Advent Apologetics Day #2 – Living and Searching Together
Each day, during Advent, I’ll be posting a short article relating apologetics and Advent. This is the second part in the series. I’d invite you to read the first part here.
Advent and Apologetics do belong together. Yesterday, I said that I would proceed on the following 2 assumptions in developing this series:
1. “Apologetics is not about defending your faith.”
and
2. “Advent is about being hopeful amongst others.”
Os Guinness had this to say regarding apologetics, “Culturally, one of the best arguments we can make is, wait and see.”
It’s the hopeful attitude of active waiting that captures the imagination of people. Standing around debating theological theory might be intellectually stimulating, but does very little in the way of transformative convincing. Advent is, or should be, about waiting, watching, and working in our hope.
As I said in the previous post, I hope to lead up the to linchpin text of Christian Apologetics, 1 Peter 3:15, by using some other obscure and often overlooked passages from the bible.
In our text for today, Paul tells the Colossians…
“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth… To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:3-6,27
Again, we see that a hope anticipated, activates the people of God to live amongst the “Gentiles” or unbelievers in such a way as to make known the glory of our hope, Jesus the Christ.
Instead of a militaristic apologetic that assumes a defensive posture, the Advent Apologist seeks to enter into communal vulnerability with the unsure and be hopeful among them.
J.D. Greear, in “Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary,” says;
“In a post-Christian, skeptical age, love on display is the most convincing apologetic.”
An Advent Apologetic is one that does not seek to control others by amassing information and dominating the conversation, but one that is ready to say “I don’t know, but come let us live and search for the answer together.”
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* My name is Miguel Labrador. My wife Claudia and I are missionaries in the Cloud Forest Region of Ecuador. We have been Adventing for the past 7 years by providing food to those in the region that have needed it most during the holiday season. We’d invite you to join us in this. Find out more.
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