Why do Christians find it necessary to prove God, or defend God, to other people? Natural disasters, pandemics, wars, political unrest, and personal tragedies often cause believers to question God. These same events can also give non-believers a reason for their claims that God does not exist. The problem of evil and suffering makes some doubt. Others redouble their faith and even feel the need to protect God against misunderstanding. But are Christians really called to be God’s public relations committee?

The problem of evil

You have probably heard of theodicy, or one “explanation of why a perfectly good, all-powerful, all-knowing God permits evil”: It is in response to objections to God based on logic such as the following propositions:

1. God is omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent;
2. But evil exists… so:
3. God is almighty and good, but knows no evil;
4. Or, God is omniscient and omnipotent, but does nothing against evil and is therefore not good;
5. Or, God is omniscient and good but unable to do anything about it;
6. Therefore: God (as defined in point one) does not exist.

Logical problems like this have brought many people to church to find the answer. But many others have left the church because of these logical problems. Some Christian groups believe it is our duty to defend God when people raise objections to our faith.

Apologetics

To answer questions like the problem of evil, the discipline of apologetics seeks to explain or defend God. In An introduction to Christian apologetics, Paul Coulter gives the story of the Christian defense of God. From the earliest days of the faith, Christians engaged in intellectual debate with Greco-Roman philosophers. They also defended themselves against accusations of heresy from Jewish leaders. The apostle Paul engages in apologetics in most of his writings. Evangelicals and missionaries have used apologetics throughout the centuries as a means of proving God and disproving opposing views.

Over the centuries, apologists have presented persuasive arguments in defense of the faith. They have done a sometimes excellent job of trying to respond logically to objections to faith. They also attempted to prove the biblical testimony through sciences such as biology, archaeology, astrophysics, etc. Sometimes apologists fail miserably because they twist the sciences to try to fit the theological point they want to make. As a general rule, the more conservative a person is, the more interested they are in apologetics. This is because the conservative mind must be right and must persuade others that they are also right. The more a person’s theology leans to the left, the more open they are to diversity of thought. Thus, as a discipline, apologetics tends to be conservative in nature.

Paul Coulter offers several arguments given by those who oppose the task of apologetics. As he elaborates on each of them, I will simply quote his titles. I recommend you follow the link to read his excellent article.

• The Bible Needs No Defending
• God cannot be known by human reason
• Natural humanity cannot understand the truth of God
• Without faith you cannot please God
• Jesus refused to give signs to the wicked
• Don’t answer a fool according to his madness
• Apologetics is not used in the Bible
• Logic can tell us nothing about God
• Logic cannot prove the existence of anything
• No one is converted by apologetics.

Coulter refutes each of these objections to apologetics. While I can’t say I agree with every point Coulter makes, I do agree that discipline deserves a textbook or two in seminary teaching. Some of these objections are valid, some are not, but there comes a time when apologetics reaches the end of its usefulness.

When apologetics go out the window

I will not say that there is no place in Christian theology for apologetics. If it helps some Christians master their own faith, then it’s a worthwhile pursuit. Some people have a more logical mind and are attracted to this type of approach.

But others, like me, have a more experiential, mystical, and relational mindset. We don’t want anyone prove God to us—we want someone introduce God to us. We don’t wanna know about god-we want know God. Apologetics really has nothing to say to people who don’t form their spirituality around logic.

Apologetics also fails when Christians don’t stop to “read the room.” There’s a place to prove your theology. There is also a time to shut up and just to be with someone. When your friend is hurting because he has just experienced a tragedy, now is not the time to apologize. Even if they speak blasphemies and heresies out of their hurt, anger, doubts and disbelief, this is not the time to correct their theology or defend God. This is the time to wrap your love around them, to be their friend, and to give them space to be wrong (if, indeed, they are wrong).

The fact is that God is big enough to defend himself. By definition, The Ineffable doesn’t need us to prove it to other people. At some point, faith comes down to experience and relationship, not one group imposing its point of view on another.

Elijah on Mount Carmel

In one of the classic biblical stories about apologetics, Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Both parties agree to make parallel sacrifices, without setting fire to their respective altars. He whose god sent fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice was the true God. The priests conducted their ritual ceremonies and Elijah conducted his. The prophet mocked the priests.

“You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “because he must be a god!” Maybe he is daydreaming or relieving himself. Or maybe he’s on a trip, or he’s sleeping and needs to be woken up (1 Kings 18:27 NLT)!”

Yes, Elijah suggested that Baal relieve himself, proving what it really was – a pissing contest! Then, to prove that his God could urinate more, Elijah had a trench dug around the piled firewood. He poured water over three times, so that the water soaked the sacrifice and filled the gap. (Makes you have to pee just thinking about all that running water, doesn’t it?) in the trench. It was the greatest divine cockfight of all time! The result was a jubilant Elijah and hundreds of dead Baal priests. Although this makes for a dramatic story, it is important to note that Jesus never behaved this way.

Does Jesus need you to defend him?

My seminary teacher put it this way: “If Jesus didn’t defend himself before his accusers, he doesn’t need you to defend him either. Jesus simply loved people, told the truth, and let people come to their own conclusions about him. Instead of trying to prove that he was objectively right, he often spoke in parables with questionable and nuanced meanings. Rather than proving himself through logic, Jesus preferred to communicate with people through love.

Paul on love and knowledge

As an apostle, Paul is known for his logical arguments and self-righteous attention to detail. He excelled in apologetics, but he also wrote this about the limits of human knowledge:

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but have no love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am not nothing. If I give everything I have, and if I give up my body to show off, but have no love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is good; love is neither envious, nor boastful, nor arrogant, nor rude. He does not insist on his own way; he is neither irritable nor resentful; he does not rejoice in evil, but rejoices in truth. He supports everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything.

Love never ends. But as for the prophecies, they will end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we only know in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I only know in part; then I will know fully, as I have been fully known. And now, faith, hope, and love remains, those three; and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13 NRSVA).

At best, apologetics is an intellectual approach to understanding God through theology and science. At worst, apologetics are a way for arrogant and rude Christians to tell others that they are wrong, or even stupid, for not believing. Paul is right when he says it doesn’t matter what you know, if you say it without love, it’s nothing. In the end, nothing matters but the love you share with others. We have to admit that all we think we know now is like looking at ourselves in a blackened mirror. But a day will come when none of our theologies will matter. Knowledge will end. The boasting will cease. The reasoning will end. And all our attempts to be God’s public relations committee will fall apart, because the only thing that lasts is love.