In the last blog I began a series that’s going to reflect what we are covering in a four-week class I call Apologetics 101. I discussed what apologetics is, its value, and misconceptions people have about it. In this blog I want to discuss general tactics that can be useful when interacting with someone who disagrees with our religious convictions.
There are several good general tactics to observe. For one thing, we need to keep it simple. There’s a temptation to do a data dump on people because we have learned some material that we want to share. Sometimes, however, people don’t need all the data we throw at them. Secondly we should be talking to them without referencing the Bible, which sounds counterintuitive. Certainly if the person has a question about the Bible, we need to start there. But this is a society that has become biblically illiterate and, in some cases, downright hostile to the Bible. Instead, we can use philosophy, history, and science to illustrate our points because Christianity is true and is reflected in the real world. Eventually we will get to the Bible, but we hope to have cleared some misconceptions first.
Thirdly, we need to have some resources to enlarge our understanding and to go to when tough questions arise. Probably the best single book on apologetics is I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Geisler and Turek. Of course, there are plenty of other good books, DVDs, websites, and magazines which are extremely helpful. If you’d like a list, please e-mail me at gary@apologeticsforlife.org. Another key general tactic is to admit it if we don’t know an answer to a question. Too many times we’re tempted to blow some smoke in hopes of answering the question, but there’s always that chance we will get caught with the result that we ruin our attempt to communicate the gospel. It’s far better to say we don’t know but we will research the issue and get back to the person. People appreciate honesty and humility that are demonstrated in such a response. One final general tactic has to do with questioning authorities used by skeptics. So many people with advanced degrees speak out on issues which they really know nothing about. For example, Richard Dawkins at one time claimed that Jesus never lived. Well, here’s a person who has a doctorate, so he must know what he’s talking about, right? Hmmm . . . Here’s the problem. Dawkins has no background in biblical or historical studies. No recognized scholar agrees with him about the existence of Jesus. He has since backed off of that statement.
In the next blog I will focus on specific tactics we can use as we are talking about Christianity with those who do not agree with us.
