lays the groundwork for the apologetic arguments discussed in future sessions. It begins by defining apologetics and its Biblical mandate. Next we discuss seven views of god from various worldviews and religions, followed by a discussion of the attributes of the Christian God and their application in apologetics. We close by discussing some of the classical apologetic arguments for the existence of God.
Session 2 Conversations that Count
We know Jesus asked over 200 questions in the New Testament and yet he knew the answer to all of them. In the second and final foundational session we dig deeper into the need and mandate for knowing apologetics and its practical application in evangelism. We spend some time discussing the Socratic method and the art of asking questions and directing conversation. The session closes with a look at flawed arguments so the the believer can identify them when they come up in conversations. In short, this is a session on how to do evangelism like Jesus did, by asking pointed questions and directing the conversation to lead the skeptic into their own conclusions, which we believe is far more effective than telling people what to think.
Session 3 What is Truth?
This is the first session exclusively dedicated to apologetics. The reason it is the first, is because understanding and identifying truth is essential to any legitimate worldview. We discuss some worldviews that deny the existence of absolute truth, such as post-moderism, pluralism, multi-culturalism and the flaws in those views. The session will help the believer distinguish between an opinion, a factual statement and a statement of truth, something that is clouded in our post-modern society. We close by substantiating Jesus' epic claim that, "I am the truth".
Session 4 Understanding Worldviews
Session four begins by discussing the concept of worldview and the factors that make a worldview legitimate and valid. We then discuss a variety of worldviews, such as Mormonism, Atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism and others and their corresponding flaws. We discuss the Christian worldview, its uniqueness and some of its essential features. We close this session by providing the believer with a list of questions for each worldview that can be used in evangelism to quickly expose the flaws in each or these worldview.
Session 5 Evolution, Naturalism and Creation
This class is unique because rather than introduce new interpretations of science, we use popular science to discredit the evolutionary paradigm. We discuss naturalism and its many flaws, along with Darwinism with all its shortcomings. Finally we discuss the creation model and its support in science.
Session 6 Intelligent Design
Unlike the previous session which is more of a defensive reactionary position, here we give the believer powerful witnessing tools found throughout nature. We cover the validity of the Intelligent Design Movement along with its practical application in evangelism. We take the best scientific evidence for the existence of God found in our universe, biosphere and life systems and present them in an evangilistic framework.
Session 7 Who do Men Say that I Am?
Because so much of our Biblical worldview rests on the historicity of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we dedicated this session to providing the factual evidence for our claims. Much of this session is spent discussing the evidence for the resurrection of Christ which is the pinnacle of the Christian faith. We compare Jesus to other self proclaimed Messiahs and the uniqueness of his claims and life. In the end, we give the believer a solid basis for making the claim that Jesus is the Son of the living God and that a resurrected Jesus is the only plausible explanation for the historical evidence.
Session 8 Can I Trust the Bible?
Our first order of business here is to make a strong argument for the inspiration and uniqueness of the Bible. After briefly discussing hermeneutics and the origins of the New Testament, we spend the rest of the session determining the reliability and trustworthiness of the New and Old Testament documents. Our hope is that the believer has the proper knowledge to defend the accuracy and reliability of the Bible against secular arguments to the contrary.
Session 9 Understanding Evil and Suffering
In this session we address difficult questions head on. We discuss how God who is all loving and powerful still allows people to suffer. We cover tough issues like all the killing in the Old Testament and answer questions such as; Does the Bible support slavery, and How could a loving God kill babies such as in Egypt. Because the problem of suffering is such an big obstacle for non-believers we equip the Christian to answer popular objections with the insight of some of the world's leading theologians.
Session 10 The Christian Legacy
Because secularists have limited Christianity's contribution in history to the Crusades and Inquisitions, we take the time demonstrate how everything good in Western Civilization has its roots in the Christian religion. We discuss the rise of human rights, the scientific method, public education and modern charity by highlighting some of the heroes of these movements. In the end we determine conclusively that Christianity is the only worldview that advances social progress and human dignity, while atheism, Hinduism and Islam has brought us the worst kinds of human suffering.
Session 11 Christianity and Public Policy
In this session we discuss the Christian perspective on public policy from an apologetic stand point, demonstrating decisively that our positions are not just rooted in Biblical revelation but in science and reason. We discuss marriage, same-sex marriage, modern feminism, abortion and separation of Church and State among other topics.
Statement of Faith
We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, sinless in His life, and making atonement for the sin of the world by His shed blood and death on the cross. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His ascension into heaven, and His high priestly intercession for His people. We believe in His personal, visible and triumphant return to the world according to His promise.
We believe in the verbal inspiration and infallibility of the Bible.
We believe that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that faith and repentance is commanded of God for all and necessary for forgiveness of sins. That justification, regeneration, and the new birth are wrought by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ and that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells and gives life to believers, enables them to understand the Scriptures, empowers them for godly living, and equips them for service and witness.
We believe that the Church is the body of Christ commissioned with proclaiming the gospel of God’s redemptive love through our Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth by word and deed; by caring for all of God’s creation and actively seeking the good of everyone, particularly the poor and needy. We believe that worship, prayer, and praise is the outward expression of our love for and submission to God.
Ministry Team
Alex Locay
Dr. Alex Locay has a BA from the University of Miami, an MBA and a doctorate degree from Nova Southeastern University. He has served as vice president of two fortune 500 companies and served as president of his own construction firm before retiring in 2012. He published two books on apologetics, Unveiling the Left: How Christian Conservatism Works Where Liberalism Fails, and How Christianity Built Western Civilization. His studies in apologetics have concentrated on cultural, scientific and historical issues and how they relate to the Biblical worldview. Over the years, Alex has served as director of evangelism, in music and prison ministries and as a youth pastor. Having developed the School of Apologetics at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, he currently teaches the curriculum at churches throughout the East Coast. Alex lives in Florida with his wife Christine and their three daughters.
David Gray
David Gray’s professional career and education are in the construction industry where he has served as Director of Construction for several large Florida construction firms. He has been teaching Christian apologetics for over 25 years in several South Florida churches. Over those years he has held several ministry positions including youth minister, deacon and elder. His studies in apologetics have concentrated on cults, scientific and philosophical issues and how they relate to the Biblical worldview. He served as president of Make Sure, a ministry designed to assist people leaving cults. David lives in Florida with his wife Kelie and his five children.