Teaching-Based Apologetics

I have lived most of my life obsessed with apologetics. In my teens, my friends and I would exchange cassette tapes of apologetics lectures. (Ya, I was so cool, and never got teased at all. :-P) And that obsession never evaporated.

For those unfamiliar with the term, APOLOGETICS is the theological discipline and practice of defending and advancing one's faith through rational, evidential, and logical arguments. (At least, that's what Google tells me.) The word sounds like we are apologizing, but that's an unfortunate misunderstanding. The word "apologetics" comes from a Greek word, apologia, meaning to provide a defense.

Always be prepared to give an answer/defense [Greek, apologia] to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. ~ The apostle Peter (1 Peter 3:15)

APPROACHES TO APOLOGETICS

Most Christian apologetics fall into one of nine categories, seen below.

Each of these approaches has value and will resonate with different kinds of people in helpful ways. But there are some strong weaknesses (I'm leaving that oxymoron right here) in many of these approaches. When we point to lives that Jesus has changed (#8 above) - testimonies throughout history - people can point to alternative stories of changed lives, or point to Christians they know who do not show signs of radical transformation. When we talk about our own personal experience (#9 above), this might be helpful, but others can politely dismiss us with "That's cool for you, but my experience is different." And when we dive into more scientific, historical, textual, and philosophical arguments (#s 1-7 above), we run into some other issues...

A teaching-based apologetic is different. This approach that I'm advocating starts by inviting people to try learning and living the teachings of Jesus and see if they don't resonate with them in an almost supernatural way. (I think it is actually supernatural, but someone doesn't need to pre-load that belief to get started.)

OUR STARTING POINT

Our starting premise is this:

The teachings of Jesus bear the marks of the miraculous.

I love the miracle stories recorded in the gospels – water to wine, walking on water, controlling the weather, rising from the dead. Miracle stories are encouraging, but here's the thing: they are all untestable. We can discuss and debate historical probabilities, and that's the best we can do.

But there is one miracle of Jesus that IS testable. Because it is ongoing. We can experience it today. The supernatural power of Jesus' teaching.

To Jesus, his teaching is so important, his last words to his disciples before he left them were…

Go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. ~ JESUS (Matthew 28:18-20)

Jesus' final instructions were not to merely make converts, but students, apprentices to Jesus, who learn and live his will and way. And he tells us precisely how to do that - by teaching people his teaching and helping them live it out.

What Jesus did NOT say we should do to make disciples:

• Having detailed debates about which atonement theory best explains what happened on the cross.

• Dissecting and dividing over which view of hell, or tongues, or salvific security, you think is right.

• Focusing on who are the heretics, calling them out, and banning or burning them (literally or metaphorically).

No, Jesus points us all back to his teachings and makes them central to our evangelism, discipleship, and I would argue, our apologetics.

The words I have spoken to you— they are full of the Spirit and life. ~ JESUS (John 6:63)

WHY IS THIS APPROACH SO RARE?

Years ago I had the amazing opportunity to spend a few hours over an unhurried dinner with Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ and other Christian apologetics books. At that time I was looking for any book, or even a chapter in a book, that covered this topic. I assumed he could direct me to what, up until then, I was unable to find. And he said, "Bruxy, maybe there is something out there about this topic, but I haven't come across it. I think you should write this book."

So here I am, years later, underachieving again. I'm not writing a book, but a blog post. And this will have to do. (And BTW, if YOU know of any book or chapter of a book that promotes a teaching-based apologetic, please let me know. I'm still looking!)

Why is this approach to Christian apologetics so rarely written about? That's a good question. (Thank you for asking!) I'm flabbergasted at the underwhelming amount of material that is available on this topic within Christian circles.

Perhaps, for those of us who have a high view of Jesus – we believe he is the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour, died on the cross for our sins, rose again on the third day – we often forget to relate to Jesus as our… TEACHER. Our lack of emphasis on the teachings of Jesus in apologetics may be partially the result of our overall lack of emphasis on the teachings of Jesus in our lives. We focus on the significance of his death and resurrection (wonderful!) at the expense of giving weight to what he was doing for three years before that – teaching and training (not so wonderful).

Think back over the history of the Church. Our history is so dark and discouraging for so much of the time precisely because the teachings of Jesus were relegated to the margins of our learning and living. Apologetics is merely one of the areas of the Christian life to have suffered for the marginalization of Jesus as our teacher.

I also wonder if more recently, many Christians have been influenced by a misapplication of C.S. Lewis' trilemma found in his book Mere Christianity. In this argument, Lewis asserts that Jesus should be considered either Lord, Liar, or Lunatic, but not merely a good moral teacher. They key word there is "merely". Jesus is more than that, yes. But he is not less than that.

Starting with Jesus as a good moral teacher is a fantastic place to begin one's investigation of Christ. At least, that's what Jesus thinks...

STARTING WITH JESUS AS TEACHER

In the gospels, Jesus never rebukes someone for putting him in the category of "teacher", in fact he encourages it. Jesus regularly either refers to himself as a teacher or accepts that designation from others.

Rabbi [which means teacher], it is good for us to be here. ~ Peter to Jesus (Mark 9:5)

The Teacher is here and is calling for you. ~ Martha to Mary (John 11:28)

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).(John 20:16)

You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ~ Jesus (John 13:13) 

Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ~ Jesus (Matthew 26:18 // Mark 14:13-14 // Luke 22:11)

At the end of Jesus' life, the religious leaders did not call for his death because of his miracles, healings, ethnicity, or political affiliations. It was because of his role as a teacher. Jesus' words were deemed to be blasphemous, heretical, and threatening to the establishment. Everyone knew there was power in his teaching - they just disagreed on where that power came from.

THE VALUE OF A TEACHING-BASED APOLOGETIC

Rather than merely adding a teaching-based approach to my apologetic arsenal, I have converted to making this my primary pathway to introducing, explaining, and defending the faith. In both my evangelism and apologetics, I begin with the ideas that Jesus presented, which I am most confident are revolutionary and worthy of our attention.

It is now my conviction and contention that this teaching-based approach to apologetics is not only uniquely fit for our times - this approach should have been central all along. There are many reasons I say this. For now, here are five...

USING A TEACHING-BASED APOLOGETIC

The pathway to persuasion that I am advocating invites a stereoscopic approach with a view to two things:

1. Our core human needs, individually and collectively.

2. The unique ethical insights Jesus offers in response to this need.

In a teaching-based apologetic, we are not just pointing to Jesus' teaching and saying: "Isn't this good teaching?" We are saying something more than involves a measure of introspection as well as study. We are asking: "Does this teaching not meet the longing of our souls? Is this teaching not what our world needs? Can we find this teaching anywhere else? Is Jesus not showing us some sort of insider designer knowledge of the human condition? Do these unique and uniquely powerful insights not bear the marks of the miraculous?"

Moving beyond a general appreciation for Jesus' teaching, we can help people, including ourselves, apply the principles contained within his' teaching to specific needs in our lives. In one sense, every human life is an Old Testament awaiting the New Covenant, an incomplete story longing to meet the Messiah. Everything we have experienced prepares us and points us to Jesus, if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

This means that, when helping others come closer to Christ, we are not only exegeting Scripture, we are helping them exegete their own lives. We are joining with people in looking for evidence of God already at work, and helping them connect the dots between their needs, God's involvement, and Jesus' teachings.

CENTRAL THEMES IN JESUS' TEACHING

There are many ways we can summarize the Gospel.

In one word - Jesus.

In three words - Jesus is Lord, or God with us.

And in 30 words...

Now notice how these themes map onto one psychologist's hierarchy of human need...

For simplicity's sake here and now, let's summarize Jesus' teaching in three central themes:

• GRACE - The most irreligious concept ever injected into the realm of religion.

• MERCY - How to live lovingly, and how to recover and restore when we fail to live lovingly.

• PEACE - Non-violent enemy love as the way to bless enemies. Peace is the path not just a goal to be achieved by any means necessary.

These three themes were so important to first-century Christians that they turned "Grace, mercy, and peace" into a common greeting (e.g., 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; 2 John 1:3). Ultimately, each of these three values is an extension and expression of love.

Here is an expansion on these three themes, mostly taken from another study on this site. I recommend that article as a partner to this one.

1. GRACE IN PLACE OF PERFORMANCE. Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount by blessing the poor in spirit, those who have hit rock bottom and have nothing left to give, as already being in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is profound preemptive grace. He begins his ethical teaching by handing the keys to the Kingdom to those who are at their lowest point. What a position! - to begin learning how to walk in the way of Jesus while already preemptively blessed, accepted, and cherished. Jesus is the only teacher who offers the reward before the work. Grace is the ultimate spoiler alert: Jesus gives you the ending - "You are blessed and you belong” - before your story even unfolds. While most moral philosophy is a "Buy Now, Pay Later" scheme where you never quite finish the installments, Jesus's approach is "Paid in Full - Now let's go for a walk." All striving, all performance-based acceptance, is defeated with the first words out of his mouth. (I could go on - and on and on and - but because I've written an entire book about this topic, I will leave it at this for now.)

2. MERCY THAT'S STRONGER THAN JUDGEMENT/JUSTICE. Yes, Jesus says "Paid in Full - Now let's go for a walk" - but what happens when we stumble and fall while walking with Jesus? Thankfully, Jesus centralizes mercy over judgement. Jesus blesses those who are merciful to others because they also need it. He teaches his disciples to pray daily for forgiveness just as how we are daily forgiving others. He kicks every Christian out of his judgement seat. And he instructs us to pay attention to the log in our own eye before we try to help others with their splinters. Jesus revolutionizes moral philosophy by centering mercy as a necessary element in any ethical system that will sustain loving community in unity. Mercy is how we overcome the negative influence of the world around us, online and in person. For those who fail, and for those who judge those who fail – mercy. Most moral philosophers offer ethical systems that teach us how to live, but do not give as much emphasis on how to recover when we fail catastrophically. They function like a GPS: when we get off course they just keeps saying "Recalculating" to get us back to where we should be. But they are not as helpful when we get into an actual accident. The ethic of Jesus, on the other hand, goes beyond being our GPS keeping us on the straight and narrow, to also becoming our ambulance, our hospital, and our rehab physiotherapist to get us healthy and whole again after we crash. This is unique to Jesus in the world of moral philosophy. Jesus is the ultimate Physician-Philosopher. The Jesus ethic not only guides, it rescues. The mercy ethic rescues not only individuals from the crushing weight of guilt and shame; it rescues relationships and even entire societies from the weight of accumulating transgressions. In a time of performative moral outrage, mercy is our way to peace. In a time of severe division, mercy is how we build bridges. In a time of canceling people who fail, mercy is how we reconcile and restore. In a time of widespread woundedness, mercy provides an ER. Mercy is not a copout. Condemning from a distance is the copout. Mercy is the hard truth. Mercy, then, is how imperfect people move toward maximum human flourishing.

3. PEACE AS THE PATH, NOT JUST THE DESTINATION. When we walk with Jesus, we are not just walking toward peace; we are walking the path of peace. There is no denying that Jesus' emphasis on non-violent enemy-love is revolutionary. There is no other moral vision that so radically combines enemy-love, nonviolence, limitless mercy, and self-giving grace. And I am convinced this is one of the most practical reasons why the world needs Jesus today. Gandhi knew this, Martin Luther King Jr knew this, the early Christians knew this, and the Anabaptists recovered this. And now, because of the Sermon on the Mount, we can know this too.

Using these three themes as our starting point, a teaching-based apologetic helps others see how the teachings of Jesus meet the needs of our world, and ultimately their own longings.

This article is incomplete. At this point I should go on to give examples of how each theme can be connected to human need. I hope to come back to finish that work, but that might take the length of that book I'm hoping someone else has written. For now I will have to leave the task of connecting the dots to you.

You can move further forward on this topic through the article mentioned above and through this study as well.

May we all experience the miracle of healing and wholeness through Christ's Spirit-empowered teaching while we also offer it to others.