What IS Apologetics?

A couple of weeks ago, as I was working on launching our brand new YouTube channel (which, by the way, you can find right here!) I was caught by surprise and reminded of a very important point. Oftentimes, when we get very close to and very deep into something, whether it be a new hobby, new area of interest, or even a relationship, we can forget what it’s like to be a “newbie.” We can forget what it’s like to have no exposure, no familiarity, no experience.

So I was pleasantly taken aback when a new subscriber innocently admitted that they had no idea what Apologetics even was!

And it occurred to me that she probably wasn’t the only one. So, let me rewind the tape a bit, and take us all back to a simpler time, a time of discovery, a time of promise, and allow me to explain just what this whole Christian Apologetics thing is.

What Do You Even Mean by Apologetics?

Put quite succinctly, Apologetics, and more specifically, Christian Apologetics, is the defense of the Christian faith. For the more “dictionary” or formal definition, we can look to William Lane Craig’s definition, which states that Apologetics is the “branch of Christian theology which seeks to provide a rational justification for the truth claims of the Christian faith.” The terms comes from the Greek word, apologia, for, a defense. So, theoretically, one could apply the term to almost any other ideology, be it atheism, libertarianism, or Marvel vs. DC superhero superiority. But for the purpose of this blog and, really, the majority of times that I’ve ever encountered the term “in the wild,” it is almost always used in the Christian sense.

So, Exactly Why Do I Need to Know This?

Prior to my early twenties, I had no idea what Apologetics was and I certainly wasn’t aware of any need to know. Many believers make it through quite a bit of their lives without knowing that such a discipline even exists or, at least, being familiar with the subject at a fundamental level.

But, especially with the advent of the internet and social media, the average believer’s exposure to a staggering array of viewpoints is now both easily available and equally unavoidable. And with that exposure often comes very visible challenges to many key tenets of the Christian faith. As a teenager and young adult, even through college, I was somehow able to avoid any serious challenge to my Christian beliefs. But those challenges eventually caught up to me and I found myself seriously reconsidering ideas that I had always held and always assumed were rather universally held.

It is this quickly changing environment that is often posited as explaining the trends in the decline of Christianity among American and western youth in recent decades. I am not typically a fan of “scare statistics” but too many polls have found startling data about youth and young adults leaving the church and the reasons for doing so. Those data range from some 88% of children in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, 32% leaving because of intellectual doubt, 70% will leave the faith in college: the list continues. (J. Warner Wallace actually has a great rundown of historical surveys just released here) 

With this context in mind, William Lane Craig in his seminal work “Reasonable Faith” lays out three primary positive uses for Apologetics that we can review here, that of shaping culture, strengthening believers, and evangelizing unbelievers.

Shaping Culture

Ask any modern evangelical leader or any elder statesman in the Christian sphere how they would describe the changes in culture over the past several decades and they will no doubt name “secularization” as a prime descriptor. In fact, I’ve even heard the term “post-secular” used to describe the culture of places like Europe where that secularization is seen as having been in effect for even longer than America, with forms of “witchcraft” and other new age beliefs rising in popularity in recent years as a sort of reaction to what secularization has cost their spiritual lives.

Regardless, most Christians will admit that one thing Western culture largely lacks today is Christianization, and this is one reason why Apologetics is so essential; in shaping the culture that believers find themselves in. It is quite likely that you have witnessed numerous instances where Biblical values, history, or ideas have been vocally and publicly criticized and dismissed. Much of the time, this dismissal stems from an overall cultural atmosphere that values a sort of Enlightenment sensibility of scientism or evidentialism that pervades the way that many of us think and respond to religious ideas prima facie.

As Craig states, “the gospel is never heard in isolation. It is always heard against the background of the cultural milieu in which one lives…It is the broader task of Christian apologetics to help create and sustain a cultural milieu in which the gospel can be heard as an intellectually viable option for thinking men and women.” Outside of one-on-one evangelism and our personal objections or issues with the ideas of Christianity, if our fundamental worldview and cultural outlook precludes even the concept that theological truth is “real truth”, Christianity has already ceded a valuable position in people’s hearts and minds.

I’m reminded of an essay in C.S. Lewis’ “God in the Dock” in which he noted the danger of scholars and experts in every subject writing and sharing their work with the assumption that Christianity is not true. It was that very absence of the Christian worldview in the every day interactions with those subjects that left those within the culture with the impression that God is simply absent, a non-factor. Because of that, he actually impugned that, “What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects – with their Christianity latent.” That “latent Christianity” is not the sole sphere of Apologetics, but Apologetics can absolutely inform the core worldview and underlying assumptions in every aspect of culture.

We should also note that, for libertarians, culture is especially important, because in lieu of state institutions that largely govern many of the interactions in our daily lives, culture is expected, indeed necessary, to govern those interactions. Luckily, Western culture still largely holds to many of the bedrock moral and ethical foundations that Christianity has fostered, but that may not always be the case into the future. So a thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of Christian Apologetics is critical to continuing that tradition in the communities in which we live.

Strengthening Believers

I can personally testify to the great power of Apologetics in its ability to strengthen the faith of believers. Having grown up in the church my entire life, I, more than most people, had every advantage and opportunity for a rock-solid faith. But, in actuality, that faith was a paper thin one, and it did not hold up to the formidable challenges that I and many others eventually encountered.

Ultimately, we know that the inner witness of the Holy Spirit is the fundamental evidence for the believer of the truth of Christianity and their salvation. But why stop there? When we consider that God is the God of creation, author of all there is, sustainer of all things, is it not valid that we should know how creation aligns with scripture and reflects His nature? Should we remain ignorant of how archeology supports the historic claims of the Old and New Testaments? I think to Christ’s exhortation that we will and should worship both in Spirit and in Truth. While we have the truth of scripture, there is so much more truth around us that can be added to further that worship. 

Apologetics offers a much-needed alternative or additive to the often lackluster content and activity of church ministry today, both with youth and adults. Knowing the content and application of Scripture in the life of the believer is, of course, important. But it can often feel as though this education happens in a bubble, with Bible study resting within the sphere of the church and the home, and all other intellectual pursuits residing outside those walls. It should be no surprise, then, that we often observe Christian behavior, both in morals and outreach, to largely reflect and remain within those boundaries.

When and if we segment the life of the believer into secular and sacred, avoiding the areas of science, history, or even politics, we further entrench the existing secularization of culture and stymie the intellectual potential of many believers. The truth claims of the Bible touch on all areas of intellectual life and Apologetics helps to harmonize the “two books” of revelation, the book of Scripture and the book of Nature.

Despite my academic and professional success, at my lowest point, my intellectual life was dead. My pursuit of Apologetics and further study into libertarianism has led to the rich intellectual life I now enjoy and, ultimately, to this blog and this very article. And countless other believers would undoubtedly share the exact same testimony. As Colossians 2:8 challenges us, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Apologetics can help us to counter that worldly philosophy with truth.

Evangelizing Unbelievers

Christian evangelism, it seems, is yet another casualty of the secularization of culture and, undoubtedly, the lackluster intellectual life many believers experience. When Christians are not fluent or confident in the doctrine and defense of Christianity, timidity undoubtedly results. And perhaps the only thing that is worse than a believer feeling unable to maintain the strength of their own faith against challenge is the crippling fear of being unable to respond to challenges in sharing that faith.

One of the favorite passages of Scripture for the Christian apologist is I Peter 3:15, which tells us to “always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” While the core of the verse, I believe, applies most to the believer’s hope of salvation in Christ, there is no reason it cannot apply outward to all truth. As the saying, attributed to St. Augustine, goes, “All truth is God’s truth.” And if this saying is also true, then all truth ultimately points back to Christ as well.

There are some who object to the discipline of apologetics and there is a common refrain that is used, the essence of which is that “you cannot argue someone into the Kingdom.” However, to this notion I would respond, as I will always recall long-time apologist Greg Koukl responding, “you cannot love someone into the Kingdom either.” Of course, the Calvinist or reformed Christian may even further respond that we cannot do all that much of anything to help anyone into the Kingdom in the first place.

There is probably some truth to all of these statements. But, I would argue, the commands of Christ and our experience make them largely irrelevant. In our experience, in fulfilling the Great Commission, and sharing the Gospel with others, we meet and converse with those who object to Christianity for reasons, whether they be emotional, volitional, or rational. And those objections at least seem to prevent those individuals from considering Christianity as a viable option for their lives. Christians are tasked with making disciples of all people and taking the Good News to the ends of the Earth. If we are to be prepared to do that with excellence, we need Apologetics.

Furthermore, the Bible itself seems to show that the early Apostles and their followers did just that. In Acts, Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead”, “reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons”, and “reason[ed] and persuad[ed] them about the kingdom of God.” In Craig’s experience, “sound training in apologetics is one of the keys to fearless evangelism.” And in the face of persecution, whether it be the name-calling or ostracism of American culture, or the stoning and beheading of the first century, it is certainly fearless evangelism that we need.

The Bottom Line

There is, of course, much more to say regarding the subject and substance of Christian Apologetics. But, hopefully, this short review has piqued your curiosity and thoroughly answered the question of just what is Apologetics and how important it is to the follower of Christ. You can dive firsthand into some of my own writing on the subject in the Apologetics category on the blog. I would also easily recommend resources from www.reasonablefaith.org or www.str.org for a variety of subjects. But, no matter where you go, I would encourage you to consider investing a bit of time into Apologetics as I simply know that it will supercharge your faith in unimaginable ways.