God's Apologetics

I recently heard a famous apologist who I enjoy listening to and he was speaking at a secular university. The format was that the students wrote down their questions and the most often asked were organized and read to this man. Here is a list of the questions that were asked:

What is the meaning of life?
How can God’s existence be proved?
Aren’t all religions accomplishing the same goal?
How can we know there is an afterlife?

As I listened to this apologist recall this seminar and how he responded to the questions that were submitted to him I began to wonder how much benefit there was in that approach. I began to pray about it and I will share with you what I believe the Lord showed me.

There is no calling or office that is called or defined as apologetics. Loosely defined apologetics is someone who defends the accuracy of the Bible and its teachings by use of reason and outward support proofs. The actual word comes from the Greek word apologia (απολογία) which is someone who defends a position on something and an apologist can be defending any number of secular and religious positions, but for this discussion it will mean someone who is an orthodox believer and defends his views by means of logic, reason, and the things that seem obvious in creation.

As I listened to this gifted man address the questions I mentioned he skillfully used logic and reason to reveal the weaknesses in some views while he used the same reasonable arguments to buttress general Biblical teachings. He was articulate and well versed in many of the philosophical perspectives that revolve around those four questions that were presented to him. By his own admission this man traveled the world and spoke in many forums that were similar to this one. While I listened I was of course in agreement with most of what he said and coming from my perspective it was easy to be edified by his speaking and his using of human behavior and revelation of creation’s realities to support his truths.

But as I listened I began to question first myself and then the Lord as to certain other questions concerning the way in which we are to approach and answer spiritual questions and inquiries that could be put to us. Now I realize that we can and should have wisdom concerning any person’s culture, language, education, and their general level of understanding. Even things that they could identify with in attempting to communicate truth could be used by the Holy Spirit in our method of preaching the message of God’s Word. And I also realize that God has used people like Josh MacDowell, Ravi Zacharias, and others to spread the gospel and many times to bring sinners to Christ. But as I listened here are some questions that were brought to my mind and my spirit.

What is our divine calling?

On the surface that seems like a question about which we can all agree but in practice how many times has the church strayed? Our calling is to preach the gospel to every creature and then to make disciples or informed and committed followers of Jesus Christ. Now how can that be accomplished and with what method are we commanded in obedience to this command? There is only one way, the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Nowhere are we instructed to defend it and nowhere are we instructed to have it make sense to the carnal mind. The Scriptures do not tell us that God’s Word will be considered as something to think about by the carnal mind, no, God’s own Word tells us that the carnal mind will consider the truths of God’s Word as foolishness.

When we attempt to use carnal methods to make Biblical truths more palatable to the carnal mind no matter how logical and reasonable we then are doing what the seeker sensitive movement is doing, making the Word more relevant. Now if we use some understandings that will open doors of communication to our audience upon which we present the Word of God then we have been guided by wisdom as long as the essence of the Word has been preserved. But when we use the principle of “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” then we are guilty of creating a thirst and response to sugar not God’s Word. That “sugar” can be sensual, practical, hedonistic, and yes intellectual in nature but it has diluted the Word and in so doing this “medicine” has lost its effectiveness and although the patient might ask for more he is addicted to sugar not truth.

Our calling is to skillfully, boldly, lovingly, and with God’s anointing present the Word of God. We ourselves have no message and the philosophies of this world are all anti-christ. For example for us to use some people’s after death experiences as the basis to support the existence for the afterlife is dangerous and leaves the door open for many unbiblical experiences to be used as proof for falsehoods. We are not called to organize different worldly and philosophical evidences in order to convince people. This brings me to my next question.

What is the teaching of the Scriptures about how people can believe?

There is one way alone that can truly cause a person to believe in Jesus Christ and along with that the divine nature of the Scriptures. That way is the Word itself. I realize that there have been some people who have read apologetical books and by reading them they eventually have become followers of the Lord Jesus, but those books were used by the Holy Spirit to allow the Word to come into their hearts. Only the Word of God can bring faith in a person’s heart. Other things can bring a person to stop and consider but only the engrafted Word will transform and save and also lead a person to maturity in Christ.

One of the dangers about dealing with truth on a non-biblical way is it may sway people to believe some truth on a carnal level and not with a deep and Spiritual way which must come from the Holy Spirit. For instance, many a forum has been held to present documentation and evidence that the theory of evolution is not true. A person becomes convinced that evolution is not true after hearing the different arguments and reasonings based upon paleontology, the lack of skeletal evidence, and the law of probabilities. But just because he has changed his mind about evolution based upon scientific reasonings does not mean he has been taught by the Holy Spirit and in fact there are many unsaved people who reject evolution. The same can be said for abortion, homosexuality, and other issues that can be espoused by people because of earthly arguments but not Spiritually discerned.

Why are we prone to supplant the Word with the enticing word’s of men’s wisdom? It is because we live in the age of cerebral idolatry and to be honest the pure and unvarnished Word of God seems unsophisticated and archaic to this post-modern world. So we end up defending the Word rather than preaching it in the power of the Spirit and leaving the results to God Himself. Are we embarrassed to have the world mock us because we preach what they think is foolishness? Why are we so accommodating when we agree to debate issues with the intellectual world but we soft-pedal the Word of the Living God? When the world presents their case for abortion why do we try and prove that the baby is alive by showing sonograms and scientific evidence that proves the baby feels pain? Should we not stand and say, “Thus says the Lord God you should not spill innocent blood!”.

But, you say, they do not believe the Bible so we cannot use that in our debate. Since when do we not preach the Word just because some will not believe it? David goes forth to meet Goliath who certainly was not a believer and David says to him, “Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts…”. Now in today’s accepted Christian warfare David would have invited Goliath to appear with him on Larry King and he would ask him to present scientific and historical evidence that the land of Shochoh belonged to the Philistines. But David proclaimed the name of the Lord of Hosts whether Goliath believed it or not.

When the Apostle Paul entered a gentile city he said he knew nothing among them but Christ and Him crucified. And today there is much said about Paul on Mars Hill and some seem to twist that event into teaching that Paul stood and debated the unbelieving Greeks when in reality Paul stood and declared them ignorant and preached the Messiah unto them. He reveals that Lord commands all men to repent and expounded about the resurrection from the dead so forcefully that they mocked him. The Word of God is the vehicle through which men can be converted and by which men grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which leads me to my final question.

Is it not obvious that when we put the truths of Christianity and the Lord Jesus on a dialogue platform we bring it down to a level that makes people see it as one of many opinions?

Like a game in which there ten teams and every team has a different color, that is how it appears when we present Christ in a round table discussion with all the other opinions of man. And many times the presenter of error is more articulate and personable than the Christian. I remember taking a youth group to a debate between an agnostic who believed in evolution and a Christian apologist which was being held in a high school auditorium. Well the agnostic happened to be a learned paleontologist who was very articulate and convincing and when the debate was over the air was gone from the room because most of the audience were Christians and they recognized that the debate was won by the agnostic even though he did not have the truth. On the bus ride back to the church I felt led to stand up in the front of the bus and call for everyone’s attention. I admitted that the paleontologist had seemed convincing in the debate but he did not alter one iota of God’s Word. I loudly proclaimed that no one who was a heroin addict ever became a believer in evolution and was immediately free of drug addiction. I continued that no one ever was homeless and by evolution they found purpose in their lives. I said no one ever discovered evolution and left all the comforts of home to go and spread evolution. And finally I said that no one ever became a believer of evolution and after death wound up in heaven. You see, he convincingly presented error, but he was only debating another man. As far as truth is concerned, that man did not change the Word of God at all.

So I have come to the conclusion that although we must combat error we should always proclaim God’s Word no matter what the forum. Let God’s Word speak for itself and let the preaching of the Word, instant in season and out, be the established conduit for reaching mankind with the truth. God’s Word is truth and contains within it the power to deliver. Away with all the wisdom of man, away with all the common sense, away with all the age of reason, away with all the politics of morality, away with it all. We need not defend God’s Word, we are commanded to believe it and preach it.

For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withered and the flower thereof falleth away. But the Word of the Lord endureth forever.