Answering Tough Questions
Heidi Ramer
Why answer questions at all?
Framework for evangelism (and apologetics)
1. Love for God
2. Love for neighbor
• Homing beacon
Get to Jesus
• Aim to win the person not the argument
• Realise that there is often a question(s) behind the questioner. Meaning it could be the case that someone is asking why is there evil, because they ahve experience evil, so it is not necessarily just a theoretical issue.
What are the tough questions?
• Suffering?
• Reliability of Bible? (Conspiracy of church?)
• Homosexuality?
• Exclusivity of religion/Christianity?
• Aren’t all religions the same?
• Creation/Evolution?
• Prove God exists?
• Science has disproved Christianity?
Flipping the Question
They don’t have an answer either. These are tough questions not just for Christians but for everyone
(1 Cor 1-2, There is such a thing as God's wisdom, which the Spirit helps us to see)
How do you know something? The Wesleyan Quadrilateral
1. Reason
2. Tradition
3. Revelation
4. Experience
None of these bad in and of themselves
Is revelation superior?
‘I-reckonism’
It is not enough just to assert something, you need to have good reasons for it.
Questions to ask:
• How do you know?
• Does that really work?
• What do you think Christians think about this? (OR If you were in my shoes, what do you think a Christian would say?)
Underlying Cultural Assumptions… that put up barriers to the Gospel
1. individualism - i.e. my rights, my happiness, its all about ME
2. scientism/materialism - science can explain everything
3. progressivism - with education everything will get better
4. pluralism - all views points are valid
Getting to the Gospel
1. A question
If you had to summarise Christianity in a couple of sentences, what would you say it’s all about?
- A list of rules, going to church, blind faith, hypocrits, the religion you were born in, something to do with Jesus...
2. Explaining the Gospel
Two Ways to Live https://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/2wtlonline.html
A Few Other Helpful Tools
Subjective/Objective Truth
• Buckets – Subj/Obj (i.e. some people like broccoli others doesn't, hence it is subjective; but for everyone if you step infront of a bus you are going to objective be squashed)
• ‘I don’t like to think of God as…’
Ping-pong
Dialogue goes back and forth
Hard-heartedness
‘If I could prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus rose from the dead, would you believe?’
You don’t have to enter their worldview