THE NEED FOR APOLOGETICS

By Shawn McGrath

Location: Moncton NB, Canada

I have had a Website posted online now for approximately one & a half year. The first was entitled "Christian examples" and after much thought I decided to change the title to "Brethren apologetics". Within this last year & a half much has happened with regards to the growth of this Website. I have written articles, done debates and have truly grown in my appreciation for the truth of the Word of God.

Something else that has happened within this year and a half is I have received many emails (more and more as time goes on) with people criticizing my blog posts or articles. Generally these folks are from various groups that I have addressed here. What has become somewhat alarming to me is the amount of criticism shown towards myself and other Christians who have chosen to address the false teachers and non-believers by actual believers. The frequent comments from fellow Christians have become somewhat disheartening. Comments like "why do you bother talking to those people" and "You shouldn't bother with these things or read the bible & preach the gospel" even "faith and proof cannot be reasoned together, they are incompatible".

I would like in this small article to address the reason why I have taken on the task of apologetics, what exactly is apologetics, the biblical perspective of apologetics, how apologetics & the gospel go hand in hand and some personal stories as well. I would hope this would enlighten people as to why I feel this area of service to the Lord is important and answer the concerns of my fellow brethren.

Defining our terms!

Perhaps to commence this expose we should begin by defining our terms. To the average person when I mention the word Apologetics or apologist, this sounds like Greek to them and it should since the term is derived from the Greek. We find the term used in scripture in 1 Peter 3:15;

But Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense( pros apologian) to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.

Apologetics is from the stem word apologia and is defined by W.E. Vines as "a verbal defense, a speech in defense". The purpose of apologetics is also defined in 1 Peter 3:16 as we are to put them to shame. Kenneth Wuest gives us a good definition of the meaning of the term.

"The words "give an answer" are the translation of a Greek word used as a legal term in the courts. It means literally "to talk off from", and was used of an attorney who talked his client off from a charge preferred against him. He presented a verbal defense. The exhortation is to Christians to talk the Bible off from the charges preferred against it, thus presenting a verbal defense. (Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Kenneth Wuest, P.89)

Many concerns over the task of the apologist are from a misunderstanding of what he/she does. To give an answer doesn't imply "to argue" as some have insinuated. The difference is, once again, found in 1 Peter 3:15 in that we are to give that answer "with gentleness and reverence. An Apologist has the task to look deeper at the truths presented in scripture, to present the truth of the Word of God in an honest fashion while refuting unbiblical heresies and the attacks of the non-believers. We must also learn the tactic and beliefs of other religious and non-religious bodies in order to refute them for without this understanding, we are unable to present the gospel to them. It was once said that in order to present the gospel clearly to someone we must take the glasses of the man-made religion off of him or her so they can see the gospel clearly.

It is commonly misunderstood as well that debating is done for the purpose of winning. I debate not for this sake, for if the person has not converted from their error and embraced truth, I have not won anything. Not only this but we are always reminded of the people reading or listening to the debate, that they may hear the truth presented to them.

An apologist must be always ready to answer the questions of either the skeptic, pseudo-Christian and most importantly, the young believer looking for answers.

The Need!

The task of answering the claims of those who would attack the truths of the Word of God may seem to some as trivial. I can respect the comments from people who feel the gospel should be presented and rightfully so since our common goal whether an apologist or a gospel preacher is to make known the message of the Person and works of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I guess the question begs to be asked, so why not simply preach the gospel? The problem with this assertion is that it assumes that there is only one way to preach the gospel. You see, to someone who is involved in a pseudo-Christian religion or a skeptic, often times they need to firstly have the stumbling block removed before them in order to take the first step toward the Person of Christ. There is a need to take away their trust in their theological fallacies and present the message of the Gospel afresh to them.

I am sometimes left rather baffled at some comments I've received. Some feel like ignoring these fallacies and, as they would render, "not bother with them" is the way to address the issue. I've heard of Christians proudly stating how they had "slammed the door" the face of a Watchtower couple. Several questions keep ringing within the depths of my soul; do these people not deserve to have the gospel presented to them? Are we really unconcerned with the welfare of their soul to the point that we would simply rather ignore them than answer their questions in hope that perhaps they would at least look deeper into your discussion? I will share in a future post the importance of receiving the answers I was looking for before my conversion.

The need for apologetics doesn't end there; you see there is another problem facing Christians today and that is that the gospel is being attacked from every front. Young people are losing their trust in the gospel due to the muddying of certain groups or skeptics.

Within the last few years Roman Catholic theologians have been putting out books primarily to defend the "Catholic Faith" and there have been many conversions to Roman Catholicism particularly because of their attack on our view that the scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith. Also, You would only have to look outside your door on Saturday mornings to see friendly Watchtower couple coming to your door with the intention of recruiting others to their form of theology. There are thousands of Mormon missionaries putting thousands of hours of work to present to the world the gospel of the Latter-Day Saints. Not to mention the issues going on in the news on abortion, evolution, attacks on inspiration of the scriptures and the list goes on and on.

With all these issues presented before us, who will step up to defend the truth? In my opening post, I presented the question "why do you bother". The reason I bother is because I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I am forever grateful and in awe at the love He showed me and I believe that the truths contained in His precious and Holy Word are worth defending.

The Lord Jesus

I will now address the example the Lord Jesus had left us in our appreciation of standing firm for the truth. It should be noted that the Lord was well acquainted with the fallacies of the Traditions of the elders in that day. The Lord Jesus was never shy in answering for the Truths that had been brought forward by the Father. He constantly rebuked and refuted the Jewish Elders and even sometimes his own apostles. One won't need to look in vain in the scriptures at the instances where the Lord addressed those who were poisoning God's truth and were placing unwarranted burdens on the people. Notice the following examples:

In Matt 12:1-8, The Lord rebuked the Pharisees on the issue of the Sabbath; He rebuked them once again on their claim that He was casting out Demons through Beelzebul (Matt 12:22-29), again when they were accusing the apostles of breaking the traditions of the elders (Matt 15:1-4), on the issue of divorce (Matt 19:1-12). The Lord drove out the moneychangers rebuking the use of God's temple for such reasons (Matt 21:12-17). He rebukes those challenging His authority (Matt 21:23-27). He refutes the challenge of the Sadducees with respects to their test of the seven brothers (Matt 22:23-34); He rebukes the hypocrisy of the Scribes & Pharisees (Matt 23:1-12). If one was simply to read Matt 23:13-36, the eight woes, one would have clear picture of the Lord's powerful apologetics and there are many more that could be listed as well.

It is obvious when reading through these texts of scripture that the Lord Jesus believed that giving an answer and rebuking untruths was of great importance. There has always been an urgency to protect God's truth since, once again, those truth are worth defending. We are always to be Christ-like hence a part of this lies also in the defense of God's precious and Holy Word.

The Apostles

When the Lord had ascended and gone Home to be with the Father, He had left the apostles in charge of proclaiming the Gospel and the responsibility of keeping it pure. Christ promised the apostles the Holy Spirit "whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you" (John 14:26) One will not have to look hard to find, from the time of enscripturation, heresies creeping into the flock of God. These were numerous groups including Judaizers & Gnostics who were interested in teaching their rendition of the truth. The question begs to be asked: How did the apostles address this situation? Did they simply "not bother with them"?

The apostle Paul was always suffering for the gospel and stood firm in its proclamation before leaders of various cultures. Notice in his epistle to the Philippians how Paul was clear of his role as a preacher and an apologist when he said: …since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of Grace with me (v.1: 7) and "knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel (v.1: 16). Paul always bothered to proclaim and defend what was entrusted to him. He is clear at our responsibility to "not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. (Ephesians 5:11) If one was to read the epistle to the Colossians with any sort of historical background, it becomes quite clear that Paul was refuting the Judaizers & Gnostics teaching and defending the truths entrusted to him by God.

I have already, in a previous post, spoken of the apostle Peter's statement in his first epistle to always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is within you (1 Peter 3:15) hence I will not reiterate this and move on to the apostle John whom showed in his first epistle the importance of responding to heresies. While addressing the teaching of the Gnostics, John was clear to point out to "not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1). John refutes the idea of Gnostic belief of dualism in v. 2 when he states that "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." If John wouldn't of bothered with these believers and refuted the Gnostics we can only imagine the outcome of this historical and spiritual situation.

Jude also made it clear in his epistle is necessary to write to the believers to "content earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the Saints". He warns these saints of "ungodly persons who run the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ (v. 4) W. McDonald writes:

"Attacks were being made on the sacred deposit of Christian truth, and efforts were already launched to whittle away the great fundamental doctrines. God's people must stand uncompromisingly for the inspiration, inerrancy, authority and the sufficiency of God's Holy Word. (Believers bible commentary, p 2340)

Those truths that were written by the inspiration of God are entrusted to us to not only proclaim but as the Lord Jesus & His apostles before us to defend as well.

The Early Church

Believers, even in the earliest times of Christianity, were subject to attacks by non-believers and heresies were constantly creeping into the assemblies. These threatened the very foundation of the faith as well as the reputation of the believers. I will point out but two instances were the believer needed to put the apologist's hat on in order to defend God's truth and Christian’s reputations as well.

Firstly, I will begin with the charge of Atheism against early Christians. The refusal to worship Roman gods brought much anger by the Romans. Polycarp, the great bishop of Smyrna, was brought before the emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, to answer for the Christian faith. Aurelius brought the elderly Bishop in an arena in front of the Roman people and said he would spare his life if he denied Christianity by saying "away with the atheists". Polycarp then pointed to the crowd and with a great cry said "away with the atheists". Unfortunately, his standing up to defend the believer’s reputation cost him his life since Aurelius ordered his execution. Justin Martyr wrote about the charges of atheism and refuted them in his "apology".

Another aspect in history where apologetics played an important role was during the Arian crisis. Arius, a presbyter, began teaching that there was a time when the Lord Jesus didn't exist and was created by the Father. At the council of Nicea, when many had embraced the heresy, Alexander accompanied by Athanasius defended the truth of the eternal nature of the Lord. Athanasius was constantly defending the truth of the Trinity even while being banished over 5 times from Alexandria. If one is to read "the world against Athanasius", one will see apologetics at it's best.

These are just a few examples from the early church; obviously the reformation was an era where apologetics were needed to triumph over the traditions and heresies of Rome, particularly there teaching of salvation via indulgences. Obviously Apologetics has played a crucial role in the defense of historic orthodox Christian teachings!

A Personal Experience

Finally, from a personal perspective I would like to share why apologetics led me to receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord & Saviour.

At a point in my life, I came at a crossroads trying to figure out what was truth and what wasn't with respects to the scriptures. My uncle was pushing the Gospel on me in preaching the finished work of Christ for my redemption from sin. My wife was another factor while she pursued the thought of Christ dying for sin, she also believed that one must do works and be faithful to the end to be saved. I was terribly torn between these two viewpoints since both seemed to have had scripture to provide proof of their assertion.

It came to a point where I started to believe my wife's gospel since there was one factor that she had completely convinced me on, that Jesus Christ wasn't God but was the "Son of God" in the sense He was created by God. My uncle held to the historic position that Jesus Christ is in fact Jehovah God the Son. My uncle’s arguments for Salvation in Christ alone made all the sense in the world, but because He believed in the Trinity, I couldn't accept anything he said. If he was wrong on this, how could I be sure he was right on the eternal matters? My wife could refute my uncle’s claim yet my uncle hadn't the foggiest idea how to respond to my wife's proof texts. Even when I turned to some Brethren online, the responses just weren't there.

Fortunately, the Lord was working in my life and led me to a book called "Basic Christianity" which gave me a good fundamental explanation of the Deity of Christ through John 8:58 and it gave me enough to understand that He was claiming to be eternal. Once I was able to get through the barrier and understand this doctrine, I threw myself on my knees and received Christ as my Saviour.

Luckily, shortly after this happened, I found out about a man named Walter Martin whom had no problem addressing the proof texts provided by the Watchtower Society. Walter Martin was a professional apologist who wrote books refuting pseudo-Christian Religions and he cleared up the issue as well as others for me that I am forever grateful for his work in apologetics.

I hope this small article will enlighten those who have unfortunately not a good understanding of the importance of the work of the apologist to refute fallacies, teach the Doctrines of the Lord and preach a clear message of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ