The Reluctant Evangelist - What if I Can’t Answer Their Questions?
What if people ask questions I can’t answer? Won’t I look foolish or worse, make God look foolish?
There’s no such thing as an expert in God
Some of us are nervous about sharing our faith because we don’t feel like we’re “experts” and think that we need to be in order to explain the gospel effectively. Not true! First, there’s no such thing as an expert in God. There is always more to learn because God is infinite. There will always be questions we can’t answer and concepts we can’t explain.
If we get to point where we think we have God all figured out and placed nicely in a box, then we need to repent, because we don’t have the right God. God doesn’t fit into our boxes so we shouldn’t try and put Him in one. None of us will ever have it all figured out until we’re standing face to face with Him. Even then, it will probably take the rest of eternity to really understand Him.
It’s OK to Say ‘I don’t know…’
It’s also OK to say, “I don’t know, to be honest. That’s a great question. We can look into it together.” There might be others you can ask and then get back to the person you’re sharing with. Different people have researched different things. My husband, Joe, for example, has done LOTS of research into the topic of evolution and creation. If someone I’m sharing with has a question about that, I would ask Joe. Others might know a lot about the original Bible manuscripts or ancient Jewish culture. You’re not expected to know everything.
Second, this is all about relationships. If you brought in someone with a doctorate in theology to answer their questions, the person you’re talking to still wouldn’t necessarily believe. They don’t have a relationship with that person. They want to hear from you. You’re the one who cares about them.
The Big Secret…
Most questions aren’t actually questions and don’t require answers. They’re smokescreens. A smokescreen is something you put up so you can hide behind it and not be found. Many times (although certainly not always) questions and objections are not really things the person wants answered. They’re simply a way to not deal with the real issues.
So if the question or objection is only a way to hide from the real issue, then what’s the real issue?
That we’re sinful and don’t want to surrender our lives to God. We think we can do better than He can with our lives.
Romans 1:18-20 spells it out pretty clearly: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
These verses continue to explain that people choose to worship the creation rather than the Creator and therefore exchanged the truth for a lie. As a result, their hearts were darkened and they continued down an ever worsening path of sin and disobedience.
God said that He has made Himself clear and evident to people. We can look at nature, at the complexity of our bodies, the vastness and order of space and the intricacies of a cell and see evidence of God. Consequently, we are all without excuse.
When someone says that the Bible has been changed or what about evolution or how do I know this is all true, deep down they know it’s true - they may just not want it to be true. Their objections are a way to justify their unbelief. I don’t need to believe this because the Bible is full of contradictions.
So how do you handle smokescreen questions or how do you find out whether a question is a sincere question or not?
You ask more questions.
Jesus was a pro at this (and everything else…). Many times, rather than answering people’s questions, He instead asked them another one! Following that principle, your conversation with someone could go something like this:
The Bible is full of contradictions.
Which contradictions are you referring to? We could look at them together if you’d like.
I don’t know, I’ve just heard that there are contradictions.
Have you read the Bible?
Frequently, the answer is no. Maybe they watched a TV show or heard someone say that the Bible has contradictions and it conveniently supported their desire to believe that the gospel isn’t true and they can live life the way they want to.
I probably sound harsh explaining it this way, but I don’t mean to be. We’re all guilty of this in one way or another, aren’t we? We WANT to believe something is true or something else is false, so we look for things that support what we want to believe. We’re willing to accept any shred of a story without researching it as long as it supports what we desperately want to be true. Very infrequently do we ever search for truth purely objectively, whether we’re talking about the Bible, or truth regarding our health, politics, or other people. We usually decide first what we want to be true and then look for supporting “evidence”.
The Covid pandemic is a great example. I really don’t like the idea of wearing a mask. They’re uncomfortable, I feel like I can’t breathe, I can’t be heard or understood when I talk and they make me very anxious. I desperately want it to be true that masks are unnecessary or even harmful because that would support my desired truth and reality.
So, I see a Facebook article about the dangers of masks and how they really don’t help and I cling to that, without checking the source of the article, investigating how the conclusions were formed or looking at articles from the other side of the argument. I find support for what I want to be true and cling to it, regardless of whether it’s accurate or not.
When it comes to issues of faith, this shouldn’t make us critical of people wanting to believe something and looking for things to back up their desired truth. It should help us to be compassionate. Coming clean that we’re sinful and accountable to God for how we live our lives is scary! It’s hard to humble ourselves and admit our need. As I’ve said, this is all in the context of a relationship, so we need to find ways to gently help the person we’re sharing with see that maybe they haven’t explored the issue as thoroughly as they could.
Beliefs are held for a variety of reasons, only one of which being that they were researched and explored and found to be true. We hold some beliefs because that’s what our parents or other people in positions of authority have told us and we never questioned it. We hold other beliefs simply because we like them and they make us feel comfortable, unique and valued. Sometimes we believe something because it’s a way of rebelling against our families, society, or someone who hurt us.
I think this is one reason why sometimes people are very defensive and touchy when asked about their beliefs. There’s a lot of emotional baggage attached to them. It’s helpful to understand the “why” of someone’s beliefs. There’s usually a story behind it.
I have one friend who is very distrustful of the medical community. If you met her and talked about that topic, you would think she’s just very opinionated and judgmental about it. But if you go deeper, you’ll find out that her grandmother died because of a mistake a nurse made. She’s also very much against mandatory vaccines because her son has a medical condition that she believes is a result of a vaccine.
There are very personal reasons and stories behind beliefs. It doesn’t even matter if those beliefs are based on facts - the person just has to perceive them as facts.
If the person you’re talking to isn’t willing or interested in looking for answers to their questions, then those questions really aren’t the problem. Express your willingness to explore that question with them if they’re ever interested, then keep building the relationship and try to find out what is really in their way.
Our family was at a fossil site several years ago and my husband, Joe, was talking to one of the volunteers working to uncover the fossils. When he brought up creation as opposed to evolution, the man was argumentative. Joe left the argument alone and just got to know the guy a bit. It turned out that he had grown up in a religious home where they had refused to answer his questions which made him very frustrated and caused him to turn away from Christianity. There was obviously more to the story than an argument about whether evolution is true.
Smokescreen questions don’t necessarily require answers - they require relationship.
Sometimes questions are legit
Sometimes the person you’re talking with has legitimate questions that you should answer. As I said earlier, you don’t have to have all the answers at the tip of your tongue. If you’re not sure, tell them you’ll look into it and get back to them. Your pastor would be a great resource for either answers or where to look for answers.
The most important thing you can do is not to have a “canned” answer for every question someone raises about Christianity, but rather to love them. Get to know them. Understand their story. Show them compassion and grace. People aren’t generally argued into the Kingdom of God - they’re loved in.
Being the Church When the World is Falling Apart
The year 2020 keeps throwing us more curve balls, doesn’t it? On top of the COVID pandemic and all the uncertainty, anxiety and division wrapped up in that, now we have the disturbing and horrifying death of George Floyd resulting in major civil unrest, marches, demonstrations and violence in our cities.
It helps me to remember that God has a plan - we’re not drifting aimlessly on the planet, left to the winds of chance. One thing I’ve been finding is that as a Christian, there’s a tension between figuring out how to live in the world in its current state while at the same time seeing the circumstances as an opportunity to be God’s ambassador.
God uses situations like COVID and civil unrest to get people’s attention - both Christian and non Christian. For Christians, it can be a wake up call to take our faith seriously and really start pursuing our relationship with God on a deeper level than before. When the foundations that we find comfort in are shaken, we are forced to reevaluate what those foundations are and how firmly they hold when life gets rocky.
It’s kind of like the story in Matthew 7:24-27. The one who built his house on the rock wasn’t moved when the storm came, but the one who built on sand had everything wiped away. If we find our comfort and security in things that are not of God, then we are devastated when the storm comes. It forces us to rebuild our lives on a more solid foundation.
For the person who does not know Christ, times like this can cause them to look to God, realizing that they don’t have their lives as under control as they thought they did. We can all become very self-reliant until the bottom falls out. Suddenly we find that maybe we don’t have life figured out after all.
As the church universal, the Body of Christ, what is our role in all this?
It can be easy to retreat to our corners and just take care of our own. We can give in to fear, anxiety, and anger, follow the conspiracy theories and search endlessly for answers on who to blame. I believe we’re called to more than that. We know that God has this under control. He loves us and has our best and His glory jointly in mind. Nothing happens to us that is out of His control. We are told over and over not to fear, not to be anxious and in our anger, not to sin. We know where we’re going when we die. There is no worse case scenario for us - to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
We need to view our current circumstances with that eternal perspective. We should be wise and discerning as we figure out how to navigate living in these times. While being wise, though, we need to live above the fear, anxiety and anger. Don’t give in to those things, but keep an eternal perspective. Continually seek God to see what purpose He has for you during this time. How can we serve our neighbors or reach out to them with the message of hope and peace in Christ?
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
How can we use this very unique situation to be Christ’s ambassadors?
Here are some practical ideas:
1. Check in with your neighbors and acquaintances. Because everything is so wacky, people are more open to being honest about how they’re doing. Many feel very isolated and would welcome a call or text to reconnect. Offer to pray for them if they’re having trouble dealing with things. It’s a non confrontational thing to do and many times people really appreciate it, regardless of their beliefs. It can open up doors for further spiritual discussion.
2. Be willing to help meet physical needs. Some are without jobs, others could use childcare while they try to work from home. A meal, a couple hours of childcare or a grocery gift card can go a long way.
3. If your situation allows, offer to go shopping for someone who is at high risk from the virus and worried about going out in public.
4. Pray for your pastors and those in leadership and find ways to support and encourage them. This is a super challenging time to be in leadership. With any decision leaders make, many are going strongly and loudly disagree with them. Not to mention that the decisions leaders make could directly impact the health and safety of those around them. On top of that, reliable data with which to make those decisions is very difficult to find and discern.
5. Be gentle with your own opinions. To wear a mask, to not wear a mask, to open up stores and churches or not, vaccines, the reasons behind racial violence and the solution to racism… The strong opinions and feelings about these things are endless. It’s fine to have opinions, but don’t let them become divisive. Love others more than your own opinions about things. You may need to keep quiet about what you think or at least turn down the intensity in order to be a person of peace.
My personal opinion is that these are all important conversations to have, but they’re better done in person rather than on social media. Social media is great for many things, but having meaningful dialog about very emotional, sensitive, divisive ideas is not one of them.
Our primary goal as Christians should be to glorify God and win others to Christ. If our social media posts aren’t accomplishing those things, perhaps we should rethink posting them.
In all of this, keeping an eternal perspective will help us to both manage our own emotions and reactions, as well as give us a vision for how God can use us to bring others to Him. I believe we’ve all been put here “for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)
Heavenly Father, there’s so much going on in our world right now. We need to figure out how to live in the midst of it and keep ourselves and our families safe. But we also know that You are in control. You love us and care for us. Show us how to be Your ambassadors and bring Your hope to those You’re preparing. Lead us to those who are ready to hear about You.
Sharing Christ During the Pandemic
God is real. He loves humanity - this broken, messed up humanity. We’ve botched this creation of His almost beyond recognition, yet He loves us so much that He made a way for redemption and reconciliation.
Those of us who have accepted His offer of forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus now have the opportunity and privilege to extend His offer to others as His ambassadors. What does that look like? It looks like relationships infused with God’s Word. We need to represent Jesus to others through our actions and also extend Jesus’ offer to them through our words.
It’s not coercing anyone, arguing with them or tricking them. It’s extending His offer to them and holding the door open for them. It’s being prepared to share the reason for the hope we have. During these days of the pandemic, much like the time after 9/11, many people are fearful and unsure. Things like this have a way of rattling us out of our complacency. It reminds us that we’re really not in control of our lives and can cause us to look to the One who is in control. In other words, it’s a great time to share the hope we have in Christ because people are more likely to be open to Him.
If we break it down, there’s two different aspects to sharing our faith.
The first is how to get to the point of having a conversation with someone about their faith.
In our American culture, one’s religious beliefs can be fiercely personal. Many people feel that it’s an unwelcome invasion of their privacy to ask what they believe about God or for us to tell them what we believe. Others tend to stay away from any topic that’s too deep or introspective. It can be hard to even get to the topic of what someone believes.
The other aspect to it is what do we say when we get there?
How do you explain how to have a personal relationship with God through Christ? How do we not get side tracked on the millions of secondary issues? The second question is the easier to answer, so let’s start there.
What is the gospel? What does someone need to understand in order to accept Jesus?
We have all sinned and that sin separates us from a holy God.
Draw a straight, horizontal line on a piece of paper and put a stick figure on it. That’s us. Now draw a parallel line a few inches above it. That’s God. God is perfect and we are not. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Some may say that they haven’t killed anyone or stolen anything and they’re not really that bad of a person. In that case, you can take them to Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus makes it very clear that it’s not enough to be “clean” on the outside, but God wants us to be holy on the inside. The Pharisees (religious leaders of Jesus’ day) were pros at following all the religious rules and doing the outward things right, but Jesus denounced them over and over for missing the point and being wicked on the inside. Sin is sin, whether it shows up on the outside or it’s largely on the inside in the form of thoughts, attitudes, motives, etc. If the person you’re sharing with can’t admit that they’re sinful, then God needs to work on them more before they can accept Christ. Jesus said that He came for the sick, not the healthy. (Mark 5:31)
Doing good works or being a good person doesn’t fix the problem.
Back to our artwork. We typically try to do good things to reach God - go to church, be a good person, etc. You can draw arrows from the bottom line toward the top line that don’t reach the top to represent this. Some get farther up than others but none make it. No amount of good works can take away our sin. Because of our sin, we are separated from God both now and after we die. Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Because God loves us so much, He came to earth as Jesus Christ, died on the cross and rose again. His death paid the punishment for our sin.
We can’t do anything to earn our way to being reconciled with God, but because He loves us so much, He came down to earth for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.” John 3:16 God put on a body and came to earth as Jesus. You can draw a cross connecting the two lines. Jesus lived a perfect life and then died on the cross in our place. He took the punishment that we deserved for our sin. We deserved death, but Jesus took that death in our place. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith - this is not of yourselves but is a gift from God. Not as a result of works so that no one can boast.” Jesus’ offer to us is that we accept His death on the cross as payment for our sin.
We have a choice.
God respects our free will. We have a choice to either try to work our way to heaven and do life our own way, or we can accept Jesus’ offer to “settle out of court” and accept His death as our payment for sin. When we accept Jesus and ask Him to be our Savior, we’re entering into a covenant relationship with Him, similar to marriage. God uses marriage as a metaphor for our relationship with Him all throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament. When we accept His offer we are forgiven for our sin - past, present and future - and free to live the way God intended us to live - in union with Him.
Use your own story.
Another suggestion is to share that message in the context of your own personal story. What has God done in your life? How did you come to know Him? Many times, that tends to be much less confrontational because you’re just sharing your own story. This is a great resource for how to put together your story to use in sharing with others.
Next week I’ll talk about how to get to that conversation to begin with.
Feel free to post questions in the comments! What is the biggest barrier to you sharing your faith?
Why Did a Good Man Have to Die?
We love Easter with its message of hope and new life. It’s one of my favorite holidays! But before we get to the empty tomb, we have to go through the cross.
Why did Jesus die? Why was He brutally beaten and whipped and then cruelly nailed to a cross to die?
Because He was our substitute. He died in our place.
Why would I need a substitute?
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23
But I’m a good person. I go to church, I’ve never killed anyone, I don’t hurt people.
Our society has a standard for what a good person is, but God’s standard is different. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were the religious elite. They followed all the rules plus added more rules just in case the initial rules weren’t enough. They followed all of them.
Yet over and over, Jesus told them they had missed the point.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Matthew 23:25
The Pharisees, like us, were experts at looking good on the outside but being far from God on in the inside. God is very clear that all of us have sinned and fallen short of His standard. I have, you have, even the best person you can think of has sinned.
That’s why we need Jesus - why we need a substitute. We deserve to be separated from God here in this life and forever after death. No amount of trying to fix that can make any difference.
But God…
That’s one of the best phrases in the Bible! We are in a terrible mess, but God… We have messed up our lives by trying to figure it out on our own, but God…
Because of God’s love for us, He created a solution to the problem. He came to earth as Jesus, lived a perfect life and died on the cross in our place.
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
He was our substitute. We deserved death, but Jesus died in our place.
We have a choice. Will we agree with God that we aren’t good enough to earn our way to heaven? Will we accept that Jesus’ death on the cross counts as payment in full for our sin? Will we accept that gift and ask Him to be our Savior? When we do that, He comes to live within us and shows us how to live the way He created us to live.
“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9