Feeding 'friends'

“Always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you,” wrote Peter in the first century, at a time when people were sincerely asking about Christian hope. Even though they were human and as prone to fail as anyone else, there was something distinctly different about Christians. Rather than fearful, they were confident. Instead of fatalism, they radiated hope and joy. All the shopworn, superstitious answers about the meaning of life (or lack of meaning) had been overturned, and there was something new—really new—under the sun.

Old habits of thinking might be hard to break, and surrendering to fear was still too easy, as Peter knew from experience. That’s one reason he was writing, to hearten believers whose eyes were weary from scanning the heavens for the Lord’s return. Don’t look for Him there, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense …” (1 Peter 3:15).

Was it easier back then, with a new and exciting story to tell, and places to tell it? These days, it’s Christianity that seems old, and we don’t have anything like a village square where strangers can meet and fall into conversation. Or do we?

The skeptics Paul encountered on Mars Hill are no different from the ones we encounter on Facebook.

There’s a certain village square called Facebook. Never, perhaps, have so many people spent so much time in a place they claim to have no time for. But, provided you don’t “unfriend” all your Facebook pals who enjoy being provocative, that’s the place you’ll encounter challenges about biblical truth, Christian hypocrisy, and the nature of God Himself. Should we pass these challenges by, or try to engage? Is Facebook the new marketplace for ideas, or a back alley of mindless invective?

Apologist and author Nancy Pearcey never seems to back down from a Facebook challenge. She posts links to interesting articles, offers a comment, and waits for responses—some affirming, many hostile. It’s as near an approximation of Paul in the lecture hall of Tyrannus as I can imagine in our quick-take, sound-bite age. I admire her finding time, in her busy schedule, for defending the faith on Facebook. How does she determine when to respond, and how?

I asked her.

“I start from square one and explain all biblical or theological concepts as though talking to someone from an alien planet,” she told me in her email response. From personal experience, she understands that not all atheists and agnostics are “backslidden Christians”; they’ve just never encountered a reasonable argument for Christianity. Like her mentor Francis Schaeffer, Pearcey assumes all questions are genuine and answers in kind until it becomes obvious that the questioner is only interested in attack. Even then, “I get people who just want to hurl ridicule and invective, and amazingly even they sometimes calm down and start genuinely interacting when you answer calmly and rationally.”

She adds, “We are no longer in Jerusalem. We are in Athens.” And Paul’s speech on Mars Hill (Acts 17), delivered 2,000 years ago, is a model of modern apologetics. Paul didn’t start with Scripture; he started with creation, building a case for a Creator, then for God’s personal being as the source of personal beings, and finally for humanity’s debt to God. Only then can the notion of sin, judgment, and redemption be understood.

I would add a few practical pointers: (1) Be prayerful; (2) be brief, perhaps no more than a question asking for clarification; (3) be specific, sticking to one major point; (4) be respectful, dissecting the idea, not the person; (5) be nicely provocative rather than confrontational.

The skeptics Paul encountered on Mars Hill are no different from the ones we encounter on Facebook. The challenges we see there may be from people who have no interest in the hope within us, except for destroying it. But there’s an audience beyond them, silently listening in. Our story is always new, and I believe no answer will be amiss, if it’s bracketed by Peter’s guidelines: honoring Christ first of all, and then, “with gentleness and respect.”

Email jcheaney@wng.org