Quotes About Apologetics

Training in apologetics should be a regular part of discipleship. Apologetics is a New Testament ministry of helping people overcome intellectual obstacles that block them from coming to or growing in the faith by giving reasons for why one should believe Christianity is true and by responding to objections raised against it.

when people learn what they believe and why, they become bold in their witness and attractive in the way they engage others in debate or dialogue.

Art and the saints are the greatest apologetics for our faith.

The word "apologetics" comes from the Greek word apologia. It referred to what defendants would do in a courtroom in response to any accusations made against them. They would try to provide a defense (an apologia) against the charges. The accused would try to literally "speak away" (apo—away, logia—speech) the accusation(s).

When we fail to answer someone's questions and objections, we become just one more excuse for them to disbelieve.

The main issue with the traditional understanding of evangelism and apologetics is that they are too narrowly construed. The Bible teaches that evangelism is life (we are salt and light) and that the greatest apologetic is a life lived in obedience to God.

Yet church youth groups rarely teach apologetics, majoring instead on games and goodies.

It seems that Peter is saying the goal of apologetics is not just to present better arguments but to exhibit a better character, especially when suffering hostility and opposition.

Apologetics should mix skepticism and poetry. Skepticism to strangle idols, poetry to seduce souls.

Christians are not supposed to "just have faith." Christians are commanded to know what they believe and why they believe it. They are commanded to give answers to those who ask (1 Pet. 3:15), and to demolish arguments against the Christian faith (2 Cor. 10:4-5).

As Francis Schaeffer pointed out (and his whole apologetics turned on this point), "The more logical a non-Christian is to his own presuppositions, the further he is from the real world; and the nearer he is to the real world, the more illogical he is to his presuppositions."41 There

Love is "the alpha and the omega of apologetics," in the sense that all we say must come from love, and it must lead to love and to the One who is love—in

Whenever apologetics is needed, it should precede evangelism, but while apologetics is distinct from evangelism, it must always lead directly to it. The work of apologetics is only finished when the door to the gospel has been opened and the good news of the gospel can be proclaimed.

This book focuses on a narrower issue and a simple problem: We have lost the art of Christian persuasion and we must recover it.

one of the more unfortunate side effects is that much apologetics has lost touch with evangelism and come to be all about "arguments," and in particular about winning arguments rather than winning hearts and minds and people. Our urgent need today is to reunite evangelism and apologetics, to make sure that our best arguments are directed toward winning people and not just winning arguments, and to seek to do all this in a manner that is true to the gospel itself.

To see apologetics only as technique is an insult to the gospel and to the high importance of what God is saying and doing in Jesus. From the humblest pun to the greatest double entendre of all time—the incarnation—the Bible is full of stories, parables, drama, ploys and jests that serve the ultimate purpose of the gospel and are shaped by the truth and logic of the message of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

Our urgent need today is to reunite evangelism and apologetics, to make sure that our best arguments are directed toward winning people and not just winning arguments, and to seek to do all this in a manner that is true to the gospel itself.

Again, the heart of apologetics is the apologetics of the heart.

apologetics is pre-evangelism in that it addresses those who do not realize they are in a bad situation, and therefore do not see the gospel as the good news that it is.

We must never distinguish apologetics and evangelism too neatly. But in broad terms, evangelism is the sharing of the good news, and it addresses the needs and desires of those who know they are in a bad situation.

Love is "the alpha and the omega of apologetics," in the sense that all we say must come from love, and it must lead to love and to the One who is love—in other words, Christian advocacy must move from our love for God and his truth and beauty, to our love for the people we talk to and work right up to their love for God and his truth and beauty in their turn.

far too much Christian evangelism and apologetics is based on the assumption that almost everyone is open, interested and needy—when most people most of the time are quite simply not.

An argument in apologetics, when actually used in dialogue, is an extension of the arguer. The arguer's tone, sincerity, care, concern, listening, and respect matter as much as his or her logic - probably more. The world was won for Christ not by arguments but by sanctity: "What you are speaks so loud, I can hardly hear what you say.