Apologetics an
introduction the defending the Faith
by
Jack Kettler
In this study we will
look at the general call of the believer to
defend the faith. In another study
the differing methods of apologetics will be
covered. Briefly, regarding the
differing approaches to apologetics, there
are several recognized
methodologies. They are classical
apologetics (Thomistic), evidential
apologetics (John W. Montgomery), and
presuppositional apologetics (Cornelius
Van Til). Note: I have only listed one
advocate of each methodology for
brevity’s sake.
Definition of apologetics:
Apologetics is the
theological discipline concerned with
explaining and defending the truthfulness
of the Christian faith. *
The word “apologetics”
is derived from the Greek word “apologia,”
which means to make a defense. It
has come to mean defense of the faith.
Apologetics covers many areas: who Jesus
is, the reliability of the Bible, refuting
cults, biblical evidences in the
history and archeology, answering
objections, etc. In short, it deals with
giving reasons for Christianity being the
true religion. We are called by God
to give an apologia, a defense: “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” (1
Peter 3:15). **
Apologetics although closely
related to
the call to evangelize, it is a distinct
theological discipline.
How can evangelism be
defined?
Evangelism:
Is the sharing with
non-Christians the message of what Jesus has
done to save sinners, and calling
them to repent and believe; the faithful
delivery of the message of the gospel.
*
The following Scriptures are
the basis
for the call to evangelize:
“Then saith he unto
his disciples, The harvest truly is
plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
labourers into his harvest.”(Matthew
9:37-38)
“And Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, All power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go
ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I
am with you always, even unto the
end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
“And other sheep I
have, which are not of this fold: them also
I must bring, and they shall hear
my voice; and there shall be one fold, and
one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
“Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but
by me.” (John 14:6)
“But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you: and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
“For the scripture
saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not
be ashamed. For there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek:
for the same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call upon him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. How then shall they call on
him in whom they have not believed?
and how shall they believe in him of whom
they have not heard? and how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach, except they be sent?
as it is written, How beautiful are the feet
of them that preach the gospel of
peace, and bring glad tidings of good
things!” (Romans 10:11-15)
In this next selection
of Scriptures, we get to the reason for
apologetics. This idea is one of
methodology. There will be two commentary
entries from two passages of
Scripture that inform the believer of
apologetic methodology.
Scriptural reasons to defend
the faith,
and how it should be done:
“Answer not a fool
according to his folly, lest thou also be
like unto him. Answer a fool
according to his folly, lest he be wise in
his own conceit.” (Proverbs 26:4-5)
From the Pulpit Commentary we
read an
explanation of this seemingly
contradictory command:
Verse 4. - Answer not a fool
according to his folly. Do not lower
yourself to the fool's level by answering
his silly questions or arguing with him as
if he were a sensible man. Lest thou
also be like unto him; lest you be led to
utter folly yourself or to side with
him in his opinions and practices. Our
blessed Saviour never responded to
foolish and captious questions in the way
that the questioner hoped and
desired, he put them by or gave an
unexpected turn to them which silenced the
adversary. Instances may be seen in Matthew
21:23, etc.; Matthew 22:21, 22; Luke
13:23, etc.; John 21:21, etc.
Verse 5. - Answer a fool
according to his folly. This maxim at first
sight seems absolutely antagonistic
to the purport of the preceding verse; but
it is not so really. The words,
"according to his folly," in this verse
mean, as his folly deserves,
in so plain a way as is expose it, and shame
him, and bring him to a better
mind. Lest he be wise in his own conceit;
thinking, it may be, that he has said
something worth hearing, or put you to
silence by his superior intelligence.
(1)
The next passage that we will
look at will
be followed with a selection by a
recognized commentary:
“But sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always
to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is
in you with meekness and fear: Having
a good conscience; that, whereas they speak
evil of you, as of evildoers, they
may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good
conversation in Christ.” (1 Peter
3:15-16)
Consulting Matthew Poole's
Commentary
we find:
But sanctify the Lord
God in your hearts; exalt him in your
hearts, and give him the honour of all
his glorious perfections, power, wisdom,
goodness, faithfulness, &c., by
believing them, and depending upon his
promises for defence and assistance
against all the evils your enemies may
threaten you with.
And be ready always;
prepared to answer when duly called to it.
To give an answer;
or, to make an apology or defence, viz. of
the faith ye profess; the word is
used, Acts 22:1 1 Corinthians 9:3.
To every man that
asketh you; either that hath authority to
examine you, and take an account of
your religion; or, that asks with modesty,
and a desire to be satisfied, and
learn of you.
A reason of the hope
that is in you; i.e. faith, for which hope
is frequently used in Scipture,
which is built upon faith: the sense is:
Whereas unbelievers, your persecutors
especially, may scoff at your hope of future
glory, as vain and groundless, and
at yourselves, as mad or foolish, for
venturing the loss of all in this world,
and exposing yourselves to so many
sufferings, in expectation of ye know not
what uncertainties in the other; do ye
therefore be always ready to defend and
justify your faith against all objectors,
and to show how reasonable your hope
of salvation is, and on how sure a
foundation it is built.
With meekness and
fear; either with meekness in relation to
men, in opposition to passion and
intemperate zeal, (your confession of the
faith must be with courage, but yet
with a spirit of meekness and modesty), and
fear or reverence in relation to
God, which, where it prevails, overcomes the
fierceness of men’s spirits, and
makes them speak modestly of the things of
God, and give due respect to men;
or, fear may be set in opposition to pride,
and presumption of a man’s own
wisdom or strength; q.d. Make confession of
your faith humbly, with fear and
trembling, not in confidence of your own
strength, or gifts, or abilities.
Having a good
conscience; this may be read either:
1. Indicatively, and
joined (as by some it is) to the former
verse; and then the sense is: If ye be
always ready to answer every one that asketh
you a reason of the hope that is
in you, ye shall have a good conscience: or
rather:
2. Imperatively
(which our translation favours); q.d. Not
only be ready to make confession of
your faith, but let your life and practice
be correspondent to it, in keeping
yourselves pure from sin, and exercising
yourselves unto godliness, from whence
a good conscience proceeds; here therefore
the effect is put for the cause, a
good conscience for a good life, Acts 23:1.
That whereas they
speak evil of you, &c.; the sense is,
that whereas they speak evil of you,
as of evil-doers, your good conversation may
bear witness for you, confute their
calumnies, and make them ashamed, when it
appears that their accusations are
false, and that they have nothing to charge
upon you but your being followers
of Christ.
Your good
conversation in Christ; i.e. that good
conversation which ye lead as being in
Christ; viz. according to his doctrine and
example, and by the influence of his
Spirit. (2)
Now going on to other
pertinent
Scriptural passages that are relevant to
apologetic methodology:
“The heart of the
righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth
of the wicked poureth out evil
things.” (Proverbs 15:28)
“Let your speech be
alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that
ye may know how ye ought to answer
every man.” (Colossians 4:6)
“In meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves; if
God peradventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the
truth.” (2 Timothy 2:25)
When you do
evangelism, you are speaking the gospel. In
most cases you will begin a dialog
with the unbeliever. When mentioning
methodology, this involves your point of
contact with the unbeliever. As listed
above, there different strategies or
methodologies in making contact with the
non-believer. Since this study is
general or an introduction to apologetics,
what can we learn from the
Scriptures thus far? The takeaway from these
passages is to be wise, gentle,
winsome, and using soft answers to turn away
wrath.
The concluding
summary of this overview or introduction to
apologetics will be a real delight.
The author that we will look at was such an
extraordinary world-class
apologist, and I will list some of his
credentials first.
Greg L. Bahnsen was
the scholar-in-residence at the Southern
California Center for Christian
Studies and an ordained minister in the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He
received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the
University of Southern California,
specializing in the field of epistemology
(theory of Knowledge). He also
received M.Div. and Th.M. degrees from
Westminster Theological Seminary,
Philadelphia. Dr. Bahnsen was the author of
numerous books and published
articles and was a popular conference
speaker. He was also a renowned public
debater as evidenced in his interchanges
with Muslims, Roman Catholics, Jews,
and atheists. A complete list of his over
1,700 audio tapes, videos, articles,
and books is available from the Covenant
Media Foundation. (See link below)
It will be helpful to get
instructions
from the book Always
Ready by Greg
Bahnsen:
18: Summary On
Apologetic Method: Chapters 13-17
From the preceding
section of studies on apologetic procedure
we can now summarize the way in
which we ought to go about defending the
Christian hope within us:
The Nature of the Apologetic
Situation:
1. The controversy
between the believer and unbeliever is in
principle an antithesis between two
complete systems of thought involving
ultimate commitments and assumptions.
2. Even laws of
thought and method, along with factual
evidence, will be accepted and evaluated
in light of one’s governing presuppositions.
3. All chains of
argumentation, especially over matters of
ultimate personal importance, trace
back to and depend upon starting points
which are taken to be self-evidencing;
thus circularity in debate will be
unavoidable. However, not all circles are
intelligible or valid.
4. Thus appeals to
logic, fact, and personality may be
necessary, but they are not apologetically
adequate; what is needed is not piecemeal
replies, probabilities, or isolated
evidences but rather an attack upon the
underlying presuppositions of the
unbeliever’s system of thought.
5. The unbeliever’s
way of thinking is characterized as follows:
a. By nature the
unbeliever is the image of God and,
therefore, inescapably religious; his heart
testifies continually, as does also the
clear revelation of God around him, to
God’s existence and character.
b. But the unbeliever
exchanges the truth for a lie. He is a fool
who refuses to begin his thinking
with reverence for the Lord; he will not
build upon Christ’s self-evidencing
words and suppresses the unavoidable
revelation of God in nature.
c. Because he
delights not in understanding but chooses to
serve the creature rather than the
Creator, the unbeliever is self-confidently
committed to his own ways of
thought; being convinced that he could not
be fundamentally wrong, he flaunts
perverse thinking and challenges the
self-attesting word of God.
d. Consequently, the
unbeliever’s thinking results in ignorance;
in his darkened futile mind he
actually hates knowledge and can gain only a
“knowledge” falsely so-called.
e. To the extent that
he actually knows anything, it is due to his
unacknowledged dependence upon the
suppressed truth about God within him. This
renders the unbeliever
intellectually schizophrenic: by his
espoused way of thinking he actually
“opposes himself” and shows a need for a
radical “change of mind” (repentance)
unto a genuine knowledge of the truth.
f. The unbeliever’s
ignorance is culpable because he is without
excuse for his rebellion against
God’s revelation; hence he is “without an
apologetic” for his thoughts.
g. His unbelief does
not stem from a lack of factual evidence but
from his refusal to submit to the
authoritative word of God from the beginning
of his thinking.
The Requirements of the
Apologist:
1. The apologist must
have the proper attitude; he must not be
arrogant or quarrelsome, but with
humility and respect he must argue in a
gentle and peaceable manner.
2. The apologist must
have the proper starting point; he must take
God’s word as his self-evidencing
presupposition, thinking God’s thoughts
after Him (rather than attempting to be
neutral), and viewing God’s word as more
sure than even his personal experience
of the facts.
3. The apologist must
have the proper method; working on the
unbeliever’s unacknowledged
presuppositions and being firmly grounded in
his own, the apologist must aim to
cast down every high imagination exalted
against the knowledge of God by aiming
to bring every thought (his own, as well as
his opponent’s) captive to the
obedience of Christ.
4. The apologist must
have the proper goal: securing the
unbeliever’s unconditional surrender without
compromising one’s own fidelity.
a. The word of the
cross must be used to expose the utter
pseudo-wisdom of the world as
destructive foolishness.
b. Christ must be set
apart as Lord in one’s heart, thus
acknowledging no higher authority than God’s
word and refusing to suspend intellectual
commitment to its truth.
The Procedure for Defending
the Faith:
1. Realizing that the
unbeliever is holding back the truth in
unrighteousness, the apologist should
reject the foolish presuppositions implicit
in critical questions and attempt
to educate his opponent.
2. This involves
presenting the facts within the context of
the Biblical philosophy of fact:
a. God is the
sovereign determiner of possibility and
impossibility.
b. A proper reception
and understanding of the facts requires
submission to the Lordship of Christ.
c. Thus the facts
will be significant to the unbeliever only
if he has a presuppositional change
of mind from darkness to light.
d. Scripture has authority
to declare what has happened in history and
to interpret it correctly.
3. The unbeliever’s
espoused presuppositions should be
forcefully attacked, asking whether
knowledge is possible, given them:
a. In order to show
that God has made foolish the wisdom of the
world the believer can place
himself on the unbeliever’s position and
answer him according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own conceits; that
is, demonstrate the outcome of
unbelieving thought with its assumptions.
b. The unbeliever’s
claims should be reduced to impotence and
impossibility by an internal critique
of his system; that is, demonstrate the
ignorance of unbelief by arguing from
the impossibility of anything contrary to
Christianity.
4. The apologist
should appeal to the unbeliever as the image
of God who has God’s clear and
inescapable revelation, thus giving him an
ineradicable knowledge of God; this
knowledge can be exposed by indicating
unwitting expressions or by pointing to
the “borrowed capital” (un-admitted
presuppositions) which can be found in the
unbeliever’s position.
5. The apologist
should declare the self-evidencing and
authoritative truth of God as the
precondition of intelligibility and man’s
only way of salvation (from all the
effects of sin, including ignorance and
intellectual vanity):
a. Lest the apologist
become like the unbeliever, he should not
answer him according to his folly but
according to God’s word.
b. The unbeliever can
be invited to put himself on the Christian
position in order to see that it
provides the necessary grounds for
intelligible experience and factual
knowledge—thereby concluding that it alone
is reasonable to hold and the very
foundation for proving anything whatsoever.
c. The apologist can
also explain that Scripture accounts for the
unbeliever’s state of mind
(hostility) and the failure of men to
acknowledge the necessary truth of God’s
revelation; moreover, Scripture provides the
only escape from the effects of
this hostility and failure (futility and
damnation). (3)
In closing, some quotes to
ponder on
apologetics:
“While the Church has
focused on making church more enjoyable and
easier for seekers to transition
into…Atheists and other skeptics have become
predators of our weak members.
They have intentionally sought to weaken and
even destroy the faith of
Christians. And it is working. While pastors
have been avoiding apologetics
because of the excuse of not being able to
argue people into the kingdom,
ill-equipped Christians are being picked
off. It does not matter if you enjoy
apologetics. You have to decide what you are
going to do. You may be able to
love people into the church but you cannot
love doubt away. You need to do more
than fill pews, you need to disciple and
equip in such a way that your people
will not fall at the first skeptical blog
post, documentary or book.” - Stephen
J. Bedard (from, Dear
Pastor…)
“Ultimately,
apologetics points people to our hope, Jesus
Himself.That’s why “we demolish arguments and
every
high-minded thing that is raised up against
the knowledge of God, taking every
thought captive to the obedience of Christ”
(2 Corinthians 10:4-5).Objections
raised against Jesus must be
demolished.But notice something.The
Bible doesn’t say we demolish
people.Rather we demolish
arguments.Belittling others is not our
goal.Merely
winning arguments is not
enough.Instead, we remove obstacles of
doubt to Christianity so people can take a
serious look at Christ, the only
source of hope for this world.True
apologetics
is hopeful.” - Bret Kunkle (From the
article, What Is Apologetics: Arguing
Evangelism)
“Some Christians
might be put off by the subject of
apologetics, saying that Christianity is a
matter of faith and not the intellect. Well,
yes, it’s a matter of faith in the
end, but we Christians are exhorted to love
God with all of our minds, to
acquire wisdom as described in the book of
Proverbs and to always be prepared
to give reasons for the faith and hope we
have – provided it’s done with
gentleness and respect. Contrary to the
beliefs of some, faith in Christ is not
blind faith and does not require us to
suspend our intellectual faculties.” - David
Limbaugh (from, why I wrote ‘Jesus
on
Trial’)
“The average
Christian in the pew is not reading books by
Richard Dawkins and Christopher
Hitchens, but their neighbors and coworkers
are. I think congregations are
putting pressure on churches to equip them
better, educate them more and give
them opportunities to grow in this area.
Churches that have relied in the past
on a lifestyle evangelistic approach that
lacks intentionality need to be a little
more intentional in reaching people and
bringing answers to their questions.
I’m all for lifestyle evangelism, but I’m
also in favor of intentionality,
where we seek out opportunities for
spiritual conversations and are equipped to
explain the gospel and why we believe it.” -
Lee Strobel
“Instead of
addressing teens’ questions, most church
youth groups focus on fun and
food.The
goal seems to be to create
emotional attachment using loud music, silly
skits, slapstick games -- and
pizza.But the force of sheer emotional
experience will not equip teens to address
the ideas they will encounter when
they leave home and face the world on their
own. A study in Britain found that
non-religious parents have a near 100
percent chance of passing on their views
to their children, whereas religious parents
have only about a 50/50 chance of
passing on their views.Clearly,
teaching
young people to engage critically with
secular worldviews is no longer
an option.It is a necessary survival
skill.” - Nancy Pearcey
“The greatest
commandment contains both:“Love
the
Lord with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind. And love
your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37).1 Pet. 3:15 tells us to “always be
ready to give an answer but to do
this with gentleness and respect.”Apologetics is not an option for
Christians, and we don’t get brownie
points for being stupid.We
are
commanded to know what we believe and why we
believe it.We are commanded to “demolish
arguments” and
“take every thought captive to Christ” (2
Cor. 10:5) - Frank Turek
“In an age in which
infidelity abounds, do we observe parents
carefully instructing their children
in the principles of faith which they
profess? Or do they furnish their
children with arguments for the defense of
that faith? ...it is not surprising
to see them abandon a position which they
are unable to defend.” - William
Wiblerforce
“It's no
understatement that the church has done a
poor job in teaching our young people
that reason and faith are not opposites, and
that atheists are far from being
on the side of reason…Many kids, however,
who grow up huddled in a Christian
environment find themselves in the
university setting completely unequipped to
defend the rationality of the Christian
faith against the secular humanist
worldview so prevalent on college campuses.”
- Chuck Colson
The goal of this
study is to help us magnify the Lord God for
his marvelous grace that made us
children of God through no merit of our own.
It is my prayer that this goal has
been attained.
“But God commendeth
his love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8)
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
Notes:
1.H. D. M.Spence and Joseph
S. Exell, The
Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs,
Vol. 9, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans
Publishing Company reprint 1978), pp.
498-499.
2.Matthew
Poole, Matthew
Poole's Commentary on the
Holy Bible, Vol. 3, (Peabody,
Massachusetts, Hendrickson Publishers,
1985),
p. 910.
3.Greg L. Bahnsen, Always
Ready, (Atlanta, Georgia,
American Vision), pp. 77-80.
“To God, only wise, be glory through Jesus
Christ forever. Amen.” (Romans
16:27) and “heirs according to the promise.”
(Galatians 3:28, 29)
Mr. Kettler has
previously published articles in the Chalcedon
Report and Contra
Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend
the Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr.
Kettler is the author of the book defending
the Reformed Faith against attacks,
titled: The Religion That Started in
a Hat. Available at:
www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com
For more study:
*
For
a great source of theological definitions go
to Rebecca writes at Rebecca
Writes:
http://www.rebecca-writes.com/theological-terms-in-ao/