Defending The Faith Through Social Media

Looking for a healthy, loving, Kingdom-advancing way to defend the faith.

Have you ever seen a post that was anti-Christian and you wanted to publicly defend the gospel?
Where you successful?

I typically don't publicly respond to anti-Christian accusations for 3 reasons.

1. The person has written the post because they've been hurt, so my defensiveness will come at the wrong time.
2. There are other "Christians" going nuts-o' attacking the person who wrote the post, and I don't want to be associated with them.
3. I've never seen a major heart change or theological shift from any person who has written a Facebook status against Christianity and received replies (loving or not).

I've been thinking a lot about how much easier it appears to be to bash Christianity publicly than it is to defend it. Why is that? Doesn't it say multiple times in the book of Acts that Paul "proved" Jesus to be the Christ in front of crowds of people?

The truth is that Paul started off his preaching in almost every city by speaking to crowds of Jews. These Jews already "knew" God and understood that a Messiah was going to come and be the hope of humanity. Paul, who was a very educated Jew, probably didn't find it to be too difficult to put together a case for why Jesus was that Messiah. Jews believed the premises that God existed, created everything in the world, was in total control, loved his people, and was sending a Messiah.

I think this is one of the biggest differences between Paul's proving of Jesus to the Jews, and us trying to speak to a crowd of people with which we share no theological common-ground. Now Paul also was a witness to the gentiles, in fact it was his primary calling. But I think how he witnessed to them looked a little different.

Jesus said it was going to be by our love that we will be identified as followers of him. His greatest commands where to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I think that is what draws people into Christian community and ultimately to Jesus our Savior.

Now how do we love people through social media? Good question, and I won't claim to be the expert.
I will say that a defensive stance isn't typically the best choice. People have been speaking against God and his people since he made himself known, and have spoken against Jesus as well as his followers. The result? Christianity has never stopped growing as a whole, and it continues to grow around the world. How? Through Christians loving God, loving each other, and loving those who don't yet know God.

My Conclusion:

I think social media is a good place to profess what you believe as your own status, but it is not necessarily the best platform to duke-it-out with people who speak against Christianity. Maybe send them a loving message, but don't comment on the ongoing public thread. Love people outside of social media, and you'll see people be transformed by Jesus. Then they will stop posting against him, and they will begin to love others as well.

My Disclaimer:

I am not the authority on this matter. I'm certain there are some people who can respond to posts with grace and love and insight through the Holy Spirit. I still send certain people private messages concerning their posts, especially if I know face-to-face contact would be near impossible. I would love to hear how other people view this topic of responding to aggressive, anti-Christian posts on social media. You are loved and have been shown grace, now go and do likewise.