I have a bit of a different day job; I train U.S. Air Force aircrew members to fly the combat rescue and special operations versions of the C-130J. We don’t just teach them to fly the airplane, but also how to employ the plane against the enemy. If we only train them to fly the airplane they won’t be equipped to perform the mission. Likewise, if we don’t prepare them to defend against the threats they could face we would be remiss in our job. Not only would they not know how to complete their mission, but they would be at great risk of becoming casualties.
Christian parents have a similar responsibility to their kids. In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us that we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God”. Again in 2 Corinthians we are told that “we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”.
As parents we need to teach our kids not only what Christianity is, but also how to share their faith by evangelizing others and to prepare for the attacks of the world against Christianity. If we fail to train our kids, they could become casualties in the spiritual warfare they will face. That’s where apologetics can be useful.
Apologetics as Offense and Defense
After my students go through their initial qualification on basic operation of the airplane, we began teaching them Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs). This is their mission qualification; the “how to” of flying the airplane to complete the mission. They learn things like night vision goggle low level, airdrops, helicopter aerial refueling, receiver aerial refueling, and blacked-out landings among many other skill sets.
Once our kids learn the basic gospel message and Christian doctrines, their “initial qualification”, we should begin to train them in apologetics as part of our TTPs of evangelism. Not only do they need to be able to explain the Gospel, they need to understand the evidences that support their worldview. For example, the Argument from Design, Moral Argument, Cosmological Argument, and philosophical and historical evidences that point to God and the truth of the Bible.
Once my students begin learning how to perform the mission, we need to teach them about various threat systems the enemy could use to attack them and prevent them from accomplishing their mission. These threats can come in the form of anti-aircraft guns, shoulder-launched IR seeking missiles, and radar guided missiles. We also train them how to use the aircraft’s defensive systems to defeat these threats.
Parents also need to educate their children on the worldview threats they could encounter as they go out into the world. They will likely be challenged by atheism, evolution, homosexuality, and transgenderism; as well as social media and the nihilism and depression often associated with it. If they aren’t properly prepared, they can be confronted with arguments that, if left unanswered, could raise doubts in their minds about the truthfulness of Christianity leading to deconstruction and deconversion. At the least it could prevent them from sharing the Gospel due to fear of being attacked, ostracized, and canceled. So, not only is apologetics part of discipleship, but it is an important part of evangelism.
Training missions
All this “book knowledge” won’t do any good unless my students learn how to implement it. My students don’t just read a book and we give them an airplane to go fly in combat. They complete dozens of simulator missions with varying mission tasking, degrees of difficulty, and threat levels. Once those are completed, they go to fly the actual airplane on additional training flights. Throughout this whole training process, there are instructors there to teach, mentor, and critique their performance. Their training culminates with a check ride where they must perform a simulated mission without instructor input to a skill level the Air Force deems necessary to safely execute the mission under real-world conditions.
For our kids, once they learn the “book knowledge”, they need to learn how to implement it through training scenarios. This training should teach them how to communicate Biblical doctrines to others, why we believe the Bible is true and why other worldviews don’t accurately describe reality. Once these lessons have been learned to a satisfactory level they should be put into practice, first in mock encounters with Christians posing as atheists or followers of other religions. When our kids are comfortable with this type of interaction, they can be exposed to real-world experiences, all under supervision of trained and experienced adults. These can take the form of mission trips to local college campuses, other religions’ places of worship, or street evangelism.
At this point we should be comfortable sending our kids out into the world fully equipped to explain the Gospel to those that need it and also able to defend their faith against the attacks of the world on their Christian faith.
What Can Parents Do?
Obviously before I could teach my students how to fly, employ, and defend the aircraft, I had to study and have experience as an Air Force aircrew member, in my case a navigator. I spent 20 years flying various airplanes in multiple situations and threat levels. Each time I moved to a new airplane, I had to study how to operate it, employ it, how its defensive systems worked. Then I put that knowledge into practice flying training or actual missions.
The Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, advised Chinese emperors and generals to “know your enemy”. As parents, we need to be prepared by studying the Bible and understanding Christian doctrines. We also need to understand other worldviews our kids could be exposed to. By understanding these competing views, we can learn their weaknesses and where Christianity provides a better answer.
If this seems too overwhelming or you don’t know where to start, seek out a pastor or teacher familiar with these topics. There are also numerous online resources and training opportunities parents and kids can work through together. The bottom line is that although parents need to take responsibility to “Train up a child in the way he should go”, there are lots of resources and people to help share the responsibility to teach our children to “destroy strongholds … arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” We owe it to our kids to equip and train them so they don’t become casualties of spiritual warfare.
sheepdogapologetics.org 