On the Evangelist Podcast today, we're listening to our third in the series of Quick Answers to Quick Questions.
SPEAKER_03The Evangelists Podcast. Encouragement to speak life to a needy world. With Glenn Scrivener and Andy Brinkley.
SPEAKER_04On the Evangelist Podcast today, we're uh going through some quick answers to quick questions that uh you, Glenn have have tweeted out before.
SPEAKER_02Twitter-length answers, yes.
SPEAKER_04And uh we we'll recap them in a minute, but uh they'll just kind of give us something to say uh in it as a quick answer to to some of these quite sort of fundamental issues that they have. Yeah, and I suppose Glenn, when when we're looking at these these quick questions, um, you know, we could think of them as you know like a silver bullet to you know, we we needed just a big long catalogue of these and we're good to go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And uh but it's not really that, is it? These uh something to help us to to get us kick started on conversations.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. And and to seize on opportunities that do pop up. Um and you know, I I I've given this example before, but I I was uh once introduced to speak somewhere and and somebody just out of nowhere said, Oh, and what's your favourite band? And I said, Radiohead, and they said, What's your favourite album? And I haven't been asked that question in literally like 18 years. And my my answer my answer 18 years ago was okay computer, but I didn't want to say okay computer, because everyone says okay computer, and I was just like flummoxed and on stage and uh and I couldn't decide on my favourite thing, and and so I just mumbled something about I I don't know, maybe the Benz or and um and it just came across really, really unconvincing. And it it sounded like my favourite bands, my favorite bands, and I couldn't even think of one. Um but you know, after afterwards I got into a great conversation with somebody and and uh and you know he he said he liked one particular album and I I uh and at the end of the conversation I was like actually I I think In Rainbows is my is my favorite, you know, um answer uh m my my favourite album, but I think in terms of sing along value in the car, I'll go for OK Computer every time. Um and so that that's now my answer. What's your favorite what's your favorite you what's your favourite um Radiohead album in Rainbows? But you know, o Okay computer is my sing along favourite. Um and it but it w it it came about because I was flummoxed and it came about um and that doesn't mean that it's now a glib answer to say in rainbows, it just means I've thought about it a little bit more.
SPEAKER_04And it says in the Bible, you know, always be prepared to have an answer for the reason for the hope that you have within you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um it's it's a good thing to kind of just have a think about these things before.
SPEAKER_02It is. Yeah, it is that and that's what it's about. And it's about sort of seizing those moments um that otherwise just sort of drift along. Yeah. And um Yeah. Not so as to shut down the question, but actually to seize on that as an issue and say, Right, let's think about this in a Christ-centred way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, good. Okay, well, before we go into them, uh I just want to tell you about the Speak Life Daily. Again, it's a free pocket-sized booklet that tells thirty-one stories of what God is doing around the world. It tells stories that uh thousands are responding to the gospel in Cameroon, that thirty thousand find Christ every day in China, or about the s the shipment of eighty thousand Bibles to Cuba. Uh not only this, it gives uh inside information about what we're up to at Speak Life and uh gives some daily spiritual inspiration as well. Uh you can find it at our website, speaklife.org.uk.
SPEAKER_02Brilliant. Yeah, do sign up for that. And um there are ways of getting that electronically, aren't there as well?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you can sign up via via email.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you'll get uh a daily uh a daily scripture, daily thoughts about how the gospel's going forward and how to pray for us. It's good. It's good and it's free. And it's free.
SPEAKER_04Um we've got another review. Oh, okay. As I said uh last time, I've I found some international reviews, not just on the UK one. Uh well this one's from Vilcommon. Oh, oh. Wait what language from your home country. Oh, I get A. I think you better read it in in your Australian accent.
SPEAKER_02Uh okay. Funky Dan, this podcast keeps me going. He says, I love listening to this podcast each week. It's not because of the self-deprecating humour or the mix of Aussie and UK accents, and that's just in me, the mix of Aussie and UK accents. It's because each week I get recented on the gospel of Jesus and reminded of the truth and trustworthiness of Jesus.
unknownAh.
SPEAKER_02You legend, funky Dan. Good.
SPEAKER_04Well thank you. Okay, so shall we just uh recap the last couple of weeks?
SPEAKER_02What have we done? We've done eight so far? Yeah. Eight of sixteen? Okay.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so How well I do.
SPEAKER_02I mean and you you give me the What you don't understand, Andy, is that atheism isn't a belief, it's the absence of belief.
SPEAKER_04Really? And I suppose anarchism is the absence of political convictions?
SPEAKER_02Burn. If God made the world, who made God?
SPEAKER_04That's like asking if the sun enlightens the earth, what enlightens the sun?
SPEAKER_02Oh, good one. That's brilliant, Andy. Where do you get such wisdom from? I don't believe in God.
SPEAKER_04I probably don't believe in the gods you're imagining either. Let's talk about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I could never be religious.
SPEAKER_04Many say I could never be married, but then they meet the one. That's who Jesus is to me. How can you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? How can you believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos? Talk about miraculous.
SPEAKER_02There's no need for God. Science explains it all. I can explain that sentence. No need for you then. Woohoo! Good one. If you grew up in twelfth century Nepal, you would not be a Christian. If you grew up there, you wouldn't be a sceptic. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04You believe we're born sick and commanded to be well. No, we're born hungry and offered bread. As with the physical, so with the spiritual.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well I've been told. I have been told.
SPEAKER_04Good. Okay, well, we're gonna go on to the uh to the next ones now.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04Um Suffering rules out God.
SPEAKER_02Hmm. Now again, context is absolutely vital, and you you don't just you know you don't just unload your silver bullet on on this one if someone's really going through the mill, suffering rules out God. But um there are many contexts in which it just does come up as a kind of a uh a defeat of belief that people just reach for. Um and so it's at this point I would say suffering rules out God. Well, which gods? Certainly many gods are incompatible with suffering, but what about the crucified God? Um And I yeah, I think I think diving straight into Jesus there is absolutely vital on this. Um sometimes you get evangelism training that sort of says, ah, suffering is the too hard question, and you say to people, Well, uh there is an answer, but it takes a long, long time, and maybe maybe we you know we can postpone this discussion to another time, sort of thing. But I personally I I just think you say, Um, sure, suffering rules out a heck of a lot of gods, but it can't rule out the suffering God, can it?
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02If God Himself suffers, then um you know that might raise a heck of a lot of more questions with you, but the first thing you can't say is you can't say that suffering rules out God.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. What about uh to say Jesus is the one way is narrow.
SPEAKER_02And then my answer is, well, you insist on one way to consider religions. That's narrow. Um and what I'm getting at there is the question Jesus is the only way, um is narrow. That comes from a certain understanding of many paths going up the mountain and all that kind of stuff, and if Christianity just thinks it is the only path up the mountain, that is a ridiculously narrow thing to say. But um actually the view of all religions as being like a mountain is a ridiculously narrow account of religions. Um and it means that you you think of yourself as the one on the top who is able to see, you've got the bird's eye, you've got the god's eye view of everyone, and you can see that Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Christianity all get to the same place. How do you know that? How do you know that every path leads up to the top of the mountain and not over a cliff? And actually, to view religion as as essentially kind of all heading towards the same kind of goal is like a completely Western idea. You know, Buddhism, most most but most Buddhists are atheists. In h Hinduism encompasses both atheism and polytheism and everything in between, and and is really hard to categorize. Islam, they've got you know, Allah who is utterly anti-Trinitarian, and and and Christianity's got Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is utterly unitarian, utterly anti-Unitarian. Um and so like even on the question of who is God, you just get these wildly different answers. Oh no, but my Western anthropologist told me that all religions are are like you know climbing up a mountain. And like that's a really narrow way of viewing religion. And and so may maybe maybe a a thing that opens the door towards that kind of conversation is to say, actually, I think Western pluralistic ways of of looking at religion are incredibly narrow and culturally located. And then people are like, Oh, I don't want to be that. Well Um Yeah. And then at that stage you you basically say it's not like we're all on the same mountain and we just need to find the right path. Um it's far more like we're in a valley and there is that mountain to the north of me, that mountain to the east of me, that mountain to the south of me, that mountain to the west of me. Which mountain is really the mountain? And and uh and three of them are mirages. Right? And including, you know, a a view of religious pluralism. That that can also be a mirage. Um so it's just it's just trying to arrest the conversation from the presuppositions that people usually have and then putting them back on some more gospel footings.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Okay, uh to say sex stroke marriage is for one man and one woman is homophobic.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And man, you will you will get this in evangelism. And all this answer is trying to do is to clear a space for saying, I know this is gonna sound weird, but am I am I allowed to sound weird just for a bit? I promise you I don't hate people. I promise you that. Can I clear a space for saying I disagree without being a hater? And that's all you're trying to do with with this answer. You're just saying, is there a space for saying I disagree without being labelled a hater? Is there that space? And so I you know, I I use the analogy of of Buddhism and and vegetarianism. You know, if a Buddhist says meat is murder, are they being carnivore phobic? Are they hating meat eaters? And of course they're not. They just have a different view of the way that life works about the meaning of animal death, the meaning of of feeding off of the dead and s they've just got macro beliefs that that I don't share, but that inform how they see what food is and what I should eat, and that means that they think that eating the burger is wrong. I think eating the burger is a okay. I think it is right with a capital R. But they they think it might, you know, and and if if a Buddhist says, you know, that's murder to to eat that, you know, I might be offended for a second to be called a murderer at that, but I can get over that. Honestly, I can get over that. But can I will will you afford to me as a Christian the same freedom to be able to say, I think God has a vision for sex and sexuality, and it's a big vision, and you probably think it's weird and nuts, but but if you want to spend some time I can explain it to you. But on that on that vision, man and woman were made for a lifelong sexual relationship, and that's that's what true sex is, and sex outside of that context is disordered and is is not God's intention for sex and sexuality. But that doesn't mean I hate people who have a different view of sex and sexuality or who practice sex differently. That doesn't mean I hate them any more than it means a Buddhist hates a meat eater. It's just I have a different view. And so all you're trying to do is just clear a space and you and you just say look, a Buddhist is not a hater just because they say meat is murder. And I am not a hater. Even if I say homosexuality is a sin, I am not a hater for saying that. I'm not. Um and and that's unbelievable for people to for people to say, but that's why you just gotta press the analogy and just say, come on, let's let's think this through.
SPEAKER_04Okay, then this is the the the last one today. It says religions cause all wars. Nope.
SPEAKER_02And and what I what that's my answer. Next. And um well, that comes up a lot. In fact, just last Saturday, speaking to a guy, um his two his two were um Who made God? And I did the I did the analogy that we we we spoke about a couple of episodes ago. Um, you know, the the sun enlightens the earth. What enlightens the sun? No, the sun is its own source of light. And I gave that to him as and I say I said, you know, he said, Who made God? Ha ha ha and I was like, Well, you know, who enlightens the sun? The sun enlightens itself. It's its own source of life. Uh of light, and in that way, God is his own source of light. He said Yeah, well, but religions cause a war, don't they? So straight on to this. Plan B. Plan B. And um and so I said, Well, guess. Guess what proportion of uh all wars uh have had religion at their roots? And he said, 95%. I said, lower. And uh and he said, Well, ninety, eighty. I was like, actually seven per cent. He said, There's no way that's true. I said, Well, uh Philip and Axelrod's Encyclopedia of All Wars chronicles um seventeen hundred different wars, um from from antiquity to today. And uh and and it's put the figure at about 123 have had religion at the root of of of of the cause uh of those wars. And by the way, most of those hundred and twenty-three have not been Christianity, and I, you know, I no prizes for guessing which religion have caused the most number of wars, but it's not been Christianity. But having said all that, look, 123 wars is 123 too many, right? But it's not the 1700 other wars that that have been having. God is not the common denominator in all wars. Man is. Don't you agree? Don't you agree that actually all wars have man and and the human heart at their at their at their heart? Um and you know, usually people will will say yes, but but it's uh uh it's often such a hard um thought to shift in people that religion causes all war. Um But the seven percent figure is um is very handy to have up your sleeve, and perhaps we'll we'll we'll put a link to on in the show notes too. Yeah, that's it. Um uh to where you can look that up and you can and in fact it it's fairly high on the on the Google rankings. I think I think pretty much does religion cause all war. I think the number one ranking is the Christian Calm, Christian Apologetics Resources Ministry. Um takes you straight straight to that, and it and it's a it's a very good resource actually. Um so yeah, I but again it shows you the limits because the other day when I said to him, you know, I I argue him down from 90%, 95% down to 90%, actually it's 7%. And he was like, Yeah, but I still don't know who made God you go, and you know, and so s that just goes to show the limits to answering questions. Um you know, I I've been listening to um uh Muslim Christian debates online uh recently, and and again, um great points are put forward, uh, but you see the limits of great points, and you see just how committed we we are to what our heart already wants to be true. And don't get the feeling like these answers are silver bullets that are just gonna you know instantly shift people's you know thinking on all this. It it doesn't really work like that, you know. As uh Ashley Null uh summarized Thomas Cranmer's anthro anthropology, and he and he said, What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. What the heart already loves, the will chooses, and then the mind justifies it. And our minds are very good at justifying what we already want to be true. So these answers are not you know, if you if you think about it as okay, we we first try and you know conquer the mind and then the will and then the heart sort of thing. I don't think it kind of works like that. I think the word is meant to go straight to the heart and cut to the heart, as in Acts, that's what the word, the gospel, is always doing cut to the heart. Make people want it to be true and then show them that it is. So these answers are not really so much trying to answer the questions at the intellectual level, but they are trying to shift the the foundations under your feet and to make and to make you start asking the big questions, well, do you think that God is the common denominator in war? Surely don't you think man is the common denominator in war, and therefore aren't you part of the problem, and therefore now you're cutting to the heart.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And it's not as if you know, once you've got all these and you f totally explain them that that person's you know accepts it as faith, and you know um it still may not be enough.
SPEAKER_02No, and it's that that's not even the right way to think about it, like a ladder that you sort of climb and you get that answer, then that answer, then that answer, then that answer. Well, that's not what we believe salvation is like, is it? Salvation is God gives you a gift called Jesus. And actually, therefore, salvation is all by grace and and knowing God is all by revelation. And so what you're trying to do with these answers is just shift the ground a bit so that you can pierce with the sword of the word and actually get the word into the heart. That's that's what you're trying to do with these with these answers. And and often I say to people, look, um, the way you become a Christian is not with a clipboard and a pen and 17 questions, each more tricky than the last. Because that's not the way that you got into a human relationship, is it? Like, un unless you are at a really rigorous, you know, dating website and you made them just completely jump through all hoops and then sign the marriage register. And and then let's sign the marriage register. Is that how a relationship works? No, you do have questions for people, but they come in the context of a relationship and you share life with the other person, they get into your world and you get into their world, and that's kind of how you you know become a Christian. And and you know, by the by the time you're ready to say I I do or I will to someone in marriage, do you know everything about the other person? No, you don't, you know. And actually all the all the big questions you have about the other person happen once you're inside the relationship, you're like, why do you do things like this? Who raised you? Why are you like this? You know, you you got much more questions, and I've got much more questions as a Christian now that I'm inside the relationship than I ever did before. So it's not a it's not a matter of answering questions, but through the questions, shift the ground and use these questions as opportunities to preach more of the word of Christ, because that's what will really change hearts.
SPEAKER_04Great. Okay, well we better leave it there, Glenn. Um, we'll go on to the final four next time. Uh so if you want to hear this again or like to leave us a rating review and uh subscribe to the Evangelist Podcast, just go to speaklife.org.uk slash tep. Thanks very much. See you next time.
SPEAKER_00Bye.