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Well, the thing is that Christianity is about God, not Christians. Even if people who call themselves Christians mess up, they aren’t the focus. Also, Christians are sinners, and we admit it. So what hypocrisy is there really? Now I do agree that it is hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and then not even try to be one.
How I would address this is this: “Do you think that because Christians can be hypocrites, God is any less loving? He died for the very people who are sinning against him, even the ones who act like they aren’t sinning. You can’t look at sinful humans and draw a picture of God from them. God is supreme, and we are broken, in need of a savior.”
I hope this helped too 🙂 Not sure if that covered everything, so if I didn’t let me know.
The measure of a man is how much bacon he eats.
If your friend is hurt by her parents’ actions, you could try to get through to her with that. You could tell her about her Father in heaven who will never do the hurtful things her parents did. God is all-loving and wants to save her from eternal death and bring her an everlasting life in heaven with Him.
The measure of a man is how much bacon he eats.
You’ve been very helpful. Thank you. You’ve given me a lot of good questions to ask and points to bring up.😊
Something else I’d like to ask is how important do you think it is to share your own experience when either talking about God or defending Him.
Thanks a lot! I’m happy I could help.
It really depends on what your experience is. Don’t randomly make everything about you if your experiences aren’t related to the discussion. On the other hand, if your friend is struggling with something you’ve struggled with, bring up how you got through it with God’s help. Also, it’s okay if you don’t think you have a “testimony”. A lot of people look at a testimony as something terrible that happened to you or that you did before you came to Christ. Though that can be a testimony, a testimony is also how wonderful your life has been since accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
So, if you’re talking with someone about God (no defending involved), it’s okay to bring up personal stories that are related. If you are defending God, it depends on who you’re defending Him for. If the person is more easily persuaded by facts and numbers, that stuff probably will just make Christianity seem fluffier to them and more like a fairy tale. But if they are the type that is more easily persuaded by personal, mental, or spiritual reasoning, it is a good idea to bring up your personal testimony or even small examples of God working in your life.
These questions are great, by the way. I really have a good time answering them 🙂
The measure of a man is how much bacon he eats.
I think you should check out Tim Keller or David Platt I like to listen to them a lot on my way to school and they frequently mention this kind of stuff.
That’s great that you listen to them on your way to school. Most kids would probably listen to secular music instead! XDXD I’m homeschooled so I don’t have time to listen to it in my way to school, but I’ll find time some other part of the day. I’ve heard of Time Keller, but David Platt is new to me. Thanks for the advice! 🙂
The measure of a man is how much bacon he eats.
I’m glad I’m not annoying you with questions! 😄
Another thing I’ve been pondering is how important is it to discuss Hell. Or rather, how much detail should be given.
heheh good question.
This one’s a bit complicated. You should bring up Hell during any discussion of the Gospel. Without it, there is no Gospel. The whole thing is about Jesus saving us. From what? Hell. So, if you are explaining the Gospel, say something like, “Jesus came to earth, lived a life without sin, then suffered and died on the cross for us. He saved us from torment in Hell, the wrath of God Himself for all eternity.” That’s not too much detail, but it’s enough to get the picture across. Now if you say that and the response you get is something like, “At least my friends will be there,” or, “It can’t be that bad,” then it is very important to make them aware of their brokenness and their need for a savior. And of course, they need to know in more detail what their being saved from, Hell.
If you’re looking for an example, a while back my friend (an atheist) asked me what it meant when people kept on saying that Jesus “died for his sins”. He was never told what it meant. So I told him, “We are all born sinners, even if we’ve been fairly good people. God can’t be near sin, and he must punish us for it. That punishment is eternal torture in Hell. Jesus came and lived a sinless life on earth, then died on the cross, suffering God’s wrath so we don’t have to. So what it means is, Jesus died and paid the penalty for our sins.”
He then asked, “Why does it matter if Hell exists?”
After thinking, I said, “Because if it didn’t we wouldn’t need saving. We know we do need saving because we’ve sinned and are therefore condemned.”
Hell can be a hot topic (no pun intended), but that’s okay. That doesn’t take away from its importance.
I’m gonna be honest, this is the most fun I’ve had answering these questions in a long while, so keep them coming! XDXD
The measure of a man is how much bacon he eats.
Did your friend struggle with the notion of being a sinner? How do you explain sin to a person who didn’t grow up in the church?
He wasn’t necessarily struggling with the idea, he admitted it. But he did say quite a lot that he was a good person, that type of thing. It was hard to get across to him that doing good things wasn’t enough, but here’s what I said: “If you commit a crime, and when you are proven guilty, you say, ‘But I’ve done a lot of good things,’ what should a good judge do?” He of course answered that the judge should put the person in prison. Then I said, “God is completely perfect and righteous. Each sin we commit is like a crime to God, and each one of these crimes is worth eternal torture, the most intense torture ever with no end.” That really showed him the basic picture of sin. Of course I didn’t get into how sin is transferred from Adam to us, and even if we didn’t sin we’re still “sinners”, but I didn’t need to.
We then had lots of discussions involving sin and God, and he seemed very intrigued. It just takes one eye opening talk to change a person’s mind about God.
The measure of a man is how much bacon he eats.
It just takes one eye opening talk to change a person’s mind about God…well said.😊
How would you respond to someone who doesn’t necessarily look down on you or get angry because of your faith, but kind of treats you as childish for it?
Well if they treat you childish for it, you could assume that they think it is basically a fairy tale, or a crutch for weak people to lean on. They clearly don’t know that there is strong evidence and proof for God’s existence. A good thing to do in that case would be to say something like, “It’s not like I believe in a fairy tale. Did you know that there is evidence for God’s existence?” Now they could be interested in what you have to say, or they could say, “Yeah right,” in which case you could respond with, “No, I’m serious.” Then, without stopping, say, “There is more evidence for Jesus’s existence than there is for any other ancient or early historical figure.” You just have to keep spitting things out like that until finally they do give it a chance.
If you want to kind of test them, you could say, “Hey, if I’m wrong, that’s okay. I’ll die and nothing will happen. But if you’re wrong, well, you’re not gonna go to heaven because you don’t believe.” This could intrigue them to say something like, “Well how do you know you are right?” Then take it from there with the evidence.
I’ve gotta get off of here for tonight, but I’ll answer any questions in the morning. just so you know. 🙂
The measure of a man is how much bacon he eats.
Oooh interesting topic
I feel like there’s a whole different acceptance of faith. I know a lot of kids that became Christians young but turned away from God, and I also noticed that their parents were turning away from God. I think there’s a time when you have to make your faith your own. Maybe for a long time, your faith was your parents but there might come a time when your parents doubt their faith which can make it easy for you to doubt your faith. We grow up knowing our parents are our parents and they should be our role models but the truth is God is our role model. We should put God at the head of our life, and we lean on God even before we lean on our parents or friends.
Hope you don’t mind if I give an opinion
You’re going to sound childish XD because the bible tells us to have faith like a child. Adults are too logical they overthink things, and they have trouble with the unknown this can be a good thing but not when it comes to faith. But a child can believe without seeing. Also, you can ask this question “Who made that tree or that hill who made this world or universe?” I went to the Ark in Kentucky and it was eye-opening to see how powerful God is. He’s not just the soft cloud you see in the kids’ bible. He’s powerful and holy and all powerful
Hope some of this helped
Do me a favor…. Tell Cress I meant it
-ThorneI appreciate you sharing your opinion!❤️ And you’ve brought up a good point! Several good points.
(I’ve always wanted to visit the Ark Encounter!😊 That’s so cool!)
Thanks
Yeah, it was super cool and fun I went with my church. I actually like the creation museum better but they were both super cool
Do me a favor…. Tell Cress I meant it
-Thorne
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