Many people I witness to question the existence of God. A lot of people would be intimidated by such questions, but there is no need to be. A man with an experience is not at the mercy of a man with an argument. You might as well try and tell me that my wife doesn’t exist.
So when some skeptic or atheist or agnostic asks me one of their ‘Gotcha!’ questions I am not operating from a position of weakness or disadvantage.
For example, the most frequent question I receive from such people is, “If there is a loving God, how do you explain the existence of evil?” They think that this question is like the nail in the coffin in the argument, but the question is seriously flawed.
It was C S Lewis who said, “Nothing is as self-defeating as posing a question without first thinking it through.”
The question is flawed because it makes certain assumptions which, if you follow them through logically, actually prove what the questioner is trying to disprove. The question assumes the existence of evil. If you assume the existence of evil, then you must also assume the opposite, which is the existence of good, as a point of reference, which is the basis for a moral law. If there is such a thing as a moral law, then who is the moral law Giver? But that is exactly who the question was posed to disprove in the first place!
If there is no moral lawgiver, then there is no moral law. If there is no moral law, then there is no good nor evil. So you see the question makes no sense.
There are some who say that morality should be relative to individuals or societies to decide for themselves, but if that is true then what do you say when your neighbor thinks that in order for him to survive he must rob or kill you, or if one society says that in order for them to thrive they must annihilate the other? Now they are contending for the very thing that they are trying to accuse God of or blame him for! The questioner has put him or herself in a terrible position.
So when some skeptic or atheist or agnostic asks me one of their ‘Gotcha!’ questions I am not operating from a position of weakness or disadvantage.
For example, the most frequent question I receive from such people is, “If there is a loving God, how do you explain the existence of evil?” They think that this question is like the nail in the coffin in the argument, but the question is seriously flawed.
It was C S Lewis who said, “Nothing is as self-defeating as posing a question without first thinking it through.”
The question is flawed because it makes certain assumptions which, if you follow them through logically, actually prove what the questioner is trying to disprove. The question assumes the existence of evil. If you assume the existence of evil, then you must also assume the opposite, which is the existence of good, as a point of reference, which is the basis for a moral law. If there is such a thing as a moral law, then who is the moral law Giver? But that is exactly who the question was posed to disprove in the first place!
If there is no moral lawgiver, then there is no moral law. If there is no moral law, then there is no good nor evil. So you see the question makes no sense.
There are some who say that morality should be relative to individuals or societies to decide for themselves, but if that is true then what do you say when your neighbor thinks that in order for him to survive he must rob or kill you, or if one society says that in order for them to thrive they must annihilate the other? Now they are contending for the very thing that they are trying to accuse God of or blame him for! The questioner has put him or herself in a terrible position.
The sad irony of the situation is that one of the primary excuses people use to reject God, the existence of evil, is the very reason the world so desperately needs him. Don’t be afraid to tell the world about the deliverance, love, and the forgiveness that you have found in Jesus Christ. In him we find the answers to life’s most difficult questions.
God bless you as you go and share the truth with a lost and dying world.