Video Transcript: On-Target Apologetics

But before you do too much studying of how to talk, the most important thing in effective Apologetics is first learning to listen. Apologetics can teach you some things to say. But above all, you must learn to listen, you need to listen to God, you need to listen in order to understand the context of the person you're trying to deal with. And you need to listen or to understand that particular individual. 

First of all, you need to know God's truth. And that means study the Scriptures, know how to explain what's in the Bible, know how to defend it, and contend for it. study the Bible and listen to other mature Christians who understand the Bible and who have some experience in Apologetics. 

And by listening very carefully and learning to know God's truth and to be able to make it clear, you'll be a lot more effective when you start talking about it. 

Another aspect that's very vital is to know the context. And that means you need to study the culture of the person or persons that you're talking to, you need to know that cultural context, its practices, the assumptions, the worldview that shapes the people within that context. 

For instance, let's say that you're trying to reach people on a college campus. Now you would better understand a little bit about what it's like to be a college student, and the kinds of temptations that college students face, the kinds of sins that they're most prone to what a college classroom might be like, on a big state university campus, and so on. 

So when I talk about studying a culture, I don't necessarily mean an overseas culture even. But a culture quite different from the one that maybe you've been accustomed to living in, if you want to minister in a university context, understand the university culture. 

If you want to minister to people who are Muslim, whether you're going to that culture or whether people from Muslim background have come into your own society, you want to understand that culture and its assumptions. If you want to minister to Muslim, you better listen a little bit so that you know what Islam teaches, so that you know the particular version of Islam that that particular person believes in. And I could give a much longer list. 

But the point is clear, know the background, and the context, the religion of the person you're talking to, and their particular version of it, and the situation and the country that they came from, and then know that person individually, pay attention to the individual and don't assume that you know much about them. 

Don't jump to conclusions based on one or two facts that you've learned. For instance, let's say you are talking with a person who is a nominal Roman Catholic, maybe they were baptized, and then grew up never going to church, but they still call themselves a Catholic. 

Now, you might say to yourself, well, I know what Catholics believe and list all those Catholic beliefs in your head, and believe that you've got to talk to that person out of believing those things. 

Well, the fact of the matter is, maybe that person knows almost nothing about what Catholics believe I know a lot more about what Catholics believe, than many many Catholics do. I've read the 700 page new Catechism of the Catholic Church cover to cover. But I should not assume that every Catholic I've run into has read the new catechism cover to cover or knows the historic teachings of Catholic belief. 

So just because somebody has a label, don't assume that you know, the, or if somebody is a Muslim, you may have a particular stereotype of what a Muslim person is. But Muslims come from different cultures, Muslims in Indonesia, are going to be quite different from Muslims in Africa, we're going to be quite different from Muslims in Pakistan, and the list could go on. And within each of those countries and areas, there may be many individual differences. 

So in order to know what an individual believes you need to listen and listen, and listen some more to that person. And then listen, in order to know what that person's own experiences have been, what their own struggles have been, what their yearnings are. And once you really know somebody, then you might be closer to being able to connect with them. 

Because remember, in Apologetics, it's not important just that you understand the truths of the Christian faith. It's also important that you understand the person you're trying to reach, so that you can communicate in their language. ways that resonate with them. And so for your Apologetics to be on target, know God's truth, know the context, know the person. You can go off target by ignoring scripture. 

Let's say, there's an apologetic argument that seems really smart. But you still have to ask, what's the defending? And does it accurately reflect God's word? Let's say you want to show that Christianity is compatible with evolution, because you're in a context where the people believe evolution at every word of it. And just as they've been taught, they think that it's absolutely right. And anybody with a decent education, anybody who is rational at all, would have to agree that the earth is billions and billions and billions of years old, and that human life and all other forms of life developed through an evolutionary process of random mutations and natural selection. 

Now, you're going to show that Christianity is completely compatible with that view. While they might be more easily persuaded to think Christianity is right, if they think that it matches perfectly with evolution, but you still have to answer the question, is that true to the Bible, you might find the early chapters of Genesis kind of embarrassing or want to just dismiss them as a poem or a folktale, and then get on to the essence of it, that God made it and evolution is how he did it. Is that what the Bible says? You do have to answer that question, before you move on to the other questions. 

Or here's another question from a different angle, you might argue that evidence of design in the world around us perfectly displays the creator's wisdom and goodness, just look at the beauty of the sunset, or the glory of the mountain, or the way that some designs just seem to work perfectly. It is amazing proof that, that the whole creation, perfectly displays, the creator, does it?. There's death all around us, and the Bible teaches that the creation around us does not display the creator's goodness perfectly. 

The creation around us is distorted by sin, the creation around us has been cursed by the creator after the first humans fell into sin. And we're under God's judgment. And so the curse that came after Adam and Eve sinned, and then the chaos that came at the time of the flood. And then the ongoing bondage to decay that the Bible talks about in Romans 8 are all facts that say, the Earth is not in a state of perfect design, right now, it does still show that it had its origins in a good and wise maker, but it also has evidence of much else in it. 

And we shouldn't pretend that it's all just one beautiful, perfectly running machine. And those who have argued that way, have not only gone contrary to the Bible, but have turned people off. Because it's just very hard to believe that the world as it is, is a perfect reflection of God's goodness. Now, another area in dealing with the problem of how God can be real in a world with so much suffering, you might say that some things are just outside of God's control. Well, is that so? Is that what the Bible says that some things just malfunction because God can't handle them? Or he didn't foresee them?

Someone a number of years ago wrote a book called, why do bad things happen to good people? And the explanation was that God is trying his best to influence events in a positive way. But there are a lot of other things that happen. And so we've got to learn to live with those. Someone who read the book said, Well, if that's what God is, like, Why doesn't he resigned, so some of that more competent, can take his place? Well, comments like that aside, what does the Bible say? 

The Bible says that even the demons and sinful people, even though they're going against God's revealed will, in another sense, God is still carrying out his plan through them. And God's purposes are not flirted, and there are nothing. There's nothing that's outside of God's control. So whenever we're trying to prove something, or take a particular angle to make Christianity more believable, we've got to make sure that we're representing the Bible's teaching accurately. And we're gonna go off target if we ignore what Scripture teaches, and tweak it to fit the way humans are currently thinking. 

Now, we can go off target also not just by ignoring the Bible, but by ignoring the context that a person is in or the context that they come from. And this means, among other things, that we have to choose what we talk about and what not to talk about. You might want to give good arguments for God's existence and evidence for his reality and make a case that miracles can happen if you're talking to an atheist, or an agnostic or a secularist. 

But if you're talking to a Muslim, don't trot out all of your arguments for God's existence. You say, Oh, I learned in Apologetics. And so you feel you've got to tell the Muslim about these arguments for God's existence and for miracles, hey, Muslims already believed God is real. They believe there's one God, they believe that miracles happen. They already believe it. You don't have to prove it to them, Unless they're more secularized. Listen, again, you're gonna have to listen to the individual to find out what kind of Muslim is. 

But I'm just saying, if you're not dealing with an atheist Don't work too hard to prove God's existence. Unless you learn the person has serious doubts about it. Another example, you might work really hard to prove that spirits are real, because you've come from a background where people didn't take spirits seriously, where they were overly scientistic in their thinking, and they were more atheistic influenced in their schools. And so you're going to show that spirits are real, because people need to know that. But what if you're talking to an animist or a spiritist? 

Let's say somebody who comes from a background, where they're believed there are spirits in the trees, spirits in the animals, spirits in the rocks, and they grew up in a setting where there was absolutely no question that spirits were real. Their only question was, how do you deal with all these different spirits? Who might afflict you or help you? And the kinds of answers that you give to that person are very different than the answers you give to somebody who needs to find out that spirits are real in the first place. 

You might be talking to a Hindu, and you say, Jesus is God. And the Hindu person yawns and says, Well, of course, Jesus is God isn't everybody. You haven't taken into account the context and the kind of beliefs and worldview that the person has. Hindus believe that there are 300 million gods. So to say that Jesus is God might not be very helpful to them, you need to show that, first of all, not everything is God. 

And some of the more intellectual Hindus, being pantheist, don't just believe in 300 million gods, they just believe that everything ultimately, is God. And God is all of us and all of us are God. And so to say, Jesus is God, it's not very helpful to them in and of itself, you first have to show what it means to say that a being his God, and deal with the question of is pantheism true, or isn't it? 

But you need to understand their context, their set of beliefs, before you just write him there may be others where you have to show that Jesus is God right away because it's their main question. But with a Hindu, you have to show that God is something special and unique and personal, not just the force that's in everything. If you want to show the Bible's reliability, that might help somebody who doesn't take the Bible seriously or think it's thinks it's full of errors. 

But if you're talking to a devout Mormon person, don't spend too much time trying to prove that the Bible is true and reliable. The Mormon accepts the Bible, as true and reliable, they may go wrong in misinterpreting and misunderstanding the Bible, they may go wrong in misunderstanding who Jesus is and the way of salvation, they may go wrong and adding the Book of Mormon to the Bible. But they're not wrong in thinking the Bible is God's truth, and that it's reliable. And so you don't need to give them an argument, when they already believe what you're saying. 

Another kind of issue might be when you're dealing with people who have come through the postmodern mindset and education system, a postmodern person is somebody who doesn't really believe in logic and evidence and objective truth in the first place. And so you may be trotting out your very best logic, and all of the best evidence you can find. 

But logic and evidence, just don't connect with them, because they really don't take it seriously in the first place. But they still might be open to certain kinds of persuasion that will lead them in the direction of truth, because even post-moderns who reject objective truth may still crave experience and relationship. And if you relate to them in a Christian manner, if you invite them to come to a place of Christian worship, and experience, Christian fellowship and the love of God, perhaps that will get through where logic and evidence don't. 

And I could again, multiply the examples but you're getting the point. If you don't pay attention to the context that people are in and pay attention to the kinds of questions that they in their particular context are likely to have. You may be proving all sorts of things that they already believe and didn't need you to prove. Or on the other hand, you may be resorting to methods and arguments of showing them something that are going to be utterly ineffective because it's not something they connect to in the first place. 

So make sure you pay attention to context rather than going off target by ignoring context, another way of going off target is by ignoring the person, you have to pay very close attention and listen to that person, as an individual. And what is prompting them with the various things that they're asking you about or talking to you about? I received a message from someone who said that he no longer accepted the authority of the Bible.

Well, what do you do when you receive a message like that? I could explain well, here's manuscript evidence for the reliability of the biblical manuscripts. Here are a variety of things that show the Bible to be reliable. And I could go into all the evidences for why the Bible is reliable in response to that statement, I no longer believe in the reliability of the Bible. But I instead just sent back the message. This was an email exchange and said, well, why don't you believe in the reliability of the Bible anymore? And the person wrote back and said, well, I just had two major surgeries. And my pain is so horrible today. And actually, I still do believe in the reliability of the Bible, but I really didn't mean it. 

Well, okay, that person did not need a lot of arguments about the reliability of the Bible, they actually just needed somebody to kind of listen and say, Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I'll pray for you. And many times, when you're communicating with somebody, you have to hear what's really bothering them, what's really troubling them and get beneath just the question or the issue that they brought up. 

First you may have somebody say, Christianity is unscientific. And you might want to respond with some things you learn in Apologetics, you can say, oh, some of the world's greatest scientists, professed Christianity, Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, many modern scientists and Christianity formed the basis of the worldview that even gave us science in the first place. And all of that would be true. 

And it might be valuable, unhelpful for some persons. But first, you have to listen, because the person who says Christianity is unscientific. Maybe they just have known some really foolish anti intellectual Christians who really turned them off who are a bunch of bozos. And that's a different kind of issue than simply trotting out lots of evidence for, or sometimes it's wise to ask, well, when did you start realizing that Christianity or thinking that Christianity is unscientific? 

And you may find out oh, they just started going to college six months ago, and they're hanging around with a bunch of people now and professors who think that Christianity doesn't make all that much sense. And you say, well, did they give you any evidence for that? Any proof in the argument? Well, not Not really. And you'll soon find out that it's all just the result of being in a different crowd of people. And it's not a matter of having received new arguments against Christianity. 

And so once you understand where the person is coming from, or what experience may have motivated them to say something, you're in a better position to address it. You might have somebody who says, well, all that evil and suffering in the world proves that there's no God in charge of things. Now, it makes a big difference why the person is saying that, if the person happened to watch the news, and saw that there was a big tragedy, and says, Oh, that's awful. 

I don't see how God could be real with that terrible tragedy. Or they may have been reading a book that has a detailed in depth philosophical argument, that the existence of God is not compatible with pain and suffering in the world. Or they may have be a person who just suffered a devastating loss in their own life, or have gone through terrible suffering, or a loved one died. And it depends a lot, on their circumstances, how you should address them, if they've just suffered a devastating loss. 

They don't need a lengthy argument and a bunch of proofs. Instead, you follow the Bible's advice, weep with those who weep. They need an arm around their shoulder, somebody to care, somebody to listen. And there may come a time when you talk about the intellectual aspects of it as well. 

But very often, somebody who has suffered the blow of evil and suffering needs first of all the compassion and love before they need any explanations. Somebody may say, well, the church is full of hypocrites. Well, sometimes that is just the most shallow excuse in the world. I mean, come on. It's very easy to explain that just because there are hypocrites doesn't mean that Christianity isn't real. 

If you heard somebody playing a piece by bach, and just butchering it, would you say boy barking didn't know anything about music? What allows a composer No, you just say, well, that person is not a very good pianist. And if you see somebody as a terrible hypocrite, the only logical thing to say as well that person isn't a very good follower of Jesus, if they're a follower at all, doesn't prove anything about whether Jesus is for real. 

But having said all that, maybe you shouldn't have said all that. Maybe the first thing you needed to do was, that might not be just a shallow excuse. When they say the church is full of hypocrites. Is there a particular hypocrite that really hurt them? You could give your explanation for oh, just because there's hypocrites doesn't mean that Christianity isn't true and give a nice, clear explanation of that. 

But what if the reason they said it is because their own father was a deacon in the church who abused them severely? What if their father and mother were a couple who went to church and smiled pleasantly, and were nice to everybody and seemed oh, so good when they were in church, and then fought like cats and dogs, when they were at home? What if they were sexually molested by a pastor? People who have suffered such terrible deep wounds gonna be helped by an explanation of how the church can have hypocrites in and yet Christianity still be true. 

They first need you to hear their story, they first need to know that you care about why they're so offended by the hypocrites in the church. Or you may have somebody say, well, it's arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way of salvation. And it's certainly important to be able to address that wisely and say Jesus himself said, He's the only way I'm not being arrogant. It's not my idea. Jesus is the one who said it. 

But sometimes you may have to ask first, well, now why? Why do you think Christians are arrogant? Have you run into some Christians who seemed really arrogant or pushy or obnoxious to you? And if they say, No, well, then you kind of call their bluff and say, Well, I know, if you haven't met any Christians who struck you really, as overly arrogant? And why do you say they're so arrogant? Maybe you can believe Jesus is the only way and still be humble. But on the other hand, they may have run into some really arrogant and obnoxious Christians. And that's the main reason why they think that Christians are arrogant and obnoxious. And you may have to listen to what they have to say about that, rather than just dismiss it with some clever apologetic arguments. 

You may run into somebody who says, Christianity is just all do's and don'ts. Well, why do they say that? They might say it because they've been brought up by legalistic Christians, or they know some extremely legalistic Christians, who don't know much about the grace of God at all, but are always talking about do this, don't do that, and so forth. Or they may have a very, very different reason. Sometimes people who object to Christianity as too legalistic, are themselves immersed in sin. One obvious cases, people who are immersed in sexual sin. 

They don't like what the Bible says, about pornography, or about homosexuality, or about fornication among people who are unmarried. And so they say, oh, Christianity is just puritanical. It's all do's and don'ts. And the reason they say that is because they want to keep wallowing in their own sin. When you get to that point.

They say, Oh, come on, you're you're not really saying Christianity, is that legalistic? You just want to live a different way. And you don't want to be a serious follower of Jesus Christ. Well, I won't multiply any more examples. I'm just saying, there are a good many questions and objections that people bring to Christianity, but they're brought for a whole wide variety of reasons. And the only way you know that person's real gut reason is if you listen to that person's story, and ask a few questions and probe just a little deeper before you start trotting out the long list of what you know, and what your apologetic answers are going to be. 

So on target Apologetics, learn to listen, before you try to say too much listen to God's truth and know it well. Know the context and know the person and pay very, very close attention to that individual, and keep on listening. And then target that person. When you're in Apologetics. And in Christian testimony, you are seeking to win the person not merely to win the argument. I remember when I was still a seminarian doing an internship with a more veteran pastor. 

And on one occasion, we were in a group of people and someone said something and so I decided to refute that person. And I knew my stuff. And I showed very clearly that they were mistaken. And they were wrong about that dead wrong. Well, after we left that conversation, my mentor said to me, Well, Dave, you were absolutely right. And you had absolutely excellent arguments. But when you strip somebody naked, you throw them a towel. You just want an argument and you just lost a person. 

Because you outsmarted them, you talk to them, but you'd didn't win them over. And so I've never forgotten that. Just remember this, seek to win a person, not just an argument, be alert for things in their surroundings, their context and background, that make belief harder for them. Whether it's personal experiences, or whether it's a whole mindset that affects the society, that they're part of the alert to those things, address the person's challenges. Don't bring up non issues for them. I've talked about that already. If you're talking with someone who already believes in God, don't spend too much time trying to prove God's existence to them. If you're talking to somebody who already believes the Bible, don't spend too much time on biblical reliability, talk about their issues, and use things that they can connect with.

And remember to connect with the heart, not just the head, many of the head issues that people bring up, they'll bring out something that seems like it was tailor made for an apologetic argument. Except that was not their real reason for being bugged by it in the first place. Whether it's the problem of suffering in the world, or the problem of hypocrites, or whatever else they mentioned, it's something that struck them in the gut or afflicted their heart, not really just a puzzle that troubled their mind.

And so as you're dealing with a person, a whole person, not just an intellect, but a whole person, keep aiming for the heart. And there are times when you have to show that their unbelief isn't just intellectual, but it often involves stubborn rebellion. 

Now, you may have thought that I was just a very mushy, touchy feely the warm person in this presentation, as I talked about the importance of listening to the person and taking seriously their wounds and hurts, but also take seriously their sins. Jesus said, men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil. 

Jesus says often people won't believe because they're doing the wrong stuff. And they're oriented the wrong way. And so sometimes after you've listened to a person and establish a bridge of relationship, and they know you care about them, you will also be able to put your finger on the fact that they've got an issue that is not merely intellectual, but they just want to keep on going. Very noted philosopher said, you know, I'm troubled by the fact that many of the smartest people I know believe in God, he says, I'm an atheist. And it's not just that I don't believe there's a God, I don't want there to be a god, I have a cosmic authority problem. 

There's somebody with a clearer self understanding that many have there are a lot of people with a cosmic authority problem, they simply do not want somebody authoritative, running their life. And they are involved in stubborn rebellion against God. And they may be a philosopher trotting out all sorts of arguments against God, but at the core of it, is rebellion. And at some point, it may be necessary to say so to say it lovingly, but to say very clearly, buddy. I don't think that your main problem is that you find Christianity too hard to believe. 

I think you don't want to have Jesus run your life. And so we have to be very candid about that. When we're targeting the person sometimes we have to go straight for the heart, and straight for that distorted will. And as you talk to the person about the Lord, remember this, talk to the Lord about the person this is even more important than the actual talking to the person about the Lord, keep praying, even as you're talking to the person right in the middle of the conversation, have your mind multitasking and talking to the Lord and saying, Lord, help this person and help them to see the truth and help me to listen to them and understand them better so that I can convey your truth more accurately. 

So as you talk to the person about the Lord, keep talking to the Lord about the person. And as you listen to that person, be listening to the Spirit of God, for the insights you need to reach that person's heart. What you want is to win that person. And so as you add more and more to your stock of knowledge in the realm of Apologetics, as you seek to become more capable in defending the faith and explaining the faith and persuading people of the faith, always remember, listen, listen. listen.