WHAT IS APOLOGETICS?

 What is apologetics?  I’ll admit, I don’t recall ever hearing that term the first 40 years of my life.  It was only until I became familiar with the Reformed teachings and Doctrines of Grace that I was introduced to the word “apologetics”.

The simplest definition of apologetics is “the defense of the Christian faith”.  But the scope of apologetics is anything but simple.  Taken from the Greek word, “apologia”, the term means to “answer an accusation”.  It was a term used in ancient Greek courtroom settings when someone who’s been accused of wrongdoing is given the opportunity to defend or answer the accusation.

Every believer of Christ is an “apologist”.  In 1 Peter 3:15, we’re told we should always be ready to “give an explanation to anyone who asks” the reason for our hope.  Learning apologetics helps us to answer objections people raise about Christianity.  It also helps us to answer the hard questions that some who are truly seeking may ask in their search for the truth.

There are two main methods of apologetics:  Classical and Presuppositional.  Classical Apologetics is proving Christianity is true by giving substantial evidence of it.  Presupposition Apologetics is counteracting preconceived notions and ideas of skeptics.  Either method is good depending upon the situation you may find yourself in.  Based on what I’ve encountered, Presuppositional Apologetics is probably the most popular with Apologists like Dr. James R. White and the late Greg Bahnsen being the most noted Presuppositional Apologists.

Like I alluded to earlier, every Christian is to be an apologist.  In fact, becoming a Christian makes one an apologist by default.  Think about why it’s important to take part in apologetics:

First, how ridiculous is it to be a Christian but, when asked about our beliefs, especially the most basic questions of our faith, we just give them a blank stare, shrug our shoulders and say, “I don’t know”?

Second, how can we make the bold claims of being Christians but we can’t explain the most basic ideas, teachings, and doctrines?

Third, if we’re going to say we’re believers, why would we not make it an important part of our walk to study and know WHAT we believe and WHY we believe it?

While it’s true we’ll never be able to know and understand every single doctrine, because God has kept some things a mystery (The Trinity, for example), if we don’t avail ourselves to study and familiarize ourselves with the doctrines of our faith, we (A) deny ourselves the opportunity to learn some wonderful truths to help us grow in our faith, and (B) we give unbelievers the idea we don’t take our faith very seriously if we don’t feel it’s important to learn all we can about our faith and the God we claim to love and worship.

Throughout all of Christianity, there have been many who’ve spent hours in continuous study learning the intricacies and details of the Christian faith for the purpose of being able to defend the faith and refute any lies or misconceptions about Christianity.  Below is a list of some of the most popular apologists from the early start of Christianity up until the modern day:

Tertullian (c. 155 AD – c. 220 AD)
Origen (c. 185 AD – c. 253 AD)
Martin Luther (1483 AD – 1546 AD)
Augustine (354 AD – 430 AD)
C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)
James R. White (b. 1962)
Frank Turek (b. 1961)
Greg Koukl (b. 1950)
Francis Schaeffer (1912 – 1984)

Some of these I’m sure you may be familiar with while others, you may have never heard of.  James White, as mentioned earlier, would be considered a Presuppositional Apologist, while Francis Schaeffer could probably be defined as a Classical Apologist.

I’m more inclined to read the modern/recent apologists (Lewis and those listed after him), but maybe later on I might read some of the earlier ones.  But I say this to stress how important apologetics is to the Christian faith.  We’re commanded to give a defense of our faith as I mentioned earlier (1 Peter 3:15).  This isn’t a suggestion.  When skeptics and nay-sayers come at us with their lies and misconceptions, we must be ready to defend the faith.  When a non-believer comes to us with genuine questions about the faith, we must be ready to give them the answer, and if we don’t know it, we admit it and say, “I don’t know that answer but I’ll be glad to find that out for you.”  We can’t say we love God while at the same time not doing all we can learn about Him.  I don’t think people outside the faith would think we’re too serious about our claim if we refuse to learn more about God and grow more in our faith.  There really is no excuse.