Apologetics?

I greatly appreciate reading The Assembling of the Church by Alan Knox. He is a prolific blogger and has some excellent insights. I just wish I could keep up with him during the week; I have to rely on my weekends to catch up.

Last week he had an interesting post on “Making our case,” a look at I Peter 3 and what apologetics meant in that epistle. Here is an excerpt:

This believer is not debating an atheist in order to prove the atheist wrong. The believer is being persecuted by the atheist and has hope in spite of the persecution. The believer is not presenting an argument in favor of Christianity to an unbeliever, he is living a life that demonstrates that "Christ is Lord" in spite of the suffering that he is enduring. The one causing the believer to suffer notices the difference. The believer has become light in the darkness.

So, why has apologetics become writing and debating in order to prove that we are right? Why has apologetics been reduced to arguments, positions, logic, and presuppositions? What happened to letting our conduct reveal the God who has changed us and is working to redeem the world?

Perhaps, the next time an unbeliever denies the existence of God or the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, we should attempt to prove our doctrines by loving that unbeliever and living a life that shows that we have died to ourselves and God is living through us by his Spirit. Then again, it does seem easier to just argue with that person.

<idle musing>
Yes, arguing is easier than living a life of love. Is it perhaps because we are so good at presenting our own case and so poor at listening to God? I know that the natural reaction for me is to defend to the death my opinions, actions and thoughts—even when I know they are wrong—simply because they are mine. What heresy! Jesus calls us to die to self and live to him. But, far more importantly, he supplies the necessary grace to do so!
</idle musing>