Apologetic Method Important?

The White Horse Inn recently did a questionnaire at a "Pastor's Conference". The clip I have linked to asks different pastors and their wives about the best way to proclaim the Gospel.

The Gospel is now become a morally good way to live your life. This is obviously reflected in much preaching today (if it can be called that). Joel Osteen is a prime example. Osteen almost always preaches about some kind of twelve-step program to improve your life. Hence, most pastors in the clip speak about proclaiming the Gospel as simply living your life. We just need to build relationships.

Arguing is however out of the question. It is often said that men are never argued into the Kingdom. I beg to differ. I once had an atheist argue with me that the bible was not trust-worthy. He was always telling me to "prove it". By the end of the conversation, he simply had no leg to stand on. Did I convert him? No. Did I bring him to a place that his objections against the Gospel were a "moral problem" within himself? Yes.

If the man had converted to Christ through feelings, then that man will become unconverted through feelings in time as well. The mind must be able to comprehend the Gospel in some fashion, for it is a faculty of the soul.

He may have not been converted instantly, but he at least had no intellectual objections. Although I am sure he has come up with new ones. So why keep proclaiming a Gospel through arguments, because the Apostles did.

How often did Paul say to Christians, evangelize by living your godly life? How often did Paul say, let's just relate them into the Kingdom? Although these things may be important, Paul rarely went into a synagogue and said, "OK, I am a Christian, now watch my life." Instead Paul and all the other Apostles went and proclaimed a risen Messiah. They demonstrated the Gospel in the power of the Spirit through sound historical arguments and fulfilled Biblical prophecy and propositional Scriptural teaching.

Osteen can give moralistic sermons. Saying, "I know Jesus lives because He lives in me", may be great for Mormons and their burning bosom. Personal experience may be great for the post-modern mind. But they all are sub-Biblical and un-Biblical ways to evangelize.

Christians need to understand the apologetic method of the Apostles. It was the God ordained means of evangelizing men in the first century. Men's needs are the same now as they were then. Therefore whether we are friends or not, whether they "feel" God or not, Christians must be consistent in following the prescribed method that the Apostles gave us.