Apologetics Is Not as Hard as You Think

“What, are you some kind of religious nut?”

A stranger in a coffee shop had been sighing repeatedly, and I could tell that she clearly wanted to talk. She asked me if I was religious nut right after I told her that I would pray for her. Had this conversation occurred a few weeks before, I would have been unable to respond constructively. As it was, I had just started learning apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, so I began to draw her into the conversation by asking her questions and pushing back on her replies.

A few minutes later, a man standing nearby joined us when he heard that we were talking about God. The conversation lasted two and a half hours. When eventually the man stood up to leave, he said, “I don’t even know what I believe anymore. Everything I believed when I walked in, you took away from me.”

Inside I was bursting with joy. I had never before had a gospel conversation that had lasted more than ten minutes. I marveled at the power of apologetics not only to dismantle unbelief (2 Cor. 10:3–5) but also to clear the way to allow me to present the good news of Christ in a manner that interested my conversation partners.

Christians speak about “reaching the lost” all the time. It is a common theme of missions conferences, youth events, and evangelistic preaching. Many larger churches have full-time staff dedicated to outreach or “community involvement.” However, few Christians actually engage unbelievers in gospel conversations. One survey revealed that fewer than half of the Christians queried had shared a Bible story or verse with an unbeliever in the previous six months, and in that time only 38 percent had shared the gospel. This, even when two-thirds reported that sharing how they became a Christian is the most loving thing they can do for a nonbeliever.[1]

Another survey reports that almost half of millennial Christians “agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”[2] In yet another survey, 66 percent of Christian respondents indicated that they were not familiar with any methods to share their faith.[3]

In short, it is rare for Christians to engage unbelievers with the gospel on a regular basis. The problem is not that we don’t have a life-giving and true message. Rather, the problem for many people is that they are not prepared to answer the questions and objections that unbelievers raise. This is the work of apologetics—to clear away the objections to the Christian faith so hearts of unbelievers are opened to considering our call to repent and belief in Jesus Christ.

In the last thirty years, the number of apologetics resources available to Christians has exploded. Hundreds of good books have been written, thousands of excellent videos and podcasts have been recorded, and apologetics ministries have multiplied. Still, most of the Christians I meet express defeat when they recount their attempts to engage the unbelievers in their life.

Several factors contribute to this situation. One is that most apologetics resources are at an intermediate to advanced level. Even supposedly introductory resources are a stretch for many.

Imagine you inherit your grandfather’s woodworking shop, stocked with decades of accumulated tools and rare wide planks of curly maple. If no one ever taught you how to use these tools, you might be able to build something basic, but you wouldn’t have the ability to make anything that required genuine skill and craftsmanship. You’d be more likely to damage the tools and make a mess of the fine woods.

Some Christians treat apologetics that way. They watch high-level debates or read advanced treatises on historical reliability and then spring the facts on their unsuspecting coworkers and neighbors without so much as a “What is your religious background?” As a result, unbelievers see Christians as high-pressure pitchmen selling Jesus with facts and evidence that hold little meaning for them. Maybe believers hit them with the five proofs for God, when actually they’re wondering about the goodness of God after losing their child. A Christian who never asks them about what they believe will be perceived as someone who is only interested in adding another notch to his or her evangelism belt.

What is the remedy for this common dilemma? The first solution is for us to learn how to use our tools correctly. With preparation, we can engage unbelievers in ways that draw them into meaningful conversations about spiritual matters. We can ask questions and listen to what our conversation partners believe, discerning ways to gently challenge and debunk the faulty thinking. This opens doors so that we can proclaim the gospel in positive terms to those who may have begun to lose confidence in what they once believed.

A second solution is for us to realign our minds and methods to more biblical concepts. For example, we should call people to repent and believe (Mark 1:15) rather than to “surrender” or “commit” their lives to Christ. We should understand that unbelievers don’t merely have the capacity to know God—they actually know God, sense his wrath, and suppress that knowledge (Rom. 1:18–32).

Making these adjustments puts gospel engagement within the reach of Christians who don’t have training in philosophy or science. If believers can gain basic skills and confidence in their ability to engage others with the gospel, their lives and churches will be transformed. After all, isn’t that what we should expect? “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6).