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Dr. Norman Geisler and Dr. Richard Land Among Many Top-Name Speakers Who Will Help the Faithful Defend Beliefs Oct. 13-15
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The past, present and future of Southern EvangelicalSeminary (SES, www.staging.ses.edu) will come together this week in Charlotte for the 23rd annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics.
At the conference, hosted by Calvary Church, 5801 Pineville-Matthews Road in Charlotte, the faithful will have a chance to discuss some of the most pressing issues that have made headlines for months, both in society and along the campaign trail. The three-day event kicks off this Thursday, Oct. 13, and continues through the weekend. The conference will also be live-streamed (more details at conference.staging.ses.edu).
Two of the featured speakers are SES founder Dr. Norman Geisler and current SESPresident and Evangelical leader Dr. Richard Land. Taking place just three weeks before the presidential election, SES will welcome an impressive lineup of other nationally known speakers, including Richard Howe, Josh McDowell, Sean McDowell, Hugh Ross, Jay Sekulow, Lee Strobel, Frank Turek and J. Warner Wallace, along with many others.
“It is always wonderful to have Dr. Norm Geisler as part of any activity involving Southern Evangelical Seminary,” said Land. “Without his vision this center of learning and exploration would not exist. Especially in this important election year, it is crucial that as Christians we apply our faith to every issue, and that includes the political landscape and the ongoing cultural and spiritual struggle. We are thankful to have Dr. Geisler with us to provide his invaluable insight, along with our many other great speakers who will motivate attendees to know what they believe, why they believe it, and to speak prophetically to our culture.”
The theme of the conference, “The Defense Never Rests,” focuses on the ongoing charge to Christians to defend their beliefs rationally, intelligently and lovingly.
Geisler, who will speak on the topic of “The Defense Never Rests,” is a prolific author, veteran professor, speaker, lecturer, philosopher, apologist, evangelist and theologian. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 books and hundreds of articles, and has taught theology, philosophy and apologetics on the college or graduate level for more than 50 years. He has also served as a professor at some of the finest seminaries in the United States, including Trinity Evangelical Seminary, Dallas Seminary and Southern Evangelical Seminary and is one of the preeminent Christian apologists of the last century.
Geisler’s talk will cover four basic areas: the reason, some examples, the areas and the results of the defense never resting. First, he will look at why our response is perpetual and without which there would be no apologetics. He will also show that all apologetic responses are for one basic and surprising reason. Second, Geisler will survey the entire history of Christian apologetics, giving primary examples of attacks on the Christian faith. This section will provide enlightening material from the last 2,000 years of apologetics with which every Christians should be familiar and from which important lessons can be learned. Third, he will place all the intellectual attacks on Christianity into three basic categories, revealing the key areas into which attacks on the Christian faith can be reduced, namely, pluralism, relativism and naturalism. In his final section, Geisler deals with both metaphysical and methodological naturalism, showing how the latter has subtlety, even fatally, penetrated evangelical Christianity. Enlightening examples will be provided as to why the defense of Christianity never rests and what we can do about it.
Land will give three talks over the course of the conference: “The Pornification of America: A Christian Response,” “The Existential Threat to Religious Freedom” and “Have We Lost the Culture War?”
Land has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor for several seminaries and has authored or edited more than 15 books. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England and his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University. Land also earned a Master of Theology (Honors Program) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the Outstanding Graduating Student. Dr. Land was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. He also received the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University in 2010. Land served previously (1988-2013) as president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families. In 2014, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the ERLC’s Research Institute, and in 2015, he was named in the top 15 of Newsmax’s “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.”
The SES president is also featured in his nationally syndicated daily radio commentary, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which airs on nearly 800 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network, 100 on the Bott Radio Network and almost 400 on the CSN radio network. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” is also podcast daily on the free SES mobile app and airs locally in the Charlotte, N.C., area every weekday. The “Bringing Every Thought Captive” television program, hosted by Land, airs on the NRB Network Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and midnight EST. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” also reaches nearly 2 million households in the Chicago area on the Total Living Network. For details about stations, times, downloads and more,click here.
SES is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. Many courses focus on societal issues from a Christian worldview, delve into scientific apologetics or contemplate creation research.
SES explores ethical issues through its “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program; for more information, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu. Southern Evangelical Seminary also recently unveiled a new apologetics blog at www.WhyDoYouBelieve.org, where Land and other SES voices address the most pressing issues of the day.
Southern Evangelical Seminary invites visitors to its web site to join the more than 20,000 people who have already downloaded the SES Apologetics App for Windows mobile devices and Android and Apple phones and tablets. Those with the app can get the very best news and information in Christian apologetics, including articles, audio, video, blogs and more from today’s most able defenders of the Christian faith—William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, Frank Turek, Hugh Ross, Gary Habermas and other well-known speakers, authors and teachers.
Southern Evangelical Seminary has been ranked as one of the top graduate programs for General Christian Apologetics by TheBestSchools.org’s “Top 10 Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics.”
For more information on SES, visit its web site at www.staging.ses.edu or its Facebook page, follow the SES Twitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH. For more information about SES’ “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program, visitwww.ethics.staging.ses.edu.
