Francis Scott Key The Apologist

Francis Scott Key (August 2, 1777 – January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, an author and a part-time poet who wrote the words to our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" but he was also a great Christian apologist. No, that doesn't mean he was great at apologizing for being a Christian. It means he knew how to obey 1 Peter 3:15 "...but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense (Greek word: apologia where we get the word apologetics) to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect..." Francis Scott Key understood the folly in meeting the infidel on so-called neutral ground. He knew how to push the antithesis and force the unbeliever to be consistent with his own worldview when he wrote:

"I don't believe there are any new objections to be discovered to the truth of Christianity, though there may be some art in presenting old ones in a new dress. My faith has been greatly confirmed by the infidel writers I have read. Men may argue ingeniously against our faith, as indeed they may against anything -- but what can they say in defense of their own -- I would carry the war into their own territories, I would ask them what they believe -- if they said they believed anything, I think that they might be shown to be more full of difficulties and liable to infinitely greater objections than the system they oppose and they were credulous and unreasonable for believing it. If they said they did not believe anything, you could not, to be sure, have anything further to say to them. In that case they would be insane, or at best ill qualified to teach others what they ought to believe or disbelieve."