Preach Magazine Issue 5 - Preaching to the unconverted | Page 18

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FEATURE

B

ut something was not right. With
the violent campaigns of ISIS
making headline news through
the week leading up to this
Sunday, how could we have a sermon
on the fall of Jericho without tackling
the obvious objection: Does God
promote jihad or holy war? And given
the frequent claims of mainstream
television documentaries, is it not the
case that the ancient ruins of Jericho
had already collapsed long before the
supposed time of Joshua? The sermon
may have been eloquent and biblical
but it was not persuasive to the
changing culture in which we live.

IT IS NOT SIMPLY THE CASE
THAT THE BIBLE CONTAINS
APOLOGETICS, THE BIBLE
ITSELF IS AN APOLOGETIC.
IT IS A SUSTAINED CASE FOR
THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD
IN SALVATION.

AN APOLOGY FOR
PREACHING
Apologetics is the practice of dealing
with objections and presenting the
case for the faith. In a very well-known
verse by Peter we read, ‘Always be
prepared to give an answer [apologia]
to everyone who asks you to give the
reason for the hope that you have’ (1
Peter 3:15). Peter is not describing a
Christian specialism or an unusual
task. Apologetics would have been
part of ordinary evangelism and
preaching in the early church. The
Greek word is taken from the world
of the law court (Acts 22:1; 24:10; 25:17;
26:1) but it was readily applied more
generally to ministry (Philippians 1:7,
16; 2 Timothy 4:16–17).
The Bible itself provides numerous
forms of apologetics. Examples of
the lawsuit genre abound among
the prophets (Isaiah 40–55) and

in wisdom literature (Job 38–41).
Luke deliberately follows the legal
requirement of identifying a twofold
witness for claims that he makes
(following Deuteronomy 19:15)
as he draws evidence together
for Theophilus (Luke 1:1–4). John
assembles a selection of signs to
prove his claim that Jesus is the
Messiah (John 20:30–31). Paul bases
his proclamation of the resurrection
of Christ on relevant eyewitness
evidence (1 Corinthians 15:3–8). It is
not simply the case that the Bible
contains apologetics, the Bible itself is
an apologetic. It is a sustained case for
the faithfulness of God in salvation.
Perhaps one reason why apologetics
has been seen as a special interest
subject is because we have lived in an
era of shared presuppositions. Our
congregation may have included nonChristians but they probably shared
a common knowledge of Bible stories,
a respect for biblical values, and
openness to the existence of God. Only
a few decades ago we were preaching
in a Christian culture even if most of
the population were not Christians.
Now that has changed. There is
hostility to biblical values in the air,
an ignorance of Bible stories and a
presumption in favour of atheism
among many. It is as if we have moved
from the world where Peter preached
in Acts 2 (Jerusalem) into the world
where Paul preached in Acts 17
(Athens). Exciting, isn’t it?

READ THE TEXT THROUGH
OTHER EYES
In a pluralist culture we are more
aware of worldviews. Everyone has
a worldview but we are not usually
conscious of them. NT Wright
describes their function: ‘They are
that through which, not at which, a
society or individual normally looks;
they form the grid according to which
humans organise reality1. A worldview
informs what we find plausible,
laughable and tasteful. When the
newly elected leader of the British

Liberal Democrat party admitted
in a news interview that he prayed,
the interviewer clearly saw this as
an opportunity to try and make him
uncomfortable. Only two decades ago
it would have been quite normal for
any public figure to acknowledge that
they prayed; today this is supposed
to be an embarrassing admission.
Contemporary culture has led to the
fragmentation of worldviews and a
loss of any shared perspective.