APOLOGETICS 3
Why Do Apologetics? Because God
Commands Us to Do Apologetics: Titus 1:10-11
As
I have mentioned previously, there are two directions for each believer’s
life—two distinct areas of his life for which he is responsible. The direction
toward God falls under the rubric of priesthood before God. The direction
toward others covers his responsibilities as an ambassador. While many
believers in the doctrinal camp have a phenomenal
understanding with regard to their priesthood before God, i.e. how to recover
from personal sin so as to benefit from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, how to
walk by the Spirit to live the supernatural spiritual life, how to beat their osns through the reckoning of Romans 6, how to live in the
grand realities of supergrace, how to handle any problem with the faith-rest
techniques, how to move into OWC, how to advance through the floors of the ECS,
how to pray to the Father through the Son under the power of the Holy Spirit,
how to live in great appreciation of the grace blessings of God, how to have
capacity for life during the good times and bad times, how to master the
details or circumstances of life, how to overcome any fear of death, how to
cast all cares on the Lord, how to forgive others—and self, how to benefit from
horrible decisions we have made in the past, how to relate to the fact that God
provided a plan for us in eternity past, how to take our weaknesses and
stumbling blocks and turn them into strengths and stepping stones, how to live
free of guilt and shame, how to live in God’s righteousness, how to avoid
legalism and religionism, how to continue to grow in
appreciation of God for all of the creature comforts of life, and thousands of
other wonderful blessings as they continue to advance up the Glory Road.
Christians who have not been under
doctrinal teaching have little to no understanding of these great priesthood
truths and hence have no clue as to the meaning
of these grace assets. They have not been taught these
grand doctrines, and as a result they generally live superficial lives focused
on some type of “prosperity” gospel or detail of life. Any Christian who does
not grow in his priesthood will end up being frustrated because it is
impossible to live the Christian way of life apart from the spiritual dynamics.
When the Apostle Paul tried to live the spiritual life on his own sincerity and
power, he admitted that he was utterly wretched (see Romans 7:15-8:8). I am so
grateful for Robert Thieme, Dr. Glenn Carnagey, Lewis Sperry Chafer, and countless other doctrinal
teachers for teaching me the spiritual life so I can truly live in the power of
God by the grace of God and continue advancing in greater grace on the Glory
Road. I just can’t imagine trying to live like a
Christian through my own power, or how horrible my life would be apart from
these doctrines. They are priceless! They have changed my life forever! The Word of God is
alive and powerful (Heb. 4:12).
However,
regarding doctrines dealing with our ambassadorship, there is an area that has
been neglected and needs to be further developed. Now, to be sure, there were many
wonderful doctrines of ambassadorship that we have been
taught and blessed by, e.g. our duties in our jobs, laws of divine
establishment, the importance of the military, and the importance of freedom in
our country, et al. The area I am talking about is in apologetics. Lack
of biblical orientation in this area has caused some painful and dishonoring
maladies. One is that it has resulted in some believers becoming isolated from
those around them. In this isolation the believer becomes so
focused on his priesthood that he thinks that his life is only about his spiritual growth before
God— to Hell with unbelievers around him. Another malady is that believers can
be under Bible doctrine for thirty years or more and can rattle off technical
theological concepts like spiritiual protocols,
divine dynaspheres, cosmic gates, epistemological
rehabilitation, and dozens of other fantastic
theological concepts, yet if asked by an skeptic why they believe in God,
Christ, or that the Bible is the Word of God, some would draw a blank— simply
because they have not been taught. Some doctrinal believers have children who
have grown up and rejected Christianity and Bible doctrine as a much of
nonsense, and when the children have told this to the parents, the parents
can’t even defend Christianity to their own children. This is unacceptable especially in
light of what the Bible says about apologetics. The idea that all we have to do
is just give unbelievers the gospel, and if they ask us why we believe we can
only shrug our shoulders or say “because it makes life better” is NOT
scriptural. Every
believer needs to be prepared (1 Pet 3:15). The believer who is prepared in the
area of apologetics can not only can feel good about fulfilling his
responsibilities before God in this area, but just think of the honor he brings
to Christianity when he is able to give rational reasons for Christianity
before a skeptical world. Just think of how much better the believer will feel
when he can marshal the philosophical, scientific, and historical evidence for
Christianity and shut the mouths of unbelievers as he exposes the
epistemological bankruptcy of atheism, agnosticism, and a dozen other isms (see 2 Cor. 3:5). It so much better
to have the laugh be on the world instead of on us or on Christ—especially in
light of the fact that the evidence
for Christianity is very very strong.
For
the next several years at Faith Bible Church, we will not only continue in all
of those wonderful priesthood truths so necessary for spiritual dynamics and
advancing the believer in supergrace on the Glory Road, we will also be
developing Christian apologetics (our ambassadorship) so each believer will be
able to shut the mouths of those who reject, denigrate, and mock Christianity.
When the Bible commands us to shut the mouths of false teachers, it is not
talking about using our fists. It is talking about using cogent rational
arguments.
Titus 1:10-11 For there are
many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
My
hope and prayer is that you will join us not only in advancing in “taking every
thought captive for Christ” (priesthood), but in the destruction of all human
viewpoint “speculations” (ambassadorship) through apologetics. The Bible
commands it and the world needs to see that the marvelous truths of Jesus
Christ and His marvelous matchless grace are not cleverly devised tales (2 Pet
1:16) but are in fact rooted in fact.
2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of
our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of
fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty
thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we
are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
2 Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we
made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were
eyewitnesses of His majesty.
In Him,
Don