“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and respect.” – 1 Peter 3:15
A few weeks ago, one of the nation’s best cultural apologists flew into the greater-Seattle area. Some 400 people showed up on a weeknight to hear from a premier example of the next generation of defenders of the faith: popular author and podcaster Trent Horn. Even at a relatively young age, Horn already has written nine books, including Persuasive Pro-Life, Answering Atheism, and Made This Way, which includes sexual ethics. He shares: “God led me to what I do now. I’m sorta like God’s lawyer, and I like that my client is alway innocent.”
The event was hosted in a beautiful church nestled in the forest-thick town of Woodinville, Washington, and there Horn defended a Christ-centered society and equipped believers with logical arguments about abortion, marriage, and other important cultural struggles today.
Throughout his discussion and during the Q&A afterward, Horn prepared listeners to defend their faith to non-believers and even answer questions that many believers have about the Bible. Horn noted that the church needs to train Christians with the truth, logic, and confidence needed to engage in cultural battles. The Christian worldview, he notes, is “true, good, and beautiful, that means that other worldviews are going to lack something in truth, goodness, and beauty. I want to show the falsehoods.” And one of his key techniques is asking questions.
Two excellent examples of his approach to apologetics are below, and the first one is on abortion, where a woman challenged him:
“Mr. Horn, what gives you the right to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies? I mean, I don’t like abortion, but I don’t go around shoving my beliefs down people’s throats like you do.”
So I just asked her, I’ll call her Kylie. “Kylie, you said you don’t like abortion. Why don’t you like abortion?”
She said, “Well, isn’t it obvious?”
I said, “Well, imagine I’m a five-year-old. I’ve never heard of abortion before. What is it about it you don’t like?”
She said, “Well, it takes a life out of the world.”
“It takes a life out of the world, okay. So if I step on a spider that takes a life out of the world, did I just have an abortion?”
She said, “Well, no, it has to be a human life.”
I said, “Okay, so you think that you don’t like abortion because it takes a human life out of the world. It kills a human life. But you think it’s wrong to tell other women not to kill a human life? I don’t really understand that. Can you help me see what I might be missing?”
She got all red and everybody turns around and looks at her and she says, “Well, well, it sounds bad if you put it that way.”
I said, “Well, I didn’t put it that way. You did. I’m just trying to understand where you’re coming from.” What we can do is we can ask questions. Just what do you think and why do you think that? Many times we ask what someone thinks, and especially why do you think that? We can reveal that they just might have made an assumption.
A second example is shorter but gets right to the point as a reply to the “Love is love” argument today regarding same-sex marriage. He encourages us to ask questions:
What if three people love each other? They’re a “thruple.” What about four? I’ve seen those quadruple bikes when I’m in San Diego for vacation rentals. You never know. If you can think it, it’s out there. Why not? They love each other. Why would you draw the line there? When you ask questions, once again . . . The goal is to find where they drew the line and ask them why they did that.
This successful event reminds us of the need for apologetics in our culture and how eager believers are to learn. Director of Research at Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center George Barna noted that only 4% of Americans have a Christian worldview. Reclaiming America’s Christian heritage begins by changing the hearts and minds of citizens in this nation – restoring the Christian worldview. It starts with ideas, like seeds into the mind and soul. Horn has inspired many others to defend the faith by using logic.
Every follower of Christ has a role to play in that undertaking. 1 Peter 3:15 commands believers to “always be prepared to give an answer” to the problems of our day. The Apostle Paul uses logic at Mars Hill in his dialogues with the pagans, and Jesus uses logic routinely with the Pharisees. Apologetics means defense, or “giving a rational answer for our faith,” because faith and reason (logic) are allies, not enemies, since they originate from the same source, God; and God never contradicts God, as truth never contradicts truth.
Are you ready to answer difficult questions about our faith? If not, we encourage you to read key books such as Love Your God With All Your Mind by Talbot’s J. P. Moreland, the essay “Jesus, the Logician” by Dallas Willard, and the classic Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter J. Kreeft. As Kreeft notes:
Apologetics is necessary in any age (1) because it is commanded in Scripture and (2) because of the needs of the unchanging human heart. People still want reasons because they still have heads. It is as simple as that. Especially young people need apologetics today, to defend their minds and their faith against the subtle and incessant propaganda with which a secular environment, especially the media establishment, barrages them.
In terms of specific controversial issues in our era, see FPIW’s free informational booklets covering topics such as Pro-Life Logic, Parental Rights, and Defining Marriage. In the back of each, for example, there is a Debate section. It equips the reader with ready replies using logic unaided by faith in order to answer common secular arguments from the Left. “If they say X, you can say Y.” Such equipping will empower you with the calm confidence to enter the cultural struggle “with gentleness and respect” and to help take back territory.
Want to strengthen your cultural apologetic and give a rational answer to common critiques?
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