You may be asking yourself “Why is there a need for apologetics?”, or “Is there a high demand for this specialty?” The short answer is yes to both. The truth is, it’s every Christian’s responsibility to defend our faith. 1 Peter 3:15 makes this point clear. However, there are some Christians such as myself, who have a passion for apologetics and view the field as their “area of interest” for lack of a better term. In the sections below, I will describe why now, more than ever, apologetics is so important to the Christian faith.
In this current world, our schools (K-12 and upper level) are a serious battleground between Christians and secular society. This was my biggest concern and why I got into apologetics in the first place.
The facilitating of this conflict is attributed to a few factors: First, some of this is due to misinformation that is readily spread through the media; Second, some is originating from the teachers themselves who are agnostic or atheists and push their views on these students. The students, viewing their teachers as authority figures, believe that all information presented to them is truth. And lastly, and most unfortunately, some of this is from Christians who spread false teachings. They use personal views, unsound doctrine and information which is not supported by Scripture. We mustn’t forget all of these factors are put in motion by the enemy who wants to confuse our youth so as to try and snatch them from Christ’s hands.
Misinformation
In this day and age information is readily available and only a click away. The internet holds a vast amount of information and is at everyone’s fingertips. While by and large this is a good thing, in some ways it’s not. Our younger generation is highly intelligent and extremely savvy with using all of the technology today. If fact, they often need to teach our older generation how to function in this digital age. However, with all of this information available, there is much misinformation out there. Headline skimming is one way misinformation gets out. Someone will just read a headline and take that as truth, without reading the entire article.
Another issue is discernment or lack thereof. While the younger generation is great at using technology and finding information, they have little experience of discerning if the information if accurate or not. Some of this is by using non-reputable sources, other reasons are not looking at multiple sources. This also applies to “Communal” information our children hear from others, who then heard it from someone else, who then heard it from someone else, etc.….you get the picture. And in the end, none of them can tell you where the information had originated from.
In Our Schools
This is probably the area, within Christianity, where the most damage is done to our children and young adults. In our late-modernist society, I’ve seen some of the effects of misinformation on my friends, their children, and most recently at my last job where I worked with many college students. It’s really a sad state of affairs. They are taught to question everything, even when there’s not a need to. When one is always questioning anything and everything, this leads to one having a very cynical and dark view of the world. They are taught to believe and put their faith in ideals not supported by the Word of God. They are taught to embrace everyone and every way of life (except for that of Christians). They have learned to use the catch word “Phobic” when confronted with someone who doesn’t agree with their way of thinking. But there is a big difference in someone actually being afraid of another way of life, and that person just living by the set of standards put forth in Scripture.
We must understand it is not just the teachers who put forward these ideals, but the student’s peers are responsible as well. It’s as simple as one person seeing an article on social media, then telling all their friends as if it is truthful, all without discerning if the information is actually true.
In the end, what our children end up seeing through their new lenses is a world with a non-existent God. They see prayer being taken out of school, the Ten Commandments being taken out of courthouses, and more emphasis being put on multiple different types of causes and on anything else but a loving God. Anything and everything goes. Just do whatever makes you feel good. That, in a nutshell, is what a late-modern society is. More to come on that.
False Teaching
Revelation 13:13, Mathew 24:24, and Jerimiah 23:16 are just a few verses within the Bible which mention false prophets and teachers. Out of all of the topics apologists must deal with, this is particularly the toughest. When those within the church teach things which are not based in scripture, it increases the level of difficulty when trying to undo the damage to those who have heard the message. Typically, false teaching has more of an impression on the younger, less mature Christians as they have not had much experience with discernment, and they have not yet matured spiritually yet.
False teachings can be disseminated in multiple ways. This could be in the form of: Sermons within the church, social media posts, YouTube videos, books, music, movies, and other print media. The one thing these all will have in common is that they are wrapped up and presented as being from God when they are not. These teachings will usually take the form of man-made ideas, interpretations of His Word, and ceremonies. One of the biggest movements of false teachings and prophecies is what is called the New Apostolic Reformation. This movement is clearly outlined in the book “Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church.” , by Holly Pivec and R. Douglas Geivett. I will write more about this movement in a separate post down the road.
Here are just a couple of examples of false teachings which are happening today: There is a very large Church on the west coast which teaches classes on how to heal. So, they are trying to teach all Christians how to heal others. This Church feels that God wants everyone to be healed and that the gift just needs to be activated within ALL Christians. There is a big problem with this and it’s too much to go into now, but I will talk about it in a later post.
Another example would be when it comes to teaching about homosexuality. There are some pastors who have recorded sermons calling for the acceptance of homosexuality within the church and how the church needs to start accepting this practice because it is not strictly prohibited by scripture and “times have changed.” (See more in Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-28, and Mark 10:6-9). They say today’s society has “evolved” and we need to be more accepting. Neither of these statements are true. They are simply pandering to the new “woke” culture and accommodating God’s Word to the culture as opposed to preaching to the culture to live by God’s Word. And yes, I will have another post on this down the road.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, there are many reasons why there is a need for the field of apologetics within the Christian community. The goal of the Apologist is to make sure the Truth of God’s Word is spoken to and received by non-believers after compassionate and graceful dialogue (Colossians 4:6).
Jesus tells us that in the last days before His return, there will be many false prophets and false teachers who will be among us to try and confuse us and keep us away from God (Rev. 13:11-13). It will all be an effort to expand his kingdom of darkness and reduce down the Kingdom of Light. From Genesis through Revelation, God lays out His whole redemptive plan for mankind and every step of the way, there lies the serpent trying to halt His plan.
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