LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
7 Reasons Why Apologetics Might Be Good
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
5/2022
7 Reasons Why Apologetics Might Be Good
There are two main reasons for my doubts. Firstly, I sometimes find apologists more than a
little intimidating. On one hand they generally seem incredibly clever and, on the other hand,
they sometimes seem excessively aggressive, more concerned with winning arguments than
winning hearts. Of course, some of what I interpret as 'aggression' may actually simply be
passion, but nonetheless I think there is more than a hint of truth in the claim that apologists
and their disciples (by which I mean Christians who are passionate about apologetics) aren't
always renowned for their grace and compassion. I should know – I am one!
Secondly, I sometimes wonder what difference apologetics makes. What occupies the
attention of most people most of the time is not deep existential questions about life and faith
but the ordinary stuff of daily life. The majority of people do not reject Christian faith because
they are convinced through argument of the truth of an alternative worldview but either
because they simply don't perceive it to be relevant to their lives or because they seldom pause
long enough to think about it. Furthermore, many people do not read; not because they cannot
but because they choose not to, have no inclination towards books or simply do not have the
time. Yet apologists are invariably bookish people and generate thousands of words in speech
and print (again I accept my share of the blame!!!)
This, then, is my confession. Yet, despite my doubts, I still persist in apologetics. Having
tested my heart to make sure that I'm not motivated entirely by my own desire to win
arguments or my internal compulsion to write, I have concluded that the real problem is not
with the idea of apologetics but with bad apologetics or apologetics done badly. I here offer
seven reasons why apologetics might actually be good, or rather seven guides to what makes
for good apologetics.
1. Good apologetics isn't just for nerds
When churches arrange a meeting on an apologetics topic they commonly bring in an
'expert' in the field, often with an impressive set of credentials and more letters after their
name than in their name. I have no desire to malign the work that such expert apologists do
and I am deeply grateful for their contribution. We need some people of the highest calibre to
engage in apologetics at the highest intellectual and social levels. What concerns me, however,
is that many Christians end up leaving such events thinking, "That was impressive, but I could
never do it". Although the speaker may have intended to empower God's people to defend
their faith, the actual result may have been quite the opposite. Apologetics is not merely a
pursuit for the highly educated or bookish person. Every Christian ought to be prayerfully
seeking opportunities to explain their faith, and any explanation of faith is, in the broadest
sense of the word, apologetics.
Any Christian who has sought to share the gospel or explain why they believe to non-
believing people will almost certainly have been faced with questions in response. Why do you
believe that? Does that really make sense? Do you really think Jesus rose from the dead? How
do you know God exists? What about people who have never heard about Jesus? Why would a
good God allow such terrible suffering?
As soon as we begin to answer these questions and a host of others we are engaging in the
task of apologetics, whether we recognise the word or not. Good apologetics is a resource for
God's people as they engage in real conversations about real life. It seeks to help real people
see why their 'real life' may not be so real after all, to understand why their explanations of
their experience are inadequate and to see that there is a deeper reality which makes sense of
their lives. We need to develop skills to explain our faith at a level appropriate to ourselves and
to those to whom we speak. We need apologetics.
2. Good apologetics doesn't tame the Bible
One of the most frequent objections to apologetics is the idea, commonly attributed to
Charles Spurgeon, that trying to defend the Bible is like trying to defend a lion. The Bible is
powerful (Hebrews 4:12 serves as proof) and can speak for itself. The lion is quite capable of
making itself heard and its powerful roar testifies to its inherent authority. I have a great deal of
sympathy with this perspective and both experience and the testimony of Scripture provide
ample evidence that Scripture is indeed powerful. It is the God-breathed, authoritative record
of the gospel word, which is God's power that brings salvation (Romans 1:16). The gospel is the
God-given message about His Son, the Saviour, Jesus Christ who is Himself the living Word
(John 1:1). The problem, however, is that Scripture and the gospel can only impact the lives of
those who hear it or, more precisely, those who listen.
The Bible, and the gospel which it declares, is powerful to change attitudes and lives, but it
must be proclaimed, declared and explained for "How … can they call on the one they have not
believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can
they hear without someone preaching to them?" (Romans 10:14). Apologetics is part of the
process of helping people to hear the gospel. By removing obstacles to listening to Scripture
and making a case for considering its claims, apologetics can help to 'unleash the lion'.
Apologetics does not arise from a lack of confidence in Scripture but from a conviction that the
message of Scripture is too important for people to miss it.
3. Good apologetics doesn't replace faith with reason
Apologetics makes reasoned arguments for Christianity or against alternative belief
systems. This process depends on human reason or logic. Some claim that this is a fundamental
flaw in apologetics. Surely human beings cannot understand God's truth without the help of His
Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14) and human wisdom cannot accept the foolishness of the gospel (1
Corinthians 1:21). After all, sinful human beings are incapable of knowing God. We cannot enter
at this point into a consideration of the degree to which sin has affected the human mind (what
theologians call the noetic effects of sin) – different schools of apologetics stem from different
perspectives on that question – but it is important that we don't reject logic outright. If we
define reason simply as the process through which we become intellectually convinced of
truths and logic as the principles by which we do this, then we realise that we all engage in
logical reasoning (and a great deal of illogical reasoning) every day. The question becomes not
whether logic and reason are acceptable but what principles of logic we follow and how honest
our reasoning is.
Christians certainly ought not to allow confidence in human reason to supplant the need
for faith or to exclude the spiritual, and this is a challenge in an intellectual world still largely
shaped by Enlightenment thinking that deified human reason, but biblical faith does not
preclude reason and Christianity is not irrational. The idea that faith is irrational is popular with
some prominent atheists, but it simply is not how the Bible describes faith. Faith, without which
we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6), is placing confidence in something or someone.
Everyone is fundamentally a person of faith – we all trust some story about who we are and
what life is all about. Some people have thought their story through more than others have and
different people have different capacities for reasoning, but although there may be some
irrational and thoughtless Christians there are also many who are thoughtful and rational.
Scripture expects that Christians will think through their faith to whatever level they are able. It
calls us to love God with all our mind as part of our whole being (Matthew 22:37) and the way
in which biblical authors build reasoned arguments shows that logic is inherently good. There is
knowledge about God that can be known through human reason. Paul alludes to this in Romans
1:18-20 and says that this universally-accessible knowledge, though limited, is sufficient to
leave all human beings condemned for their rejection of it.
It is not, of course, sufficient alone for us to know God intellectually – there is also an
experiential dimension of knowledge which encompasses love and surrender – but to claim that
reason necessarily conflicts with faith is akin to a husband telling his wife that she shouldn't be
annoyed that he bought her an unsuitable gift because, after all, loving and trusting someone
means that you shouldn't try to think when choosing a present! The point that Paul makes in
the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians is not that non-believers cannot comprehend the internal
logic of the gospel but that they refuse to accept it because it does not fit with their
preconceived beliefs. Their worldview does not allow for the logic of the cross and so they
reject it outright. It is not that they cannot understand the gospel but that they will not accept it
(the Greek word dekomai, translated 'accept' in 1 Corinthians 2:14, literally means 'welcome').
Underlying this rejection is, of course, a spiritual problem. They need to be enlightened by the
Spirit of God, but Scripture consistently shows that this enlightening happens as the gospel is
explained.
Apologetics clears away some of the rubble that obscures the gospel from clear view,
breaks down some of the confidence in alternative ideas, and instils a degree of humility that
makes room for the gospel to be heard on its own terms. It expands the field of logical
possibilities in the minds of those who have narrowed it excessively (e.g., the naturalistic
atheist) and narrows the field of logical possibilities in the minds of those who have expanded it
too broadly (e.g., the pantheist). Apologetics uses the tools of logic and reason to do this work.
It is both a product of and reaction to the Enlightenment, a necessary approach in a world that
values reason, but good apologetics does not fall into the error of making human reason
ultimate. In fact, it exposes the limits of human reason and opens the hearer to the possibility
of worlds beyond the world they have inhabited and dimensions of life that they have not yet
experienced. The good apologist, then, offers him or herself to God as the tool through which
His Spirit may enlighten the hearts of unbelieving people. In doing so he or she follows the
example of Paul, who presented his gospel clearly to people, which included making a reasoned
case for faith (see his speech in Athens as recorded in Acts 17 for example), knowing that it
would be veiled until God made His light shine in their hearts (2 Corinthians 4:1-6).
4. Good apologetics sets a positive agenda
Another potential concern with apologetics is that it sometimes seems to follow an agenda
set by those who reject Christianity. Seminars are organised in response to the latest book by a
celebrity atheist and articles are written to show why other faiths are false. Some apologetics-
sceptics protest at this approach. Didn't Jesus refuse to do miracles for wicked people
(Matthew 12:39)? Why should we constantly be reacting to what those who reject Jesus say?
This objection to apologetics provides a helpful corrective, reminding us that we must present a
positive case for the gospel rather than simply critiquing alternatives. It also helps us realise
that theories, celebrities and books will come and go and that to set our agenda in response to
the latest headline grabber may cause our message to seem dated in due time. Still, we only
need to look to the pages of Scripture to see that the miracles of Jesus were presented both by
Him (Matthew 11:4-5; Mark 2:10-11; John 14:11) and by His apostles (Acts 2:22, 32) as evidence
of the reality that Jesus was the Christ and that some people believed in Him as a result of this
evidence (John 3:2).
Good apologetics, then, engages thoughtfully with the ideas, beliefs and worldviews of
others but it does not allow these to distract from the central issue, namely the person of Jesus
Christ. He is the core agenda of all good apologetics, indeed of all that is truly Christian. Good
apologetics knows how to avoid the mistake of answering a fool according to his folly while at
the same time knowing when to answer another fool according to his folly (see Proverbs 26:5-
6). It will engage in dialogue and debate where this is wise and not when it is likely to descend
into fruitless arguments. We need some apologists who can engage sufficiently with alternative
theories to speak with authority on them but their approach should not be caustic or abrasive
but hopeful and gracious.
5. Good apologetics doesn't generate 'one size fits all' answers
Bad apologetics answers the questions no one is asking or answers the right questions in
the wrong way. It is frequently oblivious to the feelings of people – for example speaking about
the problem of suffering without acknowledging the pain some in the audience may be
experiencing. At its worst it is, or is perceived to be, insensitive and arrogant. It is, however,
possible to do apologetics in a way that is aware of and listens to the audience. The good
apologist does approach the task with confidence rooted in the conviction that the gospel is
God's truth, but this confidence is kept from arrogance by the addition of compassion.
Training and resourcing for apologetics should never be presented as a catalogue of
answers to be memorised for the moment when the correct question comes along. Instead the
apologist must learn to connect God's truth with needy people in a way that is appropriate for
them. Good apologetics is an exercise in contextualisation – making universal truths intelligible
to individuals within their culture and circumstances. It listens carefully and answers
thoughtfully with gentleness (1 Peter 3:15).
6. Good apologetics serves the gospel
Apologetics should never be an end in itself. The apologist does not aim merely to convince
people intellectually that Christianity makes sense; he or she wants to see them come to faith
in Jesus. Apologetics, therefore, is a servant of the gospel. Apologetics should not be divorced
from evangelism or relegated simply to being 'pre-evangelism'. The skilful apologist knows how
to explain the gospel and is constantly seeking to move people on from the case for Christ to
the good news about Christ to an encounter with the living Christ.
The objection to apologetics that suggests that efforts should be concentrated on
evangelism rather than apologetics makes sense only if a false dichotomy is created between
the two. In an increasingly pluralistic and secular culture, evangelism will increasingly require
apologetics, as people will share less of our assumptions about life. Good evangelism is aware
of how people think and the barriers they have towards faith. Good apologetics is aware of the
gospel and how it speaks to people's questions.
7. Good apologetics requires godly apologists
The need for godly character in the apologist has been implicit in much of what has been
said above, but it is an important point on which to finish this article. I have sympathy with
those who have been put off by apologists whose character does not reflect Christ. They may
speak convincingly, but they show little evidence of love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control
and the other dimensions of the Spirit's fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). The deficiencies of some (and,
in the final analysis, all) apologists should not, however, cause us to object to apologetics in
principle any more than the deficiencies of some evangelists should cause us to reject
evangelism. It may, rather, challenge us to rise to the task of engaging in Spirit-filled
apologetics. We do this, as Paul did, as part of our spiritual warfare, recognising that arguments
set against the knowledge of God reflect spiritual strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
Apologetics is not inherently unbiblical and ungodly. We need more godly believers who will
engage thoughtfully in a biblically informed way with other worldviews, who will graciously
make the positive case for faith and who will be ready to share the gospel with people who
need to know Christ.
