Every Believer Confident, Part 8
May 22, 2025 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
Strategies for Effective Gospel Encounters
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.
Mark Farnham has covered the core of his apologetic method already. He laid the foundation for apologetics. He provided a biblical view of unbelievers. He gave an overview of addressing the false beliefs of unbelievers. And he outlined the core components of the gospel to be sharing. In the last few chapters of his book, he provides some practical tips for navigating apologetic conversations with unbelievers. He wants to help equip his readers with some further tools.
In this chapter, Farnham wants “to talk about specific tactics that Christians can use to expose unbelievers’ presuppositions and worldviews” (p. 138). Without confronting these false beliefs, one will not look for answers in the gospel.
The first tactic is Listen for Mistaken Beliefs. Unbelievers often resist the gospel because they hold “facts” that actually prove to be unfounded. Farnham states, “You must automatically challenge any ‘fact’ that supposedly discredits the truth of the gospel…You must begin with the basic presupposition that this is God’s world and that everything in it declares his glory” (p. 139). We can do this by asking for sources of information or an explanation for how the “fact” discredits the Christian faith. “We dare not let mistaken or erroneous ideas go unchallenged during a discussion, lest we undermine the conversation later on” (p. 140).
Second, Listen for Logical Fallacies. Farnham explains, “To be rational, we must be logical; logic keeps us from descending into irrationality…Logic requires us to provide reasons for the beliefs we hold. If we do not have sound reasons, then we ought to find some—or, conversely, should abandon our unsupported beliefs” (p. 140-141). One such logical fallacy is the disconnect between holding to evolutionary theory and to a universal moral absolute. Evolutionary theory cannot require humans to be kind to one another.
Third, Listen for Implicit Bias. “Implicit bias is another way of describing subconscious assumptions or unexamined presuppositions—everyone assumes certain things to be true, obvious, and safe from challenge, yet many biases cannot be shown to be true and, in fact, can be shown to be false” (p. 141-142). One such bias is a reactive bias that makes one do the opposite of what another wants. The person may not want to be proven wrong. So we ought to be gentle while confronting false beliefs.
Fourth, Look for Positions that are Embarrassing to Maintain. Farnham contends, “Every worldview besides the Christian faith contains logical conclusions that are an embarrassment in a civilized society” (p. 142). Atheists and agnostics often do not want religion to shape or influence public policy, but they are uncomfortable in acknowledging that Christian convictions motivated the end of the slave trade in England and the Civil Rights Movement in America. A secular humanist viewpoint does not have moral standing to resist sin.
Fifth, Capitalize on Commonly Held Values. Many people want to deny the existence of a universal, objective morality. Since we believe all humans are made in the image of God, and a component of that reality is the moral law of God written on hearts (Rom. 2:15), we know that all people share common values. For example, unbelievers may want to affirm freedom in sexual expression. But they will also reject the freedom to traffic people as sex slaves. So there is a common value of the dignity of human life, even as they are trying to reject objective morality.
Sixth, Identify Assertions that Call for Arguments. An assertion is a statement without any supporting justification. Farnham says assertions feel “like an unimpeachable truth” (p. 145). We should challenge such assertions, looking for “logical inferences from two or more truths about it” (p. 145). Some assertions unbelievers make include, “Science has disproved the Bible;” “All religions are the same;” and “Christianity is bad for the world” (p. 145). We should not argue with assertions, but push our conversation partner to justify such assertions.
Seventh, Exercise Wisdom When Pursuing Conversations. These tactics may seem confrontational, and they are, because we are seeking to weaken an unbeliever’s confidence in their false beliefs. Wisdom is needed to sensitively converse with an unbeliever. We do not want to come across as pushy or aggressive. Our love for our conversation partner must be genuine and apparent in our conversations.
I hope you find these tactics helpful. I know it may feel overwhelming to engage in these kinds of conversations, but I remind you what Farnham said earlier in his book, they all take practice. We should all look for unbelieving conversation partners and try out some of there tactics. Little by little we can become more comfortable and familiar with how to navigate apologetic conversations. May God be pleased to work through us in drawing people to Christ.
