Truth Unites - Should Christians Argue For Their Faith Differently Now?

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

Gavin Ortlund explains why arguments still matter in apologetics and how Christians can use them with greater sensitivity, creativity, and effectiveness.Order my new book here!:https://www.amazon.com/Why-Christianity-Makes-Sense-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0GRGLZHGN/truthunitesbo-20Truth Unites (https://truthunites.org) exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites, Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at Phoenix Seminary, and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.SUPPORT:Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunitesFOLLOW:Website: https://truthunites.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truth.unites/X: https://x.com/gavinortlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/

Those of us who follow Jesus want to be prepared to share our faith effectively. And it's a really exciting time to do that right now. I'm so excited to make this video. The goal is to sort of spread excitement about talking about the gospel right now, evangelizing our friends, sharing the hope of Christ with people. But it's different now than five years ago. There are unique pressures against us. So in this video, let's ask two questions.

Number one, should we use arguments right now? Or is apologetics a thing of the past? Apologetics means defending your faith. And number two, if so, how should we use arguments differently right now? There's a different way to go about arguments. I hope you'll stay to the end and I'll give some examples from my own book, which is coming out this week as of recording this video. So I want to give three reasons why Christians should use arguments,

and then five suggestions on how to go about it. I hope you'll stay for those five. You'll actually almost maybe the word argument isn't even the right word for what I'm trying to talk about here. Reason number one to use arguments. It's what Christians have always done. To the extent that we completely abandon apologetics and argumentation for the truth of Christianity, we are becoming eccentric.

We're going where no one really has gone or no large-scale time of church history. The church fathers made appeals to design of the universe and fulfilled prophecy in the Bible. Medieval theologians gave us these amazing arguments like contingency and the ontological argument and others. Modern Christians like Blaise Pascal appealed to miracles, eyewitness testimony, even what I call the argument from the human predicament, which is going to be my major research project in 2007. But in the Bible as well, although we don't have formal logical syllogisms, we do find Christians reasoning for the truth of Christianity. Just to put some examples up from the Apostle Paul in the Book of Acts, I'll leave these up for a second, and you can see both in Jewish contexts in the synagogues and also in pagan contexts, he is reasoning with people about the truth of Jesus. He's not just proclaiming. He's reasoning. That's a great word. The word reasoning there.

Now, in the pagan contexts, you saw what I tried to emboldened there. If not, I'll put it there in the edits. The Ariopagus of Acts 17, and then the Hall of Tyrannus. We don't know much about the Hall of Tyrannus, but this seems to be this place for public discussion, where perhaps during the hottest hours of the day, people would go and they would listen to ideas. Similarly, in Acts 17. This is a place where you can see these public debates and discussions, and Paul goes there. I'll put up a painting of Acts 17. Can you imagine listening to Paul in that context, fascinating? The point is, Paul went to places of high visibility and public discussion and reasoned for the truth of the gospel. Great question for us to think about today. What is our Hall of Tirannus?

What is our Ariapagus for the church as a whole and then in my own individual life? What does it look like for me to go right now into a place of public visibility and reason for the truth of the gospel. I know there's dangers with this, too, of course. We'll talk about that, but we also don't want to abandon our posts as the church because people need the gospel right now, more than ever. The second reason to use arguments is that God uses arguments, and he uses arguments in different ways for both Christians and for non-Christians, both to convince and to fortify, okay, to draw the unbeliever and to help the believer. You've probably heard the saying,

you can't argue someone into the kingdom, and that is completely true. And there's, of course, I'm very sensitive to this. This is why I'm making this video, actually. We'll get to the five ways to do arguments. Arguments can be deployed very clumsily, very arrogantly, very uncharitably. All that's valid.

But that doesn't mean the Holy Spirit doesn't use arguments. God is so gracious that he reveals himself at all different levels of the world. including at the rational level, and if God is sought at that level through a humble, diligent pursuit, he can be found. I love Sheldon Van Ackin's account of his own conversion in the wonderful book, if you haven't read it, check it out, a severe mercy. He's been reading C.S. Lewis books, and he became a friend. He started writing letters to Lewis, and they became friends. And these

arguments in the C.S. Lewis books helped him. They moved him toward, but they didn't get him all the way. And he describes how he kind of wanted to believe, but he couldn't quite figure out how to make the leap. One night, he's sitting there on the sofa, reading one of the C.S. Lewis books, and he says, a half hour passed. I let the book fall and switched off the lamp. Gazing into the glowing coals, I wondered with a strange mixture of hope and fear, whether Christ might be in very truth, my God. Then I'll skip this, but basically he sees his wife, who just became a Christian praying next to him. Now, he's never seen his wife pray before. She just became a believer. God often works through families like this. I'll never forget baptizing one of my friends in Ohio right before we left,

and then his son got there just 10 seconds in time to see his dad get baptized, and then pretty soon, three months later, a month before we moved, his son was in the baptismal waters as well. It's awesome to see, you know, in families, one person converting off into others. But anyway, his wife, Davy is there, and she whispers to him, oh, dearest, please believe. And it says, moved almost to tears. I whispered back, oh, I do believe. I was shaken by the affirmation that swept over me. It's so interesting that for Van Aachen, on the one hand, his conversion is highly experiential. He's like, wow, I'm shaken by this that comes out.

I'm almost surprised at what happened. And right before that, he's saying, you know, I'm not sure. Is Christ my God? He's wondering, you know, it's kind of this very experiential process unfolding. But at the same time, reading C.S. Lewis arguments played a role. arguments can help clear away obstacles and defeater beliefs and pave the pathway toward faith and make that experience easier than remove problems in the pathway. Even more than that, though, here's my conviction.

About 70% of the work that I do in apologetics or more is for Christians. Arguments are not just to convince they are to fortify and strengthen. A huge demographic that needs arguments for Christianity is, young people in the church, the people in the pews right now, many of whom leave the church as they get older, as they experience their doubts and their questions are not being taken seriously and being given a compassionate and humble and careful answer. In their great book, The Great Dechurching, Jim Davis and Mike Graham, talk about, and this is a few years old now, but it's still helpful to remember this, this massive sea change. The loss of church attendance

from about 1990 to about 2020, about 40 million people, 15% of the U.S. population stopped going to church. That's not the same thing as deconversion, but we also see a huge rise in deconversion. The percentage of religiously unaffiliated people goes from roughly 5% to 30%, from 1 out of 20 saying, I don't have a religion, to 1 out of 3 that's in the U.S. Now, a lot of those people who are leaving are young people. who grew up in the church. So, and they had concerns and objections that were not addressed. Some of those concerns are intellectual questions and doubts.

And so this is a huge area for apologetics, not just to reach people, but also to serve our people who are currently in the church, especially our young people. By the way, one encouraging note, those trends have slowed down. Since 2020, Christians have remained around 60 to 64% of the population among adults. the religiously unaffiliated has stayed right there somewhere on 30 percent and there's a lot of young people coming to church and so I'm always saying right now is a great time for evangelism, for apologetics, for being bold about the gospel, including with people in our very church pews. Third reason to use arguments is that arguments can touch both the heart and the mind.

We usually think of arguments as addressing just our intellect, but a lot of this has to do with how we use them, which is what I'm about to get to, arguments can be done in a way to appeal to our mind as well as our imagination, our emotions, and our deep-seated intuitions about how life should work. Just to give one example of this, it's kind of personal for me. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on Anselm's proslogion, and then my first academic book was then a refurbished version of my dissertation. And this is the book where you get the so-called ontological argument for God's existence. And I've always been fascinated by this argument. I did another round of study on this before my dialogue with Joe Schmidt a year or so ago.

Now, I would never use this argument to try to coerce someone from atheism to theism, but I still think it has tremendous value. For example, in just elucidating the concept of God, and that's what it's done in my own life. And I'll never forget I was in 11th grade sitting at the airport, reading through a modal version from Alvin Plantaga of this argument. argument, reading through the syllogism, thinking, surely you can't prove that God exists. From just the idea of God in your mind, couldn't prove the syllogism wrong, didn't know. What am I missing here? Half an hour looking at this syllogism, thinking something's got to give, but I don't see what it is.

And this is the enduring nature of this throughout Western philosophy, I think, should encourage people not to dismiss it too quickly. There's more here than meets the eye. Honestly, the ontological argument moves me to worship, because it impresses, on my mind the uniqueness of God. It helps me understand. This is what you find is you get even some of the other arguments like the contingency argument. You're arguing that God is, but in the context of that, there's this corollary kickback benefit and that you understand who God is more clearly. And there's a whole stream of sort of mystical interpretations of the proslogion that follow in that train of thought.

I've got to do a long video on the pro slogion someday. All right. So there's some reasons to give arguments. Now, let's develop this a little bit. What does it look like to use arguments right now with sensitivity to psychology and culture and everything we find around us? Number one, speak to the ache within. Blaise Pascal famously said, and I always cite this, but I think it's worth reiterating, there are two ultimate questions in life, meaning and death. What are we doing here?

What happens when it's over? And if people are thinking about meaning and death, then apologetics is a lot easier. You know, the religiosity in the room increases if you just mention the word death. There have been studies on that. But if people are not thinking about meaning and death, then apologetics is like trying to feed a toddler who isn't hungry. And the problem is most people aren't thinking about meaning and death and the ultimate questions of life. Like, is there a transcendent hope for anything? Because we're so distracted and we're so busy, and this is Pascal's whole point, of course.

We find creative ways to distract ourselves from the ultimate question. So for apologetics today, using arguments, we need to find creative ways to invite our friends to slow down and consider ultimate questions, and then we present arguments that are in response to the deep-seated longings of the human heart. Now, this is what I tried to do in my book, Why Christianity Makes Sense. I poured my heart into this book more than any other thing I've ever written. And what I'm trying to do, I start off the whole book with this motif of what I call the ache, this longing in the human heart for something that we can't quite put in the way. the words. And what I do is I pull together a bunch of different classical arguments, but I use them to try to tell a story, come to that next, but also to speak to the ache and the human heart. So, for example, when I'm giving a contingency argument, I end the chapter with this metaphor of imagine you've been in a living in a cave all your life. You've never seen waterfalls

and sunsets and trees. You've never seen the daylight. And then you break out of the cave when you discover. There's a whole world out there. And I'm saying that's what it should. feel like to be convinced of an uncaused cause of the world. You should make the emotional implications of this thread of reasoning real to actual human need. And so then I close the whole chapter saying this, it is this thrill of discovery that I hope the cosmological argument impresses upon you. It offers an account of the world around us, why this vast expanse of space and stars is here, but it also speaks to the ache within. It's whispering that there is more. You are Hamlet. Shakespeare is out there. You are the man from the dungeon or the cave.

There are worlds you've never known. In fact, the man from the dungeon might eventually run out of forests and mountains to explore, but an uncaused cause could mean infinities and eternities beyond all fathoming. Is there anything more enthralling than the idea of God? I try to do the same thing in Chapter 5 with the moral argument, and I try to appeal to moral feelings. Because usually when people make a moral argument for God, they're just appealing to the objectivity of morality. And in the book, I point out, there's a lot more for morality to do than simply be objective. And I say objectivities like the skeleton, but there's organ and tissue as well. And basically what I'm trying to get into is moral feelings and moral experiences and then say, what explains these the best? And there's a lot

to morality more than just its objectivity. And it's kind of pathetic if a moral argument doesn't touch the heart. I mean, good versus evil is about as emotional as it gets. And we should make that clear to people because we're not evangelizing robots. We're evangelizing human beings. Second, use arguments narratively. That means in the connection to a story. Stories are how all human cultures make sense of the world. It's been observed that there have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories. Stories really resonate with modern people right now who feel lost in the world, because stories are basically how human beings get a grip on reality.

It's how you get some bearings on meaning and a vision of the whole. So you tell stories to make sense of the world. Arguments don't have to be isolated premises and a conclusion. Arguments can be used to tell a story about the world. And this has at least three advantages. In my older book, I give seven. But here's three advantages to using our arguments in a narrative frame. Number one, they work better cumulatively, fitting together like puzzle pieces.

You can build from, you know, contingency to fine-tuning in a more organic way, as opposed to having two just separate arguments. Second, arguments in a narrative frame give you more space to address the problem of evil, which is the greatest objection of all time to religious belief, and the problem of divine hiddenness, which is the most cutting edge current objection. I have several videos about that, and it's a chapter in the book as well. And arguments give you a little more space. Actually, those objections fits more naturally within a narrative frame, and there's

some traction there to make a response. But third, and here's the point I want to emphasize, arguments in a narrative frame are more invitational. So you could think of it like this. Purely propositional arguments are a way. of saying, here's a truth claim, take it or leave it. Narrativeal arguments are a way of saying something more like, here's a truth claim, see if this resonates. Or to use another metaphor, a purely propositional argument can feel like it can be experienced by the other party,

like a shepherd's crook grabbing you and dragging you in a certain direction. Now, there's a place for propositional arguments, of course, but I'm talking about our overall emphasis in Christian witness right now. A narratival argument can feel less like a shepherd's crook and more like a home to inhabit. In using arguments in a more narratival way, which will mean, as I say, more cumulative and modest way for each argument, it can be like inviting someone, come out of the cold, sit here by the fire, kick your feet up, and see how this works for you. It is best. It can feel like that. So what might that look like? Well, in why Christianity makes sense. What I, do is the first two chapters are just trying to get people's attention by saying, here's why you should

really be curious about religion. Then chapters three through five, I give three arguments for God's existence, contingency, fine-tuning, and the moral argument. Then in chapter six, I'm going to move on from God to Jesus. So here's how I open the chapter. Quote, thus far we've considered that God may explain the origin, meaning, and drama of the world. These are three foundational pillars of a good story. We might say that if God exists, our world is like a story. It has an author, a cause, a plan, design, and a conflict, morality. But there is one more element common to every story, hope. Stories work, not just because of conflict and drama, but because the conflict ultimately resolves. And then I give a bunch of examples like Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star,

Marty McFly making it back to 1985, and so forth. People are always fascinated about the example of movies I choose, just trying to choose some iconic ones there. And then, of course, I go on to Christ as the hope of the Christian story. This is one way that we can use arguments like this. Telling a story helps us kind of thread them together in this way. That's one way you can do it. Three, use historical arguments, not just philosophical arguments. Now, I love philosophy, but sometimes we overfocus there. Apologetics mainly becomes, about philosophical arguments. We should also use historical arguments because right now there is a deep nostalgia in human hearts for rootedness and belonging. And Christianity is a historical

religion that uniquely touches that longing in its own particular kind of way. You think of the doctrine of the incarnation, for example, and how that dignifies human history. There are all kinds of arguments that can touch this need in the human heart, but my favorite is the argument from fulfilled prophecy. I wonder if this is a neglected argument these days, and I have chapter 8 in my book. I wasn't planning on writing a chapter on fulfilled prophecy. I got into the book, and I thought, this kind of rounds out the other two arguments I make about Jesus in chapter six and seven and gives some context to it narratively. And I think, you know, the way I approach a fulfilled prophecy argument is more abductive, meaning an inference to the best explanation. So I'm less saying,

here's 500 arguments which are obviously fulfilled in Jesus and more like saying can you see the coherence to the unfolding biblical story and I think this is a huge opportunity for Christians uniquely because unlike most other religions our holy book comes in two basic installments what we call the Old Testament and the New Testament so you can see a movement from promise to fulfillment there, and it honestly is pretty intriguing. And in the book, I go through Isaiah 53 and Daniel 9 in these amazing texts. I think that's a cool area for Christian argumentation right now, depending on how you do it. Number four, we can use arguments to address goodness and beauty, not just truth. The Greek philosophers spoke of the three transcendentals, the good, the true,

and the beautiful. Christians have historically put reflection on all three. The gospel must be seen to be all three. But sometimes in our apologetics, we focus just on truth. Now, the great Roman Catholic theologian Hans Erz von Balthasar has developed a theology of beauty more than perhaps anyone else. And what he argued is that in the modern world, truth without beauty is utterly powerless. Listen to these amazing words. In a world that no longer has confidence in itself to affirm the beautiful, the proofs of the truth have lost their cogency. In other words, syllogisms may still dutifully clatter away like rotary presses or computers, which infallibly spew out an exact number of answers by the minute. But the logic of these answers is itself a mechanism which no longer captivates

anyone. And that that word captivates is my great interest in apologetics. What a great word. The other word I like is enchanting. I want an argument for Christianity that captivates and is enchanting because Christianity itself calls for that because it's such a beautiful story. And this is why I spent two chapters in this book addressing moral concerns with the Bible, because a lot of people, so I talk about slavery and violence in the Bible. For many people, the deepest question is not about truth. It's, is Christianity really good? And very happily, we can make a good case on those things, I believe, despite the great sins that Christians have committed. On the whole, yes, Christianity has been very good for the world. And we can make that case and you can

see those chapters where I, to some extent, get into that. Lastly, here we're thinking about how to use arguments right now in 2006, 2007, and going forward, aim for plausibility, not certainty. This is the theme of the novel I'm writing right now, by the way, trust over certainty. But in our apologetics, this is useful as well. So often in our arguments, we falsely think that we must maneuver another person to certainty. No. So often we're just putting a pebble in their shoe, just wanting to keep them thinking. So often, not even probability, but just basic plausibilities, what you need. And this takes some of the pressure off of us. In my book, it's got 12 chapters. The first 11 chapters, I'll put a link to this in the video description if you want to get a copy. It's just releasing right

now as I'm recording this video. The first 11 chapters of my book are just trying to get the reader to 50% or more probability for Christianity. That's it. I believe that's enough to make chapter 12 actionable, which is about Pascal's wager. It's not helpful in my view when Christian apologetics makes it sound like anybody who doesn't accept our conclusion is being either stupid or stubborn. Not so. These issues are complicated. We should be more careful in making that judgment. We don't want to give the impression that this is obvious and easy. That's just not even biblical. faith is hard. The people of God sometimes struggle with doubts. So with that said, two final reminders that flow out of that and all these points. Number one, when Christians use arguments, let us use

the gentleness and respect of Christ Himself as 1st Peter 315 commands us. Christian apologetics and arguments should flow out of a heart that is enamored with Christ. Your honoring Christ the Lord is holy in your heart. People are asking you about that and you have an opportunity to do so, but you do it with gentleness and respect. And this is a huge need on the internet right now, as I'm always talking about. Let's put it like this. If the other party doesn't feel love,

they will likely not hear the message. Last point, if you yourself are still struggling with the truth of Christianity, maybe you're wondering, how do I, like Sheldon Van Auk, and cross over that threshold, and it's hard to do, and many of us have been there.

We get that. Place your ultimate hope in the character of God. God is always more kind than you imagine. If the Christian message is true, then God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross for you. God became a baby and then was tortured to show you that's how much he loves you. So if that's God's character, then he's not looking to trick you. And if you sincerely seek him, you will find him. Just say this.

Go to the deepest recesses of your heart and pray from their. From that deepest place of sincerity, seek God, I promise you. He will not leave you there alone and forsaken. To that end, here's a final quote from the last chapter of my book. This is why sincerity and courage are so important. The pathway to God will involve, amidst all these other activities, bringing your deepest ache to God. And even then, it will not be easy.

Seeking God is known walk in the park. This is the deepest and profoundest quality of our lives. Happily, there is a promise that attends our effort. draw near to God and he will draw near to you, James 4.8. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, Jeremiah 29-13. Will you test this promise? Will you seek God with all your heart and persist in doing so and then see what happens? My dear friend, I promise you, you will eventually find the one you seek. He is not far from you even now, feel your way toward him.