The RenewaNation Review 2020 The Collingsworth Family Special Edition | Page 38

Progressive Christians don’t like apologetics because it
challenges them to think of biblical teachings in a category
of objective truth—something we’re not free to change just
because we happen to “experience” it in varied ways.
Two plus two equals four, whether I experience diffi-
culty with that or not. Experience cannot be elevated over
objective truth.
“Faith, in and of itself, is no
virtue. It’s only as solid as
the object of the faith.”
WHY PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS
DON’T LIKE APOLOGETICS
The Unfundamentalist Parenting blog recently featured
another post that caught my eye: Why Your Children Do
NOT Need Apologetics. (If you’re not familiar with the term,
apologetics is the study of why there’s good reason to believe
Christianity is true.) The post is filled with misunderstand-
ings, but my purpose here is not to rebut it. Instead, I want
to highlight why progressive Christians don’t like apologet-
ics and why that shows just how important the study of apol-
ogetics actually is.
The author bemoans the fact that apologetics “confines
faith as doctrine,” explaining: “Our faith is a dynamic expe-
rience that shifts and evolves for us and especially for a child
growing leaps and bounds in their development. We cannot
capture that experience and box it into a set of propositions to
memorize and defend—that limits and denies the realities of
the human experience.”
This statement says so much. The author is confused
between the objective, unchanging truth of God and the
subjective, changing experiences we have as we relate to God
throughout our lives.
God and the truth He has revealed do not shift and
evolve. Our experiences shift and evolve, but that has noth-
ing to do with what is true.
Teaching kids apologetics isn’t about putting their expe-
riences in a “box.” To the contrary, apologetics is about
stepping outside personal experience and examining what
reason there is to believe Christianity is true regardless of
our feelings.
If kids are only developing a faith based on “shifting
and evolving” experiences, they have no way of knowing
if their faith is well placed. I could have faith that a mouse
will fly out of a tree right now, but that would be a bad
thing to have faith in.
Faith, in and of itself, is no virtue. It’s only as solid as
the object of the faith. The question is, how can we be
confident that Jesus, as the object of Christian faith, is
solid? Apologetics.
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PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY IS JUST ONE
MORE REASON YOUR KIDS AND THE CHURCH
AT LARGE DESPERATELY NEED APOLOGETICS
The study of apologetics is desperately needed for all Chris-
tians today, both for engaging with the secular world and less
obviously, for engaging with groups that teach an unbiblical
version of Christianity. But, for some reason, the church is
still largely blind to this need.
Cold-case homicide detective, apologist, and author
J. Warner Wallace sees this all the time. He speaks nearly
every week at churches and conferences across the coun-
try on the reliability of the gospel, the reasonable inference
of the resurrection, and the evidence for God’s existence.
Wallace has the opportunity to engage with the spectrum
of believers in a way that few others do. What he’s found has
been disappointing at best.
In his new book, Forensic Faith, Wallace says, “In many
of these churches, the people I meet aren’t really interested
in Christian ‘apologetics’ ... In fact, most are still completely
unfamiliar with the word, and some even reject the value
of such an effort. On more than one occasion, I’ve heard a
well-meaning believer say something akin to, ‘Well, that’s
nice, but I don’t really need any evidence. I just believe
Christianity is true.’”
In other words, Christians are largely unprepared to
make the case for what they believe, and many in the
church still deny the need to be prepared in the first place.
The church is asleep.
And while the church sleeps, the secular world marches
on, becoming increasingly hostile to the truth of Christian-
ity, and thorny, foreign invaders continue to grow within.
As Christian parents, we must continually be vigilant.
Threats to our kids’ faith aren’t always as obvious as the free-
way billboards proclaiming, “There is no God.” Providing
kids with a foundation of apologetics, however, will give
them the training of a discerning gardener ready to identify
and uproot any kind of invader that shouldn’t exist along-
side biblical truth. ■
Natasha Crain is a national speaker, author, and blogger who is passionate about equipping
Christian parents to raise their kids with an understanding of how to make a case for and
defend their faith in an increasingly secular world. She is the author of two apologetics
books for parents: Talking with Your Kids about God and Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side.
Natasha writes at christianmomthoughts.com.
Copyright © 2017 Natasha Crain. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. For more
information, visit christianmomthoughts.com.