Francis Schaeffer: Redefining Apologetics

"We have a responsibility to communicate the gospel to our generation.

Christian apologetics is not like living in a castle with the drawbridge up and occasionally tossing a stone over the walls. It is not to be based on a citadel mentality -- sitting inside and saying, "You cannot reach me here." If the Christian adopts this attitude, either in theory or practice, his contacts with those who have accepted twentieth-century thought [the postmodern division between reason and faith] will stop. Apologetics should not merely be an academic subject, a new kind of scholasticism. it should be thought out and practiced in the rough and tumble of living contact with the present generation...

No one can become a Christian unless he understands what Christianity is saying. Many pastors, missionaries and Christian teachers seem to be helpless as they try to speak to the educated people and the mass of people about them. They do not seem to face the fact that it is our task to speak to our generation; the past has gone, the future is not yet here. So the positive side of apologetics is the communication of the gospel to the present generation in terms that they can understand.

The purpose of 'apologetics'  is not just to win an argument or a discussion, but that the people with whom we are in contact may become Christians and then live under the Lordship of Christ in the whole spectrum of life."

(Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There. 1968. Italics in original.)

By this argument, the traditional definition of apologetics as "defending the faith" is inadequate. Is this idea closer to the Biblical idea of advancing the Kingdom, rather than merely protecting the church from our spiritual enemies and the corrupted world? Or should we keep the familiar definition and give this process a new name?

When Mountains Make a Splash: What is Faith? Pt. 4

[Continued from Part Three. Start the series with Part One.] 

H: Holds Great Power

While we’ve already seen that faith isn’t a magic formula, faith that is grounded in God’s character holds tremendous power. Jesus told many people He healed that their faith had healed them (Mark 5:34, for instance). He also said directly that faith was a catalyst for miracles:

“Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:22-24) 

As cool as it sounds, this is really hard to do. Sure I think God can throw mountains into the sea, but if I saw it happen, I would be surprised and amazed. I might even have a hard time believing my eyes. Note too that this promise isn’t a blank check for those who ask for the wrong reasons. 

This opportunity also comes with a warning: with faith, all things are possible; without faith, God will limit His activity and we may miss out on some blessings. This happened during Jesus’ ministry when He travelled to His hometown. The Nazarenes still saw Jesus as just an ordinary person and didn’t think He could do much. Unfortunately for all but a few people, while He was there, He fulfilled their low expectations. 

Faith holds great power because God holds all power. Yet how easy it is to forget this! Think of the last time you shared prayer requests in a group. I’m guessing you heard of a few relatives in the hospital, some people in rough situations like breakups or unemployment, and maybe the infamous imagination-sparking “unspoken”. When you prayed, how confident was the group that the next time you met, those people would be healed and those situations miraculously resolved? I want to inspire you to talk to God to change lives, not to go through motions or prove to yourself that you care. And after you pray, take practical action (like we talked about in Pt. 3) and let God use you to answer your own request.

So, what is faith? We’ve seen that it’s a decision to believe truth about God, not an excuse for avoiding facts. We’ve also seen that faith is

Focused on God,

Always Reasonable,

Involves Action,

Takes Courage, and

Holds Great Power.

Believer, take confidence in the God who has the authority and power to do anything He wants. Be bold in asking and even expecting Him to use this power—He’s already promised it! And don’t be surprised when He moves mountains.  

Best Wishes!

Wow! Nationals is finally here! Are you ready?

I'm guessing that if you're competing this week, you probably don't feel ready. That's okay. There's always more you "coulda, woulda, shoulda done" to prepare. Your job now is to go in and give the best speech you can with what you have.

Before you start competing, I invite you to take a moment and consider, What do I want to remember after this week is over? Ask God how you can use the week for His glory. Spend some meaningful time in prayer.

I know it's cliche for me as an alum to tell you to be a great friend and focus on people more than trophies, but we alumni say that because it's true. You can make memories with your friends and meet new people while you aren't competing and still excel when you walk in front of the judges. You can't ignore everyone else to obsess over competition and still expect to make memories worth reminiscing about. (That doesn't mean you can stay out all night partying while you're still in the running or be late for a speech because you get into a fun conversation, of course!)

If you're at Nationals but didn't make it in Apologetics this year, why not take advantage of the opportunity and watch a round or two? Take notes and use what you observe to improve your own speaking.

Even if you're somewhere else this week, you probably have friends and fellow club members competing in various events. Take a moment and pray for them, and send encouraging messages. If you aren't sure what to pray about, think of what you would want someone else to ask God if you were the one competing. I can say from experience that it means a lot to know that the rest of the region back home is supporting you.

Love God, love people, keep priorities straight, and no matter where you are, have a great week!

Eighteen Inches: Pascal's Wager and the Goodness of God

Repentance and faith aren’t just an act of the intellect; they’re an act of the will. Someone may run out of intellectual arguments against Christianity yet refuse to accept the gospel. As one pastor said, if Christianity is in your head but not your heart, you’ll miss heaven by just eighteen inches! As an apologist, what do you do next?

One useful (and overlooked) art is dialogue. Asking key questions is just as crucial as crafting arguments. Gently ask your friend what keeps them from committing to belief in God. Simply blaming stubbornness or pride isn’t helpful; it’s redundant, since asserting that someone refuses to believe because they are acting stubborn is equivalent to saying that they refuse to believe because they refuse.

One excuse may be that sin is fun and giving up everything they enjoy to obey commands and do boring “church-y” work isn’t worth it. I’ll admit that I’ve seen Christians with this attitude, too.

Not only is it illogical, it reveals a distorted view of God. Its illogic is that those seeking happiness should care more about an eternal, infinite happiness or suffering than about the temporary. In 1660, Blaise Pascal wrote an argument now known as Pascal’s Wager:

“Let us then examine this point, and say, "God is, or He is not." … A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager?... you must of necessity choose. This is one point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.” (Blaise Pascal, Pensees, section 1, paragraghs 233-241) 

In contrast, if you live like the God of the Bible does not exist, you may gain limited pleasure if He doesn't, but you may also suffer infinite pain in Hell if He does. Note that this only works for those who are already intellectually accepting of the gospel. Don't use it to be a super-villain to those who reject the possibility out of hand. 

The belief that earthly pleasure is a reason to reject the gospel also reveals a false view of God.  Jesus told his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that 

“[E]veryone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:8-11) 

God is a generous father, not a grumpy kill-joy looking to steal our fun. God help us to recognize that good pleasure is the kind that doesn’t lead to emptiness and self-destruction. Moreover, great pleasure is knowing God Himself. If that doesn’t seem exciting, you have no idea what you’re missing! 

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8) 

Being a Winner

When you think of winning in apologetics, what comes to mind?

Maybe you’re focused on winning in competition. You have your eyes set on the medals and trophies at the end of the tournament, and you’re dead set on dominating the competition, one round at a time.

Or maybe you’re focused on winning the argument. Whatever ungodly worldview the other person throws out at you, you know your stuff and can shoot it down, leaving that heathen floundering for a response.

Trophies and good arguments are great, but (you guessed it) the attitudes I’ve just described are obviously wrong. Consider what the Bible says about winning:

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30, NIV1984)

When we do apologetics, it’s easy to focus on the wrong type of winning. Think about it: how much effort do you put into winning souls to God? Trophies will collect dust, rankings will be forgotten, and even knowledge will pass away. Souls last forever.

Always remember, the point of speaking truth is to persuade another person—a valuable human precious to God and made in His image—not just to be right! Make the most of each opportunity to speak the truth.

Be wise: win souls, and you’ll always be a winner!

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men… For Christ’s love compels us…  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.
 And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
 We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:11, 14, 16-20) 

How Not to Be a Super Villain

BAM! ZING! POW!

It seems like some Christians who try to defend their faith want to feel like superheroes. They think they’ve found that one perfect argument that will make them invincible, an argument that they can swing around and—WHAM!—leave those ignorant heathen too stunned to respond.

If you don’t believe me, find almost any popular video of Christian music on Youtube and read the comments. Some will make you facepalm.

The problem with this superhero mentality is that it does more harm than good. That’s right: Christians who take that approach are actually more like—gasp!—super villains!

You see, it’s not enough to be right. There’s no point in telling someone something you want them to believe unless you… really want them to believe it. And that takes a little more tact than some people are willing to use.

Aristotle wrote in The Art of Rhetoric (Book I, Part 2, Paragraph 3),

  

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided. This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses. [emphasis mine]

So if our character, or how we’re coming across to others, is so central to changing someone’s mind, can we agree to stop slinging around “zinger” arguments? Might we even be willing to listen to why someone else believes what he does, or treat him with the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4)? 

Let’s put away our capes and stop trying to save the world with conceited clichés and one-liners. Look instead to how God saves a soul, and point that person to His kindness by being kind ourselves.