The Battleground of Apologetics

I want to give two purposes for apologetics. The first is a combination of Scriptural references that will be presented later, and the second is simply my paraphrase of the Scriptural definition.

The goal of apologetics is to enable God’s people to always [be] ready to make a defense [and confirmation of the Gospel] to everyone who asks [them] to give an account for the hope that is in [them]…with gentleness and reverence, not…quarrelsome, but…kind to all, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth [so that] they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.

…or to defend and confirm the Gospel of Jesus Christ with love with the hope so that the lost will repent and come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savoir.

It is NOT to be used simply to win a debate or argument. If you win the argument, the soul is still likely lost. It is to be a tool for witnessing, evangelism and discipleship.

Definition

We now need a generic characterization of what the term apologetics means. Here is one such definition:

“The branch of theology that is concerned with defending or proving the truth of Christian doctrines.”[1]

So the question becomes, ‘how can we defend, let alone prove Christianity?’ Well, for starters, if you were told to go and defend someone or something… hopefully you would know the basics of your assignment before beginning the mission.

For example, you might want to know who or what you are defending. You can’t very well defend something if you don’t know what it is or where it is.

Next, you might be interested in knowing who or what you are defending against. I think you will agree that it would sure help to know what the enemy looked like. Otherwise how will you recognize him?

Third, you would probably want to know what kind of attacks you would be defending against. It would sure make your task a lot easier if you knew what kind of weapons your enemy used.

Finally, you would want to know what resources, weapons and defenses that you have at your disposal to carry out this task.

Who and What

Tying this simple analogy in with the definition, we need to know a few basic things about apologetics and how they apply to us as Christians. First, we need to understand who and what you are trying to defend through Apologetics.

While the specifics of what you may be called to defend or offer an apology for will vary greatly, there are a few basic categories that I will concentrate on in this book—they are by no means exhaustive. They are:

2. The Bible: It’s inerrancy. It’s meaning. It’s uniqueness as God’s sole revelation.

3. Jesus: His existence & nature. His teachings. His substitution. His judgment

Our Opponents

OK…so now we know what we are offering a defense for through Apologetics, but whom are we defending our faith against?

Without getting too deep, as it merits its own class, apologetics is but one form of spiritual warfare. Therefore, apologetics should not be viewed as simply an intellectual chess match between believer and non-believer. That is not how we are to defend. Neither should it be viewed as a physical battle with a physical enemy. The Christian has but one true enemy and that is Satan himself. The lost people in the world are the reason that we are all still here. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are “Created in Christ Jesus for good works.” This “good works” clause necessitates us doing the works of the Father for the glory of the Son. This means that we are to be the lights in our dark world to lead the lost to the saving grace of God.

They are the lost coins and the lost sheep that God and all of heaven are waiting to rejoice over. Viewing apologetics from a spiritual warfare perspective is imperative. Read the following quote from 2 Timothy 2:24-26:

“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”[2]

Again, we could classify our opponents in countless ways, but for this level of study we will generalize them into several distinct categories. Each one will be discussed later.

Attacks to Defend Against

To say that the variety of attacks that we will face is infinite would be giving our enemy way too much credit. We know from Scripture that he cannot tempt us or attack us with anything new. We know his weapons and tactics. This means that all attacks that our opponents throw at us will either be familiar or at least fall into familiar categories. These will be discussed more in detail in the following chapters. Basically, we must defend against attacks on:

Our attackers will try and use Science (falsely so called), faulty logic, human reasoning, confusion, personal experiences, etc. All of these may seem daunting at first, be we must remember Paul’s words of encouragement in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We will win the battles not by our might or wit, but by our Lord and Savior.

Our Defenses

Now we need to know what we have to work with. There are a lot of Scripture references that could be discussed in great length; however, we will simply brush by a few here for the sake of the simplicity of the point. One of the foundational verse that comes to mind is God’s reminder from 1 John 4:4. Here it states that, “…greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”^{^[3]}

This Scripture is important to our apologetics discussion for two primary reasons. First, it is not you or I that accomplish anything. Rather, it is He that is inside us that does the work and gets the glory. Second, it should be very comforting for believers to know that we do not have to rely on ourselves to defend, defense or defeat our opponent by relying solely on our limited abilities.

The second classification of Scripture that is relevant here relates to the power and absolute necessity of prayer. If we are not laying down adequate prayer coverage prior to engaging in spiritual warfare on the apologetic front (or any front), we are just wasting good oxygen and precious time. No matter how much we think we know or how good at debating we think we are, if God is not in it, we will fail. As much as God wants all of those lost sheep, He is not likely to reward us for doing things without Him.

“Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one].”^{^[4]}

This is a critical component of witnessing and defending. When defending our faith, we will undoubtedly experience every possible type of attack. Our own Shield of Faith must be strong enough to quench the enemy’s missiles; otherwise our faith could be weakened.

With the three basic scriptural principles above established as our foundational resources for apologetics, we can now continue to list some of our defensive strategies. They will include:

While some of these are better suited for different opponents, all can be used in some degree in nearly every situation.

Why Study Apologetics

The next round of questions that should be answered includes quite a few of the ‘Why’ questions. For example, ‘why do we really need to study apologetics?’ ‘Why is it important to understand our faith as much as humanly possible?’ ‘Why do we need to defend our faith?’ Below are four separate categories of scriptural and logical reasons supporting the necessity of apologetics in the life of a Christian. But first, let me add this personal observation.

Christians often times are labeled by secular society as being judgmental, arrogant and even disparaging towards non-Christians (as well as other Christians). Unfortunately, that is too often the case. So why is that? From my limited personal inquiries and experience, I have come to the broad conclusion that it is because Christians in general appear to have a ‘Blind Faith’ that only proclaims that we are right and everyone else is wrong.

The fact is that true Christians do indeed have it right, but that is not how the lost see it. What they see are Christians that stereotypically tell everyone else they are wrong and are going to hell, but cannot defend their own faith against similar criticism and questions. Anyone can accuse, point fingers, and find fault with others, but few are willing and able to defend their own faith?

To clarify, I do not view true Christianity as a Blind Faith. The combination of my life-changing experiences through Christ partnered with the study that I have undertaken and completed thus far have made me as confident in my faith in Jesus and the Bible as I am that 1 + 1 = 2.

On the other hand, Christians in general are infamous for telling others that their beliefs are wrong without being able to properly defend why Christianity is the only Truth. This is how we earn and deserve the label of hypocrite and get a reputation of having a Blind Faith. Again, anyone can criticize—that’s the easy part, but not all can defend.

By nature, humans are reasonable and rational beings. As such, we seek meaning and understanding from the world around us. It is much harder to witness and share the Gospel of Jesus with others if you yourself are not knowledgeable and confident in your faith. In fact, if you are not strong in your faith, others could easily pull you down while you are trying to pull them up. We all need to have a firm grasp on what it is that we believe and what we are putting our eternal hopes in. How strong can our faith be if we are afraid to test it, use it, or live it?

The foundation of apologetics does not lie merely in the study of the Bible, facts or statistics. If this was the case, an atheist could do it if he/she studied the Bible enough. Rather the foundation of apologetics lies within our own heart—a heart that has been transformed by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit that comes when we are saved. If you have Christ in your heart, you will be able to defend and communicate your faith to others in a way that is pleasing to God and non-offensive to most.

There are many different levels and types of apologetics. These types of apologetics are an important part of understanding the Christian faith as well as being able to share it effectively with others. We will take a good look at many of them, and others we will simply touch on to point out possible avenues of future study and personal exploration.

General Precautions About Apologetics

When I first started studying my faith and apologetics, I did so because I wanted to first prove it to myself. This is where I had to pull back the reins a bit—so to speak—on myself. There is no way to prove with purely empirical evidence everything that Biblical Christianity stands for. If that were the case, there would be no faith necessary on our part. With that said and out of the way, let me balance it by stating that it takes more faith to believe all other theologies than it does Christianity. Let me illustrate the underlying point with the following:

¨ that every available fact points towards the God of the Bible as being the Creator of all things

¨ the Bible is God’s only inerrant Word detailing His revelation of Himself to man

¨ the necessity of the spilled blood of Jesus to save us from the righteous judgment of God that would allow us the freedom to go to Hell because of our sin

¨ looking at all of the evidence, it would be logically foolish not to believe in Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible.

I would like to issue one more caution here regarding the fruits of your apologetic efforts. When you get right down to it, many people are “non-Christians” because of a hard heart—not a hard head. They can be shown all of the available proof and admit to you that Christianity is the only Truth in the world and still not give in. It is not a matter of saying the right thing or showing the right proof, it is a matter of their heart being changed by God. This is why prayer and even fasting are so important to the dedicated apologetic effort. So if you do not see immediate fruits, do not be discouraged…that’s one of the enemy’s ways of attacking you. He wants you to surrender and give up the fight—don’t fall for it!

Reasons for Apologetics

From this point onward, all quotes from Scripture will be from the New American Standard Bible as previously footnoted, unless otherwise indicated.

I – God Commands It

1. I Peter 3:14-15 “…And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”^{^[5]}

Worth noting here is that the word that Peter uses here in the Greek for defense is from apologia, which basically means a speech in defense of what one has done, or of truth which one believes. It is not a heated debate or argument. This would be what we are called to do when someone asks, “Why are you a Christian? Why do you believe?”

2. 2 Corinthian 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”

3. Philippians 1:7 “For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.”

4. Jude 1:1-4 “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

I must tell you, this verse in Jude 3 is probably one of the most frightening verses in all of Scripture to me. Consider what it is saying. The Gospel of Jesus is in our hands—our hearts—our minds—our lips—our bodies. If we do not carry it to the people, how will they know??? They won’t!!!

5. 2 Timothy 2:24-26 “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” (Again, this illustrates that it is indeed Spiritual Warfare)

II – Reason Demands It

1. Genesis 1:27 “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

2. Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”

3. Matthew 22:36-39 “36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

4. Socrates – Although not Scriptural in nature, Socrates issues a challenge that is at the heart of Christian Apologetics. He said, “…The unexamined life is not worth living.” Similarly, how can we value our faith if do not know it and have not examined it ?

III – The World Needs It

1. Evidence of the Truth proceeds Faith. It may only take one God directed sentence from us for God to draw someone to Himself. If only we were obedient enough to speak when called upon.

2. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” So what good is our Sword if it is still in the sheath? God’s Word cannot pierce the hard hearts of the lost if it is not spoken. We know from Scripture that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Roman’s 10:17 )

3. The lost will never see God by their reason alone. For example:
1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:21 “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

4. Romans 1:19-20 “For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification]”^{^[6]}

5. Proverbs 26:4-5 “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him. Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes.”

IV – We Need It!

1. We need to strengthen our Faith.
Hebrews 11:1 “NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”^{^[7]}

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].”^{^[8]}

2. 2 Corinthians 13:15 “Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected?”^{^[9]}

3. Ephesians 6:16 “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” By deepening our understanding of our faith, we will be better able to withstand the attacks of the enemy.

Definitions

There are a few terms that may be used in your apologetic encounters so you should be made aware of them. For starters, we will define the general classes of opponents that we will be defending our faith against. These can be confusing, but it is necessary to see what we are up against. Here are some of the primary ones:

To the secular world, Christianity is viewed generally as a Theism, more specifically, a Monotheism. They are defined below:

Types of Apologetics

When defending the Christian Faith, our defenses fall into several types of categories or types of apologetics. They are categorized based on the type of argument being made for our faith. We will not go into too great of detail in this class with all of these, nevertheless, it is important to have a basic understanding of them. Here are the four most common:

Classical Apologetics

“Classical apologetics stresses arguments for the existence of God as well as the historical evidence supporting the truth of Christianity.”[11] There are two essential steps that make up classical apologetics. They are Theistic arguments and then Evidentiary arguments.

The first step for a classical apologist is to establish a theological foundation that if God exists then miracles are indeed possible (or some other faith based presupposition). The foundation of miracles is necessary to this argument. Classical apologists start with trying to establish that if there is indeed a God that is Creator of all things, then surely He can undeniably do things that cannot be explained by science or reason, a.k.a. miracles. The first miracle along this defense is the act of creation itself.

The challenge with this style of argumentation is getting your opponent to agree that if God does exist then He can in fact do miracles (or other such theistic presupposition). If the person is not willing to grant this basic theological view, it negates this line of apology.

If however, the opponent does indeed concur, the next step is to offer evidence to support the existence of miracles. The primary argument for miracles would be the authenticity and reliability of the accounts in the New Testament. The fact that the miracles of Jesus are so well documented both from inside the Bible and out, is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that sets Christianity apart from the false religions. Not only do these documents show that Jesus did these miracles, but also proves that He was indeed the Son of God. The fact that Jesus also quoted from the Old Testament demonstrates the authenticity of it as well. Once God is shown to exist through His miracles, the argument turns to what He has revealed to us.

There are of course variations on this form of apologetics, but the concept is consistent. Some of the proponents of Classical Apologetics include famous Christians like:

Evidential Apologetics

While Evidential Apologetics shares a lot in common with Classical, such as the use of the same evidence, it starts from a different point. Evidential apologetics starts with the direct goal of proving that God exists, and the Holy Bible is indeed His revelation to us by relying solely on the available evidence.

The types of evidence used can vary from archaeological, bibliographical, experiential, historical, logical, manuscript, prophetic, rational, and even scientific. Many of these proofs will be discussed in this book. Since most of these categories of evidence are self-explanatory, they will not be elaborated on here.

Theological Apologetics

In essence, this type of apologetics seeks to prove that God exists based exclusively on reason and logic. There are many types of arguments that would fall into this category. Most begin with stating a given or widely accepted fact and building an argument based from that foundation. Here are a few of this type of apology that seek to substantiate the existence of God to non-believers:

Experiential Apologetics

“Experiential apologetics is the form of defending the Christian faith that appeals to Christian experience as evidence for the truth of Christianity. In its appeal to internal, as opposed to external, evidence, it contrasts sharply with other apologetic systems.”[14] (emphasis mine)

In essence, this is our Testimony and our Witness. This is the evidence of our life changing experience after meeting the Life Changer—Jesus Christ. This can be the strongest argument for proof of who we know Christ to be, but it can also be the source of our apologetic defeat.

You may be asking, ‘how can that be?’ Well…I’ll tell you. Nowhere in the world does the old saying, ‘actions speak louder than words,’ play such a critical part than in our testimony. If we try using our “life-changing experience” as proof for Christ and His Identity, how many of us would lose the argument??? For example, when people see our daily walk, what are they thinking? Are they thinking…

“That person is supposed to be a Christian, and I live a better life than they do.
If that’s what being a Christian does for you, I’ll keep my 10% and sleep late on Sundays!”

~An even more menacing thought is that they only see us in public when we are most likely on our best behavior. Think of what our Holy God must think. He not only sees our every move in public and private, but knows every thought, desire and motive in our heart as well.~

Which Way Now?

Now that we know what Apologetics are and why we need to study them, let’s get started. So where do we go from here? Over the rest of the book, we will take a look at a systematic argument that that blazes an apologetic path that cuts off the attacker from his troops and supplies. The attacker will have not choice but to surrender or retreat. It touches on most of the arguments used against our faith as well as utilizes most of the defenses for the faith.

I hope that along the way, you will come up with the style that best suits you while still having other weapons to use should the Lord call on you to use them. Consider this Basic Training in Apologetics.

It is up to you to be obedient and use the tools and resources that God has given you. Keep this Scripture in mind as you prepare:

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” II Timothy 2:3-4

Are you ready to enlist as a Soldier of Christ? Everyone is enlisted…it’s just a matter of which side you are fighting for.

[1] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

[2] (NASB)

[3] (NASB)

[4] The Amplified New Testament, ( La Habra CA : The Lockman Foundation) 1999.

[5] NASB

[6] The Amplified New Testament, ( La Habra CA : The Lockman Foundation) 1999.

[7] ibid

[8] ibid

[9] ibid

[11] ibid. p.41

[14] Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. P. 235

Chapter 1 - The Battlefield

The Goal of Apologetics