Sometimes no amount of evidence will convince someone who happens to hold a false belief. Two contemporary examples are “flat-earthers” (yup, they really exist) and people who are convinced that the Apollo moon landings were an elaborately-concocted hoax. “Flat earthers” are not convinced by the fact that you can circumnavigate the earth and end up back where you started, or by pictures from outerspace, or by Newtonian physics. While there are not that many flat-earthers, there are a disturbing number of people who deny that we ever landed men on the moon. They believe it was an elaborate hoax. Once again, no amount of evidence will convince these hard-core deniers.

Similarly, some unbelievers will not be convinced by any amount of evidence, no matter how persuasive or powerful. Sometimes, I hear something to this effect – “If Jesus would walk through the wall into this room and appear to me and show me the wounds in his hands and sides, and talk to me and tell me what I was doing last night at 6:00 PM, then I would believe.” No, they wouldn’t. Even if that happened, they would dismiss it as an hallucination caused by fatigue and hunger, or the result of a mental imbalance. In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus recounts the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and finishes by saying “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

Keep in mind that the aim of apologetics is to defend one’s faith (why they believe), not to “save” someone through arguments and evidence. Arguments and evidence don’t save anyone; only Jesus Christ can do that. But the Holy Spirit can use apologetics as a powerful springboard into the gospel. When doing apologetics, it will become quickly apparent when someone is unconvinceable. Often, powerful evidence merely serves to cement them even deeper into their deception, as they recoil from truth. Often they merely have an axe to grind. At best, all you can hope to do is plant a seed. Respectfully disengage and move on; your time is better spent with others. The imminent approach of death has an unpleasant and tragic way of slapping unbelievers in the face with hard, cold reality . . . when it is too late.