One of the running motifs in Scripture is that God supplies the necessary resources for that which He commands.
The Lord commanded the ancient Israelites to follow Him through the desert, and, in Exodus 15 and 16, He supplied water and food to the Israelites in the wilderness.
The Lord commanded David to defend God’s honor against pagans, and, in 1 Samuel 17, He supplied the power for David to slay Goliath.
God commanded Daniel to be stalwart in his beliefs, and, in Daniel 6 when thrown into a den of hungry lions, He supplied protection for Daniel amid lions.
The Lord commanded Elijah to preach God’s message regardless of the opposition, and, in 1 Kings 18, He supplied fire for Elijah to prove God is real and living as opposed to the false, dead idols.
God demanded a perfect, permanent sacrifice to atone for human sin, and, in John 1, He supplied Christ as that propitiation.
God demands that we listen to Him alone, and, in 2 Timothy 3:16–17, we see He supplied His perfect Word to us.
God Gives the Definitive Tool
In his masterful work, The Battle Belongs to the Lord, retired Westminster Seminary apologetics/theology professor K. Scott Oliphint argues, “All of us are asked to be ready to give a reason for our belief and our trust in Christ. If God requires us to give an answer, then surely He has provided the resources we need. The Lord has both commanded Christians to carry out the task of apologetics and has equipped them to do so.” Indeed, if God made demands of His people throughout Scripture and has always supplied the needs to meet the demand, there’s no reason to think any differently about defending the message of reconciliation which God has entrusted us. He is the same God yesterday, today, and forever (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; James 1:17).
God has given us the definitive tool we need to defend His existence, the work of Christ, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians, and the perfect Word He has spoken to the world. That tool is nothing more or less than the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Throughout Scripture, we see God and His spokespersons defending Him when answers are sought. So, as we think about using the Bible in apologetics, we should follow the command and example set in Scripture as we give an answer for the hope we have in Christ.
Always Ready?
Probably the most oft-quoted text with reference to apologetics is 1 Peter 3:15–16: “But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.”
The context of this passage is extremely important for a proper understanding of what Peter means when he instructs his readers to “give a defense.” In 1 Peter 1:1, the author notes his immediate audience is made up of Christian believers who were living as exiles and were scattered across the ancient world. Not only were these believers exiles, they were also being persecuted for their faith. Peter expects his readers to be under threat of harassment, suffering, and difficulty because of their faith in Christ.
He assumes, based on 1 Peter 3:13–14, that his readers will be found in service to the kingdom regardless of the surrounding circumstances. Then, in 1 Peter 3:15, the apostle instructs his readers to be ready at any moment for a question from an unbeliever as to why hope can be found in the midst of suffering for doing that which God commands. Here, Peter assumes non-Christians will seek out Christians to ask how hope can be found even while the Christian is suffering. Peter assumes the actions and attitudes of Christians will cause confusion among unbelievers to the point that unbelievers will seek out believers to ask how this type of hope and joy can be found.
This passage puts Christians into a defensive, rather than an offensive, stance toward the questions of unbelievers. Christians are to be ready to give an answer about the hope found in Christ.
Context is King
Interestingly, apologetics have used these verses through the centuries to suggest Christians are to use any means available, including reason, logic, mathematics, geology, archaeology, biology, chemistry, etc., to defend their hope in Christ. However, the content and context of 1 Peter 3:15 simply do not argue for or allow use of these extra-biblical means.
First Peter 3:14 includes a direct quote from Isaiah 8:12: “Do not call everything a conspiracy that these people say is a conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified.” In this passage in Isaiah, “these people” refers to those who do not fear the Holy One of Israel, or unbelievers. The surrounding context of Isaiah 8:12 (8:11–22) is of specific importance to understanding the context of 1 Peter 3:15 and the sufficiency of God’s Word for apologetics.
In Isaiah 8:11–22, the prophet instructs believers not to follow unbelieving wisdom or fear things in the world. He also notes believers are to worship God as holy and fear God because He is worthy of fear. Isaiah tells his audience that God will indeed be a sanctuary for those who fear Him. Then, Isaiah conveys information which must have been difficult for his readers in noting that the people of Israel would not believe and, therefore, would not find rest in God. Isaiah ends the section and writes:
Go to God’s instruction and testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them. They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.
We see here Isaiah instructs readers to go to God’s Word, not creation or human reason, for answers to their questions. Indeed, Isaiah warns doing otherwise will result in starvation, anger, distress, darkness, and affliction. Put differently, Isaiah tells his readers to trust in, rely on, and speak only according to God’s Word or remain in complete darkness. Unbelievers will continue to seek for their own fabricated answers but will find themselves starving for truth. In the end, Isaiah makes a simple, yet profound, point: God’s people must point unbelievers to God through the words of Scripture.
Peter directly quotes Isaiah 8:11–22 in 1 Peter 3:14 and is the context for verses 15–16. Since Peter had Isaiah 8 in mind, there is no sense in which Peter could have thought anything more or less than Scripture would be used to “give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” As a believer, Scripture is indeed wholly sufficient to give an answer for the hope found in you. Paul boldly and definitively affirms this in 2 Timothy 3:16–17.
Scripture is Enough
When God commands His followers to do something, He provides the necessary means for that command to be fulfilled. God commands Christians to make a defense for the hope within us (1 Pet. 3:15) and to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Since God provides the necessary tools for that which He commands, and since He has commanded Christians to answer the questions of unbelievers, it follows then that He has provided the means to defend faith in Christ.
Those means are nothing more or less than the words of Scripture. Though the unbelieving world will not respond positively to the words of Scripture without the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, the responsibility of the Christian believer is to defend his or her faith using God’s words, not human argument. Indeed, in 1 Corinthians 2:6–8, Paul writes:
We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
God’s words are indeed sufficient to defend His message. Let us always turn to the words of the wholly sufficient Scripture anytime someone asks for a reason for the hope in us.