She went on to describe how she had gone out for a meal with friends from school and the topic of religion came up in conversation. Her friends started asking all sorts of questions about Stephanie's beliefs and challenging Christianity in a way that Stephanie found she could not defend. Some of these questions and statements included:
"What's the difference between Baptists and other religions?"
"How do you know that what you believe is right and everyone else is wrong?"
"All religions are basically the same, right?"
"I don't believe in hell. How do you know there's a hell?"
"What's the difference between what Catholics and Christians believe?"
"I'm too much of a sinner to go to church; they wouldn't accept me there."
Stephanie sat in a chair at my kitchen table tonight with a spark in her eye declaring, "I was so frustrated with myself! I know what I believe, I just don't know how to explain it to my friends. I need help answering their questions. I told them I would get back with them after Wednesday! What should I say?"
Setting aside our plans for a study on the book of James, we instead tackled this important issue that every Christian eventually faces of learning how to articulate why you believe what you believe, starting with how to prove the Bible is the absolute standard of truth.
For two hours we talked, studied, looked up Scriptures, and wrestled through these honest, legitimate challenges that Stephanie faced from her friends. All the while, she scribbled away in her journal trying to capture our conversation on paper so she could share these answers with her friends. It was a most exciting, invigorating night!
As this conversation is still fresh on my mind, I thought I would pass along a few tools that have been helpful in my own experience when it comes to knowing how to articulate the truths of Christianity and defend why I believe what I believe.
In this fascinating book, Mark Cahill writes a simple, easy-to-understand description of logical questions and answers on a journey for spiritual truth. Starting with creation and the validity of the Bible, he builds an argument for why Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. This book is my top pick for non-believers giving concrete evidence and logic for believing in the Savior. I also highly recommend his other book, One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven, as it has great ideas for answering the skeptics and helping them see fallacies in their own worldview.
I often refer to my Evidence Bible for its extra commentary and the many pages scattered throughout containing "irrefutable evidence for the thinking mind" in regards to the truths of God's Word. There are some excellent resources tucked all throughout this publication! I also like the fact that it is the King James version written in comfortable English, making it an ideal study Bible for those who struggle wading through all the "thees," "thous," "haths," and "rejoiceths" without compromising the integrity of the text. This is the Bible my Chinese girls and I use every Friday night for our group studies.
This film, The Perfect Stranger, has become a new favorite tool in my library! In the story, a lawyer is invited to dinner with Jesus Christ. Despite her initial skepticism and disbelief that the man she joins for dinner is really Jesus, she hurls every argument and asks every question she can think of to challenge Him. The conversation between the two of them, which takes up most of the movie, is intriguing and enlightening! I have gotten so many ideas from this film in learning how to respond to those who challenge Christianity. While the movie isn't as high-quality of a production as you might be used to seeing from Hollywood, it contains excellent material that is certainly worth watching.
1 comment:
Wow! I wish I could have been there for that conversation with you and your friend. I really need to learn more on how to articulate my beliefs to others as well. I will definitely be checking out some of the resources you suggested! Thank you so much!
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