Confident Christianity

Conversations That Lead To The Cross

Chris Sinkinson

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781844745241
• eBook ISBN:
  9781844746750
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Apologetics, philosophy, archaeology and science are hot topics among Christians. Confident Christianity provides a one-stop shop for anyone wishing to engage thoughtfully and convincingly with these subjects.
Chris Sinkinson does the church a real service by bringing together such a range of material under one heading in an accessible manner. The result is both enlightening and heart-warming.
This book will not only equip you to evangelize - it will fire you up.

1. Apology for apologetics

Always tell the truth; that way you don’t have to remember what you said.

Mark Twain

This is a book about something theologians call ‘apologetics’. That sounds like the art of apologizing but is nothing of the sort.

The English word ‘apology’ is derived from a Greek word, apologia, which appears several times in various forms in the original text of the New Testament. To find out what the word means we can look at how it is translated in various places.

Peter encourages his readers to ‘always be prepared to give an answer [apologia] to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have’ (1 Peter 3:15). A Christian should be ready and willing to give some kind of explanation for their faith when someone raises a question or objection. The Greek is formed from two words: apo (away) and logos (word), and together they mean something like giving a word back to someone who questions us. An apologetic is a ‘word back’ or a spoken defence for the Christian faith.

Outside of the Bible the word was used to describe what happened in a court of law. The defence an accused person would present in court was their apologia. The Greek phil­osopher Plato wrote an account of the trial of his teacher entitled ‘The Apology of Socrates’. Socrates did not say sorry, but he did defend his teachings and behaviour. In the New Testament, Luke describes Paul doing something similar as he stood before King Agrippa on unspecified charges: ‘Paul motioned with his hand and began his defence [apologia]’ (Acts 26:1).1 Paul then presents various evidences for his conversion to follow Christ and his commission to share this faith throughout the region. Paul is so convinced of his evidence that he even hopes it may persuade the king to become a Christian too!

Paul came to use the word generally as a description of sharing the faith. He described himself as ‘defending [apologia] and confirming the gospel’ (Philippians 1:7).2 In the New Testament period the Christian message was strongly opposed, both by the religious and the secular world. This opposition could take an intellectual or physical form. Apologetics is not much use against physical oppos­ition, but it is the appropriate response to intellectual challenges. If someone threatens us with a baseball bat it is wiser to run, but if they challenge us with a question it is better to talk!

Christianity has had a long and noble tradition of reasonable defence. One of the earliest theological works produced after the completion of the New Testament was by Justin Martyr (c. AD 100–167) and simply called The Apologies. Since most of us are not Greek speakers, some may question the wisdom of continuing to use this word to describe what we do. However, apologetics has become an established branch of Christian thought. I will continue to use the word in order to draw on this tradition and remind us that Christianity has always offered a confident proclamation of the gospel to a doubting world.

Apologetics is sometimes treated as a specialized discipline or subject. However, it is important to recognize how closely it is related to the other things Christians do. We can consider apologetics in relation to evangelism, theology and phil­osophy. Theology provides the subject matter for apologetics (what we believe). Philosophy provides guidelines for what is rational (why we believe). Evangelism is the purpose of apologetics (how to help others to believe).

The relationship of apologetics to theology is very important. Theology enables us to clarify what the Bible teaches about God. Without good theology, apologetics can run away with ideas that sound plausible but are certainly not biblical. As we will see later, this has often happened in the history of apologetics. Theology must not be twisted to make it more palatable or plausible.

Apologetics and evangelism

Apologetics is a dimension of evangelism. As the early Christians explained and shared their faith, they also had to respond to the various questions their hearers would raise. Had the disciples stolen the body of their crucified hero to claim a resurrection from the dead? Would the growth of Christianity undermine the stability of Roman society? Questions like these were understandable and they raised doubts. We sometimes forget how unlikely the resurrection of Jesus from the dead would have seemed to the first hearers. The witnesses to the empty tomb were trembling and bewildered,3 Thomas the apostle refused to believe it,4 and the pagan Greeks sneered at Paul’s faith in it.5 Far from being a naïve and simplistic society ready to believe in anything, the world at the time of the New Testament was as sceptical as any. Objections were raised from the very beginning.

The early Christians had answers to those questions, and this was part of their apology. Over the course of the years the questions or objections changed, and so too did the kinds of answers that Christians gave. Sometimes false or misleading answers were given by Christians. Other, better, answers became almost the standard replies in the centuries that followed. Good or bad, apologetics describes the practice of Christians trying to present the case for their faith. On the whole, Christianity has always offered a robust and confident response to the objections of the world.

Any good defensive military campaign must also involve an offensive. Simply to defend a position indefinitely is likely to lead to failure unless support arises from elsewhere. The besieged castle cannot put up a defence for ever – it only holds out in the hope that reinforcements will eventually arrive to lead an attack. Apologetics is more than answering objections, more than defending the faith from its critics. Apologetics also means explaining how Christianity answers the questions of life and even pointing out where rival ideas are mistaken. So apologetics involves both defence and offence. But no Christian should want to be offensive in an unattractive way. However, we should want to point out why an alternative religion or ideology is at some point flawed or incomplete. In so doing, we may indeed offend a friend, because we are treading on beliefs that may matter a great deal to them. We need to make our case with humility and love. It is not our intention to offend, but it should be our aim to expose the limitations of any rival to Christ.

These defensive and offensive aspects of sharing our faith are sometimes called ‘positive and negative apologetics’.6 Paul went on the offensive as he shared his faith. He writes, ‘We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God’ (2 Corinthians 10:5). He did not demolish or crush people, but he did demolish and undermine rival beliefs and faiths. No doubt a lot of people were offended. But we also know that many were persuaded. Paul was a confident Christian.

Some Christians give the impression that to explain the gospel is nothing more than sharing a few simple statements of faith - a few spiritual laws – which the hearer can either accept or reject. Sometimes this is enough. But usually more is required. We have all had the experience of sharing our faith and feeling as if we were speaking an alien language. Do our friends really understand what we are saying? Do they have questions about what we really mean? Do they want to know why we believe these statements are true? If we really love those we speak to then we will want to communicate clearly and effectively. This is why evangelism should always have apologetic content. We may not all be intellectuals or use long words, but we should be able to give a defence of our faith.

Famously, Charles Spurgeon once commented, ‘Defend the Bible? I’d rather defend an uncaged lion!’ In a sense the Bible needs no defence, and the truth of the gospel is found in its own authority. Apologetics puts the spotlight, not on the inade­quacies of what God has said but on the inadequacies of our own sinful minds. It is because we often communicate the gospel badly that we need to improve. Our friends mis­understand us so we need to help them. The non-Christian philosopher Aristotle recognized this problem when he said, ‘Every failure of Truth to persuade reflects the weakness of its advocates.’7 The Truth does not need defending but it does need to be presented clearly – something apologetics will help us to do. We can find plenty of examples of reasoned defence of the Christian faith in the sermons and writings of Charles Spurgeon.

Apologetics is persuasive evangelism that engages with the real issues of the day. Many of the questions and objections we encounter will have been shaped by current ideas, morality and events. A recent terrorist outrage might make people think that religions are the cause of war. An immoral president or prime minister might convince many that Christianity is hypocritical. New discoveries in science could undermine confidence in the reliability of the Bible.

By contrast, the good news of Christianity never changes. The message foretold in the prophets of the Old Testament was revealed in the life of Jesus. That same message was explained and shared by the apostles and has since been handed down by faithful believers for two thousand years. This is the unchanging core of the Christian faith. However, we have a responsibility to communicate this truth to a changing world. Many of the questions of today are different from those asked centuries ago. Aspects of Christianity that were easily understood or assumed to be true by most of the population of Western Europe a hundred years ago are now thrown wide open to dispute and confusion.

A good example of this would be the biblical concept of judgment. Many people today struggle with the idea of eternal punishment because we have lost the sense of punishment being an irreversible penalty. In the contemporary world a prison can be called a corrective facility because punishment is supposed to help people change their ways. The idea of an irreversible punishment is no longer readily accepted. There­fore, the concepts of sin, judgment and eternal punishment need more defence and clarification. There are objections to these doctrines today that were not being raised by previous gener­ations. An apologist is a Christian who believes it is important to be up to date, not in order to be fashionable but to press the case for Christianity at exactly the point where it is in dispute.

Paul was sensitive to the issues of his day. He was absolutely persuaded of the message he had to share. But he also took time to listen to, learn from and engage with the people he wanted to reach. In Athens, among the pagan phil­osophers, Paul tells his hearers, ‘I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship’ (Acts 17:23). Paul was not a tourist collecting souvenirs. Nor was he a neutral observer gathering facts to write up as a research project. Paul was an evangelist. He wanted to understand a rival worldview so that he could share his own faith more effect­ively in that setting. The sermon that followed is one of the most powerful examples of apologetics. Paul took time to look at the architecture of Athens, visit its temples and read its poets. He was not threatened by pagan culture, but engaged with it in order to communicate more effectively. We need to do the same thing to be effective in our own evangelism.

An apologist is not engaging in a unique ministry among Christians; rather this is an aspect of every Christian’s witness. Of course some will be better at it than others. Some have a great ability to use logic, remember facts or think on their feet, and may therefore be particularly capable of defending the faith. Clearly Paul was one of these people. In the contemporary world we find examples in William Lane Craig, Ravi Zacharias, Alister McGrath and the late Francis Schaeffer. These individuals are called ‘apologists’ as they have particular gifts in using apologetics in their ministry. However, it is not always helpful to single out these people as apologists, because we are all called when a non-believer questions us to give a reason for the hope that we have. Explaining and defending our faith is a responsibility shared by all believers. And a failure to include apologetics in our conversations can create shallow conversions and shaky disciples.

Apologetics and philosophy

Apologetics can benefit greatly from the discipline of phil­osophy. The Greek word from which the English word ‘philosophy’ is derived means ‘love of wisdom’. Philosophy is used by practitioners of all faiths and none, so there are Christian philosophers, Muslim philosophers, Marxist phil­osophers and atheist philosophers. Philosophy does not dictate the content of belief (such as whether or not a god exists), but philosophers do tend to agree on certain standards for knowledge. Philosophy deals more with ‘how’ rather than ‘what’ to think. We can usefully draw on philosophy to make sense of our faith and communicate it persuasively. But phil­osophers have no one insight or opinion on what the truth may be. Someone once said that if you took all the phil­osophers in the world and laid them end to end, you still would not reach a conclusion! So the beliefs of phil­osophers are as diverse as those of the rest of the population. But the way in which philosophers try to explain or debunk ideas does find wide agreement. These are rules of logic and reasoning without which communication breaks down. The word ‘logic’ is derived from a Greek word logos which means ‘word’, something that should remind us that logic is an important element of using words. Illogical statements may be considered nonsense; therefore some of these rules are worth knowing if we are to communicate effect­ively. (We will consider some of these rules in the next chapter.)

Limits of apologetics

Some philosophers arrogantly claim too much for their discipline. We should not make the same mistake in our use of apologetics. There are limitations in both what we can know and how we understand what we know. Some things we just do not know. Other things we may believe but find it hard to explain or understand. While I am confident in my faith, I can certainly find it difficult to explain or meet objections that need to be carefully considered.

The Bible affirms this humble approach to knowledge in many ways. There is a genuine sense in which Christians realize that everything they know depends upon God. Having entered a living relationship with Christ, everything looks different now. Psalm 36:9 declares of God:

With you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

Our vision is enhanced by the light of what God has revealed. The book of Job reflects on the humility of human understanding. Job asks where wisdom and understanding will be found and laments,

It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
concealed even from the birds of the air.

(Job 28:21)

Job again reflects on the problem of vision. We cannot naturally see where true wisdom is found. Proverbs offers only one route to this wisdom:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

(Proverbs 1:7)

Fear in this context means a proper respect for and acknow­ledgment of God. This is the humility required to find true knowledge. When Paul deals with the objections people might make to the sovereignty of God over history, he responds with the rebuke: ‘Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?’ (Romans 9:20). There will be many questions that we cannot easily answer, but our trust in God’s wisdom remains firm.

So how does this call to humility in matters of knowledge bear on apologetics? No-one needs to be a Christian in order to make sense of every aspect of life. Plenty of non-Christians have been capable scientists, teachers and artists. But the Bible emphasizes wisdom over knowledge. Truly to make sense of the facts that we can see, and understand their spiritual significance, requires a dependence upon God and a willingness to listen. Apologetics cannot prove anything to a resistant or stubborn heart, for example. Many people may have a lot of knowledge but little spiritual wisdom.

Some believers worry about apologetics because they think it encourages a spirit of argumentativeness and confrontation. Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matthew 5:9), and the epistles call us to live at peace (see Hebrews 12:14). Questioning the beliefs of non-Christians can seem unfriendly and intolerant. The fruit of the Holy Spirit include peace and gentleness. Would we not be better living quiet lives of loving peace and trusting that God would use that witness to bring our friends to faith?

Perhaps the reason for this worry is found in the many bad examples of apologetics. Some Christians are argumentative. Some are rude about non-Christians. Some lose their temper or possess arrogant personalities. However, we can also find bad examples of preaching and evangelism. Some preaching is sloppy, incoherent or boastful. But the fact that there are bad examples does not mean that it should not or cannot be done well. Peter, in the passage we quoted earlier, goes on to tell his readers how to give a word back when questioned: ‘But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander (1 Peter 3:15–16). There is never an excuse to be rude or aggressive, whether we are parking our car or explaining our faith. Christian love should characterize all that we do. As we explain our faith we should be humble, admitting to things we don’t know or to questions we find difficult. We should be respectful, questioning alternative beliefs without mocking them. We should be gentle, knowing that winning someone’s interest in Christ is more important than winning an argument.

James Sire makes many astute comments on why good arguments often fail.8 It is not enough to have an argument that is valid. We need grace, humility, thoughtfulness and integrity in our presentation of the Christian faith. Without such grace a valid argument may be entirely ineffective. Nonetheless, such graces are compatible with a willingness to enter the fray and confront false beliefs and arguments against Christ. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said blessed are the ‘peacemakers’ not the ‘peace lovers’. The Christian is not called to do anything for a quiet life and avoid controversy. He or she is called to get into the thick of it, bringing truth and direction in a world of deception and darkness. We make peace in the world through a confident and robust explanation of our faith and an enquiring exploration of the alternatives. The only peace that lasts is the peace with God that comes through faith in him. So a peacemaking Christian cannot be afraid of controversy.

This brings us to another important worry about the role of apologetics. Do we really believe that we can argue someone into the kingdom of heaven? Is becoming a Christian a matter of being convinced intellectually? Can apologetics actually convert people? At one level this is no different from asking whether or not someone can be preached or talked into the kingdom of heaven. The fact that Christians do a lot of preaching and talking does not mean that we think our preaching or talking does the converting. A Christian believes that conversion is more than just forming an opinion about some facts. Conversion is a supernatural event - a miracle. It is a work of God, through the Holy Spirit, to open someone’s mind and heart so that they trust in Jesus as their personal Saviour and Lord.9 Sharing our personal testimony, explaining a Bible passage or answering objections are all valid things to do, but without a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit none of them is able to convert anyone. God uses various means to do his will. He uses a personal testimony, a kind deed or a reasonable argument to create a climate favourable to faith. Whether our friend actually becomes a Christian or not is out of our hands.

Apologetics is singled out for this worry b...

Table of contents

• Confident Christianity
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Apology for apologetics
• 2. Apologetics and philosophy
• 3. Christian persuaders
• 4. For the sake of argument
• 5. Apologetics through the ages
• 6. Brave new world
• 7. Digging up the Bible
• 8. Science friction
• 9. Dealing with diversity
• 10. Everybody hurts
• Conclusion
• Further reading
• Notes