Practicing Apologetics

Acts 21:40-22:1 - "And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying, Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you."

Here we have the Apostle making a defense of what he believes and why he believes it. This should be what every Christian is prepared to do. Peter wrote : "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear (3:15)":
In other words, know and understand what you believe as a follower of Christ so that when a watching world asks you of this hope, you are ready with an answer. In my experience, a good number of Christians love church, listening to good preaching and teaching as well as worshiping corporately, but Sundays are as far as their knowledge of God goes, and when pressed with the tough questions of life, they have no answer of the hope that is within them. Let me state that I am offering no diatribe against us today, but trying to make us aware of a reality that is prevalent in American Christianity. We must remedy this. The Christian worldview takes a back seat to nothing and no one. Whether to the rich or poor, educated or uneducated, in the market place or at the university level, the Christian worldview has the answer. Sadly though, the case of Christians living out their beliefs and being able to defend them is lacking greatly. George Barna Research found out a couple of years ago that only 6% of professed believers actually live out a Christian worldview and the Pew Forum discovered last year that Christians in America are at the bottom of the list when it comes to knowing what they believe; the atheists and agnostics know more about Christianity than Christians in this nation. We have to right this course, I encourage you to seek after God and to apply your heart and mind to know Him, His word and the reason you hold to your beliefs. In other words, let us study to show ourselves approved. By the way, you have the greatest helper in doing this, the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth.