In the twenty first century, the accurate use of apologetics will prove to be the “making” or the “breaking” of most pastors, church leaders and theologians. The Christian faith and its fellowshipping community have accepted an entirely different posture in the global community during the last two decades than it ever had previously to that. Some theologians blame the rise of post-modernism and the most recent up surge of Gnosticism for this positional phenomenon.

Other church leaders recognize that while post-modernism and Gnosticism are definitely contributing factors, it is also because those who claim to be Christians have not prepared ourselves properly for the defensive posture that they have been placed into by a morally and ethically declining secular culture and society. The minimal need for a strong apologetic core in the Christian community of faith that existed fifty years ago now screams for renewal and an increase in numbers so as to adequately face the foundational challenges confronting the Christian faith and its belief systems.

The spiritual alarm clock is buzzing. Hopefully many will arise to the call. God has given those who desire to serve the Christian faith an ability to “defend” the faith with the real practical, logical, sensible informational tools that God has already established in the hearts of those who have studied His Word and have learned the patterns of thought and practice in the Society and culture in which they now live.

Decades and centuries ago, our experience in the use of apologetics was generally limited to the intense corners of sacred or secular academia. The general public readily accepted the bishop or the clergyman’s answer to their question about God, the Bible and productive faith as an acceptable authority.

While inflamed pockets of academia rose up to challenge the beliefs and even the historicity of the Christian faith, their external damage outside of the academic community was somewhat limited and generally did not ultimately challenge the viability of the “Christian” faith and the existence of the church in the acceptable sociological framing of the its community.                    

Today in the 21^st century, the story has changed quite radically. This technological era has opened up a vast array of information and challenging discussions into the offices and living rooms of our businesses and homes. Not only has television bombarded our society with the liberal media press yielding a blow by blow account of our morally decaying culture in its hourly programming, but the internet and the increasing popular social media have also opened the door for a dichotomy of debatable sound bites and antagonistic challenges.

Anyone with an internet connection can “Google” virtually any topic and come up with hundreds of web sites, search engines and blogs on that subject. This process yields an overwhelming variety of optional descriptions and opinions on any given subject.

Included in these options would be those of faith, religion and truth, be it relative or absolute. Information is now more readily accessible than it has been in any other age. The apologetic debates formerly confined to the lecture halls of both conservative and liberal educational institutions can now appear on the screen of your computer or even on your phone, should you so desire. There are no prerequisites for the general public to engage them in.

The irony that obviously exists in the post-modern global community is that any form of organized institutionalism is generally diminished in value more than it ever has been. Traditional educational systems are being more and more compressed by time and content. Some educational institutes are not even tangible locations. They are experienced entirely on line.   

Institutions have to prove their own validity through rigorous forms of accreditation. Yet, when someone wants to fortify a position that they willingly choose to support, the first place they go is to some format of recognized institutional academia.