Christian Apologetic in the Public Square

It is a soliloquy with which we are all familiar: "To be or not to be - that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind so suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them." In a manner similar to the self-imposed malaise of Hamlet whose indecisiveness rendered him unable to act, which ultimately led to his tragic undoing, many professing Christians today are finding it difficult to respond with wisdom and a biblical worldview to the social tumult that is increasingly infecting the church with its poisoned-tipped sword. 

Though conversations between worldviews can present a dizzying array of errant presuppositions and conclusions, only one of them can be right. Moreover, while every conversation between people of differing belief is inherently a political conversation, obedient Christians cannot yield the ground to sinful worldviews for to do so is to cower in fear before the enemies of Christ. We must engage in equipping the people of God to respond biblically to the Zeitgeist in which we live through humble yet bold public discourse that allows for the biblical worldview to answer the false gods of pseudo truth. Christians do not have the luxury of sitting idly in the graveyard while pondering the vagaries of life in a conversation with the skull of Yorick the Jester. In the face of the cultural issues at work in the world today, the Christian apologetic must engage those worldviews in the public square that are antithetical to the Word of God. Such engagement is neither comfortable nor easy, but to refuse to do so is surrender to falsehood and disobedience to the Great Commission to teach the saints to obey all that Christ has commanded for it is the truth of God that unites God's people. The followers of Jesus can never suffer the slings and arrows of a godless society in mute denial for this is either apathy, fear, or profound naivete. Indeed, we must take arms against the Athenian sea of troubles that now assails the shores of Jerusalem. J. C. Ryle captured this ethos with these words and it is a clarion call to Christian witness for our times: “The man who is content to sit ignorantly by his own fireside, wrapped up in his own private affairs, and has no public eye for what is going on in the Church and the world, is a miserable patriot, and a poor style of Christian. Next to our Bibles and our own hearts, our Lord would have us study our own times.”

In the coming days, this blog will bring the Christian worldview to bear upon the unsettled times in which we live to equip the church to respond biblically to a world that does not know Jesus Christ. We have no other option.