BP 102
There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms ~ George Elliot, Daniel Deronda
If you are a believer in the God who reveals mysteries even in the depths of the human heart, there is less human territory to explore and a Guide who will take you there ~ Anonymous
Most of you are familiar with the discipline of apologetics. The Greek word from which apologetics derives appears in 1 Peter 3:15b where it says, “. . . always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” The word defense in this verse is apologia in the Greek. Therefore, apologetics is about making a defense for our faith in Jesus
If we break down the Greek word apologia a bit further, we see that it is composed of apo (meaning “from”) and logos (meaning “intelligent reasoning”). Strong’s concordance tells us that a way to interpret this word, then, is as follows: “a well-reasoned reply; a thought-out response to adequately address the issue that has been raised.”
Apologetics, then, as applied to the Christian faith, is a reasoned, thoughtful response to those who might be challenging the faith or seeking answers to their questions about the faith. Some people refer to apologetics as “pre-evangelism.” Apologetics (possibly like the Apostle Paul’s discourse on Mars Hill in Acts 17:22-34) precedes or accompanies a presentation of the gospel with a view toward removing intellectual, emotional, and relational obstacles that might interfere with the receiving of the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Related to this notion of removing obstacles, those of you who are well-read in Designer Therapy for Life know that 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 is a biblical passage often mentioned. Verses 4 and 5 refer to weapons that “have divine power to destroy strongholds . . . arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” One primary purpose of apologetics is to destroy these strongholds, arguments, and opinions from darkness that rise up like towering fortresses against our personal experience of God.
However, I don’t think apologetics is limited to addressing intellectual obstacles to the knowledge of God based on philosophy or world views. I believe that apologetics also can be a well-reasoned reply or thoughtful response (or powerful relational encounter in therapy) that addresses emotional/psychological barriers as well. In short, apologetics is prepared to face any argument against the existence of or experience of Jesus that may arise in the human brain, mind, heart, soul, or spirit.
When you go out into a world of unbelievers, it is wise to be prepared to explain your faith in the face of any resistance, argument, opinion, or stronghold. The Holy Spirit calls you to love others, speak the truth about Jesus, explain that truth in the face of arguments, and pray for your listener. But there are two things you must remember.
First, God alone is responsible for the growth of the seed that you plant. Secondly, you can present well-reasoned and thoughtful responses to a person who argues against God and the truth of the gospel and they will not be moved. They will not budge an inch. They might even rise up in anger against you and call you exclusionary, judgmental, and hateful.
But don’t be discouraged whether you are doing intellectual or psychological apologetics: you must always remember that every soul has present within it an in-born, pre-existing presence of unbelief. Unbelief is the baseline position of every human being, and you will not be able to break down the presence of that unbelief apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.
As a side note, the gospel of Jesus Christ empowered by the Spirit is the only truth that has the power to turn hearts of stone to flesh. Apologetical arguments will not change hearts and should never be substitutes for the only message that can lead a heart to turn and repent. Remember that apologetics are referred to as a tool of pre-evangelism. Apologetics is not itself evangelism.
If we think of growing crops in a field, we certainly must plant the seed and water it. However, a farmer often must do work before he plants anything. He must plow the soil that might be packed down and full of rocks. He might need to fertilize it as well. In other words, the soil itself must be prepared to receive the seed. The preparation is not the seed, but it is often a necessary pre-planting step so that the seed might be received and given the best opportunity to mature into a healthy plant.
So, what tools will you use in your pre-evangelism? Obviously, you will bring Special Revelation, which is the gospel itself, the Word of God. You will also want to bring General Revelation, truth that is found outside of Scripture that nonetheless is God’s truth. For example, you will need to understand worldviews and what composes these views. You might also wish to study General Revelation topics such as physics, biology, astronomy, geology, paleontology and even Darwinism to prepare yourself for defending the good news of Jesus.
Have you ever considered that psychology might be a component of pre-evangelism? As truth in the domain of General Revelation, psychology (study of the soul) often (always?) must be included as we approach unbelievers with the love and truth of Jesus. Emotional, relational, and mental health issues might even be the most entrenched boulders in the field that must be removed before the soil can be prepared and the seed planted.
Often the stiffest opposition to Jesus does not come from the questioning mind but from the wounded heart.
One example of a wounded heart is a person I will call Darren. He is one of those individuals DTFL has referred to in previous posts who died (psychologically) when he was young. His death occurred due to factors such as birth order, temperamental deep sensitivity to his environment, peer bullying, parental absence due to their own unresolved childhood trauma and accompanying PTSD, a life-threatening physical condition he survived when he was very young, and a deep sense of abandonment by everyone who was supposed to love him.
I will not explain in any depth the impact of all these factors here. What I will say is that Darren was very alone as a child with a lot of pain and deep shame. Because of his badness and overwhelming emotional pain that was spawned out of aloneness and fear, he had to divorce from his own heart. He had to distance from his agonizing emotional suffering because, simply said, it was too much for his young heart to experience alone.
But he also had to divorce himself for another reason: his parents’ emotional fragility prevented them from allowing Darren to have a separate self with needs, anger, sadness, boundaries, fear. They personalized his anger, were overwhelmed by his needs, did not know how to comfort his fears, and had never learned appropriate boundaries in their own families of origin. They subconsciously taught Darren that he was responsible for them—he had to take care of his own mother and father and be sensitive to their anxieties and fears instead of them being present for him. What a huge job for such a young boy.
Since True Self Darren could not exist, he had to die and then learn how to exist as False Self Darren with no expressed needs since to be a living person was to hurt others or to incite their anger or to experience their abandonment. Be dead, not alive.
A question validly emerges regarding people with a false self behind the wheel of their lives: How can a person who was not permitted to be alive and therefore had to put to death his true self ever relate to the gospel of Jesus Christ?
I think of John 10:10 where Jesus says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Do we believe that the impact of the Fall and the destructive power of Satan are limited to our spiritual selves? I don’t think so. When we see our decaying bodies, our broken relationships, our blurred sense of self, and our mental illness, we can be confident that sin and Satan have claimed all of us, not just our minds. We are then born facing a battle to even become a self with a clear identity. Is it any wonder people are beginning to look to their gender as a variable to manipulate in their search for the True Self that has been exiled?
Darren is not alone, then. We are all born into a world where we are naturally far from God, others, and even our own True Self who God created us to live out of.
Worldview apologetics serves as one type of pre-evangelism to remove obstacles that rise up between men and women and the knowledge of God. In a similar way, psychology through therapy with a lover of Jesus offers another type of pre-evangelism that operates to work through emotional obstacles such as shame, broken defense mechanisms, an ill-defined sense of self, or even a totally dead self like Darren.
Some individuals need the pre-evangelism of psychological therapy to develop enough of a self to even trust Someone outside themselves. Others may already have the ability to trust in a primitive manner but need a lot of growth to love, forgive, and give of themselves to others and God.
Is it possible that a person must occasionally experience a birth of her psychological/emotional self before she can experience a spiritual rebirth? Possibly. Psychological development/growth may need to function as a type of pre-evangelism that must occur before a personal connection can occur with God and others if a True Self does not even exist. Saving faith cannot occur where there exists no ability to trust.
The True Self may have been sent into exile far away from others. This person may need to have her True Self raised from the dead before she can even love God and others. Of course, this emotional birth is assisted by the power of God’s Spirit.
So, most individuals may not need to have their psychological/emotional/True (God-given) Self called out of exile before they can trust others and sustain a deep relationship with them. But some will. Referring to Donald Winnicott’s work, Harry Guntrip says, It is useless to inculcate ‘tenets to believe in’ if the child has not grown ‘the capacity to believe in’, through trust in human love.
In other words, moral development and the relational ability to attach to God and others may not happen for some particularly primitive young individuals until they develop a capacity to exist as a self and trust others. As Guntrip would say, some individuals have made themselves emotionally inaccessible. Alone. In effect, they have abolished relationships because they are too scary, overstimulating, accompanied by hate and rage, or impossible to figure out.
It is preferable to send the True Self away than to deal with the fear and emotional complexity of being close to another person.
Guntrip says in Schizoid Phenomena, Object Relations and the Self, “. . . these maneuvers [burning bridges with others] cannot succeed and always end disastrously, since they are an attempt to deny our very nature itself [i.e., to be in relationship]. Clearly we cannot do that and remain healthy.”
Guntrip may not agree, but I believe that God created us to be a True Self and live out of that self in a loving way with Him and others. When we abolish relationship with God and others out of fear or sin as seen in Romans 1 where it says that people suppress the truth about God through their unrighteousness, we practice behaviors that run counter to attachment, trust, and love. Both behaviors are sin
What is the bottom-line truth we are trying to circle the wagons around in this post?
Apologetics that target a person’s intellectual separation from God might be a necessary form of pre-evangelism before she can receive the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Also, psychological work in a person’s soul might be another type of pre-evangelism that must occur before salvation can happen. It can be used to call the True Self out of exile and to develop the relational infrastructure required to even trust anyone.
Also, therapy might help remove rocks and roots in the soil that interfere with receiving the seed of truth.
Therefore, listen carefully for what form of pre-evangelism is needed so a person can destroy every spiritual stronghold, argument, and towering fortress (opinion) that rises up against the knowledge of God. Satan will attack a man or woman on any and every level to implant lies about God and His character so as to make Him odious to them.
Be ready to stand up to the accusations and lies of the enemy so that you can, by God’s grace and mercy, correct your opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will ~ 2 Timothy 2:25b, 26.
Be a versatile fighter who is strong in Special Revelation (the word of God) and also knowledgeable about General Revelation, e.g., intellectual, spiritual, and psychological apologetics. Be prepared to wage war with weapons that “have divine power to destroy strongholds” that separate people from God. Even be prepared to assist in the resurrection of a dead True Self in preparation for a spiritual rebirth.
And you thought raising a physical body from the dead was the greatest miracle. Far from it. Being party to the raising of a dead heart is a miracle that delivers a soul from the domain of darkness and transfers it into the kingdom of the Son—for an eternity. No miracle impacting a man or woman is more amazing!
So, be ready to assist in the birth of the True Self and/or the rebirth of the spiritual self. Satan is all about funerals. Jesus is all about resurrections!
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ~ John 11:25
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” John 10:10b