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7. How to carry out apologetics
If we look for a road map - a methodology for apologetics - in the Bible, we’ll find it in Proverbs 26:5. It’s a two-step method.
- 1 - Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.2 - Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.
That is to say we should assume the fool’s folly and see where it leads us; then we ask the fool to follow God’s wisdom and see where it leads.
When we are talking with unbelievers, because we have fundamental differences and opposing worldviews, we don’t see - in principle - anything the same way. Paul puts it this way: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Here we have two groups, the saved and the perishing, looking at the same thing (the cross). One sees it as foolish and the other sees it as God’s power. We are not merely disagreeing whether Christ was put on the cross or not; rather we are considering the same thing in two vastly different ways.