Unbelief’s Issues and Answers

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We object to statements that we think untrue. Disbelievers in anything Christian often attack Bible believers who try to live a godly life and be a witness to their faith. This essay will address these issues with answes. It will uncover their assumptions, misunderstandings and give a response. I’ll present the objection in bold print and the following paragraph will be the response in each case.

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Jesus was only a good man and great teacher but not the Son of God.

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This statement is self-refuting. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and our Savior. If that’s not true, then Jesus is a liar or lunatic. And that would mean he’s not even a good man. Moreover, he did things over three years that demonstrated publically before large crowds that only God could do such as heal diseases instantly, walk on water, raise the dead, and assent into Heaven. Neither man nor nature can do such things—only God alone. Therefore, Jesus must be God as he claimed. Friend, have you read the Bible with an open mind or just uncritically assumed someone’s negative comments were correct?

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Man is not evil, but good.

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Though good, a bad environment can make persons turn bad. Provide good education, housing, jobs, and all basic human needs and people will be good.

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History and psychology show conclusively that man is naturally corrupt in thought, will, and practice. Children don’t need to be taught to lie, steal, cheat, or harm people or things. If man is good, why do people everywhere have locked doors, a police force, judges, prisons, and armies? This shouldn’t be true if people were really good. We can have evil thoughts even when we don’t act on them. Nazi Germany was the most educated people, yet murdered millions of Jews and anybody who disagreed with Hitler. Of course, monists can redefine sin and evil as illusion, but they can’t live at though it’s true—ask one to step in front of an oncoming train. Human pride prevents people from admitting their sinners. Scripture is true that man’s heart is deceitful and wicked (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 1:18-32).

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I’m an atheist who says dogmatically there’s no God of any kind.

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Just because you haven’t seen anything you would call a personal God, does that mean he can’t exist or can’t be an immaterial Spirit? Do you know what’s going on in the next town, next house, even the next room? If we could draw a circle big enough to represent universal knowledge, a period, if that, would represent a man’s knowledge. A person would have to know everything in time and space to say there’s no God, or God can’t act in our world, can’t perform a miracle, or can’t speak to a human mind. Isn’t atheism then an arrogant self-contradictory pretention to having a God-like knowledge? The agnostic says, ‘I don’t know or we can’t know about God’. Of course, he’s right that a mystic’s subjective claims about God (Muhammad, Buddha) have no evidential value. But he’s fooling himself if he hasn’t addressed the ancient detailed prophecies about the Jewish Messiah fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and Christ’s miracles, sinless life, and resurrection?

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Christianity is okay for you, but not for me.

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People have right to their own lifestyle. So don’t bother me with your religion. What feels good is true and right for me, not Jesus.

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Hedonistic lifestyles lead to disaster. They are a selfish disregard for others. They destroy trust, objects, friendships, families, and nations as well as the Hedonist. Some persons take pleasure in deception, robbery, rape and murder--would you call such things right? If a compassionate friend had the cure for your cancer, would you say, “don’t bother me?” Christians show compassion to tell sinners of the Savior from godless living and eternal Hell. Do you know no judgment day and no Hell exist? Can you prove it? And how would you feel and be if everyone applied your inconsiderate lifestyle to you, you’re friends, and your loved ones?

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I am not a sinner.

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 A sinner is a social outcast--a drunk, dope addict, or whore, but I’m not bad like that.

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We can always find others worse than us and condemn them. This makes us feel superior, self-righteous, respectable and prideful like the Pharisee in the temple (Luke 18:9-14). The truth is we all sin to different degrees and in different areas. Our list for respectability is different from our neighbors and usually doesn’t include our own sins. Unless there is an infinite, ethical Creator and Judge, nothing is absolutely true and morally right—then no higher authority than individual preferences exist. Abundant evidence shows there is such a God, which means there will one day be a judgment of all our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. We cannot obey God’s laws 100% of the time, which means we must humbly acknowledge our sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man and Savior of us sinners.

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I’m too bad a sinner.

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I’m not respectable. I’m a no-good, a whore, drunk, drug addict. God could never forgive me. Christianity is only for good, respectable persons.

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Surprisingly, the Bible teaches that “good people” go to Hell and “bad people” go to Heaven. Jesus said he had not come to call the righteous but sinners. In other words, prideful self-righteous persons unwilling to acknowledge their sin and unworthiness before God are doomed to Hell. But persons who humbly confess their sin and need of forgiveness, like the tax collector praying in the temple with the Pharisee, are justified (Luke 18:9-14). God will save any true repentant believer in Christ (Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9-10).

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I don’t believe Jesus arose from the dead.

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Jesus’ resurrection depends upon evidence, not an assumption of universal knowledge about nature. Five hundred witnesses saw Jesus after he arose from the dead (1 Cor. 15). Brilliant skeptics have devised a dozen failed theories to explain it away. The sealed guarded tomb, left grave clothes, Jesus appearances, skeptical disciples, establishment of the church, martyrs, Sunday worship, and the New Testament, dating time B.C to A.D., make no sense unless Jesus arose. See my articles on Jesus’ resurrection.
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Life is filled with difficulties, perplexities, injustices. I'm far from perfect, but am counted perfect in Christ who paid with His life for my sins in His death on the cross. I've trusted in Jesus' promise of eternal and more abundant life. I'm growing in learning God's will and love. Won't you too say: Lord, I trust You now as a sinner seeking a Savior and Guide for my life. Use me in love to learn Your way and share it with others. Thank You Lord Jesus.   

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May I recommend some books to strengthen your faith? The New Atheism and The Erosion of Freedom by Robert A. Morey and The Christian Combat Manual by Dan Story. If God doesn’t exist, then human dignity, rights and freedom mean nothing. We’re mere soulless dirt as atheists believe or recycled energy on our way to nothingness as pantheist reincarnationists believe.

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