Beware of Vain Philosophy

Since the Holy Spirit is the One who converts hearts, should we even bother presenting to people a reasoned defense of the Christian faith? Today, R.C. Sproul expresses the value of apologetics in our interaction with unbelievers.

As Reformed thinkers, we believe that nobody comes to Christ and is converted until first God the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of their soul. All of the arguments and all of the reasoning and all of the testimonies that we bring to bear in Christian outreach will be to no avail unless or until God, the Holy Spirit, brings the increase, unless He changes the heart of the hearer. So, though apologetics is a task that is given to us and we are to be responsible in the handling of the truth claims of Christianity—it’s the situation that Paul speaks of where we may plant the seed and somebody else may water it—but only God can bring the increase.

Now, some people believe that since it is the Holy Spirit’s task to convert and not our task, since it’s beyond the realm of our power, people say, “Well, then we don’t need to be engaged in a defense of Christianity. In fact, to give arguments for the truth of Christianity, to give reasons for our faith would be in fact to undermine the spiritual work of God, the Holy Spirit.” I hear Christians all the time saying, “I don’t want to study philosophy because I don’t want to get in the way of the Holy Ghost. And the Bible says, ‘Beware of vain philosophy.’ “ And I say to those people, how in the world can you be aware of something that you’re not first aware of? And if you’re unaware of these pagan philosophies, sometimes you can be seduced by them and be sent in the wrong direction as Christians because you haven’t paid attention to what’s going on.