Introduction to Apologetics: Why, Where, and When We Can & How We Should

Introduction

Previously, we took a preliminary look at the field of apologetics. I’d now like to zoom in a bit and consider at length why we do, why we can do, what we do, when we do it, and how we apologize.

The final prefatory remark I’ll make is that in planning this I felt it was fitting to put soft-skills before specifics. These considerations need to shape and discipline our use of the concrete, topical defenses that make up the remainder our this discussion. It would be foolhardy to leap into the inconsistencies of moral relativism or the inexplicable account of the consciousness in a strictly physical, material universe--both arguments to be addressed later--without constraining ourselves with Scripture’s moral imperatives.

Why We Apologize

In our first class, we started with a few reasons for why we practice apologetics. I’d like to add a few more to our list. I realize I risk redundancy here, but our reasons bear repeating because we need to ground ourselves. If we keep our reasons close at hand, we’re more likely to have the right kind of motives.

Our Duty

It follows from Jesus’ commandment to love God and others that we are supposed to go out into the world. It follows apologetics is a ministry of love, both love towards God through mindful effort, as we’ve discussed, and love towards our neighbor through bringing them to the truth. To add to how we love our nonChristian brothers and sisters: we do this by (1) wanting people to have access to the salvific truth of the Gospel, (2) bringing them closer to that point by removing obstacles to that destination, (3) and by spending time with and growing in understanding and compassion through forging new friendships. And, as with other ways we do as God commands us, there’s something in it for us and there’s something in it for those people we’re endeavoring to love.

Our Privilege

Apologetics, while appearing intellectual, is far from academic. It’s not just a way to satisfy our curiosity or to scratch a brain-itch. We’re not trying to build your rhetorical skills here so that you can take any side and win. We’re not training for the debate team. There is much more on the line than a trophy. Apologizing is an act of commitment. Loving God with your mind will bring you closer to Him. It will strengthen your relationship and He will bless you with greater intimacy whenever you pursue Him earnestly. I know that during the many hours I spent reading, writing, and meditating on various related texts, I felt many surges of joy. Literal joy. There is something so uplifting and awesome about being able to list the many reasons Christian belief makes good sense and to be able to explain them in detail. It is my prayer for us all that this material sinks in and stays with you. It will surely be a comfort to you in the future.

One of the great rewards in learning and practicing apologetics is that you come to understand your beliefs with more clarity. Perhaps there are issues where you’re unsure. I hope these writings will clarify them for you. If nothing else, I hope to inspire you to seek out answers for questions you overhear in your day-to-day interactions.

Others’ Benefit

Another great reward, the one we should primarily be seeking, is taking part in the sewing and reaping of God’s harvest. We know that we are not alone in our need for Christ. We need Him even after the Holy Spirit has entered our hearts, and we have come to know Jesus. How much more so do those who have withdrawn into themselves or who are trying to find their ultimate purpose in worldly pursuits? Put these people first as Christ put you first. Don’t rest with your own edification. Build up others. I hope that’s a large part of why you’ve come to read this.

Why We Can Apologize

It’s important to bear in mind why we can apologize as a framework through which we apply ourselves. It helps us guide our hearts by seeing others as special in the way the God does. He has given humanity many honors before they’ve come to faith. If God so values humankind, so should we.

General Revelation

Part of the reason we take apologetics seriously is we believe in general revelation. God gives everyone access to a portion of His truth. Proverbs 8 rhetorically asks, “Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?” The Psalmist David writes, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge." (Psalm 19:1-2) From all these, we can see that God makes himself known to everyone.

Common Grace

God is generous in other ways to nonChristians besides offering them general revelation. God gives His good gifts to everyone in varying degrees, and wisdom is included. Everything that is good, true, and beautiful in anyone’s life comes from God. Because of this, we can try to lead people back to him. Acts 14:17 notes that God “did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” God has made us such that we can’t help but be interested in the truth, even some of us say there’s no such thing. We are knowledge seekers. We are naturally curious. What’s more, we can come to know certain facts with the natural lights God has given us. These aren’t limited to what we can see or smell or taste or touch either. The Apostle Paul refers to the law being written onto the hearts of gentiles in Romans chapter 2. People have consciences and a moral senses, even if they say that right and wrong are relative.

We need to respect others’ intelligence. Most objections to Christian faith contain truth in them, though often only partially. We should listen closely to find where a Christian can agree with nonbelievers. For example, the people who are outraged by the suffering of the infirm are right to decry it. What they miss, however, is the fuller picture of the causes and purposes of suffering that Scripture gives us. Through defending the faith, we aim to educate the atheist or agnostic and bring them to recognize the fuller truth they conceive imperfectly.

The Divine Image

Another reason to debate these topics is because it honors the divine image in all people. God has given each of us a part of His glory. We can say with David in Psalm 8, “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” That’s true of all people, Christian and nonChristian. Beyond our own desserts, God cares for us all. He made us special.

God, the omnipotent Being who ordered the universe, shared a portion of His intellect with us. He has left His testimony in the hearts and lives of all men and women. As I’ll discuss at greater depth later, we have many other innate attributes that mimic God’s character. To take just one, our sense of responsibility for our children or our obligation to our parents shows God’s imprint upon us.

Along these lines, I’d advise you look for the dignity in people first, not their fallenness. Where are they unwittingly following God? You can praise them with a clear conscience on that account. Don’t highlight others’ faults. In the first place, Christ rebuked that approach in elsewhere in Matthew 7. Rather than fault-finding, when you see sin in an unbeliever, repent of the grave sins you’ve committed even after having a relationship with Jesus. Correcting a person too early in the relationship is likely to kill the relationship before it begins. Many Christians are Pharisaic when they interact with those outside of the faith. We have unfortunately earned that reputation. This turns many would-be Christians away by making Christianity seem too legalistic. If you cannot find anything to respect in them, it will show. In turn, they’ll not be likely to find anything to respect in you.

Where we apologize

Moving on to the “where” of apologizing,

Forge Relationships

Jerram Barrs, a professor at Covenant Theological Seminary, teaches a course on apologetics and outreach. In that course, he exhorts his students to purposefully enter into relationships with nonbelievers. One of the reasons he advocates for this approach, secondary to its Biblical validation, is also its empirical validation. He states that within secular societies such as ours has increasingly become that those who go from nonbelief to faith say they are drawn through the friendship of a local congregation and its members. That’s us.

Get to know nonChristians. Open up your homes to them. Ask them about their past. Seek out where and how God has been working in their lives, without necessarily making explicit reference to God in doing so. Through our invitations and conversations, the Gospel is more fruitfully shared. The influence of Christians’ lives, the sorts of lives we pray the Spirit helps us lead, may open atheists and agnostics up to hear the truth. The beauty of the Christ-like holiness we strive to imitate can attract the unbeliever.

That’s why Peter in his first epistle, Chapter 2, verse 12 says, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” This command establishes a baseline of our behavior. We are being watched, especially when we’ve public professed our faith. However unfair it may be, people will judge God in light of the impressions we leave on them. Our lives should be non-verbal responses to some of the objections our culture has towards Christianity.

My own spiritual biography will be present throughout some of these writings as I intend to occasionally share of my experience as an agnostic. I spent many years of my life doubting and remember well the times when I was confronted with belief. Concerning the integral need for relationship-building in our approach to defending the faith, I confess if someone came on too strong too quickly with me while I was searching, I discounted what that person said. I suspected the person had more of an agenda than he or she had a legitimate interest in who I was. I never wanted to be a stranger’s project. I still don’t.

Maintain Relationships

More than the sorts of shallow relationships our culture spawns, the kinds of relationships we should strive to build around our apologizing are vital, vibrant, and long-lasting. Christ walks with us for our whole lives, even when we’re wayward. We need to be prepared to invest in others in that same way. There’s a great opportunity for companionship. One of the great scourges in our culture is isolation. Secularists will agree with this point. People are lonely. They don’t know their neighbors. They aren’t known by anyone. Facebook tends to makes this worse. The time is ripe to commit ourselves to being with others, to support them. I know it sounds corny, but if you’ve ever wondered what you can do to further God’s kingdom, start with being an nonbeliever’s friend.

Don’t be discouraged if your efforts bear no immediate fruit. If there’s prolonged silence after you mention God or ask about a person’s objections, don’t force the issue. Act in such a way that manifests hope for further discussion and willingness to respect a person’s boundaries. Make it clear you want to be there when the door opens up. We never know where another person is in the long process of conversion. You could be speaking with someone who’s never given God an earnest bit of consideration. You could be speaking with someone who has been wrestling with God for years. Don’t presume to know.

When We Apologize

Discerning Spirit

Understanding when to defend the faith demonstrates that apologetics is an art, not a science. There’s not a lot of advice I can give you in this because each relationship is going to be unique. It’s something you’ll need to feel your way through and can improve with practice. You’ll develop a sense for when to broach a topic. Knowing when to apologize varies in difficulty. Sometimes a prompt occurs naturally. A particular news item may have an obvious segue to an apologetic topic. You could ask a general question on that topic and see where it heads. If and when your turn comes around, you could offer Biblical insights humbly. At another time, the other person may directly ask you why you believe as you do. So it’s important to prepare yourself through study such as the one you’re in right now for those moments.

Remember, Jesus didn’t share the Gospel with people before they were ready. Some people need to hear something else first. Now especially, because of the touchy nature of religion, we’re going to have to lay a lot of groundwork before we can effectively apologize. Building and maintaining relationships and modelling Christ-like behavior in those relationships is in keeping with the Apostle Paul’s advice in 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 for the spouses of unbelievers. None of us knows whether a given person will be converted, so we can’t quit on them.

It’s possible that the time may never come without your instigation. Many nonChristians try very hard not to think about God or anything spiritual at all. If that’s the case, you need to rely on a discerning spirit. Where has this person shown openness to Christian beliefs already? Can you bring this comes up again and take the conversation a step further? How are you received? If you face no opposition, take another step.

Once the conversation is underway, find the crux of a person’s objections. Few people will have just one reason they don’t believe in God, let alone Jesus as their savior. Ask, if I can defend that objection, would that change your mind on Christianity? If not, it may be best to return to that objection later.

Check Your Heart

But before you do, check your heart. Check your heart before rebutting an objection. Don’t bring God up for conversation if you aren’t passionately concerned for their well-being. If a clear, present interest in others’ destiny is moving you, you’ll have the most appropriate demeanor for engaging others. If you’re angry with someone for insulting Jesus or denigrating Christians, don’t try to tear them apart. It would be better to turn the other cheek than to strike back in the heat of the moment. Alternatively, if you are interested in another notch in your missionary belt, it is not the right time to speak. The other person is likely to see through your agenda and be unfavorably inclined against you and the truth you wish to communicate.

How We Apologize

With Compassion

Whatever we do, as Christians we can always start by applying the golden rule. As Jesus said, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12. Think of defending the faith as an application of the Golden Rule to conversations. Be mindful of your speech. Listen closely. Consider how you would like to be challenged. If you have been on the receiving end of evangelism at some point in your life, recall what if anything made you uncomfortable about it. Some of you no doubt have been approached by Jehovah’s Witnesses or answered the door for Mormon missionaries. How did that go? Were they pushy? Off-putting? Don’t do that. Be sure not to repeat those mistakes. Likewise, reflect on the times in life where you resisted correction or continued in disagreement because of the way the correction or alternative was delivered. Take a different tact in your speech.

In all that you say, be careful not to denigrate or speak ill of others. Even when matters of faith are not the topic of conversation, a skeptic may be repulsed by your defamatory speech and may not feel safe being frank or open with you when matters of faith are raised. This is one of the many ways transgressing the golden rule destroys trust.

Moreover, many people don’t come to faith because they’ve been hurt or vilified by Christians.

With Graciousness

Earlier, I emphasized the notion of gentleness in 1 Peter 3:15. A related concept is graciousness. As Scripture says, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Colossians 4:6 Paul’s advice is in keeping with the commandment to love others as we already mentioned. Gracious speech is the bedrock of relationships. It elicits honest feedback and makes intimacy possible. From being honored with candid knowledge of others, you are prepared to speak with them uniquely.

Also consider Paul’s words in Corinthians, at the end of a long list of how love influences actions, he says “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Corininthians 13:1. Feelings and beliefs are closely entwined. We must be careful when questioning others’ beliefs that we do so with love so apparent it can’t be missed. It’s possible here, as elsewhere, to say the right things in the wrong ways. When people are hurt by insensitive speech, they’re defenses go up. The truth you have to speak won’t get through to them. Part of speaking in love means using language others can understand. Avoid using theological terms or other words with uniquely Christian meanings as that would confuse and possibly alienate your audience at the outset.

Strive not to undercut your efforts through self-righteousness. Don’t miss an opportunity to admit your own frailties. Be open to admitting you’re unsure or don’t know. No harm comes from humility. We should never feign knowledge greater than we have. We shouldn’t be embarrassed by mystery nor think we’ve failed when we can’t explain everything. Were the tables turned, we would find the atheist or agnostic has unjustifiable beliefs or assumptions as well. That sort of faith is inescapable. It’s a consequence of being human for which, by the way, Christianity accounts. In that spirit, we should strive to show that the choice isn’t between one worldview that’s committed to beliefs that are unverifiable and the others, represented by atheistic and agnostic ways of thinking, that are committed to only those beliefs that are verifiable.

With Patience

I foreshadowed this earlier, but I want to reiterate the centrality of patience: I bring to your attention this passage from Acts “..for three Sabbaths (he) reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.’” Acts 17:2-3. The Apostle Paul, gifted though we was, needed weeks to engage with the Romans. We should be prepared for our efforts to require many discussions. We have all been damaged and degenerated by the effects of sin. Getting beyond these deficiencies often requires repetition and always requires the Holy Spirit. We may have to sacrifice great amounts of our time to be honored with the opportunity to speak with a distant person in an intimate, likely convicting, way.

Be prepared to be frustrated. Christianly understood, love is costly. It entails self-sacrifice. Loving real, broken people means being emotionally broken yourself. Follow Christ in that way and pour yourself out for the needs of the world. Don’t succumb to the ways of our Post-Christian world, which individualistic and is quick to cut ties in the pursuit of happiness.

There may come a time when it is necessary to agree to disagree. Once you have stated your case clearly and articulated the truth as best you can, you’ll hopefully leave the other person with a case that challenges his or her own. If a person so desires, they can find loopholes or alter their existing beliefs such that they can accommodate damaging truths. Don’t leave in anger or sever ties because you haven’t succeeded. You’re still called to love these people, even if their animosity rises to the level of enmity. These are the people for whom we’re called to pray. Remember Saul, that zealous persecutor of the early Christians, who was so outwardly hardened against Jesus, was being courted by the Spirit before Christ came to him on the road to Damascus. We know our God can win someone like Saul over, so shouldn’t we pray for those among us who only cut us with their words?

Moreover, realize that if you completely dissociate from a person because he or she persists to be skeptical, he or she may no longer have any ties to faithful Christians. At that point, it becomes far less likely he or she will be converted. Love them still, despite their obstinate. God loves us despite our sin.

With Inquisitiveness

If you wish to be heard, you must be willing to hear others. A great example of this is in Tim Keller’s DVD companion to his book The Reason for God. In those unscripted conversations, Keller asks a question of a group of nonbelievers and then lets them speak at length. Only in the last two minutes of the conversation does he offer a rejoinder to the issues that arose. He does so gently, usually opting to pose more questions rather than to assert answers. This is always a good way to start. Repeatedly throughout the Gospel, Jesus learns about people before he says what they need to hear.

You cannot begin to get to know them, to discern their needs and doubts without first listening to them. Clarify as much as possible. Ask questions until you are confident you have a full understanding of their issues. See if you can restate their position in terms they would recognize. Proving yourself to be a committed, engaged listener builds trust and respect, which of course is a cornerstone of relationships.

This knowledge will be indispensable to bringing people closer to faith. Use it to point to God’s providence in their lives. God uses many means to bring people to Himself. Is this person athletically gifted? God made the body and designed it to accomplish great feats. Is this person hospitable? God created the universe and invites all of us to partake of its bounty. Being able to speak to the specific way God has been at work in this person’s life is a wonderful supplement to apologizing.

Likewise, getting to know someone inevitably involves getting to know where their idols lie. Be observant. Does he or she have a noteworthy career? How might you present the problem of identifying with it in the future? Make note of where you might need to challenge someone when the time comes. Nearly everyone you meet, for instance, will believe in his or her sovereign right over his or her own life. You’ll need to address that at some point. Of course, as with all outreach attempts, you must do this humbly, recognizing all the while that you are just as prone to worship yourself as well were not the Spirit pushing against that bent in you.

With Prayerfulness

Before I draw this a close, I’d be remiss without mentioning the need for prayer. As with any serious undertaking, when possible, pray before you enter into a discussion on these topics. Ask for the Holy Spirit to guide your tongue and fill your heart with compassion. Remember you aren’t doing this alone. Pray also for discernment about the primary area where a person needs to be addressed.

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