Apologetics

Some Christians are reluctant about apologetics. They say „No one comes to faith in Christ through apologetics.“ Whether that’s true or not, depends on what you understand by „apologetics“. True is, however, that a shocking number of youths who were raised in Christian families, fall away from their faith during university. They have not learned to cope with the arguments of secular society against the Christian faith. Daryl McCarthy who works to build a network of Christian lecturers at European universities, said „Regarding the faith, Europe is the darkest continent; and in Europe, the universities are the darkest spots.“

Apologetics helps Christians like you and me to understand the battle of worldviews in which we stand, and not to be intimidated by the arguments and seductions of our secular society. It’s not apologetics alone that helps us to „stand firm“ (Eph 6,13), but our standing firm may help lost sheep (and youths) to recognize the beauty of the gospel and stand firm.

How great the need for apologetics is, became very obvious to me at one-week youth retreats with 5000 to 6000 youths („Praise Camps“) in Switzerland over the past few years. A workshop offered by „my“ VBG called „Grill the Book“ allowed participants to ask any question about the Bible and faith. It was booked out 8 (eight!) times with 400 youths each!

„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,“ (1 Peter 3.15)

May we all learn to give good reason for the gospel against secular arguments!