Believers equipped to be [un]Apologetic; respond to deconstruction at evangelism conference 

Ashley Blank came to the [un]Apologetic Evangelism Conference to equip herself and her kids to explain the gospel to anyone in their lives who may have questions.

“I have a direction, and I have jumping-off points where I can dive more deeply into certain parts of what I learned this weekend [with loved ones],” said Blank. 

Feb. 28 and March 1, Eric Hernandez, apologetics lead & millennial specialist at Texas Baptists, hosted the [un]Apologetic Evangelism Conference at Dallas Baptist University (DBU). Over the two days, attendees worshipped together, heard from four keynote speakers and learned from breakout sessions, including topics on progressive Christianity, science and Christianity and more.

Doubting in a healthy way

Alisa Childers, apologist blogger, speaker and author of three books including co-authoring “The Deconstruction of Christianity,” and Tim Barnett, apologist and speaker with Stand to Reason (STR) and co-author of “The Deconstruction of Christianity,” opened the conference with the first keynote session. 

Childers shared her testimony of her previous encounter with progressive Christianity, a practice of trying to mold Christianity to fit the modern-day context, and beginning to question the gospel. She told attendees that pursuing Christ matters because “if you don't have the core pieces of the gospel in the right place, in that core foundational structure of your faith, then your faith is going to be vulnerable to a time of suffering or a time of trial.”

She encouraged attendees to “take the Lord with you on your doubts.” 

“Engage with your doubts. Ask the hard questions. Search for truth, but make sure you're doubting honestly… Jesus is not threatened by your doubts,” said Childers. “I can testify before you today and say that I still have some unanswered questions, but the wealth of riches that I have discovered over these last 15 years has given me enough to know that I can trust him with what I don't understand.” 

Barnett followed by sharing a brief message on doubt. He explained that the more our questions get answered, the more our worldview forms, and inevitably, we begin to doubt our worldview. He said that “doubt is not actually the problem,” but how we respond to it is. 

Referencing Matthew 11, Barnett showed attendees that “the Bible is full of doubters,” including John the Baptist. He showed attendees that John the Baptist responded to doubt in “a healthy way” by doubting out loud, doubting with others, understanding his doubts, answering his doubts and remembering that Jesus can handle his doubts.  

“It's not a matter of if doubts come, but when, because they come for all of us. It's not enough just to ask the question; go seek out answers,” said Barnett. “It's really important that we understand our hearts when we do this because there are questions that seek answers, and there are questions that seek exits.” 

Barnett concluded the time by warning attendees that if they are not anchored to Christ, they are “always going to be at the mercy of the next doubt.” 

“If you can't give a ‘why’ for your faith, you will never be able to give a ‘why not’ to doubt… because a strong faith requires a strong foundation,” said Barnett. 

Abiding in Christ amidst doubt 

Travis Dickinson, professor of philosophy at DBU, closed the first day with a message on “how to doubt well.” He explained that to doubt well, we need to approach our questions in the posture of a seeker, go slow, doubt our doubts and love God. 

“I think [doubts are] warning lights to say, ‘It's time to lean in. It's time to ask these big questions. It's time to find some truth here and figure some of these things out,’” said Dickinson. “Doubts that are handled properly can actually lead us to truth and lead us in the knowledge that will lead us to even greater faith.” 

He told attendees that the most important thing for them to know is that “you can have doubts and faith at the same time” and encouraged them to stay connected to Jesus when doubt comes. 

“I think sometimes we just need to sit with Christ and… be nourished by the goodness and the reality of God,” said Dickinson. “If we're people who are wanting to know [the answers to our doubts], we’ve got to have that piece to our journey, we’ve got to have this abiding in Christ.” 

Drawing from Matthew 7:7-8, Dickinson encouraged attendees that as we pursue God, he invites us to ask questions and seek him and promises that he will be found. 

Attendee Claudia Osorio, a DBU senior, said she is taking away from Dickinson’s message to "know where your heart is” when doubts or questions arise. 

Equipping believers for apologetic conversations

Kicking off day two with the third keynote session, Hernandez equipped attendees on how to have an apologetic conversation with non-believers. He defined apologetics as giving a defense for what we believe and why we believe it. 

Drawing from Matthew 5:13, Hernandez told attendees that in biblical times, the purpose of salt was to preserve meat. He noted that in scripture, “When the meat goes bad, Jesus does not point at the meat; he looks at the salt.”

“There is going to come a time where you’re going to have to be unbiased and objective and step back and not ask ‘What's wrong with the meat?’ But at some point, you're going to have to be honest with yourself to step back and really ask, ‘What is wrong with the salt?’” explained Hernandez.

Hernandez told attendees that to act as the salt of the earth, we “ought to be able to be equipped to recognize, identify, and then refute, tear down, destroy the stronghold[s]” in our culture.

He taught attendees about the dominant strongholds in our culture: relativism, which says truth is relative to the person's experience or lifestyle; scientism, which says the only way to gain knowledge is through science; and naturalism, which says the physical world is all that exists. 

He said we should “pay close attention” to be able to identify strongholds and respond, but we must be careful to “destroy the stronghold, not the person.”

Hernandez concluded his session by encouraging attendees to take seriously the command of “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). 

“Let's not just preach the gospel, but learn how to defend it for his honor, his glory, his kingdom,” said Hernandez. 

How to respond to faith deconstruction

Barnett followed, teaching attendees about faith deconstruction and how to respond to those in the process. He defined deconstruction as the postmodern process of rethinking your faith without requiring Scripture as a standard. 

He explained that the “hallmark distinction between reforming your faith and deconstructing” is that reforming is “correcting your mistaken beliefs… to make them align with Scripture.” 

“Modern deconstructionists aren't reforming according to the Word of God. In many cases, they're just rejecting the Word of God altogether,” said Barnett. “Deconstruction is not reformation.” 

Barnett pointed out that the main ideas of deconstruction are that there is no correct destination and there is no end to the process. Referencing scripture, he showed attendees that Jesus says, “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14), and warns against those who are “always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:5-7). 

Barnett concluded his message by giving “an exhortation” to attendees. 

“We need to think critically, to have a solid foundation for our faith, for our beliefs,” said Barnett. “What we ought to do is, in the comfort of our churches, in our communities, in our homes, is introduce some… challenges, so that our students and our people can grow their roots down [deeper].” 

Good science “shines a light on God” 

During the afternoon breakout session, Blank attended a class titled “Good Science, Bad Science and the Christian Faith,” led by Jonathan Cooper, Biology Department chair and associate professor of Biology at DBU, and Dongjae Jun, associate professor of Biology at DBU. The session taught attendees how “Christianity motivates good science” in how and why science is studied and applied. Attendees also heard about the history of “bad science.” 

Blank learned that “science does more to prove God's word and the truth of Scripture than it does to disprove it.” 

“If you look at how [Jun] talked about how dark Darwin's science was and that if it's truly good science, it's going to glorify God, whereas bad science is inherently evil,” explained Blank. “Good science is truly something that shines a light on God more than it talks about how everything that we know to be true isn't.” 

“Modeling repentance” for deconstructing loved ones 

In the fifth and final session, Childers continued the conversation on deconstruction by giving attendees practical steps on ministering to those who are deconstructing. She encouraged attendees that if they’ve had a bad reaction to a loved one sharing with them that they are deconstructing, “the best thing” they can do is “model repentance."

“You're not all-powerful… Just keep praying, keep going. It’s not on you,” said Childers. “Maybe you showing them the love of Jesus in that situation can be the best apologetic that exists.” 

She gave attendees some principles to help them do this: pray, stay calm and stay in their life, do some triage (assess the most urgent need), set boundaries and respect others. She encouraged them to “live the beauty of the gospel out in front of [loved ones] and trust that God is sovereign and he's up to something that we may not see.”

Blank learned that it is possible to stay in someone’s life who is currently deconstructing and how important it is to live out the gospel as you interact with and serve them. 

“Much more” to learn about apologetics 

“I’ve realized how little I know [about apologetics] and how much more I have to learn,” said Blank. “I feel like I'm not going to look fully ill-equipped when somebody asks me questions… I can actually have an answer, and I can have that solid conversation with them [where] they actually feel like they can trust what I have to say.”

Attendee Lisa Fellows came to [un]Apologetic “as a curious person” upon invitation from a friend and said she learned that “there are a lot more facets to apologetics” than she realized.

The conference closed with a Q&A Panel featuring the keynote speakers.

The next [un]Apologetic Evangelism Conference is scheduled for Oct. 18 at First Baptist Church Richardson. To learn more about apologetics, access resources, and register for the next conference, visit txb.org/unapologetic.