Skeptic #3

Statement #3: Jesus Christ is God’s solution for sin, making it possible for believers to connect with God and experience his love and plan for their life.

Imagine yourself as a movie-goer, stepping out of The DaVinci Code, wondering whether your should stop by Starbucks, grab some Macho Nachos, or believe that Jesus had consensual relations with Mary Magdalene. As you exit the theater, a college guys with sunglasses on his head asks if he can have a moment of your time. At first you think he's looking to sell you his self-made demo CD or handing out discounts for Fuddruckers, but instead he wants to talk to you about Jesus.

He asks you about the movie, nods at your answers, then starts to pry into your belief system. Soon he's targeting your conscience, trying to get you to see what a terrible person you are. The moment you admit to some weakness, a solution is posed: the death and resurrection of Jesus. He might open a Bible and read something like: "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." He might call you a lost sheep. He might tell you that you need to be washed in the blood of Jesus. He might ask if you want to ask Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior.

For Christians, these phrases seem harmless and helpful, but for an outsider, they must sound like cultish nonsense. Washed with blood?

The death and resurrection of Jesus is arguably the most important event in human history, but to a skeptic, there are some serious problems with it. I'll mention a few:

If I truly love someone that has hurt me, and they come to me with an apology, I don't demand a blood sacrifice to restore that relationship. Why does God, who should be more loving and reasonable that his creation, require a human sacrifice to forgive sin? Besides, Jesus was forgiving sin before He died.

Thanks for the invitation to join God's family, but if God is in the habit of killing his own children, I would prefer to opt out of the adoption process.

Why should we believe the record of the New Testament when there are so many gospels and letters left out of the canon? Besides, after such a long and questionable history, and so much translating and retranslating, can we even trust the Bible?

If Jesus and God are the same person, then the Biblical account of his death and resurrection is insane. God was so angry at man’s sin, that he became a man himself, killed himself, then brought himself back to life. He felt much better after that and forgave everyone who believed. Was Jesus praying to himself in the garden, asking himself to let himself off the hook? While dying on the cross, did he ask himself why he had forsaken himself? Did he commit his own spirit into his own hands? It defies logic.

Would you have a reasonable answer to these questions?

Skeptic #2

Statement #2: You are a sinner, separated from the loving plan of God. My skeptical self would have less trouble with this statement, at least at first. Most of us would admit that we aren't perfect. Who is? Christians would say that Jesus and Adam were perfect, but does that mean they were really good at Calculus? Did they ever trip or jam a finger? Did they ever get sick? Did they poop? If so, did it smell like garlic mashed potatoes? In evangelism, when we talk about "perfect," we're talking about going through life without a single bad thought or selfish act. But what if we don't act on those natural impulses? Are we still sinners? What if we act on them, but our actions harm no one? It's easy to tell a convicted criminal that they are a sinner, but what about a moral person with an honest and caring heart? There are many of these people working in world, saving lives, helping people, and many of them are not Christians. What makes the Christians any more pure than the well-meaning non-Christians? My skeptical self would respond to my Evangelical self by saying, "I'm just as much of a sinner as you. Why do I need your salvation?" In other words, if salvation is innefective in a tangible, practical sense, why should I believe in the rest of your gospel message, including the parts about heaven and hell? The Reformed tradition emphasizes the Total Depravity of man as the first pedal of their TULIP (their five-point summary of the Christian faith). This depravity is sort of like a virus, a curse, that humans contract from Adam. If you could see it, it would probably look like the black tar that turned Eddie Brock into Venom, but on your soul. Jesus takes the tar out when you're saved, but the stain remains, which basically means you'll act the same, but he won't hold it against you. I plan to blog on sin and depravity at another time, but for now, I just want to stir the pot. Remember, I do believe in the Christian faith, but faith is not blind. Let's not ignore these things and use "faith putty" to fill our gaps of logic. That dishonors God, and it makes Christians look foolish. I have another problem with telling people that they're sinners. If the skeptic is logical, he will realize that a faulty product is not to blame for it's own faultiness. If I buy a new car and the steering wheel comes off while I'm driving, I don't get angry at the steering column. If I survive the inevitable wreck, I'd go straight back to the manufacturer and demand a refund. I think you see where I'm going. If God is perfect and man was created perfect, how could the human race go wrong so quickly? I recognize that we have a free will, but why, in her freedom, would Eve choose the wrong thing before the tar-like depravity kicked in? Was she created with a propensity toward rebellion, or was she just naive? Why did Adam go along with it? The spiritual being that deceived her was another example of one of God's creatures gone wrong. We all know he wasn't naive. If God's creatures, left to their own devices, have a tendency to rebel against their Creator, it seems like there is something wrong in the programming. It would seem that sin was God's intention from the beginning. Besides, wouldn't God have foreseen all of these rebellions and done something about them? He wasn't even present at the Fall of Man. He knew it would happen. He knew they would sin. It almost seems as if the Fall was God's intention from the beginning. Thoughts?

Skeptic #1

I'm going to play a skeptic. Then I'm going to witness to myself and get defensive about it. I'll use the Four Spiritual Laws as a progression to confession, keeping my feet firmly planted on the Romans Road. STATEMENT #1: God loves you and has a plan for your life. Despite the nice sentiment, my skeptical self is bothered, not encouraged, by this statement. These are the kinds of questions that immediately come to mind: 1) If God is so loving, why is the world such a horrific mess? 2) If God is so loving, why would he kill his only son under any circumstances? 3) If God is so loving, why did my mother die of cancer and my uncle lose his arm in an accident? 4) If God has a plan for my life, why doesn't he share it with me? 5) Did God have a plan for my next door neighbor's life? He's a loser. He'll die a loser. 6) Why would God make a plan knowing that I would blow it anyway? 7) Why would God make a plan for my life if, in the grand scheme, it's all pointless anyway. 8) With so many people in the world, why would he even want to know me, much less care? Imagine an ant farm the size of the Grand Canyon. Now imagine God as a zealous ant farmer, naming every ant and paying attention to each and every one of them. He loves them enough to keep tabs on their journeys to and from the surface, making sure there are no leaves or sticks in their way as they carry lumps of mud and dead things to their queen. Sometimes he puts a rock in their path to see what they do with it, or even squashes a few, but it's all part of grand scheme that no ant could understand or imagine. Most Christians like to answers these kinds of questions with big words. We explain that God is omnipresent, which is how he can pay attention to each one of us. He is also omnipotent, which is how he can plan each life and imbue each person with the skills and talents to accomplish those plans. But why would he use all of his omnis on little old you? Are you that lovable? As for the human chaos, we may use a parable to explain: Think of each human life as a thread in a great tapestry which God is patiently weaving throughout history. All we see in this world are the tangled mess of threads in the back, but some day, in the next world, He’s going to turn the tapestry around and show us the beautiful and complicated finished product. It's a nice parable, but is it true? How would you defend these questions?