Thoughts on Christian Apologetics:

Do not fear, and do not be intimidated,

        but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord.

Always be ready to make your defense (apologia)

        to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

        yet do it with gentleness and reverence. (1Pt 3:15-16)

I didn’t mean to get all tangled up with David Christian’s (what a bible name) Origin Story: A Big History of Everything. It’s not my way. I just found myself there. Which leads me to give a brief apologetic for my apologetics. It comes from First Peter 3:15-16 above.

You see our Greek N.T. word apologia from which we get our word “apologetics”. That prefix apo appears in all sorts of our English words—like “apogee”, for example. “Apogee” is that point in a rocket shot that is furthest from the earth. It has the sense of “away from”. So, an apologetic is a word (logia) or a reason that we launch “away from” us who already believe to those who question the validity of our faith; or, as Peter puts it, “our hope”.

Notice what the Bible puts in front of our apologetics and behind our apologetics: 1) in front: “Do not fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord.”  And 2) behind: “Do it with gentleness and reverence.”  And, 3) in the middle: “Be ready to give and answer (apologia) to anyone who ask of you a reason for the hope that is in you.”

Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s hard to beat the Bible. Let me do some one, two, threes:

      1.  Hope Filled Communities: It assumes folks outside of our faith are interested in “the hope” that is in us. Apologetics requires a community of noticeable hope. Without it, we have no place from which to launch our defense. Without such noticeable hope nobody cares. Nobody is inquiring and nobody is listening. But where such communities of hope exist, folks can’t help but wonder about the wonder of our hope.

      2.  Thoughtful Response: It requires of us who believe to respond thoughtfully. That means we are thoughtful of the thoughts of those who inquire about our hope. It’s never wrote, or contrived, or canned. It’s our own thoughtful response to a thoughtful question.

      3.  Gentleness and Respect: We give our response to those who ask about the hope that is within us, because we are not fearful or intimidated. We simply “reverence Christ”. We are not defending our particular argument. We are reverencing Christ. Christ frees us to be respectful and gracious to all who enquire about the hope that is in us.

The Apostle sums it up nicely: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Col 4:5-6).