There is a lot of argument among apologists as to how to do apologetics. I think that when you’re witnessing, it is the apologetics’ part of evangelism. Apologetics is part of our witness.
Apologetics is part of our witness.1 Peter 3:15 says that we should be ready to answer anyone who asks us a reason of the hope that is in us with meekness and fear. That is a key verse in my teaching of apologetics. The typical situation is that someone asks you why you believe in God or someone asks you why you believe in Jesus Christ. You tell them. The easiest thing is simply to tell them what the Bible says.
It can become more complicated. I teach philosophy, for example, and David Hume was a philosopher of the 18th century. David Hume argued that no matter what you say, you can never have sufficient evidence. You can never have sufficient testimony that a supernatural event has occurred because it’s always more probable that there is a natural explanation than there is a supernatural explanation. That is David Hume’s philosophy. It is based on his view of knowledge. It is based on his view of evidence.
I just try to point out here that there is a philosophical difference. I use the term “presupposition.” I think that Hume is operating on different presuppositions about what the world is like and how human knowledge develops.
The easiest thing is simply to tell people what the Bible says.I argue against those presuppositions with the presuppositions of the Bible. We have our own view of the world. We have our own way of understanding human knowledge. God has made this world in such a way as to be understood by the human mind. God has provided testimony as a way of gaining knowledge.
So I go through all that, and that gets into a more philosophical kind of apologetic. Sometimes I don’t need that. I try not to let it get too technical if it’s not necessary. I will try to answer whatever questions people ask as best I can using the Bible’s own philosophy of life and language and knowledge.
