Always Be Ready To Explain It (V)
“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.” (1 Peter 3:15)
In our ongoing series on Apologetics, we take a look at arguments against our faith and discuss ways we can respond to them. Douglas Adams, an English writer most notably known for his science-fiction book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was a self-described “radical atheist.” He once famously asked, “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” Discussing this quote, author, apologist, and professor of mathematics, Dr. John Lennox asked, “When you see a garden, don’t you assume a gardener?” Adams’ question is meant to demean and diminish our God and our faith, but if we don’t rise to the insult and instead stay loving and logical, as Dr. Lennox did, we can easily see how the insult doesn’t even hold up because the example of a garden to deny the exist of God is a self-defeating choice. Any person with any logic or reason at all upon seeing a beautifully manicured garden would instinctively assume a gardener. And we do have a Gardener; in fact, it was a garden God planted as a place for man to live in the beginning.
“Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.” (Genesis 2:8)
When Jesus first appeared to Mary after rising from the grave, she mistook Him for the gardener.
“‘Dear woman, why are you crying?’ the angels asked her.
‘Because they have taken away my Lord,’ she replied, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. ‘Dear woman, why are you crying?’ Jesus asked her. ‘Who are you looking for?’ She thought he was the gardener. ‘Sir,’ she said, ‘if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.’” (John 20:13-15)
Mary wasn’t entirely wrong; Jesus is indeed the Gardener, the Creator and Keeper of our universe. This universe is so fine-tuned that anyone with any logic and reason would conclude that there must be a Creator. If you come across a non-believer who tries to insult your faith with their doubt or question, do not lower yourself to the insults; remain above them and stay loving and logical. Consider what their argument is really saying because oftentimes, it undoes itself. Can we see that a garden is beautiful? Yes. Can we understand that the beauty of the garden points to the Gardener? Absolutely.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
—Redeemed
