“We live in a foreign culture and apologetics helps us speak that language.”
Our culture is increasingly post-Christian. As a result, many people have questions about the Bible and the Christian faith and we must be able to provide compelling answers to those questions. Dr. Richard Land discusses the important truth behind the real purpose of apologetics.
“If we really love people and we really care about people, and we really want to reach people with the Gospel, then we need to be prepared to give them solid and compelling answers to their honest questions.”
Giving a reasonable answer is only part of effective apologetics; the answer must be given with gentleness. Unfortunately, this is one aspect of apologetics that is often forgotten.
“We want to win the argument, but we want to win the argument in order to win the person.”
As Christians, we often forget about the person we are trying to reach and we begin to make them the enemy.
“Our enemy is not the lost person we are sharing our faith with, our enemy is the prince of darkness.”
Our job is not to ridicule them and crush their spirits; our job is to be used by God to lead them out of darkness and into the Light. Winning the debate is not the end.
“That’s a means to an end. The end is to win them to faith in Jesus Christ.”
We can win an argument while forfeiting all hope of winning the person for Christ if we do not conduct ourselves with gentleness. Ask God to help you respond to questions about your faith with kindness and confidence.
