In the past couple of years, I’ve become increasingly interested in apologetics. It’s important to me to follow the command to love God with my mind, and, as 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
I recently had a conversation with my friend Dr. Evan Posey, executive vice president, provost, and assistant professor of theology and apologetics at Luther Rice College and Seminary in Stonecrest, Ga. I’ve known Evan and his family for years, and he has given apologetics seminars at my home church.
In part one of this conversation, we talked about the “why” behind apologetics.
Chris Queen: What’s a good quick definition of apologetics?
Evan Posey: I guess to be a little bit historical, the word “apologetics” has a biblical basis, but it also has sort of a Greek philosophical basis. And so I think the first place we see the word used is in Plato’s Apology, where he’s telling the story of Socrates to give essentially a legal defense, which he calls an apology.
Now, Peter picks up that language in his epistle, in 1 Peter 3:15, which is sort of the classical apologetics verse where he says, “Always be ready to give an answer.” And that word to give an answer is an apologia. And so it is in meaning to provide a reasonable defense with connotations of a legal case for why the Christian believes what the Christian believes.
Within the context of 1 Peter, it’s actually when Christians undergo suffering. Part of that verse is to always be ready to give an answer when asked. So the idea is that you’re being interrogated and being probed for why you’re doing what you’re doing, why you believe what you believe. But in short, Christian apologetics is providing a reasoned defense for why we believe what we believe.
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CQ: How do you respond to people who say that apologetics is only for pastors, seminary students, or philosophers?
EP: I completely understand that sentiment. It does appear that it’s really just for the Bible nerd or the person who says, “I want to spend my intellectual life in ministry, so I’m interested in apologetics,” but any new discipline that introduces rote foreign concepts and vocabulary kind of stretches us, and it can be intimidating. It’s much easier to simply say, “Hey, let the Bible, let the pastor, let seminary students, let the philosophers do this sort of thing.”
But when we do some language work in that passage in 1 Peter 3:15, we see that the call to give an answer is in the emphatic mood, which means that it’s actually a command for all believers to do this. And when we see others, if you think about 2 Timothy 2 where we’re to study to show ourselves approved, or 2 Corinthians 10 where we’re to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion against the knowledge of God and to take thoughts captive every thought to obey Christ. There are these emphatic commands in Scripture that essentially call us all to participate in a reasoned defense of the Christian faith.
So my answer to that question is to say, “I totally understand where you’re coming from, because it’s likely a new concept.” And it’s easy for us to say, “Hey, let those people do that. I’m going to do my thing.” But I think if we’re honest with the Scriptures, we see a clear command for all believers to at some level be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have in the resurrection of Jesus. We need to be ready to do that.
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CQ: How can apologetics help people share the gospel with others?
EP: Actually, this is great. There was a pretty prominent scholar — he’s passed now — Norman Geisler, who your readers may be familiar with. I believe he was the one who sort of made the distinction between evangelism and pre-evangelism. I think we all have a sense of what evangelism is: to share the good news of the gospel with others and encourage them to put their trust in the finished work of Jesus.
But what we find is when we engage with the lost or we engage with a skeptic, there may be some gardening work that needs to happen before really the gospel is clearly heard or presented clearly, and then someone’s able to sort of trust in the Gospel. And pre-evangelism is sort of a euphemism for apologetics, at least according to Norman Geisler. At the pre-evangelistic stage, you are giving a rational defense for a Christian worldview writ large, and you are helping the skeptic navigate intellectual, emotional, and volitional roadblocks so that they can see the cross of Jesus Christ and Him risen.
So how it serves evangelism is that it’s a servant to evangelism. The end goal is not to have people agree with you on points necessarily, but rather to clear the table so that the gospel can be presented. So that’s how at least the function of apologetics as it relates to evangelism now.
In addition to sort of serving evangelism, I think, at least for me, it has strengthened my own competence in sharing the gospel. So one of the things that I’ve found in working with Christians is that the reason they don’t share the gospel with others is that they’re fearful that they won’t be able to answer the questions that a lost person or a skeptic may have. And so instead of entering into that fray with our hands tied behind our backs, we don’t at all. Like, “I’m just going to hold up and circle the wagons and not engage with the culture,” and I totally get that temptation and sentiment.
But then again, we’re called to be a light in the world. And so apologetics also serves to strengthen our own confidence, so that when we go to present the gospel, we’re equipped and ready to answer objections as they may come, to some lesser or greater degree. Those are some of my thoughts there.
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CQ: Beyond evangelism, how does apologetics benefit Christians in their everyday lives?
EP: Studying Christian apologetics, for me at least, has been extremely helpful. It’s caused me to be a clearer and more critical thinker. Right now I’m able to think in terms of the rationale behind any sort of assertion or argument. It’s helped me be more precise with the words that I use instead of speaking emotionally all the time.
There’s nothing wrong with the effectual side of a person; that’s part of the image of God, but the intellectual side is also a part of the image of God, and to be very precise in the words that we use leads us to clarity before agreement or disagreement. I think that’s sort of a phrase of Dennis Prager’s, which is “clarity before agreement or disagreement.”
It’s important that we’re clear, so apologetics and the study of philosophy and logic have helped me become more precise in the words that I use. It has also alerted me — and this was a big key in my growth — to my own fallacious way of thinking and arguing the errors I was making that only serve to confuse and muddy the matter rather than clarified my appeals to emotion as evidence for an argument, my appeal to some other authority as evidence for an argument, or me attacking a person rather than addressing their argument.
These are all formal and informal fallacies that I had no idea I was committing until I was exposed to logic and rhetoric and argumentation and apologetics. So it has a way to answer that question that rounds me out as a person and helps me not only be a better ambassador for Jesus, but also a better thinker.
CQ: I’ve seen multiple approaches to apologetics. Some people base their apologetics solely on the idea of the inerrancy of Scripture, while others try to prove elements of the faith without using the Bible at all. Is there one particular approach that’s more important than others or to someone’s approach to apologetics depend on his or her personality?
EP: It’s common in the curriculum that you’ll find in higher ed apologetics courses or even in some books. You’ll see a section on apologetic methodology. And it’s true that there are a variety of methods. And those the most common of those methods include the classical methodology, the evidentialist methodology, the presuppositional method, or a cumulative case, which is the method that I use.
Each approach has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses in its attempt to answer questions like, “What is the nature of ultimate reality?” “Does God exist?” “What is truth and can we know it?” “Who is man, and how should we live?” ‘What happens when we die?” “Is the Bible reliable?” “And why would we say that the Quran is not right?” “Did Jesus really rise from the dead?” “And why do bad things happen?” You know, the whole issue of pain, suffering, and evil, so all of the methods have their own unique approach to these sorts of worldview questions.
Now, when I teach, I typically try to help my students understand the nuances between all of those methodologies, but I liken them to tools in a tool belt. So instead of saying that one is better than the other, think about it as a variety of tools. Obviously, for example, you could drive a nail with a screwdriver, but a hammer is the tool that’s designed and best suited for that task. So when we ask if there’s one particular approach that’s more important or better, I would have to say no, it doesn’t necessarily depend upon the apologist’s personality, but rather the context in the question or objection that’s being raised. This determines which apologetic method is best suited for the task at hand.
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CQ: Some approaches to apologetics can get deeply philosophical. Is it necessary for people to delve into such esoteric matters to have a good foundation in apologetics?
EP: Honestly, all of the methodologies get philosophical, but then again, they have to. Many objections to Christianity are philosophical. That’s not to say, however, that to study apologetics one has to sort of plumb the depths of Western philosophy.
I would think about it sort of like a swimming pool. It’s fun to swim in the deep end, but you need to be a strong swimmer to do that. However, if you’re not a strong swimmer, the deep end can be very dangerous for you, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun in the pool. So you can still have plenty of fun practicing apologetics, if you don’t mind me mixing the metaphor, where you can still feel the bottom of the pool. So it’s not necessary, but it’s extremely helpful.
So for others, we might get to this in the middle of how to build a really good foundation so that you can be ready to swim in the deep end and jump off the diving board and all that kind of stuff. There are folks who are doing that. You know, I’ve got children and some of the older ones are doing all sorts of crazy stuff in the deep end, but our little ones are just dipping their toe in the water, sitting on the steps, and wading into the shallow end where they can still feel the bottom, and everybody’s still having a great time.
And so if you’re not either interested or designed and gifted to think in terms of philosophical concepts, that’s okay. There’s still a shallow end of that discipline where you can be faithful to the call of the Word of God to give an answer without feeling less than folks who are kind of doing their thing for God’s kingdom with other people in the deep end. So that’s how I like to think about that.
CQ: What are the rewards for believers when they study apologetics to any extent?
EP: Oh, man, to me, this is the best part. The benefits are almost immediate, or at least they were for me. Not only does apologetics strengthen my own personal faith, but it also develops my confidence in sharing the gospel. The more convinced we are by the evidence of Christianity, that it’s true, the more confident we should become in proclaiming the truth of the world especially when eternity hangs in the balance.
So what you’ll find as you think about and study questions like, “How do I know that God exists?” the Bible just asserts His existence. It’s not like there’s this syllogism in the Bible that builds the case for God’s existence. “In the beginning, God.”
But naturally, we have these questions. So working through reasons why I should believe that there is a God allows me to read the Bible in a way that brings a worldview of Judaism and Christianity to reflect reality as it is, so it helps us see reality as it is. It helps us understand the Word of God more clearly. It strengthens our own faith, and it gives us confidence in sharing the gospel with the world, which is the point.
In next week’s column, Evan and I discuss the “how” of apologetics and ways to begin digging into a deeper understanding of defending the Christian faith.
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