What is the ministry of Apologetics?
If you go to the Scriptural texts, Christians were called upon to refute error. The apologists in the early church were required to answer false charges against Christians. In First Peter, you have the classic verse for apologetics – always be prepared to give an answer for the reason of the hope that is within you, yet do it with gentleness. That is an imperative in Greek, and it is not just applied to pastors and theologians. It is for everybody. It is a command. The Church has always made a distinction between things that were most central and really worth defending and everything else. Or, fundamental and non-fundamental truths – the primary and the secondary. I am not going to go to the wall against the guy down the street who has a wrong interpretation of what it means to be baptized for the dead or that a woman is going to be saved by her child-bearing. But if you are talking about something that has to do with the plan of salvation or how a person is going to become righteous b
