“Unless a man has trained himself for his chance, the chance will only make him ridiculous.”--William Matthews

Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

Main Entry: 

     apol•o•get•ics 

Function: 
     noun plural but singular or plural in construction 

Date: 
     circa 1733

Definition: 
     1 : systematic argumentative discourse in defense (as of a doctrine) 
     2 : a branch of theology devoted to the defense of the divine origin and authority of Christianity 

Do you have a reason for what you believe? If you are a Christian, can you give good reasons why? Some people are Christians because their parents were. It’s the way they were brought up. That is perfectly acceptable when you were a kid, but when you grow up, shouldn’t there be a more substantial reason?

 
Too many Christians have decided to live out their adult lives in this straw house, and are surprised and confused when the big bad wolf shows up and destroys their home with nothing more than bad breath. A few will upgrade to a house of sticks with a basic knowledge of apologetics, but the arguments are disorganized they don’t know how to use them against a real wolf. Sure, it will take more than a stiff breeze, but any wolf with strong lungs can still make short work of them. Alarming rates of young people lose their faith in college because they do not possess the skills to protect their faith. The real reason Christians are satisfied with straw and sticks is that building brick houses means work and most are too lazy or too busy to pour the foundations and put in a little elbow grease. So let’s take a look at this subject and see if we can fortify ourselves. 

First of all I’ve never liked the word ‘apologetics’. It’s a little pretentious and sounds like I am apologizing for something, as if I should be ashamed or guilty. It can be a little intimidating as well. If you get on your computer and try to Google apologetics, you will come across a mountain of theology, philosophy, history and a hundred different categories of approaching the subject, a good deal of it in Latin. You almost have to get a master’s degree just to understand what they’re talking about. That’s because apologetics is not treated like something you use; it is treated like an academic subject and kept in a useless little box. You can learn the information, but no one teaches how to put it to work, which defeats the purpose of learning it to begin with. 

What is the purpose of apologetics? Why is it important to know how to use it? Many times, it is exactly the same reason we study self defense; we are attacked. The wolves are hostile to our beliefs. They have made us out to be ignorant, close minded simpletons. You may have seen talk shows, newscasts or radio programs where the producers line up several scientists that are either agnostic or atheist and then, instead of lining up another scientist who is a believer, they get a clergyman (who is often out of touch or unfamiliar with the scientific arguments) or a layman (who is either hostile or uninformed or both). You can guess who comes out looking good and who looks like a wacko. Later on, you try to explain to your friends that you aren’t an ignoramus for believing in God, and you find you have lost ground. 

Some take it too far and only want to learn about apologetics so they can force their beliefs on others. This is akin to teaching someone martial arts so they can be a better bully, and I don’t know too many instructors who would condone this. As followers of Jesus Christ, we shouldn’t act in a way that misrepresents God in anything we do, especially if we believe it is God’s work. This is where some abortion protesters have failed. Given the way they have treated some women on the way into clinics, the only thing they have accomplished is that these women will forever view Christians as rabid, unloving zealots who hate them. Unfortunately, they will also view God the same way. Not only have they not saved the unborn life they came to save, they have ensured that the mother will probably never turn to Christ. It is the same with many combative Christians that try to annihilate anyone who disagrees with them; they may win the argument, but they are virtually guaranteeing that their victims will never turn to God. Your first priority is to reflect Christ, not to win at all cost. Jesus didn’t gain followers by beating them to their knees. 

Apologetics means defending your belief in God, so why don’t people just say what they mean? Defense.

I’ve studied apologetics for about the same amount of time that I’ve studied martial arts, since the early 1980’s, and in that time, I have found that there are many similarities between the two. Like apologetics, many forms of self defense have various rituals and forms that have no practical value on the street. For example, a kata is a choreographed depiction of a fight. The opponents are imaginary and you know exactly when and how they will perform their attacks. (Instead of Latin, they are generally in Japanese, Korean or Chinese). You are not allowed to vary your response to these fantasy enemies. Tradition rather than effectiveness wins the day. Other rituals (like one step sparring or three step sparring) involve an opponent, but once again the opponent moves very predictably, and waits for you to perform your ‘move’ without resisting at all. This has nothing whatsoever to do with real combat. On the street, the thug doesn’t care how many how many boards you can break. The tragedy is that people will learn these techniques and come away with the belief that they know how to defend themselves, but in when the big, bad wolf shows up, they realize they are living in a house of sticks.

It is important to understand that not all martial arts have this weakness. Some are very effective and easily used on the street. One of the most popular martial artists of the twentieth century was Bruce Lee, who once said, “Too much horsing around with unrealistic stances and classic forms and rituals is just too artificial and mechanical, and doesn’t really prepare the student for actual combat. A guy could get clobbered while getting into this classical mess.” He revolutionized martial arts by using only what worked and discarding anything un necessary, mixing boxing and kickboxing with wrestling and kung fu; removing all the classical messes and ultimately coming away with a complete and versatile group of skills that prepared him for any opponent.

It is just as absurd to use a traditional, ineffectual approach when you are defending your beliefs as when you are defending your body. In an actual situation, the other guy won’t have the time or desire for a four hour theology lesson and won’t care how much Latin you know. In the mean time, he will clean your clock. Now there is excellent material out there, but it is framed in such a classical mess that it becomes unusable. A guy could get clobbered trying to draw on it in a real situation. Remember, knowledge isn’t power; correctly applied knowledge is power.

So when is it appropriate to use this defense? The wild boar is one of the most deadly animals in North America, but it will only fight in three circumstances:

1) You corner it, threatening its life
2) You invade its territory
3) You attack its family

Luke 22:36 says, “He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” Here, Jesus wasn’t talking about overthrowing Rome (in fact he repeatedly corrected others who believed that was what he was about). He wasn’t talking about personal disputes either (to those, he taught that when someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left—Jesus is talking about quarrelling here, not self defense). The word ‘sword’ in Greek is machaira, which is a dagger or short sword that belonged to the Jewish traveler’s equipment as protection against robbers and wild animals. If you are cornered and your beliefs are threatened, you have every right to stand up for yourself. Self defense is everyone’s right, and only the tyrant or bully would suggest that objecting to Christian bashing is a form of hate speech.

Exodus 22: 2 states: “If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed” This only applied at night (in daylight, we can see the thief is unarmed, and so taking his life at that point is revenge, not self defense)

Nehemiah 4:14 states: “After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” Clearly the Bible supports self defense, the defense of your home, and the defense of your family.

These criteria can then be used in the defense of beliefs. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” And in 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul tells Timothy to “Fight the good fight of the faith…” Again, the Scriptures clearly support the concept of using martial strategy to defend your faith.

Our culture used to be friendly towards belief in Christ. Freedom of religion is what brought most of the pilgrims across the sea to the New World. Now those freedoms are under attack, and enemies of God are trying to get believers to accept the notion that a person can only practice their beliefs in the privacy of their own houses. They get to bring their beliefs to the public table, but we are now forbidden to engage our culture with our beliefs. When someone suggests that teaching my children about God is a form of mental illness or child abuse, I get a little steamed.

Freedom of inquiry in our learning institutions is a thing of the past. The enemies of Christ get their philosophy/religion passed off as cultural studies, science and civics, but if alternatives scientific theories to Darwinism are even suggested (even though there is no religion in them) they are excommunicated from the system. There is an increasing desire to stop the cultivation of our beliefs into our children (Values Clarification, NAEP tests, etc), but you have every right to protect your children from the wolves in the system. You have a right and a duty to bring God to work, to the voting booth, and to anything that you do. God shouldn’t be placed under house arrest.

You should be trained to protect yourself and your beliefs. How do we turn the house of twigs into a brick house? We do the same thing Bruce Lee (and many after him) did: we break the arguments down to their simplest elements and train in only what we can use. Then we train in using it in realistic scenarios (just like sparring). Instead of being loyal to a confusing curriculum that has proven itself to be stagnant (like a kata), we are loyal to reality, to truth in its simplest form.

1 Thessalonians 5: 21-22 states, “...but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject whatever is harmful.” No classical messes, no dead patterns. We practice against a skilled, resisting, aggressive opponent, not a cooperating partner.

Failure in any scenario can be attributed to a deficiency in preparation, wisdom, or execution. Our approach is called Tutela; a three phase system for both self defense and the defense of beliefs.

Know à Reason à Act

We cannot hope to cope with a situation of which we have no understanding, so the first phase is Know.

Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy, Know Your Ground.

Understanding a general concept is pointless if we cannot recognize the real world application and choose a suitable strategy, so the second phase is Reason.

Assess the Situation, Set a Goal, Devise a Strategy.

Even the best plans can fail if we are not practiced in executing them, so the third phase is Act.

Set the Tone, Remove the Threat, Solve the Problem.

We can’t afford to live in houses made of straw or sticks, because the wolf is at the door, huffing and puffing. There are lost people out there that need God, but as Francis Schaeffer put it, “Christianity does not begin with ‘accept Jesus as your lord and savior’; it begins with a God who is there.”

The world needs to know the truth about God, and how to become reconciled with Him. But first they have to know God. This series of articles will provide you with the skill sets needed to handle a variety of antagonists and situations to aid in that purpose. And when the Big Bad Wolf tries to blow your house down, you can stand firm, because your house is built on a Rock.

Darren Turney
19 August, 2008