Evangelicals are obsessed with apologetics. To clarify, I'm using the term apologetics to simply describe the work of defending Christian beliefs. Often times apologists utilize philosophical arguments, logic, and modern science to build their cases in favor of Christianity. The scriptural warrant to practice Christian apologetics is normally taken out of 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” I applaud any Christian that wants to share with others the hope he or she finds in Christ, however, I have seen the attitude by which Christian apologetics is conducted rather arrogantly and argumentatively. It seems that Christian practitioners of apologetics have often times neglected to read the latter part of 1 Peter 3:15 which reads, “But do this with gentleness and respect.”
In addition to poor attitude, I find apologetics to be an unwarranted focus of many Evangelicals. Seriously, Evangelicals live for this stuff. They go to Bible colleges and seminaries in order to hone their apologetic skills. So why do I think the great focus on apologetics is unwarranted?
In athletics there is an old saying, “The best offense is a good defense.” In the world of sports I think this principle works well. However, in the realm of Christian faith I argue for just the opposite: “The best defense is a good offence.” What if we stopped trying to defend our faith by way of well reasoned arguments for the existence of God and the superiority of Christianity over every other religion and just started loving God and our neighbors? What if we completely abandoned defending our faith to non-believers and gave ourselves totally over to putting into practice the example Christ has put before us?
I have no way of being sure of this, but I like to imagine that if we Christians simply practiced all that Christ instructed us to do that we would have little to defend our faith against. After all, the majority of “arguments” that I have heard about or personally encounter against the Christian faith go something like this: “I don’t want to be a Christian or have anything to do with Christianity because every Christian I have met is a hypocrite. Every one of them has been just as judgmental, unforgiving, selfish and arrogant as every other person I have ever met.” To put it another way, I don’t think most people turn their back on God or Christians because they absolutely deny the existence of God (although some do), or because they are convinced that another religion has more attractive claims. Rather, I think the reason why they do not want to be associated with Christianity (or at least argue against its claims) is because they have not seen anything worth while in the way Christians live.
I think it is time that Christians went on the offense. I think it is time that we started showing the world what being a Christian is all about, started showing the world that God is worthy of our devotion and that our neighbor ought to be cherished. After all, Jesus said that everyone would know that we are Christians by the way we love one another (John 13:35). Let love be the best defense of the Christian faith.
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my experience in seminary has made apologetics to be a christian literary genre, and that isn't my idea of fun. I like what you are saying though. I see a place for apologetics though for sure, but if not done right I do think they can do more harm than good.
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