I was raised in a Christian home. My parents prioritized having my brothers and me in church each week, and I attended a Christian school up until 8th grade. I can’t remember a time during my childhood where I did not have a Christian influence. As a result, the gospel message was very familiar to me. This is certainly not everyone’s experience, and it comes with its own challenges. But nevertheless, it was my experience.
Despite my familiarity with the gospel, I didn’t start taking it seriously until around 7th grade. It was then that I realized that a personal response was required on my part. It was not enough for me to profess Christianity simply because my parents believed it or my teachers said it was true. I became aware that I had sinned against God and that Jesus took the punishment I deserved so that I could be forgiven. In the best way I knew how at the time, I gave my life to Jesus and asked Him to cleanse me from my sin and make me His. It wasn’t immediate, but overtime my life changed. I began to read the Bible on my own and I saw the importance of personally seeking God through His Word and prayer. As I was starting out in my Christian life, I had another realization. I reflected on my upbringing and was struck with the question of how I knew what I believed was true. After all, I had been raised in a Christian home and had Christian beliefs taught and reinforced in nearly every social sphere of my life. I started thinking about how not everyone believed in Christianity. I became curious about what other people thought about God and the Bible. I questioned how I could know that what I believed was true while what other people believed was false.
These questions led me to something called apologetics. There are many ways to define apologetics, but it is simply the rational defense of Christianity. The root word “apologia” refers to a courtroom type speech in the ancient world. The accused would present an “apologia” or “defense” to their accusers. Apologetics deals with important questions such as “Is the Bible reliable?”, “How can there be a good God when there is evil in the world?”, and “Is Christianity the only true religion?” I soon found there were deep and rich answers to such questions and that many thoughtful Christians had addressed them over time. In addition to my own questions, I consistently encountered people who had doubts about Christianity when I would share my faith. These things showed me that knowing why I believed what I believed was important for my own Christian discipleship and for evangelism. The reality is that everyone has questions about what they believe, Christian or not. The important thing is whether those beliefs can hold up when they face such questions. Over time, I have found that the truths of Christianity stand strong under critical scrutiny. It is so important to know not only what we believe but why we believe it. Apologetics is a useful tool showing we have excellent reasons to believe that Christianity is true.
