The Doctrine Of Biblical Apologetics
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, May 18, 2026 (Donate)
Ever catch yourself in the middle of a little debate over
some aspect of the Bible when you weren’t ready for it? Many times, it is with
an unbeliever or someone adhering to a false religion that may claim to “respect”
the Bible but really doesn’t believe what it says.
Of course, our hope is to point others to Christ and that
might have been the initial conversation with the unbeliever—but in the midst
of that discussion, you are suddenly talking about the truth of the Bible or defense
of its authority.
When you end up in these confrontational spots, it means you’ve
entered the realm of “apologetics”. Instead of just preaching the gospel or giving
your testimony, you are now thrust into a position of defending God’s Word to those who are skeptical of it.
There are ways to defend the Bible while being loving and respectful.
It is my hope that we can all learn to do apologetics the way the Bible does
it, mimicking what God has done to answer the unbelievers and help them realize
the error of the false worldviews that have taken them captive.
What Is Apologetics From A Biblical Viewpoint?
The word “apologetics” comes from the Greek word apologia,
meaning a “defense” or “reasoned answer”. In Scripture, apologetics is our
biblical duty of defending the Christian faith and proclaiming the truth of God
against unbelief, false religion, and worldly philosophies. The classic text is
1 Peter 3:15 (NKJV):
“But sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason
for the hope that is in you…”
Biblical apologetics is not merely winning arguments or
accumulating facts. It begins with God as the ultimate authority and recognizes
that His Word is true from the beginning (Psalm 119:160). All of God’s Word was
known and true before one word was penned! Don’t forget God is all-knowing. God
created all things.
God is the truth (John 14:6) and so all truth is God’s truth
and cannot contradict Scripture when it is rightly understood. If you or I ever
think God made a mistake, then the mistake is really with you or me in our
faulty understanding. Instead, we need to look at all things in light of God's Word as if it is a set of corrective lenses in glasses.
Apologetics, therefore, involves exposing false ideas,
defending the Christian worldview, and calling people to repentance and faith
in Christ. Good apologetics is done when you respect the person and lovingly
reveal to them that they have been deceived into holding to a false worldview/belief.
The Bible has numerous apologetic encounters. Moses
confronted the Egyptians about their false gods of Egypt through God’s mighty
acts. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Jesus answered
the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes with divine authority and Scripture.
Paul reasoned in synagogues and marketplaces, confronting
idolatry and worldly philosophy (Acts 17). Jude 3 urges believers to “contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” These
are just a few examples.
Apologetics is ultimately about worldview foundations—God’s
worldview vs. man’s worldview. Every person interprets evidence through
presuppositions. Christians begin with the truth of the triune God revealed in
Scripture, whereas unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans
1:18–25) by their own man-made fallible and sinful opinions. Thus, apologetics
is not neutrality between belief systems; it is the defense of the Christian
worldview as the only basis that makes knowledge, morality, science, and logic
possible. More on this in moment.
What Methods Of Apologetics Have Christians Used
Throughout The Ages?
Throughout church history, Christians have used several
broad apologetic methods—some are not the best methods, but they were used nonetheless.
Classical Apologetics
Classical apologetics attempts to establish God’s existence
and the reliability of Christianity through logical arguments and natural
theology before presenting Scripture as authoritative. It starts with man’s
reason as supreme and absolute and then tries to build on that foundation.
Common arguments include the cosmological argument,
teleological argument, and moral argument. Thinkers associated with aspects of
this approach include Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and later Protestant
philosophers.
Classical apologists often argue that reason and evidence
can lead a person to a general belief in some sort of deity and afterward hopefully
to the truth of Christianity specifically. Though cultists or adherents of other
world religions use this same method to point to their respective “gods” like Islam’s
Allah, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ unitarian god, Mormon gods, Hindu’s Brahman, Greek Mythos’
Zeus, etc.
Evidential Apologetics
Evidential apologetics operates identical to classical
apologetics but the focus is different. Where classical looks more specifically
at the existence of God, evidential looks more at historical and scientific
evidences for Christianity, hence the name evidential. All apologetics methods
except fideism uses evidence by the way.
Because it operates like classical, it too uses human logic
and reason as the supreme authority to look at historical and scientific evidences
to then build a case that the Bible might be true in some areas. Hence, it is a
probabilistic apologetic. In other words, the best an evidential apologist can
argue is that the Bible might be true or probably true. By the method,
they can never say that it is certainly true. This doesn’t mean that individual
evidential apologists don’t believe the Bible is true, it’s just that the
method cannot say that.
Because this metho looks at scientific and historical evidences,
this often includes arguments surrounding the resurrection of Christ, fulfilled
prophecy, manuscript evidence, archaeology, design in nature, and scientific
critiques of evolutionary naturalism. Many modern apologists love discussing
evidence, especially in debates over creation, the resurrection, and biblical
reliability.
Fideism
Fideism emphasizes faith over rational demonstration. Some
fideists argue that Christianity is believed primarily through blind faith and
personal commitment rather than logical thought or philosophical defense.
Certain theologians moved in this direction, pushing subjective or arbitrary faith
experiences. Hence, there is no logical basis for it.
While fideism rightly points out the importance of faith, it
is not a logical position and fails to do apologetics—as we are commanded to do
in the Bible—but tries to sidestep it. Fideism also falls short because
Christianity is not irrational. Biblical faith is trust in the true and living
God based upon His self-revelation. Christianity is not a blind leap into the
dark but faith grounded in God’s certain Word.
Experiential or Testimonial
Approaches
Some Christians defend the faith mainly through personal
testimony, changed lives, answered prayer, or inward experience. While
testimonies can be powerful, personal experiences alone cannot serve as the
ultimate standard that the Bible is true because experiences can be interpreted
wrongly and are found in many religions.
If anything, testimony and experience can be used as a
confirmation of the outworkings of the truth of the Bible but not the basis to
do apologetics. In fact, it is due to many of these conversations that one is
pulled into a discussion that involves apologetic defense of Scripture.
Presuppositional Apologetics
Presuppositional apologetics, unlike other views, went back
to the Bible to see how apologetics was done in the Bible. Then tried to
emulate it.
So presuppositional apologetics method is that every
worldview begins with foundational assumptions, or presuppositions. The
Christian must start with God’s revealed truth in Scripture as the ultimate
authority. Rather than placing God on trial before human reason,
presuppositional apologetics argues that human reason itself depends upon God and
His Word being true.
So instead of staring with human reason as the absolute
authority and starting point, God and His Word—the Bible—is the absolute starting
point which then gives us a basis for why logic, knowledge, truth, etc. exist
in the first place. So scientific, logical, or historical evidence are seen as
confirmations of Scripture, not the basis for its truthfulness.
Why Do All But Presuppositional Fall Short?
Presuppositional apologists argue that non-presuppositional
systems fall short because they unintentionally grant autonomy to human reason.
That is human reason apart from God; and so human reason is seen as the
highest authority even greater than God—which defeats the purpose of arguing
that God is the highest and greatest authority!
Instead of beginning with God’s revelation as absolute
truth, the other methods often attempt to reason from supposedly neutral ground
between believer and unbeliever. However, the Bible teaches there is no
neutrality. Proverbs 1:7 states, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
knowledge.”
Colossians 2:3 says that in Christ, “are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Romans 1 teaches that unbelievers already
know God internally through creation but suppress that truth.
From the presuppositional perspective, evidences do not
interpret themselves. Two people can examine the same evidence yet reach
different conclusions because they begin with different worldviews. For
example, secular scientists may interpret fossils or starlight within
evolutionary or billions-of-years assumptions, whereas biblical creationist
scientists interpret the same data differently through the framework of
Scripture.
Logic, science, morality, and uniformity in nature only make
sense if the biblical God exists. The unbeliever borrows from the
Christian worldview while denying its foundation. There is no neutral ground
but there is borrowed ground. All the ground was God’s in the first place!
Classical and evidential methods may provide useful
information and confirming evidences, but presuppositionalists argue they
become inconsistent when they imply that human reason stands above God’s Word
as judge. Scripture never presents God as merely the “best explanation” among
alternatives. Rather, God is the necessary precondition for knowledge itself.
What Is Presuppositional Apologetics Defended?
Presuppositional apologetics teaches that the truth of
Christianity must be presupposed because without the Christian worldview,
knowledge itself becomes impossible.
Philosopher and Professor Cornelius Van Til, who systemize
this method, argued that the triune God of Scripture is the necessary
foundation for logic, morality, science, and rationality. Since man is created
in God’s image, we can reason and understand the world. Yet fallen mankind
suppresses the truth and attempts to interpret reality apart from God because
of our sinful nature.
Dr. Van Til pointed out the “antithesis” or “total disagreement”
between belief and unbelief. Christians and unbelievers do not merely disagree
on isolated facts; they interpret all facts through competing opposite worldviews.
Philosopher and pastor Dr. Greg Bahnsen further developed
Van Til’s approach, especially through the transcendental argument for God(TAG). TAG argues that the Christian worldview is the necessary precondition
for intelligibility. In other words, without God, one could not account for
logic, morality, induction, conclusions, knowledge, or meaning.
Bahnsen earned the title “the man most feared by atheists”
due to his debates that kindly decimated hardened atheists. He famously argued
that unbelievers rely upon Christian principles while denying the God who makes
those principles possible. In other words, Bahnsen shows where unbelievers
(whether Muslims, atheists, etc.) would borrow from God’s Word to just to try
to make their case. For example:
- Laws
of logic are universal, immaterial, and unchanging.
- Moral
absolutes are predicated an absolute moral standard.
- Science
depends on the uniformity of nature.
- Human
dignity depends on man being made in God’s image.
The Christian worldview consistently explains these
realities in God’s revealed Word because God is rational, sovereign, and
faithful.
Image requested by Bodie Hodge*
Presuppositional apologetics stands on the authority and
self-authenticating nature of Scripture. The Bible is not proven by a higher
authority because no higher authority exists. The laws of logic are tools based
on God’s Word as the ultimate foundation for truth.
This approach does not reject evidence. Rather, it insists
that evidence must be interpreted within the proper worldview. The resurrection of Christ, fulfilled prophecy, six day creation, morality, and history all stand first
and foremost on the Bible’s truth.
Final Remarks
The doctrine of biblical apologetics is ultimately about
honoring God as the supreme authority and proclaiming Christ faithfully in a
fallen world. Christians are commanded to defend the faith, destroy arguments
raised against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), and proclaim the
gospel boldly.
While many apologetic systems contain useful observations
and evidences, presuppositional apologetics is based firmly Scripture by
beginning with God’s Word rather than autonomous human reasoning. The Christian
worldview alone provides the necessary foundation for reason, morality,
science, and truth itself.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist defending 6-day creation and opposing
evolution since 1998. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as
a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers
News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Mr. Hodge earned a
Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of years as a
Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering and
running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic
materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a
grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar,
Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.
His love of science
was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about one
year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical, and
scientific dictionary/encyclopedia for AI use and training. Mr. Hodge has over
25 years of experience in writing, speaking and researching in these fields.
*Images generated by ChatGPT
