Apologetics is defined by Merriam-Webster as, "A branch of theology devoted to the defense of the divine origin and authority of Christianity." It comes from the Greek word for a legal defense which is used in 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect." (ESV). The word translated "defense" is the word where we get the word 'apologetics' from. You may also want to think about apologetics as knowing and examining what you believe and why you believe it. It is always best to examine your own beliefs first before someone else challenges them. There are many common questions that you may be asked and that is where something like at catechism may help you. You an find a link to the New City Catechism video series under "What We Believe." The videos are state a question, a short answer to memorize, and then they explain the Scripture passages that support this answer in case someone challenges you to show them where the Bible says this. You may also be interested in the 99 Essential Doctrines. A link to the text of these Essential Doctrines is also in the What We Believe section, and you can find videos for each of the 99 Essential Doctrines (usually 99 seconds or less in length) on The Gospel Project's YouTube channel (I have added these playlists on my YouTube channel for your convenience).
For me Apologetics deals more broadly with the issue of worldviews and knowing what one believes about the core questions of Origin, Meaning, Morality, Destiny, and Identity. That is, your worldview will answer the questions of "Where did I come from?," "Why am I here?," "How should I live?," "Where am I going?"/"Is there life after death?," and "Who am I?." At its core, a worldview must address the issues of God, Man, and Nature, and then it must also deal with questions related to Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Law, Ethics, Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics), History, Economics, Politics, Theology, Below, you'll find an image that helps describe what a worldview is and the questions it has to answer.
Worldviews fall into several big categories. They can first be Atheistic, in which case they will either be Naturalistic or Humanistic in nature, or they can be Theistic. Theistic worldviews are further classified as being Monotheistic (one God), Polytheistic (many gods), Pantheistic (everything is a piece of God--God and the universe are the same thing) and Panentheism (God is in everything, but God transcends the physical universe and the universe is only a part of what god is). Even the Agnostic or Skeptic falls into one of these views if they answer these questions honestly. Hopefully these articles as well as those in the Faith and Culture blogs help you to examine your own beliefs and better understand how others with differing worldviews can start with the same facts but come to a different conclusion because they are looking at those facts through a different worldview. Hopefully these articles also help you understand that not all worldviews and belief systems are equally valid (the idea of Relativism that expresses itself as "you have your truth, I have my truth" is quite popular, but violates the fundamental laws of logic for instance). It is possible for everyone's belief systems to be wrong (something could be true that is beyond our ability to consider it and it is an answer that none of us have come up with), but it is impossible for everyone to be right because various worldviews believe contradictory things about God, Man, Nature and the ten disciples listed on the outer edge of the image of the worldview pictured below.
I'll post some articles here from other websites and I'll write some of my own blog articles in the Faith and Culture blog that is connected to Publications section of the site.. Hopefully you find all these resources helpful. There are also great Capital Hill Baptist Church Core Seminars (specifically this course on Apologetics: https://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/resources/core-seminars/series/apologetics/). You may also find the doctrinal statements in the What We Believe section of the website such as Baptist Faith and Message, our Statement of Faith, our Church Covenant, the 99 Essential Doctrines, and the New City Catechism helpful as you search for a biblical foundation for what you believe and why you believe it in regards to the questions of Origins, Meaning, Morality, Destiny, and Identity as well as what you believe about God, Man, Nature and the ten disciplines of a worldview.
For me Apologetics deals more broadly with the issue of worldviews and knowing what one believes about the core questions of Origin, Meaning, Morality, Destiny, and Identity. That is, your worldview will answer the questions of "Where did I come from?," "Why am I here?," "How should I live?," "Where am I going?"/"Is there life after death?," and "Who am I?." At its core, a worldview must address the issues of God, Man, and Nature, and then it must also deal with questions related to Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Law, Ethics, Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics), History, Economics, Politics, Theology, Below, you'll find an image that helps describe what a worldview is and the questions it has to answer.
Worldviews fall into several big categories. They can first be Atheistic, in which case they will either be Naturalistic or Humanistic in nature, or they can be Theistic. Theistic worldviews are further classified as being Monotheistic (one God), Polytheistic (many gods), Pantheistic (everything is a piece of God--God and the universe are the same thing) and Panentheism (God is in everything, but God transcends the physical universe and the universe is only a part of what god is). Even the Agnostic or Skeptic falls into one of these views if they answer these questions honestly. Hopefully these articles as well as those in the Faith and Culture blogs help you to examine your own beliefs and better understand how others with differing worldviews can start with the same facts but come to a different conclusion because they are looking at those facts through a different worldview. Hopefully these articles also help you understand that not all worldviews and belief systems are equally valid (the idea of Relativism that expresses itself as "you have your truth, I have my truth" is quite popular, but violates the fundamental laws of logic for instance). It is possible for everyone's belief systems to be wrong (something could be true that is beyond our ability to consider it and it is an answer that none of us have come up with), but it is impossible for everyone to be right because various worldviews believe contradictory things about God, Man, Nature and the ten disciples listed on the outer edge of the image of the worldview pictured below.
I'll post some articles here from other websites and I'll write some of my own blog articles in the Faith and Culture blog that is connected to Publications section of the site.. Hopefully you find all these resources helpful. There are also great Capital Hill Baptist Church Core Seminars (specifically this course on Apologetics: https://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/resources/core-seminars/series/apologetics/). You may also find the doctrinal statements in the What We Believe section of the website such as Baptist Faith and Message, our Statement of Faith, our Church Covenant, the 99 Essential Doctrines, and the New City Catechism helpful as you search for a biblical foundation for what you believe and why you believe it in regards to the questions of Origins, Meaning, Morality, Destiny, and Identity as well as what you believe about God, Man, Nature and the ten disciplines of a worldview.
If you are interested to see specific articles on how the concept of Apologetics is applied specifically to the field of Mathematics, check out my Math in Apologetics page at https://mathmandan.weebly.com/ (my Weebly site dedicated to my mathematics tutoring ministry). If you're interested in the topic of Apologetics, I would recommend books like C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity (a fairly easy read and a good place to start), Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict (his son Sean McDowell has an updated version that is available as a video series if that is more to your liking), Summit Ministries Worldview Library Complete Set (Understanding the Faith, Understanding the Times, and Understanding the Culture), as well as the work of Dr. Alex McFarland, Dr. Frank Turek, Sean McDowell, and John Lennox. I believe I should also include Charlie Kirk in this list as many of his videos are still online and will be helping people know and defend the Christian worldview for years to come. His live Q&A at college campuses helped millions see that there were real answers to the questions people are answering that go beyond the answers that people just memorize as part of a catechism. If you're interested in arguments specifically about Origins, I would recommend Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research (both their website articles and YouTube channels) and if you're interested in questions related to the Bible, I'd recommend both GotQuestions (their searchable database of questions and their YouTube and other social media pages) and Wesley (Wess) Huff (part of Apologetics Canada).
Various apologists listed above specialize in different areas of expertise and they may not always be experts in every question they get asked. Give them as much grace as you would like others to give you if you were asked something out of your wheelhouse. You do not need to dismiss someone because they don't answer a question or they get something a little wrong when they are speaking off the cuff without notes, slides, or teleprompter. The Word of God is our only infallible source of truth. A good starting point when evaluating an apologist would be if they share the gospel at all and if they are sharing the real/true gospel. It doesn't mean they can't be right on some things if they don't do this, but be careful about getting answers to the most important questions from someone who doesn't ever talk about the most important truth they claim to know (f they do claim to know it)--how someone can be saved from sin and be certain that they have eternal life. All truth starts in the person of Jesus Christ who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me." So what if we help people understand that the world was created if they don't understand that their Creator stepped into His creation and gave His life for them so that they could have a relationship with Him that lasts for all eternity?
Various apologists listed above specialize in different areas of expertise and they may not always be experts in every question they get asked. Give them as much grace as you would like others to give you if you were asked something out of your wheelhouse. You do not need to dismiss someone because they don't answer a question or they get something a little wrong when they are speaking off the cuff without notes, slides, or teleprompter. The Word of God is our only infallible source of truth. A good starting point when evaluating an apologist would be if they share the gospel at all and if they are sharing the real/true gospel. It doesn't mean they can't be right on some things if they don't do this, but be careful about getting answers to the most important questions from someone who doesn't ever talk about the most important truth they claim to know (f they do claim to know it)--how someone can be saved from sin and be certain that they have eternal life. All truth starts in the person of Jesus Christ who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me." So what if we help people understand that the world was created if they don't understand that their Creator stepped into His creation and gave His life for them so that they could have a relationship with Him that lasts for all eternity?