Ravi begins the chapter by telling about a Hindu friend’s question when he was an early Christian. The friend asked, “If this conversion is truly supernatural, why is it not more evident in the lives of so many Christians I know?” Ravi explained the impact of this question: “His question is a troublesome one. In fact, it is so deeply disturbing a question that I think of all the challenges to belief, this is the most difficult question of all.”
Ravi then discusses how the spiritual transformation of the Christian should be lived out; our personal lives should reflect our profession of faith. “The Irish evangelist Gypsy Smith once said, ‘There are five Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.’ In other words, apologetics is seen before it is heard.” I think this is a profound understanding of the problem Christians often have during evangelistic efforts.
As the chapter progresses to the section, “A New Heart,” Ravi fleshes out this idea very well. He tells us that, “…the apologist’s task begins with a godly walk. One ought to take time to reflect seriously upon the question, Has God truly wrought a miracle in my life? Is my own heart proof of the supernatural intervention of God? That is the apologist’s first question.” In the next paragraph he has an excellent analogy that we should all contemplate: “If you were proposing marriage to someone, what would the one receiving the proposal say if you said, ‘I want you to know this proposal changes nothing about my allegiances and my behavior and my daily life; however, I do want you to know that should you accept my proposal, we shall theoretically be considered married. There will be no other changes in me on your behalf.’ In a strange way we have minimized every sacred commitment and made it the lowest common denominator. What does my new birth mean to me? That is a question we seldom ask. Who was I before God’s work in me, and who am I now?
The next section, “A New Mind,” is about the discipline of study. Ravi points out the “exponential growth in knowledge in our time,” but then complains about what sort of prattle is found on the shelves of Christian book stores (a complaint I have made many, many times): “But you will scan the shelves in vain for the intellectual fodder that we so desperately need.”
Following this is a section titled, “A New Community,” which is what Ravi says we are in Christ. But we often fail as a community to “bear one another’s burdens.” He says, “The church as a community often rises to the need in the initial stages and in the momentary struggle. The long haul is hard for everyone but is the place where friendships that go beyond the surface help carry one through.” I can attest to this through much personal experience!
Ravi then addresses “The Task of Apologetics.” This section has some really thought-provoking ideas. He divides this section into parts, the titles of which can give you a good idea of the various tasks. The first one is, “A Clear Understanding.” Here Ravi discusses how many people are skilled in certain fields but are not able to perform in others well. An example he uses is a surgeon who has a skill to operate on one body part - e.g., the brain - but is not skilled in operating on another part - e.g., the heart. Each type of surgery is a specialized field and the surgeon in one doesn’t have to know much about another. “But,” says Ravi, “the apologist does not have the privilege of a single discipline. In the audience sit specialists from a variety of fields. They expect the one giving the answer to be trained in multiple disciplines. That’s what makes it so hard. It is all the more imperative that in answering we do not pretend to know, but answer what we do know with clarity.”
Ravi discuses the fallacy that only Christians have a claim to uniqueness and exclusivity - that everyone feels his own religion has the truth. But there is a problem with proclaiming truth. “You see, truth by definition is exclusive. If truth were all-inclusive, nothing would be false. And if nothing were false, what would be the meaning of true? Furthermore, if nothing were false, would it be true to say that everything is false?” A couple paragraphs later Ravi begins his next part, “An Eternal Truth,” where he asserts the need for defending the truth of the Christian faith.
The part in this section on apologetics tasks is “A Removal of Barriers.” How do we remove barriers that prevent someone from listening to what we are teaching? “Unless we establish what the goal is, we often lead the listener to the wrong destination. We are to be extremely careful that we do not so over philosophize that in the end we lead people to a philosophizing faith with no devotional content to it.” Our message can’t be based on the articulation or personality of the teacher, nor can we be more concerned about how we say our message than who we are pointing to.
Ravi’s last part in this section is “A Contextual Answer.” I highlighted two provocative statements: 1) “Every questioner has a worldview. If you do not appeal to the legitimacy or the illegitimacy of the worldview, you will never give satisfactory answers to the skeptic.” 2) “…the most effective defense of the faith and offense against falsehood must be based on an examination of worldviews.”
The next section in this last chapter is titled, “The Three Levels of Philosophy.” After discussing the three levels, Ravi ends the section thusly: “To summarize, level one concerns logic; the appeal is to reason. Level two addresses the imagination; the appeal is to the felt reality. And level three is where all is applied to the reality specific to the question. Putting it differently, level one states why one believes what he believes. Level two indicates why one lives the way he lives. And level three reveals why one legislates for others the way he does.” In his next section, “Getting Through at the Right Level, Ravi gives examples of this in real life and he says, “Here is the key: one must argue from level one, illustrate from level two, and apply at level three. Life must move from truth, to experience, to prescription. If either the theist or atheist violates this procedure, he or she is not dealing with reality, but creating one of his or her own.”
As Ravi winds up his chapter, he paints the picture of “A Master Apologist at Work” in the story of Paul at Mars Hill in Athens. Paul’s approach, as identified by Ravi, went “From Speaking to Communicating,” “From Communicating to Convincing, “ and “From Convincing to Closure.”
In the conclusion of this excellent book, Ravi makes this very important point: “…the role of the apolgist is to win the person, not the argument. That happens when the real questions surface and the real value of the questioner is upheld. Don’t get baited into personal attacks.”
Well, I hope that, if you waded through all these chapter reviews, you will have had your interest piqued to where you will buy a copy of “Beyond Opinion.” There was so much gold in this book, so much that I learned for applying to the street ministry we have during the warm months, that I am looking forward to being able to apply this year what I learned from this book.
We have to remember that our lives must reflect that which we are defending, so we should be that “fifth gospel” with which we can reach the lost for the Lord. And that is the most important apologetic of all.
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