Apologetics: the branch of theology concerned with the defense or proof of Christianity; from the Greek word "apologia," which means a "verbal defense."
Christianity has faced an onslaught of criticism and slander since its inception some 2,000 years ago. Despite centuries of persecution, upheaval, and corruption, historic Christianity survives. No plans of man can thwart the advancement of God’s kingdom. Day by day, he is renewing minds and changing hearts of the seemingly “unsavable” through the person of his son, Jesus Christ.
Blessed I am to be a member of the body of Christ! Every day I’m amazed that he saw fit to gather me up and rescue me from the shackles of my own degradation.
Feeling God’s grace in your life is one thing; trying to explain that grace to unbelievers is another. Sharing our testimonies with the world probably is the easiest part of being a Christian. Testimonies are often filled with emotive, relatable language. Some stories are dramatic. Others are less so. I suppose my testimony is dramatic, although I see my coming to Christ as a slow evolution. After I stopped drinking and fornicating, I patted myself on the back and told people how moral I was. I was unsaved at the time, and did not understand the depth of my sin sickness.
But I digress. As I was saying, sharing out testimonies with the world probably is the easiest part of being a Christian. The challenging part, aside from the obvious challenge of living in a fallen world, is defending Christianity. A branch of theology known as Apologetics involves explaining and defending the faith. From proving the accuracy and reliability of New Testament manuscripts, to providing rational arguments for Christianity’s truth claims, to answering objections, to revealing fallacies behind other worldviews, Christian apologetics is something every believer should study and practice.
In his latest column, Christian author and blogger David Limbaugh reviews a book by well-known Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend.
David writes (emphases added):
“I love apologetics because it helped me overcome certain intellectual hurdles that I believed, rightly or wrongly, were obstructing my faith. As I delved into the subject, I was immensely gratified to learn that most of my doubts and questions had been asked and answered by biblical scholars who embraced, rather than dismissed, such challenges.
…
“Many mistakenly believe that Christian belief, because it involves faith, is unsupported by reason and evidence and that becoming a Christian requires checking your intellect at the door and accepting Christian truth claims unquestioningly. But anyone who has truly studied Christian theology and apologetics – I hadn’t during my skeptical days – understands that Christianity rests on a powerful body of evidence and that reason and intellect are its allies, not its enemies.
“Before you cavalierly assume that there are unanswerable contradictions or unfathomable paradoxes, before you reject Christian theology out of hand because you witness Christian hypocrisy, before you dismiss the Bible as merely a wonderful piece of literature with some instructive moral stories, do yourself the favor of reading it for yourself. And read what other believing, conservative scholars and theologians have written on the subject.”
Read more about apologetics at the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.
Every Christian should study and practice some form of apologetics. Having a “great awakening” and being born again are wonderful. But are you “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have,” as the apostle Peter says?
Since this blog’s inception, I’ve tried to do just that. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail. But the learning process, the struggle, has been invaluable. I believe God gave me an affinity for strong, unequivocal points of view. The wishy-washy, mealy-mouth, soft-stepping approach rubs me the wrong way. But the goal is to glorify God, no matter which approach you take.
When was the last time you defended the faith to an unbeliever or even a doubting Christian?
Do you lack knowledge and confidence in defending the faith?
For those who have the knowledge and confidence, what advice would you give to lesser equipped brothers and sisters?
Resources:
- Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
- Alpha and Omega Ministries
- Grace To You: Apologetics
- Desiring God (scroll down for Apologetics category)
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Great post.
Great post La Shawn! I just participated in a friendly debate (believe it or not) with a gay man named Tom, on my Pastor’s blog (http://blog.milesmcpherson.com/), under his post titled: “Why Support Biblical Marriage, Part 1.” That was the last time I had to throw what apologetic knowledge I have out, in support of the biblical commandments against homosexuality.
In this case, here was a person professing to be a Christian, professing to believe that Christ is the Son of God, and he even believes that salvation only comes through faith. The apologetic part was that somehow the bible wasn’t wholly correct in its statements regarding homosexuality. I didn’t go into depth with him on all the evidences surrounding the truth of the scriptures, but I did reason with him on why it couldn’t work to believe the way he did. The proof was the word of God itself! (Circular reasoning some would say, but the power is in the Word of God itself!)
This was the last time I’ve held a major debate and this is with a “doubting Christian” and it’s posted live for the world to see! I can’t judge this gay man’s heart and not call him a Christian, but the fact that he wants to practice homosexuality while being called a child of God is a clue that he may not be saved. But I just can’t judge him because we don’t know of his personal struggles as one claiming to be of God.
I love apologetics and CARM is one of my favorite sites I have listed also. There are so many great sites to go to. But how I got into apologetics? I thank the Jehovah’s Witnesses for that. I used to allow them in my home to tell my about what they believe. Something wasn’t right and by the time I learned they were a cult, then I began challenging them. They would completely obliterate me and my infantile knowledge of scriptures. But that experience caused me to dig deeper and find out what they believe and what we believe!
If a person can be motivated to study without confronting a cult, then that’s the sure way to get started. Just picking up books or going to websites that are about apologetics is a great place to start. Or, if one is completely unmotivated to do so, just allow a discussion with anyone you know who may be considered a cult or non-Christian belief system to get you interested.
I can’t wait to become fully “certified” in apologetics as I’m considering a course at Biola University here in California. I want to be “all things to all men” and a Masters Degree in that field will fit the bill! (I already have a BS in Computers). What a great field of study whether in school or out for the Christian. Especially in this day and time where attacks against the gospel are increasing with great intensity!
We need to always be ready to give that answer!!!
“When was the last time you defended the faith to an unbeliever or even a doubting Christian?”
~That happens for me nearly daily because my life brings me into contact with people on Biblical topics daily.
“Do you lack knowledge and confidence in defending the faith?”
~At times I lack things I wish I had in the moment, yet when I have been walking with God daily, remembering to spend at least a little time in the Word and in prayer, it comes much more easily. Honestly, I think that a relationship with God and a basic understanding of His Word will give any Christian the foundation to defend the faith with confidence, and a further deep study into the heart of the Word (original languages, Biblical cultural settings and customs, in depth study of the things that Christ teaches) will give reason for a Christian to have all the confidence in the world because that’s when we realize we’ve got something more solid, more lasting, and more trustworthy than any thing else in existence.
“For those who have the knowledge and confidence, what advice would you give to lesser equipped brothers and sisters?”
~Get equipped. That may sound facetious, but it’s Biblical and a very necessary and rewarding action for those who call themselves Christians. Just yesterday I was studying John 15:13 because it was yesterday’s devotional base for “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers. The verse is this:
“”Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.”"
Chambers goes on to mention: “Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said – “I will lay down my life for Thy sake” and he meant it; his sense of the heroic was magnificent. It would be a bad thing to be incapable of making such a declaration as Peter made; the sense of our duty is only realized by our sense of the heroic. Has the Lord ever asked you – “Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake?” It is far easier to die than to lay down the life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling.”
That was a great reminder to me that if I say I love Jesus, then I need to lay down my life for Him. That means I should actually act like I love Him! What does that mean though?
In the verse labeled John 14:15, Christ, the best authority, tells us Himself what it means to love Him: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
Love is much more than a feeling, it’s a way of living.
The goal to life isn’t the people you see, the things you do, the places you go or even the things you teach. The goal is to KNOW Christ. (Deut. 4:29)If you take the time and make the effort to do that, not only will He help you do that, (John 16:13,14) but He will equip you for whatever the days in front of you have in store.
Desire God and He will be faithful.
You have every reason to be confident in God and in your standing in Him. The Bible is not a book of myths or rumors, and every year more and more archaeological discoveries give physical evidence to it. You don’t have to be ashamed of believing because there is so much proof for the life and activities of Christ that NOT believing it is the foolish position.
You HAVE everything you need in Christ. Like a guy with a garage full of new tools though, you need to go in and learn how to use them. they belong to you as a resource fit for any need whatsoever, you just need to get in there and familiarize yourself with them.
Best of all you have the Master tool maker eager and pleased to teach you to use them.
“When was the last time you defended the faith to an unbeliever or even a doubting Christian?”
Almost daily. I just had a bombshell dropped on me last Friday. My boss, who recently graduated from divinity school, told me that he does not believe Jesus Christ was resurrected. He stated something to the effect of “Jesus was the pinnacle of what man was meant to be and he died a horrible death, but I don’t think he was risen from the dead.”
You could have knocked me over with a feather. What are they teaching??
El Gee,
Higher criticism is probably what they are teaching.
It’s not too surprising; Paul actually had to deal with the same thing with the Corinthians. Perhaps your boss should read and meditate on 1 Corinthians 15:1-19.
>>When was the last time you defended the faith to an unbeliever or even a doubting Christian?
Oh, you sure know how to ask hard questions
Whenever I get the opportunity, I guess. Although I will be the first to admit I don’t actively seek out those opportunities.
>>Do you lack knowledge and confidence in defending the faith?
My thinking; God can (and does, and will) defend Himself. Me, I’m defending my philosophical structures and why I believe and trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. In that, I am likely overconfident, I daresay. Posit for me any question and I can probably answer, or at least, provide pointers. So, no, no lack of such knowledge and confidence.
>>For those who have the knowledge and confidence, what advice would you give to lesser equipped brothers and sisters?
Josh McDowell. Heavy reading, but oh boy, what a wealth of info.
Also, look at Paul at the Areopagus.
And an old book entitled “Eternity in their hearts”. Even “Who moved the stone?”.
But over all, trust in the Lord and read the Bible! 2 Tim 3:16, for instance. The Lord does not leave us without witness!
The first black woman Christian apologist! We need more leaders in this branch of Christianity. Especially in this day because Christians may be losing more and more of our freedom of religion.
Oddly enough, I’ve had my most vigorous debates only online. I can’t say I was every stumped, so much as stopped in my tracks by willful ignorance. Sometimes it gets to the point where you can’t say anything more. So I feel I’m probably well-prepared. I can’t remember the last time I had one of those debates, however. It’s been a while since anyone in the online communities I run has either issued a challenge to sound theology or felt compelled to respond after I’ve poked holes in the belief system displayed in their comments to others.
I think it’s been established that study of Biblical and extra-Biblical sources from theological conservatives is the best means of preparation. But I think particular emphasis must be made for the defense of Genesis, particularly for modern Western Christians. Everything in Genesis establishes the theological underpinnings of the entirety of scripture, and the many principles we hold dear. The erosion of the knowledge and acceptance of Genesis accounts by our children in particular is the main reason Christianity is under such attack today.
Consider all that Genesis teaches. Creation establishes the supremacy of God in existence and sets Mankind apart from the animals. It gives all of us a common ancestor such that none can say they are inherently superior. Sin is defined as rebellion against God, and the wages of such sin are laid out. The Curse tells us why there is such pain, death and destruction in the world. The Tower of Babel shows the origin of linguistic-ethnic division of Mankind and, conversely, the fact that we USED to be capable of being a united people. The Covenant with Abraham as the first example of salvation through Faith and establishing the promise of Christ. Joseph’s story (which I think African slavery parallels). It’s all there. And with it’s subjugation, first by its exclusion from public schools and second by the indoctrination of Darwinism, those remaining faithful, and even many who profess Christianity, are left without a foundation upon which to build a solid understanding of the true Biblical God and His Son.
To be honest, I have not had to really get down and defend my faith since I move out of Philadelphia. I have been pretty much in a Christian cocoon. I have continued to work in Philly in Christian surroundings where debates tend to be on tongues/no tongues, Rapture/no Rapture and Kingdom now on earth.
I am renewing my study in appologetics where Muslims are concerned. I was into that when I worked briefly in West Phildelphia were there is a strong Muslim influence. West Philly is growing day by day with black converts to Islam. I prepared daily to give an answer. I received plenty of info on sharing Christ with Muslims from a Missionary organization that is successful in leading Muslims (inner city blacks) to accepting Christ as Savior. There is far less of a Muslim presence where I now live.
I live in a small town that is full of people who feel their faith is Christian, but there is an ever growing debate that says that is not the case. I am preparing myself to defend the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ to a people who cover over the pure gospel with human additions for salvation (and think they are a part of the one and only true Christian faith).
Always stay in prayer, because in defending your faith, with the word of God, remeber Isaiah 55:11 about God’s word not returning unto him void.
James White and Josh McDowall are very good apologetic sources for just about everything.
And there is such an additional wealth of free apologetic sources on the web.
I recommend learning from and watching people like Ray Comfort or Todd Friel. They are, in my opinion, two of the few christians who can “communicate” with the most difficult atheists and skeptics.
Josh MacDowell does present a wealth of information, but much of it is false. I don’t want to get too far into “where does MacDowell get it wrong” because this blog post’s topic concerns the idea of apologetics, carefully avoiding anything specific. I do not want to take this blog post off topic. Just take it for the sake of argument that MacDowell is not Christ and that he will make what I will call, in all charity, “mistakes”.
Limbaugh and Zacharias have also been known to purvey the occasional “mistake” from time to time.
The problem with Christian apologetics is what to do when you’ve given an apologetic and your skeptic target finds evidence against it. Deny, deny, deny? Say, “yeah but what about THIS argument?” and send the poor guy off on another snipe hunt? We could, perhaps, wear a skeptic down by sheer exhaustion (not everyone’s got time to become a historian of antiquity and a palaeontologist just to serve our whims) but I wouldn’t call that ethical.
Being “confident” in proclaiming bad apologetics will just make us look arrogant in our ignorance.
As a recently-saved believer (to Catholicism), I think that the best apologetic is good apologetic. If an argument we use turns out to be dubious at best – like, say, the “missing day discovered by NASA” chain email – then it is best to admit where some arguments are bad ones.
To give some disclosure here: MacDowell’s barrage of “mistakes”, innocent or otherwise, turned me right off Christianity when I did the research to check him, and taking MacDowell as a reputable source is going to turn off other nonbelievers as well.
Great post, LaShawn.
Like Gabe, I’ve had my most vigorous debates online. The best F2F was with a self-provessed witch who claimed to be descended from “a long line of weather-workers.” (Most pagans I have met grew up in fundamentalist Christian families. They knew a lot about chruch rules but little about Christ’s love. No wonder they tossed it all out.)
On one site a number of years ago an athiest by the name of “Darth” and I back-and-forthed for a year and over 1,000 posts. Iron sharpens iron, eh? Sadly, it wasn’t archived.
I’ve even shared the Gospel (and done apologetics) on Twitter, though it’s tough to do in 140 characters. “Induction vs deduction” and “paradox” are looong words!
(That said, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” does fit.)
While I quote Scripture (I believe that there is indeed Power in the Word), I rarely use it as an “appeal to authority”. The non-believer doesn’t accept it as authoritative unless you establish it as such. An approach that works IME is to establish it as a valid and reliable historical document according to the rules of ancient manuscript analysis.
It’s funny and a little sad to watch the “you can’t convince me” folks tripping over themselves trying to avoid the relentless logic. They always seem to fall back on either, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof,” or, “I believe that there is no such thing as objective reality.”
LaShawn, I was raised to be a Christian, but then I rebelled and was a prodigal daughter for 4 years of my young adult life. When I “came to myself,” I realized that I didn’t like the woman in the mirror anymore. I can say honestly that I’ve lived both “in Christ” and “outside of Christ,” and being with him is much better than being without him.
I have spent the last year trying to “restore” one friend to her former faithfulness and teaching two new friends how to find him. I realized my smallness that way. I’m thankful that I serve a huge God who can do everything that exceeds my own feeble attempts. I’ve started to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with these matters and it’s because I finally gave them totally to Him.
Corrie:
“While I quote Scripture (I believe that there is indeed Power in the Word), I rarely use it as an “appeal to authority”. The non-believer doesn’t accept it as authoritative unless you establish it as such. An approach that works IME is to establish it as a valid and reliable historical document according to the rules of ancient manuscript analysis. ”
That is exactly my approach to scriptural apologetic.
“They always seem to fall back on … “I believe that there is no such thing as objective reality.””
If they disbelieve in objective reality, they can’t be reasoned with. However the same goes for Christian apologists who fall back on “Saint Paul said the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God”. I advise apologists NEVER to quote this statement as applicable to the faith’s objectively verifiable claims.
I do have to disagree with you here (vehemently):
““extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof” [as a fallback]”
That’s not a fallback position; that is the Scientific Method. If you as apologist can’t answer this objection, then you will fail and you will deserve to fail.
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