Part Eight: Contemporary Examples of When to Share the Gospel or Use Apologetic Tactics

We’ve seen in previous blogs in this series that evangelism often entails more than just sharing the gospel—although that’s the goal of all evangelism. Last week’s blog looked at biblical examples of Jesus and the apostle Paul applying gospel, law, and apologetics. In this blog article we will look at contemporary scenarios of when to share the gospel or apply apologetics. We’ll look at specific examples of the kinds of unbelievers we will encounter in both categories, and how to respond to each.

Scenario One

Imagine that you are witnessing to someone who believes in God but has not accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. She knows she is a sinner and that her lifestyle is unacceptable to God. She wants to change and yearns to experience God’s love and acceptance. What do we apply: law, gospel, or apologetics?

Gospel. Law and apologetics are unnecessary because this person neither holds the idea that she is good enough to warrant salvation independent of God’s forgiveness through Jesus, nor does she harbors intellectual obstacles to faith or practices a non-Christian religion.

Generally, a person like this falls into one or two categories. The first recognizes that she’s a sinner in need of God, but believes that God will never forgive her horrible sins. Perhaps she had an abortion or sold drugs to children. Whatever the reason, she’s convinced she is doomed to Hell, and there is nothing she can do about it.

The second doesn’t know how to be saved. Her problem is not that she believes her sins are unforgivable, but she doesn’t know how to achieve forgiveness. She has never heard of or understood God’s forgiveness through Christ. She doesn’t know how to establish a relationship with Jesus whereby He becomes her personal Lord and Savior.

In both of these cases—the one who thinks she can’t be forgiven, as well as the one who doesn’t know how to be saved—our evangelistic approach is to share the gospel. These people need to see that they are forgiven for any and all sins. Jesus accepts them unconditionally where they are, regardless of their pasts. He saves them. He changes their lives from the inside out. They don’t have to “clean up their act” before God accepts and forgives them. Nothing comes between us and God’s willingness to forgive repentant sinners and offer of redemption (Rom. 8:1).

Scenario Two

This person rejects Christianity in its entirety. He does so for one of three reasons: (1) He practices some other religion, (2) he is an agnostic or an atheist, or (3) he harbors genuine intellectual objections that prevent him from seriously considering Christianity. Do we apply law, gospel, or apologetics?

Apologetics. Relying only on the gospel and stopping short of apologetics with a devout Hindu or Buddhist will probably be a waste of time. At best, Jesus is acknowledged as merely a good person, a great prophet, or one of many gods. But He is not a member of the triune Godhead and Savior of the world in the Christian sense.

Likewise, proclaiming Law to an agnostic or atheist will also probably be a waste of time. These people reject the Christian concept of God and assume the Bible is just another irrelevant religious book—one of many other human fabrications. Why should he be concerned with what the Bible teaches in terms of sin and punishment if he refuses to believe it’s God’s revelation? Apologetics is in order.

Here’s how we apply apologetics. If the unbeliever is an agnostic or atheist, we provide compelling apologetic evidences that God exists and can be known. If an unbeliever harbors intellectual problems with Christianity, we identify those obstacles and overcome them with factual, verifiable objective evidences that stand the test of historical investigation. If the person adheres to a non-Christian religion, we challenge him to provide evidence for his belief. We point out inconsistencies, hidden assumptions, historical and prophetic inaccuracies, and lack of verification. The very issues the Bible does not have. In all three cases, we demonstrate that Christianity, alone among the world’s religions and philosophies, is internally and externally consistent, objectively verifiable, subjectively true, and in harmony with basic human nature.

In all these apologetic responses, be sure to apply the Socratic Method of challenging unbelievers to defend and justify their beliefs and skepticism. In particular, ask the challenging Socratic questions outlined in my blog series, “The Flip Side of Apologetics: Putting the Unbeliever on the Defense,” which began on January 4, 2016. This is an extremely effective apologetic tactic for taking the burden of proof off Christianity and placing it on the non-Christian—where it belongs since we have the truth and they embrace untruths. Once they see they can’t justify their beliefs, they will hopefully be more willing to consider the Christian position on the issues at hand.

Next week we’ll look contemporary examples of when to apply “Law,” which I believe is becoming an increasingly important avenue of evangelism in terms of getting a fair hearing for the gospel—especially in today’s postmodern world that largely accepts moral relativism and religious pluralism. ©