Every Believer Confident, Part 1
April 3, 2025 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
This is a multi-part series interacting with Mark J. Farnham’s new book, Every Believer Confident: Apologetics for the Ordinary Christian. Farnham is the founder and director of Apologetics for the Church and professor of apologetics at Lancaster Bible College and Capital Seminary. He states, “The purpose of this book is to help you to know, appreciate, firmly grasp, proclaim, and defend the Christian faith. My ultimate goal is to strengthen your faith, so you can confidently and effectively persuade unbelievers to believe in Jesus Christ” (p. 16). Let’s dig into the book together and see how our faith might be strengthened.
Peter writes in 1 Peter 3:15 that Christians should “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” The word “defense” is the Greek word apologia. Of course, this is where the concept of apologetics has grown from. Christians are commanded to be ready to give an apology, a defense, for the hope we have in Christ.
Mark Farnham writes his book on apologetics for ordinary Christians. He says, “The average church member feels ill-equipped to know what to say when confronted with any of the myriad attacks on the faith” (p. 16). His aim is to help us who feel ill-equipped to become “skilled and effective evangelists without becoming students of philosophy” (p. 13). The philosophical nature apologetics usually espouses may be a hindrance. Farnham wants to help in this area.
First, Farnham explains what apologetics is and how it relates to evangelism. From 1 Peter 3:15, we understand that apologetics is a defense of the Christian faith. Farnham wants to expand on that, however. He quotes William Edgar’s definition of apologetics favorably. Edgar defines “[apologetics] as the art of persuasion, the discipline which considers ways to commend and defend the living God to those without faith” (p. 17-18). That commendation is the key distinction. Farnham wants to inseparably link apologetics to evangelism. He writes, “Evangelism is concerned with our presentation of the gospel and with the methods we use for doing so. Apologetics is concerned with answering objections to the gospel, clearing away intellectual obstacles, and commending the Christian faith as the only legitimate answer to man’s predicament…Apologetics and evangelism are designed to be complementary” (p. 18-19).
Second, Farnham briefly outlines the different approaches to apologetics. The question that distinguishes the different approaches is: what should we focus on when making our defense? Farnham highlights four approaches before making the case for a fifth approach that he thinks is best.
“Evidentialism seeks to develop and counter challenges to the Christian faith with detailed facts from a number of disciplines—primarily history and science…They believe that if we present enough evidence, or the right kinds of evidence, then unbelievers must believe the Christian faith” (p. 20).
“Classical apologetics establishes arguments for the existence of God primarily from philosophy and logic” (p. 21).
“Cumulative case apologetics seeks to present a case for the Christian faith by taking all the lines of evidence from evidentialism and combining them to show that Christianity makes better sense of life in this world than other worldviews” (p. 21).
“Minimal facts apologetics (MFA) surveys the conclusions of a wide variety of experts and summarizes the basic facts upon which all or most in their discipline agree. MFA then uses this agreement as a base on which to build further arguments for the truth of Christianity” (p. 22).
Farnham explains that, while each of these approaches have value for apologetics, “on their own they lack a strategy for effectively engaging unbelievers in the kind of gospel conversations that confront them with the gospel’s demands that they repent and believe. They state facts, but they fail to acknowledge the rebellious hearts of those who do not believe…If the biblical description of unsaved hearts and minds is true, no one genuinely seeks God (see Rom. 3:11) unless God draws them (see John 6:44). A biblical understanding of conversion must therefore begin with God drawing sinners and making the gospel clear to them” (p. 23).
In order to engage people with the truth of the gospel, Farnham contends that we need to take into consideration their presuppositions. He explains, “A presupposition refers to a basic heart commitment or a precondition for knowledge” (p. 24). Therefore, “a presuppositional approach [to apologetics] gets to the heart of unbelievers’ objections to Christianity in order to reveal their contradiction, irrationality, and unlivability before presenting the truth of the Christian faith in all its glory and true rationality…Unbelievers often have never considered what their most basic heart commitment is, and therefore their foundational beliefs go unexamined” (p. 25).
In the end, Farnham simply says, “This book lays out a basic and practical presuppositional approach to apologetics” (p. 26).
What does this mean for us? Farnham explains and will demonstrate that people reject the truth of the gospel because of heart commitments that they are often unaware they hold. Part of defending and commending the gospel is exposing those heart commitments. Farnham will help us with that and help deepen our confidence in the gospel. Looking forward to unpacking more next week.
