H/T to https://barabbasme.wordpress.com/2023/01/05/thursday-thoughts-what-is-truth-p-pilate/.
insanitybytes22 has an excellent post here!Why do I think this saying is incorrect?
The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.”
The statement overlooks the Great Commission. Jesus commissioned us to spread His Truth. Unbelievers don’t go looking for the Bible. We have to do our best to live the Word in front of them. Then, when they ask, we must give them the reason for our hope, the hope that our Lord has given us (1 Peter 3:15).
Someone has to bring each of us to the foot of the cross. Someone has to bring each of us to the point we will open the Bible and read it. Ultimately, the Father actually cause a soul to be born again, to give us a new heart (John 6:44), but we facilitate the process in some way.
Does God need us? No, and that fact is the basis for that quote above, but God has chosen to use us. He has commissioned us, and that is why the quote is wrong.
God has honored us with a role, however small, in the salvation of unbelievers, our neighbors. When we refuse to take up that role, to take up our cross, we show we have no love for our neighbors, that we still need to be born again in Christ.
There appears to be some debate about who deserves credit for having said, “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.”
And by “deserves,” I mean there is also some debate over whether or not what is deserved is a swift kick in the rear for coming up with such an appalling lie.
Generally if you set a lion free and it begins to devour people, the first victim is going to fall to the ground and proudly declare, there is no such thing as lions. The next will scoff and dismiss you as a total conspiritress spreading misinformation. Another is going to ask doesthat cloud over there looks like a fluffy bunny on a surfboard and what kind of oven cleaner do you use?
My favorite is the disembodied small talk, the random bits of trivia that…
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Citizen Tom 
Grateful for IB’s writings
Yep!
=)
Thank you for the reblog.
Thank you for the kind mention, Tom.
Kind of interesting, but apologetics was never really about “defending the truth.” Most Christians were historically persecuted, so you were actually the defendant in a legal case, attempting to launch a defense, usually one you were not going to win. I think in the modern world where Christianity has become rather mainstream, we’ve lost that understanding. Today we think we are winning an argument to establish “truth” rather then explaining to a judge or magistrate why we are prepared to lay down our life for our beliefs. That’s a sobering thought but it does capture what apologetics was all about. Martin Luther is said to have concluded his “apologetics” with, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me.”
I think the advice to, “always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you,” is pretty awesome advice. The thing is, “hope” is not always logical and rational. I do believe it is rooted in truth, but clearly it’s not obvious, observable truth, because if the evidence was that clear, it wouldn’t need to be called hope or faith. Hope is not always a tangible, evidence based thing.
I have enjoyed reblogging your post and reading you comments.
The subject of faith is complicated, but it is highly important and interesting to explore.
Here is part of a comment I left at Barrabas’ blog in response to clubschadenfreude.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-faith.html has a good write-up that answers the question: What does the Bible say about faith? However, even that article misses something that seems important. Remember what Romans 1:18-32 says about unbelief? I think we each require the gift of faith to overcome our irrational unbelief. Am I wrong? Well, that is possible, but I don’t think God is the author of confusion. I just think we tend to be confused.
It has been a strange experience, but the longer I am a Christian the less I am inclined to take any credit for my conversion.
There is also a lot of “data” we either just don’t know to process, or we refuse to properly process. So, we form hunches and hope for the best. Because I am risk adverse, I try to avoid hunches. 😉
I recall that lion quote/ let it loose/truth/ as being attributable to Clive Staples Lewis, ala Jack Lewis??
In the sense that there should no apology for telling the truth of scripture, I can see where one would ‘let it loose,’ and let the chips fall where they may kind of thing.
Seems ib approached it from another perspective, which is also true. It’s like describing something from different vantage points; not wrong, just different.
Check out https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/no-truth-is-not-like-a-lion
It is not clear where that quote came from.
Apologetics is about discerning and defending the truth. That takes a lot of work. Consider what a scientist does. Is it easy? Bible scholarship also involves much work.