A question we received on a comment card at Living Stones a while back asked the following, “Do you believe it is the duty of Christians to understand the apologetics of the faith in addition to the Scriptures?”
First of all, you said duty.
And the answer is yes, absolutely, unequivocally, positively, without a doubt it is our responsibility. And not just for some, but for every Christian.
For those that are unaware of what apologetics is, allow me to define it; apologetics is essentially the art of defending the Christian faith. The question is obviously asking about apologetics in forms other than biblical ones, because some apologetics are found in the Scripture themselves. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”. This verse is telling us to be prepared to answer the questions of the skeptics. On Mars Hill in Acts 17, Paul quoted pagan poets to prove a point about Jesus.
The only way to truly be ready to answer any question is to study in a broad range of topics. I spend almost as much time studying philosophy and science as I do theology, because my theology will only be taken seriously by the non-believer if they can see that I understand the world outside of the Scriptures enough to point people to the truth. All truth is God’s truth, not just the truth found in Scripture. Scripture is certainly the only concrete, trustworthy, authoritative, and verifiable truth, but God’s truth is everywhere. You can’t go to the Bible to learn that 2+2=4, but God designed mathematical truth.
Sometimes using the truths of science and philosophy and showing their consistency with Scripture is the only way to get a skeptic to see you as a ‘thinking person’ as opposed to a ‘closed-minded fundamentalist’. Most skeptics’ questions won’t have to do with Scripture—they will ask questions about epistemology, science, or metaphysics. If we say, “I don’t know what those are but I know God loves you”, then we lose any effectiveness in evangelism and we disobey the command in Scripture to love God with our entire mind. We are called to be wise in how we approach non-believers (Colossians 4) and engage people in any way we can with the truth without falling into sin ourselves. Anyone who tells you that studying the intellectual disciplines outside of Scripture is sin hasn’t read the Scripture.
This is a call, and we all have a responsibility to it—but most of us just ignore it because we think it’s harder than it actually is.
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3 comments:
Ever considered doing an apologetics teaching series at Living Stones? I know you can't cover it all in such setting, but I've spoken to several Stoners that are interested in the subject but do not know where to begin.
I love this idea and support it. I will use my jedi power to convince the Shepherd Team to teach on this.
"The only way to truly be ready to answer any question is to study in a broad range of topics. I spend almost as much time studying philosophy and science as I do theology, because my theology will only be taken seriously by the non-believer if they can see that I understand the world outside of the Scriptures enough to point people to the truth."
I agree with you on this. I talked to my sister about god a few weeks ago she had questions about why other world religions are all wrong. I explained to her a little bit, but sadly, I feel my answers were less than sufficient and it really convicted me that I should be reading more, about apologetics and other topics as well.
I like your blogs, keep writing and I'll keep reading. =)
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