Suppose you are in a boxing match and that you decide the best way to win is to not throw any attacks but to really focus on defence – so that you never get hit. Suppose also that you are able to deflect 90% of your opponent’s punches. Not bad. The only problem is that if your opponent throws one hundred punches and you deflect 90% of them, you still miss ten punches. You get hit ten times, and your opponent is hit none – not cool! But, what if the roles were reversed? That wouldn’t be so bad. You hit him occasionally, but never get hit yourself.
Learning to defend your faith is a lot like this. We seem to have it somewhere in our minds that what we need to do is to answer the arguments people bring up against Christianity. Why not instead go on the offensive and bring up our own arguments in favor of Christianity? After all, isn’t the best defence a good offence? If we can show that there are good reasons to believe in Christianity, we will put the other person on the defensive, which is a much harder position to be in. No one can block all the attacks that come in or answer all the objections to Christianity. That is why it is important that we train ourselves to have a good offence.
