What Is Psychological Apologetics?
Psychological Apologetics Defined
Psychological Apologetics argues that Christianity is true from the psychological makeup of man.
Other apologetics start with the scientific evidence for God, the historical reliability of the Bible, or rational arguments for God from reason. What’s different with Psychological Apologetics is that it doesn’t speak to our intellect. But instead, it appeals to our heart, to our will.
I think we can put the argument from Psychological Apologetics in at least two forms. And I’ll explain how both of these forms have had a big impact on me personally as I go.
Psychological Apologetics Argument, Form 1
Form 1 of the argument goes something like this:
People are broken and they’ll never truly be happy and thrive until they receive Jesus as their personal Savior.
A big part of what drew me to Jesus and the Gospel was that the Bible seemed to provide the best explanation of what was going on inside my heart. I’d use two words to describe how I felt at the time right before I got saved: broken and longing.
I was 19 and I had already been trying to fill my life with one thing after another. I would jump from surfing, to weightlifting, to playing guitar–really, whatever I could find that was fun at the time. But ultimately, I was always left with this longing for more.
But I also felt broken. I was sleeping with my girlfriend and I knew that this wasn’t honoring God. And I was heading down the wrong path.
I remember the first time I heard a pastor say there was something wrong with me.
He said that because of the fall, there’s this sinful nature inside of everyone, including me, and how from birth we long to fill our lives with the things that we think will make us happy. But apart from God, we always end up longing for more. What we really need is a relationship with God. He’s the only one that can fill this hole inside of our hearts.
And as I sat there in my chair listening, suddenly this made sense to me. And I knew that what he was saying was true. Because it spoke to my human experience–my need for God, my longing to be righteous, but continuing to do things that I knew were wrong.
I knew that the message–the Bible, Christianity–was true.
And I knew in my heart that the only way for me to be unbroken was to receive Jesus as my Savior.
Only then would I find true life and satisfaction. Only then would I be able to thrive and live the way that God intended me to live.
Psychological Apologetics Argument, Form 2
Form 2 of the argument goes something like this:
The Bible’s description of man is the most accurate one we have. Therefore, Christianity is true.
As I grew in my walk with the Lord, I began to see that only Christianity portrays man in such an honestly hopeless state.
The public education system I grew up in told me that people were basically good. But that didn’t seem right with me.
I knew enough to know that there was something really wrong with people in this world. There were political scandals, stories about racism, kidnappings, break-ins–all kinds of problems.
And other religions told me that I can go to heaven if I’m good enough.
But I knew that I’m not able to be good enough. I also knew what it was like to be addicted to sin, to keep doing something that I didn’t want to do. But I didn’t have a choice. I was spiritually miserable.
Only the Bible–only Jesus–told me that I’m a mess, and that the only way to heaven is simply to receive and rest in His finished work–and that only by abiding in him could I bear much fruit and be the kind of person that God wants me to be.
This is the most accurate description of me that I’d ever heard. Therefore, I knew that Christianity was true.
Takeaways
1. We need to be more aware of this important apologetic.
Half the people in my research say that this had an impact on their conversion, and it still does. So this is a really important approach, and we should want to learn more about it.
2. We should use Psychological Apologetics because it’s effective.
Appealing to the inner spiritual needs of every person is a legitimate way to convince people that Christianity is true. There’s a place for evidence and reason, but also for this method which appeals to our human experience.
3. It means that more people are into apologetics than we thought.
Without even knowing it, many people use Psychological Apologetics to try to convince people that Christianity is true.