Apologetics for Today

Since the Fall of 2018, I have had the privilege of teaching the seated version of Apologetics at Baptist Bible College here in Springfield, MO. It has been challenging and rewarding at the same time. Recently, the school has asked me to teach the online version of the class, and along with some help from online developers, we have begun to prepare the course for this summer's online schedule. As we have been designing, I have been thinking about what kind of Apologetic is necessary given our cultural climate and the climate of the churches in the West. If we are going to see an apologetic produced that will be able to engage the world around us, I think the following elements are needed:

Biblically Robust

We live in the best of times and the worst of times when it comes to the Bible. In no previous era of Church History has the West had as much access to the Bible as they currently do. While having monumental access to God's Word, most Christians simply are not reading their Bible. In one study, a third of Americans who attend a Protestant church regularly (32%) say they read the Bible personally every day. Around a quarter (27%) say they read it a few times a week. To put it simply, we are living in an era of Bible illiteracy.

If our apologetic method is to have lasting value, we must reclaim teaching all of the Bible as an apologetic. For far too long, the church has relied on a few gifted speakers doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the arena of Apologetics, and the church has told them to parrot the arguments. The problem with this approach is that many church members memorize statements without understanding the arguments or the Biblical texts that support them.

So how do we develop this Biblically robust apologetic? First, we need to train people in reading their Bible. Bible reading is not for a mere quiet time or to accompany a sermon, but it is done to disciple us. If we don't know how to read the Bible and understand the Bible, then we will never know the arguments that exist in it.

Second, we must allow the Bible to form our arguments and not selectively choose Scriptures that seem to fit what we are saying. This means that I am letting the Bible do the defending when I am engaging in defending the faith. You may ask at this point, "Why is this so significant?" The answer is because that's where the power is. Our strength does not come from our creative argument or persuasive speech but the very Word of God in our apologetics. We must make sure that we are plugged into the right power source.

Intentionally Evangelistic

If you talk to anyone who knows me, they will tell you that I spend far too much time at our local Christian bookstore. While that may be true (It's not), one of the aspects that I have noticed about books that deal with apologetics is that many of them are consumed with answering objections to Christianity but never pivot to sharing the Gospel. Don't get me wrong, many of them allude to the Gospel or point at some level to the Gospel; however, many are focused on dealing with an objection without connecting the answer to the Gospel.

Being intentionally evangelistic is necessary if we want to understand the shift that has taken place among non-Christians in the West. Rico Tice and Sam Chan have been incredibly helpful in pushing me to see this shift. They argue that there have been three phases in our evangelistic efforts:

Phase one was the late twentieth century during the time of the Billy Graham crusades. The audiences then were Christianized. Even though the attendees weren't believers, they had Christian friends and had grown up in Sunday School. Phase two was in the early twenty-first century. The audience sort of knew the gospel, but they also had "defeater beliefs" that stopped them from believing the Gospel. Phase three is today. Our audience is in a completely different universe. They don't know the Gospel, and they aren't even sure they care about the Gospel at all. (You can read more about this in Rico Tice's book Honest Evangelism or in Sam Chan's book How to Talk about Jesus Without Being that Guy)

If we genuinely want to see our apologetic work, we must prioritize conversations that direct people back to the Gospel.  Even if we are met with so-called "defeaters," our main objective should be Gospel proclamation instead of overcoming those "defeaters." True apologetics is always pointing to the hope that lives in us (1 Peter 3:15).

Infused with Humility

Christianity's hope leads us to be gentle and respectful (1 Peter 3:15) when we engage with people. We are living in a time where there is so much contention and argumentativeness in every realm. Christian apologetics can take back some ground here in being careful to remember why we engage with those around us. We are hoping that they will believe in what we are sharing. The goal then is to move away from trying to win arguments to arguing on behalf of the one who saved us.

This humility stems from remembering that we have been saved by grace and that it is a work of God, and we cannot boast in it (Ephesians 2:8-9). When we remember how undeserving we were of the Gospel, it should motivate how we engage with those around us regardless of the medium. The goal should be to see more Christian apologists who embody the fruit of the Spirit rather than excellent oratory and debate skills.

These aren't the only aspects necessary for building a modern apologetic, but they are the foundation for an apologetic for our time. As we seek to engage those around us with the Gospel and defend the faith, let's be sure to ask God to help us embody these principles. In the end, we desire that God would be pleased with how we represent Him.

P.S. If you are interested in learning more about Apologetics, you can join us online or in-person at Baptist Bible College to learn more visit www.gobbc.edu or call (417) 268-6002.