Do not get the word apologetics confused with the word apologise, in fact the two words mean quite the opposite. The word apologetics stems from the Greek word apologia, which means to give a defence. In the Christian worldview, apologetics is the branch of the faith that deals with giving a reasoned defence for the Biblical worldview on a logical and evidential level. Christian apologetics can come in many varying forms such as: Scientific apologetics, legal/political apologetics, philosophical apologetics, historical apologetics and much more.
There are many scriptural references that back up the act of implementing apologetics. Aside from the fact that Jesus himself was the greatest apologist to ever live! Scriptures such as 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 2 Corinthians 10:5 and 2 timothy 4:2 tell us to prove all things, cast down all thoughts that exalt themselves higher than the knowledge of God, and preach the Word, reproving, rebuking and exhorting with all doctrine.
The most common scripture however that acts as a bedrock for any apologist is 1 peter 3:15, where peter says to ”sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” This scripture entirely sums up the work of an apologist.
Apologetics is not a new trend or movement by any means. All throughout antiquity, Christians have been pushed to deliver a defence of the Word of God within their varying cultural environments. In todays culture, some of the biggest attacks on the Bible are to do with: belief in the existence of God, trusting the Bible, trusting the Biblical God as oppose to any other god, and evolution vs creation. In previous centuries, these attacks were present, only they were distinctly alternative in form. I will give some brief examples below:
Tertullian (160 – 220AD) – Was a man who had to defend against the act of abortion. He used the Bible as a foundation to show that all life was sacred and so abortion was wrong objectively. Back in his time, the technology to be able to kill a foetus wasn’t around and so what people would have done was to have the child born, and then leave it out on the sidewalk to starve, freeze or be eaten by savage animals. Tertullian worked to stop this by giving a reasoned defence based on the Christian ethic, which is founded in the Bible.
(St Athanasius 296 – 373AD) – Was a very influential figure in the formation of the Nicene Creed which was the first church establishment to host a genuine document defending the triune nature of God as Father Son and Holy spirit. A heresy was in circulation at about this time, which was called the Arian heresy. The Arian heresy was fundamentally opposite to the Nicene Creed in that it taught against the trinity and triune nature of God. The creators and followers of this movement believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but only the Son of God and not God himself. They did not believe the trinity to be a credible reality. Athanasius fought against this ideology using reason, scripture, and evidence in order to preserve the infallible Word of God, and Sovereignty of Christ as God in flesh.
Could you be an apologist?
Anyone can be an apologist; you don’t need any fancy degrees or qualifications, however studying formally is a potential route you can take. What scripture does say is that we should “Study to show thyself approved unto God” (2 Tim 2:15). The work of an apologist is not something that should be taken lightly. Firstly, take a look at your interests. Do you enjoy science? You could go down the route of a scientific apologist. Maybe you relish in history? You could become a historical apologist. Next you will need to consult God in prayer about what you feel you want to do. Lastly, get working! Get studying and go for it. You are in the business of winning souls. Sometimes Christians have this internal problem of saying that they have prayed about a situation, but haven’t heard anything from God specifically, and so because of this, they can’t or won’t do anything. Instead of me trying to give a direct answer as to how to deal with this situation, I will leave you with this apparent puzzle I myself heard a while back. This apparent puzzle resonates true to you and me as follows of Christ as to how we should be going about his business.
A man is drowning in water. He is about to suffocate to death he and has no idea how he is going to get out, he only knows that he wants to get out in order to live. You have the ability to pull the man out, but you have a few options. You can either: dive in and grab his feet, swim above water to grab his head, or swim above water to grab his hands. You have enough time to use any of the methods to pull him out. Which method out of the three would the man prefer you to use?
As you can already see, the final question seems disconnected from the prior build up. The question slightly throws you off course from the rest of the puzzle as it seems somewhat, irrelevant. The whole the point of this puzzle is to say that it doesn’t matter which method you use in pulling the man out, you just need to get him out. He has no preference whatsoever; you could grab him by the toenails for all he cares, he just wants out! Now I will leave the rest with you. How does this riddle relate to the world that we live in today and the message of Christ that is readily available for us to spread? Who does the drowning man represent? And who do you represent?