Apologetics

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Visit helpsalvationarmy.org to offer your support. Welcome back to Words of Life. I am Cheryl Gillum and I'm with my co-host today, Bernie Dake. Hey, Cheryl.

Hey, we only have two episodes left in our series Pathways with Major Mike Harris. Throughout this series, we're discussing our Christian thought life. And today we're going to be talking about apologetics, which is basically evangelism, having a strong knowledge of our faith and scripture.

Yeah, there's been a number of people in my life who were apologeticists and so articulate, just the ability to reclaim scripture and proclaim scripture to people that were maybe trying to take it out of context. And then they would just would not settle for anything other than the absolute truth that is God's word. I think it's important that, you know, if we don't know the scripture, then we might believe things that simply aren't true, particularly about God and his son, Jesus, who was sent, of course, to redeem the world. If we want to be more like him, Jesus, then the Bible is the only biography we have of Jesus's life.

Is that a fair statement? I mean, if you want to be more like Jesus, you got to know who he is, is really what I'm trying to say. And Jesus used his short time on this earth to make sure people understood the scriptures. And we read in Matthew 22 where he corrects the Sadducees because they simply didn't know scriptures, which means they couldn't possibly know the power of God. And if you want to know the power of God in your own life, I want to encourage you to dig into his word, taste and see the Lord is good.

Well, hello again. This is again, Major Mike Harris on the sixth of our sessions on Pathways. That is the idea or the importance of thought life and our ability to check our thoughts and internal philosophies. And today I want to talk a little bit about apologetics, its ability for us to explain and to back up and to justify our belief system. A few years ago, an Australian salvationist was interviewed on a radio talk show. The radio talk show interviews had done their homework and they post some really, really tough questions for this Salvation Army officer on the Salvation Army belief system. The person doing the interview said to the Salvationist, according to the Salvation Army, sinners deserve death. How do you respond to that doctrine? Well, when challenged with this question, the rather unprepared salvationist replied, well, that's part of our belief system. So we should die, responded the talk show host to which the salvationist retorted. Well, you know, we have an alignment to the scriptures.

Yeah, that's our belief. Let me tell you something. That misrepresentation of scripture was terrific in this exchange. I mean, what an opportunity to talk about grace and love, but instead the talk show hosts had just got this guy to say sinners should be killed. Now, I don't know this guy from Adam.

I can tell you one thing for sure. For a man defending the salvationist stance on scripture, this man sure did not know his Bible. But increasingly, people are defending their beliefs with little knowledge of what scripture really says on the matter. And scripture is wise to that problem, by the way. Listen to this from 1 Peter chapter 3. But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. Friends, knowing what you believe and why you believe it is critical if you're going to be an ambassador for Christ.

In verse 15 of 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter starts by saying revere Christ as Lord. You see, too often we fail to talk about Christ in our beliefs and we fear men. We don't want to offend people. We don't want to cause waves. We don't want people to think ill of us. We are fearful of people.

Whereas the reverse should be true. We should have a greater respect for God than man. We should have that holy fear, that sense of awe when it comes to God. So to protect ourselves from the wrath of man is foolishness when it comes to the things of God.

So once our respect towards God is in place, then we have to be prepared. And here's where reason and knowledge begin to clash. Because we've done a very good job of creating a belief system based on reason.

Even a casual Facebook user will be given enough one-line thoughts to form some kind of worldview response. And such responses end up deconstructing our faith until our belief system is a series of philosophies based on everybody else's opinion. Now as with all mainstream Christianity, the salvationists should be ready in season and out of it. We must understand what we believe and why we believe it. And to this we must have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And we must have a knowledge of the Bible. And this brings me back to a subject I've mentioned previously in this series, and that's Biblical illiteracy. In my opinion, one of the most important parts of learning about God and about his Word is to question it. Question God's Word. Don't be afraid to ask a question, but make sure that you look for a Biblical answer. Because I found throughout my life, Scripture is always ready to back itself up.

The answer to your question will be found somewhere else in Scripture. Allow your mind to be curious. Allow it to be inquisitive. For the most part, that's what the disbelieving world is. They simply want to understand what we believe and why we believe it.

So ask questions, ponder, wonder, but also look for the answers. Because we need to know what we believe before we can share it with anybody else. And a very important part of Peter's words are always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks to give the reason for the hope that you have.

Here's another problem we have. Too often when defending God's Word, we could offer a very negative view by concentrating on why God doesn't allow certain things rather than what he has given us. So our conversations in defence of our beliefs should always be an opportunity to express the hope that we have. Also when defending our beliefs, Peter tells us to do it with gentleness and respect. We don't do apologetics to win an argument. We do it to express why Christ died for us and the hope that we have as a result. And all we want is for the listener to accept Christ.

But as is often the case, we could often leave simply planting a seed with no indication of change. And don't be afraid of that either, because that seed is important. I have two sisters. My youngest sister, Susan, went to college in the north of England in Manchester. And while she was there, she very quickly met a young lady by the name of Justine. When Susan and Justine became firm friends, the connection initially was they simply came from the same city of Coventry. But although they were firm friends, they had one huge difference. Susan, staunch Salvationist, lifelong Christian, has certainly had a testimony and a half to tell.

Justine, staunch Atheist, never been to church in her life, raised by an Atheist mother. And so through their time at college, this difference of opinion when it came to faith often showed itself, not in an unkind way, though certainly there were jibes and there were jabs and there were jokes, usually at Susan's expense. But it was often a topic of conversation that came up. And Susan would always take those opportunities then to share her faith, to say to Justine, you might joke about that, but this is the case or this is what it means to me. And it's wonderful through the years that they were at college together that they remained firm friends. They were in each other's weddings when they both got married.

So some years later, Justine by now was married to a Turkish gentleman but living in England. And one day her daughter came home from school. The daughter says I've been invited to church. A friend of mine has invited me to church. Justine was a bit nervous about this.

Let me go with you. You know, she again had never been to a church. She was an atheist.

She'd been raised an atheist. So Justine went with her daughter to church. When she got back from church, the first thing she did was to call up my sister, the Christian that she met all those years ago. And she said to Susan, I just had the most wonderful experience. I just went to church for the first time.

I didn't know. Why did my mother never allow me to experience what I've just experienced? And she went on to talk to Susan and tell Susan that all the things that she said were true. All those years ago, Sue had planted a seed. That seed had sat in there and germinated. It came to fruition through a casual invitation from her daughter's school friend.

But when the Lord got hold of her, Justine realized that what Sue had said all along was true. Friends don't allow differing views to stand in the way of your relationships and friendships. Be sure of what you believe.

Never waver. But if we dismiss or do not befriend people who don't believe, then there is no hope for them. We are their hope.

Friends be ready in season and out of season. Know what you believe and make sure that you're telling the unsaved what you believe. Because at the end of the day, that seed that you planted could save that person's eternity. Gracious Lord, give us a burden for the world. Put it heavily upon our hearts that out there there are people who are dying, and quite frankly, Lord, are in danger of not entering into your eternity. We have to believe with all of our hearts that there is a spiritual warfare going on, and that warfare is over souls, over people's lives. And Lord, we live in a world that is becoming increasingly intellectual, a world where the mind seems to rule over everything else.

Lord God, there's nothing out there that is stopping us from reasoning with these people. You've given us everything that we need. We need to make sure we're armed with it. We need to make sure that when we encounter people who don't know you, that we don't go before them in a judgmental capacity but in a loving capacity, that we come before people Lord and express our faith, tell them our testimony, answer their questions, and show a genuine concern for them and the only way Lord we can do that if it's genuinely heavy upon our hearts. May we desire this world for you. May we never doubt your ability to change a heart, to change a life, to save a soul. And may we never Lord diminish our part in all of this. May we always recognize Lord that we're your tool, that you living inside of us is the most persuasive thing of all, and that we should never be scared.

You did not give us a spirit of timidity. Lord, you've made us strong, you've made us brave, and you've allowed your Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Take us to the world that we might save the world, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support, and we'd love to hear from you. Email us at radio at uss.salvationarmy.org. Call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at P.O.

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