#STRask

How Should a Christian Approach the Arguments in Richard Dawkins’s Book?

Questions about how Christians should approach the arguments in Richard Dawkins’s book The God Delusion and how to respond to the claims that the New Testament Gospels are flawed and unreliable and that Christianity isn’t based in science.

• How should Christians approach the arguments in Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion?
• How should I respond to the claim that the New Testament Gospels are flawed and unreliable?
• How should I respond to the objection that Christianity isn’t based in science?

How Should I Respond to Someone Who Feels Invalidated by the Christian View of Sexuality?

Questions about how to respond to someone who says, “But this is who I am,” and who feels their existence is being invalidated by the Christian view of sexuality and whether Paul was wrong to encourage Christians to remain unmarried because “the time was short.”

• How would you respond to someone who says, “But this is who I am,” and who feels like you’re invalidating their existence when you explain the Christian view on gender, sexuality and lifestyles?
• Considering how long it’s been since Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, was he right to say the time was short and to encourage Christians to remain single rather than get married and build Christian families over the centuries?

Can Non-Trinitarians Be Saved?

Questions about whether the heresy of modalism prevents salvation and whether the greetings in the apostles’ letters that don’t reference the Holy Spirit are evidence the early church didn’t teach the Holy Spirit is a person.

• Is modalism a heresy that prevents followers from being saved, and if so, what is it about it that is spiritually fatal to salvation, and what about those who don’t know it’s a heresy?
• Do the greetings in the apostles’ letters that don’t include references to the Holy Spirit count against the idea that the early church taught the Holy Spirit is a person?

What Did Jesus Mean When He Said We Should Wash One Another’s Feet?

Questions about using the services of a Christian photographer who took professional photos for a divorce mediator, what is being symbolized by Jesus washing the disciples’ feet in John 13, and whether it’s okay to live with a member of the opposite sex if you’re not sexually active.

• Should I not use the services of a Christian photographer who took professional photos for a divorce mediator?
• What is being symbolized by Jesus washing the disciples’ feet in John 13, and what does he mean when he says we should wash one another’s feet?
• Is it okay to live with a member of the opposite sex if we’re not sexually active?

Is It Okay to Join an Organization That Supports Abortion?

Questions about whether it’s morally okay to join and pay dues to an organization that supports abortion in order to influence the organization, whether the verse that says people from “every nation” will be in Heaven includes the Canaanites, and how to respond to someone who says sexuality doesn’t need to be understood, just accepted. 

• Is it morally okay to join and pay dues to an advocacy organization that also supports abortion in order to influence the people and the organization?
• Does the statement in Revelation 7:9 that says people “from every nation, tribe, people, and language” will be in Heaven include Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, etc.?
• How would you respond to the claim “Sexuality isn’t something we need to understand; sexuality is something we need to accept.”

Is It Okay to Disobey Authority in Order to Protect Yourself?

Questions about whether it’s okay for a Christian in prison to disobey the rules against fighting in order to protect himself, whether Jesus raised himself from the dead or was raised, if manna was really sap from the tamarisk tree, and the possibility of becoming a different kind of “soil” in terms of the parable of the soils.

• Would it be wrong to tell an incarcerated Christian convert that it’s okay to disobey the prison rules against fighting in order to protect himself?
• Did Jesus raise himself from the dead, or was he raised from the dead?
• Was the manna from Heaven a miraculous event, or was it sap from the tamarisk tree?
• Regarding the parable of the soils, can someone start as one type of soil but become another type later in their life?

Are Logic and Reasoning Immaterial?

Questions about whether logic and reasoning aren’t immaterial because they’re activities of a physical brain and whether the fact that some people have a “blind mind’s eye” counters the claim that the mind’s ability to visualize images is evidence for the existence of a non-physical self.

• How would you respond to someone who claims logic and reasoning aren’t immaterial because they’re activities of a physical brain?
• Does the fact that some people have a “blind mind’s eye” (aphantasia) effectively counter the claim that the mind’s ability to visualize images is evidence for the existence of a non-physical self?

What’s the Biblical Position on Physician-Assisted Suicide?

Questions about the biblical position on physician-assisted suicide, whether Christians should say that “God is faithful” when he gives them what they asked for, and whether it’s okay to put Christian books into the little libraries people have on their property.

• What’s the biblical position on physician-assisted suicide?
• Christians say that “God is faithful” when he gives them what they prayed for, but isn’t God always faithful?
• Do you think it’s okay to put Christian books into those little libraries people put on their property, and if so, which books do you think would be the most likely to be noticed and read?

Is It Arrogant to Say You Know God Exists?

Questions about whether it’s arrogant for people who believe in God to say they know for sure that God exists and the best way to explain the Trinity to a child.

• Is it arrogant for people who believe in God to say they know for sure that God exists?
• What is the best way to explain the Trinity to a child?

What Topics Should I Cover in an Apologetics Series?

Questions about what topics to cover when presenting an apologetics series in a church and how to handle addressing people’s doubts in an apologetics class when discussing them can confuse others and cause more doubts.

• What 4–6 topics would you recommend I cover in an apologetics series in my church?
• In apologetics meetings at my church, some members are helped by publicly talking about doubts and core questions, and some find these same discussions confusing and even doubt-inducing. How can one deal with this in a proper way?