“¡Dios no existe!”
Cuando los cristianos escuchamos eso, la mayoría de nosotros empezamos a sudar. ¡Como si todo el peso de probar la verdad del cristianismo descansara sobre nuestros débiles hombros! Pero también empezamos a sudar porque sentimos que nuestros egos están en juego. Ser cristiano, nos dicen los escépticos, es ser débil mental, si no estúpido.
Exhalemos colectivamente una respiración larga y tranquilizadora y veamos el desafío de un escéptico con la perspectiva correcta: que simplemente estamos entrando en una oportunidad ordenada por Dios para demostrarle a esta persona la gracia y el amor de Cristo.
Lo que debería salir fuerte y claro es nuestro amor por las personas y por Dios. Como señaló sabiamente un cristiano: “Una palabra a tiempo puede dar fruto que solo Dios puede cuidar y nutrir”.
En esta publicación, hablemos de por qué nuestra actitud es crítica cuando interactuamos con los críticos. En la publicación de la próxima semana, Parte 2 , identificaremos algunas de las preguntas que los escépticos tienden a hacer y cómo puedes ponerte al día para conocer las respuestas.
Saber el qué y por qué lo crees
Es importante reconocer qué categoría de escéptico nos desafía. Sólo hay dos: los escépticos que buscan honestamente saber en qué creemos y por qué, y los escépticos que simplemente buscan desbaratar la fe de un cristiano.
Lamentablemente, muchos cristianos se dejan persuadir fácilmente para que abandonen sus creencias cristianas porque no tienen una fe muy arraigada. Recuerdo a un amigo que me dijo que había decidido que el cristianismo era falso tras leer la novela, El Código Da Vinci. Me sorprendió que permitiera que una sola obra de FICCIÓN, una novela que contenía muy pocos hechos correctos sobre el cristianismo, le apartara de Dios. Lo que la novela debería haber hecho es retarle a investigar los HECHOS históricos que apoyan el cristianismo.
Pero muchos cristianos no leen la Biblia, y mucho menos dedican tiempo a examinar la base histórica de su fe. Su relación con Cristo no se ha asentado en un conocimiento sólido de quién es Él, —y de quién son ellos por Su sacrificio en la cruz.
Las investigaciones demuestran que muchos niños que crecen en hogares “cristianos” pierden fácilmente sus creencias después de que un profesor universitario se burle de ellos y los desafíe. La bloguera cristiana Natasha Crain cuenta cómo se tambaleó su propia fe tras enfrentarse a escépticos en la universidad.
“Después de 18 años de ir a la iglesia”, escribe ella en su blog, Christian Mom Thoughts (Pensamientos de Madres Cristianas), “me fui de casa con aproximadamente la siguiente comprensión de la Biblia: Jesús es el hijo de Dios y murió por mis pecados, necesito creer en Él para salvarme y pasar la eternidad en el cielo, Dios creó el mundo, Moisés partió el Mar Rojo, Daniel fue salvado de la guarida de un león, y en algún momento Jonás fue tragado por una ballena”.
Crain thought her faith solid, but quickly realized that while she was well acquainted with stories in the Bible, she knew zip about the Bible itself. And even less about Church history. So she couldn’t knowledgeably discuss either when pressed.
She needed solid, credible answers for questions like “Who wrote the books of the Bible?” … “Why believe what the New Testament writers said about Jesus?”… and “Has the Bible been reliable translated and thus credible?” Critical questions, she admits, that previously “never even crossed my mind.”
Say What, Skeptic?
One skeptic told me that he finds it “satisfying” to watch a Christian’s beliefs crumble. In part, because it justifies his beliefs, and entrenches his position.
But also because he simply enjoys the game of mental manipulation. Not every “fact” he tells Christians is true — but he throws them out like truth, waiting to see if they cause the Christian to falter. How many skeptics have told you something you took at face value?
“My job,” another atheist told me, “is to show you that your God is nothing more than a crutch. He doesn’t exist, and you’re stupid to believe in Him.”
Later I learned that this guy despised God because of the legalistic church he was forced to attend growing up. His beef wasn’t really with God, but Christians who failed to sound like Jesus. Oh, and later he became a Christian after personally encountering Jesus through a friend who did love like Him!
>>> Don’t assume that your chatting with skeptics isn’t having an effect. If you humbly allow God to speak through you, HIS POWER will show up. Evangelizing isn’t about your saying the right thing so much as providing the opportunity for God’s presence to touch a skeptic’s heart. That won’t happen if you’re yelling condemnation at them from a bullhorn!
Listen More Than You Talk
What typically causes conversations between Christians and skeptics to go wrong?
Well, beyond our possible defensiveness, it’s that we do a lot of jabbering before we learn what — and why — the skeptic believes as he does. Rather, we should be quick to listen, suggests Donald Johnson, author of How to Talk to a Skeptic: An Easy-to-Follow Guide for Natural Conversations and Effective Apologetics.
“Too many religious conversations,” says Johnson, “involve people talking past each other because they haven’t taken the time to find out what the other person actually believes. The result is that each side tries to knock down a straw-man version of the other’s position. The skeptic argues against a version of Christianity that the believer does not hold, and the Christian attacks an atheistic worldview that the unbeliever does not hold. Then they wonder why the conversation never gets anywhere.”
What are some of the “good, probing” questions Johnson suggests that we ask?
>>> “Do you have a background in Christianity or some other church or religion?”
>>> “Have you always been a skeptic? If not, how did you arrive at your position?”
>>> “I understand that you think that Christianity offers false answer to life’s biggest questions, but what do you think are the right answers?”
>>> “Could you share what you believe to be the Christian message?”
>>> “What is the story of the Bible, as you understand it?”
Asking questions also gives us the opportunity to discover if the skeptic holds incorrect Christian theology. Here we can gently point out where they are in error. Obviously, we have to know correct Christian teaching ourselves in order to be of help there.
But don’t be that “know-it-all” Christian that everyone avoids when they see you coming. We don’t need to fit God into every conversation, especially if we’re doing a great job at mirroring Jesus in our daily life.
Non-believers, Johnson reminds us, won’t be open to hearing the Good News, if they don’t see it in action in our lives. Perhaps the proof they’re really seeking is not facts, but the real power of seeing a life transformed.
As we talk to anyone about Jesus, let us not be thinking of “winning,” but of being used by Him to nudge open hearts and minds to His love and reconciliation. We all need Jesus.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this discussion in our blog post next week!
This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!
If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.
