Post 85 - Apologetics: a Strategy for Defending the Faith

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

(2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Columbo

For those old enough to remember the old crime drama Columbo from the 1970s, Lieutenant Columbo was a homicide detective who would stroll around a crime scene in a rumpled overcoat, unshaven, smoking a cigar, mumbling to himself, scratching his head, and looking completely perplexed.

His unassuming demeanor and seeming lack of focus were often mistakenly viewed by the criminals as ineptitude, causing the suspects to let their guard down. Big mistake.

One common quirk in every investigation was Columbo's habit of starting to leave the scene, only to turn around and approach the suspect with "just one more thing," at which point he would ask a couple of poignant questions that would usually expose some significant and convicting oversight by the perpetrator.

Today I want to share a strategy that emphasizes the importance of asking the right questions for the purpose of promoting meaningful and productive discourse when it comes to Christian apologetics, the branch of theology concerned with the defense of the Christian faith.

I confess that I have failed miserably at the very tactics I'm presenting in this post. Often, to my shame, my passion for the Christian faith causes me to fail at the very purpose of this tactic, which is to engage in meaningful, persuasive discourse with the unbeliever or skeptic. Sadly, I tend to jump into a "how-can-you-not-see-the-logic-of-my-argument" mode. With that in mind, my advice is to do as I say, not as I do. :-)

Much of what I'm presenting comes from a book called Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions, by Gregory Koukl. Mr. Koukl is the founder and President of Stand to Reason. He has degrees in apologetics and philosophy. He teaches at Biola University in California.

The Columbo Tactic

Mr. Koukl recommends that, when discussing Christianity with skeptics, we should be like Columbo--that is, we need to ask a couple of key, yet non-threatening questions:

Question #1: "What do you mean by that?"

Question #2: "How do you come to that conclusion?"

Those two questions have three important benefits when sharing the truth of the Christian faith with a skeptic and discussing critical spiritual differences:

(1) The questions are probing, but not likely to evoke the skeptic to go into "defense mode", thereby leaving the channels open for a productive exchange.

(2) Question #1--"What do you mean by that?"--clarifies what the person is thinking when he states his opinions/beliefs. It ensures that everyone is working with the same dictionary and the same understanding of the terms.

(3) Question #2--"How do you come to that conclusion?"--provides the 'why' of the person's belief, that is, the reason he believes what he believes. It subtly requires the person to reflect on the trustworthiness of his sources, giving him an opportunity for self-examination.

Illustration

In his book, Koukl describes an encounter with a waitress in a restaurant in Seattle in which the topic of spirituality comes up. The discussion is actually quite extensive, but here is an abbreviated look at the encounter with a few remarks of my own, in italics.

The chat begins with Koukl expressing his generally favorable view of spirituality, which meets with a nod of approval from the waitress.

Then, he says this:

Koukl: "Some religious beliefs seem foolish to me."

Waitress: "That's oppressive, not letting people believe what they want to believe."

Koukl: "Do you think I'm wrong, then?"

Note that this is really a form of question #1, "What do you mean by that?"

Waitress: "No... I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just trying to understand your view.... All religions are basically the same, after all."

Of course, this is an unfortunate misunderstanding by many, and a pretty common talking point for the "coexist" crowd.

Koukl: "Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Jews do not. So, one way or another, somebody's right and somebody's wrong. They can't both be basically the same, can they?"

Waitress: "Well, no one can ever know the truth about religion."

Koukl: "Why would you believe a thing like that?"

Note that this is really a form of question #2, "How do you come to that conclusion?"

Waitress: "The Bible has been changed so many times over the centuries. You can't trust it."

Koukl: "How do you know the Bible's been changed?"

There's question #2, again, "How do you come to that conclusion?"

Finally, after a long pause and in a moment of self-reflection, the waitress admits that she's never really studied the matter, at which point Koukl informs her of his own extensive studies of the ancient texts, and shares with her the scholarly conclusion that the manuscripts from which are Bible translations are generated, were accurate to over 99 percent precision.

Conclusion

Note that every exchange from Mr. Koukl ends with a question, which not only forces the skeptic to defend his/her statements, but keeps the apologist in "the driver's seat".

While we don't know what became of the waitress after that discussion, we can draw a few conclusions from the encounter:

• Without offending, Koukl was able to defend the uniqueness of Christianity from other religions and,

• He was able to defend the veracity of the Christian Bible as a trustworthy document.

It is not likely that the waitress could easily forget or dismiss the conversation. People tend to mull things over in their minds long after such challenging encounters. Important seeds were planted.

Final Thoughts

I'm a firm believer in "divine appointments". I believe that the God who desires that "all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4), arranges people and events in our lives--divine appointments--to help us "seek Him, reach out for Him and find Him, though he is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27).

Even if apologetics isn't your gift, Peter tells us that everyone should-

always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, (1Pe 3:15 ESV)

Next Post: TBD.