In Romans 12:1-2 the Apostle Paul tells us that the locus of spiritual transformation (looking more like Jesus) is found in the process of renewing our minds.  He further presses the point that this mind renewal is an act of spiritual worship to our God.  So, we see here that thinking well (or thinking biblically) is not optional for the follower of Jesus.  Rather, it’s the skeleton key to Christian life-change. 

We also know that when we do engage in developing our minds for God’s service there are practical benefits—two in particular.  First, we strengthen our own faith as we become familiar with not only what and Who we believe but also why we believe.  Second, we become sharper tools in the hands of our Master.  That is, we are more useful to God for brining His Kingdom to bear in the lives people.  Think about the second one for a moment.

Apologetics is the branch of theology which focuses on removing intellectual obstacles to belief (both for the follower and non-follower of Jesus).  It goes about removing these mental obstacles by attempting to provide reasons to believe.  So, it could be said that apologetics is largely concerned with reasoning about our Christian faith.  And of course, we can’t avoid reasoning; we can only avoid reasoning well.  Therefore, I want to point you to a brand new resource or tool which no Christian should be without—The Apologetics Study Bible.

Study Bibles are enormously helpful because they allow a person to read the Bible, in effect, with the experts.  This is because they are filled with footnotes and side notes from some of the best scholars in particular disciplines (New or Old Testament, History, Philosophy, Archaeology, Science, Literature, etc.).  

The Apologetics Study Bible will equip you to understand and defend your beliefs in an age of increasing religious pluralism and skepticism.  For instance, this study Bible includes over 100 key questions and articles throughout dealing just with the issues of faith and science.  Other topics include: Ethics • Archaeology and history • Theology • Non-Christian belief systems • Philosophy, etc.  There are study notes which address the alleged “problem” passages in the Bible.  There are 50 sidebars which focus on those Bible passages which are misused and twisted by cults.  There is even a book introduction for each of the 66 books in the Bible which shed light on key apologetic themes.  This resource will allow you to read the Bible with the help of the best apologetic thinkers of our day, like Lee Strobel, Chuck Colson, J. P. Moreland, Norm Geisler, Hank Hanegraaff, Josh McDowell, William Lane Craig, Ravi Zacharias, and many others.

This summary introduction to this study Bible is just scratching the surface of the abundant resources between the two covers.  I highly recommend this resource to any follower of Jesus who desires to live a thoughtful and effective Christian life. 

Note: The translation is the Holman CSB (Christian Standard Bible).  

Please let me know what you think about it once you’ve picked it up!