The Task of Apologetics: Nature and Necessity

Being thrown with false accusations is an inevitable experience a true follower of Christ will encounter in his life. It is an ugly experience a normal person does not want to undergo through. The reason why all of us Christians will never escape from being slandered by the world is because we serve and worship Christ and our faith is centered to Him, as well as our new identity as a new creation can be found in Him.

During the New Testament time, Apostle Paul and other followers of Christ, and ancient believers had experienced to be falsely accused and severely suffered because of it. Even our Lord Jesus Christ has experienced the same thing in the hands of the Pharisees and the Sadducees when he was led into the Jewish Sanhedrin to face his trial before the high priest and to the religious authorities (Mark 14:55-56). And from these examples of being falsely accused, we can be so certain that this thing can possibly happen to all of us.

As Bahnsen gleans a powerful lesson for 20th century Christians he said that “Twentieth-century believers can sympathize with their brothers in the ancient world. Our Christian faith continues to see the same variety of attempts to oppose and undermine it” (ibid.).

As I continue to reflect on the blog of my professor from the article of Bahnsen, I asked myself what the task of Apologetics really is. And as I continue to read further, I realized, and I think one of the objectives or task of Apologetics is to defend Christians and Christianity against false accusations from the world.

If I would be the one to be ask what would I think the task of Apologetics is, I will answer it with “it is use to defend the truth of Christianity or to the Christian faith by providing an answer to the critics”. And for me, this task is non-negotiable. I believe no other religion outside Christianity can ever give any meaningful sense of the real task of Apologetics.

I remember an article I read before from the history of Apologetics, and it was about how Justin Martyr defended Christians and Christianity. He wrote a defense statement to be send to the Roman Emperor so that he could abandon the persecution of the Church. The reason of their persecution was because of the Atheists falsely accusing them. I remember this apology was called “the first apology”.

Learning from this, I believe that Christians must learn not to be passive especially when the existence of our God, and our faith are being falsely accused. We should learn how to properly defend our faith and the truths that we presuppose. Not just the preachers, the pastors, the evangelists, but all of us Christians, no exception, must learn Apologetics and know its task. I know not all of us are called to be experts in Apologetics, but as of what I have learned from 1 Peter 3:15, that all of us should be ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is within us.

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