Quodlibet
The Cost of Apologetics
by Donald T. Williams
The world is now more hostile to the Christian faith than it has been before in our lifetime. This situation presents us with a challenge: We either shut up and go home or stand up and be counted. Apologetics rightly pursued can give us tools that make the latter choice more viable.
What does "rightly pursued" mean? It means sanctifying Christ as Lord in our hearts before we start trying to give a reason for the hope that is in us, just as 1 Peter 3:15 says. It means speaking the truth in love without compromising either truth or love, as Francis Schaeffer did. It means, with those prerequisites firmly laid down (and not before), doing our homework and being prepared for the rough-and-tumble of argument and debate. Nothing less will suffice to meet the challenge of the age—the challenge that God has given us. Nothing less.
Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. He stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, between theology and literature, and between Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023). He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
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