“Jesus Christ did not say, ‘Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right.'”
– C. S. Lewis
As you grow in your faith and walk with Christ you will be asked questions from the world that are difficult to answer. To a person who does not believe in God, saying to them “because the Bible says so” is not a sufficient response.
When we encounter tough questions, we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to see how God wants to apply the truth of who he is to that person. Christians ought to be proponents of truth, or else we contribute to the degradation of society.
God calls us not only to minister to people and love them, but also share the truth of who God is and what he desires for their eternal destiny. When the opportunity arises, we should be able to boldly share different aspects of this truth, our faith, and how it is relevant to a secular world.
Any follower of Christ who is actively engaged in reaching the lost will eventually face tough questions. Just remember, you have the advantage and you are equipped by the very Spirit of God. If you are armed with knowledge, you will be able to build bridges over deep chasms of spiritual darkness and help the lost find what their soul is ultimately searching for.
Challenges From Others
As a believer, there is no doubt that you will be faced with difficult challenges. Jesus never promised his followers a life of comfort and acceptance. It is quite the contrary: a life of adversity awaits the believer who seeks after God as they continuously battle against the adversary, the world, and their fleshly desires. However, joy, peace and comfort is also experienced throughout the journey. Jesus warns all of his disciples,
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18).
Part of these challenges is the realization that we have an adversary (the devil/demonic forces) who would love to create doubt, fear, and a lack of confidence about your precious faith. In your daily walk, there are times where you will encounter other people who have never studied Christianity.
Oftentimes, these people have only heard false information about it, and sometimes, these individuals will try to disprove your beliefs in hope that you will abandon Christianity all together.
You are going to be asked questions that are difficult to respond to, so it is a good idea to become more familiar with your faith by knowing more about it! In addition to this, God will put you in front of people at a specific time and place so you can give them the answer they will need.
It is very important that you know God, but we should also know things about God and our faith. We are told to be ready to give an answer or defense to every person that asks us for a reason for the hope that is within us, with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). The word “answer” comes from the Greek word, apologia, which is where we get the word apologetics. Apologetics is a branch of Christian theology that helps believers to better understand their faith and embolden them to share it more effectively.
There have been multiple times over the years where I have had different individuals make claims or ask questions similar to the following: Jesus wasn’t God; there is no evidence for God’s existence; God couldn’t be loving because He created hell; God isn’t real because of evil and suffering; the Bible has constantly changed over the years and can’t be trusted; Jesus was a mythical figure of ancient history; there are multiple gods to worship; all paths lead to God; evolution has given us our moral senses; there is no absolute or objective truth; the Bible is a book of fairy tales; the Bible promotes slavery, genocide and polygamy; the Bible is silent on issues of gender distinction, same-sex relationships, and abortion; and so on, and so forth.
I have also met several people who left Christianity at a young age, but after studying apologetics they returned to their faith. I have also encountered those who were genuinely considering Christianity, but were holding back because they honestly thought there were no good answers to many of these objections toward Christianity.
In this internet age, a lot of information is disseminated at an incredible rate. Various belief systems get passed around and absorbed by uninformed people. These people oftentimes do not evaluate this new ideology they’re embracing as truth.
I have personally dialogued with the following religious groups who hold different beliefs that do not correspond with reality: Jehovah’s Witnesses’ who claim that Jesus isn’t God, but was God’s first and greatest creation. Mormons who say that Joseph Smith was the last prophet of God sent to restore the gospel, and that there are an infinite number of gods, and you can become one someday. Gnostic’s who say the god of this world was evil, and that Jesus was never physically resurrected. Orthodox Jews who do not believe Jesus was God. Hindus who say Jesus was just a good moral teacher and that there are millions of gods we could worship. Buddhists who deny that the self exists, that our world is illusory, and that Jesus is not God. Muslims who claim that you should believe in their god, Allah, and that Jesus didn’t even die on the cross.
Guess what the common theme among all of them was? None of them could provide good evidence or demonstrate that their religions were true. Instead, they told me they knew it was true based on their personal subjective experience, and because their holy book said it was true.
Unfortunately, many Christians who have access to a wealth of information often do the same thing. Many have neglected to study about their faith to better defend it and share it with others. In our modern society, many Christians find themselves attracted to churches improperly balanced, concentrating more on appealing to their emotions while neglecting their mind/intellect.
Reasoning Glorifies God
Part of the greatest commandment given by Jesus, is that we are told to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind (Matt. 22:37). Loving God with all of our mind means that we need learn more about Him and make Him known to others. We live in a secular and culturally diverse society that can be very hostile toward our faith. These individuals typically have intellectual barriers which apologetics can help remove with the Holy Spirit’s power. Without God, our efforts are futile; but with God, our efforts are fruitful.
Christians are extremely blessed to have an overwhelming abundance of evidence for their faith. Now, I want to make something clear regarding our faith; philosopher and theologian William Lane Craig also points this out. That is, we don’t need evidence to know Christianity is true, because we have the self-authenticating witness of the Holy Spirit and have directly experienced God; however, in order to show someone that Christianity is true, it is extremely helpful to have good evidence and arguments at your disposal.[1]
For thousands of years, the Holy Spirit has used evidence and reason/arguments as a means to bring countless people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The evidence and reasoning do not save them, only the Holy Spirit can do that; but God uses those things to draw people to Himself or remove intellectual barriers which allow people to take the necessary step of faith to put their trust in Him. Incredible fruit has been produced from friendly dialogues that I’ve had with numerous individuals. And praise God, several of them accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior because of the answers provided that removed the barriers within their minds.
Examples Set by Prophets, Christ and the Apostles
You will see apologetics all throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, the Israelites used apologetics to demonstrate that their pagan neighbors were worshipping aspects of creation that couldn’t save them, such as: the sun, rivers, idols, etc. They explained to the unbelievers that they should not be worshipping creation, but rather the Creator.
The Old Testament Prophets constantly defended their faith and refuted the arguments and beliefs of polytheism (idea that multiple gods exist) of the Egyptians, Canaanites and Babylonians. Isaiah told the idolaters to prove that their gods existed and asked for evidence from them (Is. 41:21-23). Elijah used evidence to prove the existence of God against the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18).
In the New Testament, Jesus argued and provided evidence to unbelievers by appealing to His miracles and fulfilled prophecy in order to prove that His claims were true! Philosopher Douglas Groothuis says,
“Jesus unapologetically engaged in apologetics with his sharpest critics. If he is the model for Christians, we should do so as well.”[2]
Paul said he was “set for the defense of the gospel” (Philippians 1:7) and would argue and reason in the synagogues for days (Acts 17:2), and sometimes he would argue with the unbelieving Jews for several months! (Acts 19:8). Peter’s sermon at the day of Pentecost was full of apologetic content in Acts. In Acts 2, Peter appeals to the evidence of Jesus’ miracles, fulfilled prophecy and Christ’s resurrection. By means of these arguments the apostles demonstrated to the Jews that Christianity is true.
In Acts 17 at Mars Hill, we see Paul evangelizing to the Epicureans and Stoics without even quoting from Scripture; rather, he quotes from their own philosophers and poets, and then provides a biblical narrative of the resurrection. In Romans 1:20, Paul appeals to nature in demonstrating the existence of God. He also referred to eyewitness testimony to further demonstrate that Christianity was true (1 Cor. 15:3-8).
Moreover, after the apostles were gone, within a generation there were already individuals in the early church doing apologetics. Some of these were: Aristides (AD 125); Justin Martyr (AD 100-165); Athenagoras (AD 185); Irenaeus (AD 120-202); Tertullian (AD 160-225); Origen (AD 184-254); Athanasius (AD 295-373); John Chrysostom (AD 347-407); Augustine (AD 354-430); the list continues to our present day. [3] Christianity has a rich heritage of great defenders of the faith who took God’s commands for sharing it with others very seriously and defended it against those who challenged it.
The End Goal
The goal of apologetics (providing an answer/sharing and defending your faith), is not to win an argument, rather the goal is to win people to Christ. However, in doing this, oftentimes it requires argumentation, or more specifically, a Christ-like presentation of facts. Recall, when you engage in these dialogues, you are to respond with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).
It is important to realize that there is a fundamental difference between arguing and being argumentative. Arguing involves a sincere discussion, while being argumentative involves prideful quarreling with no good intentions. Arguing is also defined as the presentation of facts for the purpose of persuading another.
At times, God will place you in a setting where He enables you to share Bible verses to someone about salvation and give your personal experience. However, in other circumstances a different method may be required. Each person is in a different spiritual state and has different approaches to life and truth in general. With this in mind, we can refer to the methods used by the Prophets, Jesus, Paul, Peter, Apollos, etc. They all used a combination of reason and evidence which the Holy Spirit used to convict and save the hearers.
It is important to observe that when you encounter a person of this nature, that you do not lose hope in reaching them based on the hardness of their heart or display of unbelief. It is just going to take time and some effort. Keep in mind that you will be planting seeds or watering previous ones that others could not, which God can give increase to later.
Over the centuries, there have been thousands of individuals across the world who have accepted Christ because of arguments and evidence presented by Christians that the Holy Spirit used to convict them. So, with that said, your faith is founded upon facts/truths which can be validated and confirmed in multiple ways. I highly encourage you to learn more about your faith, and apologetics will serve you well in this endeavor.
Blessings,
Andrew Drinkard
[1] William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 3rd ed (Wheaton: Crossway Publishing, 2008), 43-58.
[2] Douglas R. Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011), 33.
[3] William Ediger and K. Scott Oliphint, Christian Apologetics Past & Present: A Primary Source Reader: Volume 1:: To 1500 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 29, 35, 65, 83, 115, 157, 173, 189, 205.
