"who needs apologetics? you cant argue anyone into the kingdom"

I am amazed to hear this objection from Christians all the time.  I have been told apologetics has no value because you cant argue anyone into the kingdom of God.  First I am amazed that people don't seem to thing God can or does use evidence and argument to reach people.  God uses many things to reach people.  Also I know quite a few people who throw themselves into theology without any reasons to believe in God except faith and a feeling.  I can understand that, I think that is the way 90% of people become Christians.  I myself believe the truth of the gospel because of the witness of the Holy Spirit.  That is how I know my faith to be true.  But how do I show it? How am I encouraged when feeling low? Evidence and argument.  No matter what my feelings are, facts are facts.  In Vancouver today it is harder and harder to share the gospel with people without being told that Christianity is a fairy tale, or that believing in God is silliness.  The very reason for this blog is that I run into objections very often!

    I was motivated to write this today because I was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend of mine who has no interest in apologetics but loves God and loves scripture.  We were having a great chat, then someone overheard our talk and joined in.  He said "you two are just Christians because your parents are Christians." Well neither of our parents are Christians.  He then said you are just Christian because you need faith in an afterlife because you are afraid of death"  (Ill address this objection in a future blog) we both said that was not the case.  He then said "there are no actual reasons for believing in God, all you have is faith in your holy book"

My friend must have thought I paid this fellow to bring up these objections :)  He talked a bit about faith and how God has shown up in his life.  I think this is very powerful evidence!  Most Christians don't understand that their testimony is evidence and apologetics.  But he then had a few more objections so I talked with him about the origin of the universe, the fine tuning of the universe, the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, the information and intelligence in DNA,and the existence of absolute morals.  It was a lot to talk about but he was very interested and a confrontational conversation ended with us exchanging numbers so we could meet again for coffee after he had examined these issues.


I believe all of us Christians in the western world are so blessed that we have the resources to research evidence for God.  We have the time, the money, and the availability of resources.  I would like to encourage all Christians to always have an answer for the hope they have and to be able to give this answer with gentleness and respect.(1Peter 3:15)  If you are looking for a place to start I would suggest starting with how to prove the Bible is reliable and unique.  I promise in as little as two hours you can be incredibly equipped and it will motivate you to take your education further.

Personally I have to say again, one benefit of apologetics is that it clears the roadblocks that people put up before hearing the gospel.  But another benefit is when Christians are in dark or dry places.  No matter what is happening in my life, Jesus still rose from the dead.  No matter how I am feeling, the Bible is proven to be reliable and unique.  Even if I am feeling lost and alone and don't understand God's plan, God has moved in history and we can know it!