Apologetics

APOLOGETICS

In modern English when one apologizes we normally think of being sorry for our actions. However, in biblical Greek, the word apologia has to do with making a defense for the truth, much like an attorney would do in court. Some of apostle Paul’s writings were such apologies.
"What I am doing, I will continue to do, that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting." Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 11:12).  He understood the various Jewish traditions of his day and often used their own theological arguments against them.  He also understood Roman law and used it to his advantage as well.  In Rome he went the extra mile and learned the customs of the people and even quoted from the Hymn to Zeus (Acts 17:28) which would not have been something he would have learned in rabbinic school as a Jew.

As church history passed and traditions developed many problems occurred and some became heresies that had to be confronted. There is nothing new under the sun and we have plenty of issues in our day as well.

"Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself.” ―Irenaeus (A.D. 120-202) a student of Polycarp in Smyrna who in turn was a disciple of the apostle John.

"The man, however, who would undertake their conversion, must posses an accurate knowledge of their systems or schemes of doctrine. For it is impossible for anyone to heal the sick, if he has no knowledge of the disease of the patients." — Irenæus

"Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jude 3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgLmCOv0Ots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-oykYUnq80