You are not defending the faith, in the sense that you are justifying your own belief, you defend the faith, for the sake of the person who does not have any. The defense of the faith, apologetics, is a sub-species of evangelism. I myself, was an athiest, it was not until a defender of the faith, shook my core beliefs and made Christianity seem plausable, that I was able to consider the faith objectably. For the next 10 years, I was a skeptic, but finally recognized my foolishness and discovered Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith.
This is what apologetics seek to do, to remove obstacle to the truth. There is no proof that the God of the bible exists, in the purest sense, nor that the Son is the saviour He sent. That will always be known by faith. Some people, will not investigate, until you make Christianity distinct from false religions and mythology.
Finally, you defend the faith, because you observe that Jesus did, Paul did, and we want to be like them, and be obedient to the bibles instructions to defend the faith. We have Jesus, as our advocate in Heaven before the Father, it is fitting that He have us, as his advocates on earth, before men.
Also, it is not faith we are defending, it is THE faith, we are making our case for the facts we accept by faith, we are attempting to reveal truth. You mentioned that belief is the convivtion of what one thinks, but remember, one can have faith in absolute lies. So, we defend THE faith, so people may be open to and have faith in the truth.
What a great question!
By the way, the verse in my signature below, where it says to give an answer, the greek word for answer there, is apologia, the word from which we get our term, apologetics. It means a defense, as one would make it a trial. Make no mistake, the faith is on trial, so, be ready!
Hi! Thank you for the reply! (To my very first real thread, wooh! ^^)
It seems that we just have two very different ideas of faith.
I used to be an atheist myself, but it was openness and faith (as I understand faith) that led to my finding God. I held firmly to my convictions that there wasn't a God for a long time, it wasn't until I let go of my beliefs, my outside images and concepts of God that God was revealed to me. Only through absolute trust and openness does my faith endure.
By no means am I saying that there are no false beliefs; I'm sure there are many, many false beliefs out there, and I'm sure there are also beliefs that reflect the truth. But beliefs, even ones that reflect truth, are not the same thing as truth. They are merely convictions.
For me, it was the fact that so many Christians have this attitude of "my beliefs are right and yours are wrong" that kept me away from Christianity for so long. I can only speak for myself, but it was not the 'distinction from false religion and mythology' that drew me back to have another look at this path; rather, it was openness to the truth.
Thank you for replying!
I mean no offense; I seek only to learn. But why does this contradict what I said? It says to stand firm in faith, not necessarily in your convictions. If you rely fully on faith, and not in beliefs, you defend yourself from being devoured by false beliefs. Faith is what protects us, not what needs protecting.
Standing firm in one's beliefs is not necessarily the same as standing firm in faith. Beliefs are dangerous things; they can limit you and hold you back from the truth. Only when I relinquished my beliefs and decided to accept the truth, no matter what it may be, only when I decided to keep my heart and mind open, did truth find me.
