Monday, March 23, 2009

WHY STUDY APOLOGETICS - PART 1

The God who commanded us to “Go and Make disciples of all Nations” also commanded us to “Set apart Christ as lord and always be prepared to give a reason (gk. Apologia, some translates “defence”) for the hope which you have in Christ Jesus” . If the former is commandment about Evangelism then latter is about Apologetics. Apologetics is not something optional extra for the disciples of Jesus but a commandment like any other commandments to obey the same. That’s why Apostle Paul claims his ministry is about “defending and confirming the Gospel (Phil 1:17)
Most disciples never object with the commandment for Evangelism but they have serious reservations to the commandment for Apologetics due to misinterpretation, misunderstanding and many times because to skip hard work of study and research. Often I have experienced people’s resistance to the use of apologetics, reason and intellect. But they forget while speaking against apologetics, reason and intellect they use the same thing in the process. Apologetics is inescapable, Reason is inescapable, Intellect is Inescapable. You contradict yourself in the very process of criticizing the same. Hence, we need to recognize that Apologetics is an inescapable tool in evangelism in current cultural mood of Pluralism, relativism and postmodernism.
All these moods currently attack to the notion of Absolute Truth. All these moods says “all truth is relative”. If all truth is relative, then the claim Jesus is truth is relative to the Christian and therefore is not meant for all to follow. They say all religions and viewpoints are true which leads to Pluralism. They say “Truth is in the mind of the beholder” reducing truth as subjective and depending upon one’s own interpretation, leading to Postmodernism. If such is the current cultural mood, then claim Jesus is the way, the truth and the life makes no sense. In spite of all these moods and challenges, many Christians ignoring these fact simply says that we should simply proclaim the Gospel because Gospel is God’s work and not ours. We should not defend, give reason. Do we find such an attitude in the lifestyle of Apostle Paul who are argued, reasoned and defended the Gospel (Acts :17:17) ? Do we find such an attitude in Jesus who confronted, debated, asked questions, argued with people? Yet we do not want to emulate them. Let us be prepare to pursue apologetics and like apostle Paul say “5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2nd Corinthians 10 : 5)

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