By: T. J. Gentry, PhD, DMin | November 22, 2021
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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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/
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