Glen Park Gospel Church >> Editorial >> Answers For Skeptics

Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. A little while ago we published a few of the common excuses that people usually come up with, each with its own reply.

1/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 1

"It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere," he said.

"Except that potted plants don't answer prayer," his friend replied.

2/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 2

"God is a kill-joy, he wants to stop you having fun."

God wants to save you from harm, including the harm you can do to yourself. Jesus summed it up, "The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you might have life and have it to the full." Satan's ‘fun' has a sting. Jesus came to give us life.

3/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 3

God is just an influence an energy force that surrounds us all. Some are more tapped in than others. Except that Jesus is a living person!

"Look at my hands and my feet, It is I myself" Jesus said, "Touch me and see..." Luke 24:39

4/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 4

"Jesus is just another prophet like all the others, a teacher of good morals."

He never claimed to be a prophet or teacher, He claimed to be the Son of God.

John 10:36 ". . . I am the Son of God"

5/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 5

"This 'Gentle Jesus meek and mild' is only for women and kids!"

Then read the story for your self and see how he faced his enemies, handled crowds, met calls on his skills, endured opposition, pain and suffering then died in agony. How would you have faced it?

6/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 6

"The Bible is just another classic book like Plato's Republic, Virgil's Aenied of Shakespeare's Complete works. Its just another old book, so why get excited!"

The Bible is unique. There is no other like it. It is a library in one volume. It was written over 4000 years on three continents by over forty authors in four languages, yet it has one basic unifying theme, ‘God's redemption of man.'

7/1999

Answers for Skeptics No. 7

"Oh!" he said, "The Bible is like Swiss cheese, full of holes. You know - mistakes."

So I handed him a Bible, "Here," I said, "Show me some!"

"Er . . . Um . . . Arrhh"

It's funny isn't it. I have never found anyone who said that the Bible is full of mistakes who knew what they were talking about.

8/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 8

"The resurrection is a con, Jesus just swooned on the cross and later revived in the cool of the tomb. He never died at all ..."

Jesus was scourged with a flagrum which so lacerated the victim's body that often the prisoner died before he could be executed. Jesus was so sore and exhausted that Simon from Cyrene had to carry his cross for him. Crucifixion causes death by asphyxiation as the feet of the victim are pushed up toward the buttocks and nailed. The weight of the body on the pinned arms makes it impossible to exhale without lifting the body by pushing down on the tucked up legs. When the victim is too weak to do this any longer, the brain is starved of oxygen and death occurs within minutes. To hasten death, the executioner broke the victim's legs. This happened on that day. An eye witness of the event wrote "Then came the soldiers, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and immediately came out blood and water." The upward thrust of the spear from below pierced the heart and released its blood and the lymph fluid which gathers around the pericardium, due to the intense agony caused by crucifixion. The evidence was enough to convince the soldier to not break his legs, but to certify death. The witness to all this was John the Apostle and he certified his record, "And he that saw, bore witness, and his witness is true: and he knoweth that he speaketh truth, that ye may believe."

9/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 9

Jesus didn't rise from the dead, the disciples just got mixed up about the tomb. They went to the wrong one!

Consider:
1. All these people at least alone or in several separate different groups visited the tomb. Joseph of Arimathaea, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary the mother of James, Salome, Nicodemus, Peter, John, representatives of the priests and the Roman soldier guard. Did they all get mixed up.
2. The tomb entrance had a broken Roman seal to mark it.
3. Angels from Heaven visited the tomb and identified it.
4. The risen Jesus was standing by, and spoke to Mary.

Did they all get it wrong? Surely not!

10/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 10

The ‘Everything's Relative' myth. One man's meat is another man's poison. What is right for you may not be right for me! Truth is relative. You can't tell me what to do.

This myth is exposed by the multiplication table. Only one answer is correct. Those who tell us this complain when we don't keep our promises to them. "But, that's not fair," they complain automatically appealing to a sense of absolute truth.

Romans 2.14 "For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law to themselves: Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and [their] thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."

11/1999

Answers to Skeptics No: 11

Nobody's perfect. I'm not too bad. There's many worse than me. I've done as many good things as bad. If you're going to Heaven then I should get on OK too."

Jesus told a man called Nicodemus who was a very pious religious leader, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

I'm going to heaven because my sins are all forgiven, are yours?

12/1999

Answers for Skeptics No: 12

"Christmas is charming, a holiday time. But really, Jesus is just a good teacher like all the others, Budda, Confucius, Mahomet. You name it."

But Jesus didn't teach that. He claimed to be unique. He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me." Logically, either he was correct, what He taught is true, and He is unique, and He is the only way to God the Father; or he was wrong. If he was wrong He was not a good teacher. If He was right we should listen to Him and do what He says. We must make a decision about our response to this claim.

1/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 13

This Jesus is just a teacher like all the others Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism all say the same thing. Here is my teaching, like, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Same philosophy, different face; that's all.

Except that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. Jesus said And this is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3. It is not what you know, it's who you know that makes all the difference.

2/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 14

The Bible is Full of Errors. Archaeologists are always proving it to be wrong!

Luke was a physician and historian who lived and travelled in the first Christian century and wrote about current events. Critics for centuries have attacked Luke's matter as being inaccurate, but more recent archaeology has shown him to be correct.

For example scholars had said that his reference to Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene (Luke 3:1) was wrong because archiologists knew of only one Lysanias who was killed in 36BC. However recently they dug up an inscription near Damascus referring to "Lysanias the Tetrarch" from 14AD to 29AD.

This is not an isolated example. Truth has a way of verifying itself.

3/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 15

"The Christian Faith is just that, faith. You can't prove that it is true! We don't accept anything but fact, (like the evolution theory)"

Exactly, it is faith. Faith always acts on evidence. Courts sift evidence for innocence or conviction. Doctors assess symptoms in making a diagnosis. This does not mean that these professionals are irrational, but they exercise faith in coming to a decision. Christians do the same. We set our experience and that of others against the claims of God's word before taking action on our conclusions. In fact the Bible expects people to make these assessments. "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you might have life in His name." John 20.31.

4/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 16

"I have a scientific mind. I believe in cold hard fact. Can you prove the resurrection of Jesus, scientifically."

"No! Because scientific "proof" requires a repeated experiment in a controlled environment where the event can be observed and the data recorded. Jesus only died and was raised once. What we do have is reliable records of a large number of witnesses to the event. The same is true of many events in history, and we don't doubt them. Thomas was one of those who wanted cold hard evidence, He said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Later the risen Jesus confronted him in these words, "Reach here your finger, and observe my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." Thomas, in this well proven record, was offered the soft warm evidence of the personal, living Jesus. It is the same today.

5/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 17

"Oh! Christianity is just a subjective, psychological idea that turns you on. Any other kinky experience can do it just as well!"

Only that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not subjective, it is a historically verified fact. And secondly, there are millions of people in every race, whose lives have been transformed by faith in the risen Christ in a remarkably similar manner. All have experienced a subjective transformation on the basis of an objective fact in a manner which is already prescribed by the Bible. Listen to this:

"Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God's Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral, or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts, or steal or are greedy or are drunkards, or who slander others or are thieves- none of these will possess God's Kingdom. Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6.9-11. (GNB)

6/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 18

"Real Christians don't doubt."

After His resurrection Jesus confronted Thomas and showed him his hands and side. John records it in John 20:27 "Then saith he [Jesus] to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and see my hands; and reach out your hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." Jesus did not chide Thomas for doubt, he simply showed him the evidence. Doubt is part of the pathway to faith, provided it leads us to a true investigation of the facts. It's the Devil who want you to feel guilty about doubt. Don't give him the edge.

Proverbs 8:17 "I love them that love me; And those that seek me diligently shall find me."
Luke 11:9 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

7/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 19

It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you have faith!

Wrong! I may have all the confidence in the world in a weak bridge, but it still collapses when I put my weight on it. I may be most cautious and frightened but if I venture onto a strong structure it will bear me safely across. The Apostle Paul taught "If Christ be not raised [from the dead], your faith is vain; you are still in your sins." Do you get the message?

8/2000

Answers for Skeptics No: 20

"The Bible is old hat. The world has moved on. You should get up to date!"

The Bible is so up to date that it tells history before it happens and tells its significance. TV and newspapers have recently featured the disregard of Turkey for ancient treasures and personal property with the flooding of a valley on the Tigris River. In fact Turkey currently has plans to build some 22 dams, the Ilisu Dam due to commence this year predominantly in Kurdish territory across the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and their tributaries. Significant is Turkish disregard for the rights of countries depending on their waters down stream, in particular, Syria and Iran. Turkey will have the power to turn off their water supply.

The Bible told about the lack of this water and subsequent military action in Revelation 16:12 "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings, of the east might be prepared." A significance missed by Human Rights and Political activists, the fact that this is also seen as a sign that the coming again of Jesus Christ is near. In the same passage we read. "Behold, I come like a thief does. Blessed he that is watching, and who keeps his garments (righteousness), lest he walk naked, and they see his shame".V15

Read the sign, heed the warning, believe God's word and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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