Have you ever tried sharing your faith in Jesus with a friend or co-worker and had them respond something like this:
- After doing independent research, I’m mostly leaning towards the fact that God is nonexistent.
- The bible is constantly contradicting itself on many issues.
- Honestly looking at it from an unemotional and completely logical perspective, the God in the bible is a terrible entity and not someone I want to worship any longer. He allows suffering and disease and murders people who choose not to be on his side and we’re supposed to believe he’s loving and just in doing these things because he has more power over us?
- Why give “blessings” to one human and allow another to suffer? Because of some divine plan? Because he’s trying to win this eternity-long bet with Satan? It doesn’t make sense and even if it did, there is no love from a God like that.
- People only believe in a God because it makes them feel good and makes them feel as though they have a purpose in life and are a part of something greater. When you look at it from a logical and factual perspective, it doesn’t add up in any way, shape, or form.
- Preachers only want your money!
I believe comments like this deserve a response. Since I myself have replied to comments like these on a number of occasions, I thought I’d write this post and share with you how I respond in such situations. My hope is that this post will better equip you to reply with grace and truth (John 1:17) like Jesus.
When people tell me that logic has led them to conclude that God doesn’t exist, here’s how I respond:
You are not looking at things logically. How logical is it to see a watch and conclude there is no watchmaker? Or how logical is it to see a painting and conclude there is no painter? In the same way, how logical is it to look at creation and conclude there is no Creator? Both common sense and logic would lead us to conclude that where there is a creation, there is also a Creator. This is why the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:20, “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” NLT We will have no excuse on judgment day for not believing in God. All of creation declares there is a Creator. Here’s a link to a sermon I did entitled “Does God Really Exist?” http://newdaychurch.
When someone tells me the Bible is full of contradictions, here’s how I respond:
Concerning supposed contradictions in the Bible, would you mind passing some along? If you’re open to it I’d love the opportunity to address whatever may appear as a contradiction. If you’d rather study this for yourself, here is a book I would highly recommend that addresses the claim that the Bible contradicts itself. It takes the supposed contradictions and shows you how they are actually not contradictions at all. https://www.amazon.com/
When someone blames God for the suffering that exists in the world, here’s how I respond:
Suffering is the result of mankind’s rebellion against God. I don’t think you’re doing it on purpose, but in blaming God for the suffering in the world, you are blaming him for something that you and I (and the rest of humanity) are actually responsible for. Sickness, disease, suffering, famines, natural disasters and the like – are all the result of sin entering the world. Genesis 1-2 tells us 7x that the world God originally created was good. The question begs “Well then what happened?” And the answer is that sin entered the world. When sin came, along with it came suffering and death. This is just as God told Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:27, “…you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”) For more on this, check out this sermon I did called “How Can a Good God Allow Evil & Suffering?” http://
When someone says that people only believe in God because it makes them feel good, here’s is how I respond:
I can’t speak for others, but I don’t believe in God because doing so makes me feel good. I believe in God because Creation reveals his existence. And I believe in Jesus because history proves that he rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead proves his truth claims (that he was and is the Son of God, the Savior of the world). For more on this, check out my sermon “Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?” http://newdaychurch.cc/