How to Be an Apologist without Being a Jerk, with Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey

You don’t have to be a jerk to be an apologist. 

In fact, if you’re being a jerk, you’re not doing apologetics in a biblical way, because biblical apologetics calls Christians to defend the faith in “meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15b).

So how can we do apologetics without being a jerk? One of the best ways not to be a jerk is to listen to 1980s rock, which is why your intrepid cohosts have included clips from Bon Jovi and Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen in this episode. (Fun fact: Jon Bon Jovi’s last name is actually spelled “Bongiovi,” and “Böngïövï” would have been an amazing name for the band.)

But you need more than 1980s rock to grow in meekness, and that’s why this episode goes far beyond merely reminding you of the greatness of Bon Jovi and Van Halen. In this second episode in a two-part series about where to begin in apologetics, the dynamic duo provides you with their final four points about apologetics—all of which can help you to do apologetics with gentleness and reverence while listening to Bon Jovi, which is the opposite of being a jerk. Here are the four points from this episode:

4. The life of a faithful apologist is marked by meekness.
5. Faithful apologists are more interested in winning people than in winning arguments.
6. Faithful apologists use different methods to meet different challenges.
7. Faithful apologists see apologetics as a work of the whole church.

Timothy Paul Jones, Ph.D., is C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He teaches in the areas of family ministry and applied apologetics. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including Why Should I Trust the Bible?, The God Who Goes Before You, Perspectives on Family Ministry, and Christian History Made Easy.

Garrick Bailey is a Ph.D. student in systematic theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, studying Herman Bavinck and Roman Catholicism under the supervision of Gregg Allison.

Living on a Prayer (Bon Jovi, 1986)

There's Only One Way to Rock (Van Halen, 1986)

Systematic Theology (John Frame, 2013)

Reformed Dogmatics (Herman Bavinck, 2003)

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