As a whole, I am uncertain if the
church was ready to give answers. Certainly we have the
answers but we were incapable of communicating them
properly. If we had succeeded in providing answers, I
believe that we would have held on to more people than
actually did stay a year, two years, after the attacks.
But questions of God’s love are not
the only thing that is on people’s minds. Other questions
people are asking are: How can I believe that Christianity
is the only true religion when there are so many other
religions with so many devout followers? How can we even
know that God exists? Why should I believe the Bible?
The last question is one that I
believe Christians have ignored far too much. We have
packaged our evangelistic techniques into nice little boxes
that we pull out whenever we have the opportunity to do so.
We answer questions by saying Romans says this and the
gospel of John says that. But if these people don’t believe
the Bible is God’s word and don’t believe that it is truth,
you may as well quote Shakespeare to them. If you don’t
believe the Bible is God’s Word, it is simply another really
old book which might have some good principles to live by.
While the Bible may be truth to us, those who don’t believe
the Bible are not going to do something just because the
Bible says we should do it.
This, of course, compounds our
problem. Not only do we need to be aware of what the Bible
says as truth, we need some way to back it up. If the Bible
says that all have sinned, you need the person to realize
what sin is and that they have sinned. Then you can build
upon this. Once sin is explained, you can explain the
consequences of sin. We know that sin separates us from God
and that we will go to hell without forgiveness of that sin.
The Bible tells us this. However, we need to explain this to
someone who doesn’t know the Bible or doesn’t believe it is
true.
When the Bible speaks of our need for
salvation, you can speak about relationships. When we do
something to make a parent or spouse upset, we need to do
something to make up for it. Sometimes, it is just saying
we’re sorry. Sometimes, we have to do some selfless act to
make amends. So it is between us and God. The only problem
is that simply apologizing to God isn’t good enough. And we
can’t give God anything that he needs or wants because he
created everything. This is where the need for Jesus comes
in. We must continue to build our case and the need for
Christ without necessarily quoting scripture. Sure, we can
use scripture to back us up, but understand that one of the
major questions that people have concerns the authenticity
of the Bible.
In my online school I have an entire
course devoted to causing students to think through answers
to common questions that unbelievers may have. At times we
won’t have the answers right away. We may need to go ask a
more mature Christian about a question. That is okay. Most
times a person will respect that you don’t know the answer
but are willing to find it out.
The main idea is that people need answers though. If
Christianity isn’t able to give them the answers they need,
they will turn to Eastern philosophy or talk show psychology
to find their answers. As you prepare to tell others about
Christ, you have be prepared to provide answers.
Next Section - Wall
# 2 - People Need Community
