The Failure of Apologetics
Ravi Zacharias and the defense of Christian faith
As a student at the University of Florida in the early 90s, I was involved in Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru). The ministry grew during my time at UF and I became a leader. It became my primary community both spiritually and socially at a campus of 50,000 students and where I met my future wife.
Outside of developing lifetime friendships and setting the course for my family to come, Cru was the proving grounds for my developing faith in Jesus. After growing up in a Christian home, I had a stark epiphany the summer before leaving for college: from here on, following Jesus was up to me.
An early challenge from Cru was learning how to share my faith with others. This was generally not something introverts are naturally drawn to, especially freshmen introverts at a large university. Yet, there I found myself on the Plaza of the Americas in front of a random dude stumbling my way through the four spiritual laws with the help of an older leader.
“But, I’m an atheist!”
At that point in my life, I had never met an honest-to-goodness atheist. Sure, there were plenty of functional atheists and agnostics that I knew from high school. But no one ever said, “Hey, I don’t really believe in God.” It just wasn’t discussed. Not…
