I met an interesting woman the other day at a party my husband and I hosted for the George Mason graduate students affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science otherwise known as ICES. Her name is Joy Buchanan and she is the author of a great little book called, Nicodemus. I had the privilege of reading her book at Christmastime because she had given a copy of it to my husband to give to me. I was delighted to receive the book because my husband does not typically come home from work bearing gifts from his students that glorify Jesus.
Hearing from my husband that I recently finished my masters in Christian Apologetics, Joy approached me at the party and she and I got to talking about her book as well as apologetics. While we were talking about my ministry to women, Joy asked me how I planned to market it. When I told her, she said something profound. What did she say? She said that Christians usually only view apologetics as a mechanism to share and defend their faith. Perhaps this is because most apologists, myself included, promote it that way. After all, is not my mission statement “To equip women to share and defend their faith in a culture hostile to Christianity?” However, as she rightly pointed out, the more important application for understanding apologetics should be to aid a Christian in growing in her relationship with Jesus Christ. She stated that while it’s true we cannot have exhaustive knowledge about God, there is much we can know and the key to having a deeper relationship with Him is through this knowledge. Yes, why hadn’t I thought of that? Why could I not see outside of the box into which I had put apologetics? Brilliant. Simply brilliant!
While it’s true Christians should become apologetics aficionados to share and defend their faith, the more important reason is because it will help followers of Christ grow in their relationship with God which is what this life on earth here is all about.
Here’s the link to Joy’s website. Check it out. The book is a must read and a great gift to give your unbelieving friends and family at Christmas or Easter. It started out as a screen play Joy wrote when she was doing her undergraduate work at Chapman University in screen writing. She then turned it into a book. I’m so glad she did! Enjoy! http://www.nicodemusstory.com/