Apologetics

I like the concept and practice of Apologetics, the rational defense of the faith. This is not about that. The term seems funny to our ears. "What ... you're apologizing for your faith?" It doesn't mean that, but it sounds like it. This is about that.

There are some Christians who take up arms with gusto and do battle. Sometimes they do battle even where they shouldn't, but they enjoy it, so they do it. There are some Christians who lay down their arms and sneak around the corner. Don't poke your head out. Don't be recognized as "the enemy" (because, let's face it, the world as a sinful system hates every genuine Christian). Just keep your head down and you'll make it through okay. Most of us, however, are somewhere in the middle. We'll take a swipe now and again, but we'll mostly deal in "apologetics", the lowercase "a" form, where we largely apologize for our beliefs.

A student I know was once challenged by a teacher. "So, you call yourself a Christian. Do you actually believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven? Isn't that rather narrow-minded?" He responded, "I know it sounds that way, but I didn't say it; Jesus did." He was right, but you can hear the appeasement in the answer. "It wasn't my fault. Take it up with Jesus." But ... aren't you standing with Jesus on this? Sure, He said it. Was He right?

In many similar ways, we want to appease others around us. We want to set aside the clear teachings of God's Word and soothe the antagonists. Oh, here's a word: ameliorate -- to make something bad or unsatisfactory better. We treat the truths of Scripture as if they're bad or unsatisfactory and we attempt to make them better, more palatable, more user-friendly. So when Scripture says that it is God's will that He demonstrate His power and wrath on vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Rom 9:22), we "ahem" and demur from the position and point quickly to the exception, the "vessels of mercy" (Rom 9:23). More likely, we avoid the text entirely as too controversial and unfriendly. "Look, let's just focus on the 'God loves the world' kind of texts. Yeah, yeah, we know that there are some uncomfortable passages in there. Oh, those are Old Testament ... you can ignore those. Oh, yeah, those are not clear ... you can ignore those." So we apologize for God and His Word and try to avoid the controversy.

God says (this is an actual quote from God), "I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." (Isa 45:6-7) Really? God creates calamity? Oh, no, let's not go there. So we ignore it or apologize for it and move along. Paul told Timothy the hard instruction to correct his opponents so that "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." (2 Tim 2:25-26) Really?? God may grant them repentance? As if God is even in the business of "granting repentance", let alone the suggestion that He may not do it. No, we'll set that aside and move on. Sorry about that. Just a misunderstanding. Let's look elsewhere.

Since when was it our job to apologize for what God does? I'm pretty sure He's not sorry about it. I'm equally sure that if we are sorry about what He says and does, we are in opposition to the God we claim to love. Now, we can do that in other human circumstances. You might support, say, Israel as a nation without agreeing with all of her policies. But we're talking about God. Either He is actually all-good and all-right or He is not. If not, He doesn't deserve our worship. If so, He deserves our worship and our agreement. Apologize for God? Makes no sense. We should probably stop that.