Comments on: Can apologetics work if the audience doesn’t care?

By: Antan

Antan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:35:09 +0000

Audience doesnt care about religion (Christianity allso) because The Big Questions are formulated in past and like all past things are not compatible with present.It is not corect to to call them all “atheists” or just that they “doesnâ€™t care”. Bonehoeffer predicted form of future when believers will be “non-religious”.

By: The Overlooked Mission Field : Reaching the Campus Tribes, part I « Live Generously

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:20:06 +0000

[…] mainstream America as many foreign missions field would be. I would argue that is a postmodern, post-apologetic world where people simply aren’t asking questions about ultimate reality, and where […]

By: Patrick Burwell

Patrick Burwell — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:01:04 +0000

“An apologistâ€™s first task is now to convince them that religion is worth talking about in the first place.”

Apologetics can only follow the use of the Law of God that man may see his sin in truth. You can do the same with an audience. Once the listeners see WHY they must care, when the Law shows them they WILL face a Just and Holy God for their sins, then they will listen.
The Law of God is perfect, converting the soul; The Law of God is for sinners to see their sin as exceeding sinful; the Law of God shuts the mouth of the siner and leaves him at the foot of the blood stained Cross of Jesus repenting and pleading for the Salvation Christ alone can offer.
Patrick Burwell, OnlyJesusSaves.com

By: BenK

BenK — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:34:30 +0000

The idea of a reasoned argument leading to faith is an illusion of the enlightenment. It is a dead-end street down which millions of evangelicals have filed. The arguments of rational apologetics more often than not find their home in debated dogma among believers (or so-called believers) and the rationalizations of midday doubts; the original apologetics were the testimonies of the apostles and show little or no similarity to the justifications laid forth today.

As the Anglicans continue to demonstrate that orthopraxis will only grow from orthodoxy, there may be a continued need for rational argument of the tenants of the faith, in an attempt to forge unity from the mess that calls itself the church. However, there never was and never will be any practical value in attempting to make the gospel sound reasonable. What is needed is generally not apologetics but catechesis.

By: Brandon Cox

Brandon Cox — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:34:12 +0000

I think this gives greater leverage to the point that it isn’t just arguing that convinces, but also a holy walk and an outstretched hand of service. It’s easy to ignore the arguments of someone who is simply talking, but if they’re repairing marriages, feeding the poor, and ministering to the needy, our arguments take on greater value. I think we keep plugging along with our apologetics, but also diversify our approach to substantiating our claims with hands-on ministry.