Lazarus and the Role of Apologetics in Evangelism

Well, first, what is apologetics? Consider this verse.

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)

The word “defense,” or in some translations “answer,” is translated from the Greek word “apologia,” which means to give a logical, reasoned defense of the faith. In other words, when people ask questions about our faith, we need to be prepared to defend it.

Now in 2 Corinthians 11:3, God, through the Apostle Paul (remember, all of the Bible is “God breathed,” 2 Timothy 3:16), warns us that the devil is going to try to use the same method on us as he did on Eve to get us to a place of not believing God’s Word.

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

What was this method of deception? Well, we go back to Genesis 3:1 for that.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

The method the devil used to deceive Eve was to create doubt that would lead to unbelief.

The method the devil used to deceive Eve was to create doubt that would lead to unbelief. In the era we live in, the devil uses evolutionary beliefs such as millions of years to cause people to doubt God’s Word. We live in a time where all around the world people are told science supposedly shows that the Bible’s account of history in Genesis is not true, and so, they’ve been deceived into believing the Bible is not true! Why should they believe the gospel message if they don’t believe the book that this message comes from?

That’s why it’s so important that we raise up generations who have answers to defend the Christian faith against such attacks on God’s Word. That’s a major reason the ministry of Answers in Genesis exists. Our mission statement makes this clear.

Answers in Genesis (AiG) exists to proclaim the authority of the Bible—from the very first verse—without compromise by using apologetics in its world-class attractions, dynamic resources, and creative media to communicate the message of God’s Word and the gospel so that believers are equipped to defend the Christian faith and nonbelievers are challenged with the truth of the Bible and its message of salvation.

Note that we use apologetics but the whole purpose of our mission is to proclaim the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel—yes, we’re primarily about the gospel. We use apologetics to point people to the truth of God’s Word, knowing,

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)

So we use apologetics to answer skeptical questions that can cause doubt regarding God’s Word and to point people to the truth of God’s Word so they will hear the message of salvation, understanding that only God can save a person. We recognize that non-Christians are “dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Non-Christians are walking dead people. They cannot raise themselves from the dead, nor can any other person raise them from the dead. Only Christ can do this.

As an analogy of how using apologetics in evangelism works, I like to use the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11. In this account, we read that Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus and asked the mourning people to move the stone away from the grave. Now, of course, Jesus could have moved the stone himself with one word, but he asked the people to move it because it was something they could do. But no human could raise Lazarus from the dead, so Jesus (who is “the resurrection and the life,” John 11:25–26) raised Lazarus when he said, “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43).

Using apologetics is like rolling the stone away—this is something we can do. We do our best to roll out of the way the stumbling blocks represented by various questions and accusations against God’s Word. We do the best we can to answer skeptical questions. But we also point people to the truth of God’s Word as we know only God can raise the dead.

Throughout the Bible, we see we have the responsibility to preach the Word and do our best to convince people of the truth by answering their questions, but we understand it’s only God who opens people’s hearts and does the saving.

This represents the human responsibility and divine sovereignty combination we see all the way through Scripture. Throughout the Bible, we see we have the responsibility to preach the Word and do our best to convince people of the truth by answering their questions, but we understand it’s only God who opens people’s hearts and does the saving (divine sovereignty).

The sad thing is that many church leaders teach God’s Word but don’t teach people how to defend the Christian faith by giving answers to those who question God’s Word (apologetics). I urge churches to teach people apologetics to defend the Christian faith so they can be more effective in witnessing and point people to the saving message of the gospel.

One of the ways AiG partners apologetics with evangelism is by providing resources that equip you in your faith and resources that help you share the gospel. For example, we partnered with our friends at Living Waters, a wonderful evangelism ministry, and provided gospel tracts themed for King Charles III’s coronation on May 6, 2023. Thousands of Christians passed out these special tracts.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.