The Most Underrated Benefit of Apologetics
When you hear the word “apologetics” what do you think? Take some time to ponder that and maybe even write down what comes to mind. Here is my guess of what came to you: atheist/ism; non-Christian; argument; Ravi Zacharias; defense; Sean McDowell; and/or Capturing Christianity. Now while I understand that the names, with the exception of Ravi, came to those who are involved in for familiar with apologetics, the one thing I did expect to not come up is confirming, grounding,[1] or reassuring. Do not get me wrong, the others are all good answers but many of us, including us apologists, do not think about the confirming, grounding, and reassuring effects of good apologetics.
I want to address the active apologists first: there is nothing wrong with you if you did not think about these effects of apologetics. Quite honestly, I did not think about them until I was confronted with life when it hit the hardest. There is also nothing wrong with you if you have not had the same experience as me. I would wager that once you were well acquainted with apologetics, these effects of the discipline became an indispensable part of your story even if you did not have words for them at the time. You probably found apologetics to be one of the things you found to be a necessary part of your spiritual walk with Jesus and a foundational part of why you are or stayed a Christian.
Now for those who are inactive apologists. By this I mean someone who is not currently seeking out to interact with people in person or online using apologetic arguments for the the gospel’s advancement. There is nothing inherently wrong with not being proactive in combatting objections. Though the Bible does command us to be ready to give a defense (1 Peter 3:15), that does not mean we have to be proactive. It is very much okay to be reactive. In other words, go about your day just as you do but if someone does question you about Christianity, you should be able to react and give a good defense of the hope you have within you (Hebrew 11:1).
Since we got some preliminary issues that may arise out of the way, we can talk about how relevant apologetics is for the person who is the inactive apologist. Let me use my own story as fuel for the fire that I hope to spark in you.
It was high school that I was introduced to the idea of apologetics, despite not knowing what it was until college. My best friend at the time had gone through some a phase of doubting God and he had asked God to see a demon. Because if God was real, then so is the other side and he wanted to know for sure. Well… he got what he wanted and then some. I was unknowingly along for the ride and when I had encountered the demonic, I had no idea what to do. So many questions popped up that I did not know I had. Once I started studying and trying to get my questions answered, more questions came up and more… and more questions! To say my faith was in an interesting spot would be an understatement.
Let me be clear, I did not really have any doubts about the reality of God or the truth of the Christian worldview. What I did have was a curiosity of the validity of it all. I wanted to make sure it all corresponded with reality because if it did not, then it was high time to look for another worldview/religion.
This is where apologetics really came in to play. Apologetics became a way for me to know just know what I believed was true spiritually but also intellectually. It gave me a grounding within reality that I could hold to. It reassured me that what I was taught as a child, growing up in the church, was true. I started researching where it all began, demons. I learned what I could with what I had available to me about demonology which led me to lookin to the problem of evil. From there, since I have a highly inquisitive mind, I did a nosedive into philosophy of religion. [2]It was these arguments from apologetics that really helped solidify my faith. Apologetics did the exact opposite what the enlightenment thinkers thought it would do, namely that thinking rationally about one’s faith and religious commitment will lead to an embrace of some form of naturalism.
This is my challenge to you, the inactive apologist. Think of apologetics not as something to make yourself look smarter than the next guy or to just win arguments. Think of it as a way to bolster your own faith and thinking about God. A.W. Tozer, one of the great theologians of the mid 20th century, said that “(W)hat comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important think about us.” And he is correct! I would take it one step further and include “how we think about God” in the middle of it. It is not just the “what” that defines us but the “what” and the “how” combined. If we are not, yet able, to think deeply about God (the “how” of the thoughts), then we can essentially be chocked up to being fideists, taking all rational thinking about God and throwing it out the window. This is not what we are biblically called to do nor is it what our church fathers did either. We are called to know God deeply which very strongly suggests more than just relationally but intellectually as well.
[1] No, I am not referring to metaphysical grounding.
[2] You do not have to do what I did. Philosophy of this nature is heavy and takes time. It just so happened that my thinking fit well with the discipline, and it sucked me in.