From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 12 of a 13-part series. Read part 11.

In an earlier article in this series we identified the seven marks of a Scripture-driven church. In subsequent installments we are examining each one in detail.

The seventh mark of a Scripture-driven church is this: The people and leaders of a Scripture-driven church answer anti-Christian positions with apologetics - that is, a clear, Biblical defense of the faith - not with apologies or accommodation.

No Such Thing as Neutrality

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15).

The people and leaders of a Scripture-driven church do this in Christ-like love for sinners, but they do it with the understanding that there is no such thing as neutrality.

The Bible says that there are only two categories of people - saved and lost, the friends of God and the enemies of God:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent" (1 Corinthians 1:18-19).

God's Word says that there are only two categories of information - truth and error:

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:4-6).

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:12-16).

Furthermore, the Bible declares that there is only one authoritative source of knowledge - God Himself, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). Jesus Christ is the truth (John 14:6). He is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24). Believers have that wisdom because Christ has come into the world, "that no flesh should glory in His presence...that, as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the Lord' " (1 Corinthians 1:29-31).

Scripture-driven Christians also understand that the only reason the unsaved know anything is because they are relying on the knowledge and wisdom that has its foundation in God and His Word, even though in their blind inconsistency they deny that fact. "With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding....With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are His" (Job 12:13, 16). "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7).

Everyone Has Presuppositions

The people and leaders of a Scripture-driven church understand that everyone, saved and lost, has presuppositions. But they understand that presuppositions based on the Bible are the right presuppositions, and all others are wrong. Any position that is not a Biblical position is an anti-Christian position. Move one inch outside God's Biblical boundaries, and you are in anti-Christian territory. Scripture-driven Christians answer anti-Christian positions on the rock-solid authority of God's Word.

But in order to be able to answer anti-Christian positions, you have to know your own position. The missionary atheists, and the Roman Catholic apologists, and the Muslim missionaries who have come to this country can often quote more of the Bible than the average Bible-believing Christian. When you get into a discussion with them, they can tie you up in knots if you don't know your Bible, if you aren't rooted and grounded and growing in sound doctrine. They know the right things to say, to make the average Christian who doesn't know his Bible as well as he should, look absolutely foolish.

Always Be Ready

Earlier we quoted the Christian's mandate for apologetics from first Peter chapter 3 and verse 15 - "Sanctify the Lord God is you hearts, and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." "Always be ready" - the idea in the original is, "always be prepared." "Always be prepared" to do what? "To give an answer." The word translated "defense" (NKJV) or "answer" (KJV) is the Greek word apologia. It's the word from which we get our English word apologetics. It speaks of the use of our God-given, Scripture-driven reasoning ability to give to the unbeliever a reasoned statement, a reasoned argument, a reasoned explanation in defense of the truth.

In other words, always be prepared to give a reasoned explanation for the hope that is within you - your faith in Christ. "This is why I believe that the Bible alone is the Word of God. This is why I believe that God exists. This is where I find out how a perfect creation was plunged into chaos. This is why I believe that Jesus Christ is God Himself. This is why I believe that man is a sinner on his way to Hell, and needs to be saved. This is why I believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. This is why I believe Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is why I believe that no one can come to God the Father except through Christ. This is why I believe that all other religions are wrong, and lead men to Hell. This is why you, my unbelieving friend, why you need to turn to Christ."

This is the way in which we are to give an answer. But if we are going to be ready to give an answer, we need to know the answers. We need to be immersed in the Word of God.

Apologies Have Replaced Apologetics

We live in a time when apologies have replaced apologetics in the Evangelical church. When Evangelicals go to the unbelieving world to ask them what the church should look like and how it should conduct its services; when the church re-shapes its message so that the offense of the cross (Galatians 5:11, Romans 9:33) is removed; when the church preaches pseudo-gospels that make people feel good about themselves but leave them lost in their sins; when the church compromises by cooperating with Roman Catholics and liberals who are, in fact, not Christians at all - when the Evangelical church does all these things, it is in effect apologizing for the truth as it is found in Christ and His Word. It is, in effect, saying to the world, "We're sorry you don't like the Biblical prescription for your deepest need - salvation from eternal damnation - so we'll change it to something else that you find more attractive and un-offensive." The church thus engages in an act of the utmost spiritual cruelty. It's like giving a cancer patient a placebo rather than a real remedy.

When the Evangelical church does these things it is expressing regret that the truth is offensive to the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14), rather than giving forth an apologetic - a reasoned answer that distinguishes the true church from the world, and that calls upon those who are outside the true church of Christ to lay down their weapons of worldly wisdom and surrender to the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The reason this has happened is because the Evangelical church has become disconnected from its sole source of truth and authority, the Word of God.

The people and leaders of a Scripture-driven church answer anti-Christian positions with apologetics - a clear, Biblical defense of the faith - not with apologies or accommodation. And they are able to do so because they know their Bibles, and they stand on the Bible's authority alone. That's the seventh mark of a Scripture-driven church.

Tomorrow we shall conclude this series of questions and answers by looking at the Bible's answer to some final questions: What can God can do when the church is driven by His Word - a Scripture-driven church? How can this solve the crisis our nation is in today?

Next: Can a Single Local Church Change a Nation?

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