5 Reasons Every Apologist Should Be Confident and Grateful

I want to tell you a bit of my personal story about how and why I became interested in apologetics. The year was 1988. I was in my first year of undergraduate studies, and it was my first day in the Philosophy 101 class at the community college I attended. I arrived at class early, sat near the front as was my custom, and waited for the professor to arrive. The class was full, about twenty-five students. I was 18 years old and serving as a youth minister, having already been preaching since I was fourteen. I was confident in my faith and had, until that time, not really faced any substantive challenges or obstacles related to Christian teaching or practice. Honestly, I had only heard of apologetics in passing, and philosophy was not something I had ever studies. I was only in the class because it was a general education requirement for my degree plan. So, there I sat on day one of the class, not really knowing what to expect and certainly not prepared for what was about to happen. The professor entered the room, and everyone quieted down as he walked to the board. Without any greeting, he took a piece of chalk and began writing. He wrote the following sentence on the board: The Bible is full of errors. After he finished writing, the professor turned, leaned over his desk and toward all of us and said, “If you are here and you disagree with this statement, I will show you this semester why you are wrong. Does anyone want to challenge me?” I sat in stunned silence along with the rest of the students, and then someone in the back of the room spoke out sheepishly in response to the professor. “The Bible is God’s Word and I believe it. You are wrong, professor.” More silence followed as the professor looked at the student with something of an incredulous smirk on his face. Finally, he replied to the student. “Is that all you can say? Really? I am a convinced atheist, and your response only confirms why I should be one. Christianity is nothing but a pack of lies.”

The student said nothing. The professor then rattled off a litany of reasons he “knew” the Bible was wrong. There are contradictions. We do not have the original writings. The message changed to meet political and social needs. Jesus was a myth. There was no God because evolution had disproven his existence. On and on he went, and with each statement I felt something I had never felt before. With each of the professor’s statements I felt a heaviness settling on my mind and heart. By the time the professors stopped speaking, it was like a dark cloud hung over the room, and I seemed to be sitting all alone in the darkness. My heart was racing. My throat was dry. My emotions were a mixed bag of anger and frustration. My mind froze for a moment, and then a thought formed as I sat there. A question. “What,” I thought, “if he is right? What if the Bible really is full of errors? What if my Christianity is false?” The questions reverberated in my whole being, and with each reverberation I slipped deeper and deeper into what seemed an abyss of helplessness and doubt. By the time the class ended I had an overwhelming sense of paralysis in my mind. By the end of the day, I was in full-on depression that only got worse with time. I was in trouble, and I knew it, but I did not know what to do about it. Over the next weeks every class with the professor only made my situation worse, and by the end of the term I was in full-blown crisis mode. My whole life seemed in jeopardy, and I began going to very dark and desperate places in my mind. I dreaded being alone with my thoughts, and I eventually began to contemplate suicide. I wanted to die rather than live with this doubt about what I had—at least until that class began—considered the most central thing in all of mine and anyone else’s life. My faith was crumbling, and I was unsure what to do, nor was I certain that anything could be done.

One Saturday afternoon in early summer, still reeling from the class with the hostile professor, I drove to a remote location near a local lake. I sat in my car, gripping the steering wheel, and shaking. I said nothing for a moment until I could bear it no longer. Then I yelled out, “God, if you will not stop this struggle in my mind, I am going to kill myself! Please, help me! That was it. I sat there a bit longer, then drove home with the same burden and depression. Another week went by, and I had found no relief. Then, in a conversation with one of the men I knew in a local church, I received a life-changing question. I was not lamenting my situation to the other man, as I had already concluded it was hopeless. I was still thinking of suicide, and I was becoming more deeply depressed by the day. I had lost interest in my regular activities. No joy in leading the youth group. No desire to read the Bible or pray. No motivation to preach or evangelize. Nothing but crippling doubt. Yet here I was in this conversation and the man asked me, “Have you ever heard of apologetics? I ask because I found a really informative book on it, and I thought you might be interested.” My mind raced again, though this time there was something odd about the feeling. It was as though the question from the man opened a door slightly and a light began to creep into the room of my soul. I could not explain it at the time, but it was something I had not felt in a long while. I took the bait of the question and responded, “Never heard of it. What is apologetics?” Looking at me with a rather stunned expression, he said, “Well, apologetics is the defense of the faith. You know, things like giving answers to challenges to God’s existence and the Bible…stuff like that.” I sat there not knowing what to say next, and it must have been obvious to the man to whom I was talking. After an awkward pause, he said, “Here. Read this. It’s all about those things.” He handed me a book entitled Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell.

At first, I just sat there in silence with what I suspect was a confused look on my face. Eventually, I accepted the book with a meager expression of thanks and the conversation ended. I took the book home and began to read…and read…and read. The book answered every question the professor raised and dozens more, and every answer resounded with evidence from history and science and…philosophy. To my amazement, the book included philosophical reasoning to answer the challenges I received from my atheist philosophy professor. As they say, “the rest of the story” is that I read the book from cover to cover, and then again, and again. By the time I made my way through the material McDowell presented I had a visceral sense of two things: my faith was defensible, and my hope was returning. Fast forward to today, and I have since spent thousands of hours studying apologetics and challenges to the Christian faith. What started as a catastrophe of faith became a triumph. Obviously, I did not kill myself. In fact, apologetics is something that—then and now—has become a source of experiencing a deep and abiding life as a Christian. Apologetics made the difference. I want to say that again. Apologetics made the difference.

Thus, as I write this today over 30 years later, I thought it apropos to share with you what I believe are five reasons every apologist should be confident and grateful. My list is certainly not exhaustive, nor is it intended as an apologetic argument for any of the five topics. It is, however, a call to persevering gratitude for all of us who have struggled, are struggling, or will struggle with the challenges posed by an unrelenting attack on Christian truth by secular culture and Satan. My hope is that you will consider these five reasons and find a cause for joyful doxology as you remind yourself that there is much to be confident of and to give God praise for in your Christian faith. To that end, I urge you to be thankful, defender!

1. Be Thankful for a Reasonable Faith: The Christian faith is not one of blind, irrational leaps into believing without evidence. Rather, the Christian faith stands firm on robust experience based on rational thought and defensible claims. Faith and reason give us wings to fly to the bulwark of truth found in the Gospel. Be thankful, defender! Ours is a reasonable faith.

2. Be Thankful for Natural Theology: God gave us two books, one in nature and one in Scripture. We may be ‘Bible Ultimately’ people, but we enjoy an abundance of revelation in the world around us and the image of God within us. Natural theology is a veritable bounty of pointers to the one true God’s existence, and it is ours to enjoy as the heavens declare the glory of God. Be thankful defender! Nature is on our side.

3. Be Thankful for a Trustworthy Bible: Contrary to my professor’s claims, the Bible is not full of contradictions and errors. There is not a single instance—not one—where criticisms of the Bible stand up to scrutiny and careful investigation. God’s word is settled in the heavens and defensible on earth. Be thankful, defender! Ours is a trustworthy Bible.

4. Be Thankful for Resurrection Evidence: Countless critics attack Christianity at its very heart, the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. Yet, the evidence is resounding from the echo of the empty tomb to the eyewitness accounts of the risen Jesus to the transformed lives of James, Paul, and countless others. We do not just make the claim Jesus rose from the dead; we can defend it with ample evidence. Be thankful, defender! Jesus rose from the dead.

5. Be Thankful for Your Fellow Apologists: What would have become of my life without Josh McDowell and the countless other apologists before him and since who have labored to give a reason charitably and articulately for the hope that is in them? No Christian ever needs feel left alone in the battle for faith. We truly stand on the shoulders of those giants of Christian apologetics who have gone before us, and the fruits of their labors are ours to learn and deploy. Be thankful, defender! The apologetic army of the ages is strong.

Stand firm, brothers and sisters, and always be grateful and confident in the faith once delivered.

About the Author

Dr. Thomas J. Gentry (aka., TJ Gentry) serves as the pastor of First Christian Church of West Frankfort, Illinois, the Executive Editor of MoralApologetics.com, and Executive VP of Bellator Christi Ministries. Dr. Gentry is a world-class scholar holding 5 doctorate degrees and 6 masters degrees. Additionally, he is a prolific writer as he has published 7 books including Pulpit Apologist, Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord, and You Shall Be My Witnesses: Reflections on Sharing the Gospel. Be on the lookout for two additional books that he will soon publish. In addition to his impressive resume, Dr. Gentry proudly served his country as an officer in the United States Army and serves as a martial arts instructor.

https://www.amazon.com/Pulpit-Apologist-between-Preaching-Apologetics/dp/1532695047/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=pulpit+apologist&qid=1632093760&sr=8-3

Diving Deeper

T. J. Gentry, “Progressing Toward Destruction,” BellatorChristi.com (10/11/2021), https://bellatorchristi.com/2021/10/11/progressing-toward-destruction/

Brian Chilton and Curtis Evelo, Interview with T. J. Gentry, PhD, DMin, “SIS S1 E6 Pulpit Apologist,” BellatorChristi.com (8/1/2021), https://bellatorchristi.com/2021/08/01/sis-s1-e6-pulpit-apologist-w-dr-thomas-j-gentry/

Copyright, 2021. BellatorChristi.com.

Gratitude, Thankfulness, and the Existence of God

Gratitude, Thankfulness, and the Existence of God

Stephen S. Jordan

Every year around Thanksgiving Day, and also throughout the Christmas season, we pause to reflect on all that we have for which to be grateful. There are other times throughout the year when we sense the need to say thanks, and we realize we ought to be more grateful than we presently are—but do we ever stop and think about how the very nature of gratitude and thankfulness actually point to the existence of God?

Gratitude is the awareness of goodness in one’s life and the understanding that the sources of this goodness lie, at least partly, outside oneself. It is not a self-contained or self-sufficient emotion but rather a human person’s inner response to another person or group of persons for benefits, gifts, or favors obtained from them. For example, consider the gratitude one experiences as a result of loving family members, thoughtful friends, and devoted teachers or mentors. The duty of gratitude is to honor these persons by thanking them for the benefits they have provided. Similarly, when gratitude is felt due to a country, school, or some other collective body, it is owed to them not as impersonal establishments, but as communities of human persons. Therefore, gratitude is a deeply personal emotion directed toward persons or groups of persons.[1]

Thankfulness occurs when one outwardly expresses the inner gratitude that is felt. Like gratitude, thankfulness is personal in nature. The difference between the two lies in that being grateful is a state, whereas thanking is an action.[2] With thankfulness, a personal object is in view when someone receives a special gift from a friend or family member and responds by saying “thank you” or writing a “thank you” card or note. In every expression of thanks, the verb “thank” is used in conjunction with an object—typically with the word “you.” Without an object of thanks, there can be no thankfulness. This means that every time one utters the words “thank you,” it is directed toward someone. Thus, thankfulness is an outward personal response directed toward individual persons or communities of persons.[3]

On a deeper level, when one experiences the richness of life which culminates in a deep sense of gratitude and a profound desire to express thankfulness, to whom is this gratitude, this desire to offer thanks, to be directed? G. K. Chesterton once stated, “The worst moment for an atheist is when he feels thankful and has no one to thank.”[4] Of course, it is easy to understand how an atheist or agnostic feels gratitude toward human persons who have made positive differences in their lives, but what about the blessings that cannot be ascribed to human agency? For example, when one considers the overwhelming immensity of a galaxy or the dynamic intricacy of a single living cell and feels as if they are a part of something special, of something bigger than themselves—to what or whom is this sense of gratitude due? While looking at things like a galaxy or cell, the well-known atheist, Richard Dawkins, admits that he is overcome with an immense feeling of gratitude: “It’s a feeling of sort of an abstract gratitude that I am alive to appreciate these wonders. When I look down a microscope it’s the same feeling. I am grateful to be alive to appreciate these wonders.”[5] An atheist or agnostic finding himself or herself in a situation like that of Dawkins, where gratitude arises and there is no personal being to thank, is presented with a difficult conundrum that is difficult to overcome.

There are a number of other examples that illustrate this same point. For instance, when one drinks a cool glass of mountain spring water after a long hike and experiences refreshment not only of the body but seemingly of the soul, or when one is lying on the beach and enjoys the warmth of the sun beaming down on their skin—to what or whom should this person offer their thanks? In moments like these, is one’s gratitude directed toward impersonal things like galaxies, cells, water or the sun—or is this gratitude more appropriately directed toward a personal God who cares deeply for human persons and makes possible their enjoyment and overall well-being? Does it make sense to offer thanks to a galaxy, a cell, water or the sun for the good gifts of life—or does it make more sense to thank God as the personal Creator and transcendent Giver of all good gifts that we enjoy in life?[6]

In his book Thanks!, Robert Emmons shares a story involving Stephen King, the most successful horror novelist of all-time, where King’s survival of a serious automobile accident causes his heart to become flooded with a deep-seated gratitude that King directs toward God. As Emmons explains,

“In 1999, the renowned writer Stephen King was the victim of a serious automobile accident. While King was walking on a country road not far from his summer home in rural Maine, the driver of a van, distracted by his rottweiler, veered off the road and struck King, throwing him over the van’s windshield and into a ditch. He just missed falling against a rocky ledge. King was hospitalized with multiple fractures to his right leg and hip, a collapsed lung, broken ribs, and a scalp laceration. When later asked what he was thinking when told he could have died, his one-word answer: ‘Gratitude.’ An avowedly nonreligious individual in his personal life, he nonetheless on this occasion perceived the goodness of divine influence in the outcome. In discussing the issue of culpability for the accident, King said, ‘It’s God’s grace that he [the driver of the van] isn’t responsible for my death.’”[7]

Interestingly, as a result of his life being spared, King directs the gratitude that arises in his heart to God. Even though there was another human in view, it would have been odd for King to thank the driver of the van who nearly killed him. If it did not make sense for King to thank the driver of the van, then who else could he thank if not God, who was responsible (in King’s own words) for saving his life on a day when he probably should have died?

The examples above illustrate that there are times when it does not make sense to direct gratitude and offer thanks to human persons. Even those who deny God’s existence and believe that the world is the result of blind, purposeless forces still agree that there are instances of gratitude that reach beyond a human benefactor. One’s sense of gratitude and desire to give thanks does not go away on an atheistic worldview—it is only frustrated.

In these instances (when it doesn’t make sense to thank a human person), we ought to direct our gratitude and thankfulness, even our praise, to God. Indeed, in every moment of every day, in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18), our hearts and minds ought to be characterized by gratitude and thankfulness; nothing less is appropriate considering God’s wonderful blessings upon our lives (James 1:17). Our prayer to God ought to be that of the Welsh poet and priest of the Church of England, George Herbert, who wrote,

“Thou that hast given so much to me,

Give one thing more, a grateful heart.”[8]

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Stephen S. Jordan currently serves as a high school Bible teacher at Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg, Virginia. He is also a Bible teacher, curriculum developer, and curriculum editor at Liberty University Online Academy, as well as a PhD student at Liberty University. Prior to his current positions, Stephen served as youth pastor at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church in State Road, North Carolina. He and his wife, along with their three children and German shepherd, reside in Goode, Virginia.

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Notes:

[1] According to Robert Emmons, a leading scholar on the science of gratitude, “[G]ratitude is more than a feeling. It requires a willingness to recognize (a) that one has been the beneficiary of someone’s kindness, (b) that the benefactor has intentionally provided a benefit, often incurring some personal cost, and (c) that the benefit has value in the eyes of the beneficiary.” Robert A Emmons, Thanks!: How the Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2007), 5. Many of the ideas from this section on gratitude come from Alma Acevedo, “Gratitude: An Atheist’s Dissonance,” First Things, published April 14, 2011, accessed November 23, 2019, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2011/04/gratitude-an-atheists-dissonance.

[2] For example, when I feel grateful for a friend, this inner gratitude motivates me to display thankfulness for my friend by doing something kind for them (e.g., purchasing them a Starbucks gift card). Emmons and McCullough explain the difference between gratitude and thankfulness in this way: “Being grateful is a state; thanking is an action.” Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, The Psychology of Gratitude (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 286.

[3] Can gratefulness be directed toward something material (i.e., something other than a person)? Does it make sense to offer thanks to a material item, such as a coffeemaker? As Emmons notes, “If we subscribe to a standard conception of gratitude, then the answer must be no. My Technivorm Moccamaster coffee brewer does not intentionally provide me with a kindness every morning. But there might be another way to see it. In a blog essay entitled Gratitude as a Measure of Technology, Michael Sacasas suggests that there is nothing bizarre about feeling grateful for technological advances. We could in fact be grateful for material goods…So we can think of gratitude as a measure of what lends genuine value to our lives…So although I am not grateful to my coffeemaker I could legitimately be grateful for it…Thinking about gratitude and technology this way verified what I have believed for some time. We are not grateful for the object itself. Rather, we are grateful for the role the object plays within the complex dynamic of everyday experience. That is what triggers a sense of gratefulness. When it comes to happiness, material goods are not evil in and of themselves. Our ability to feel grateful is not compromised each time we leave home to go shopping or with each click of the ‘add-to-cart’ button. When we are grateful, we can realize that happiness is not contingent on materialistic happenings in our lives but rather comes from our being embedded in caring networks of giving and receiving.” Robert A. Emmons, Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013), 92-93.

[4] Actually, this is a quote of Dante Rossetti that Chesterton cites. Many people often attribute it to Chesterton, which is why it appears that way in this article, but it is actually a statement by Rossetti.

[5] This was stated by Dawkins in a November 2009 debate at Wellington College in England. The debate was sponsored by a rationalist group known as Intelligence Squared.

[6] Why is a personal God necessary here? Can a person not direct gratitude or offer thanks to an impersonal god (i.e., a force)? Due to the intrinsically personal nature of gratitude and thankfulness, it seems odd to direct these feelings and actions toward anything less than a God who is personal himself. What about other religions, besides Christianity, that claim that God is personal? Although this discussion needs more time and space in order to hash out all of the details, a few brief things need to be mentioned. Because Christianity is the only religion that offers a Trinitarian conception of God, it is the only religion that can claim that God is intrinsically personal. The circulatory character of the triune God (i.e., the doctrine of perichoresis), the mutual giving and receiving of love among the three Persons of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—serves as a solid ground for maintaining God’s essentially personal nature. Other religions may claim that God is personal, but only in the sense that humans are able to relate to him. Thus, in non-Christian religions, God may be called “personal,” but he is dependent upon humans for his personality and is therefore not intrinsically personal.

[7] Emmons, Thanks!

[8] A special thanks to two of my close friends, Jay Hamilton and Chris Rocco, for proofreading an earlier version of this article and offering helpful feedback. I am so grateful for your friendship!