Defending Evangelicalism: The Apologetics of Norman L. Geisler
by William C. Roach
Defending Evangelicalism the only book of its kind tracking the life and thought of Dr. Norman L. Geisler. The book was written by one of Dr. Geisler’s former students and long-time assistants. It provides a first-hand interpretation of Geisler’s classical apologetics method and discusses the real implications for it within Evangelical theology. The books specifically addresses the topics of classical realism, classical theism and the doctrine of inerrancy.
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Dr. Norman L. Geisler (1932-2019) worked tirelessly for close to seven decades to evangelize the lost and defend the historic Christian faith. The life motto he chose for himself echoed Phil. 1:16: “I am put here for the defense of the gospel.” As one of the foremost classical apologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, he “destroy[ed] arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5) while preparing countless others to “make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. . . with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). To defend the gospel, he was prepared to defend the knowability of truth, the first principles of logic, the reasonableness of the existence of a theistic God, the possibility and significance of supernatural miracles, the reliability of the New Testament documents, the claims of Jesus’s deity in the New Testament, the supernatural confirmation of those claims, Jesus’s view that the Bible is the Word of God, the belief that anything opposed to what the Bible says is false, and more. In addition to trying to win the lost through apologetics and evangelism, he also worked tirelessly to do his best to present the evangelical Christian communities to their Groom “as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27; c.f., 2 Cor. 11:2). With a particular emphasis upon his commitments to classical realism, classical theism, and the inerrancy of the Bible, Defending Evangelicalism explains the central issues Dr. Geisler focused on and the specific methods he used towards these ends.
William C. Roach Ph.D., is the Dean of the Norman L. Geisler Chair of Apologetics at Veritas International University. He is a former President of the International Society of Christian Apologetics. Roach’s other contributions include nearly decades of preaching, conferences, hundreds of podcasts, and authoring or co-authoring several books and articles, including Defending Inerrancy, Hermeneutics as Epistemology, and Sola Fide.