THE CELL LEADER’S MANUAL
An Apologetics Primer:

INTRODUCTION

GEM ’85, this rev. Aug 2002 & May 2003

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect . . ."     (1 Peter 3:15)

INTRODUCTION: Peter exhorts us that, as Christian disciples, we must be prepared to give a reasonable answer for our eternal hope.  Thus, we see both the task of Apologetics and its method.  For, thoughtful Christians should be able to cogently respond to those who ask for the reasons behind our commitment of faith; and we must always do so gently and respectfully.

However, too often Christian believers in the Caribbean are not sure of what the Faith is, or of why we believe it.  So, when we are challenged we often seem to be vague, insecure, confused, or even foolish.  As a direct result, those who distort or oppose the gospel have been able to acquire an unwarranted aura of credibility, and have cast many people in the Caribbean — including many Christians — into confusion, unnecessary doubt, or even outright deception.

As a further damaging result the gospel often appears to be irrelevant or even absurd to many of the most thoughtful people in our region.  This obviously hampers our witness — “Why should we take you seriously?” — but it also cripples our ability to think, speak, work and lead with confidence in the school, on the campus, in the workplace, in government service, in the media, in the arts and culture and in the wider community.  In short, when we are not “prepared to give an answer . . . for the hope that [we] have,” it undermines our ability to be salt and light in a sin-darkened, deceived and confused region that hungers for a credible framework for thinking about truth, values and the way to build a desirable and sustainable future.

So, as educated Caribbean Christians, we must learn to handle key intellectual challenges and issues that we are likely to encounter in living, witnessing, studying, working and contributing to community development. 

Such issues typically hinge on:

(1) the reasonableness of the Christian faith and lifestyle in today’s high-tech, post-modern scientific age;

(2) the validity and proper use of the Bible as a primary authority for belief and behaviour;

(3) specific issues, such as secularism, the rise of the post-modern age, or the recently proposed Islamic alternative for understanding our past and building our future. 

In this primer, therefore, we will focus on: (1) the role of faith in all our reasoning; (2) the authority of the Bible: (3) several specific strategic issues in the Caribbean — with a view to helping us to begin to think through key issues as we prepare to serve Christ effectively in the Caribbean in our generation.