Common Questions and Objections Concerning the Christian Faith.
Derek Owens
A. Questions and objections that arise from misinformation or incorrect facts.
1. Conservative Christians are so mean and hateful and condemning, just like the Nazis. Conservative Christians are like Nazis, therefore you shouldn’t be a conservative Christian.
2. Don’t all religions teach the same thing? You don’t need to be a Christian. Any religion will do, right?
3. You can’t love others if you have already decided their beliefs are wrong. Christianity emphasizes love, and if you are going to be loving toward others, you have to be accepting of their beliefs.
4. You can’t have this figured out at your young age. Some people search their whole lives and never get these things figured out. Its pretty arrogant for you to say that you have found the truth on these matters and that you now know that others are wrong.
B. Questions that arise from correct facts, but from a mistaken understanding of the facts.
1. What about all the bad things Christians have done? Doesn’t that discredit Christianity?
2. If there were really a God, and he was really good, he wouldn’t let so many bad things happen, so I just can’t believe in God.
3. What matters is how you live, not what you believe. We should all just try to live a “Christ-like life” and shouldn’t worry about whether certain teachings are true or not.
4. People are Christians just because their parents are Christians. This country has had a lot of Christian influence. You aren’t a Christian because Christianity is true. You’re just a Christian because you grew up going to church. If you were born in India you would be a Hindu. If you were born in Saudi Arabia you would be a Muslim.
C. Objections that arise primarily because of the current cultural trend of extreme open-mindedness and tolerance.
1. Isn’t Christianity closed-minded?
2. All religions are equally true because truth is relative to the individual. One thing may be true for one person, and something different, even contradictory, may be true for someone else. You may say Christianity is true, but it is only “true for you”. Other ideas are true for other people.
3. Can’t you interpret the bible in many different ways? Who is to say that your interpretation is the correct one.
A. Questions and objections that arise from misinformation or incorrect facts.
1. Conservative Christians are so mean and hateful and condemning, just like the Nazis. Conservative Christians are like Nazis, therefore you shouldn’t be a conservative Christian.
First, note that this is a very mean and hateful and condemning thing to say about Christians. He who uses this argument to accuse Christians of being mean and hateful is himself being mean and hateful toward the Christians.
Secondly: Christians are not Nazis; Nazis were not Christians. Hitler was a Nazi; Hitler was not a Christian.
Hitler was not a highly educated man. He had, however, read Nietzsche and Darwin. Nietzsche promoted atheism. Darwin promoted the theory that the most fit survive. Nietzsche and Darwin had a profound impact on Hitler.
Applying an extreme version of Darwin’s ideas, Hitler wanted to promote the evolution of the human race. His goal was to get rid of the weak and undesirable people and allow those he deemed worthy to live and reproduce. He wanted to eliminate the undesirable elements of the population from the gene pool. Having rejected God, Hitler had no basis for morals, no basis for right and wrong. He was consequently much less inhibited in carrying out his brutal plans.
Not only was Hitler not Christian, but he is a good example of what happened when there was a complete rejection of Christianity. His actions were the natural outworking of atheism, not the result of Christianity. Many of the people who opposed Hitler, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, did so because of their Christianity.
2. Don’t all religions teach the same thing? You don’t need to be a Christian. Any religion will do, right?
The simple answer is that all religions don’t teach the same thing.
This point often confuses people because most religions do teach a very similar ethic. That is, the teachings about how one should live are basically the same in most religions.
But religions, in general, teach much more than ethics; they make statements about the nature of God, the nature of man and man’s problems, and about salvation from these problems. These statements, or doctrines, contradict each other on some key points.
For example: Hinduism teaches that there are many gods. Christianity teaches that there is one God, and only one. These statements are contradictory. While some of the ethics of Hinduism are similar to some of the ethics of Christianity, the doctrinal teachings are very different, and even contradictory.
Also consider the Muslim religion: Muslims believe in one God, so do Christians. There is no contradiction here. Muslims and Christians can both acknowledge the truth of each others’ doctrines at this point. On other key points, however, there is clear contradiction. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet, not the savior of the world. Christians believe Jesus was the savior of the world. Muslims believe one gets to heaven by doing good works. Christians believe that one cannot possibly get to heaven by doing good works.
Note: Many people wish that all religions taught the same thing. That would, after all, result in a much friendlier world, so it is often thought. There would be no need for debate about doctrinal issues that often divide people; there would be no more religious wars; there would be no more people telling other people their beliefs are wrong.
Because many people wish all religions taught the same thing, there is a common tendency today to de-emphasize doctrine and emphasize only ethics. That’s because if only ethics is emphasized, all the religions do teach basically the same thing, and we can all agree.
Christianity, however, emphasizes both doctrine and ethics. We are not at liberty to discard half of it just because we think it would be to our liking. The Bible has a clear emphasis on both ethics and doctrine. If we say that doctrine in unimportant, we deviate dramatically from the way Christianity has been understood throughout the history of the church, and we deviate drastically from the teachings of the bible itself.
– “Watch your life and doctrine closely.” (1 Tim. 4:16)
– “Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless – not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” (Titus 1:9)
– “The day will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, they gather teachers around them to tell them everything their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Tim 4:3)
3. You can’t love others if you have already decided their beliefs are wrong. Christianity emphasizes love, and if you are going to be loving toward others, you have to be accepting of their beliefs.
First, note that the people who emphasize this idea are not being accepting of orthodox Christian beliefs. They are saying that the conservative Christians aren’t accepting other views, and therefore aren’t being loving. They are saying that the conservative Christians should change their view on this. In saying so, they are not accepting the Christian view. They make themselves guilty of the very thing of which they accuse the Christians. By their own standard of love and acceptance, they condemn themselves as unloving and un-accepting.
Secondly, note that it based on a factually incorrect statement. It is certainly possible to love someone while believing that their religious views are incorrect. Countless missionaries have gone forth into the world, sacrificially serving and even dying for people that they came to love. They did not believe that these people had correct religious ideas; otherwise, they would not have gone as missionaries. But their lives and their works are a testimony of love. As an example, consider George Mueller, who set up an orphanage that saved the lives of countless children. He loved the children there, and history bears witness to this. He also taught them about Christianity because he did not think that whatever they believed was necessarily okay
4. You can’t have this figured out at your young age. Some people search their whole lives and never get these things figured out. It’s pretty arrogant for you to say that you have found the truth on these matters and that you now know that others are wrong.
This argument assumes that young people cannot know religious truths. This assumption is incorrect.
Consider the story of David and Goliath. King Saul failed to defeat Goliath, even though King Saul had an army on his side. David, a young boy, was victorious where the old, mature king was not. David understood God. He understood theological truth about God: he knew that God was trustworthy, that God was powerful. He also understood God from his own experiences. He knew that God would protect him because he had seen God’s protection over him as a shepherd. His youth was not any inhibition in his understanding of God.
– “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young” (1 Tim 4:12)
– “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14)
– “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young” (1 Tim 4:12)
– “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14)
B. Questions that arise from correct facts, but from a mistaken understanding of the facts
1. What about all the bad things Christians have done? Doesn’t that discredit Christianity?
Note: All people are fallen, sinful, messed up, etc. Everyone does wrong. Atheists have done wrong, Christians have done wrong, Muslims have done wrong. “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). Encourage people to look to Jesus for their example, not to individual Christians. This is also a good time to get to the main point: The fact that we have done wrong is exactly the reason we need Jesus. People don’t go to church because they think they are good; they go because they know they are bad.
Also note: There have been a lot of bad things done by so-called Christians. The pope at times sent his armies to ransack cities. The inquisition tortured and killed people for not adhering to certain doctrines. People have been burned at the stake by Christians. One must realize, however, that this is not the result of biblical Christianity, which emphasizes love and acceptance and the value of human life. One has to pervert and distort Christianity terribly if one wants to use Christianity to justify these horrible crimes.
Other philosophies, however, cannot make this claim. The horrors of the holocaust were the direct outworking of atheistic philosophy. The atrocities committed by Lenin and Stalin were the direct result of Marxist ideas. Following these teachings has historically lead to suffering and death for many. Christian teaching must be ignored or drastically distorted to result in crimes such as these.
2. If there were really a God, and he was really good, he wouldn’t let so many bad things happen, so I just can’t believe in God.
First, take note that if you reject belief in God, then you are left with atheism, and atheism has no answer to question of human suffering.
Secondly, take note that God is not simply up in his comfortable heaven watching all the helpless people struggle. He came to earth, and he participated in human suffering. He understands, first hand, the suffering people go through. The bible says Jesus was a “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” He was rejected, beaten beyond recognition, falsely accused, and wrongfully put to death, and he went through all of this for our sakes. Rather than ignoring our sufferings, God is willing to go to great lengths for our sakes.
3. What matters is how you live, not what you believe. We should all just try to live a “Christ-like life” and shouldn’t worry about whether certain teachings are true or not.
One’s beliefs are the basis for how one lives. If Christianity is not true, then there is no compelling reason to live a Christ-like life. The question “How should I live?” cannot be adequately addressed unless one has first settled the question “What is true?” For what you believe is true will affect how you live. Hitler believed one thing was true. It affected how he lived. Mother Teresa believed something else was true. It affected how she lived.
4. People are Christians just because their parents are Christians. This country has had a lot of Christian influence. You aren’t a Christian because Christianity is true. You’re just a Christian because you grew up going to church. If you were born in India you would be a Hindu. If you were born in Saudi Arabia you would be a Muslim.
First, we need to acknowledge that there is a lot of truth to this idea. There are many people at Westminster, many people in Atlanta, many people in America, that say they are Christians. And many of these people say this simply because they were brought up under some form of Christianity. These people should consider the teachings of Christianity on their own and objectively, and decide for themselves whether they the believe them. They should investigate the evidence.
We must also add, however, that the above statements are no argument against the truth of Christianity. Many people claim to be Christians because they were raised as Christians. It hardly follows from that fact that Christianity is false. The fact that Christian families raise Christian children is not an argument against the Christian faith. After all, Christian families are supposed to raise Christian children.
C. Objections that arise primarily because of the current cultural trend of extreme open-mindedness and tolerance.
1. Isn’t Christianity closed-minded?
Firstly, even if Christianity were closed-minded, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Secondly, people who raise this objection are rarely open minded about orthodox Christianity. To the person who raises this objection, you can ask, “Are you open-minded about religion?” If they answer yes, you can ask, “Are you willing to consider that the teachings of Jesus may be true? Are you open to the idea that he may be the only way to heaven?”
Thirdly, you may acknowledge that some Christians are closed minded, just as some atheists are, and some Muslims, etc. You, however, should keep an open mind. And it’s good to say so. Tell them that you are willing to consider other points of view. Tell them that you will gladly consider any evidence they present for the truth of atheism, Hinduism, etc., and ask that they also be willing to openly consider the evidence for the historical validity of Christianity.
Fourthly, make sure the terms are defined clearly. Christianity claims that Jesus is the only way to heaven. If “closed-minded” means “not accepting other ways as valid” then Christianity is closed-minded. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate”. He also said “I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved.” He did not say “Enter through the gate of your choice.” In this sense, Christianity is narrow, exclusive, closed-minded. Other people may not like this. We may not like this ourselves. It grates against the American tradition of tolerance and acceptance. We are not, however, at liberty to change the teachings of Jesus. We may accept Christianity, we may reject Christianity, but it is not our place to redefine Christianity to make it more to our liking.
2. All religions are equally true because truth is relative to the individual. One thing may be true for one person, and something different, even contradictory, may be true for someone else. You may say Christianity is true, but it is only “true for you”. Other ideas are true for other people.
The very idea that something can be “true for you” is itself a grave error.
Certainly some things can be “true for you.” If you say, “I like spinach” then that statement is true, for you. It may not be true for someone else.
The issue at hand, however, is not simply a matter of preference. Consider a fundamental issue: the existence of God. God does simply exist or not exist, depending on your preference. He either exists or he doesn’t. If he exists, then the statement “There is a god” is not just “true for you” or “true for me”; it is in fact, true, period. If there is a god, atheists are wrong. If there is not a god, the Christians are wrong. One may be open to discussion on this issue. One should be willing to consider evidence from either side, openly and objectively. But one should be open to the possibility of both views being correct, because the views are contradictory. If one is right, the other must be wrong. We may not know which one is right; one may even believe that it is not possible to ever know which one is right. But there is one thing that we know beyond any doubt: both can’t be correct.
Truth is not relative to the individual. It cannot possibly be relative to the individual. If someone says, “truth is relative to the individual”, then you can simply say, “well that may be true for you…” Relativism is inherently self-defeating.
3. Can’t you interpret the bible in many different ways? Who is to say that your interpretation is the correct one.
To this point, it must be acknowledged that the Bible can, in fact, be interpreted in many different ways. In the creation story in Genesis, for example, the word “day” may be interpreted to mean a literal twenty four hour period, or it may be interpreted to mean an indefinitely long period of time. According to the Hebrew usage of the word “day”, either interpretation is valid.
Some parts of the Bible, however are clear and explicit, and cannot be interpreted. The basic doctrines of the Christian faith are in this category. For example, when the Bible says that there is one God and no other, it cannot be interpreted to mean that there are many Gods. When the Bible says that Jesus rose from the dead, it cannot be interpreted to mean that Jesus did not rise from the dead.
Various interpretations are possible concerning different passages and different teachings. The essential doctrines of the Christian faith, however, are stated quite clearly in the Bible, and ordinary usage of language does not allow us to change the meaning of these passages, even if they are not necessarily to our liking.
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