Answering Frequently Asked Questions

This page is to help (1) Christians who want honestly and openly to answer the questions put to them by serious or casual enquirers, (2) Enquirers who are trying to think through the claims of the Christian Faith. We want to assure them that we respect their sincerity and integrity and hope that what they read will help them to discover what Christians value so highly - the knowledge of God and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. We certainly pray so.

'Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear ... ' 1 Peter 3:15,16.

Christians will know from experience that there are a number of questions that non-Christians ask when they are thinking about the Christian faith. Sometimes, it has to be said, they may be asked as a diversion from facing the real issues that Christianity raises. But at other times the questions are a serious enquiry which the questioner would like clarified or answered before they can move on to the next issue. We respect them for that. But even the casual or superficial enquirer needs something with substance to take away which enables them to think further.

Often Christians are embarrassed or perplexed when asked these questions because they think they are going to need a very clever answer which they do not have, or simply because they haven't really thought through how to go about an answer. Or that perhaps they will make such a mess of it that they will dishonour Christ. This page will hopefully provide something to say in response that is both thought-provoking to the casual questioner and satisfying for the serious enquirer and which will help them along their journey towards faith in Christ.

At the end of this article there is a list of books that will be useful if you want to think through the issues further.

(1) There are three things we need to get clear ourselves before we get to the questions:

1. The Christian faith is intellectually sustainable. That is to say that we do not need to jettison our minds when we become a Christian and therefore be afraid of trying to think things through. The Christian faith stands up to careful enquiry!

2. The whole of the Christian faith rests on the person and works of Jesus Christ. There may be lots to talk about which is important but which is not truly central to considering the truth of the Christian faith. We need to beware of going off into lofty debates on mysterious flights of fancy that do not lead to a serious consideration of who Christ is and what He did for us.

3. There are limits to what any of us can know. By this is meant that since we are trying to think through matters to do with the God of the Universe, there will be limits to what our finite minds can cope with. We can only be clear about things that God has made clear. However, this observation does not nullify what was said in Point 1 because God has told us a great deal in the Bible to orientate our thinking, even if He does not provide a complete answer to every issue.

(2) In seeking to help people through their questions or doubts we need to observe a few important guidelines. For example:

(a) We must be honest and truthful and not use tricky ways which may only result in covering our ignorance or being patronising. That would be awful and may put an obstacle in the way of serious enquiry. If we do not know the answer to a question it is better to say so and promise to find out - which we must then do, of course! Or we could refer them to someone else who can answer. We do not deal in glib or tricky answers.

(b) We must not treat the questioner as though they were an opponent. Sometimes people do use questions to put Christians on the spot. But even then a courteous and considerate reply may win sympathetic attention and a change of attitude. We must never give a withering reply that cuts people down. In other words we must love them!

(c) Even when we are engaged in a discussion with someone we must be prayerful. The most famous biblical example of this is in Nehemiah 2:4. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, the most powerful ruler around at the time: someone to be really afraid of - you didn't cross Artaxerxes! In 2:4 the King asks Nehemiah 'What is it you want?' Nehemiah's account of the event then reads 'Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king.' .. We often call this an 'arrow prayer'. This doesn't mean it was a superficial prayer - the issue raised by Nehemiah's answer was very important. God wants us to call upon Him. So even while answering our questioner, our short and urgent prayer for help is heard and answered - 'I prayed to God and answered the king'. Of course, after the discussion and in any on-going relationship with your questioner you will need to maintain constant prayer on their behalf that God will send His Holy Spirit into their hearts to open their eyes to see.

The Department of Evangelism in the Diocese of Sydney has analysed the questions asked at 500 of the Home Dialogue meetings they have held. The most common nine questions were*:

(The Good Book Co. [see the Links page for more details] publishes a very useful folded card with short answers to these questions. It is very helpful for quick consultation.)

(* from 'Know and Tell the Gospel' by John Chapman, Hodder and Stoughton, ISBN 0 340 34281 1 - this is a strongly recommended read for those wanting to be involved in evangelism. There is a companion book by the same author for the serious enquirer, which is also highly recommended, ' A Fresh Start', pub. by St Matthias Press, Sydney & London, ISBN 1 873166 01 X. In the UK both available from the Good Book Co. - see the Links page) )

It would be possible to tackle this from a number of starting points, including the apparent design of the observed universe. But this will lead straight into question 9 as well, which could be very complicated. An initial observation that will get right to the heart of the issue, is to say that we can know God exists because He came to earth in Jesus Christ. You could say that Jesus did actually claim to be God and that his actions supported that assertion - adding that this is such an important issue that we all should take the trouble to check it out for ourselves. If your questioner is at the stage to be shown verses then you could turn to John 5:18, 10:30 and 20:28,29. So the answer to 'I don't believe in God' is - 'Who was Jesus Christ then? I suggest you examine the evidence'.

You could point out that we readily accept the existence of all sorts of people and what they did on the basis of historical records, so why not Jesus Christ?

If your hearer objects or shows interest, you will then need to urge him/her to examine the evidence, suggesting, for example, that they read Mark's gospel (this is the shortest and most vibrant gospel). It might be appropriate for you to offer to read it with them. On the other hand that may be far too intimidating for them: you'll have to leave them to do it alone. Make sure they have access to a modern version of the NT.

Many people have the mistaken belief that the Bible is full of mistakes and inconsistencies. This is usually just something they may have heard but have never checked out for themselves. It is true that there may be a few, very few, examples in the Old Testament, where

scribes seem to have copied down numbers incorrectly, or there were different methods of accounting, but that AT NO POINT is the message of the Bible inconsistent. And that it is one of the amazing things about the Bible since it was written by so many different people, from different walks of life, most of whom never met! Some of the Dead Sea scrolls have confirmed for us that we do have the original versions of OT books.

Another common view is that the Bible is open to different interpretations. Sadly, this view is often held by church-going people who have yet to accept the Bible as the authority for their believing and living. The answer is that the message and teaching of the Bible is so clear to the honest and open reader that the interpretation is not open to question. Every part of it has one meaning - the meaning God wants us to understand so that we are not confused. He wants us to know.

The New Testament is totally reliable as this contains the testimony about Christ. The NT documents were written much closer to the events that they record than most other documents that we accept as historical for that period of history. Also non-Christian writers, of the time - Roman, pagan and Jewish, such as Tacitus, Pliny, Eliezer and Josephus, confirm that Christ was crucified and during whose jurisdiction it happened; and the subsequent spread of Christianity. We cannot avoid the amazing fact that the witness of the NT is really quite remarkable and consistent since it was written by ten authors, eight of whom wrote independently. Another point is that the various writings contain historical information that is consistent with that known from other sources. Literary scholars agree that the gospels do not read like fiction. Finally it should be noted that in various museums there are over 20,000 copies or fragments of NT books all of which confirm our current version. The New Testament is certainly reliable in what it records and asserts.

This is certainly the most difficult question to answer convincingly as it takes us into the realms of of the un-revealed purposes of God. But we can say something.

I have given a long and discursive answer here. There is no way all of it could be used in conversation with an enquirer, but I have tried to provide a thoughtful background to what to say. There is an outline at the end. Whole books have been written on the subject, so this can only be an introduction.

Often this question is asked because the enquirer, or one of their close family, or a friend, has suffered badly and it is a heavy burden for them to bear. We must begin by asking very sensitively whether the questioner has something special in mind in their own experience. To know this will help you avoid making thoroughly insensitive remarks that will only hurt your hearer further. Irrespective of answering their questions we do not want to add to anyone's burden of hurt or bereavement. This is an opportunity to show real Christian love and concern, and we must let people talk even if it postpones answering their question to another time.

We can observe straight away that we do not know why God allowed evil into our world. Some suffering is directly the result of our own wrongdoing - the accident caused by drunkenness, poverty caused by other's greed or selfishness... there are many examples. But clearly not all suffering is like that. Some is heart-rending; the suffering of a child, or natural disasters, for instance. Suffering and death are awful. The Bible tells us that none of it was God's original intention. So has God failed? If He is a God of love why doesn't He intervene and stop it?

(While dealing with such a sensitive subject, it might be worth readers knowing that the author of this page is himself suffering from incurable cancer. After a 3-year period of remission he has now returned to chemotherapy for six months. So nothing found here is either superficial or dismissive.)

First, we need to acknowledge that the Christian Scriptures teach some very profound principles about the problem of evil and suffering and that we will struggle to understand. But is this altogether surprising: after all we are thinking about the profoundest aspects of God and life? Let's begin by hearing the following observations:

How do we approach the problem of evil and suffering?

There are two possible approaches:

Approach One: We accept that the loving and holy God revealed in Scripture and shown us in person by Jesus Christ is sovereign over all things, including evil and suffering. God does everything well; he must have perfect reasons for allowing the evil and permitting the suffering that he does. As finite creatures we may not understand what these reasons could possibly be, and in any case we are in no position to demand that God explain himself just when we want. Especially we have to admit that man himself is the reason and source for a great deal of suffering in our world. We are called to trust that our loving, holy sovereign heavenly Father is loving, holy and sovereign. To some people this feels as if we are blaming God.

Approach Two: We deny that God is sovereign over everything including evil and suffering. This lets him off the hook, either because he doesn't know about it or because he would love to help but can't. God doesn't know everything; he refuses to intervene in large areas of human life and history (for what he considers good reasons) and is in any case battling with the forces of chaos, the enormity of which we cannot comprehend. This is not the God revealed in the Christian Scriptures.

Adapted with acknowledgements to Dr David Field in a book review.

Donald Carson also makes a clear statement about the biblical teaching (in his book 'A Call to Spiritual Reformation' chap.9, p.148 - this whole chapter entitled 'A Sovereign and Personal God' is highly recommended reading).

'1. God is absolutely sovereign, but this never functions in Scripture to reduce human responsibility.

2. Human beings are responsible creatures -that is, they choose, they disobey, they respond, and there is moral significances in their choices; but human responsibility never functions in Scripture to diminish God's sovereignty or to make God absolutely contingent'

Second, we may also observe that it is clear that human flesh, bone and tissue of which we are made are subject to fault and decay, and we cannot escape it. In order to please everyone God would have to eliminate all evil, of which suffering is an integral part, and totally change what it means to be human. This might well include removing what we regard as our right of our human freedom and turn us into quite different creatures. We would have to become completely under God's control but we wouldn't want that would we? Mankind has never wanted that!

Furthermore, God has given us the ability through human skill and science to eradicate and alleviate much suffering. So why haven't we eliminated the most serious diseases yet? Because we haven't been willing to spend enough money and time on it, that's why! We have chosen to spend our resources on other things. If we used the money we spend on aborting unwanted babies (the outcome of immoral behaviour) to tackle cancer instead, it would probably advance research by leaps and bounds. Or what about what we spend on weaponry? Billions more could be put into medical research every year or given to millions to give them a better and healthier standard of living. I am not pushing the pacifist cause here, but trying to illustrate that much suffering could be eliminated if mankind were prepared to make the right choices. We are responsible, not God!

Third, God has done something about suffering in a very remarkable way. He has identified with us by suffering Himself! Jesus Christ is God and He was certainly God when he hung on a Roman cross and suffered the excruciating agonies of dying by crucifixion - made worse by the knowledge that he was carrying the sin of the world! Moreover it was a death He chose to die out of love for us. By so doing, he brought the possibility for us to enter into a new existence, what the Bible calls 'a new creation', in which our human life marred by suffering is not all there is! There is another life, which we only glimpse now but which awaits us where there is 'no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order has passed away' (Rev.21:4).

Fourth, what God has done in Jesus Christ and what is imparted to those who live by faith in Him, totally change the believer's attitude to his/her suffering. For the non-Christian, suffering is totally and absolutely negative and bad. For the Christian this is not so. In suffering the believer may experience the most exquisite aspects of God's presence and sustenance. The pain has still to be borne, but there is a silver lining to the dark cloud. Often in non-fatal illness this greatly increases the Christian's faith and strength. I am not going to be dismissive here of the Christian's agony in watching the suffering of others. One of my grandsons had a heart attack when only 4 months old, and nearly died. What agonies his parents and grandparents went through. But being Christians made an enormous difference: he was in God's hands and God is love! He recovered, but we were prepared for another outcome!

This is not just pious talk, assembled to support the party line! This is the experience of Christians down the generations. Christians just know they are in God's loving hands.

It needs to be said here that sometimes God does intervene and bring healing, total or partial. It appears to be the exception rather than the rule and we cannot dictate it. But I will not promise it nor deny it. Healing can take different forms - mental, psychological and emotional as well as physical. Some claim that physical healing often happens. That is not my experience, unless I have woefully missed seeing God at work like that. May He forgive me if that is so. There was a time in my life when He may have healed me of a thyroid condition. I cannot be sure: but if He did, I honour Him for it. When our tiny grandson of 4 months was seriously ill, hundreds of Christians prayed. He and his parents and grandparents suffered greatly. But knowing that he was in the hands of a sovereign loving heavenly Father made all the difference. Hearing his parents tearfully but purposely put him into God's hands was the sort of experience that reaches the edge of eternity itself. Many are praying for me now because of my cancer. Will God act in some way? Of course He will, in some way known best to him. How He will respond is up to His perfect love and wisdom.

1. Much suffering is the direct result of mankind's sin (eg the drunken driver, or greed). This is not God's fault.

2. But clearly not all suffering is like this: but it is a result of the total picture of mankind's rebellion against God; we brought it on ourselves.

3. If God were to intervene to eliminate evil, as many demand, it would of necessity encroach into every human heart, removing our free will. Human beings would never want that.

4. God has gifted us with skill and science which could alleviate and eliminate much suffering but we humans make the wrong choices and deny funds to where they are needed. So we are responsible.

5. God has identified with our suffering by suffering Himself on the cross of Jesus Christ. That sacrificial death has opened up to believers another life beyond this one where pain and tears are no more. For believers our present human life is not all there is.

6. It is the experience of Christians that God is with them in their suffering in a spiritual and sustaining way, so that their suffering is not totally pointless as it is for the unbeliever. He knows what suffering is like and loves us through it. He responds to our prayer, sometimes in healing , but always in compassion and support.

Everyone has seen something of the hand of God at work - through the creation, the universe around us. This ought to be enough to make us seek Him. In western countries there is a Christian church near enough to anyone who wants to hear the truth about God. So we have no excuse if we do not try to find out. Many have not heard because they do not want to hear!

We can trust God to act justly. His judgement will take account of what people have been able to know.

The religions of the world are not the same. They do not say the same things about God or about how we may know Him. They contradict each other. They cannot be all equally valid. They cannot all be alternative ways to God.

Christ claimed to be God and His life was consistent with that claim. His claim demands to be investigated. He said He was the only way to God. That is either the utmost arrogance or the truth. No other explanation is possible, because he did not behave like a mentally deranged person. Those who knew Him confirm he was a good man. The Christian faith is the only faith which provides a answer to the wickedness of man.

We are thankful that many people live good, even sacrificially-good, lives. The world is a better place because of them. But 'being good' is not the definition of being a Christian. A Christian is first and foremost a follower of Jesus Christ: someone who has placed their trust in Christ and His sacrificial death for salvation from their sins and their reconciliation to God. Any goodness they have follows from this faith.

It is better to be good for Christ's sake than to be good because we want to be.

Some of us are better than others. But none of us is good enough to meet God's standards. That is why Jesus Christ had to die for our forgiveness.

Going to church, in itself, does not make you a Christian. We become Christians by believing that Christ died for our forgiveness, and submitting to Him as our Lord. Once we have done that we will want to be with other Christians in their local community where they continue to learn about God from the Bible and enjoy one another's fellowship and compassion.

It is inconceivable that someone will become a Christian and not want to do that.

The Christian faith is based on objective historical facts, not on feelings or experience. Faith must have an object, it is not just some airy-fairy feeling. For Christians, that objective fact is that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from death to life.

The Christian faith is not simply a psychological crutch for people to lean on: it is for those who recognise who Jesus Christ is and consider it right to believe in Him. Being a Christian is not escapism - or an easy option. It is a challenging way of life that demands commitment.

Christian faith is not believing in something regardless of the evidence. It is putting your trust in what God has revealed to us and done for us in Jesus Christ.

By this question most people mean 'Hasn't evolution discredited the Bible's story of creation and therefore shown Christianity to be wrong?'. It is not helpful for us to get into debate about different ways of interpreting Genesis or whether evolution is right or not. It will never end. There is a helpful 1,000 word background article on this topic on the Information and Application page.

It is better to decide whether an enquirer believes that God does not exist or that human life has no ultimate meaning beyond material existence? If the answer is 'no' to either of these propositions (eg. they do believe there is a God, or human life does have meaning), then where does this idea come from? This enables us to compare these (private) ideas with the Christian view derived from Jesus Christ. If the answer is 'yes' to either of these propositions (eg. they do not believe God exists, or human life has no meaning) it is then important to ask who Jesus Christ was - taking us back to Question 1.

Don't forget the assertion by Professor C.S.Lewis that there is one thing no-one must say - namely, that Jesus was just a good teacher. His deeds and His words do not leave us with that option.

We live in times when there is enormous confusion about the nature of true religion. In an age of tolerance there is one thing we are not allowed to say, and that is that Christianity is the only true faith or that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. That is not tolerated! Absolute truth is not allowed to exist in the modern mind so it follows that it is not possible to decide which religion is right or which is mistaken. It therefore comes down to what you like, or to opinion. That is, if you are allowed to debate it all!

In the May 2003 issue of 'The Briefing' (Pub. by St. Matthias Press in Sydney, Australia and The Good Book Co. in UK - see the Links page), Tony Payne rightly observes 'Religious claims are cordoned off into a no-go zone, where rational debate and argument is not allowed. As soon as anyone tries it, the charge of intolerance and bigotry is levelled.'

The same article helpfully goes on to show how the modern mind thinks that issues of faith are not - indeed, cannot be - subject to the normal ways of examining any aspect of knowledge, namely by examining evidence, and conducting rational discussion. In other words, they claim, faith can have no connection with knowledge. Faith has become 'an irrational leap in the dark'. Religious claims cannot be right or wrong.

The event that triggered these observations was a sermon by the Dean of Sydney Cathedral who had the 'temerity' (in the eyes of the press, for example) to say that if two religions say mutually contradictory things about God, for instance, then one of them, at least, must be wrong on that matter.

What modern thinking leaves out is that there are ways of examining religious claims, for example where they interconnect with history. The Christian faith claims that God stepped into human history at a particular time and at a particular geographical location on our planet in the person of His divine Son who lived and died, and rose from the dead as a fact of history. If it can be shown by the normal rules of evidence used in all historical research that these claims are wrong, then the Christian faith falls and should no longer be believed. Answers to earlier questions above apply at this point.

At the level of human reasoning, the Christian position on many matters can be debated by examining the evidence, assembling arguments, weighing-up the probabilities and making a rational judgement about what all these add up to. As Payne also points out, there is the level of 'liveability' which can also be used as a test. Does what Christianity says about the nature of man - namely that he is sinful - square with what we observe? Indeed it does.

Decisions about religion, right or wrong, do belong in the realm of human debate and rational consideration: they need not be dispatched to the realm of opinion, or regarded as incapable of proof or disproof. Christian belief does not stand outside reality, it truly encompasses reality at every level.

'Know and Tell the Gospel' by John Chapman, Hodder and Stoughton, ISBN 0 340 34281 1

'A Fresh Start', pub. by St Matthias Press, Sydney & London, ISBN 1 873166 01 X.

'Is the New Testament History?' by Paul Barnett, pub by Hodder and Stoughton.

Most, if not all, of these books are available from the Good Book Co. - see the Links page

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