Be PREPARED!!!

I am taking an class called FOUNDATIONS OF APOLOGETICS done by Ravi Zecharias. It is soooooooooooooooooooo good. These past 4 lessons have been about what apologetics are, how and why we use them, establishing what a worldview is, etc. I thought I'd post some basic notes from the first lesson, which was really good and revealing.

Defining Apologetics

"But in your hearts honor Christ the LORD as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that you have that is in you; yet do this with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered by those who rebuke your good behavior in Christ, they may be put to shame." ~ 1 Peter 3:15-16

The word we translate as "apologetics" is the Greek word "apologia" which means "to give a defense".

• The command to be prepared to make a defense was given to the Church (not to a specialist)
• The goal of apologetics is not to introduce a dose of confusion into the gospel in order to make it sound more profound. It is about communicating the profundity of the gospel so as to remove any confusion surrounding it.
• This command was given to a church that was being persecuted. The command to give an apologetic was given in a context in which you could lose your life for obeying it.
• The context for this command is teaching about holiness. We preach a life-changing gospel.

1. "IN YOUR HEARTS HONOR CHRIST THE LORD"

• The Greek word for heart is the seat of the emotional and intellectual life.
• Before the command to give a defense is given, we're told that we have to be in the right spiritual place before Christ in order to engage in that spiritual battle.
• Apologetics is not only an academic exercise; it is a spiritual discipline.
• We have become spiritually ineffective because we don't know what we believe or why.

2. "ALWAYS BEING PREPARED"

• The Greek word for prepared carries the connotation of getting fit
• Just as physical fitness requires years of training, the command to be prepared anticipates continual hard work.

3. "TO MAKE A DEFENSE"

• Paul makes an apologetic before King Agrippa (acts 26).
• The apologetic is inherently tied up with evangelism.
• When you're giving a defense, you're not simply answering other people's questions. You're also questioning other people's answers or even questioning the questions themselves.

Why Should We Ask Questions?

1. Asking questions forces people to open up within their general assumptions

• In Luke 18:18, when the rich young ruler asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, instead of answering him, Jesus asks a question.
• Jesus's question undermined the assumption that we get to heaven by being good.

2. Asking questions forces people to open up within cultural assumptions.

• In Matthew 22:15, Jesus is asked a yes or no question. ("Should we pay our taxes?")
• The question is actually a trap
• By asking a question, Jesus forces them to open up within their cultural assumption that paying taxes makes one unholy.
• Giving the right answer to the wrong question is always wrong.

3. Asking questions exposes faulty logic

• In Matthew 22 the Sadducees pose to Jesus what is known as a faulty dilemma. Any option you choose to answer it will be wrong, similar to the question, "does your mother know you're stupid?"
• By exposing their faulty logic, Jesus forced them to question their own question!

4. Asking questions exposes motive

• In Matthew 21, after Jesus cleared the Temple, the chief priests asked him, "By whose authority are you doing these things?"
• Jesus answered by asking them where the authority of John the Baptist had come from.
• Jesus showed that they were not truly interested in hearing the answer.
• Although it is important to expose people's motives, we're going to have to remember to do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.

5. Asking questions exposes contradictions

• In Matthew 22, Jesus asks "Whose son is the Christ?" then shows them the contradiction in their thinking.
• As a contemporary parallel, there is an inherent contradiction in the claim, "There's no such thing as truth."
• Roger Scruton has pointed out that when people say there is no such thing as truth, they are effectively asking you not to believe them!

6. Asking questions insures a conversation

• People don't like to be talked at". They want to be "talked to".
• If you study the gospels, you'll see that Jesus did preach, he did perform miracles, but he spent an awful lot of time talking to people.

7. Asking questions makes people think

• The difference between an argument and a discussion is that a discussion makes people think.

4. "TO ANYONE WHO ASKS YOU"

• This assumes people are asking.
• The hallmark of a postmodern generation isn't the fact that people have lost sight of the answers, but that we've raised a generation of people who say it's not even worth asking the question.
• Most of the work is not in providing the solution; it's about getting them to ask the right question.
• Our lifestyle should be provoking questions.
• If people aren't asking us questions, the first thing we should do is not blame the society in which we live, but take a look inside our own heart and ask how we ourselves are living.

5. "FOR A REASON"

• The word for "reason is the Greek "logos" from which we get the word logic.
• It implies that the gospel is capable of being explained.
• "Good news that isn't explained not only isn't good, it isn't even news." (John Piper)
• If the answer to why you became a Christian is the same as how you became a Christian, you are not really giving a reason.
• JESUS should be the reason we are Christian.

6. "FOR THE HOPE THAT IS IN YOU"

• You cannot take the Christ out of Christian.
• Any answer that does not flow to or flow from the cross in ultimately a bankrupt apologetic.

7. "DO THIS WITH GENTLENESS AND RESPECT, HAVING A GOOD CONSCIENCE"

• We do this with gentleness so that our attitude doesn't crowd out the gospel.
• We keep a good conscience. We don't pretend to know things we don't know.

Apologetics is the evangelistic theology that is able to walk out into the marketplace and engage with you neighbors, with your friends, with those around you so that they may come to know Him."