Richard Hollerman

You may think that this is a strange question, but it must be asked in light of the current situation. In Proverbs 23:23 (NASB) we read: “Buy truth, and do not sell it. Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.” In other words, truth is valuable and should be sought with all of our might and we must never part from it.

We might also ask (in light of this) what is the value of “apologetics”?

“What is apologetics? Apologetics is quite literally defense of the faith; the Greek word apologia means “defense” as a lawyer gives at a trial. In every generation, people face the challenges, questions, and concerns of the gospel’s message of the Christian faith.” (Google)

From this, we can see that apologetics (as it has been defined in this way), is important—very important. It is the lifeblood of our life in Christ and of the truth of the gospel and the Word of God. As Jesus declared, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). All lies of the enemy must go. All the rational but false of society around us must fall!

When we think of this subject, we are aware that there are nine billion people on this earth. This incredible number, scattered into multitudinous number of cultures, colors, languages, and societies on earth. They are composed of many people, usually larger than one hundred but most or nearly all of them, will go to the fires of Hades. We know that this “flies in the face” of popular culture and earnest sensibilities, thus people will object to the fact that others will generally be sent to hell, but we know that this is true! We must remember that Jesus is the one who taught “hell” more than anyone else.

Thus, we must reluctantly say that people from around the world will be eternally cast off from God. They will be sent away from Him forever. See especially 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Matthew 13:36-50; 25:31-36; Revelation14:9-11.

We can see that “apologetics” or the science of apologetics will show that most of the world population is not only wrong –but also lost. As hard as it is, we must reluctantly say that the religion of most people will result in eternal destruction or eternal punishment (God uses a variety of terms). When we look at religion around us, we must come to this sad conclusion.

For example, (and this would merely be examples) Hinduism (with 330 million different gods and three main ones) would result in hell. Likewise, Buddhism would result in eternal hell. We know that these religions would not be interested in God’s Word or His revelation in Scripture. But this would be true, nonetheless.

The same would be true of other world religions; Taoism, Shintoism, Baha’i, Confucianism, Islam, for instance. We know that many of these religions, although they may be large, would be wrong, according to the truth of God (found in Scripture). Of course, atheism and agnosticism would be totally wrong.

But not only would these religions be wrong, but what about Christianity? If we were not to include the 1.3 million Catholics (we do have other articles dealing with this false religion), what about the remaining millions of professing Christians? It has been said that there are perhaps 30,000 people worldwide who profess Christianity, and even 3,000 of these are in America! Surely, most of them have never been saved or are not savdr now. It hurts to say this but we must be honest regarding of the consequences.

When we look at the world population of nine billion, we know that plainly, the vast majority of them have never been saved or converted. They are lost. They do not know God through Christ Jesus. What of the Adventists? What of the Mormons? What of the Witnesses? What of the Anglicans, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Reformed or Calvinists, or the Orthodox of the various kinds? We must say that unless they have come to God through Jesus Christ, they are without hope. They are lost.

So you can see what keeps me up at night and what makes me ultra-concerned! Here are people, living and breathing people, who are like you and me. They have families, they have jobs, they eat and sleep, and they carry on their day-to-day life. But as we have seen, these people are without hope and are lost. They may live 50 or even 100 years, but they will be eternally cast off without hope, if they do not know God. And if they have rejected the true and living God.

The truth will be the only solution now and forever. Read John 1-17, and see what we mean. Although these dear people may be religious, and we love them greatly, we know that religion cannot save a person. Only truth can and these people cannot be saved apart from God, apart from Christ Jesus, and apart from the truth that would set them free!