Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 23:3 (Sep 1980)
Article: Both/And: The Uncomfortable Apologetic
Author: Ronald B. Mayers

JETS 23:3 (September 1980) p. 231

Both/And: The Uncomfortable Apologetic

Ronald B. Mayers*

1 Peter 3:15 could be the clarion call of the Church’s mission every bit as much as the more familiar Matt 28:19–20 or Acts 1:8. All facets and dimensions of the Church’s mission are present. The Church can truly acknowledge Christ as Lord only as each member who makes up the body of Christ individually acknowledges and submits to his lordship. Similarly the collective hope, the confident expectation, of the full and complete manifestation of his lordship is to be shared with the world. The members of the world, the given community, have a right to demand an accounting of the anticipation and realities of the new creation, the community of faith.

Closely associated with missiology, as this verse indicates, is apologetics. Edward J. Camell thought of this passage as the perfect pattern of apologetics:

The preparation: “In your hearts reverence Christ as Lord.”

The assignment: “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.”

The mood: “Yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”1

Apologia (“defense”) means a reasoned defense of one’s position and perspective (à la Socrates’ Apology as recorded by Plato), while “account” is the Greek logos (“word” or “study”) as seen for example in “missiology” and “theology.”

Missiology and apologetics cannot be divorced. From one perspective they are nearly one and the same as evidenced by Paul’s numerous apologies of his mission as an apostle (“sent one”) of the Church before Felix, Festus and Agrippa. Though the apologetic thrust may differ depending on the era and geographical location of the Church, mission and apology have of necessity walked hand in hand. Therefore I wish to focus on three primary apologetic issues of the present era in the context of the Church’s mission. These three issues have always been before the Church, but perhaps more acutely today—and certainly in a different manner than in the past. The issues are Scripture, methodology and culture.

One more preliminary word is required. It is my conviction that many of the solutions to the problems that abound in these three areas are offered at the expense of the other extreme of the continuum. For instance, just as Calvinists and Arminians do battle over the relationship of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, my working framework over the past s...