In the Indian Himalaya, there is a beau­tiful region known as Nandakini Valley. I visited there two years ago, while on an expedition with a group of high school students. We arrived on a fog­bound afternoon, scarcely able to see across the few metres that separated one tent from the next.

But shortly after we had set up camp the fog lifted. Suddenly we were able to see the stunning mountains that surrounded us: massive peaks, soaring beyond 7000 metres, glistening against the clear blue sky. The mountains had been there all along, but the fog had obscured our view.

I continually come across people who are struggling to see what Christianity really is; people whose views are thor­oughly confused; people for whom there seem to be so many barriers to faith. They have many questions and many objections. If we are to help them to understand Christianity rightly, we may have to clear away some obstacles.

In 1 Peter 3:15 we read:

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defence to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have; but do this with gentleness and respect.

The work of apologetics is to give a defence of what one believes to be true. Clearly, it is not simply a matter of having the right answers to questions. Christ must be Lord of our hearts. That will mean that he will be the focus of our answers, and our answers will be delivered in a way that reflects his character: “with gentleness and respect.”

The apostle Paul was a great apologist. He argued the case for the gospel in a vari­ety of ways against a variety of back­grounds. In his speech before the Areopagus (Acts 17:16-34), Paul appealed to reason and common experience in demonstrating certain truths about God and in showing the inadequacy of the pre­vailing Athenian world view; in Acts 14:17, he refers to the clear evidence in nature of the existence of God; while in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 he appeals to eye-wit­ness testimony in support of the resurrec­tion of Jesus. In Acts 2:22, the apostle Peter makes reference to Jesus’ miracles as evidence of his divine nature. Clearly the apostles were not afraid to argue for the truth of Christianity. Equally clear is the fact that they were dependent upon the Holy Spirit to use their arguments in bringing people to God (1 Cor. 2:1-5; 2 Cor. 10:4, 5).

In my work among teenagers, I find it important to teach apologetics. Teenagers ask lots of questions about God and the Bible, and most of the questions are good ones. They are not trivial, they are not impertinent, they ought not to be dis­missed or treated with little regard. They need to be dealt with carefully.

I recently spoke to a student about his behaviour in Chapel. He seemed restless, inattentive, even disruptive. After we had been talking for quite some time, tears began to well up in his eyes. He explained that because his mother had died when he was very young, he found it difficult to believe in God, and especially in the idea of a loving God. I said that I could not begin to imagine how difficult that must have been for him. I told him that I would try to answer his many questions as best I could. I spoke of how Jesus suffered greatly and can certainly understand our pain.

Many people have good questions; we need to take the time to listen and to answer. Many people have objections con­cerning the Bible; we need to gently help them to see that their objections are groundless and that Christ is worthy of their attention.

In Isaiah 42:3, we read of the Lord’s ser­vant who “will not break off a bent reed nor put out a flickering lamp”. It is clearly a ref­erence to Jesus (Mt. 12:15ff), who in his own ministry met people where they were, but did not leave them there. His conversa­tion with the woman at Jacob’s well (John 4) shows his patience and gentleness in leading people to a fuller understanding. We need to deal with people’s questions in an honest and sensitive manner, taking care not to “put out a flickering lamp”.

I want to provide answers to the ques­tions my students ask, and thus help them to be in a position to answer the questions and the objections of others.

I want them to see that faith in Christ is not a “leap into the unknown”, and Christianity is not a philosophy in which people can simply believe whatever they wish.

I want them to recognise that Christianity is grounded in events of his­tory and stands in opposition to the post-modernist view that there is no absolute or objective truth.

I want to help people to see the insuffi­ciency of a worldview which does not have Christ as Lord; to see the utter impotency of materialism and secularism; the logical contradictions within Eastern mysticism and the New Age Movement; the baseless and self-defeating claims of post-mod­ernism; the hopelessness and indefensibil­ity of atheism.

Showing people the poverty of such worldviews will not in itself make them Christians, but within the providence of God it may be a step along the way to them considering a worldview which better matches reality and offers hope like no other.

Whether we are dealing with a person’s objections to Christianity or telling them how they can be saved, we are involved in essentially the same work. We are seeking to proclaim Christ as Lord; that is our goal — to declare him and to invite people to turn away from sin and to believe in Christ for salvation.

In doing this, we need to be sensitive to where a person is at in terms of his level of understanding and preparedness to accept certain things that we are saying or certain premises upon which we are operating. We need to have the patience to listen to ques­tions and the wisdom to answer them as best we can. All the while we endeavour to proclaim Christ as Lord, and pray that their heart will be opened to receive him.

Recently I visited a friend who had moved house. I thought I was going for lunch. Somehow I found myself working in the garden. While my friend busied himself planting some shrubs into beautifully pre­pared soil, I was loading up a wheel barrow with thorn-infested debris and clearing from a pathway, pickets from an old fence that had been pulled down.

As I glanced at the scratches on my arms from the thorns, I began to think that I had got the raw end of the deal; planting shrubs looked a joy by comparison! But of course, we were both engaged in the same work. We were making a garden. I was clearing away obstacles; he was planting shrubs. In the work of evangelism, there are times when we feel that we are planting seeds into well-prepared soil. There are times when we feel that we must clear away obstacles. The purpose is the same. We want to make disciples who will bear fruit. Ultimately it is all the Lord’s work. Whether clearing the weeds or planting the seeds, the goal is the same.

We need always to be mindful of the fact that it is indeed the Lord’s work. It is the Holy Spirit who convinces people of the truths of the Christian faith. He is the one who convinces unbelievers of their sin in ignoring Jesus, of the righteousness of God, and of their condemnation under God’s judgment (Jn 16:7-11). We read in the book of Acts of the conversion of Lydia: “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14).

No merely human arguments can take the place of this work of the Spirit; and if it were not for this work, no one would ever become a Christian, for as Jesus said: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him...” (John 6:44). This is not to say that there is no place for presenting arguments and evidence, but these must be seen as servants of the gospel; of help perhaps in leading a person along the pathway of understanding, but not them­selves the means of conversion or the basis of belief.

Ultimately, the basis of my belief is that I know Jesus. This is sufficient, whether or not I have a grasp on the evidence, the argu­ments or the answer to every question.

So while seeking to answer questions, I must try to present the gospel clearly. I do not think for one moment that my articu­late presentation of evidence will convert anyone — that is the work of God — but God may use my arguments in the process. The Holy Spirit can work through many differ­ent means. In teaching teenagers, I seek to appeal to the head as well as the heart; in explaining biblical truth to them, I try to use illustrations from many walks of life; I employ a variety of teaching techniques because I suspect that different people learn in different ways. All the while I pray that God might use such things in carrying out his work of grace.

If in the process a student questions the reliability of the gospel accounts I will give reasons why they can be trusted; if some­one protests that the Bible has been altered over the centuries I will give evidence to show that the Bible has been transmitted to us faithfully and translated accurately; if there are doubts about the resurrection of Jesus, I will provide some compelling rea­sons for believing that it occurred.

Along with such evidence I will stress the urgent importance of coming to know this Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and will pray that God’s Spirit will enable it to hap­pen! I must not have as my goal “winning the argument”; my defence must be pre­sented with gentleness and respect; and whether or not a person is convinced by my arguments, I need to try to speak about the wonder of Jesus and his claims upon our lives. To simply ignore a person’s question or objection is to fail to treat him or her with gentleness and respect, and failure to give someone a fair hearing is perhaps not the best way to win a fair hearing in return!

It would of course be naive to think that every question I am asked in the classroom is genuine. Some questions are designed to act as distractions. And some people, hav­ing asked a question, don’t really want to hear an answer. The Bible has very helpful advice at this point. The words of Proverbs 26:4, 5 may seem strange at first: “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”

There are times when, for whatever rea­son, a person is not willing to listen to answers. It is important to be sensitive to that person’s needs and to the situation, and in particular, to avoid getting into the kind of argument which makes both of you look foolish.

On the other hand, there are times when, with gentleness and respect, you can demonstrate to a person that there is more to the matter than they first thought, and they need, with honesty and humility, to delve deeper. We need to pray for wisdom, so that we might know whether it is verse 4, or verse 5, which best fits the particular situation.

Ultimately, we need to remember that unbelief is essentially a spiritual, not an intellectual, problem. I remember having a conversation with a student who, for some months, had asked question after question in class. I asked him whether, if I could sat­isfactorily answer all his questions, he would be ready to become a Christian. His response demonstrated that the problem was more to do with not wanting to obey Jesus than not understanding the gospel. There are times when continuing to present arguments can be counterproductive; we may need to say less and pray more.

We need to work hard at presenting the gospel in a way that is clear and compelling. We need to try to deal with people’s objec­tions intelligently and sensitively. Most of all, we need to pray earnestly, that God himself will open hearts and change lives.