A Sturdy Witness Chair: The Apologetics Handbook of 1 Peter

On April 17, 1521, when the “fabled monk”[1] was asked to give a defense for the convictions within him, Martin Luther respectfully and famously said:

Since then your serene majesties and your lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, plain and unvarnished. . . . I am bound to the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. God help me. Amen.[2]

As Christians, we are called to always be “prepared to make a defense (or an apologetic) to anyone who asks [us] for a reason for the hope that is in [us]” (1 Pet 3:15). While this verse instructs us to give our defense with “gentleness and respect,” 1 Peter also provides four more legs to stand—or sit—on when we are called to the witness stand.

[1] Eric Metaxas, Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World (New York: Viking, 2017), 208.
[2] Metaxas, Martin Luther, 216.