Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture
But all of us, through impatience or pride, sometimes fall short of the command to love the one with whom we disagree. If love of God and love of neighbor is not our motivation for engaging in the discussion, then we are better off remaining silent.
If we claim to be spending time in fellowship and service of Jesus, like those he healed in the Gospels, we should be eternally affected and it should show to those around us.
Perhaps the effect that Jesus has had upon us is the greatest apologetic.
If some could witness the miracles of Jesus and remain unconvinced and unconverted, we would be foolish to think that everyone will respond to our presentation and defense of the Gospel. The will overrides the intellect when dealing with matters of faith and world view. If the lack of response is an indication of failure, it is a failure that Jesus also experienced.
On July 9 of this year, I wrote a post entitled, A follow-up to some comments. One of the comments I received on that post was from someone calling himself (or herself) Hungry Atheist. I thought that I would selectively quote the comment and provide response to the points that were raised in that comment.
I have heard that there are those in the church who do not feel that apologetics should be part of the discipleship process for believers . . . A statement in the book of Nehemiah got me thinking about defending our faith and the need for such defense.
“We don’t need apologetics, we just need to ‘experience’ Jesus!” Unfortunately, this is something I hear from fellow believers quite often and it never fails to set off the warning sirens in my head. Read on to find out why.