1 Peter Ch3 v15: But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. 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.

Last week my 8 year old son asked ‘how can God be out of time and where did he come from’? My response was ‘God created time along with the heavens and the earth and can see all of time’.

That same evening I was in a text conversation with a friend and told them about my son’s question, their answer in my opinion was slightly ‘wooly’ as their response was ‘he’s always been there because he is God, and because he is God he can be out of time as only God can be out of time’.

Now I’m not disputing their answer but if you said that to a none Christian they could use the same argument but insert Allah or Buddha, and my son had without realising it had questioned the existence of God. This then got me thinking if a none a Christian was to ask me about the existence of God how would I answer the question, I could give a brief answer but would struggle to provide an in depth answer. So this week I bought Man Myth Messiah by Rice Broocks which will hopefully provide me with the in depth knowledge I want to learn.

There are numerous questions which Christians, none Christians will ask us during our lifetime which we need to be prepared to answer i.e. why is there evil in the World, why did my baby die, why do I suffer from depression etc. None of these questions are easy to answer and there aren’t any stock answers that we can learn and memorise.

When we’re answering questions we need to remember that we need to respond to the person and not the worldview, we shouldn’t water down the Gospel in fear of a backlash from the person(s), society or media; we should not conform to the world (see Romans Ch12 v2) but stand up for our faith and what we believe to be true.

In some instances there will be a deeper question behind the original question, and to discover it you will need to listen carefully and ask a few good questions as a simple question can open doors and break down barriers. “Giving the right answer to the wrong question will always be wrong” (Michael Ramsden).

I’m going to finish this week’s blog post on; don’t try and blag your way through a tough question, but take their mobile number, email address and tell them that you will look into their question and you will get in touch.

Thought for the week

How prepared are you to give answers to anyone who asks you questions about your faith, God’s will, world events?