Witnessing - Holy Spirit or Reasoning or both?
First, it’s unbalanced because it assumes the Holy Spirit works only through preaching. But he can work through rational argumentation, too. We should appeal to the head as well as to the heart. If an unbeliever objects that the Bible is unreliable because it is a translation of a translation of a translation, the answer is not to tell him to get right with God. The answer is to explain that we have excellent manuscripts of the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew languages—and then tell him to get right with God!
But second, it’s unscriptural to refuse to reason with an unbeliever. Look at Paul. It was Paul’s standard procedure to present reasons for the truth of the gospel and so defend the faith:
And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks he argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. … So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who chanced to be there. …
And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God. …
And he expounded the matter to them from morning till evening, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And some were convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved (Acts 17: 2–3, 17; 19: 8; 28: 23–4).
Indeed, Scripture actually commands us to be prepared to give such a defense to an unbeliever: “… always being ready to make a defense to every one who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3: 15b). So as Christians, we are to have an apologetic case ready to show that Christianity is true. To ignore the unbeliever’s questions or objections is therefore both unbalanced and unscriptural. Of course, it is true that we can never argue anyone into the kingdom of God. Conversion is exclusively the role of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit may use our arguments to draw people to himself.
Now there is also a danger in all this. There is the danger that we may focus our attention on the argument instead of on the sinner. We must never let apologetics distract us from our primary aim of communicating the gospel.
Indeed, I would say that with most people there is no need to use apologetics at all. Only use rational argumentation after sharing the gospel and when the unbeliever still has questions. If you tell him, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” and he says he doesn’t believe in God, don’t get bogged down at that point in trying to prove the existence of God to him. Tell him, “Well, at this point I’m not trying to convince you what the Bible says is true; I’m just trying to share with you what the Bible says. After I’ve done that, then perhaps we can come back to whether there are good reasons to believe what it says is true.” Remember our primary aim is to present Christ.
Craig, W. L. (1994). Reasonable faith : Christian truth and apologetics (Rev. ed., pp. 46–47). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.
Craig, W. L. (1994). Reasonable faith : Christian truth and apologetics (Rev. ed., pp. 46–47). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.
