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News Flash! NCFCA rewrote their apologetics topics. Some of them are the same cards they had in the previous years, but NCFCA also added a ton of questions. One of Ethos’s coaches, Luke Castle, suggested the idea to rework and reorganize the new topic list into a few categories to maximize prep efficiency. I am certainly excited to say that Luke Castle, Zachary Kos, and I (Jala Boyer) are going to be starting a 6 post series on the new NCFCA topics, giving you resources on how to approach and organize the new questions, providing you with suggested reading and helpful materials, as well as giving you basic summaries for each of the topic matters. If you cover each of the six major categories discussed, you should be ready to answer each question NCFCA throws at you.
This article is an introduction to the series to bring you up to speed on what to expect over the next 6 articles and how you can approach them to get the most bang for your buck.
For starters, you are going to need to know what kind of content will be in the articles. Each post will be about one of the six specific categories that we have reworked the topics into. While each of us has our own approach to helping you prepare for the categories, generally speaking, you can expect to see content on the different theological and doctrinal ideas that each category includes. This is to help you have a fundamental grasp of the basic issues that you will need to understand as you work on writing cards for the topic. You can also expect to see recommendations to resources like books, videos, or other articles that relate to different issues within a given topic. Our goal behind these resources is for them to inspire you on how to approach a certain question that you have been baffled by, or to give you further insight into understanding a challenging aspect of theology.
Another thing that I wanted to cover is how you can best utilize Ethos’s organization for the topics. While you certainly could go through each individual card and write a personalized speech for that topic, I would challenge you to ask the question, “is this the most effective approach?” Personally, I think that the answer to that question is no. I would encourage you to look at the list below and analyze how it has been reworked. What you will find is that similar (if not identical) cards have been grouped together so that you can apply each card you make to as many other cards as possible. For example, notice that we put the question “What evidence supports the historical reliability of the New Testament?” and the question “What evidence supports the historical existence of Jesus?” in the same category. This is because both of these questions are fundamentally asking you the same thing, which means that you might as well write one card to use for both of these questions instead of trying to write an individual card for each topic. But here is the best part, we want to do this work for you! We have already read through all of the topics and identified where the overlap is so that all you have to do is simply write an apologetics card, hopefully utilizing our other articles in the series, that you can use for all of the questions that relate to the topic of that card.
All right, enough of that! Here are your topic categories for the new NCFCA topic list, we will be releasing prep materials for the next two months getting you ready for competition. We are so excited to go on this journey with you for God’s glory.
NCFCA’s 2022 Topics Reorganized:
Category 1: Jesus
Who is Jesus?
31.In what ways did Jesus fulfill His role as prophet?
32.In what ways did Jesus fulfill His role as priest?
33.In what ways did Jesus fulfill His role as king?
30.What evidence supports Jesus as the promised Messiah?
Jesus in the Trinity:
26.What is the deity of Christ and why is it significant?
34.What passages show that Jesus claimed to be God?
27.What is the humanity of Christ and why is it significant?
25.What is the Incarnation of Christ and why is it significant?
Category 2: Bible
Scripture:
1. What is the purpose of Scripture?
2. What is the biblical canon and why is it significant?
3. What is Scripture’s inerrancy and why is it significant?
4. What is Scripture’s divine inspiration and why is it significant?
Old Testament and New Testament:
1.Why does the Old Testament God seem different than the New Testament God?
5. What evidence supports the historical reliability of the Old Testament?
6. What evidence supports the historical reliability of the New Testament?
25.Hasn’t science disproven Christianity?
3. Respond to the person who says, “The Bible is full of contradictions.”
28.What evidence supports the historical existence of Jesus?
7. What evidence shows that Jesus believed in the authority of Scripture?
Category 3: God
The Trinity
8. What is the Trinity and why is it significant?
5. Respond to the assumption that says, “All religions say pretty much the same thing.”
The Attributes of God
9. What is God’s omniscience and why is it significant?
10.What is God’s omnipotence and why is it significant?
11.What is God’s transcendence and immanence and why are they significant?
13.What is God’s sovereignty and why is it significant?
16.What is God’s immutability and why is it significant?
Category 4: Church/Community
The Church:
46.What is the church and why is it significant?
27.Respond to the question “If the Bible has all the answers, why are there so many denominations?
47.What is worship and why is it significant?
6. Does God care if I am involved in a local church as long as I pray and read my Bible?
Communicating With God:
48.What is Bible study and why is it significant for Christ followers?
2. How can someone know what God’s plan is for their life?
45.What is prayer and why is it significant?
28.Do miracles like the ones in the Bible still happen today?
17.What is the Holy Spirit’s role and why is it significant?
10.Respond to the friend who says, “I pray and hear nothing. I must be doing something wrong.”
Modern World’s Perception:
9. Should Christians stand for love or truth in the public square?
12.Isn’t the Bible irrelevant to the 21st century?
11.Respond to a common perception that Christianity is responsible for oppression and injustice.
19.Is God a Republican?
Morality:
13.Respond to the generalization, “Everything is relative.”
18.Why does it matter what I believe as long as I’m sincere?
31.Respond to the person who asks, “Isn’t it arrogant to claim to know the truth?”
Pain/Suffering:
22.How can a loving God let my mom die of cancer?
Category 5: Salvation
The Gospel Message:
14.What is God’s grace and why is it significant?
36.What is the gospel and why is it significant?
39.What is faith in Christ and why is it significant?
41.What is adoption into God’s family and why is it significant?
29.What is the resurrection of Jesus and why is it significant?
17.Is artificial intelligence our hope for saving mankind?
Keywords in Church:
37.What is regeneration and why is it significant?
32.Respond to a friend who doesn’t understand the need for a “new birth.”
23.Respond to the person who says, “I’m not sure I’m saved because I never had a dramatic conversion experience.”
38.What is repentance and why is it significant?
40.What is justification and why is it significant?
42.What is sanctification and why is it significant?
26.Why do so many Christians live lives that look no different than nonbelievers?
43.What is redemption and why is it significant?
21.Respond to the person who says, “I hate my brother for what he did. I could never forgive him for that!”
44.What is reconciliation and why is it significant?
Category 6: Man/Sin
Holiness Vs Sin:
12.What is the righteousness of God and why is it significant?
15.What is God’s holiness and why is it significant?
8. Should I keep a commitment if I’m unhappy?
Sin:
19.What is the fall of man and why is it significant?
29.If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?
20.What is the depravity of man and why is it significant?
23.What is sin and why is it significant?
Hell:
24.What is hell and why is it significant?
30.Why would a loving God send people to hell?
4. Respond to the person who says, “I believe I will go to heaven because I have lived a good life.”
Modern Society:
7. Respond to the common phrase, “You do you.”
14.Respond to the person who says, “God made me this way.”
15.Respond to the popular slogan, “My body, my choice.”
16.Is traditional Christianity homophobic?
Man’s Nature:
18.What does it mean to be made in the image of God and why is it significant?
20.Respond to the person who says, “My life is not worth living.”
21.What is the purpose of man?
22.What does it mean to know God?
Jala Boyer has earned numerous 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals and competed at the NCFCA National Championship in five categories. As an intern on the Student Advisory Council of the NCFCA, Jala worked alongside the executive director, Kim Cromer, to learn the inner workings of competitive speech and debate, helping students create long-term and meaningful success. Jala is currently an Honors student at Liberty University studying communications with an emphasis in politics. To book a coaching session with Jala, follow this link https://www.ethosdebate.com/ coaching/book-coach/