Can You Argue For What You Believe?

22 May 2026  Acts 25:13-21

Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter

“Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked if he were willing to go to Jerusalem and there stand trial on these charges.” (Acts 25:20)

Festus, the Roman procurator of Judea, did not know the difference between a Christian and a Jew.

Festus, the Roman procurator of Judea, did not care.  

No Roman official of the first century did.

The Romans hurried Paul out of Jerusalem because his presence was causing a riot. They kept him in jail in Caesarea because it kept the Jews in Jerusalem quiet. They sent him to Rome because he appealed his case to Caesar, and when his case was finally heard in Rome, they let him go.

Our opponents do not have an argument that is sufficient to defeat any of these particulars, and are strengthened only by the fact that so many believers are hard pressed to remember many (or maybe even any) of the particulars that our opponents are unable to defeat.

He was rearrested in A.D. 65 or 66 because he was known to be some sort of Jewish troublemaker (they neither knew nor cared what sort), and eventually he was executed because some Jewish troublemakers (the Romans neither knew nor cared what sort) had been implicated in a disatrous fire.

And at no point did Roman officialdom ever care what Paul believed about Jesus. They killed him because his being alive was simply inconvenient.

It was almost another century before Romans even began to care what Christians believed, and that was only because Christian beliefs came to be considered a national security issue. Not surprisingly, that came to be the first golden age of Christian apologetics – Polycarp of Smyrna, Irenaeus of Lyons, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian and others defended Christianity against the pagans with such courage and skill that the only thing Romans could think to do was kill them, but people saw through that – well did Tertullian say that the “blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

We are far, far past the time when our opponents neither know, nor care about the particulars of Christian faith. Our opponents know the particulars of Christian faith, and know which particulars are the biggest problem for them –

• Christians believe in  an infinitely intelligent and loving creator of the universe

• Christians believe the Truth is just one thing, and that “your truth” and “my truth” doesn’t finally make any sense

• Christians believe that objective moral values and duties exist, and that sin therefore is a problem

• Christians believe that only God’s intervention is the solution to the problem of sin

• Christians believe that a relationship with God is possible, but only on God’s terms, and the terms are repentance, faith, love, and obedience

• Christians believe that Jesus is the divine intervention that is our only hope, and that a relationship with Jesus is available forever, starting now

Our opponents do not have an argument that is sufficient to defeat any of these particulars, and are strengthened only by the fact that so many believers are hard pressed to remember many (or maybe even any) of the particulars that our opponents are unable to defeat.

Festus, the Roman procurator of Judea, did not know the difference between a Christian and a Jew. He neither knew, nor cared, what it was about Christian faith that made believers able to out-think, out-fight, out-live, and out-die the whole Roman world.

Festus isn’t our opponent anymore. Our opponents know what they fear about Jesus, and fear most of all the day when we will believe as much as they fear.