What is Christian apologetics?

For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 CSB

Christian apologetics is the act of giving the reason for and defending the Christian faith. This is definitely not an easy task, especially in the day and time of relativism (there’s no definitive truth, my truth is my truth and your truth is your truth, etc.) and so-called ‘science’ (non-testable, non-replicable, etc.). However, this task is not all laid on our shoulders and this is not just about memorizing a bunch of facts to have ready to pull out to throw in some questioning person’s face when the time arises. This is a war with an unseen realm, not with people standing in front of us.

Three implications for what these verses mean for us in defending the faith

1. Our power comes from God’s word. I feel like a common approach to apologetics is thinking that if I have enough facts memorized then I can win this argument for God. That’s not how this works. We are called to learn as much as we can about the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16-17), but the power of God’s word comes from God, not from us (Hebrews 4:12). This weapon is made to demolish strongholds. This weapon is supposed to be our main tool for battle and the main tool that shapes our life, not extra-biblical sources. This weapon is designed to pierce people’s souls, to bring them to the knowledge of God.
2. Our power comes from God. We believe in a God that is infinite in power. This infinitely-powerful God is the one that is empowering us to be able to defend our faith, not from ourselves and our own power. Understanding Scripture and defending the faith is a supernatural event and is involved in warfare that is unseen (Ephesians 6:12). This involves a deep commitment of prayer to God so that He is the one empowering you, not ourselves and our ability- especially when we are engaging in apologetics with someone. This is a battle we are not suited for on our own, and we weren’t designed that way.
3. The goal of apologetics is love. We should want for the person that we’re engaging with and if any are listening to the conversation is for them to see God’s glory and to love Him. This is why prayer is so important: so we keep the goal in mind of God’s glory and the love for the other person in our view while keeping in sight who the real enemy is (Satan). If the goal of the conversation is to just win an argument, we’ve widely missed the mark. The goal is for them to see the glory of God, which is true love (John 11:1-7). It’s to open their eyes to the glory of God and set them free from the slavery of sin and Satan (John 8:33-36).

The goal of apologetics is love: love for the glory of God and love for the other person. This is fulfilling the primary commandments: Love God and love people (Matthew 22:36-40). This is not winning fickle little pride skirmishes we have, this is a battle Christians are called to engage in while we take the Good News to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20).

-Austin