My Apologies
I’m often intrigued by the study of Apologetics. (Or is it Apologetix?).
As an amateur philosopher/theologian, I often run across apologetical studies and apologitsts. Christian philosophers seem to naturally fall into the role of apologist by virtue of the very nature of philosophy. After all, philosophy deals with those key questions. Where did we come from? How did we get here? Where are we going? What is the meaning of life? Christians believe that the Bible has the answers to those questions, but of course as soon as you introduce the idea of God into the equation, you also introduce other issues. There’s the problem of evil. There’s the Euthyphro Dilemma. There’s the paradox of sovereignty and free will.
These topics fascinate me to no end. But I’ve heard countless people talk down about the idea of philosophy. They say things like “You think too much.” (I actually had someone say that to me). I often wonder what the point is. After all, should I concern myself more with knowing the truth more than studying error (as though I do that all day).
The analogy of the counterfeit bill always comes up. They say that bankers don’t study counterfeits in order to be able to recognize them, they study the real bill so well that they instantly recognize a counterfeit. Therefore, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with what the world says or thinks. We should simply focus on knowing the Bible really well and telling the Gospel straight from Scripture. God will give us the opportunities to do this. I’m not going to completely bash this way of thinking. God can certainly use this method, but as far as the logical argument goes, J.P. Morland exposes it for the logical problem it is by starting with the fact that the analogy simply isn’t true! Bankers don’t actually behave that way.
But the question has still been raised. What do we do with apologietics? Is it necessary? Does it do any good. How do we rectify the fact that “you can’t argue anyone into salvation,” which is true by virtue of the fact that salvation by definition is a change of heart and mind which the Holy Spirit must produced, with verses like 2 Corinthians 5:11 which says “…knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others,” and 1 Peter 3:15: “…always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you?” In short does apologetics have a place? If so, what is it?