Apologetics and Evangelism

Sadly, many people see these two disciplines as unconnected, and even mutually exclusive. Whereas, apologetics is seen as a strong defense, evangelism is seen as earnest plea. Some see apologetics as purely deflecting the blows of the enemy while evangelism is an active sharing of the gospel with the lost. These distinctions, though partially true, will not hold, for both of these disciplines are part of the same process.

Apologetics, in fact, has been rightly called “pre-evangelism.” That is, it is the process of removing obstacles that might stand in the way of a person’s faith. It is not merely a deflecting of their attacks in order to assure us that our faith is genuine (even though this does happen), but it is designed to convince a person of the truth of the gospel.

Someone is trying to find my house and from a few miles away he calls me on his cell phone and says, “I just past Taco Bell, where do I turn?” I respond, “Turn up into my driveway.” Pause. He says, “I am nowhere near your driveway, I am still out on the main highway looking for your neighborhood.” I gave him bad advice when I said turn into my driveway because he is far away from my driveway.

Sometimes, people are very far away from the gospel. They have questions like, “If God is so good why is there evil in the world?” “Wasn’t the Bible written by mere men? Why should I trust it?” “Why is there so much hypocrisy among religious groups?” “Aren’t all religions basically equal anyway?” A person asking these questions does not have a proper grid of understanding the heart of the gospel: Christ died on the cross for sins, trust Him and be saved. Note carefully that as you talk to that person, you should weave that gospel-heart into what you say, but they want answers to their questions first.

That is why Christians need to be trained in basic apologetics. Christians need to have answers ready for those who doubt and those who do not care. Many churches are good at training people how to start a conversation and share the gospel, but we need more churches willing to invest education time in the area of apologetics. These two disciplines are not separate but part of the same package.

The Apologetics Resource Center can help. Invite one of our staff members to come one Sunday to your church and hold a mini-conference. You would be surprised how much can be accomplished in a Sunday School hour, morning service, evening training session, and evening service. The people of your church can get a crash course and begin immediately being saltier and brighter.