I envied my Christian friends in High School for their ability to believe in a loving, personal God. I often wished that I too could take that blind step of faith they cited as the key to their relationship with and understanding of God.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t throw reason out the window no matter how much I needed that relationship.
Better to believe in an unpleasant truth, than a pleasant lie.
Over the years my heart grew ever harder and impatient toward Christians for their inability to give a reason for the hope that they had.
Yet I couldn’t give a reason for the hope that I didn’t have!
I was good at putting Christians on the spot even though I myself was ill-prepared to give an answer for what I believed!
It was easier to put it on them. As if their inability to give a reason meant there wasn’t a reason.
Now that’s not rational! Or fair. Or true.
It didn’t mean there wasn’t a rational answer for the Christian worldview.
It just meant my Christian friends and acquaintances didn’t thoroughly understand what they believed and why they believed it.
But that’s true for most people.
The majority of people on the planet could not provide a detailed, coherent, rational basis for their worldview. Christian or non-Christian.
It’s all about feelings and preferences.
It’s no different for those like I once was who hammer believers for their inability to answer the hard questions.
They can’t answer the hard questions either!
If we were to turn the tables on them with probing questions, their own worldview would be found shallow and logically indefensible.
And we must turn the tables on them!
Yet we must be prepared to help them rebuild the new foundation to replace that which we helped dismantle.
Because if they are intellectually honest and willing to follow the evidence where it leads their worldview will disintegrate.
To do this we must know what they believe and why they believe it.
But first we must know what we believe and why we believe it.
Because evangelizing without Apologetics is irresponsible.
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