Do You Have to be Sorry to Apologize?
If I tell someone I’m an apologist or that I study apologetics, what I most commonly hear is, “What are you apologizing for?” To which I respond, “As Christians, we don’t owe anyone an apology,” meaning there should be no regrets about following Christ. In this context, apologizing is defending the Christian faith against doubters, non-believers and untruths. Although Christian apologetics is not a very well known area of study, each of us is called to be ready to make a defense for the hope that is in us (from 1 Peter 3:15, commonly known as the apologetic mandate). So, the answer is “no,” you do not have to be sorry to apologize (make a defense).
Because there are many good reasons to believe Christianity is true, it is not necessary for a Christian to have “blind faith.” The study of Christian apologetics is so vast that it encompasses extensive areas of study including theology, history, archeology, philosophy, rhetoric, literature, linguistics, astronomy, geology, genetics, zoology, and many others. Numerous early Christian believers wrote apologetic material, one of the first was Justin Martyr who wrote his First Apology in A.D. 155. (More on Justin Martyr here: https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-book-blog/2015/justin-martyr-the-first-great-apologist-of-the-christian-church)
I am an apologist. Like most apologists, I have a deep yearning for the truth. I want any and all faith that I have to be justified, reasonable and logical. After all, if Jesus really is the Way, the Truth and the Life, is there anything more important that we can know? I think not.
One of my greatest desires is to present these defenses so easily that anyone can understand them and learn to make basic apologetic arguments. You don’t have to be an expert to make a few simple arguments for the Christian faith. My hope is that these defenses will strengthen the faith of the believer and also prompt the unbeliever to consider the possibility that Jesus is who the Bible says he is. If what the Bible says is true, it makes all the difference in the world – an eternal difference, in fact.
That’s why I am writing ABC Apologetics. These will be short, easy apologies (with some additional reading in case you want to learn more). The goal is to give anyone who is interested the tools necessary to stand up for the Christian faith – even kids. Yes, even children can and should learn apologetics. Believe me, they will be asking these questions and we should be ready to answer them. When their friends ask these questions (and they will), our kids should be ready with a response.
As Christians, it is imperative that we are prepared to make a defense for our faith, not only because Peter says we should, but because there are so many reasons to trust in the truth of Christianity. Furthermore, in an age of doubt, it would be unwise not to use apologies in attempting to bring people to faith. When we are ready with answers, even simple ones, we not only feel more confident in the validity of our beliefs, but that confidence just might give us the courage to share our faith more boldly with others.