Apologetic method is the outworking of one’s theological commitments or presuppositions. Since apologetics entails a defense of the message from God directed to human beings, it logically follows that one’s beliefs about the nature of God, the nature of God’s message, and the nature of the target audience of God’s message, human beings, would serve to inform the method by which such beliefs are defended. Hence, there is an indelible relationship between apologetic method and one’s view of God, man, and the gospel. The only alternative is the obvious presence of inconsistency between a person’s apologetic method and their basic theological commitments. However, the conscientious Christian will always seek to avoid such inconsistencies.
Since it is safe to assume that any reasonable person, and especially a Christian, would always seek consistency in their arguments, it is easy to conclude that if for no other reason, apologetic method matters because consistency in one’s apologetic model matters. But lets place that aside for a moment assuming that any reasonable person would read it and respond with a hearty, Amen!
Since apologetics seeks to defend Christian claims about God, it is important that the apologist understand the nature of the God that Christianity claims actually exists. What sort of being is he? For example, if an apologist were to deny the doctrine of God’s omnipotence, we would have to ask how that might impact his apologetic model along with any objections he might encounter from those who reject that such a being as the sort of God he claims exists, actually exists. For example, if God exists and God is omnipotent or, all powerful, why is there evil and suffering in the world? How the apologist answers this question is critically important to the defense of the common confession of the Christian community. Perhaps God is omnipotent, but maybe he is malevolent. Maybe that is why there is evil in the world. Or, maybe God is omnipotent but he is not very organized and evil was able to enter in while God was distracted or preoccupied.
If the unbeliever claims that God must be malevolent, the Christian apologist will of course reject this characterization of God. Why? Because the Christian God is perfectly and infinitely good according to the basic tenets of Christian belief. To say that God is malevolent is a blatant contradiction of the Christian claim that this sort of God and only this sort of God actually exists. So if God is omnipotent and if God is perfectly good, then perhaps it is true that God is not the most organized of beings. After all, being all powerful and being perfectly good have nothing to do with one’s organizational skills. True.
The Christian apologist will reject the hypothesis that God was just not organized enough to keep evil out of the world. Why? Well, because the sort of God the Christian apologist claims exists is omniscient. That is to say, he knows all things, possesses all knowledge so that his knowledge of everything is without limit and is infinitely perfect. This sort of God would know how to keep evil out of the world. Now, the unbeliever is getting a clearer picture of the sort of God that the Christian apologist claims exists. He is the sort of being that is without limits in his knowledge, his power, and his goodness. He is perfect in every way. So then, the unbeliever will say; yet evil exists! How is such a state of affairs possible? The typical Christian apologist is going to respond that God has given human beings free-will and that is precisely what accounts for why there is evil in the world. So, the sort of world that exists is a world in which evil exists and evil exists in this world not because of any deficiency in God, but rather, because of the free choices of human beings.