|
What is Apologetics?
Apologetics is the reasoned
defense of the Christian religion. Christianity is a faith which hinges
upon reasons for that faith. Faith is not reason.
Reason is not faith. But Faith cannot be dislocated from reason or
faith ceases to exists. It is the mind's understanding and assent
to that understanding that lays the groundwork for the Spirit of God to
regenerate the soul and implant faith. As God is rational in His
dealing with men, so He made men rational thinking men. That does
not mean Christians are to be rationalists, but rather, rational.
Apologetics is the Rational Biblical Defense of Jesus Christ and His
Word against Satanic philosophies (the cults (like Mormonism and
Jehovah's Witnesses), atheism, agnosticism, Stoicism, Socinianism, Roman
Catholicism, etc...) which contest His veracity and His revealed will
contained in the Bible.
It is not surprising that
the Puritans excelled in the rational biblical defense of Christ and His
Word, being entrenched in Ramean logic (which is often unappealing to
the mass of contemporary readers who cannot think because they have
never been taught to think.) Ramean logic affords the writer the
ability to parse every point considered in great matriculation and with
preciseness. In doing so, not only is the truth given to the
saints for their edification, but objections are answered to the
satisfaction of the bible. These, though, are not answers which
are simply textural quotes, but rather expositions of the text exegeted
in such a way as to render the hearer stunned with amazement feeling as
though every point has been covered, or almost exhausted. It is
having (if such a thing were to exist in its fullness) a mastery of the
biblical text at hand.
Hand in hand with the
biblical prowess one ought to posses as an able exegete of the Word of
God, is the hand-maiden of apologetics--this is rational philosophy.
Philosophy is the Hagar to the Sarah. So long as Hagar does not
exalt herself over Sarah, she is useful as a hand-maiden. Rational
Biblical Apologetics will wed both the truth of the Word of God with the
truth of the natural laws of rational philosophy in order to refute,
attest to, and convince the gainsayer of his error.
The vain philosophy of the
world will always contain these 5 elements:
1) An attestation (or acquiescence) to the Bible as a helpful book, but
not the inspired Word of God (although Catholicism will attest to the
Bible as being divine, yet their tradition is placed upon an equal, and
most of the time, greater level than the Bible--the church decides what
the Word means.)
2) The denial of the
Biblical Gospel message of Christ's vicarious substitutionary atonement
on behalf of his elect people which is limited in scope but not its
power.
3) The denial of the sinner
as morally corrupt, dead in sins, without any ability to will spiritual
good, or turn to Christ to repent.
4) The denial of God's
absolute sovereignty in all areas of the created order.
5) A deranged or warped view
(or no view) of God in general.
It is the duty of every
Christian to be an apologist. Some Christians immediately balk at
this, not even aware of the meaning of the word. Simply, an
apologist is not someone who "apologizes" for his faith, but
rather, is someone who defends the faith once for all entrusted to the
saints (Jude 1:3). It is commanded by God that all Christians
follow 1 Peter 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and
always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for
the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear..." A ready
defense is required of the Christian. That does not mean he must
be a "professional theologian" in order to have an answer for
the gainsayer. However, the Christian should at least be
well prepared, or ready to give a defense.
The predisposition to fall
into a kind of post-Gnostic theology is the plight of much of
evangelicalism today. To lean on a kind of faith-centered feeling
and experience is far easier for the contemporary Christian to appeal to
than it is for him to prepare a reasonable defense of the faith he
claims to hold. It is easier for him to say with the blind man,
"All I know is, once I was blind, but now I see" relying on
what he feels and experiences rather than what he is able to explain.
Yet he will still, in a primal kind of way, appeal to the absurdity of
one questioning his experience with the "Who are you to question my
experience..." defense. Though in reality this is simply a
kind of "red herring", even the evangelical Gnostic will
appeal to some kind of defense if it is needed. But Christ calls
true Christians to more than this. He calls us to a readied
defense of the faith entrusted to us. This means we need not only
to have a readied defense, but we need to know what we are defending to
a comfortable extent. Paul the Apostle reasoned daily in the
school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:8-10). He reasoned with them. He
did not make simple appeal and then ask them to give their lives over to
Christ. He appealed to their rational intellect time and time
again (See the Sermon on Mars Hill and the debate with the Greeks in
Acts 14 and 17). Paul knew his Old Testament well, but he also
engaged them in the consideration of natural theology. The debates
he engaged in to convince the gainsayer would have been quickly over if
he did not know his Bible well or was unable to appeal to the intellect.
There are two elements to
being ready to give a defense of the faith. The first is a
thorough knowledge of the faith we profess. This seems almost
silly to purport. The fact is, many Christians who have been
professing Christians for long periods of time (years and years) would
not know where to find the historical narrative of Isaiah's exposure to
God and the angel's chant of "holy, holy, holy." Or even
the prophecies concerning Christ's death in the Psalms, where the faith
chapter is located in the New Testament, or even where to find the
parable of the prodigal son. These are pivotal texts that are
often neglected. Secondly, the ready apologist should have some
idea of the corrupted philosophies and ideologies which desire to exalt
themselves over the Scriptures. This is not necessarily needful,
but quite helpful. Why do I say this is not necessarily needful?
It is hypothetically possible that a Christian could be so well versed
with the truth, that when error springs up before him he will be able to
refute it thoroughly by the word of God. But this is the exception
rather than the rule. And within the context of today's aversion
to the rational, it is even more needful that Christians have a
well-rounded defense of the faith for the glory of Christ.
|
